"THE MARKET GIRL."
"We met—'twas in a crowd."—_Haynes Bayley._
HELEN soon discovered that the Crowmore cart had quite an established
reputation; her peas, and beans, strawberries and asparagus commanded
a brisk sale. Customers came flocking round her, and she actually
ventured to retort to some of their sallies with mild replies in kind.
"Shure, we are all fighting and killing one another to dale with you!"
said a sturdy old farmer, vigorously elbowing his way to the front.
"Aren't we for all the world like flies round a pot of honey! 'Tis
yourself has the jewels of eyes, avick! But why do ye wear gloves?"
"To keep me hands like a lady's, to be sure," she retorted, promptly.
"Oh! well, as long as ye don't cover up your face, I don't care a
thraneen! And what are ye asking for the white cabbage?" making an
abrupt descent from blarney to business.
* * * * *
Who shall depict the emotions of Larry Flood, when, lounging up to
have a little idle dalliance with his sweetheart, he found himself
confronted by the young English lady? Yes, the young English lady! She
was busily engaged in selling three cauliflowers and a bunch of parsley
to the priest's housekeeper, and seemed just as much at home at the
trade as Sally herself. She looked up and gave him a sign of warning,
and when the press of business had somewhat abated, he sidled over to
her and made the following cautious inquiry in a husky whisper,—
"In the name of goodness, miss, will ye tell me if I'm in me seven
sinses?"
"I believe so, Larry," she answered with a merry smile.—"Don't betray
me, for your life! Sally hurt her foot, and I offered to take her place
just for to-day. I'm getting on beautifully you see; and no one is a
bit the wiser."
"I could not make out what was up!" exclaimed Larry, "there's been a
crowd round the cart as if it was an execution! 'Tis only now I got
next or nigh it. And signs on it! they had raison, for such a sight
as yourself has never before stood on Terryscreen Street. But I don't
like it, miss, no, not for you—you are too venturesome; and if you'll
allow me, miss, I'll try my hand at selling. I'm not for the road
till five o'clock. I'll do my best for ye, and tell as many lies as a
horse-daler, and you might just slip over into the hotel, and they'll
wait on you hand and foot."
"No, thank you, Larry, though I'm very much obliged to you all the
same. That would never do—never!"
"Well, I'm not aisy in me mind. It's the fair day, and supposing some
of them young Bostogues come round ye, and gives ye some of their lip?"
At this disagreeable suggestion the young lady blanched visibly.
"I shall go home early,—that is to say, as soon as the mule will go,"
was her rather enigmatic reply.
"Early or late, do you see that window over beyant?" pointing to a
ledge in a neighbouring store. "Well, I'll just take me sate there, wid
this whip, an' if I see any one offer to as much as look crooked at ye,
by me sowl! I'll bate him to a _jelly_; and that's as sure as my name
is Flood. So at any rate, miss, ye need not be anxious!" and having
made this alarming announcement, her self-elected protector stalked
away and actually established himself in the said window-sill, where
he sat sentry, with his whip in hand, and his eyes on Helen's stall,
looking daggers at her customers.
The messman duly came, and purchased lavishly from the new market-girl,
and did not attempt to "bate her down," as had been predicted; on the
contrary, he paid her some very ornate compliments, and lingered so
long that Helen literally trembled lest Larry should misconstrue his
civilities.
As the morning wore on, it brought some fashionable patrons, among them
several ladies, who, after turning over and sniffing every separate
bouquet, purchased half-a-dozen of the best. During her dealings
with these Helen kept her sun-bonnet well pulled over her eyes, and
commanded her countenance to the best of her ability, whilst they
discussed her appearance in French, and declared that she was the
prettiest Irish girl they had ever seen. The fame of the beautiful
market-girl must have been noised abroad, for several young men came
crowding around the cart, and eagerly demanded "button holes." For
these she charged double prices without the slightest compunction.
(Meanwhile Larry stood in the background armed with his whip!)
"A shilling!" exclaimed one of the customers, "oh, I say, come, you
must not be getting these extravagant notions into your head, Kathleen
Mavourneen, Eileen Aroon! One would think you had been in Covent
Garden! I suppose you fancy that a pretty girl may charge what she
pleases. Here's two shillings; one for the flowers, and the other for a
good look in your charming face."
"'Deed," scornfully tossing back a shilling, "An' it's more than any
one will ever ask to lay out on your honour's."
As the unhappy gentleman was unusually plain, his companions seemed to
experience the keenest delight at this sally, and one of them, pressing
forward, and taking up a bouquet, said,—
"How much for this, my prickly wild rose?"
"Two shillings, your honour."
"Too dear! say eighteen-pence, Acushla ma cree."
"Sure the times is bad, your honour, and we must live."
"And where _do_ you live, when you are at home—where do you come from?"
"Where I'm going back to," she returned, carelessly jingling her silver
in her pockets.
She was making a fortune; her career so far had been one unbroken
triumph, and her heart beat exultantly as she rattled her shillings
and half-crowns, and complacently surveyed her almost empty cart.
Carrying her glance a little above it, she met point-blank the eyes
of a gentleman on horseback, who was looking over the heads of her
customers. He wore his hat tilted far over his brows, and was gazing
at her with grave, concentrated scrutiny—the man was Gilbert Lisle.
For a moment she stood as if turned to stone, then suddenly wheeling
about and kneeling down, she pretended to tie her shoe-string, but her
fingers trembled so ridiculously, that this was indeed a farce. She
felt a sense of choking panic; nevertheless, she was called upon to
exercise all her self-command, for an officious old crone, who presided
at the next stall, came over and shouted to her, saying,—
"The gentleman on the horse is spaking to you, Alannah; see here!"
displaying a sovereign that had been thrown among the cabbage-leaves.
"He wants a flower."
"Tell him they are all gone," she replied, still fiddling with her
shoe-string. However, it was impossible that she could carry on this
pretence much longer—and when with beating heart she at last ventured
to raise her head, he was nowhere to be seen. Was it a dream? no, for
there lay the piece of gold.
"It's ould Redmond's heir," volunteered her neighbour, eyeing the money
with greedy eyes. "He's a great traveller, he has been away round by
India, where me son is. I've never known him notice the likes of _you_
before, and I know him man and boy. What ails ye? ye seem to have got a
turn—ye look so white and wake."
"What would ail me? nothing at all—I'm a bit tired standing so long,
and I'll just sit down on this creel till I see me way to getting out
of the throng."
"Well, you are easily bet up, I'll say that for you," muttered the
other, moving back to her own stall. "One would think ye wor a lady!"
It was eleven o'clock, all Helen's stock was disposed of, but for the
present she saw no prospect of making her way through the crowd, and
was compelled to sit, and wait, and listen to the surrounding gabble,
which she did half unconsciously, for her thoughts were centred in her
last customer; from which subject two tall countrymen were the first to
attract her attention. They were standing so close to her that she made
a kind of third party in the conversation, which proved unexpectedly
interesting.
"What are you doing here, Tim?" inquired one; "sure you have nothing to
sell."
"An' it's at home I ought to be! with all me barley standing; but sure
I'm drawn for the jury, and bad luck to it."
"Troth, and so am I! an' I'm due in there," jerking his thumb at the
Courthouse, "at twelve o'clock."
"Me hands is that full at home, I don't know what to be at first.
However," as if it was some small satisfaction, he added, "the devil a
wan I'll bring in guilty."
"Nayther will I," agreed his companion, in solemn tones. "I seen Darby
Chute in the day, with a few little bastes and a fine cow," (the name
possessed a spell for Helen, and bound her attention at once). "I met
him coming out of the bank, ere now; 'tis him has feathered his nest."
"Faix, ye may well say _feathered_," retorted the other, with a loud
laugh; "he does not give the gun much time to cool!"
"Begorra, it's a shame! an old mad man and a couple of girls—well, if
poor Pat Connor was to rise out of his grave, and see the way things is
going."
Just as the conversation was becoming most exciting, these two tall
countrymen moved away. Not five minutes afterwards, Darby's own
well-known husky squeak fell upon Helen's ear. Little did he guess who
it was that was sitting with her back to him, in the pink sun-bonnet.
He was accompanied by a companion, and they were evidently about to
clinch some bargain.
"I'm not very swate on that Scotch whiskey," said the latter, "it has
not the right sort of bite in it to plase _me_! An' now Darby, me boy,
what's the lowest you are going to say for the ould lady?"
"Ould lady! Holy Saint Patrick, do ye hear him? is it the young, white,
short-horn cow, on her second calf?"
"I just mane the big bony cow you are striving to stick me with, for
twenty-three pounds."
Helen pricked up her ears—twenty-_three_ pounds!
"See here, James Casey, av I was to drop down dead this blessed minute,
I won't take a halfpenny less than the twenty pounds, and only I'm hard
pressed for money, and times is bad, I would drive her home afore me.
She'd be chape at five-and-twenty: a pedigree cow. An' ye know it! so
ye need not be playing with me, as if I was trying to sell you an ould
Kerry Stripper. Take her or lave her, you are keeping others off, and
the fair is getting thin."
After ten minutes of the fiercest chaffering, and many loud invocations
and denunciations on both sides, the bargain was closed, and to Helen's
great joy, she saw twenty dirty one-pound notes counted into Darby's
horny hand, the price of Daisy. The fair was getting "thin," as he had
said, and as the clock was striking twelve, she and her empty cart
emerged from the _melée_ of pigs, sheep, and turf kishes, and waving a
friendly farewell to Larry, she proceeded homewards at a brisk trot.
Naturally, most of her thoughts were occupied by Gilbert Lisle, and
she was consumed by a burning desire to know if he had recognized her?
Had it been only amazement at a curious likeness that she had read in
that glance?—a glance that revived a spirit that she thought was laid;
it stirred—it recalled days of painful endurance, nights of tears.
"However, that is all at an end now," she assured herself, half aloud.
"Thank goodness I have lived it down."
She cast one or two apologetic thoughts to Darby Chute; yes, her
conscience smote her with regard to him. Darby, after all, was an
honest, upright man! Hearing is believing, he had done as much to sell
Daisy to good advantage,—as if she had been his own property.