WHICH TREATS OF MRS. YAPP, MRS. B--FF--N, MRS. TOOSYPEGS, LITTLE
MISS SK--N--ST--N, AND FLY-AWAY MISS SUSAN.
“It was one winter’s day, about six in the morn,
When my little innocent creature was born;
There were doctor, and nurse, and a great many more,
But none of them saw such a baby before.”
POPULAR SONG.
Mrs. Yapp’s threatened visit took such a hold of me, that I felt myself
quite driven up in a corner; and the worst of it was, I saw no way of
getting out of it with any decency. Though I couldn’t for the life of me
understand what claim she had upon my husband’s hospitality, now that it
had pleased Providence in its bountiful mercy to take his first wife
from him--and looking at it as I did, it did seem to me to be very like
her impudence indeed in calling my husband her “dear boy,” since her
daughter had been dead and gone a good two years at least. Besides, of
course, _I_ was a mere nobody--_I_ was--and not worth even so much as
the mentioning in her letter, for her coming couldn’t put _me_ out in
the least--oh no! And what would my lady care if it did, for it was very
clear _I_ was nothing to her--not _I_, indeed! and as to whether it was
convenient _for me_ to receive her or not, that was the last thing
thought of; for if she turned us all topsy-turvy, and left us without so
much as a leg to stand upon, what would it matter to her so long as
_she_ was all right and comfortable, and could get her bed and board for
nothing--for that was at the bottom of it, I could see--a mean old
thing! Making her dear boy’s house her home too!--her _home_,
indeed!--her hotel, more likely; and she has got four hundred a-year
long annuities. Sooner than _I_’d be guilty of such meanness, I declare,
upon my word and honour, I’d take the first broom I could get, and sweep
the very first crossing I came to.
Still, under the circumstances, it was very clear that it would never do
to slam the door in her face, when she came to us, though, I declare, I
felt as if nothing would have given me greater pleasure than to have
done so; for really I don’t know anything more uncomfortable than to be
obliged to go bowing and scraping, and saying a lot of civil things to a
creature, when all the time you’re wishing to yourself that she was safe
at the bottom of the sea--as every lady with her proper feelings about
her knows she has been obliged to do scores and scores of times. Of
course, Mrs. Yapp would be professing all kinds of love for her “dear
boy,” and be continually crying up to the skies his beloved first wife,
and she would naturally expect me to go sympathizing with the poor dear,
when really and truly I didn’t care two pins about the thing. And it is
so unpleasant to a right-minded female like myself, to be forced to take
out one’s handkerchief, and play the crocodile about a bit of goods that
one had never been a penny the better for. Of course, too, she would
pretend to be so delighted to make my acquaintance, and unable to make
enough of me to my face, though, directly my back was turned, she would
go picking me to pieces like anything. Augh! I do detest deceit.
However, thank goodness, the next day’s post brought a letter directed
to Edward, which being in a woman’s handwriting, I naturally opened, and
found to my delight that Mrs. Yapp regretted to say that she couldn’t be
with “her pet” until that day week; so that, as Edward was coming home
on the Thursday, he could receive the old thing himself, and take that
load off my hands at any rate.
Well, on the Thursday home came Edward. Directly I heard his knock, I
snatched up a duster and began rubbing down the hall chairs, so that he
might not find a speck of dust in the house on his return; and I was
quite glad to see that my exertions were not thrown away upon him, for
he told me, that it was very wrong of me in my state to go fatiguing
myself in that way, and that he wished I would make the servant do it.
On which I said that if he expected Susan to take any pride about the
look of the furniture he was mightily mistaken, and he would find
himself eaten up alive in less than no time, if I wasn’t continually
slaving myself to death for him as I was.
Edward was in quite a good humour, for he had won his cause like a
clever lawyer, as he certainly is, though, as he said, all the facts,
and the law, and justice of the case, were dead against him. So, when I
broke to him the impending calamity of Mrs. Yapp’s visit, he took it
much better than I had expected, for he laughed, and said he should like
to see how old Mother Yapp and Mrs. B--ff--n would get on with one
another; for he expected they would come together like two
highly-charged thunder-clouds, and go off with a tremendous explosion,
which would have the effect of clearing the air of his house, so that he
would be left in a perfect heaven. And then the jocular monster
tittered, and said that if he had been doomed to have only one
mother-in-law, it was clear that he must have ended his days in a
madhouse, but that as Providence had blessed him with two, he was as
happy as a man who had married an orphan; for as mothers-in-law were the
invariable negatives of domestic happiness, it was clear that two of
them must make his home an affirmative paradise; adding that one was the
poison and the other the antidote, so that, thank Heaven, now, if at any
time he was suffering from an over-dose of mother-in-law B--ff--n, he
had only to make up his mind to swallow a little of mother-in-law Yapp,
and he would be all right again in no time; for the bitter alkali of the
one would correct the acidity of the other, and drive off the dreadful
effects of both in a twinkling. Then he went on giggling and railing at
mothers-in-law in general, and at my dear mother, and the mother of his
first wife, in particular, till I lost all patience with him; for he
declared that a whole avalanche of treatises had been written on the
origin of evil, and a mountain of rubbish shot into the British Museum
about the cause of sorrow in this world; but it was very plain, and he
had no doubt about it himself, that misery first came in with
mothers-in-law, who he considered, to have been sent on earth to try the
resignation of Man, and to prevent the over-population of the world, by
setting them up as warnings to persons about to marry--in the same way
as the horrors of dyspepsia and gout were designed, simply as a means of
keeping persons from the excesses of the table. It was all very well to
talk about Job’s extraordinary patience, but what he wanted to know was,
had Job ever been scourged with a mother-in-law, because if not, it was
very clear that his powers of endurance had not been taxed to the full.
And he had the wickedness to say, that it was all a pack of rubbish and
a cruel imposition for the law to declare that a man couldn’t marry his
grandmother--or his mother--or his wife’s mother--or his wife’s
sister--for the plain truth was, that when a man married a woman, he
married her whole family. But I couldn’t put up with him any longer,
when he protested, that if he had his way, he would have an act passed
for the total abolition of all mothers-in-law, and insert a clause, that
whenever a couple were joined together in holy matrimony, immediately
after the wedding breakfast, the mother of the bride should offer
herself up as a willing sacrifice, to perfect the happiness of the
bridegroom, in the same way as the Hindoo widows immolated themselves
out of regard to the husband. On which I very properly told him that he
ought to be ashamed of himself to talk in that way of those poor
benighted savages, and I begged that he would hold his tongue if he
couldn’t find anything better to talk about, saying that his trip out of
town seemed to have turned his head; and asking him how he himself would
like what he had proposed, if, supposing I was to be blessed with a
daughter, and had to be put out of the way when she got married, all for
the sake of completing the happiness, as he called it, of some
big-whiskered fellow, that I didn’t care twopence about. But it was
useless speaking to him, for he only said that he should be delighted to
see me setting so good an example.
As I saw that my gentleman was in one of his nasty, teasing, facetious
moods, I thought it best to turn the conversation, which I very cleverly
did by asking him what kind of a woman Mrs. Yapp was, when he burst out
laughing again, assuring me that she was a very nice woman, only she was
too fond of her medicine-bottle, and was dreadfully addicted to doctor’s
stuff; for she took pills as if they were green peas, and seemed to have
as strong a penchant for powders as other people had for snuff. And he
considerably alarmed me by saying that the worst of it was, she had a
strange conviction that all her friends stood as much in need of
medicine as she did, as she was never happy unless she could prevail
upon some one to try some of her filthy potions or lotions, and which
she always would have it were just the things one wanted; and really she
herself had swallowed so much rhubarb, and senna, and camomile, in her
time, that she had a complexion for all the world like a Margate
slipper, although she would tell you, that if it wasn’t for what she had
taken, she would never have had a bit of colour in her cheeks. When she
came up to town last time, she wouldn’t let Edward drink a drop of tea;
for she would insist that the green was made up of verdigris, and that
the black was all coloured with lead, and that the only way to ensure a
long life was to take two or three cups of good strong nettle or
dandelion for breakfast every morning, and which, she said, she highly
recommended for family use. He cautioned me, however, above all things,
never to allow her to persuade me to try any of her nostrums, for that
he verily believed she had physicked her daughter into an early grave,
and that if I allowed her to go playing any pranks with the very fine
constitution I have of my own, I should find that her powder and pills
would bring me down as safe as powder and shot. So I told him that he
wouldn’t catch me taking any of her nasty messes, and I hoped and
trusted that he would get her out of the house as soon as ever he
possibly could.
At length, the day arrived for my lady’s coming, and Edward would have
me get a nice little dinner ready for her. So I warmed up some of the
pea-soup we had left the day before, and which was as nice as any I had
ever tasted; and then I thought a sweet, tender, juicy steak, well
stewed, with a good thick gravy, would be as delicious a thing as she
could well sit down to--indeed, I’m very partial to it myself--and with
three or four pork chops, well browned, with the kidney in them, just to
put at the end of the table, and a sweet little plum-pudding, with
brandy sauce, to face me, and a few custards opposite Edward, and after
that, just a mouthful of macaroni, with a little cheese grated over it,
and a stick or two of celery to follow--I fancied it would be a very
nice dinner for her, and one that I felt I could enjoy myself.
Bother take it! Edward would make me go dancing all the way down to the
Regent’s Circus, just to meet Mrs. Yapp when she came by the coach,
though, as I said at the time, it would seem as if we were too glad to
see her. However, as my husband, I regret to say, never will listen to
reason, I had to put on my bonnet, and go to the expense of a cab, just
to please his foolish whim; and after that, to stand in the
coach-office like a ninny, waiting for the stage to come in. When it
did, I went up to a middle-aged lady, who looked as bilious as a bar of
yellow soap, and asked her, with a pleasing smile, “whether her name
happened to be Yapp?” But she looked at me very suspiciously, and said,
“It was no such thing.” And then I tried everybody else, but no Mrs.
Yapp could I find; so, after all, drat it, I had to jump into the cab
again, and get home as fast as I could: and there was three and sixpence
for cab hire literally and truly thrown away in the dirt, (which wasn’t
coming out of the housekeeping, I could tell Mr. Sk--n--st--n,) besides
a dinner good enough for an emperor positively wasted; for Mr. Edward
must needs be so clever, that he would have I had made some mistake, and
insisted upon the dinner being thrown back for an hour and a half at
least; though I declare I was so hungry after my ride, and the very
smell of it was so tantalizing, that I was ready to eat the ends of my
fingers off. When it did come up, of course it was all as dry as a chip,
without so much as a drop of gravy: and if there is one thing, to me,
worse than another, it is a rump-steak stewed till it is quite dry.
There was the macaroni, too, which I had set my heart upon, all spoilt,
so that it was, for all the world, like eating bits of wax taper. And I
told Edward, pretty plainly, that I wouldn’t give a thank you for my
dinner at that time of night, but would sooner have a mouthful of
something with my tea; for I do think that when a body is worn out with
the fatigues of the day, and one has gone past one’s regular hour for
one’s meals,--I do think, I say, that a nice strong cup of warm tea,
with a pinch or two of green in it, is better than all the dinners in
the world put together in a heap; for it does revive one so, if one can
only get it good, (which I find a great difficulty now-a-days, though I
pay six shillings a pound for every spoonful that I use;) besides, I
declare I’d sooner go without my dinner than my tea, any day; and I am
sure all my fair readers must be of the same way of thinking as myself.
But let me see,--where was I? Oh, I remember: I had left off at our
dinner. Well! as I was saying, our miserable, dried-up repast, could
scarcely have gone down stairs, and Susan was just sweeping the crumbs
off the tablecloth, when I heard a hackney coach draw up at our door,
and, lo and behold! who should it contain but that bothering Mrs. Yapp,
who had come with three hair trunks, a portmanteau, two bonnet-boxes,
one band ditto, and a bundle, as if she was going to stop a whole
twelvemonth with us.
When she came in, I declare upon my word and honour, if she was’nt the
very woman, with a complexion like fullers-earth, that I had asked at
the coach-office, whether her name was Yapp. And on reminding her of it,
she said, she was very sorry for the mistake, but really and truly she
had heard so much about the tricks of London people, that she could’nt
be expected to go telling her name to the first stranger she met with.
So she had thought that the safest plan, to prevent being imposed upon,
was to jump with her boxes into a hackney coach, and tell the man to
drive her to our house. The fellow, however, had been three hours at
least galloping about with her, and had taken her over to Stockwell
Park, and Highbury Park, and every other park he could think of, in
search of Park Village. For of course the man saw that she was fresh
from the country, and had determined to make the most of her; so she had
to pay upwards of half a sovereign for her nasty suspicions of me, (your
bilious people are always so suspicious,) and which I was heartily glad
of.
Of course she was so happy to see her dear boy, “whose house she was
going to make her home;” and declared she was delighted to make _my_
acquaintance. Edward very imprudently would go inquiring after her
health, when immediately off my lady went, and kept us for full half an
hour, giving us a whole catalogue of all her illnesses and cures, and
telling us how she had discovered a new pill which had really worked
miracles with her. As I kept saying, “Indeed,” and “Bless me,” and “You
don’t say so,” and appearing very interested--though all the time I
could have wished her further--she had the impudence to tell me that, as
a treat, she would let me have a couple to try on the morrow, for she
could plainly see my liver was out of order--though, as I said to myself
at the time, I should like to know what my liver was to her indeed.
However, I slipped out of the room to look after Susan and the tray, and
made her warm up one of the pork chops, and bring it up with the tea.
But no sooner did my lady see it, than she said it would be death to her
if she touched it, and before she let me make the tea, she would go and
undo one of her boxes in the hall, just to get out a loaf of digestive
bread, and a bottle of filthy soda; and if she didn’t force me to put
half a teaspoonful at least into the pot, telling me that it would
correct all the acidity, and make the tea go twice as far--which I can
easily understand, as I’m sure neither Edward nor myself could touch it;
for I declare it was more like soap-suds than full-flavoured wiry Pekoe.
The worst of it was, too, I was obliged to say it “was very nice, I was
sure;” and I could see _that_ Edward, laughing away in his sleeve at
every sip I took. Then she would sit all the evening with her shawl over
her shoulders, declaring that the draughts came in at our door enough to
cut her in two; and, bother take it, she made me go down stairs and see
that the sheets for her bed were well aired--and give orders for a fire
to be lighted in her room--and the feather-bed put down before it--and a
pan of hot water to be taken up for her at ten precisely--and for a few
spoonfuls of brown sugar to be put into the warming-pan with the coals,
before warming her bed; adding that, with a good large basin of gruel,
and a James’s powder in it, she thought she should do for _that_ night.
And really I should have thought so too. But what pleased me most was,
that she said she was putting me to a great deal of trouble. And I
should think she was too--though of course I was forced to assure her
that she wasn’t, and that nothing gave me more pleasure than to be able
to assist one with such a bad constitution as she appeared to have of
her own. Whereupon she flew at me very spitefully, and told me I was
never more mistaken in all my life, for every one that knew her allowed,
that if it hadn’t been for her very fine constitution, and a score of
Morison’s Number Two’s daily, she should have been in Abraham’s bosom
long ago; and that I should be a lucky woman if my constitution was half
as fine as hers. So as I saw it was useless arguing the point with her,
I let her have her own way, and was’nt at all sorry when ten o’clock
came, and I had seen her fairly up stairs to her bed-room, where she
kept Susan a good three-quarters of an hour at least fiddle-faddleing
and tying her flannel petticoat round her head, and tucking her up, and
pinning her shawl before the window, and what not.
Next morning, when she came down to breakfast, she told us that she had
got the rheumatism in both her legs so bad, that she had been forced to
wrap them up in brown paper, which she said she found to be the best of
all remedies, and an infallible cure; and sure enough there she was
going about the house with her legs done up for all the world like a
pair of new tongs in an ironmonger’s shop. All breakfast time, she would
tell us how she had made it a duty to try every new cure as fast as it
came up, and how she supposed she must have written in her time at least
thirty testimonials of wonderful cures effected upon her by different
medicines, which, she said, she had since found out had never done her
any good at all. At one time, she swore by brandy and salt, and she took
so much of it, that, instead of curing her illness, she verily believed
she was only curing herself like so much bacon. At another period, she
had pinned her faith entirely to cold water, and she was sure she must
have swallowed a small river in her time; she had had it pumped upon her
too, and sat in it, and bathed in it, and slept in it, she might say,
for she went to bed in nothing but damp sheets for a year and
more--until really she had washed every bit of colour out of her cheeks;
and she felt that if she was to wring her hands, water would run from
them like a wet flannel. After that, she had gone raving mad about
homœopathy, and had nearly starved herself to death with its finikin
infinitessimal doses; for whole weeks she used to take nothing for
breakfast but the billionth part of a spoonful of tea in a quart of
boiling water, and the ten thousandth part of an ounce of butter to
eight sixty-sixths of a quartern loaf; while her dinner had frequently
consisted of three ounces and two drachms of the lean of a neck of
mutton made into broth with a gallon of water, flavoured with three
pennyweights of carrot, and a scruple of greens, and seasoned with two
grains and a half of pepper, and the sixteenth of a pinch of salt.
Since, however, she had discovered her wonderful pill, she had left all
her other specifics, and never felt so well, and consequently so happy,
before: and then she pulled out a box, and would make me take a couple
of the filthy little things with my tea, saying that they would make me
so comfortable and good-tempered, that I should hardly know myself
again.
Immediately after the breakfast things had been taken away, I slipt on
my things, and stepped round to dear mother’s, just to tell her what a
dreadful creature we had got in the house, and that I really began to
have fears for my life again. When the dear, affectionate old lady had
heard of Mrs. Yapp’s fearful goings-on, she said that it really would
not be safe to trust me alone with such a woman during my confinement;
and that, as my mother, she insisted upon being allowed to come and
sleep in the house, too. Though I told her I didn’t know how we were to
manage it, unless she consented to take half of Mrs. Yapp’s bed--which,
I regretted to say, was only a small tent, and it was impossible to say
how it would ever be able to hold the pair of them. But the dear, good
old soul declared, she didn’t mind what hardship she underwent, so long
as she was by, to watch over me, and prevent my being poisoned to death
by pills, and herbs, and draughts, and such like. I told her, it was
very kind indeed of her, and I had no doubt that Mr. Sk--n--st--n would
be as grateful to her as I was; and we arranged together that she should
sleep in the house that very night.
When I informed Edward of what my mother had so kindly consented to do
for me, he began grinning again, and said, that he was delighted to hear
it, for that he was sure such a state of things could not last long, and
that he should have the pair of them getting together by the ears, and
going at it hammer and tongs, and both his dear mothers-in-law leaving
the premises in less than a week--thank Heaven! Though when I told him
that I didn’t know where on earth I could put him to, unless, indeed, I
made him up a nice comfortable bed on the sofa in the back drawing-room,
with coats and cloaks, and odd things, to cover him--for Mrs. Yapp, I
regretted to say, had got all the spare blankets we had--of course he
must go flying into a passion again, and said that matters had come to a
pretty pass, when a man’s mothers-in-law walked into his house, and
didn’t leave him even a bed to lie upon. And after he had railed against
Mrs. B--ff--n and Mrs. Yapp till he was quite out of breath, he got a
little better tempered, and said, that as it would be impossible for his
two blessed mothers-in-law to sleep in the same bed without falling out,
why he didn’t mind what amicable arrangement he came to, so long as he
could make them enemies for life.
Next day, nurse came; and really she was such a nice, goodnatured, fat,
motherly old soul, that it was quite pleasant to have a little quiet
chat with her. Her name was Mrs. Toosypegs, and she was the widow--poor
thing--of a highly respectable eating-house keeper, who, she assured me,
used to do such a deal in the eating line, that he would sometimes have
as many as five hundred dinners a day. Unfortunately, however, one
evening, “the spirit of progress”--as they call it--got into his head,
and he would go having an ordinary for the Million, every day, at every
half-hour, at only fifteen-pence a head. But the Million--drat ’em!--had
every one of them the appetites of a hundred; and the consequence was,
that there was no satisfying them, although he gave them oceans of soup,
and as much fish as they could eat, by way of what he called a damper to
their raging appetites; though really it seemed quite thrown away upon
them: for, Lord bless you, when the joint was brought up, they seemed to
be as fresh and ravenous as ever, and would fall-to at the meat, as if
the Million were a parcel of boa-constrictors, and only in the habit of
being fed twice a year. And she declared that, often and often, the
waiters had to shake many of the Million to wake them up and get them to
pay; and that when they swept up the room of a night, she had, over and
over again, collected several gross of waistcoat buttons, which the
greedy young ogres had actually burst off with her husband’s food. So
that at last the blessed Million positively eat Mr. Toosypegs through
the Insolvent Court, and left him little or nothing to satisfy his poor
creditors with; and this so preyed upon her dear man’s mind, that in an
insane moment of despair, he raised his own boiled-beef knife against
himself, and fell, like another Cook, a victim to the Cannibals who
prowled about _To-heat-he_. After which, Mrs. Toosypegs informed me she
had been put to it so hard, that she had been obliged to go out nursing;
and, thank goodness! she had done as well as could be expected; for
though she had no dear little Toosypegs of her own, still she had
brought such numbers of children into the world, that she could not help
looking upon herself in the light of a mother of a very large
family--indeed, she was always speaking of the little pets she had
nursed as if they were her own flesh and blood; for at one time she
would talk to me of a very fine boy she had had in Torrington Square,
and at another, of her beautiful twins at Ball’s Pond; and then, of a
sweet little flaxen-haired beauty of a little girl of hers with eleven
toes, that she had had at Captain Jones’s, at Puddle Dock. And really,
last year, she said she had had as many as eight confinements in the
course of the twelvemonth, and which had been almost more than she had
strength to go through with. Her last lying-in had been in the suburbs,
near Stockwell Park; and what made her month very agreeable was, that
the family lived in a long terrace, and she knew all the neighbours’
little secrets; for all kinds of strange reports used to travel from
house to house, over the garden walls, or else from door to door, when
the maids were cleaning the steps of a morning. And she advised me, if
ever I took a house in a terrace a little way out of town, to be very
careful that it was the centre one--at least, if I had any regard for my
reputation. For I must be well aware that a story never lost by telling;
and consequently, if I lived in the middle of a row of houses, it was
very clear that the tales which might be circulated against me would
only have half the distance to travel on either side of me, and
therefore could only be half as bad, by the time they got down to the
bottom of the terrace, as the tales that might be circulated against the
wretched individuals who had the misfortune to live at the two ends of
it; so that I should be certain to have twice as good a character in the
neighbourhood as they had. For instance, she informed me of a lamentable
case that actually occurred while she was there. The servant at No. 1
told the servant at No. 2 that her master expected his old friends the
Baileys to pay him a visit shortly; and No. 2 told No. 3 that No. 1
expected to have the Baileys in the house every day; and No. 3 told No.
4 that it was all up with No. 1, for they couldn’t keep the bailiffs
out; whereupon 4 told 5 that the officers were after No. 1, and that it
was as much as he could do to prevent himself being taken in execution,
and that it was nearly killing his poor, dear wife; and so it went on,
increasing and increasing, until it got to No. 32, who confidently
assured the last house, No. 33, that the Bow-street officers had taken
up the gentleman who lived at No. 1, for killing his poor dear wife
with arsenic, and that it was confidently hoped and expected that he
would be executed at Horsemonger-lane jail, as the facts of the case
were very clear against him. All which, Mrs. Toosypegs said, proved,
very clearly, that servants were a “bad lot,” and that there was no
trusting ’em with anything, but what they must go wasting their time
gossiping and putting it about all over the neighbourhood. Though, for
her own part, she always made it a rule to shut her ears against all
scandal.
Edward was quite right; for Mrs. Yapp, when she found that dear mother
only turned her nose up at her filthy medicines, tried to see how
disagreeable she could make herself to my respected parent. And I
declare, on the very first night, they both went quarrelling up stairs
to bed, where dear mother--who, being a stout woman, has always
accustomed herself to sleep cool--would insist upon having two of the
blankets, and all the cloaks, taken off the bed, for she protested that,
what with the fire, and the shawl pinned before the window, there wasn’t
a breath of air stirring in the room, saying, that, for her part, she
should like to have the window open. This, that disagreeable old Mrs.
Yapp declared would be certain death to her, and she shouldn’t allow
anything of the kind; and scarcely had poor dear mother taken the
blankets off the bed, than Mrs. Yapp rushed up, and began putting them
on again; so there they both stood for a good hour at least, one taking
them off as fast as the other put them on, until they got tired, and
agreed that if Mrs. Yapp would forego making up the fire for the night,
and consent to waive the warming-pan, why, my dear, good, obliging
mother would, in her turn, allow the coddling old thing to have as many
blankets, and gowns, and cloaks on her side as she liked. But no sooner
had they got into the small bed than they both began growling away, and
each declaring that the other had got more than her proper share of it,
so that mother told me that neither of them got a wink of sleep all
night. And really, when they came down to breakfast the next morning,
they wouldn’t open their mouths to each other--much to that wicked
Edward’s delight, who kept rubbing his hands, and pressing mother to try
a couple of tea-spoonfuls of Epsom salts, as Mrs. Yapp did in her tea,
and asking the old she-quack whether she did not think Mrs. B--ff--n’s
liver was out of order, and what she would recommend for her under the
circumstances.
That evening, whilst we were at dinner, a parcel came, with a letter for
me, which, on opening, proved to be from those dear, sweet girls, the
two Misses B--yl--s’s, saying “they would feel much obliged if I would
present the accompanying article to one who would call for it in a day
or two.” On undoing the parcel, I declare if it wasn’t a beautiful white
satin pincushion, with a superb lace border, while on it was printed in
pins--
+-------------------+
| WELCOME |
| |
| LITTLE STRANGER. |
+-------------------+
This, of course, was fine nuts to crack for Mr. Edward; who must go
cutting his stupid jokes upon a subject which as I told him at the time,
I thought would be much better left alone. But there was no stopping
him; and he wanted to send out for a pennyworth of baby-pins, and put an
_s_ to the stranger--saying that the Misses B--yl--s’s had sent it to me
only half-finished.
On the 22nd of March, 1841, the following advertisement appeared in the
_Times_ and the _Morning Post_:--“On the 20th instant, at Duvernay
Villa, P--rk V--ll--ges, R--g--nt’s P--rk, the lady of Edward
Sk--n--st--n, Esq., of a daughter.” And quite early on the morning of
the day mentioned in the advertisement, anybody passing our house might
have seen my dear mother tying up our knocker with a white kid glove.
My baby was the loveliest tiddy ickle sing of a ducks-o’-diamonds that I
think I ever saw in all my life--and, thank Heaven! all its little limbs
were straight, and it hadn’t a single blemish upon it--if, indeed, I
except some strange marks it had on one side of its beautiful little
neck, and which I told nurse I was as certain as certain could be was a
letter and some figures; for I could make out a perfect F, and a 4 and
a 2, and when I cast it up in my own mind, I remembered this was exactly
what that impudent, big-whiskered monkey of a policeman, who had
frightened me so by winking at me, had got printed on the collar of his
coat. At first, I was rather vexed that it wasn’t a boy; for, to tell
the truth, I had set my heart upon having one. When, however, I came to
turn it over in my mind, I wasn’t at all sorry that it was a girl, for
she would be such a nice companion for me when she grew up, and, of
course, would take all the trouble of the house off my hands. Besides, I
do think boys are such Turks, and so difficult for a woman to manage, so
that, as it was a mere toss-up between the two, I do think, if I had had
a choice in the matter, I should have cried “woman” after all.
I wish any one could only have seen my dear, dear mother--I can assure
them it really was a treat worth living for--sitting by the fireside,
with my little unconscious angel lying in her lap, and pulling down its
sweet little nose, so as to seduce it into symmetry. She told me the
first duty a mother owed to her infant was to pay proper attention to
its nose, as really, at that tender age, it was as plastic as putty, and
could be drawn out just like so much india-rubber; indeed, Nature, she
might say, seemed to have kindly placed the child’s nose in its mother’s
hands, and left it for her to say whether the cherub should be blessed
with an aquiline, or cursed with a snub. I had to thank herself, she
said, for the shape of mine; for when I was born, she really had fears
that it would take after my father, and his was a bottle; so that it was
only by never neglecting my nasal organ for an instant, and devoting
every spare minute she had to its growth and formation, that she had
been able to rescue it from the strong likeness it had, at first, to my
father’s. And she begged of me to carry this maxim with me to my
grave--“That noses might be grown to any shape, like cucumbers; and that
it was only for the mother to decide whether the infant nasal gherkin
should be allowed to run wild, and twist itself into a ‘turn up,’ or
should, by the process of cultivation, be forced to grow straight, and
elongate itself into a Grecian.” And then the dear, good body informed
me that, touching the dear cherub’s eyes, I should find they would
require a great deal of looking after--indeed, quite as much as the
nose; for all children naturally squinted, and she thought nothing on
earth looked so dreadful and vulgar as to see a pair of eyes wanting to
go different ways, for all the world like two perverse greyhounds
coupled together; and she was convinced that goggle-eyes and
swivel-eyes, and, in fact, every other variety of eye but the right,
merely arose from bad nursing. Consequently, I ought to be very careful
not to allow any nurse with even so much as a cast to enter my service,
until my little dear had learnt to look straight before it. And, above
all, I was to be very particular, for some time to come, never to permit
my little petsy wetsy to look over its head, for fear its eyes should
become fixed in that uncomfortable position, and I should have my poor
little girl walking about with them always turned up like a methodist
preacher. Then she begged of me, as I loved my baby, never to allow it
to yawn without putting my hand under its chin, to prevent it dropping
its jaw, or I should have the misery of seeing my eldest daughter going
through the world with its mouth always open, like a carriage dog, or
one of the French toy nut-crackers. Moreover, she said she hoped I would
be very particular with the little darling’s little wee legs; for if I
should be imprudent enough to rub them downwards, as sure as her name
was B--ff--n, I should have the pleasure of seeing them in after life
with no more calf to them than an ostrich’s; whereas, if I took care to
rub them upwards every morning, then, when she grew up, I should have
the satisfaction of beholding the dear with as fine a pair of legs as an
opera-dancer, or, she might say, a fashionable footman. So that, by the
time dear mother had finished her instruction, I plainly saw, from what
she said, that Nature had not done half its duty to babies, but had sent
them into the world with their joints as imperfectly put together as
cheap furniture, and that if the greatest care wasn’t taken with them,
they would be as certain to warp in all kinds of ways as any of the
other articles which are puffed off as such temptations to persons about
to marry.
My poor Edward was nearly out of his wits with joy at having such a
beautiful child; and the stupid ninny would go giving Mrs. Toosypegs
half a sovereign when she declared that it was the very image of its
papa--and so the little angel was. But my gentleman must go cutting his
stupid jokes again, and saying that as he missed a silver spoon
down-stairs, he should like to know whether the child had been born with
one in its mouth--which set Mrs. Toosypegs off laughing so violently,
that she seemed to think that she might as well work out her half
sovereign that way as any other. So, upon that, Mr. Edward went on, and
said, that as it hadn’t been born with a silver spoon, perhaps it had
with a Britannia metal one, which, he said, would be quite as lucky, as
every one knew that it was a very good substitute for silver.
I was much gratified to hear a gentle ring at the street-door bell,
which, I felt sure, was some one come to inquire after my health; and as
Miss Susan was out, I told Mrs. Toosypegs to tell whoever it was that I
had got a very fine little girl, and that we were going on as well as
could be expected. When she came up again, she told me that it was a
life guardsman, with tremendous big black mustachios, who said he was
quite delighted to hear it; so I at once saw that it was none other than
that dreadful amorous ogre of a Ned Twist, who was making such violent
cupboard love to my maid; and I asked Mrs. Toosypegs whether she had
ever noticed any strange goings on in the kitchen, and requested her, as
a favour, to keep a sharp eye upon Susan. I felt satisfied, that now she
had got me safe in bed, she would be carrying on fine games, and I
should be having half the barracks at supper in my kitchen every night;
so I begged of Mrs. Toosypegs, whenever she went down-stairs, to make a
point of looking in the coal-cellar, saying that was the cage in which
she stowed her Robbing Red-breasts--as Edward very cleverly calls them.
Mrs. Yapp, I regret to say, made herself very disagreeable throughout
the whole business, and would have it that mother was conspiring against
my daughter and myself to kill us. The fact was, they were both at
daggers drawn about the way in which my baby and myself ought to be
treated; for one was for bathing the little darling in cold water, and
the other in warm; and the one for bandaging it up like a little mummy,
and the other letting its beautiful little limbs be perfectly free. One
would have it that the soothing syrup was really what it professed to
be, a blessing to mothers, while the other declared that it was nothing
more than a poison to children. As for myself, one said I could never
get round if I didn’t have plenty of air, and the other vowed that I
should never get up again if the room wasn’t kept as close as possible.
Dear mother assured me that I could only gain strength by taking as much
solid food as I could manage, while Mrs. Yapp persisted in telling me,
that in my state I ought to take nothing but slops--at least, if I
wanted to get well; and they used to pester the poor doctor so, whenever
he came, that at last he took offence, and said, that as he saw that I
was in very good hands, he thought his services were no longer required.
Somehow or other, Mrs. Toosypegs seemed to agree with everybody; so that
I could not tell what on earth to do. Every day at dinner there was a
regular fight at my bedside; for mother would insist upon my just taking
a mouthful of the lean of a mutton-chop that she had cooked for me,
while Mrs. Yapp declared that it would be the death of me, and would
stand begging and praying of me to try a spoonful or two of her nice
gruel--so, between the two, I couldn’t get either any rest or food, for
they neither would allow me to touch what the other recommended. And I
do verily believe, if it hadn’t been for Mrs. Toosypegs giving me, on
the sly, whatever I took a fancy to, I must, positively and truly, have
been starved to death.
Directly the little cherub of a baby, too, used to cry, they both raced
after each other up-stairs. One said it had got the wind, and the other
the stomach-ache; and mother prescribed a spoonful of dill-water with
some sugar, while the other stood out for as much rhubarb and magnesia
as would lie on a sixpence.
All this delighted Edward extremely to hear, and he said that things
were going on beautifully; and they were both of them getting as
miserable and discontented as he could possibly have wished. At the same
time, he desired Mrs. Toosypegs never to allow the ladies to come
bothering me, and on no account to pay any attention to what either of
them said; for the wicked rogue told me, that, in order to bring about
the explosion he so devoutly prayed for, he always made it a point of
siding with both of them. Accordingly, whenever Mrs. Yapp came
complaining to him, he invariably agreed with her that Mrs. B--ff--n
knew nothing about the treatment of infants, and he should take it as a
favour if she would keep dear mother from interfering with me as much as
possible;--while, on the other hand, whenever Mrs. B--ff--n asked him
what she had better do, he always told her Mrs. Yapp was quite ignorant
of the management of children, and that, of course, he wished my dear
mother to prevent her from coming into the bedroom at all. So he
supposed it was this that made them both so determined on pursuing their
own plans; and though he assured me it was far from comfortable work
sleeping upon that wretched sofa in the back drawing-room, with nothing
but cloaks to cover him, still, he said, he shouldn’t murmur, if it was
stuffed with broken bottles instead of horse-hair, so long as his two
mothers-in-law slept together, and had an opportunity of carrying on
their quarrels in bed.
So matters went on; until, I declare to goodness, I got nearly as sick
and tired of my own dear mother as I was worn out of all patience with
the mother of my husband’s poor first wife; and I began to wish to be
quit of them both nearly as much as Edward did. I verily believe their
continual quarrellings, and bickerings, and squabblings, threw me back
frightfully; and, indeed, Mrs. Toosypegs told me, that, with the very
fine constitution I have of my own, I ought to have been out of bed and
about at least ten days earlier than I was, (it was more than a month
before I got thoroughly down-stairs.) To my great horror, just before
Mrs. Toosypegs went, she brought me word that the small-pox had broken
out among the soldiers in Albany-street Barracks; and as I knew that
those soldiers _would_ come bothering after our pretty Susan, of course
I saw clear enough that they would be bringing it into the house in
their red jackets, and I should have my little girl catching it--poor
innocent dear--and perhaps growing up with her face full of holes, and
looking for all the world like a sponge. So I determined pretty
quickly on getting nurse to go with me to the establishment in
Bloomsbury-square, and get the sweet cherub vaccinated.
Accordingly, on the morrow, we jumped into a cab, and went down to the
place. When we got there, I may safely say I never saw such a beautiful
sight in all my life. If there was one dear little baby, I’m sure there
must have been at least a hundred; and I really felt as if I could have
taken them all in my arms, and hugged them every one--though, I must
say, that the noise they made was almost too much for me, for what with
the cries of some fifty of them, and the prattling of the mothers to the
rest--I declare it was for all the world like the parrot-room at the
Zoological Gardens. When _my_ turn came for going in with my child to
the doctor, I told Mrs. Toosypegs she must take the child, for I knew I
should never be able to bear the sight of that unfeeling wretch of a
doctor poking his great big lancet into its pretty little arms; and that
I should go making a stupid of myself, and fainting right off at the
first drop of blood I saw. So in went nurse, while I stopped outside,
and, to drive the thoughts out of my mind, I began playing with a very
nice respectable child that was next to me. While I was amusing myself
in this way, a poor woman, seeing my arms empty, came up to me, and
asked me if I would be kind enough to hold her child for a few minutes,
while she stepped out to get a glass of water, for the heat of the place
was really too much for her. Of course, I was very glad to oblige her,
like a stupid, and, taking her baby, I said, “Certainly, with a great
deal of pleasure”--though, if I had known what was going to happen then,
I most assuredly would have seen her further first.
When nurse came back with my own poor dear little thing crying its
beautiful blue eyes out, I told her to sit down with it just for a
moment, while I went and looked after the other poor thing’s mother,
who, I feared, from the time she had been gone for the drop of water she
spoke about, must have fainted off in the passage! But though I looked
all about for her, both outside and inside the house, to my great
horror, she was nowhere to be found. So I marched back, and sat down,
and waited until all the mothers and children had gone, and nurse and
myself and the two babies were the only people left in the place, when I
really began to grow dreadfully alarmed, for I felt assured that some
dreadful accident or mistake must have occurred. And when the porter
came to tell me I must go, as he wanted to shut up the doors, I informed
him of what had happened, and asked him to let me leave the brat with
him, so that he might give it to the mother when she called. But the
brute would not hear of such a thing, and said that the best way would
be for me to take it home with me, and leave my address with him, and
then he could send the mother up to me when she came after it.
Accordingly I gave the man my card, with particular instructions that he
was to make the woman come on to me as fast as her legs would carry her,
directly she called; for as I very truly said at the time, I didn’t know
how I should ever be able to get through the night with the pair of
them.
When we got home, there was a fine piece of work with the pair of them,
for the little brat of a stranger wouldn’t eat a thing, though we tried
with both the spoon and the bottle, and really squalled in such a way
that I was obliged to give it something to pacify it. Edward was so
surly at the noise the two children made, that I really thought, what
with the noise he and the babies made, I should have gone clean out of
my senses; for he said, I didn’t seem to think that two mothers-in-law
were sufficient to have in the house at once, but I must go adding to
them two babies.
I really do believe it must have been nearly eleven o’clock before I had
the doors done up, for I made certain that brute of a mother would never
think of leaving her child with me all night. But I soon found myself
preciously mistaken, for, on undressing the poor little half-starved
thing, I declare if there was not tacked to the body of its little
petticoat a strip of paper, on which was written:--“Plese to treet im
wel--Is name is Alfred;”--so that it was now as plain as the nose on my
face I had been made a regular fool of, and the unfeeling wretch of a
mother, observing, I dare say, my love for children, and that I was very
well dressed, was induced to single me out, drat her! as her victim; for
of course it was her intention, from the first, to make me adopt her
brat, whether I liked it or not.
As it was impossible to send the infant round to the workhouse at that
late hour of the night, why, I was obliged to take it up-stairs to bed
with me, and a precious night both Edward and I had of it, goodness
knows! For directly that little brute of an Alfred began to cry, of
course he set my little pet of a Kate off, too; consequently, while I
was trying to get the one off to sleep with a drop, I was obliged to
make Edward set up in bed and rock the other, which he did, all the
while grumbling and abusing me in a most shameful manner; wondering how
I could ever have been such a born idiot to have allowed myself to have
had a strange child put upon me in such a place.
Early in the morning, immediately after Edward had left for business, I
sent Susan off to the workhouse with the squalling young urchin,
instructing her to tell the parish authorities how shamefully I had been
imposed upon, and to say that I felt it to be my duty, under the
circumstances, to hand it over to them. But, hang it! there seemed to be
no chance of getting rid of the brat, for back came Susan, all in a
fluster, and said that the porter at the gate had told her, in a very
impudent manner, that I must come round myself the next Board day and
represent the case to the Guardians; and if the facts would bear
investigation, why, perhaps they might make out an order to have it
admitted.
Here was a pretty state to be in; for Susan said the next Board day
wasn’t for five days to come, and it was impossible for me ever to think
of keeping the child all that time, and I really felt as if I could have
put it in the old fish-basket we had in the house, and tied it to the
first knocker that I came to. Indeed, as it was, I did go up-stairs to
Mrs. Yapp, and both dear mother and myself tried, for upwards of an
hour, as hard as ever we could, to get her to adopt the poor little
foundling. But of course it was of no use appealing to the maternal
feelings of a hard-hearted creature like her; for we couldn’t get her to
take it, although both of us kept pointing out to her what a comfort, we
had no doubt, it would grow up to be to her in her old age, and what a
noble act she would be doing in rescuing the poor little innocent dear
from the workhouse, and, might be, a prison; saying that it was
impossible, under the circumstances, to tell what would become of
it--but it was all to no use. Although she has got four hundred a-year,
and no children, still the mean old thing positively refused to have
anything to do with the poor dear little “incumbrance,” but I do verily
believe that if the child had only had the good luck to be sickly, she
would willingly have consented to have acted the part of a mother to it,
if it was only for the sake of having some one to physic.
Consequently, I made up my mind to send it down to Edward by Susan,
telling him what the workhouse people had said, and begging him to go up
to them with it, and make them take it in directly, as I told him he
must very well know they were in law bound to do.
In about two hours, Susan came back, like a good girl, to my infinite
delight, without the baby. When I asked her what on earth she had done
with it, I thought I should have died with laughter; for she told me,
that on her way down to Chancery Lane she had met with Mary Hooper,--who
had been a fellow-servant of hers, and who is now living as nurserymaid
at Mr. C--tl--n’s, the solicitor, in John Street, Bedford Row--and as
she was going to take the two little Misses C--tl--n for a walk in
Gray’s-inn Gardens, of course my Miss Susan must go in with her.
While she was there, she said, there were some impudent young
barristers, whose chambers were on the ground floor, leaning out of one
of the windows at the back, and smoking their nasty cigars, and playing
the fool with the nursery maids, instead of minding their business. And
as she was walking up and down, they must needs go getting into
conversation with her; and pretending to admire the baby she had got in
her arms, first asking her how old it was, and then declaring that they
never before, in the whole course of their lives, saw such a fine boy
for his age; and then inquiring whether it was her own, and a whole pack
of other rubbish besides. At last one of the gentlemen, who she said had
got red hair and sandy whiskers, begged to be allowed to give the dear
little baby a kiss, as he was passionately fond of children. So she
handed the child up to him, and no sooner had the sharp fellow got hold
of it, than he refused to let her have it back again, unless she came
round to their chambers and fetched it herself; whereupon Susan told
him, that as he wouldn’t give the child up without it, she supposed she
must. But no sooner had she got outside the gardens, than it very
properly struck her, that as the gentleman was so fond of children, she
might just as well leave it with him altogether, instead of letting it
go to the workhouse, poor little pet!
I really thought I should have killed myself with laughing, for I
remembered I had that very morning, before sending the infant round to
the workhouse, sewed on again the identical strip of paper which I had
found stitched on to its little petticoat body, just to show it to the
workhouse authorities, and which requested the party into whose hands
the poor babe fell to treat it kindly, and that its name was Alfred.
I told Susan I was _very_ much pleased with what she had done, and I
gave her five shillings, and said she might go out for a holiday as soon
as she liked, adding, that she had in a very clever manner given the
impudent fellows a good deal more than they sent, and in a way that not
only showed she was one too many for them, but would teach them never
again to go making love to the child for the sake of the maid.
When Edward came home, he was as pleased as Punch. He declared it just
served the lawyers right, and was a bit of sharp practice that did Susan
much credit. And then he made a very good pun upon it, for he said that
he had a very great mind to go down and stick a board up in the gardens
opposite the window of the young fellow to whom Susan had handed the
innocent creature, with “Lambs taken in to _Gray’s Inn_ here,” painted
in large letters upon it.