MY LADY SWEET.
My story, alas! has come to an end, according to the nature of all
earthly things. The love vows are exchanged, the girl has given herself
to the man--rich or poor. My friends, if you come to think of it, no
girl is so rich that she can give more, or so poor that she can give
less, than herself; and in love one asks not for more or less. Even the
day is appointed, and nothing is going to happen which will prevent the
blessed wedding-bells from ringing, or the clergyman from the sacred
joining together of man and of maid, till death do part them. What more
to tell? We ought to drop the curtain while the moonlight pours through
the windows of the silent palace upon the lovers, while the gods and
goddesses, nymphs, naiads, and oreads in marble look on in sympathetic
joy. They, too, in the far-off ages, among the woods and springs of
Hellas, lived and loved, though their forests know them no more. Yet,
because this was no ordinary marriage, and because we are sorry to part
with Angela before the day when she begins her wedded life, we must fain
tell of what passed in that brief fortnight before the Palace was
opened, and Angela's great and noble dream became a reality.
There was, first of all, a great deal of business to be set in order.
Angela had interviews with her lawyers, and settlements had to be drawn
up about which Harry knew nothing, though he would have to sign them;
then there were the trust-deeds for the Palace. Angela named Harry, Dick
Coppin, the old Chartist, now her firm and fast friend, and Lord
Jocelyn, as joint trustees. They were to see, first of all, that no one
got anything out of the Palace unless it might be workmen's wages for
work done. They were to carry out the spirit of the house in making the
place support and feed itself, so that whatever amusements, plays,
dances, interludes, or mummeries were set afoot, all might be by the
people themselves for themselves; and they were to do their utmost to
keep out of the discordant elements of politics, religion, and party
controversy.
All the girls knew by this time that Miss Kennedy was to be married on
the second of March--the day when the Palace was to be opened. They also
learned, because the details were arranged and talked over every
evening, that the opening would be on a very grand scale indeed. Miss
Messenger herself was coming to hand it over in person to the trustees
on behalf of the people of Stepney and Whitechapel. There was to be the
acting of a play in the new theatre, a recital on the new organ, the
performance of a concert in the new concert-room, playing all the
evening long by a military band, some sort of general entertainment; and
the whole was to be terminated by a gigantic supper given by Miss
Messenger herself, to which fifteen hundred guests were bidden--namely,
first, all the employees of the brewery with their wives, if they had
any, from the chief brewer and the chief accountant down to the humblest
boy in the establishment; and, secondly, all the girls in the
Association, with two or three guests for each; and, thirdly, a couple
of hundred or so chosen from a list drawn up by Dick Coppin, and the
cobbler, and Harry.
As for Harry, he had now, by Angela's recommendation, resigned his
duties at the Brewery, in order to throw his whole time into the
arrangement for the opening day; and this so greatly occupied him that
he sometimes even forgot what the day would mean to him. The invitations
were sent in Miss Messenger's own name. They were all accepted, although
there was naturally some little feeling of irritation at the brewery
when it became known that there was to be a general sitting down of all
together. Miss Messenger also expressed her wish that the only beverage
at the supper should be Messenger's beer, and that of the best quality.
The banquet, in imitation of the Lord Mayor's dinner on the ninth of
November, was to be a cold one, and solid, with plenty of ices, jellies,
puddings, and fruit. But there was something said about glasses of wine
for every guest after supper.
"I suppose," said Angela, talking over this pleasant disposition of
things with Harry, "that she means one or two toasts to be proposed. The
first should be to the success of the Palace. The second, I think"--and
she blushed--"will be the health of you, Harry, and of me."
"I think so much of you," said Harry, "all day long, that I never think
of Miss Messenger at all. Tell me what she is like, this giver and
dispenser of princely gifts. I suppose she really is the owner of
boundless wealth?"
"She has several millions, if you call that boundless. She has been a
very good friend to me, and will continue so."
"You know her well?"
"I know her very well. O Harry, do not ask me any more about her or
myself. When we are married I will tell you all about the friendship of
Miss Messenger to me. You trust me, do you not?"
"Trust you! O Angela!"
"My secret, such as it is, is not a shameful one, Harry; and it has to
do with the very girl, this Miss Messenger. Leave me with it till the
day of our wedding. I wonder how far your patience will endure my
secrets? for here is another. You know that I have a little money?"
"I am afraid, my Angela," said Harry, laughing, "that you must have made
a terrible hole in it since you came here. Little or much, what does it
matter to us? Haven't we got the two thousand? Think of that tremendous
lump."
"What can it matter?" she cried. "O Harry, I thank Heaven for letting
me, too, have this great gift of sweet and disinterested love. I thought
it would never come to me."
"To whom, then, should it come?"
"Don't, Harry, or--yes--go on thinking me all that you say, because it
may help to make me all that you think. But that is not what I wanted to
say. Would you mind very much, Harry, if I asked you to take my name?"
"I will take any name you wish, Angela. If I am your husband, what does
it matter about any other name?"
"And then one other thing, Harry. Will your guardian give his consent?"
"Yes, I can answer for him that he will. And he will come to the wedding
if I ask him."
"Then ask him, Harry."
"So," said Lord Jocelyn, "the dressmaker has relented, has she? Why,
that is well. And I am to give my consent? My dear boy, I only want you
to be happy. Besides, I am quite sure and certain that you will be
happy."
"Everybody is, if he marries the woman he loves," said the young man
sententiously.
"Yes--yes, if he goes on loving the woman he has married. However,
Harry, you have my best wishes and consent, since you are good enough to
ask for it. Wait a bit." He got up and began to search about in drawers
and desks. "I must give your fiancée a present, Harry. See--here is
something good. Will you give her, with my best love and good wishes,
this? It was once my mother's."
Harry looked at the gaud, set with pearls and rubies in old-fashioned
style.
"Is it not," he asked, "rather too splendid for a--poor people in our
position?"
Lord Jocelyn laughed aloud.
"Nothing," he said, "can be too splendid for a beautiful woman. Give it
her, Harry, and tell her I am glad she has consented to make you happy.
Tell her I am more than glad, Harry. Say that I most heartily thank her.
Yes, thank her. Tell her that. Say that I thank her from my heart."
As the day drew near the girls became possessed of a great fear. It
seemed to all as if things were going to undergo some great and sudden
change. They knew that the house was secured to them free of rent; but
they were going to lose their queen, that presiding spirit who not only
kept them together, but also kept them happy. In her presence there were
no little tempers, and jealousies were forgotten. When she was with them
they were all on their best behavior. Now it is an odd thing in girls,
and I really think myself privileged, considering my own very small
experience of the sex, in being the first to have discovered this
important truth--that, whereas to boys good behavior is too often a
_gêne_ and a bore, girls prefer behaving well. They are happiest when
they are good, nicely dressed, and sitting all in a row with company
manners. But who, when Miss Kennedy went away, would lead them in the
drawing-room? The change, however, was going to be greater than they
knew or guessed; the drawing-room itself would become before many days a
thing of the past, but the Palace would take its place.
They all brought gifts; they were simple things, but they were offered
with willing and grateful hearts. Rebekah brought the one volume of her
father's library which was well bound. It was a work written in
imitation of Hervey's "Meditations," and dwelt principally with tombs,
and was therefore peculiarly appropriate as a wedding present. Nelly
brought a ring which had been her mother's, and was so sacred to her
that she felt it _must_ be given to Miss Kennedy; the other girls gave
worked handkerchiefs, and collars, and such little things.
Angela looked at the table on which she had spread all her wedding
presents: the plated teapot from Mrs. Bormalack; the girls' work;
Nelly's ring; Rebekah's book; Lord Jocelyn's bracelet. She was happier
with these trifles than if she had received in Portman Square the
hundreds of gifts and jewelled things which would have poured in for the
young heiress.
And in the short fortnight she thought for everybody. Josephus received
a message that he might immediately retire on the pension which he would
have received had he been fortunate in promotion, and been compelled to
go by ill-health: in other words, he was set free with three hundred
pounds a year for life. He may now be seen any day in the Mile End Road
or on Stepney Green, dressed in the fashion of a young man of twenty-one
or so, walking with elastic step, because he is so young, yet
manifesting a certain gravity, as becomes one who attends the evening
lectures of the Beaumont Institute in French and arithmetic, and takes a
class on the Sabbath in connection with the Wesleyan body. After all, a
man is only as old as he feels; and why should not Josephus, whose youth
was cruelly destroyed, feel young again, now that his honor has been
restored to him?
On the morning before the wedding, Angela paid two visits of
considerable importance.
The first was to Daniel Fagg, to whom she carried a small parcel. "My
friend," she said, "I have observed your impatience about your book.
Your publisher thought that, as you are inexperienced in correcting
proofs, it would be best to have the work done for you. And here, I am
truly happy to say, is the book itself."
He tore the covering from the book, and seized it as a mother would
seize her child.
"My book!" he gasped, "my book!"
Yes, his book; bound in sober cloth, with an equilateral triangle on the
cover for simple ornament. "The Primitive Alphabet, by Daniel Fagg!" "My
book!"
Angela explained to him that his passage to Melbourne was taken, and
that he would sail in a week; and that a small sum of money would be put
into his hands on landing: and that a hundred copies of the book would
be sent to Australia for him, with more if he wanted them. But she
talked to idle ears, for Daniel was turning over the leaves and
devouring the contents of his book.
"At all events," said Angela, "I have made one man happy."
Then she walked to the Trinity Almshouse, and sought her old friend,
Captain Sorensen.
To him she told her whole story from the very beginning, begging only
that he would keep her secret till the next evening.
"But, of course," said the sailor, "I knew, all along, that you were a
lady born and bred. You might deceive the folk here, who've no chance,
poor things, of knowing a lady when they see one--how should they? But
you could not deceive a man who's had his quarter-deck full of ladies.
The only question in my mind was, why you did it."
"You did not think that what Bunker said was true--did you, Captain
Sorensen?"
"Nay," he replied. "Bunker never liked you; and how I am to thank you
enough for all you've done for my poor girl----"
"Thank me by continuing to be my dear friend and adviser," said Angela.
"If I thought it would pleasure you to live out of this place----"
"No, no," said the captain, "I could not take your money; any one may
accept the provision of the asylum and be grateful."
"I knew you would say so. Stay on, then, Captain Sorensen. And as
regards Nelly, my dear and fond Nelly----"
It needs not to tell what she said and promised on behalf of Nelly.
And at the house the girls were trying on the new white frocks and white
bonnets in which they were to go to the wedding. They were all
bridemaids, but Nelly had the post of honor.