Elsie Accepts Of A New Situation
When Dr. Phillips had asked Elsie a great number of questions on all
sorts of subjects, that seemed but remotely connected with the cough
that she was so alarmed about--had sounded her chest, and gone through
the several forms of examination----
"Now," said she, "Doctor, tell me the truth; I am not at all afraid to
hear it. I have no dread of death; indeed, I rather desire it than
otherwise."
"I am sorry to hear it, my dear girl; for I do not see any chance of
it. There is nothing organic the matter with you--nothing
whatever--only a nervous affection that a little care will overcome.
You have been overworked and underfed. You have been out of doors only
in the early morning and the late evening, and have scarcely seen the
sun for months. You have had a great deal on your spirits, and been
exceedingly dull. You have missed your excellent sister, and I do not
wonder at it. It would have been a miracle if you could have kept your
health this unkindly spring, with all these drawbacks. But you have
nothing whatever alarming in your case."
"My dear Miss Melville," continued he, turning to Jane, "I assure you
that your sister only wants what she has come to England to
obtain--change, cheerful society, sunshine, and generous diet--to
restore her to perfect health."
Elsie gave one sigh at this verdict.
"Do not think me ungrateful, Dr. Phillips; I should be thankful to be
restored to health; but life has been so hard for me lately, that I
felt almost glad to think that, without any fault of my own, God was
going to take me away, and that Jane would join me by and by, when her
work was done. She is fit for the work she has got to do, and I appear
to be so unfit for it. I suppose we ought to love life----"
"It is a sign that one is out of health when one does not," said Dr.
Phillips. "Your depression of spirits is more physical than mental; but
then it reacts upon your health. You used to be cheerful before you
left that place--what do you call it?--where my old friend Hogarth
brought you up."
"Yes, quite cheerful," said Elsie; "but things have gone very
differently with me since."
"Well, you must regain your old spirits, if possible; and in the
meantime, get on your bonnet and have a little drive with me while Miss
Melville is busy with her pupils. If you won't mind a few stoppages, we
will have a pleasant round, through as pretty a part of the country as
England can boast of."
Jane asked privately for Dr. Phillips's opinion, being sure that he
gave Elsie his brightest view of her case.
"There is nothing positively wrong with her at present, Miss Melville;
but she has got into such a low tone of health that she needs care. She
must never return to such a life as she has had lately; she must have a
lighter employment, more open air, and better food."
"It is so difficult," said Jane, "to get employment. I am sure there
are a thousand chances against my finding such an excellent situation
as I have with Mrs. Phillips."
"And a thousand chances against their meeting with such an excellent
governess and housekeeper. The pleasure is mutual, I am sure. I must
see what your sister is fit for, when she is a little stronger."
Both Elsie and Jane saw at once that Mr. Brandon was disposed to take
Elsie's rejection as a final decision, and that he would have no
difficulty in transferring his attentions, if not his affections to
Miss Harriett Phillips. Elsie felt that she could not have been much
admired or loved, when he could so soon attach himself to a woman so
very different from herself. Here it certainly might be love without
any mixture of pity. He made himself very agreeable, and Miss Harriett
was not so much flattered as gratified. All his homage was received by
her as her due; there were no quick flushes of pleasure or surprise at
any little mark of kindness or attention; no disclaiming of any
compliment which was paid her as exaggerated or undeserved; the smile
of perfect self-complacency sat on her face, and gave ease to her every
action and every speech. She never hesitated in giving her opinion; she
never qualified or withdrew it when given. She knew herself to be
perfectly well-informed and perfectly well-bred. She felt herself to be
Mr. Brandon's superior in every point--in natural ability, in
education, in acquired manner, in social position, and, of course, in
moral character also, for she had no faith in the goodness of the other
sex. She saw many of their faults, and guessed at many more, and she
did not see or understand their virtues; and Brandon made no pretence
to being particularly good, and spoke slightingly of her favourite
clergyman, who was rather too High Church in his notions to please the
latitudinarian ideas of an Australian bushman. Her connection with the
county Stanleys gave her a prestige that Mr. Brandon never could have,
for his family were only middle-class people, not at all intellectual
or aristocratic. Her brother was astonished to see how much more
Georgiana and Harriett spoke of their relations by the mother's side,
who had never done anything for them, than those good uncles and aunts
Phillipses, who had invited them for the holidays, and given them toys
and books without number; but all his laughing at his sisters could not
alter their views, and his own wife sided with the ladies, and was very
proud of her husband's aristocratic name and relations, though she had
none of her own.
Though in all these respects Harriett Phillips was so much Mr.
Brandon's superior, she was disposed to accept of him when he asked
her, as he was sure to do. It was so difficult for her to meet with her
equal, either social, intellectual, or moral; and a husband, even
though an Australian, began to be looked upon as a desirable thing at
her time of life. And though Brandon was not fascinated by her, though
he was not interested in her, though he felt no thrill in touching her
hand, no exquisite delight in listening to her voice or her singing, he
began to feel that this was to be his fate, and that the quiet, pale
girl who had refused him would not make so suitable a wife for him as
Harriett Phillips, after all.
He was somewhat astonished, however, when he heard from this last-named
lady, about a week after Elsie Melville's arrival, that her
sister-in-law had engaged her services as lady's-maid. A lady's-maid
was what Mrs. Phillips had long desired to have, and now, when she saw
Elsie's excellent taste, both in dressmaking and millinery, she thought
that with a few lessons in hairdressing she might suit her very nicely,
and it would be quite a boon to the poor girl, whom Dr. Phillips had
forbidden to return to her situation in Edinburgh.
Mr. Phillips, though he thought that a lady's-maid was rather beyond
his circumstances and his wife's sphere, hoped such good things from
her associating constantly with two such women as Jane and Elsie
Melville, that he readily gave his consent. Elsie as readily agreed to
serve in this inferior capacity. The pleasure of being near her sister
was not to be refused on account of being so far subordinated to her.
She was deeply impressed with her own inferiority, and fell into her
place at once.
Harriett Phillips could not help a slight sneer at her sister-in-law's
assumption in this new step towards gentility; but as she was going to
London with the family, she had no doubt that Elsie would be glad to be
of service to her too, as she appeared to be very good-natured, and
willing to oblige a family who had been so very kind to her sister and
herself. There were so many things that were secured for Elsie by this
arrangement which were imperatively necessary for her health, that Jane
submitted to it as the best possible under the circumstances, though
she feared that Mrs. Phillips would show to Elsie the caprice and bad
temper which she dared not show to herself. And in this she was not
mistaken; for Elsie was so yielding and so diffident, that her new
mistress exercised a great deal of real tyranny over her, varied by
fitful acts of liberality and kindness. Peggy Walker opened her eyes
very wide when she heard of both the young ladies, whom she had been
accustomed to look up to, being dependent in this way on Mrs. Phillips,
whom she had always looked down upon; but she knew that the sisters
were together, and that that was a happiness to both that outweighed
many other drawbacks. She herself was very much engrossed with the care
of grandfather, who, as well as Elsie, had felt the ungenial spring
very trying, and who did not seem to rally as the season advanced; so
she was thankful that Elsie was otherwise bestowed than in her house of
sickness.
Dr. Phillips had the satisfaction of seeing a considerable improvement
in Elsie before she left Derbyshire, and used to have her company in
his morning drives to visit his patients, when her pleasant
conversation and winning manner made him ere long prefer her to her
graver and less pliant sister. He missed both the girls when they went
to London, and even Dr. Vivian paid Jane the compliment of regretting
her society a little for a week.