CONCLUSION.
Of our story little remains to tell. Augusta was driven to her sister’s
lodgings and put to bed. In less than twenty-four hours she had arrived
once more at the time of life she had temporarily abandoned. Her
experience had been a disappointment, but her intense relief in feeling
that she was once more in command of the helm, prevented her dwelling on
that. It was delightful to array herself once more in her own clothes,
to be no longer a helpless infant, pinched, tweaked, starved, insulted
to her face. The joy of being able to speak was in itself so intense
that Miss Semaphore was in a constant flow of good humour, and in all
her experience of her sister, Prudence never had so good a time.
After the first excitement had cooled down, she feared that Augusta
would be morose, soured by the failure of her experiment; but no. She
seemed to find perennial satisfaction in contrasting her present state
with that she had so unwillingly endured. The great drawback to her
happiness was the notoriety given to her case. Three times the sisters
had to change lodgings, because of the curiosity they excited amongst
their neighbours, and the crowds that collected to watch them pass in or
out.
When the trial came on the following week, Arrow Street was crowded to
suffocation. All the boarders from Beaconsfield Gardens were once more
in the front row, and unbounded interest was excited by the evidence of
Prudence. The papers were full of the circumstances. The _Daily
Telegraph_ published a leader on it, would-be interviewers made the life
of the sisters a misery. Their supposed portraits, horrible caricatures
that their own mother would have failed to recognise, appeared in the
halfpenny evening papers. The sixpenny weeklies sent artists to sketch
them as they sat in court. The medical press took the matter up. Samples
of the Water of Youth were called for to be analysed, but without avail,
since Mrs. Geldheraus and her mysterious potion had disappeared into the
_Ewigkeit_.
Never were inoffensive and obscure women dragged so suddenly into
notoriety. A wax model of Augusta was set up at Madame Tussaud’s, and
the baby clothes she was wearing when taken to the workhouse were shown
in a glass case. She netted £700 by their sale, which she looked on as
in a measure compensatory for her outlay on the Water. The devotion of
Prudence to her sister was everywhere commented on. She became quite a
popular personage, and to her surprise and delight, received no less
than five offers of marriage from persons totally unknown to her.
While their interest in the case was unabated, the medical woman, Mrs.
Whitley, Mrs. Dumaresq, and the other boarders, felt somewhat shy of
making any advances to the sisters. Soft, and gentle, and foolish, as
Prudence was, they felt that she could not and would not forgive their
impertinent curiosity and interference; and yet there was much to excuse
their conduct, for such cases as Miss Semaphore’s are rare. When the
sisters were finally making their way out of court, having heard good
Mrs. Brown condemned to a term of six months imprisonment with hard
labour, Major Jones, however, rushed forward, and with a profound sweep
of his hat, requested permission to escort them to the hansom in
waiting. He did not say “good-bye” until he had asked for and obtained
leave to call on them, a privilege of which he henceforth took frequent
advantage.
There is an opinion afloat, this time not merely in the mind of Prudence
herself, but in the minds of the boarders at Beaconsfield Gardens, that
the younger Miss Semaphore will before long be requested to change her
name. Since her painful experience, her character has developed. She is
more self-reliant, steadier, less unduly girlish in her ways and dress,
and seems likely, if her mature love affair runs smooth, to make an
excellent wife for the Major. Should her future, as it promises, prove
happier than her past, she, for one, despite the mental agony she
struggled through, will not regret the temporary rejuvenation of Miss
Semaphore.
* * * * *
_Jarrold and Sons, Printers, Norwich, Yarmouth and London._
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Transcriber’s note:
1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in
spelling.
2. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as
printed.