MRS. STEWART'S LETTER.
"'Tis half against my judgment. Kindly fortune,
Send fair prosperity upon this venture!"
"It will be quite easy to find our rooms, mother," said Isobel. "We know
they're close to the beach, and there only seems to be one row of
lodging-houses down on the shore. I suppose that must be Marine Terrace,
for there isn't any other. What jolly sands! Can't you taste the salt on
your lips? I feel as if I shall just want to be by the sea all the
time."
"I hope it will do you good, dear," said her mother. "I declare you look
better already. I shall expect you to grow quite rosy before we go home
again, and to have ever such a big appetite."
"I'm hungry now," replied Isobel. "I hope Mrs. Jackson will bring in tea
directly we arrive. I mean to ask her first thing if she knows Mr.
Binks. Wasn't it nice of him to let me sit by the window? Do you think
we shall be taking a walk to the 'balk'? I don't know in the least what
a 'balk' is, but I suppose we shall find out. I should like immensely to
go to his farm."
"I dare say we might call there some afternoon. He seemed a kind old
man, and I believe he really meant what he said, and would be pleased to
see you."
"Weren't the people in the carriage funny, mother? How tiresome that
pierrot was with his banjo, and the poor baby that wouldn't stop crying!
I was so glad the little girl in the blue hat didn't miss the train.
Isn't she lovely?"
"She's rather pretty," said Mrs. Stewart; "but I couldn't see her very
well--she was sitting on my side, you remember."
"I think she's perfectly beautiful!" declared Isobel, with
enthusiasm--"just like one of those expensive French dolls at the
stores. Did you see them drive away in the landau? I wonder where
they're staying, and if we shall ever meet them again?"
"Perhaps you may see her walking on the beach, or in church," suggested
Mrs. Stewart.
"I hope I shall. I wonder what her name is. Do you think she'd mind if I
were to ask her?"
"Perhaps her mother might not like it," replied Mrs. Stewart. "I'm
afraid it would hardly be polite."
"But I do so want to get to know her. I haven't any friends here, you
see, and I think she looks so nice."
"I'm sorry, dear, but I shouldn't care for you to try to scrape an
acquaintance with these people. We shall manage to have a very happy
time together, hunting for shells and sea-weeds. You must take me for a
friend instead."
"You're better than any friend!" said Isobel, squeezing her mother's
hand. "Of course I like being with you best, sweetest; only sometimes,
when you're reading or lying down, it _is_ nice to have somebody to talk
to. I won't ask her her name if you say I'd better not; but I hope I
shall see her again, if it's only just to look at her. Why, this is the
house--there's No. 4 over the doorway; and that must be Mrs. Jackson
standing in the front garden looking out for us. I think she ought to be
Mr. Binks's cousin; she's as fat and red in the face as he is."
"The place is very full, mum," said Mrs. Jackson, showing them to the
little back sitting-room, which, at August prices, was all Mrs. Stewart
had been able to afford. "I had three parties in yesterday askin' for
rooms, and could have let this small parlour twice over for double the
money but what I'd promised it to you. Not as I wanted to take 'em,
though, for they was all noisy lots as would have needed a deal of
waitin' on. I'd rather have quiet visitors like you and the young lady
here, as isn't always a-ringin' their bells and playin' on the pianer
till midnight, though I may be the loser by it. I'm short-handed now my
daughter Emma Jane's married, and not so quick at gettin' up and down
stairs as I used to be."
"I don't think you'll find we shall give more trouble than we can help,"
said Mrs. Stewart gently. "We seldom require much waiting on, and we
hope to be out most of the day."
"I'm only too glad to do all I can, mum, to make folks feel home-like,"
declared Mrs. Jackson, showing the capacities of the cupboard, and
calling attention to the superior comfort of the armchairs. "And if
there's anything else you'd like, I hope as you'll mention it. I'm a
little short in my breath, and a bit lame in my right leg, bein'
troubled with rheumatics in the winter, but I do my best to please, and
so does Polly (she's my niece), though she's a girl with no head, and
can't remember a thing for two minutes on end."
"I'm sure you'll make us comfortable," said Mrs. Stewart, "and we hope
to have a very happy time indeed at Silversands. We should be glad if
you could bring in tea now; we're both very hot and thirsty after our
long journey."
"That you will be, I'm sure, mum," returned Mrs. Jackson. "We've not had
a hotter day this summer. Little missy looks fair tired out. But there's
nought like a cup of tea to refresh one, and I'll have it up in a few
minutes; the kettle's ready and boilin'."
"The room feels rather stuffy," said Mrs. Stewart, throwing open the
window when her landlady had departed to the kitchen regions. "I'm sorry
we have no view of the sea; but we can't help that, and we must be out
of doors the whole day long. Luckily the weather is gloriously fine, and
seems likely to keep so."
"What queer ornaments, mother!" said Isobel, going slowly round the room
and examining with much curiosity two stuffed cocks, a glass bottle
containing a model of a ship with full sail and rigging, a case of
somewhat moth-eaten and dilapidated butterflies, a representation of
Windsor Castle cut out in cork, some sickly portraits of the Royal
Family in cheap German gilt frames, and a large Berlin wool-work
sampler, which, in addition to the alphabet and a verse of a hymn,
depicted birds of paradise at the top and weeping willows at the
bottom, and set forth that it was the work of Eliza Jane Horrocks, aged
ten years.
"I think we shan't need quite so many crochet antimacassars," laughed
Mrs. Stewart. "There seems to be one on every chair, and there are
actually five on the sofa. We must ask Mrs. Jackson to take some of them
away. We would rather be without all these shell baskets and photo
frames on the little table, too. If we moved it into the window it would
be very nice for painting or writing if it should happen to be a wet
day."
"I hope it won't be wet," said Isobel. "At any rate, there are some
books to read if it is," turning over a row of volumes which reposed on
the top of the chiffonnier. "I've never seen such peculiar pictures. The
little girls have white trousers right down to their ankles, and the
boys have deep frilled collars and quite long hair."
"They are very old-fashioned books," said Mrs. Stewart, examining with a
smile "The Youth's Moral Miscellany," "The Maiden's Garland," "A
Looking-Glass for the Mind," and "Instructive Stories for Young People,"
which, with a well-thumbed edition of "Sandford and Merton," a battered
copy of "The History of the Fairchild Family," and a few bound volumes
of _Chambers's Journal_, made up the extent of the library. "I should
think they must have belonged to Mrs. Jackson's mother or grandmother
for this one has the date 1820 written inside it."
"Of course they don't look so nice as my books at home," said Isobel;
"but they'd be something new."
"You're such a greedy reader that no doubt you will get through them,
however dry they may prove," laughed her mother. "Here comes our tea. We
shall enjoy new-laid eggs and fresh country butter, shan't we?"
"I wonder if they're from Mr. Binks's farm," said Isobel, seating
herself at the table.--"Do you know Mr. Binks, Mrs. Jackson? He said I
was to ask you, and he was sure you wouldn't deny the acquaintance."
"Know Peter Binks, miss!" exclaimed Mrs. Jackson. "Why, there isn't a
soul in Silversands as doesn't know him. Binks has lived at the White
Coppice ever since I was a girl, and afore then, and him church-warden
too, and owner of the _Britannia_, as good a schooner as any about. His
wife's second cousin is married to my daughter, and livin' at Ferndale.
Know him! I should just say I do!"
"I thought you would!" said Isobel delightedly. "We met him in the train
as we were coming. He gave me his seat by the window, and asked us to
go to his farm some day. You'll be able to tell us the way, won't you?"
"Another time, dear child," said Mrs. Stewart "Mrs. Jackson's busy now,
and our tea is waiting.--Thank you; yes, I think we have everything we
need at present. Polly might bring a little boiling water in a few
minutes, and we will ring the bell if we require anything more.--Come,
Isobel, you said you were hungry!"
"A nice-spoken lady," said Mrs. Jackson afterwards to her husband in the
privacy of the kitchen. "Any one could see with half an eye as they was
gentlefolk, though they've only taken the back room. I wonder, now, if
they can be any relation to old Mr. Stewart at the Chase. They did say
as the son--him as was killed in the war--had married somewhere in
furrin parts, and his father was terrible set against it, havin' a wife
of his own choosin' ready for him at home. A regular family quarrel it
was, and both too proud to make it up; but they said the old man was
nigh heartbroken when his son was taken, and he'd never sent him a kind
word. I had it all from Peter Binks's nephew, who was under-gardener
there at the time."
"It might be," said Mr. Jackson oracularly, taking a pinch of snuff as
he spoke, "and, on the other hand, it might not be. Stewart's by no
means an uncommon kind of a name. There was a Stewart second mate on the
_Arizona_ when we took kippers over to Belfast, and there was a chap
called Stewart as used to keep a snug little public down by the quay in
Whitecastle, but I never heard tell as either of 'em was any connection
of old Mr. Stewart up at the Chase."
"It weren't likely they should be," replied Mrs. Jackson, with scorn.
"But that don't make it any less likely in this case. I remember Mr.
Godfrey quite well when we lived at Linkhead, and I'd used to walk over
with Emma Jane to Heatherton Church of a Sunday afternoon. A fine
handsome young fellow he was, too, sittin' with his father in the family
pew, takin' a yawn behind his hand durin' the sermon, and small blame to
him too--old Canon Martindale used to preach that long! I can see him
now, if I close my eyes, with his light hair shinin' against the red
curtain of the big square pew. Little missy has quite a look of him, to
my mind."
"You're always imaginin' romances, Eliza," said Mr. Jackson. "It comes
of too much readin'. You and Polly sit over them stories in _The Family
Herald_ till you make up goodness knows what tales about every new party
as comes to the house. There was the young man with the long hair as
played the fiddle, whom you was sure was a furrin count, and who only
turned out to be one of the band at Ferndale, and went off without
payin' his bill; and there was a couple in the drawing-room as talked
that grand about their motor car and their shootin' box and important
business till you thought it was a member of Parliament and his lady,
takin' a rest and travellin' incog., till you found out they was only
wine merchants from Whitecastle after all. Don't you go a-meddlin'. Let
them manage their own affairs, and we'll manage ours."
"How you talk!" declared Mrs. Jackson indignantly. "Who wants to
meddle? As if one couldn't take a bit of interest in one's own visitors!
There's the drawin'-room a-ringin', and the dinin'-room will be wantin'
its tea. Stir the fire, Joe, and hold the toast whilst I answer the
bell. Where's that Polly a-gone to, I wonder?"
In spite of her husband's disdainful comments, Mrs. Jackson's surmises
were not altogether groundless; and if she had peeped into her back
sitting-room that evening, when Isobel was in bed, she might have seen
her visitor slowly and with much care and thought composing a letter.
Sheet after sheet of notepaper was covered, and then torn up, for the
writer's efforts did not seem to satisfy her, and she leaned her head on
her hand every now and then with a weary air, as if she had undertaken a
distasteful task.
"I do not ask anything for myself," wrote Mrs. Stewart at last. "That
you should care to meet me, or ever become reconciled to me, is, I know,
beyond all question. My one request is that you will see your
grandchild. She is now nearly eleven years of age, a thorough Stewart,
tall and fair, and with so strong a resemblance to her father that you
cannot fail to see the likeness. I have done my utmost for her, but I am
not able to give her the advantages I should wish her to have, and
which, as her father's child, I feel it is hard for her to lack. She is
named Isobel, after your only daughter, the little sister whose loss my
husband always spoke of with so much regret, and whom he hoped she might
resemble. You would find her truthful, straightforward, obedient, and
well-behaved, and in every respect worthy of the name of Stewart. It is
with the greatest difficulty that I bring myself to ask of you any
favour, but for the sake of the one, dear to us both, who is gone, I beg
that you will at least see my Isobel, and judge her for yourself."
She addressed the letter to Colonel Stewart, the Chase, sealed it,
stamped it, and took it herself to the post. For a moment she stood and
hesitated--a moment in which she seemed almost inclined to draw back
after all; she turned the letter over doubtfully in her hand, went a
step away, then suddenly straightening herself with an air of firm
determination, she dropped it into the pillar-box and returned to her
lodgings. Going upstairs to the bedroom, she tenderly lifted the soft
golden hair, and looked at the quiet, sleeping face of her little girl.
"He cannot fail to like her," she said to herself. "It was the only
right thing to do, and what _he_ would have wished. I'm glad I have had
the courage to make the attempt. He will surely acknowledge her now, and
my one prayer is that he will not take her away from me."