By this it will be seen that the wishes of the two ladies at Chavasse
Grange sometimes clashed. Lady Rachel, though perhaps regarded as second
in authority, was fond of having her own way, and took it when she
could. Lady Chavasse made a show of deferring to her generally; but
she had reigned queen so long that she found it irksome, not to say
humiliating, to yield the smallest point to her son's wife.
They were sitting down to breakfast when Sir Geoffry went in, in the
room that had once been the garden-parlour. It had been re-embellished
since those days, and made the breakfast-room. Lady Chavasse was but in
her forty-fourth year; a young woman, so to say, beautiful still, and
excellently-well preserved. She wore a handsome dress of green muslin,
with a dainty little cap of lace on her rich brown hair. Sir Geoffry's
wife was in white; she looked just the same as when she was Rachel
Derreston; her perfect features pale, and cold, and faultless.
Geoffry Chavasse laid a rose by the side of each as he sat down. _He_
was the only one changed; changed since the light-hearted days before
that episode of sin and care came to the Grange. It had soon passed away
again; but somehow it had left its mark on him. His face seemed to have
acquired a weary sort of look; and the fair bright hair was getting
somewhat thin upon the temples. Sir Geoffry was in Parliament; but he
had now paired off for the short remainder of the session. Sometimes
they were all in London: sometimes Sir Geoffry would be there alone; or
only with his wife: the Grange was their chief and usual home.
They began talking of their plans for the day. Sir Geoffry had to ride
over some portion of the estate; Lady Rachel thought she must write some
letters; Lady Chavasse, who said her head ached, intended to go out in
her new carriage.
It was ordered to the door in the course of the morning: this pretty toy
carriage, which had been a recent present from Geoffry to his mother.
Low and lightly built, it was something like a basket-chaise, but much
more elegant, and the boy-groom, in his natty postillion's dress, sat
the horse. Lady Chavasse, a light shawl thrown over her green muslin,
and a white bonnet on, stood admiring the turn-out, her maid, who had
come out with the parasol, by her side.
"Wilkins," said her ladyship, suddenly, "run and ask Lady Rachel whether
she is sure she would not like to go with me?"
The woman went and returned. "Lady Rachel's love and thanks, my lady,
but she would prefer to get her letters done."
So Lady Chavasse went alone, taking the road to Church Dykely. The
hedges were blooming with wild roses and woodbine, the sweet scent of
the hay filled the air, the sky was blue and cloudless. But the headache
was making itself sensibly felt; and my lady, remembering that she had
often had these headaches lately, began wondering whether Duffham the
surgeon could give her anything to cure them.
"Giles," she cried, leaning forward. And the groom turned and touched
his cap.
"My lady?"
"To Mr. Duffham's."
So in the middle of the village, at Mr. Duffham's door, Giles pulled up.
The surgeon, seeing who it was, came out, and handed his visitor
indoors.
Lady Chavasse had not enjoyed a gossip with Mr. Duffham since before her
last absence from home. She rather liked one in her coldly condescending
way. And she stayed with him in the surgery while he made up some
medicine for her, and told her all the village news. Then she began
talking about her daughter-in-law.
"Lady Rachel seems well, but there is a little fractiousness perceptible
now and then; and I fancy that, with some people, it denotes a state of
not perfect health. There are _no_ children, Mr. Duffham, you see. There
have been no signs of any."
"Time enough for that, my lady."
"Well--they have been married for--let me recollect--nearly fourteen
months. I do hope there will be children! I am anxious that there should
be."
The surgeon happened to meet her eyes as she spoke, and read the anxiety
seated in them.
"You see--if there were none, and anything happened to Sir Geoffry, it
would be the case of the old days--my case over again. Had my child
proved to be a girl, the Grange would have gone from us. You do not
remember that; you were not here; but your predecessor, Mr. Layne, knew
all about it."
Perhaps it was the first time for some three or more years past that
Lady Chavasse had voluntarily mentioned the name of Layne to the
surgeon. It might have been a slip of the tongue now.
"But nothing is likely to happen to Sir Geoffry, Lady Chavasse,"
observed Duffham, after an imperceptible pause. "He is young and
healthy."
"I know all that. Only it would be pleasant to feel we were on the safe
side--that there was a son to succeed. If anything did happen to him,
and he left no son, the Grange would pass away from us. I cannot help
looking to contingencies: it has been my way to do so all my life."
"Well, Lady Chavasse, I sincerely hope the son will come. Sir Geoffry is
anxious on the point, I dare say."
"He makes no sign of being so. Sir Geoffry seems to me to have grown a
little indifferent in manner of late, as to general interests. Yesterday
afternoon we were talking about making some improvements at the Grange,
he and I; Lady Rachel was indoors at the piano. I remarked that it would
cost a good deal of money, and the question was, whether it would be
worth while to do it. 'My successor would think it so, no doubt,' cried
Sir Geoffry. 'I hope that will never be Parker Chavasse; I should not
like him to reign here,' I said hastily. 'If it is, mother, I shall not
be alive to witness it,' was his unemotional answer."
"Lady Chavasse, considering the difference between the admiral's age and
Sir Geoffry's, I should say there are thirty chances against it," was
Duffham's reply, as he began to roll up the bottle of mixture in white
paper.
While he was doing this, a clapping of tiny hands attracted Lady
Chavasse's attention to the window, which stood open. A little boy had
run out of Mrs. Layne's door opposite, and stood on the pavement in
admiration of the carriage, which the groom was driving slowly about. It
was a pretty child of some three years old, or thereabouts, in a brown
holland pinafore strapped round the waist, his little arms and legs and
neck bare, and his light hair curling.
"Oh, g'andma, look! G'andma, come and look!" he cried--and the words
were wafted distinctly to Lady Chavasse.
"Who _is_ that child, Mr. Duffham? I have seen him sometimes before.
Stay, though, I remember--I think I have heard. He belongs to that
daughter of Mr. Layne's who married a soldier of the same name. A
lieutenant, or some grade of that kind, was he not?"
"Lieutenant Layne then: Captain Layne now," carelessly replied Mr.
Duffham. "Hopes to get his majority in time, no doubt."
"Oh, indeed. I sometimes wonder how people devoid of family connections
manage to obtain rapid promotion. The grandmother takes care of the
child, I suppose. Quite a charge for her."
Mr. Duffham, standing now by her side, glanced at Lady Chavasse. Her
countenance was open, unembarrassed: there was no sign of ulterior
thought upon it. Evidently a certain event of the past was not just then
in her remembrance.
"How is the old lady?" she asked.
"Middling. She breaks fast. I doubt, though, if one of her daughters
will not go before her."
Lady Chavasse turned quickly at the words.
"I speak of the one who is with her--Miss Elizabeth Layne," continued
Mr. Duffham, busily rolling up the bottle. "Her health is failing: I
think seriously; though she may linger for some time yet."
There was a pause. Lady Chavasse looked hard at the white knobs on
the drug-drawers. But that she began to speak, old Duffham might have
thought she was counting how many there were of them.
"The other one--Miss Mary Layne--is she still in that situation in
India? A governess, or something of the kind, we heard she went out to
be."
"Governess to Captain Layne's children. Oh yes, she's there. And likely
to be, the people over the way seem to say. Captain and Mrs. Layne
consider that they have a treasure in her."
"Oh, I make no doubt she would do her duty. Thank you; never mind
sealing it. I will be sure to attend to your directions, Mr. Duffham."
She swept out to the carriage, which had now drawn up, and stepped
over the low step into it. The surgeon put the bottle by her side, and
saluted her as she drove away. Across the road trotted the little fellow
in the pinafore.
"Did oo see dat booful tarriage, Mis'er Duffham? I'd like to 'ide in
it."
"You would, would you, Master Arthur," returned the surgeon, hoisting
the child for a moment on his shoulder, and then setting him on his feet
again, as Miss Layne appeared at the door. "Be off back: there's Aunt
Elizabeth looking angry. It's against the law, you know, sir, to run out
beyond the house."
And the little lad ran over at once, obediently.
Nearly three years back--not quite so much by two or three
months--Church Dykely was gratified by the intelligence that Captain
Layne's wife--then sojourning in Europe--was coming on a short visit
to her mother with her three or four weeks' old baby. Church Dykely
welcomed the news, for it was a sort of break to the monotonous,
jog-trot village life, and warmly received Mrs. Richard Layne and the
child on their arrival. The infant was born in France, where Mrs.
Richard Layne had been staying with one of her sisters--Mary--and
whence she had now come direct to her mother's; Mary having gone on to
Liverpool to join Mrs. Richard Layne's other children. The baby--made
much of by the neighbours--was to remain with old Mrs. Layne: Mrs.
Richard Layne did not deem it well to take so young a child to India, as
he seemed rather delicate. Church Dykely said how generous it was of her
to sacrifice her motherly feelings for the baby's good--but the Laynes
had always been unselfish. She departed, leaving the child. And Baby
Arthur, as all the place called him, lived and thrived, and was now
grown as fine a little fellow for his age as might be, with a generous
spirit and open heart. My Lady Chavasse (having temporarily forgotten
it when speaking with Mr. Duffham) had heard all about the child's
parentage just as the village had--that he was the son of Captain
Richard Layne and his wife Susan. Chavasse Grange generally understood
the same, including Sir Geoffry. There was no intercourse whatever
between the Layne family and the Grange; there had not been any since
Miss Mary Layne quitted it. My Lady Chavasse was in the habit of turning
away her eyes when she passed Mrs. Layne's house: and in good truth,
though perhaps her conscience reminded her of it at these moments, she
had three-parts forgotten the unpleasant episode of the past.
And the little boy grew and thrived: and became as much a feature
in Church Dykely as other features were--say the bridge over the
mill-stream, or the butcher's wife--and was no more thought of, in the
matter of speculation, than they were.
Miss Elizabeth Layne caught hold of the young truant's hand with a jerk
and a reprimand, telling him he would be run over some day. She had
occasion to tell it him rather often, for he was of a fearless nature.
Mr. Duffham nodded across the road to Miss Elizabeth.
"Are you better to-day?" he called out. People don't stand on ceremony
in these rural places.
"Not much, thank you," came the answer.
For Miss Elizabeth Layne had been anything but strong lately: her
symptoms being very like those that herald consumption.
* * * * *
The time rolled on, bringing its changes. You have already seen it
rolling on in Calcutta, for in this, the third part, we have had to go
back a year or two.
Elizabeth Layne died. Mrs. Layne grew very feeble, and it was thought
and said by every one that one of her daughters ought to be residing
with her. There was only one left unmarried--Mary. Mary received news in
India of this state of things at home, together with a summons from her
mother. Not at all a peremptory summons. Mrs. Layne wrote a few shaky
lines, praying her to come "if she would not mind returning to the
place:" if she did mind it, why, she, the mother, must die alone as she
best could. There was a short struggle in Mary Layne's heart; a quick,
sharp battle, and she gave in. Her duty to her mother lay before aught
else in God's sight; and she would yield to it. As soon as preparations
for her voyage could be made, she embarked for England.
It was autumn when she got home, and Church Dykely received her gladly.
Mary Layne had always been a favourite in the place, from the time her
father, the good-hearted, hard-working surgeon, had fondly shown her,
his youngest and fairest child, to the public, a baby of a few days old.
But Church Dykely found her greatly changed. They remembered her as a
blooming girl; she came back to them a grave woman, looking older than
her years, and with a pale sweet countenance that seemed never to have a
smile on it. She was only six-and-twenty yet.
Miss Layne took up her post at once by the side of her ailing mother.
What with attending her and attending to Baby Arthur--whom she took into
training at once, just as she had taken the children in India--she found
her time fully occupied. The boy, when she returned, was turned five.
She went out very rarely; never--except to church, or at dusk--when the
family were at the Grange, for she seemed to have a dread of meeting
them. Church Dykely wondered that Miss Layne did not call at the Grange,
considering that she had been humble companion there before she went
out, or that my lady did not come to see her; but supposed the lapse of
time had caused the acquaintanceship to fall through.
Mary had brought good news from India. Her sister Eleanor, Mrs. Allan
McAlpin, had a little girl, to the great delight of all concerned. Just
when they had given it up as hopeless, the capricious infant arrived.
Major Layne told his wife confidentially that Allan McAlpin was prouder
of that baby than any dog with two tails.
And henceforth this was to be Mary Layne's home, and this her
occupation--caring for her mother, so long as the old lady should be
spared, and gently leading to good the child, Arthur. Mrs. Layne,
lapsing into her dotage, would sit in her favourite place, the parlour
window, open when the weather allowed it, watching people as they
passed. Mary's smooth and bright brown hair might be seen in the
background, her head drooping over the book she was reading to Mrs.
Layne, or over her work when the old lady grew tired of listening, or
over Master Arthur's lessons at the table. Not only lessons to fit
him for this world did Mary teach him; but such as would stand him in
good aid when striving onwards for the next. Twice a day, morning and
evening, would she take the child alone, and talk to him of heaven, and
things pertaining to it. Aunt Elizabeth's lessons had been chiefly on
the score of behaviour: the other sort of instruction had been all
routine, at the best. Mary remedied this, and she had an apt little
scholar. Seated on her knee, his bright blue eyes turned up to her face,
the child would listen and talk, and say he would be a good boy always,
always. The tears wet his eyelashes at her Bible stories: he would put
his little face down on her bosom, and whisper out a sobbing wish that
Jesus would love _him_ as He had loved the little children on earth.
There is no safeguard like this seed sown in childhood: if withheld,
nothing can replace it in after-life.
They grew the best and greatest friends, these two. Whether Mary loved
him, or not, she did not say; she was ever patient and thoughtful with
him, with a kind of grave tenderness. But the child grew to love her
more than he had ever loved any one in his young life. One day, when
he did something wrong and saw how it grieved her, his repentant sobs
nearly choked him. It was very certain that Mary had found the way to
his heart, and might mould him for good or for ill.
The child was a chatterbox. Aunt Elizabeth used to say he ought to have
the tip of his tongue cut off. He seemed never tired of asking about
papa and mamma in India, and Allan and Bobby and the rest, and the
elephants and camels--and Dick the eldest, who was in London, at the
school attached to King's College.
"When will they come over to see us, Aunt Mary?" he questioned one day,
when he was on Mary's knee.
"If grandmamma's pretty well we, will have Dick down at Christmas."
"Is Dick to be a soldier like papa?"
"I think so."
"I shall be a soldier too."
There was an involuntary tightening of her hands round him--as if she
would guard him from _that_.
"I hope not, Arthur. One soldier in a family's enough: and that is to
be Richard."
"Is papa a very big, big brave man, with a flashing sword?"
"Major Layne is tall and very brave. He wears his sword sometimes."
"Oh, Aunt Mary, I should like to be a soldier and have a sword! When I
can write well enough I'll write a letter to papa to ask him. I'd like
to ride on the elephants."
"They are not as good to ride as horses."
"Is mamma as pretty as you?" demanded Master Arthur, after a pause.
"Prettier. I am pale and--" sad, she was going to say, but put another
word--"quiet."
"When you go back to India, Aunt Mary, shall you take me? I should like
to sail in the great ship."
"Arthur dear, I do not think I shall go back."
And so Miss Mary Layne--she was Miss Layne now--stayed on. Church Dykely
would see a slender, grave young lady, dressed generally in black silk,
whose sweet face seemed to have too careworn an expression for her
years. But if her countenance was worn and weary, her heart was not.
That seemed full of love and charity for all; of gentle compassion for
any wrong-doer, of sympathy for the sick and suffering. She grew to be
revered, and valued, and respected as few had ever been in Church
Dykely: certainly as none had, so young as she was. Baby Arthur,
clacking his whip as he went through the streets on his walks by the
nurse Betsy's side, his chattering tongue never still; now running into
the blacksmith's shed to watch the sparks; now perching himself on the
top of the village stocks; and now frightening Betsy out of her senses
by attempting to leap the brook--in spite of these outdoor attractions,
Baby Arthur was ever ready to run home to Aunt Mary, as though she were
his best treasure.
When Miss Layne had been about six months at her mother's, a piece of
munificent good fortune befel her--as conveyed to her in official and
unofficial communications from India. Andrew McAlpin--the head of the
great McAlpin house in Calcutta, who had respected Mary Layne above all
women, and had wished to marry her, as may be remembered--Andrew McAlpin
was dead, and had left some of his accumulated wealth to Mary. It would
amount to six hundred a-year, and was bequeathed to her absolutely: at
her own disposal to will away when she in turn should die. In addition
to this, he directed that the sum of one thousand pounds should be
paid to her at once. He also left a thousand pounds to Mrs. Richard
Layne--but that does not concern us. This good man's death brought great
grief to Mary. It had been the result of an accident: he lay ill only a
few weeks. As to the fortune--well, of course that was welcome, for Mary
had been casting many an anxious thought to the future on sundry scores,
and what little money she had been able to put by, out of the salary as
governess at Major Layne's, was now nearly exhausted. She thought she
knew why Mr. McAlpin had thus generously remembered her: and it was an
additional proof of the thoughtful goodness which had ever characterized
his life. Oh, if she could only have thanked him! if she had only known
it before he died! He had been in the habit of corresponding with her
since her return to Europe, for she and he had remained firm friends,
but the thought of ever benefiting by him in this way had never entered
her head. As how should it?--seeing that he was a strong man, and only
in the prime of life. She mourned his loss: she thought she could best
have spared any other friend; but all the regrets in the world would not
bring him back to life. He was gone. And Allan McAlpin was now sole head
of that wealthy house, besides inheriting a vast private fortune from
his brother. Eleanor McAlpin, once Eleanor Layne, might well wish for
more children amidst all her riches.
The first thing that Mary Layne did with some of this thousand
pounds--which had been conveyed to her simultaneously with the tidings
of the death--was to convey her mother to the seaside for a change,
together with Baby Arthur and the nurse, Betsy. Before quitting home
she held one or two interviews with James Spriggings, the house agent,
builder, and decorator, and left certain orders with him. On their
return, old Mrs. Layne did not know her house. It had been put into
substantial repair inside and out, and was now one of the prettiest, not
to say handsomest, in the village. All the old carpets were replaced by
handsome new ones, and a great deal of the furniture was new. Pillars
had been added to the rather small door, giving it an imposing
appearance, iron outside railings had taken the place of the old ones.
Mrs. Layne, I say, did not know her house again.
"My dear, why have you done it?" cried the old lady, looking about her
in amazement. "Is it not a waste of money?"
"I think not, mother," was the answer. "Most likely this will be my home
for life. Perhaps Arthur's home after me. At least it will be his until
he shall be of an age to go out in the world."
Mrs. Layne said no more. She had grown of late very indifferent to
outward things. Aged people do get so, and Mr. Duffham said her system
was breaking up. The seaside air had done her good; they had gone to it
in May, and came back in August. Mary added a third servant to the
household, and things went on as before in their quiet routine.
One afternoon in September, when they had been at home about a month,
Mary went out, and took Arthur. She was going to see a poor cottager who
had nursed herself, Mary, when she was a child, and who had recently
lost her husband. When they came to the gates of Chavasse Grange, past
which their road lay, Master Arthur made a dead standstill, and wholly
declined to proceed. The child was in a black velvet tunic, the tips of
his white drawers just discernible beneath it, and his legs bare, down
to the white socks: boys of his age were dressed so then. As bonny a lad
for his six years as could be seen anywhere, with a noble, fearless
bearing. Mary wore her usual black silk, a rich one too, with a little
crape on it; the mourning for Mr. McAlpin. Arthur was staring over the
way through the open gates of the Grange.
"I want to go in and see the peacock."
"Go in and see the peacock!" exclaimed Miss Layne, rather taken aback by
the demand. "What can you mean, Arthur? The peacock is up by the house."
"I know it is. We can go up there and see it, Aunt Mary."
"Indeed we cannot, Arthur. I never heard of such a thing."
"Betsy lets me go."
The confession involved all sorts of thoughts, and a flush crossed Miss
Layne's delicate face. The family were not at the Grange, as she knew:
they had gone up to London in January, when Parliament met, and had
never returned since: nevertheless she did not like to hear of this
intrusion into the grounds of the nurse and child. The peacock had been
a recent acquisition; or, as Arthur expressed it, had just "come to live
there." When he had talked of it at home, Mary supposed he had seen it
on the slopes in passing. These green slopes, dotted here and there with
shrubs and flowers, came down to the boundary wall that skirted the
highway. The avenue through the gates wound round abruptly, hiding
itself beyond the lodge.
"Come, my dear. It is already late."
"But, Aunt Mary, you _must_ see the peacock. He has got the most
splendid tail. Sometimes he drags it behind him on the grass, and
sometimes it's all spread out in a beautiful circle, like that fan you
brought home from India. Do come."
Miss Layne did not reply for the moment. She was inwardly debating upon
what plea she could forbid the child's ever going in again to see the
peacock: the interdiction would sound most arbitrary if she gave none.
All at once, as if by magic, the peacock appeared in view, strutting
down the slopes, its proud tail, in all its glory, spread out in the
rays of the declining sun.