NATURE SPEAKS
At the end of the gay season, when races were over, and multitudinous
parties had become a weariness to the flesh, a few people of the highest
fashion went on a yachting cruise, to recruit their strength after all
they had gone through. Of these Tony was one, and Lady Louisa, whom he
was expected to bring back as his affianced bride (she was a widow of
thirty-five), was another; and Maude Churchill (without her husband, and
bent on circumventing Lady Louisa) was a third. They were got up
elaborately in blue serge and white flannel and gold buttons, and the
smartest of straw hats and knotted neckties, and they set off on a hot
morning of late November, when the breeze was fair.
Mary Oxenham saw them start. She had refused to accompany them, partly
because she felt she was too quiet for such a party, and partly because
she wanted to return to her own household and children, whom she seldom
left for so long. As she bade the voyagers good-bye she said to her
brother, "What are you going to do at Christmas, Tony?"
"Stay with us--in his own father's house--of course," Mrs. Churchill
interposed promptly. "You can come down, Mary."
"I can't, Maude; I must be at home, as well as you. You won't come to me
for Christmas, Tony?"
"I don't think so, Polly--many thanks," he answered. "I expect my father
will want me here." The fact was, he had too many interests in Melbourne
to wish to leave at present.
"Well, come when you can, dear old fellow. I want to have you all to
myself, if it's only for a few days."
"I will, Polly, I will. Good-bye, and take care of yourself. Are you
really going away before we come back?"
"At the end of the week, Tony. I have been away too long--all your
fault, bad boy. Well, good-bye again. _Bon voyage_, everybody!"
The town clock was striking the quarter before noon when she re-entered
her carriage at Spencer Street, and it occurred to her to drive to the
tea-room, to see how Jenny was getting on. Like Tony, she had been
forgetting and deserting her _protegee_ during the bustle of the last
few weeks, and felt a twinge of self-reproach in consequence.
Entering the room, which fortunately chanced to have no customer at the
moment, she was surprised to see Jenny sitting, or rather lying, in one
of the low chairs, with her head laid back and her eyes closed, her
chest slowly rising and falling in heavy, dumb sobs--evident symptoms of
some sort of hysterical collapse. Sarah and her mother were hanging over
her in great alarm and distress, as at a spectacle they were wholly
unused to, Mrs. Liddon persuading her to drink some brandy and water
which the landlady had hastily produced.
"Oh, what is the matter?" cried Mrs. Oxenham, hurrying forward. "What
ails Jenny? Oh, poor child, how ill she looks!"
"She's just worn out," said Mrs. Liddon. "I've seen it coming on for
weeks, and nothing that I could say would make her take care of
herself. She _will_ come here and work when she's not fit to stand. We
wanted her to stay at home this morning, but no--she wouldn't listen to
us."
Jenny struggled to sit up and shake herself together. "Oh, mother, don't
scold me," she said. "It's just the heat, I think. It's nothing. I shall
be right in a moment I--I--oh, I _am_ a fool! Mrs. Oxenham, I am so
sorry--so ashamed----"
Her mother held the glass between her chattering teeth, and she drank a
little brandy and water, and choked, and burst out crying.
"Jenny," said Mrs. Oxenham, in a voice of authority, "you come away out
of this immediately. I have the carriage here, and I will drive you
home." In a flash she remembered that the mother and sister could not be
spared from the tea-room, that the girl should not be left alone in
lodgings, and that Maude and Tony were safely off to sea. "Home with me,
I mean," she continued. "I will send you back to your mother to-night,
when you are all right again. You can do quite well without her, can't
you"--turning to Mrs. Liddon--"now that you have Mrs. Allonby's help?"
Mrs. Allonby, who was the basket-maker's wife, volubly assured Mrs.
Oxenham that she could easily manage Miss Liddon's work now that the
crush of race time was over, and if she couldn't, there was her niece to
fall back upon. Mrs. Liddon and Sarah said the same as well as they
could, but were almost speechless with gratitude. Sarah did not know
that Mr. Anthony had sailed away, and she began to see visions and to
dream dreams of the most beautiful description. She had a shrewd idea as
to what Jenny's complaint arose from, though not a word had been
breathed on the subject, and this seemed the very medicine for it. She
ran to get her sister's hat and gloves, when they had composed her a
little, and would not regard any protests whatever.
"It is the very, _very_ thing to set her up," she cried, in exultation.
"And, oh, it _is_ good of you, Mrs. Oxenham!"
"Come, then," said that lady. "I will take care of her for the rest of
the day, and you see if I don't send her back to you looking better than
she does now. Quite a quiet day, Jenny dear; you need not look at your
dress--it is quite nice. There's nobody in the house but my father and
husband."
Before she had made up her mind whether to go or not, Jenny found
herself dashing through the streets in Mrs. Churchill's landau, having
been half-pushed, half-carried down the stairs and hoisted into it--she,
who had been the controlling spirit hitherto. Joey, on the way to his
dinner, saw her thus throned in state, and could scarcely believe his
eyes. "There's my sister having a drive with the boss's daughter," he
casually remarked to a couple of fellow-clerks, as if it were no new
thing; but the spectacle deeply impressed him. That day he patronised
the tea-room for the first time, to the delight of his adoring mother,
and began to identify himself with his family.
Jenny recovered self-possession in the air. She was agitated by the new
turn in her affairs--by the wonderful chance that had snatched her out
of the turmoil of her petty cares into the serene atmosphere of the
world of the well-to-do, who were untroubled by the necessity of earning
their bread, into the enchanted sphere where her beloved's life
revolved; but she no longer trembled and cried, like the weakly of her
sex, because her nerves were too many for her. Nothing more
discouraging than a discovery that the milk-jugs had not been washed by
Mrs. Allonby's niece, whose duty it now was to prepare them overnight,
had broken down the spirit that had withstood long wear and tear of
strenuous battle like finely-tempered steel; and a like trifling
encouragement was sufficient to lift it up again. The ease of the
carriage was delicious; the relief of having nothing to do unspeakable;
the sight of the beautiful gardens and stately rooms of the house that
entertained her as a guest and equal, more refreshing than either. The
day was such a holiday as the girl had never had before.
Mrs. Oxenham made her lie on a springy sofa for an hour, while they
quietly talked together; then they had a _tete-a-tete_ lunch--delicate
food and choice wine that comforted soul and body more than Jenny knew;
and again she was made to rest on downy pillows--to sleep, if she
could--while Mary in an adjoining room played Mendelssohn's _Lieder_,
one after another, with a touch like wind-borne feathers. By-and-by the
girl was shown about the house, made acquainted with precious pictures
and works of art brought together from all quarters of the world, such
as she had never seen or dreamed of; and great photographs, scattered
about in costly frames, were named to her as she moved in and out
amongst them.
"This is my husband, whom you have not seen--but he will be here to
dinner, and you needn't be at all afraid of him, for he is one of the
gentlest and dearest of men," said Mrs. Oxenham, taking up a mass of
_repousse_ silver that enshrined the image of a burly fellow with a
plain but honest face. "And this is my young stepmother, whom I think
you _have_ seen; she is in the dress she wore when she was presented at
Court. This is my brother--I have a little half-brother, the sweetest
baby, that we will have down to amuse us presently, but this is my only
_own_ brother; him, I think, you have also seen."
She passed on to others, and Jenny passed on with her; but presently,
while Mrs. Oxenham was writing a note, the girl returned to the table on
which stood the counterfeit presentment of her red-bearded hero, in
peaked cap and Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers and hob-nailed
boots--such a magnificent figure in that crowd of distinguished
nobodies! Looking up when she had finished her note, Mrs. Oxenham saw
her standing, rapt and motionless, with the heavy frame in her hands,
and was struck by the expression of her face and attitude.
"Good heavens!" she mentally exclaimed. "I do hope and trust that boy
has not been thoughtless!"
She remembered how she had found him in the tea-room, and his proneness
to amatory dalliance of a fleeting kind, inevitable in the case of a man
so handsome, and so much sought after by flirting women; and she had a
moment of grave uneasiness. Then she reflected upon Jenny's soberness of
nature and Tony's opportune departure with Lady Louisa, and was at ease
again.
Tea was served at five, and the children came down to be played with.
Then Mr. Churchill and Mr. Oxenham returned from their club to dinner,
and the latter was introduced to Jenny, and both did their part to put
her at ease and make her feel at home and happy. The old gentleman took
her in to dinner on his arm, and was concerned that she did not eat as
she should, and told her she wanted a change to the seaside, racking
his brains to think how he could manage to cozen her into accepting some
assistance that would make such a thing practicable. Soon after dinner
was over the hansom Mrs. Oxenham had ordered was announced, and the good
old fellow, bustling in from his wine, declared his intention of seeing
Miss Liddon home in person. He blamed Mary for sending her away so soon,
but Mary said it was better for her to go to bed early; and then Mr.
Churchill said he hoped Miss Liddon would soon come again--forgetting
that his daughter was on the point of leaving him, and that his young
wife would be little likely to endorse such an invitation.
Jenny left in a glow of inward happiness, and of gratitude that she
could not express, though she tried to do so. Mrs. Oxenham wrapped her
in a Chuddah shawl, and kissed her on the doorstep.
"Good-night, dear child," she said, quite tenderly. "Go straight to bed
and to sleep, and don't go to the tea-room to-morrow. I shall come and
see you early."
Having watched her charge depart in her father's care, this kind woman
returned to her husband, whom she found alone in the dining-room,
smoking, and reading the evening paper, with his coffee beside him.
"Harry, dear," she said, "I want to ask you something."
"Ask away," he returned affably.
"Would you have any objection to my having that girl to stay with me for
Christmas--that is, if she will come?"
He laid down his paper and thought about it. Though he was a Manchester
cotton man, he was no snob, or he would not have been Mary Churchill's
husband; but this was, as he would have termed it, a large order.
"Who else is coming?" he inquired.
"Nobody. That is, I have not asked anybody at present. I think I'd
rather we were quietly by ourselves. She's a lady, Harry, you can see it
for yourself. Her father was an Eton boy."
"Eh? You don't say so!" This was certainly a strong argument.
"And she is thoroughly out of health. I never saw a girl so
altered--shattered with hard work, poor little soul. I believe if she
doesn't get a long rest and a change that she will have a severe
illness, and then what would become of her mother and sister, and the
business she has managed so splendidly? Now that Cup time is over, it is
possible for them to do without her for awhile, and country air and good
feeding and a little looking after would set her up, I know. And I don't
see how else she is to get it. I am sure the children would like to have
her, Harry; and she is so modest and quiet that she would never be in
the way."
"What about Tony?" asked Mr. Oxenham.
"He is not coming. I asked him, but he said he couldn't leave town. He
is too much engaged with Lady Louisa, I suppose; and if she didn't keep
him, Maude would. Oh, if there was the slightest chance of Tony being at
Wandooyamba, of course I shouldn't ask Miss Liddon there."
"Well, my dear, I'm sure I don't care, one way or another. Do just what
you think best."
"You are quite sure you don't mind, Harry?"
"Not in the least. What's good enough for you is good enough for me,
and, personally, I think she's an awfully nice little thing."
"Then I shall go and settle it with her mother in the morning," said
Mrs. Oxenham, "and we will take her back with us."