E-text prepared by Al Haines
Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 20307-h.htm or 20307-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/3/0/20307/20307-h/20307-h.htm)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/3/0/20307/20307-h.zip)
KATE'S ORDEAL
by
EMMA LESLIE
[Frontispiece: William in the shop.]
The National Sunday School Union
57 & 59 Ludgate Hill, London, B.C. 4
Printed 1887
CONTENTS.
THE MESSAGE
DID SHE FORGET?
IN LONDON
THE LOST PURSE
A DISCLOSURE
AT THE THEATRE
CONCLUSION
ILLUSTRATIONS.
William in the shop . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
Miss Eldon's visit
KATE'S ORDEAL
CHAPTER I.
THE MESSAGE.
"Do you think Katie Haydon is pretty--I don't?" and the speaker glanced
at her own bright curls as she spoke.
"Well, I don't know whether she is exactly pretty, but she always looks
nice, and then she is so pleasant and merry, and----"
"And so vain and stuck-up," put in the first speaker again.
"Oh, how can you say so?" said another, a plain, quiet-looking girl,
who had not spoken before. "Mother says she would make such a nice
nurse-maid; so quiet and bright as she is, children would be sure to
take to her."
"Well, I don't know so much about that, Mary, but I know she has asked
teacher about a situation--her mother wants her to go into the nursery."
"My mother wants me to do the same," said quiet Mary Green, "but
although I have spoken to teacher I do not expect to hear of anything
until Katie is suited, for she asked first, and people are sure to
choose her in preference to me." This was said without the least touch
of envy or jealousy. Before anyone could reply to it, Katie herself
joined the group. "Are we not late?" she said, breathless with her run
to catch them before they reached the school. "I have some news for
you. What do you think--I am going to London!" she panted, fanning
herself with her pocket-handkerchief, and casting a triumphant glance
at Esther Odell, the girl who had called her proud and stuck-up.
Esther was always talking about going to London, and saying disparaging
things of going to service--servants were vulgar and despised and she
never would be a servant, though her mother and father both said she
ought to get a situation. This was how Esther had talked, and it gave
Kate Haydon no small pleasure to be able to come and tell her
schoolfellow that she was going to the wonderful city first.
"Is it settled, Katie?" asked Mary. "Have you got a situation--are you
going to service?"
Katie shook her head. "I am going to serve in a shop. My cousin has
got a nice place at a baker's and confectioner's, and they want
somebody to help her, and she has written to me about it."
"What a lucky girl you are!" exclaimed Esther, in a tone of envy. "It
does seem hard, too, for that is just the kind of situation I want, and
I daresay you would have been as well pleased if it had been in the
nursery."
"My mother would have liked it better, I do believe," laughed Katie,
"for she seems half afraid to let me go to London, and serve in a shop
too!"
"Here comes teacher!" said Mary Green, and the conversation was
dropped, as the girls hurried forward to meet the lady.
They went into school together, and in the bustle of getting their
seats, Miss Eldon whispered to Kate, "Will you ask your mother to come
and see me to-morrow morning, Kate?"
"Yes, ma'am," answered the girl, wondering not a little what her
teacher could want to see her mother about--quite forgetting the
request she had made to the lady a few weeks before. The lesson for
that Sunday afternoon was about the honour and dignity of work and
service, for the lady knew that some of her class had adopted the
foolish notions of Esther Odell, and did not fail to bring forward this
subject whenever she had the opportunity, pointing out how God had made
it necessary for all to work and serve their fellow-men. Then she went
on to speak of the word "angel," and how in its original sense it meant
servants, and how many a household servant was a veritable angel in the
family she served, and with what honour and love she was regarded by
every member of it.
Listening to her teacher, it suddenly occurred to Katie that it was
about the business of her becoming a household servant that her teacher
desired to see her mother and her thoughts instantly reverted to Esther
Odell and the pleasant prospect held out by her cousin's letter. Her
mother would be only too glad to hear of a situation nearer home for
her she knew, but Katie had made up her mind to go to London if she
possibly could, and so the more she thought of it the more vexed she
felt that her teacher should want to see her mother just now, but how
to prevent it she did not know.
The girls chatted about the lesson, and about the relative advantage of
going to service, or learning dress-making and machine-work, but Kate
took little part in the discussion to-day; and when they reached the
corner where she must leave them, she felt glad to get away, to think
out the problem she had been puzzling over all the afternoon. She had
not told any of her schoolfellows of the message she had been charged
to deliver to her mother, so no troublesome questions or surmises had
been propounded by them, and if she could only contrive to banish the
whole subject from her mind--forget it entirely, her future would be
settled before the next Sunday came round, for her cousin's letter must
be answered the next day, and the offer accepted or declined, and she
knew there were many reasons why her mother could not well decline it,
unless she had something else in view for her.
Mrs. Haydon was a widow, often ailing, and never strong enough to earn
her own living by hard work, but through the kindness of her
brother--himself not a wealthy man--a little business had been secured
for her, enough to keep her in comfort, and he had urged that Kate,
being young and strong, ought to get a situation.
But nothing had come in their way likely to suit Kate, until these
letters from London offering her a situation with her cousin. Her
uncle had written as well as her cousin, urging that if she had nothing
else in view, she had better accept this, as she might not have such a
chance again--a view of the matter that Kate fully endorsed. She was
most anxious to go to London, and to serve in a shop and be called a
"young lady" was so much better than going to service she thought.
But her mother shook her head rather gravely, when she ventured to say
something of this to her. "I am not so sure about that, my dear. I
was a servant myself for years before I married your poor father, and
was much more comfortable and happy, I know, than half the girls are
that set up to be 'young ladies' now; so that I hope you will never
despise service, Kate," her mother had said.
Kate recalled these words, and many others that her mother had spoken
lately upon the same subject, but now that it seemed as though the
choice lay in her own hands, they had little weight with her. These
notions were old-fashioned, she whispered to herself, nobody ever went
to service now if they could possibly obtain any other employment.
Even Esther Odell was going to learn dress-making, although there was a
large family to keep, and her father's wages barely sufficed to supply
all their wants; and thinking of Esther, made Katie decide to say
nothing to her mother about her teacher desiring to see her, for she
never could meet her schoolfellows' taunts and jeers about being a
servant, when she had the chance of being something better. As Kate
went into the little back room, behind the shop, where her mother was
sitting, she noticed the traces of tears on her face, and asked rather
anxiously if she was ill.
"No, my dear, I have only been thinking this matter over again, and I
cannot help feeling troubled about it."
"But why should you, mother?" and Kate stooped and kissed the pale
anxious face, and was about to whisper, "You may have your wish after
all, for teacher wants to see you to-morrow morning." But a footstep
was heard on the stairs, and she said, "Here comes Aunt Ellen;" and the
next minute the door opened, and Mrs. Haydon's sister entered the room.
"Oh, you have come in, Kate. I came down to see if your mother was
fretting still. It's very foolish of her, I think. Of course, we
never can have things just as we wish, and if you can't get a nice
respectable situation in a family, you ought to take your uncle's
offer."
"Yes, yes, she shall; I've made up my mind about it now, Ellen," said
the widow, hastily; while Kate turned to the window to hide her
tell-tale face.
"Well, I'm glad the matter is decided so far, for you were just making
yourself ill with the worry."
"I don't see why mother should worry so much about it," said Kate,
petulantly.
Her aunt looked at her for a minute in silence, and then said, "Well,
she cannot expect to keep you tied to her apron-string all your life.
Of course, if you could get a quiet place near home it would be
better;" for Aunt Ellen at that moment was asking herself the same
question that Esther Odell had asked her schoolfellows an hour or two
before, "Is Katie a pretty girl?" and all at once a doubt had crept
into her mind about the wisdom of sending her into the midst of unknown
temptations. But she put it down at once, seeing that her sister had
at last decided the matter. "Of course, Kate will be careful and
steady, and not make any chance acquaintances," she said, answering her
own thoughts.
"Yes, yes; it is not that I am afraid of her," said the widow, hastily.
"And Aunt Ellen will always be here to take care of you," said Kate.
"I would not think of going so far away, if you had to be left alone."
"Yes, yes, my dear; I was not thinking of myself at all in the matter,
although I shall miss you terribly, but--but--"
"There, suppose you get your mother a cup of tea as quickly as you can,
Kate, that is what she wants," interrupted Aunt Ellen; and Kate,
feeling very uncomfortable, went to take her things off and get tea
ready.
Mrs. Haydon was better after tea, and could talk more cheerfully of
Kate leaving home. She knew very little of London herself, except what
she had heard from her brother, and very little of her brother's
family. He had several grown-up sons and daughters, and his wife had
been dead some years. Beyond these bare facts, she knew very little
about them, so that Kate would be going among comparative strangers,
and it was this that had troubled the widow most.
"You shall write to your cousin to-morrow morning, Katie, and I will
write to your uncle, it will be better to settle this at once, I
suppose."
"Yes, mother, I am sure it will--not that I want to leave you, mother,
I shall miss you dreadfully, I know, but then I may never have such a
chance as this again."
"True, Kate; but still I cannot help wishing it was to some nice
nursery you were going instead of a shop."
"But then it is only a baker's shop, mother," said Kate.
"Yes, yes; but it's so far away from home; if you could come to me for
the Sundays, Kate, or if I knew anything of your cousin Marion, it
would be different--I should feel more easy about you."
"Oh, mother, why need you feel uneasy. Surely you do not think I
should do anything wicked?" exclaimed Kate.
"No, no, my child. I hope that which you have learned at Sunday school
will not be so easily forgotten. Kate, you must find out a Bible-class
as soon as you get there, even if your cousins do not go to Sunday
school."
"But I should think they did, mother. Marion is only a year or two
older than me, and Isabel younger, so that I should think they would
go."
"I don't know, my dear, I never heard that they went to a Sunday
school, but I hope they do for your sake. Katie dear, you must ask
that God will take care of you every moment, and pray as you never did
before, 'lead me not into temptation.'"
"Yes, mother," murmured Kate hanging down her head, and almost wishing
now that she had delivered her teacher's message; for how could she ask
God to keep her out of temptation, when she was taking the matter into
her own hands determined to have her own way at all costs?