(PRIMROSE.)
‘MY DEAR MAMMA--I wish you a merry Christmas, and papa and sisters and
Claude too. I only hooped once to-day, and Nurse says I may go out when
it gets fine. Fly is better. She sent me her dolls’ house in a big box
in a cart, and Mysie sent a new frock of her own making for Liliana,
and Uncle William gave me a lovely doll, with waxen arms and legs, that
shuts her eyes and squeals, and says Mamma; but I do not want anything
but my own dear mamma, and all the rest. I am mamma’s own little
PRIMROSE.’
(FERGUS.)
‘COALHAM.
‘MY DEAR MAMMA--I wish you and papa, and all, a happy Crismas, and I
send a plan of the great coal mine for a card. It is much jollier here
than at Rockquay, for it is all black with cinders, and there are little
fires all night, and there are lots of oars and oxhide and fossils and
ferns and real curiozitys, and nobody minds noises nor muddy boots, and
they aren’t at one to wash your hands, for they can’t be clean ever; and
there was a real row in the street last night just outside. We are to
go down a mine some day when Cousin David has time. I mean to be a great
jeologist and get lots of specimens, and please bring me home all the
minerals in Ceylon. Harry gave me a hammer.--I am, your affectionate
son, FERGUS MERRIFIELD.’
(VALETTA.)
‘MY DEAREST MAMMA--I hope you will like my card. Aunt Ada did none of
it, only showed me how, and Aunt Jane says I may tell you I am really
trying to be good. I am helping her gild fir-cones for a Christmas-tree
for the quire, and they will sing carols. Macrae brought some for us the
day before yesterday, and a famous lot of holly and ivy and mistletoe
and flowers, and three turkeys and some hams and pheasants and
partridges. Aunt Jane sent the biggest turkey and ham in a basket
covered up with holly to Mrs. White, and another to Mrs. Hablot, and
they are doing the church with the holly and ivy. We are to eat the
other the day after to-morrow, and Mr. Grant and Miss Burne, who teaches
the youngest form, are coming. It was only cold beef to-day, to let Mrs.
Mount go to church; but we had mince pies, and I am going to Kitty’s
Christmas party to-morrow, and we shall dance--so Aunt Ada has given
me a new white frock and a lovely Roman sash of her own. Poor old Mrs.
Vincent is dead, and Fergus’s great black rabbit, and poor little Mary
Brown with dip--(blot). I can’t spell it, and nobody is here to tell me
how, but the thing in people’s throats, and poor Anne has got it, and
Dr. Ellis says it was a mercy we were all away from home, for we should
have had it too, and that would have been ever so much worse than the
whooping-cough.
‘I have lots of cards, but my presents are waiting for my birthday, when
Maura is to come to tea. It is much nicer than I thought the holidays
would be. Maura White has got the prize for French and Latin. It is a
lovely Shakespeare. I wish I had been good, for I think I should have
got it. Only she does want more help than I do--so perhaps it is lucky
I did not. No, I don’t mean lucky either.--
Your affectionate little daughter,
VAL.’
(WILFRED.)
‘DEAR MOTHER--Fergus is such a little ape that he will send you that
disgusting coal mine on his card, as if you would care for it. I know
you will like mine much better--that old buffer skating into a hole
in the ice. I don’t mind being here, for though Harry and Davy get up
frightfully early to go to church, they don’t want us down till they
come back, and we can have fun all day, except when Harry screws me down
to my holiday task, which is a disgusting one, about the Wars of the
Roses. Harry does look so rum now that he is got up for a parson that we
did not know him when he met us at the station. There was an awful row
outside here last night between two sets of Waits. David went out and
parted them, and I thought he would have got a black eye. All the choir
had supper here, for there was a service in the middle of the night; but
they did not want us at it, and on Tuesday we are to have a Christmas
ship, and a magic-lantern, and Rollo and Mr. Bowater are coming to
help--he is the clergyman at the next place--and no end of fun, and the
biggest dog you ever saw. Fergus has got one of his crazes worse than
ever about old stones, and is always in the coal hole, poking after
ferns and things. Wishing you a merry Christmas.--Your affectionate son,
‘WILFRED MERRIFIELD.’
(MYSIE.)
‘ROTHERWOOD, Christmas Day.
‘MY OWN DEAREST MAMMA--A very happy Christmas to you, and papa and
Claude and my sisters, and here are the cards, which Miss Elbury helped
me about so kindly that I think they are better than usual: I mean that
she advised me, for no one touched them but myself. You will like your
text, I hope, I chose it because it is so nice to think we are all one,
though we are in so many different places. I did one with the same for
poor Dolores in New Zealand. Uncle William was here yesterday, and
he said dear little Primrose is almost quite well. Fly is much better
to-day; her eyes look quite bright, and she is to sit up a little while
in the afternoon, but I may not talk to her for fear of making her
cough; but she slept all night without one whoop, and will soon be well
now. Cousin Rotherwood was so glad that he was quite funny this morning,
and he gave me the loveliest writing-case you ever saw, with a good lock
and gold key, and gold tops to everything, and my three M’s engraved on
them all. I have so many presents and cards that I will write out a
list when I have finished my letter. I shall have plenty of time, for
everybody is gone to church except Cousin Florence, who went early.
‘I am to dine at the late dinner, which will be early, because of the
church singers, and Cousin Rotherwood says he and I will do snapdragon,
if I will promise not to whoop.
‘4.30.--I had to stop again because of the doctor. He says he does not
want to have any more to do with me, and that I may go out the first
fine day, and that Fly is much better. And only think! He says Rockquay
is the very place for Fly, and as soon as we are not catching, we are
all to go there. Cousin Rotherwood told me so for a great secret, but
he said I might tell you, and that he would ask Aunt Alethea to let
Primrose come too. It does warm one up to think of it, and it is much
easier to feel thankful and glad about all the rest of the right sort of
Christmas happiness, now I am so near having Gill and Val again.--Your
very loving child,
M. M. MERRIFIELD.’
(JASPER.)
‘VALE LESTON PRIORY,
‘25th December.
‘DEAREST MOTHER--Here are my Christmas wishes that we may all be right
again at home this year, and that you could see the brace of pheasants I
killed. However, Gill and I are in uncommonly nice quarters. I shall let
her tell the long story about who is who, for there is such a swarm of
cousins, and uncles, and aunts, and when you think you have hold of
the right one, it turns out to be the other lot. There are three houses
choke full of them, and more floating about, and all running in and out,
till it gets like the little pig that could not be counted, it ran about
so fast. They are all Underwood or Harewood, more or less, except the
Vanderkists, who are all girls except a little fellow in knickerbockers.
Poor little chap, his father was a great man on the turf, and ruined
him horse and foot before he was born, and then died of D. T., and
his mother is a great invalid, and very badly off, with no end of
daughters--the most stunning girls you ever saw--real beauties, and no
mistake, especially Emily, who is great fun besides. She is to be
Helena when we act Midsummer Night’s Dream on Twelfth Night for all the
natives, and I am Demetrius, dirty cad that he is! She lives with the
Grinsteads, and Anna with the Travis Underwoods, Phyllis’s young man’s
bosses. If he makes as good a thing of it as they have done, she will be
no end of a swell. Mr. Travis Underwood has brought down his hunters
and gives me a mount. Claude would go stark staring mad to see his
Campeador.
‘They are awfully musical here, and are always at carols or something,
and that’s the only thing against them. As to Gill, she is in clover,
in raptures with every one, especially Mrs. Grinstead, and I think it is
doing her good.--Your affectionate son, J. R. M.’
(GILLIAN.)
‘DEAREST MAMMA--All Christmas love, and a message to Phyllis that I
almost forgive her desertion for the sake of the set of connections
she has brought us, like the nearest and dearest relations or more, but
Geraldine--for so she told me to call her--is still the choicest of all.
It is so pretty to see her husband--the great sculptor--wait on her, as
if she was a queen and he her knight! Anna told me that he had been
in love with her ever so long, and she refused him once; but after
the eldest brother died, and she was living at St. Wulstan’s, he tried
again, and she could not hold out. I told you of her charming house, so
full of lovely things, and about Gerald, all cleverness and spirit,
but too delicate for a public school. He is such a contrast to Edward
Harewood, a great sturdy, red-haired fellow, who is always about with
Jasper, except when he--Japs, I mean--is with Emily Vanderkist. She is
the prettiest of the Vanderkists. There are eight of them besides little
Sir Adrian. Mary always stays to look after her mother, who is in very
bad health, and has weak eyes. They call Mary invaluable and so very
good, but she is like a homely little Dutchwoman, and nobody would think
she was only twenty. Sophy, the next to her, calls herself pupil-teacher
to Mrs. William Harewood, and together they manage the schoolroom
for all the younger sisters the two little girls at the Vicarage, and
Wilmet, the only girl here at the Priory; but, of course, no lessons
are going on now, only learning and rehearsing the parts, and making the
dresses, painting the scenes, and learning songs. They all do care so
much about music here that I find I really know hardly anything about
it, and Jasper says it is their only failing.
‘They say Mr. Lancelot Underwood sings and plays better than any of
them; but he is at Stoneborough. However, he is coming over with all
the Mays for our play, old Dr. May and all. I was very much surprised
to find he was an organist and a bookseller, but Geraldine told me about
it, and how it was for the sake of the eldest brother--“my brother,”
they all say; and somehow it seems as if the house was still his, though
it is so many years since he died. And yet they are all such happy,
merry people. I wish I could let you know how delightful it all is.
Sometimes I feel as if I did not deserve to have such a pleasant time.
I can’t quite explain, but to be with Geraldine Grinstead makes one feel
one’s self to be of a ruder, more selfish mould, and I know I have not
been all I ought to be at Rockstone; but I don’t mind telling you, now
you are so soon to be at home, Aunt Jane seems to worry me--I can’t tell
how, exactly--while there is something about Geraldine that soothes and
brightens, and all the time makes one long to be better.
‘I never heard such sermons as Mr. Harewood’s either; it seems as if I
had never listened before, but these go right down into one. I cannot
leave off thinking about the one last Sunday, about “making manifest the
counsels of all hearts.” I see now that I was not as much justified in
not consulting Aunt Jane about Kalliope and Alexis as I thought I was,
and that the concealment was wrong. It came over me before the beautiful
early Celebration this morning, and I could not feel as if I ought to
be there till I had made a resolution to tell her all about it, though I
should like it not to be till you are come home, and can tell her that
I am not really like Dolores, as she will be sure to think me, for I
really did it, not out of silliness and opposition, but because I knew
how good they were, and I did tell you. Honestly, perhaps there was some
opposition in the spirit of it; but I mean to make a fresh start when I
come back, and you will be near at hand then, and that will help me.
‘26th.--The afternoon service of song began and I was called off. I
never heard anything so lovely, and we had a delightful evening. I
can’t tell you about it now, for I am snatching a moment when I am not
rehearsing, as this must go to-day. Dr. and Miss May, and the Lances,
as they call them, are just come. The Doctor is a beautiful old man. All
the children were round him directly, and he kissed me, and said that he
was proud to meet the daughter of such a distinguished man.
‘This must go.--Your loving daughter,
‘JULIANA MERRIFIELD.’
(HARRY.)
‘COALHAM, Christmas Day.
‘It is nearly St. Stephen’s Day, for, dear mother, I have not had a
minute before to send you or my father my Christmas greeting. We have
had most joyous services, unusually well attended, David tells me, and
that makes up for the demonstration we had outside the door last night.
David is the right fellow for this place, though we are disapproved of
as south country folk. The boys are well and amused, Wilfred much more
comfortable for being treated more as a man, and Fergus greatly come
on, and never any trouble, being always dead-set on some pursuit. It is
geology, or rather mineralogy, at present, and if he carries home all
the stones he has accumulated in the back yard, he will have a tolerable
charge for extra luggage. David says there is the making of a great
man in him, I think it is of an Uncle Maurice. Macrae writes to me in
a state of despair about the drains at Silverfold; scarlet fever and
diphtheria abound at the town, so that he says you cannot come back
there till something has been done, and he wants me to come and look at
them; but I do not see how I can leave David at present, as we are in
the thick of classes for Baptism and Confirmation in Lent, and I suspect
Aunt Jane knows more about the matter than I do.
‘Gillian and Jasper seem to be in a state of great felicity at Vale
Leston--and Mysie getting better, but poor little Phyllis Devereux has
been seriously ill.--Your affectionate son, H. MERRIFIELD.’
(AUNT JANE AND AUNT ADELINE.)
‘11.30, Christmas Eve.
‘MY DEAREST LILY--This will be a joint letter, for Ada will finish it
to-morrow, and I must make the most of my time while waiting for the
Waits to dwell on unsavoury business. Macrae came over here with a
convoy of all sorts of “delicacies of the season,” for which thank you
heartily in the name of Whites, Hablots, and others who partook thereof,
according, no doubt, to your kind intention. He was greatly perturbed,
poor man, for your cook has been very ill with diphtheria, and the
scarlet fever is severe all round; there have been some deaths, and the
gardener’s child was in great danger. The doctor has analysed the water,
and finds it in a very bad state, so that your absence this autumn is
providential. If you are in haste, telegraph to me, and I will meet your
landlord there, and the sanitary inspector, and see what can be done,
without waiting for Jasper. At any rate, you cannot go back there at
once. Shall I secure a furnished house for you here? The Rotherwoods are
coming to the hotel next door to us, as soon as Phyllis is fit to move
and infection over. Victoria will stay there with the children, and
he go back and forwards. If Harry and Phyllis May should come home, I
suppose their headquarters will be at Stoneborough; but still this would
be the best place for a family gathering. Moreover, Fergus gets on very
nicely at Mrs. Edgar’s, and it would be a pity to disturb him. On the
other hand, I am not sure of the influences of the place upon the--
‘Christmas Day, 3 P.M.--There came the Waits I suppose, and Jane had to
stop and leave me to take up the thread. Poor dear Jenny, the festival
days are no days of rest to her, but I am not sure that she would enjoy
repose, or that it would not be the worse possible penance to her. She
is gone down now to the workhouse with Valetta to take cards and tea
and tobacco to the old people, not sending them, because she says a few
personal wishes and the sight of a bright child will be worth something
to the old bodies. Then comes tea for the choir-boys, before Evensong
and carols, and after that my turn may come for what remains of the
evening. I must say the church is lovely, thanks to your arums and
camellias, which Macrae brought us just in time. It is very unfortunate
that Silverfold should be in such a state, but delightful for us if it
sends you here; and this brings me to Jenny’s broken thread, which I
must spin on, though I tell her to take warning by you, when you so
repented having brought Maurice home by premature wails about Dolores.
Perhaps impatience is a danger to all of us, and I believe there is such
a thing as over-candour.
‘What Jane was going to say was that she did not think the place had
been good for either of the girls; but all that would be obviated by
your presence. If poor Miss Vincent joins you, now that she is free, you
would have your own schoolroom again, and the locality would not make
much difference. Indeed, if the Rotherwood party come by the end of the
holidays, I have very little doubt that Victoria will allow Valetta to
join Phyllis and Mysie in the schoolroom, and that would prevent any
talk about her removal from the High School. The poor little thing has
behaved as well as possible ever since, and is an excellent companion;
Jane is sure that it has been a lesson that will last her for life, and
I am convinced that she was under an influence that you can put an end
to--I mean that White family. Jane thinks well of the eldest daughter,
in spite of her fringe and of her refusal to enter the G.F.S.; but I
have good reason for knowing that she holds assignations in Mr. White’s
garden on Sunday afternoons with young Stebbing, whose mother knows her
to be a most artful and dangerous girl, though she is so clever at
the mosaic work that there is no getting her discharged. Mrs. Stebbing
called to warn us against her, and, as I was the only person at home,
told me how she had learnt from Mr. White’s housekeeper that this girl
comes every Sunday alone to walk in the gardens--she was sure it must be
to meet somebody, and they are quite accessible to an active young man
on the side towards the sea. He is going in a few days to join the other
partner at the Italian quarries, greatly in order that the connection
may be broken off. It is very odd that Jane, generally so acute, should
be so blind here. All she said was, “That’s just the time Gillian is so
bent on mooning in the garden.” It is a mere absurdity; Gillian always
goes to the children’s service, and besides, she was absent last Sunday,
when Miss White was certainly there. But Gillian lends the girl books,
and altogether patronises her in a manner which is somewhat perplexing
to us; though, as it cannot last long, Jane thinks it better not to
interfere before your return to judge for yourself. These young people
are members of the Kennel Church congregation, and I had an opportunity
of talking to Mr. Flight about them. He says he had a high opinion of
the brother, and hoped to help him to some higher education, with a view
perhaps to Holy Orders; but that it was so clearly the youth’s duty to
support his mother, and it was so impossible for her to get on without
his earnings, that he (Mr. Flight, I mean) had decided to let him alone
that his stability might be proved, or till some opening offered; and
of late there had been reason for disappointment, tokens of being
unsettled, and reports of meetings with some young woman at his sister’s
office. It is always the way when one tries to be interested in those
half-and-half people,--the essential vulgarity is sure to break out,
generally in the spirit of flirtation conducted in an underhand manner.
And oh! that mother! I write all this because you had better be aware
of the state of things before your return. I am afraid, however, that
between us we have not written you a very cheering Christmas letter.
‘There is a great question about a supply of water to the town. Much
excitement is caused by the expectation of Rotherwood’s visit, and it is
even said that he is to be met here by the great White himself, whom
I have always regarded as a sort of mythical personage, not to say a
harpy, always snatching away every promising family of Jane’s to the
Italian quarries.
‘You will have parted with the dear girls by this time, and be feeling
very sad and solitary; but it is altogether a good connection, and a
great advantage. I have just addressed to Gillian, at Vale Leston, a
coroneted envelope, which must be an invitation from Lady Liddesdale.
I am very glad of it. Nothing is so likely as such society to raise her
above the tone of these Whites.--Your loving A. M.’
‘10.30 P.M.--These Whites! Really I don’t think it as bad as Ada
supposes, so don’t be uneasy, though it is a pity she has told you so
much of the gossip respecting them. I do not believe any harm of that
girl Kalliope; she has such an honest, modest pair of eyes. I dare say
she is persecuted by that young Stebbing, for she is very handsome, and
he is an odious puppy. But as to her assignations in the garden, if they
are with any one, it is with Gillian, and I see no harm in them, except
that we might have been told--only that would have robbed the entire
story of its flavour, I suppose. Besides, I greatly disbelieve the
entire story, so don’t be worried about it! There--as if we had not been
doing our best to worry you! But come home, dearest old Lily. Gather
your chicks under your wing, and when you cluck them together again,
all will be well. I don’t think you will find Valetta disimproved by
her crisis. It is curious to hear how she and Gillian both declare that
Mysie would have prevented it, as if naughtiness or deceit shrank from
that child’s very face.
‘It has been a very happy, successful Christmas Day, full of rejoicing.
May you be feeling the same; that joy has made us one in many a time of
separation.--Your faithful old Brownie,
J. MOHUN.’
(GILLIAN AGAIN.)
‘ROWTHORPE, 20th January.
‘DEAREST MAMMA--This is a Sunday letter. I am writing it in a beautiful
place, more like a drawing-room than a bed-room, and it is all very
grand; such long galleries, such quantities of servants, so many people
staying in the house, that I should feel quite lost but for Geraldine.
We came so late last night that there was only just time to dress for
dinner at eight o’clock. I never dined with so many people before, and
they are all staying in the house. I have not learnt half of them yet,
though Lady Liddesdale, who is a nice, merry old lady, with gray hair,
called her eldest granddaughter, Kitty Somerville, and told her to take
care of me, and tell me who they all were. One of them is that Lord
Ormersfield, whom Mysie ran against at Rotherwood, and, do you know, I
very nearly did the same; for there is early Celebration at the little
church just across the garden. Kitty talked of calling for me, but I did
not make sure, because I heard some one say she was not to go if she had
a cold; and, when I heard the bell, I grew anxious and started off, and
I lost my way, and thought I should never get to the stairs; but just as
I was turning back, out came Lord and Lady Ormersfield. He looks quite
young, though he is rather lame--I shall like all lame people, for the
sake of Geraldine--and Lady Ormersfield has such a motherly face. He
laughed, and said I was not the first person who had lost my way in the
labyrinths of passages, so I went on with them, and after all Kitty was
hunting for me! I sat next him at breakfast, and, do you know, he asked
me whether I was the sister of a little downright damsel he met at
Rotherwood two years ago, and said he had used her truthfulness about
the umbrella for a favourite example to his small youngest!
‘When I hear of truthfulness I feel a sort of shock. “Oh, if you knew!”
I am ready to say, and I grow quite hot. That is what I am really
writing about to-day. I never had time after that Christmas Day at Vale
Leston to do more than keep you up to all the doings; but I did think:
and there were Mr. Harewood’s sermons, which had a real sting in them,
and a great sweetness besides. I have tried to set some down for you,
and that is one reason I did not say more. But to-day, after luncheon,
it is very quiet, for Kitty and Constance are gone to their Sunday
classes, and the gentlemen and boys are out walking, except Lord
Somerville, who has a men’s class of his own, and all the old ladies are
either in their rooms, or talking in pairs. So I can tell you that I see
now that I did not go on in a right spirit with Aunt Jane, and that I
did poor Val harm by my example, and went very near deception, for I
did not choose to believe that when you said “If Aunt J. approves,” you
meant about Alexis White’s lessons; so I never told her or Kalliope, and
I perceive now that it was not right towards either; for Kally was very
unhappy about her not knowing. I am very sorry; I see that I was
wrong all round, and that I should have understood it before, if I had
examined myself in the way Mr. Harewood dwelt upon in his last Sunday in
Advent sermon, and never gone on in such a way.
‘I am not going to wait for you now, but shall confess it all to Aunt
Jane as soon as I go home, and try to take it as my punishment if she
asks a terrible number of questions. Perhaps I shall write it, but it
would take such a quantity of explanation, and I don’t want Aunt Ada to
open the letter, as she does any that come while Aunt Jane is out.
‘Please kiss my words and forgive me, as you read this, dear mamma; I
never guessed I was going to be so like Dolores.
‘Kitty has come to my door to ask if I should like to come and read
something nice and Sundayish with them in her grandmamma’s
dressing-room.--So no more from your loving GILL.’