HERE ENDETH.
“God’s in His heaven,
All’s right with the world.”
Such a day! The spring of the year in the sky, and on the river, and on
the land. September at its happiest, fresh and young, and gladdening as
a maiden stepping with shining eyes and light feet into a world that
she knows she is going to brighten.
Blue in the sky, blue deeper and sun-flecked in the river, a glory of
roses in the garden, a yellow splendour of wattles in the bush.
Tea was spread on the lawn, not under a tree, but out in the sunshine
that no one could get enough of. Even the cakes had a light-hearted
look; and as for the shining kettle on the lamp, it was absolutely
bubbling with good spirits. They were all there,—the seven and
Mrs. Hassal, all mentally on tiptoe, physically in comfortable
attitudes, sitting or lying round the cloth.
The Captain and Esther were expected every minute.
Peter wanted to begin on the little cakes that had such a fascinating
bit of peel on the top of each.
“Leth go halveth in one, Nell,” he said; “we ought to tathte them
firtht,—prapth you forgot the thugar.”
But Nellie assured him they were sweetness itself, and removed the
plate into the middle of the cloth, where they could not lead his
fingers into temptation.
She consoled him with two lumps of sugar, and he gave Poppet one and
bet her he could suck his for a longer time than she could without it
breaking.
Alan was hammering at a tipsy-looking erection of posts halfway down
the drive, that said “Welcome” in pink and white roses, and threatened
to fall and engulf any one passing underneath. Bunty had made it, Alan
was only trying to ensure the safety of Esther’s head.
Near the door was another arch; it was very low—both the Captain and
Esther would have to go under it doubled up: it was done in ferns and
red geraniums and blue flag lilies and yellow “bunny rabbits,” and it
said “Wellcome.”
This was the architecture of Peter and Poppet; the choice of flowers
and handing up had been Essie’s work.
The kettle boiled over. Meg took the opinions of the company as to
whether she should make the tea or wait. The travellers were coming
overland from Brisbane, and the man had already gone to the station
with the dogcart. It always made the Captain irritable to be met by
half his family on a station, so they were all assembled at home
instead. Nellie counselled waiting, tea brewed too long was “horrid.”
Pip said no one would know what they were drinking, so it did not
matter.
Swift wheels on the road, a shriek from Peter and Poppet, and the
question was decided. Meg filled up the teapot and cosied it, then
snatched Essie up in her arms and went down the path. Oh, thank God,
thank God she had her to take!
Esther leapt out before the horse fairly stopped, just as impetuously
young as ever. She devoured Essie, lifted big Peter right up in her
arms, laughed and cried over the others.
No one said anything the pen could catch for the next ten minutes;
every one spoke at once and laughed at once; every one asked questions
and no one waited for answers.
It was the Captain of course who first made a whole speech. “We’ve
been travelling for hours,—haven’t you any tea for Esther, Meg?”
Then they all trooped up under the arches to the white cloth,
flower-strewn, and Flibbertigibbet had improved the shining time by
drinking the milk.
[Illustration: “THE WHOLE SIX RUSHED TO PICK HER UP.”]
Martha came down with more, her very forehead sharing in the great
smile that widened all her features.
She shook the Captain’s hand and Esther’s; then small Essie ran before
her, and she pulled up her apron to catch a sudden sob and went away.
Little Mrs. Hassal picked up the child,—just her own little girl
Esther over again. She gave her a lump of sugar and squeezed her
tenderly for nothing in particular. Then Nellie crept round and took
her to find the prettiest cake of all, and Pip rode her round and round
on his shoulders and kissed her again and again when she happened to
stand near him.
And once, when running back from the house with her grand new doll for
inspection, her eager little feet tripped and she fell on the path, the
whole six started up and rushed to pick her up. Esther told herself she
had left her darling in loving enough hands, she need not have worried
so.
“But she seems a little thinner to me, Meg,” she said; “I don’t know if
it is my fancy.”
Then they all grew silent, and each one waited for the other to tell.
It was Nellie who spoke at last, and told the story, and Esther’s tears
fell and she clasped her baby close to her breast and thanked God who
had been so good to her. And the Captain put out his hand and drew his
eldest daughter closer to him, and said he did not think Alan could
have her now.
It is only four o’clock, and the spring glad sunshine is still over
everything; the feast is at its height, and all faces untroubled again.
Let us leave them here.
Esther is leaning against her husband, her bright face full of content
and happiness; once or twice her eyes have gone skywards, and the
light in them has deepened. Essie is in her arms, saucy and dimpled:
she knows she is the undisputed queen of that gathering, and is taking
advantage of her power by giving all manner of sweet little commands.
Peter is still engaged on the cakes; he is only eating the tops of them
where the peel nestles, but no one has noticed. He has just informed
Esther of the progress he has made in her absence.
“I tharcely drop any blotht now,” he said; “I’ve gone into theven
times, I’m learning peninthulath, and I’ve thtopped lithping.”
As no one disputes any of his statements, and as no one smiles openly,
he is quite happy in his present occupation. Poppet seems to have
grown; she is thinner than ever,—arms and legs, as Bunty says, and
nothing else worth mentioning. He forgets the heart; it is just the
same dear loving tender little one, with room for all the world, and
one warm, special corner for himself.
Bunty’s collar this afternoon is a sign of the times; it is perfectly
white and almost unrumpled; the whole of it is visible, and his jacket
does not fit extraordinarily badly. His mouth is firm, but hardly
strikes one as obstinate now, and the brooding light that used to be
in his eyes shows very seldom. Pip says if some day the boy becomes a
great hero it will not surprise any one in the family at all, despite
those early days he is so bitterly ashamed of.
This is quite a different Nellie from the one who went over this same
lawn in her first long dress. More beautiful if possible: the shining
hair and dewy, long-lashed eyes, the clear colouring, and slim,
straight figure are just the same, but there is a deeper look in the
young eyes, a sweeter, graver expression about the young mouth. She
will be that gladdening thing, an exceedingly beautiful woman; she will
be more, a good woman and a noble.
Meg,—well, Meg is Meg.
A little thin and pale-looking from the fever, a little quieter, and,
if possible, even more sweet, more womanly and lovable than ever. Alan
is at one side of her, her family at the other; so far they possess her
equally, and perhaps the standing between is the happiest time of her
life.
Pip is stretched on the ground, six feet of splendid young manhood; his
laugh is good to hear, his cheeks have the tint of health, he measures
a surprising number of inches round the chest. Surely it is reasonable
to suppose his blighted affections have not done him irreparable
mischief! Peter lets a light in on the subject. He has finished the
cakes, and is at liberty again to pour out all the events of note that
have happened during Esther’s absence.
He has informed her that “the catht had four kittenth, that his betht
thuith grown too thmall for his legth, that the butcher thent the
chopth and thteak too late for breakfatht, and Meg got another one
named Thmitherth, and that a thtorm of hail had thmathed the thtudy
window.”
Then his eye fell upon his eldest brother, and his young catholic mind
found an item of news concerning him.
“An’ Mith Joneth ith married to the man at the thauthpan thop; me and
Poppet peeped in at the church, and the looked thplendid. And Pip wath
awful mad, but he’th gone on Mith Thybil Moore now.”
And as Miss Sybil Moore was the exceedingly pretty daughter of new
delightful neighbours, and as Mr. Philip coloured somewhat warmly and
inverted the young scamp in great haste, there seemed a probability of
pleasant truth in the statement. Especially as Meg smiled contentedly.
Esther spoke of Indian scarfs and shawls and gauzes the boxes held.
“They will do beautifully for charades and theatricals,” she said.
“Or playing at being grown up,” said Poppet.
The Captain leaned back against a tree. “There is not much playing
about it,” he said. “I must be getting an old man; how fast you are all
growing up.”
“What’s dwowing up?” asked Essie.
“I used to think it was just long dresses and done-up hair,” sighed
Nellie; “or a stick and a moustache.”
“And not doing as you’re told,” supplemented Poppet.
“An’ eating thingth and not getting thick.” It was Peter’s amendment.
Meg only smiled.
But there was a faint curve of sadness as well as the smile on her
young lips—and one was for sweet, buried childhood, and one for the
broadening days.
THE END.
_Warwick House
Salisbury Square
LONDON E.C._
A LIST OF
New and Popular Books
PUBLISHED BY
WARD LOCK & BOWDEN LTD
GEORGE MEREDITH
_The Tale of Chloe_; The House on the Beach; and The Case of General
Ople and Lady Camper. By George Meredith, Author of “Diana of the
Crossways,” “The Ordeal of Richard Feverel,” “The Tragic Comedians,”
etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.
“‘The Tale of Chloe’ is one of the gems of English fiction.
Mr. Meredith is a cunning delineator of women—no living writer more
so—but we question whether, even in Mr. Meredith’s rich array of female
characters, there is any more lovable than Chloe.”—_Daily Telegraph._
“It is handled with such supreme skill that it becomes really tragic
for us, while never for a moment leaving its proper plane of a comedy
of manners.”—_The Athenæum._
By the same Author
_The Tragic Comedians_: A Study in a well-known Story. Revised and
corrected by the Author. With an Introductory Note on Ferdinand
Lassalle by Clement Shorter, and Photogravure Portrait of the Author.
Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d. (The 6s. edition can still be had.)
“One of the most brilliant of all George Meredith’s novels.”—_The
Speaker._
“Meredithians owe a debt of gratitude to the publishers for issuing
this book.”—_Review of Reviews._
_WARD LOCK & BOWDEN LTD_
_FIVE SHILLING NOVELS_
GUY BOOTHBY
_In Strange Company_. A Story of Chili and the Southern Seas. By Guy
Boothby, Author of “On the Wallaby.” With Six Full-page Illustrations
by Stanley L. Wood. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, bevelled boards, 5s.
“A capital novel of its kind—the sensational adventurous. It has the
quality of life and stir, and will carry the reader with curiosity
unabated to the end.”—_The World._
“The best of them is ‘In Strange Company.’ ... The book is a good tale
of adventure; it has plenty of astonishing incidents which yet have an
air of verisimilitude.”—_The Pall Mall Budget._
By the same Author.
_The Marriage of Esther_: A Torres Straits Sketch. By Guy
Boothby, Author of “In Strange Company,” etc. With Four Full-page
Illustrations by Stanley L. Wood. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 5s.
“A story full of action, life, and dramatic interest. ... There is a
vigour and a power of illusion about it that raises it quite above the
level of the ordinary novel of adventure.”—_Manchester Guardian._
“Gives a vivid and life-like presentment of its characters. ... It
is most exciting, Mr. Boothby’s vigorous style and happy description
giving the book an interest entirely apart from that of the
adventurous.”—_The Star._
OUTRAM TRISTRAM
_The Dead Gallant_; together with “_The King of Hearts_.” By Outram
Tristram. With Full-page Illustrations by Hugh Thomson and St. George
Hare. Crown 8vo, Art linen gilt, 5s.
“Both stories are well written in faultless English, and display
a knowledge of history, a careful study of character, and a fine
appreciation of a dramatic point, all too rare in these days of
slipshod fiction.”—_National Observer._
_WARD LOCK & BOWDEN LTD_
_NEW BOOKS AT 5/- AND 3/6_
MAX PEMBERTON
_Jewel Mysteries I Have Known._ By Max Pemberton, Author of “The Iron
Pirate.” With Fifty Illustrations by R. Caton Woodville and Fred
Barnard. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt, gilt edges, 5s.
“The most interesting and entrancing ‘mystery’ stories that have
appeared since the publication of the doings of Mr. Sherlock
Holmes.”—_The Literary World._
ARTHUR MORRISON
_Martin Hewitt, Investigator._ By Arthur Morrison, Author of “Tales
of Mean Streets,” etc. With about Fifty Illustrations by Sydney
Paget. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 5s.
“Most people like tales of this sort, ... and no one writes them
better than Mr. Morrison does. The narratives are written not only
with ingenuity, but with conviction, which is, perhaps, even the more
valuable quality.”—_The Globe._
BERTRAM MITFORD
_The Curse of Clement Waynflete_: A Story of Two Wars. By Bertram
Mitford, Author of “The King’s Assegai,” “The Gun-Runner,” etc. With
Four full-page Illustrations by Stanley L. Wood. Crown 8vo, cloth
gilt, 3s. 6d.
“Telling us wonderful incidents of inter-racial warfare, of ambuscades,
sieges, surprises, and assaults almost without number. ... A
thoroughly exciting story, full of bright descriptions and stirring
episodes.”—_The Daily Telegraph._
By the same Author.
_A Veldt Official_: A Novel of Circumstance. With Two Full-page
Illustrations by Stanley L. Wood. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
“Mr. Mitford is a second Rider Haggard, who generously pours us out a
flood of adventure by sea and land such as keeps us ever on the _qui
vive_ of anticipation.”—_Morning Leader._
_WARD LOCK & BOWDEN LTD_
_HENRY KINGSLEY’S NOVELS_
HENRY KINGSLEY
New Library Edition of Henry Kingsley’s Novels, Edited by Clement K.
Shorter. Well printed (from type specially cast) on good paper, and
neatly and handsomely bound. With Frontispieces by eminent Artists.
Price 3s. 6d. per volume.
1 _The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn._
2 _Ravenshoe._
3 _The Hillyars and the Burtons._
4 _Silcote of Silcotes._
5 _Stretton._
6 _Austin Elliot and The Harveys._
7 _Mdlle. Mathilde._
8 _Old Margaret, and other Stories._
9 _Valentin, and Number Seventeen._
10 _Oakshott Castle and The Grange Garden._
11 _Reginald Hetherege and Leighton Court._
12 _The Boy in Grey, and other Stories._
“To renew your acquaintance with Henry Kingsley is for Henry Kingsley
to stand forth victorious all along the line. His work, in truth, is
moving and entertaining now as it was moving and entertaining thirty
odd years ago.”—_The Pall Mall Gazette._
“Henry Kingsley was born to wear the purple of romance. ... Where will
any one who is ordinary and sane find better comradeship? Scarcely
outside the hovels of Walter Scott. ... Messrs. Ward, Lock & Bowden’s
edition of this despotic and satisfying romancer is cheap, and well
printed, and comfortable to hold. Those who love Kingsley will love him
again and better for this edition, and those who have not loved have a
joy in store that we envy them.”—_The National Observer._
“To Mr. Clement Shorter and to the publishers the unreserved thanks
of the public are warmly due; there can be no finer mission from the
world of fiction to the world of fact than the putting forth of these
ennobling novels afresh and in a fitting form.”—_The Daily Chronicle._
_WARD LOCK & BOWDEN LTD_
_NEW AND RECENT BOOKS_
EDITH JOHNSTONE
_A Sunless Heart._ Third and Cheap Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.
“Mr. W. T. Stead, in his article on ‘Women Novelists,’ writes of ‘its
intrinsic merit, its originality and its pathos, its distinctively
woman’s outlook on life, and the singular glow and genius of
its author.’ Lotus is a distinct creation—vivid, life-like, and
original.”—_Review of Reviews._
“A remarkable book—intensely human, intensely individual, and, as a
story, intensely interesting. It probes problems of life which many
who will find fault with it have merely played with. It has pathos,
insight, and humour, and contains chapters which seem to me the work of
genius.”—_The Literary World._
FRANCIS PREVOST
_Rust of Gold._ By Francis Prevost. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 5s.
“A collection of short stories and dialogues. They are pointed, bright,
strong in characterisation, and prettily conceived.”—_The Star._
NORA VYNNE
_Honey of Aloes, and other Stories._ By Nora Vynne, Author of “The
Blind Artist’s Pictures.” Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.
“Not only do they abound in literary merit, but in thrilling interest,
and there is not one of them that is not instinct with intense and
veracious humanity.”—_Daily Telegraph._
“Irresistibly amusing, full of character, humour, truth, with much
underlying pathos. ... The quarrel with which the chief story begins is
delightfully unreasonable, progressive, inevitable, and the interest
never flags for a line to the thoroughly natural and human end. The
author is so clever that she makes us ready to attest the truth of her
most venturesome improbabilities, and her wit is charming.”—_The World._
_WARD LOCK & BOWDEN LTD_
_POPULAR THREE-AND-SIXPENNY NOVELS_
A. CONAN DOYLE
_The First Book about Sherlock Holmes._
_A Study in Scarlet_. By Conan Doyle, Author of “Micah Clark,” “The
Sign of Four,” “The White Company,” etc. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo,
cloth gilt, 3s. 6d. With Forty Illustrations by George Hutchinson.
“One of the cleverest and best detective stories we have yet seen. ...
Mr. Conan Doyle is a literary artist, and this is a good specimen of
his skill.”—_London Quarterly Review._
J. E. MUDDOCK
_Stormlight_; or, the Nihilist’s Doom. A Story of Switzerland and
Russia. By J. E. Muddock, F.R.G.S., Author of “For God and the Czar,”
etc. Eighth Edition. With Two Full-page Illustrations by Gordon
Browne. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
“The work has a strong plot, exciting situations, and a certain truth
to history, that make it full of interest.”—_The Scotsman._
EDGAR FAWCETT
_Her Fair Fame_. By Edgar Fawcett, Author of “An Ambitious Woman,”
“Women Must Weep,” etc. With a Frontispiece by Geo. Hutchinson.
Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
“It is a cleverly-written dramatic piece of fiction.”—_Publishers’
Circular._
HEADON HILL
_The Rajah’s Second Wife_. A Story of Missionary Life and Trial in
India. By Headon Hill, Author of “Zambra the Detective,” “Cabinet
Secrets,” etc. With Two Full-page Illustrations by Walter S. Stacey.
Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
“Will assuredly be read with the deepest interest. ... The novel, as a
whole, is one that will be read with genuine pleasure.”—_The Scotsman._
_WARD LOCK & BOWDEN LTD_
Transcriber’s note
Inconsistent hyphenation has been retained: cricket-ball/cricket ball,
dinner-party/dinner party, half-hesitatingly/half hesitatingly,
ladylike/lady-like, sailor-hat/sailor hat, scarlet-fever/scarlet fever,
side-door/side door, side-table/side table, someway/some way,
stepmother/step-mother, stuck-up/stuck up, teapot/tea-pot,
tiptoe/tip-toe, toothbrushes/tooth-brushes, washstand/wash-stand,
writing-table/writing table.
The following words have been retained as printed: cotillon, Wellcome,
wofully.