Now of course it is true that the people of Edam gossip about Young Mrs.
Winter. But, to make things quite equal all round, Young Mrs. Winter can
give any one of them points at their own game! And she has her own way
of doing it too. She is never nasty about it, never spiteful. She looks
far too plump for that. She is rather like those people in the Bible who
make broad their phylacteries, and thank God in their prayers that they
are not as other men are. It says "men" in the text (I looked it up),
but I think it must have been women who were really meant. For, about
Edam at least, it is mostly _they_ who give thanks that they are not as
other women are!
Well, at any rate, Young Mrs. Winter was that kind of gossip--oh, far
too good-natured ever to say an ill word about any one! But, on the
other hand, always "so very sorry" for the people she did not like that
she left everybody with the impression that she was in possession of the
darkest and deadliest secrets concerning them. Only she was _so_ good
and _so_ kind that she only sympathized with these naughty people,
instead of (as no doubt she could) putting them altogether outside the
pale of society. She did this most often at afternoon teas. Then her
sighs could be heard all over the room. They quenched conversation. They
aroused curiosity, and in five minutes half tea-sipping Edam knew to how
much original sin Miss So-and-so had recently added so many new and
unedited actual transgressions. But for the unfortunate impression thus
unwittingly given of course poor Young Mrs. Winter was by no means
responsible. Indeed, she gently sighed as she went away. "It is _such_ a
pity!" she said feelingly, as her hostess accompanied her to the door.
Mrs. Winter the Younger dealt at Nipper Donnan's--both on account of the
superior quality of the meat, and, still more, because there she
encountered a kindred spirit--no, not the Reverend Cosmo Huntly, but
Mrs. Nipper Donnan herself. It was not long before Young Mrs. Winter
knew all about the abominable devices of Elizabeth Fortinbras, the
terrible loss to the legitimate heir, Nipper, brought about by the
cunning of a certain Hugh John, the weakness (if no worse) of the elder
Donnans--in fact, all, and a great deal more, than Mrs. Nipper knew
herself!
One evening, going into the shop during Nipper's absence on his
"cattle-buying business" among the farms, Young Mrs. Winter found still
younger Mrs. Donnan in a state of great excitement. She had just been
wrapping up a parcel, and was aching for a confidant.
No, of course Young Mrs. Winter would never, never betray a secret. Was
she not known and noted for that one thing? Had she not suffered
grievously and been much spoken against for that very fault, if fault,
indeed, it were? Mrs. Nipper might ask all Edam.
There was not, of course, time for that, because Mrs. Nipper was so keen
on the track of a confidant.
It had to come out. The dam burst suddenly. There was now no means of
holding it back. Meg Linwood's private sense of injustice was increased
a thousandfold by the purring sympathy of Young Mrs. Winter.
No, indeed, she would not sit down under it. She was not now a "slavey"
to be treated like that. She had had quite enough! And so on and so on.
Young Mrs. Winter incautiously suggested an appeal to Mrs. Nipper's
husband, and so very nearly cut off the whole book of the revelation in
mid-gush.
"Oh, no!" cried Mrs. Nipper, "above all things Nipper must know nothing
about it! _He_ would not understand!"
Young Mrs. Winter threw up her hands with a little gesture of despair,
as much as to say, "I do not quite see, in that case, what is to be done
in the matter!"
Then came the dread secret.
"I have paid them off myself. But oh--it is a great secret! Nipper would
never forgive me--he thinks so much of that Hugh John Picton Smith!"
"Tell me all about it," purred Young Mrs. Winter. "You know I never
speak again of things which have been told me in confidence!"
And, indeed, there was more of truth in the statement than the lady
herself was aware of. For there were but few people in Edam so foolish
as to tell Young Mrs. Winter even what their chickens had had for
dinner!
"Oh, they shall not mock at me any more," said Mrs. Nipper, half crying
with anger, half trembling at her own temerity.
The Meg Linwood of the back kitchen had not got over her former
wholesome dread of correction. And in her secret heart she always feared
(and perhaps also a little hoped) that one day Nipper, put out of
patience by her tricks, would snatch up a stick and give her the same
sort of moral lesson by which the late Mr. Linwood had recalled his
family to a sense of their duty. "They shall not mock at me--yes, I know
they do--because I was once a servant." (How little she knew either Hugh
John or Elizabeth, if the accusation were made seriously!) "But I have
shown them that they cannot tamper with me!"
"But how--tell me how you did it?" said Young Mrs. Winter, sinking her
voice to a whisper.
"I found a letter," said Meg in a solemn whisper, and putting her mouth
close to the ear of her listener, "yes, a letter--from that Carter girl
in Paris to Hugh John Picton Smith."
"Never!" cried Young Mrs. Winter, clasping her hands together in a kind
of ecstasy. Then, fearing she had gone too far, she said, "I should like
to see it, but I suppose you sent it back immediately."
"I did nothing of the kind," Meg Linwood giggled. "I would not be so
soft, though I have only been a servant--a common slavey, washing pans
in the scullery, while my lady, all dressed up fine, sold candy in the
front shop, and talked to _that Hugh John_!"
Thus innocently did poor Meg Linwood lay bare to the experienced eyes of
Young Mrs. Winter the secret springs of her jealousy.
"It _is_ a shame," murmured that lady sympathetically but vaguely.
And so, with a little persuasion, Meg Linwood told the whole story of
the twin halves of the crooked sixpence as related in the letter found
in the sharkskin purse.
Young Mrs. Winter felt that perhaps never had virtue been more its own
reward. She was in sole possession of a secret that would assuredly set
all Edam by the ears.
Presently she made her excuses to Mrs. Nipper Donnan, all simmering with
sympathy till she was round the corner. And then she actually picked up
her skirts and ran.
She had so many calls to make, so much to tell, and so little time to do
it in. No wonder that Young Mrs. Winter was almost crushed by the weight
of her own responsibilities. Suppose that she were to fall sick, or get
run over, dying untimely "with all her music in her," as the poet says.
Unfortunately nothing of the kind occurred. The people she called on
were at home. Nay, more, they had friends. These friends, as soon as
they had heard, jostled each other in the lobbies. Nay, so great was
their haste to be gone that they made the rudest snatches at each
other's umbrellas!
Thus quickly was the tale of the crooked sixpence spread about in Edam.
You see, the Davenant Carters were the greatest people in the parish,
all the more so for not living in the town. And as for Hugh John, he
also, though less known, was a citizen of no mean city.
* * * * *
I think it must have been about eight o'clock of a summer night--it was
after dinner, anyway--when a ring came to the door bell, and Cairns
went in the dining-room where Hugh John was rearranging the universe
with father while he smoked. I was at the organ looking over some music,
and trying over little bits very, very softly. Because at that time it
is not allowed to interrupt the talk.
"A young lady on a bicycle to speak to Mr. Hugh John!" said Cairns.
Luckily I had turned a little on the music-stool, so I did not lose a
faintest detail of what followed. I saw the single mischievous dimple
come and go at the corner of father's cheek, but, as is his silent way,
he only flicked the ash off his cigarette with his little finger, and
said nothing.
"Will you excuse me for a moment, father?" said Hugh John, always master
of himself, and consequently, nine times out of ten, of the other person
as well. Father nodded gravely, and Hugh John went out.
I would have given all I possessed--not usually much at most--to have
accompanied my brother. But a look from father checked me. As you can
see from his books, it is not so very long since he was young himself.
Though, of course, he seems fearfully old to us, I know he does not feel
that way himself.
So perforce I had to wait patiently, turning over that dreary music till
somebody came into the room, and then I was released. I knew it was
Elizabeth Fortinbras who was outside, but for all that I did not even go
to the door to see.
After what seemed a very long while Hugh John came in. He was looking
rather pale.
"Can I go to the Edam Post Office?" he asked. "I shall not be long."
But though he asked politely, he was gone almost before permission could
be given.
He told me all about it when he came back. I had been at the window, and
had seen Hugh John and Elizabeth Fortinbras ride off together. For any
one who saw them there was but one thing to think. They looked so
handsome that any other explanation seemed inadmissible. Only we at home
knew different.
"Sis," he said, when at last we got out to the gun-room, which father
uses occasionally for smoking in, "there never was a girl like Elizabeth
Fortinbras!"
At this I whistled softly--a habit for which I am always being checked,
and as often forgetting.
"_And what about Cissy Carter?_" I asked.
He looked at me once with a kind of "If-you-have-any-shame-in-thee,
girl, prepare-to-shed-it-now" manner, before which I quailed. Then he
told me how Elizabeth had ridden out to tell him of the treachery of Meg
Linwood. Together they had made out an urgency telegram, had found the
post-master, and had dispatched it to Paris that very night.
It said: "_Half silver token lost. If sent you by mischievous persons,
please return immediately to its owner, Hugh John Picton Smith._"
"And that, I think, covers the case--she will understand!" said
Elizabeth Fortinbras.
But low in her own heart, as she rode up the long steep street to New
Erin Villa, she added the rider, "That is, if she is not a goose!"