THE LITTLE WASHERWOMAN.
Had Dick timed his visit to Draper's Mews a couple of hours earlier he
would have had a second instance in one day of female hands at the
wash-tub--in this case not a wash-tub but a cracked and leaky basin,
from the sides of which the soapy water dripped upon a very thin pair
of female legs. In the second instance it would not have been a woman
whom he would have seen, but a child--none other than little Gracie,
who, with all the importance of budding washerwoman thick upon her
(although, humanly speaking, her prospects of arriving at that stage
of distinction appeared to be remote) was washing her brothers' and
sisters' clothes. The garments were few and in woeful condition, the
brothers and sisters were many, more or less in a state of nudity.
There were Eddie, nine years of age, Bertie, eight, Nellie, six,
Connie, five, Louie, three, Geordie, eighteen months. Six children,
who, with Gracie, the eldest, comprised the young shoots of the
genealogical tree belonging to the family of the Deaths. Their home
comprised two small rooms, with holes in the wall that divided them.
All the children, with the exception of Gracie, were in bed, huddling
together for warmth, and waiting for the drying of their clothes,
which Gracie hung upon a line stretching from wall to wall, after
wringing them out. The youngsters were not unhappy; the ten shillings
from the poor box which the benevolent magistrate had given to Mrs.
Death dropped upon her like manna from heaven. On their way home she
and Gracie had spent fifteen pence, and the children had had a full
meal. What cause for unhappiness when their little stomachs were
filled? That is the test stone. Think of it, comfortable ones of the
earth. Fifteen pence to make seven children happy!
Gracie alone recognised what was meant by the disappearance of their
father, the breadwinner, their father with his anxious face and
threadbare clothes. The other children could not understand. It was
merciful. Father had gone away; he would come back again with a little
paper bag of brandy balls for them to suck. Abel Death was fond of his
children, and once a week he gave them this treat. How they looked
forward to it--how they watched for his coming--how their faces would
light up when he pulled the bag out of his pocket! Brandy balls are an
economical sweet; there is a magic in the very name. Brandy balls!
They are hard, not to say stony, and if they are sucked fair they last
a long time. Eddie once bolted one whole. He never forgot it; the
taste of the physic he was made to swallow, the shaking and the
slapping, made him very repentant; but he thought of it ever
afterwards with a fearful joy, as of one who had performed a rash and
daring deed, and came out of it alive. Sometimes the children were in
rivalry as to which brandy ball would last the longest. Sad to relate,
the exultation of the victor made the others cry. The way of
conquerors is always watered with tears.
On this afternoon Gracie was the mistress of the house. Mrs. Death had
heard of a half day's washing-up of plates and dishes at a German club
in the neighbourhood where a festival was being held; and she dared
not neglect the opportunity of earning ninepence. She left careful
instructions that if father _should_ happen to come back during her
absence Gracie was to run like lightning to the club and fetch her
home. She had no hope of it, but she had read of miracles in the
Bible.
So the child stood at the wash-tub, soaping poor little petticoats and
stockings with zeal and diligence, holding each garment up to the
light and criticising its condition with the eye of an expert. Now and
then she shook her head, as though in answer to a question whether
this or that tattered article of clothing could be mended; and, the
point being settled, plunged it into the wash-tub again for an extra
soaping to make up for tatters. And the marvellous patience with which
she pursued her task, the absence of anything in the shape of
rebellion or protest that she, so young in years, should be set to it!
If ever suffering mortal deserved a medal for duty done in the teeth
of adverse circumstance, against odds so terrible that the coldest
heart must have been moved to pity to witness it, Gracie surely had
earned it. But there is no established order on earth for the bestowal
of honours in such a cause. Crosses and broad ribbons and sparkling
stars are for deeds far different from the devoted heroism she
displayed. But a record is kept in Heaven, Gracie, and angels are
looking down upon you. How astonished would she have been to know it!
She suffered--ah, how she suffered! Every few minutes she was
compelled to stop and fight the demon in her chest that scraped and
scraped her brittle bones with fiendish cruelty--tearing at her,
choking her, robbing her of breath, while she stamped her feet and
beat her hands together.
"Oh, I say! Gracie's going it," observed Bertie, the low comedian and
mimic of the family, and as is the case with better known low
comedians when they give utterance to nothing particularly witty, the
young audience began to laugh.
"Show us, Bertie," they cried. "Do it!"
Whereupon, with his own vocal organs, Bertie reproduced Gracie's
racking cough. The other children attempted the imitation, but none
with success, and he accompanied the cough, moreover, with such an
expression of woe upon his face, that the children were lost in
admiration. Spurred to greater efforts by their approval he wound up
with so faithful a reproduction of Gracie in the last exhausting stage
of a paroxysm that it brought down the house.
"Is that like it, Gracie?" he asked.
"Yes," she answered, with unmoved face, "that's like it."
One of the children, burning with envy at her brother's histrionic
triumph, expressed her feelings with her legs.
"Connie's kicking me, Gracie," cried Bertie, at the same time
returning the kicks beneath the bedclothes.
"If you don't leave off," said Gracie, impassively, "I'll come and
slap you."
She had to be very careful with the children's underclothing. So full
of holes and rents were they that the least violence would have
wrought irremediable havoc among them--and where was mother to get the
money from to buy new ones?
"There," she said, hanging the last garment on the line, and wiping
her hands and arms on her wet apron, "that job's done."
The children raised a cheer, and simultaneously sat up in bed in a
state of eager expectation. Six little heads nestling close, six eager
faces turned towards Gracie. They had not a clear view of her, because
night was coming on.
"Wait a bit," she said, "we must have a light, and I must make up the
fire."
It was a very small fire, the capacity of the stove being
circumscribed by a large brick on either side, placed there for the
sake of economy. Gracie put on half a dozen little pieces of coal with
miser-like care, taking as much pains to arrange them as if they were
precious stones, as indeed they were. A tiny flame shot out and shone
upon her face; with her black eyes and black hair she looked like a
goblin beneath this fitful illumination. Then she rose and lighted a
tallow candle, placing it on a deal table, which she drew close to the
bed. The table was bare of covering, and presented a bald white space,
Gracie having given it a good scrubbing before she commenced her
washing. Seating herself on a wooden chair she took from a drawer some
broken ends of chalk of different colours, yellow, green, and
vermilion being the predominant hues. The excitement of the children
grew to fever height.
Gracie had a gift which comes by nature. She was magnetic, and could
tell a story in such a manner as to absorb the attention of her
hearers. It is true that she only told stories to her brothers and
sisters, who might have been considered a partial audience, but that
she was capable of taking their imaginations captive and leading them
in any direction she pleased--through gilded hall or dismal dungeon,
through enchanted forest or dark morass--may be accepted as a token
that, grown to womanhood and appealing to a more experienced audience,
her success would be no less complete. To look at that apparently
insensible face and at that coal black eye, unillumined by the fire of
fancy, and to listen to that listless voice when she discoursed upon
mundane affairs, no one would have imagined that it was in her power
to rivet the attention, to fascinate and absorb. It is, however, just
those faces which go towards the making of a great actor. A blank
space waiting to be written upon, ready for the kindling of the spark
which unlocks the gates of imagination and lays all the world of fancy
open to the view. Then do merry elves peep out from beds of flowers,
and fairy forms dance in the light of moon and stars; then do
enchanted castles gleam in the eye of the sun, and gloomy caverns open
wide their jaws and breathe destruction on all who venture within
their shadowed walls.
Many such romances had Gracie told the children, with appropriate
pictorial illustration in colours, but she came down to earth
occasionally, and condescended to use materials more modern; but even
these familiar subjects were decorated with flowers of quaint fancy
and invested by her with captivating charm. Sometimes she mingled the
two together, and produced the oddest effects.
The secret of the coloured chalks was this. Not long ago there lived
in the house an artist who strove to earn a living by painting on the
pavements of the city the impossible salmon and the equally impossible
sunset. But though he used the most lurid colours he did not find
himself appreciated, and, taking a liking to Gracie, he poured into
her ears tales of disappointed ambition and unrecognised genius, to
which she listened with sympathetic soul. Emulous of his gifts she
coaxed him into giving her a few lessons, and in a short time could
also paint the impossible salmon and the equally impossible sunset.
One day he said, "Gracie, I am leaving this wretched country, which is
not a country for artists. I bequeath to you my genius and my stock of
coloured chalks. But do not deceive yourself; they will bring you only
disappointment, and do not blame me if you die unhonoured, and unwept,
and unsung." With these despairing words he bade her an affectionate,
if gloomy, farewell. Gracie did not share his despair, and had little
understanding of the words in which it was expressed. The legacy was a
God-send to her and to the children whom she would enthral with her
flights of imagination, with coloured illustrations on the deal table.
She related to them now some weird tale of a beautiful young
princess--(behold the beautiful young princess, with vermilion lips
and cheeks, green eyes starting out of her head, and yellow hair
trailing to her heels)--and a gallant young prince--(behold the
gallant young prince, with vermilion lips and cheeks, staring green
eyes, and yellow hair carefully parted in the middle)--mounted on a
fiery steed--(behold the fiery steed, its legs very wide apart, also
with green eyes, vermilion nostrils, and a long yellow tail)--who,
with certain wicked personages, went through astounding adventures,
which doubtless would all have come right in the end had Gracie not
been seized with a fit of coughing so violent that she fell back in
her chair, spasmodically catching and fighting for her breath.
Two persons mounted the stairs at this crisis, a man and a woman, and
both hastened their steps at these sounds of distress. Mrs. Death
flung the door open and hastened to Gracie's side not noticing Dick,
who followed her.
"My dear child--my dear child!" said Mrs. Death, taking her clammy
hand and holding the exhausted girl in her motherly arms.
"I'm all right, mother," gasped Gracie, presently, regaining her
breath. "Don't you worry about me. There--I'm better already!" She was
the first to see Dick, and she started up. "Mother--look! The
gentleman from the police station! Have you found father, sir?"
"I beg your pardon for intruding," said Dick to the woman. "I came to
speak to you, and when I was wondering which part of the house you
lived in I heard your little girl coughing, and I followed you
upstairs." He gazed in amazement at the astonishing pictures on the
table. "Did Gracie draw these?"
Six little heads popped up from the bed, and six young voices piped,
"Yes, she did. Ain't she clever? And she was telling us such a
beautiful story!"
"Be quiet, children," said Mrs. Death; and turning anxiously to Dick,
"Have you any news of my husband, sir?"
"I am sorry to say I have not," he replied; "but your visit to the
magistrate is in the papers, and good is sure to come of it. Have you
got a teaspoon?"
With a pitying remembrance of Gracie's cough he had purchased a bottle
of syrup of squills, a teaspoonful of which he administered to the
child, who looked up into his face with gratitude in her soul if not
in her eyes.
"It's nice and warm," she said, rubbing her chest. "It goes right to
the spot."
"Let her take it from time to time," said Dick to Mrs. Death. "I will
bring another bottle in a day or two. Now can I have a few words with
you about your husband?"
"Yes, sir, if you'll step into the next room."
"I like brandy balls," cried Connie.
"So do I--so do I!" in a clamour of voices from the other children.
"And so do I," said Dick. "You shall have some."
"Hush, children!" said Mrs. Death. "I'm ashamed of you! I hope you'll
excuse them, sir. Keep them quiet, Gracie, while the gentleman and I
are talking. It doesn't do, sir,"--this in a low tone to Dick as he
followed her into the adjoining room--"to speak too freely before
children about trouble. It will come quickly enough to them, poor
things!"
Dick nodded. "I wish you to believe, Mrs. Death, that I earnestly
desire to help you out of your trouble, and that I may be of more
assistance to you than most people. I say this to satisfy you that I
am not here out of mere idle curiosity."
"I am sure you are not, sir, and I'm ever so much obliged to you for
the kindness you've shown. The syrup of squills has done Gracie a lot
of good already; but I don't see how you can help us."
"It may be in my power, if you will give me your confidence."
"I'd be sorry to throw away a chance, sir. What is it you want to
know?"
"I want you to tell me the reason why Mr. Samuel Boyd discharged your
husband."
"There's not much to tell, sir. Where shall I commence?"
"On Friday morning, when your husband went to the office: and don't
keep anything back that comes to your mind."
"I won't, sir. He went away as usual, and it was our belief that he
had given Mr. Boyd every satisfaction. I told you at the police
station how we had hopes that Mr. Boyd would lend us a few pounds to
get us out of our difficulty with the moneylender. I'm afraid every
minute of the home being sold over our heads. We've only got a few
bits of sticks, but we shouldn't know what to do without them. Mr.
Boyd's a hard master, sir, and regularly every Saturday, when he paid
my husband his wages, he grumbled that he was being robbed. My poor
husband worked for him like a slave, and over and over again was kept
in the office till ten and eleven o'clock at night without getting a
sixpence overtime. It wasn't a bed of roses, I tell you that, sir;
nothing but finding fault from morning to night, and he was always on
the watch to catch my husband in some neglect of duty. On Friday
afternoon, when he went out of the house on some business or other,
his orders to my husband were that he was not to stir out of the
office; if people knocked at the street door let them knock; he wasn't
to answer them, but to keep himself shut up in the office. Those were
the orders given, and my husband was careful to obey them. Two or
three hours after Mr. Boyd was gone there came a knock at the street
door, and my husband took no notice. The knock was repeated two or
three times, but still he took no notice. Presently he heard a step on
the stairs, and he thought it was Mr. Boyd come back, and who had
knocked at the door to try him. It wasn't Mr. Boyd, sir. The gentleman
who came into the room was Mr. Reginald."
Taken by surprise at this unexpected piece of information, Dick cried,
"Mr. Reginald!"
"Mr. Boyd's son, sir. He and his father had a quarrel a long while
ago, and Mr. Boyd turned him out of the house."
"But if the street door was not opened to Mr. Reginald, how did he get
in?"
"He had a latchkey, which he told my husband he had taken with him
when his father turned him off."
A light seemed to be breaking upon Dick; all this was new to him. "At
what time did you say Mr. Reginald entered his father's house?"
"It must have been about six o'clock. When he heard that his father
was not at home he said he would wait; but my husband begged him not
to, and asked him to go away. He seemed so bent upon seeing his
father--he used the word 'must,' my husband told me--that it was hard
to persuade him, but at last he consented, and said he would call
again at ten o'clock, when Mr. Boyd would be sure to be alone."
The light grew stronger, and it was only by an effort that Dick was
able to suppress his agitation. He recalled the conversation he had
had with his uncle the previous night at the police station, and the
remark that towards the elucidation of the mystery there were many
doors open. Here was another door which seemed to furnish a pregnant
clue, and it terrified him to think that it might lead to a discovery
in which all hopes of Florence's happiness would be destroyed.
"Yes," he said, "at ten o'clock, when Mr. Boyd would be sure to be
alone."
"Then my husband, remembering the caution given him by Mr. Boyd that
nobody was to be allowed to enter the house during his absence, asked
the young gentleman not to mention to his father that he had already
paid one visit to the house. You see, sir, my husband feared that he
would be blamed for it, and be turned away, as the other clerks had
been, for Mr. Boyd is of that suspicious nature that he doesn't
believe a word any man says. The young gentleman gave the promise and
went away."
"Did Mr. Reginald say why he wanted to see his father?"
"Not directly, sir; but my husband gathered that the young gentleman
had come down in the world, and was in need of money."
"Ah! Go on, please."
"When Mr. Boyd came back he asked if any one had called; my husband
answered no. 'Then no person has been in the house while I was away?'
he said, and my husband said no person had been there. Upon that my
husband was surprised by his being asked to put his office slippers on
the table, and was still more surprised to see Mr. Boyd examining the
soles through a magnifying glass. Oh, but he is a cunning gentleman is
Mr. Samuel Boyd! And when the examination was over he gave my poor
husband his discharge, without a single word of warning. My husband
was dumbfounded, and asked what he was being sent away in that manner
for. Then the hardhearted gentleman said he had set a trap for him;
that before he left the house he had put on the stairs eight little
pieces of paper with bits of wax on the top of them, so that any one
treading on them would be sure to take them up on the soles of his
boots; and that when he came back six of the eight pieces were gone.
It was an artful trick, wasn't it, sir? My poor husband did then what
he ought to have done at first; he confessed the truth, that Mr.
Reginald _had_ been there. When Mr. Boyd heard that his son had been
in the house he got into a fearful rage, and said that Mr. Reginald
and my husband were in a conspiracy to rob him, which, of course, my
husband denied. He begged Mr. Boyd to take back the discharge, but he
would not listen to him, and the end of it was that he came home
brokenhearted. You see our home, sir; wasn't the prospect of not being
able to earn bread for us enough to break any man's heart?"
"Indeed it was," said Dick. "And that is all you can tell me?"
"It is all I know, sir."
"I think you said last night that it was about half-past nine when Mr.
Death went to Catchpole Square the second time."
"As near as I can remember, sir."
"Within half an hour," he thought, "of Mr. Reginald's second visit."
"Thank you, Mrs. Death," he said; "you may depend upon my doing my
best to clear things up, and you shall soon hear from me again. I may
call upon you without ceremony."
"You will be always welcome, sir, but it's a poor place for you to
come to."
"I don't live in a palace myself," he said, with an attempt at gaiety.
Taking his rope and grapnel, still wrapped in the evening paper, he
held out his hand to wish her good-night (with the kind thought in his
mind of sending a doctor to Gracie), when a man's voice was heard in
the passage, inquiring in a gentle voice whether Mrs. Death lived
there.