THE COMMENCEMENT OF A HAPPY DAY.
A mother could not have watched her only child with more jealous
devotion than that with which Old Wheels watched his darling Lily. He
could not bear her out of his sight; he even begrudged the time she
gave to Alfred; for Lily clung to her brother, and seemed to have
discovered a new bond of affection to bind them closer to each other.
Beset as he was with doubts and fears, Old Wheels found a fresh cause
for disturbance in this circumstance; and he was not successful in
hiding his disturbance from Alfred, who showed his consciousness of it
in a certain defiant fashion, which gave his grandfather inexpressible
pain. But the old man bore with this without open repining; he gave
all his love to Lily, and he blamed himself for the jealous feeling he
bore to Alfred. He strove against it, but he could not weaken it, and
he could only watch and wait. In the mean time Lily, to his eyes, was
growing thinner and paler. He spoke to Gribble junior about it.
"Don't you think Lily is not looking so well as she did?"
"Mrs. J. G. was saying the very same thing to me," replied Gribble
junior, "only the night before last. 'I don't think Lily is strong,'
said Mrs. J. G. to me; 'she looks pale.' And I said, 'It's that
music-hall; the heat and the gas and the smoke's too much for her.'"
"You are right--you are right," said Old Wheels, the lines in his face
deepening. "Such a place is not fit for a young girl--so tender as my
Lily is, too. I will take her from it soon." (Thinking: "I shall be
able to, for the debt will soon be paid.")
"Although," added Gribble junior, scarcely heeding the old man's
words, "to my thinking a music-hall's the jolliest place in the world.
I could set all night and listen to the comic songs." And Gribble
junior, to whom a music-hall was really a joy and a delight, hummed
the chorus of a comic song as a proof of the correctness of his
opinion; breaking off in the middle, however, with the remark, "Yes,
Lily _does_ look pale."
"And thin?" asked Old Wheels anxiously.
"_And_ thin," assented Gribble junior. "But then we all of us have our
pale days and our red days, and our thin days and our fat days, as a
body might say. Look at me, now; I'm three stone heavier than I was
four years ago. But I wasn't married then, and perhaps Mrs. J. G. has
something to do with it--though she hasn't lost either, mind you! I
was going to say something--what was it?" Here Gribble junior
scratched his head. "O, I know. Well, when I said to Mrs. J. G., 'It's
that music-hall,' she said, with a curl of the nose, though I didn't
see it, for we were abed, 'You men's got no eyes,' which was news to
me, and sounded queer too, for Mrs. J. G. don't generally speak to me
in that way. 'You men's got no eyes,' she said; 'it's my belief that
Lily is in love, and that makes her pale.' I don't often give in to
Mrs. J. G., but I give in to her in this, and it's my opinion she's
right. It's natural that girls, and boys too, should fall in love.
Keep moving."
Thus Gribble junior rattled on for half an hour, being, as you know,
fond of the sound of his own voice, while Old Wheels pondered over
Mrs. Gribble junior's summing up of the cause of Lily's paleness, and
wondered if she were right. "There is but one man whom I know," he
thought, "who is worthy of my pearl. I should be happy if this were
so, and if he returned her love." Then he thought of Mr. Sheldrake,
and of that gentleman's intimacy with Alfred, and the glimmer of light
faded in that contemplation.
The following morning, as he and his grandchildren were sitting at
breakfast, Alfred said,
"Lily, I've got a holiday to-day, and I'm going to take you to Hampton
Court."
Lily's eyes sparkled; she looked up with a flush of delight. Old
Wheels also looked at Alfred with an expression of gratification.
"Lily doesn't go out very often," continued Alfred; "it is a fine day,
and the outing will do her good."
Lily, who was sitting close to Alfred, kissed his hand; the pleasure
was all the greater because it was unexpected.
"It is kind of you, Alf," said Old Wheels, with a nod of approval, and
with more cordiality in his manner towards his grandson than he had
expressed for many a day; "Lily seldom gets an opportunity to breathe
the fresh air. A run in the park will bring the roses in my darling's
face again."
"Do I want them, grandfather?" asked Lily gaily.
Her face was bright with anticipation. Old Wheels looked at her
fondly.
"Not now, my dear," he replied, "but you have been looking pale
lately."
"You are too anxious about me, grandfather," said Lily affectionately;
"I am very well. I think--I think--that you love me just a little bit
too much." And she took his face between her hands, and kissed him,
once, twice, thrice--making a rosebud of her mouth, as a little child
might have done. He was delighted at her merry humour.
"I can't be that, darling," he said; "you are worthy of all the love
that we can give you."
Alfred assented with, "That she is, grandfather."
"You are in a conspiracy to spoil me," said Lily, greatly elated. She
was standing between them, holding a hand of each, and out of her
affectionate nature and her gladness at their more cordial manner
towards each other, she brought their hands together, and held them
clasped within her own.
As the old man's fingers tightened upon those of his grandson, he
thought that perhaps after all he was torturing himself unnecessarily,
and, out of his hopes, he smiled and nodded affectionately at Alfred.
Alfred smiled in return, but the next moment a shadow passed into his
face. It did not rest there long; his lighter mood soon asserted
itself.
"How soon shall we start, Alfred?" asked Lily.
"As soon as you can get dressed, Lil. It will be best to go early.
Then we can have a ramble and a bit of dinner, and a row on the river,
perhaps."
"That will be nice, and grandfather shall go with us."
Alfred's face became overclouded at the suggestion, and Old Wheels saw
the cloud. Involuntarily his grasp of Alfred's hand relaxed.
"No, my dear," he said quickly; "I can't go with you. I have something
to do at home. Run away now, and get dressed." Lily being gone, the
old man continued, "I spared you the awkwardness of a refusal, Alfred;
I saw that you would rather I should not accompany you."
"O, sir," was the reply, spoken with exceeding ill grace, "if you
wish----"
"I don't wish, my boy. Why should I do anything to spoil Lily's
enjoyment? and it _would_ spoil her enjoyment if she noticed that you
considered me an encumbrance."
"Of course it's me," exclaimed Alfred pettishly; "I thought I had had
enough lecturing. I won't stand it much longer, and so I tell you."
"Don't quarrel, Alfred; Lily will be back presently, and we must do
everything in our power to avoid giving her pain. I am glad that you
are going to take her out. Can you afford it?"
"Afford it! I should think I could!" And Alfred rattled the money in
his pocket.
Old Wheels sighed.
"Your wages at the office are still the same, Alfred--fifteen
shillings a week?"
"Yes--the old skinflints! I don't believe I should be better off if I
stopped there all my life."
"You seem to be well off, notwithstanding," observed the old man, with
a grave look.
"You're going to preach again, I suppose!" exclaimed Alfred in a
fretful tone. "A young fellow can't have a shilling in his pocket
without being preached at. I tell you what it is, grandfather----"
But Alfred was prevented from telling his grandfather what it was by
the entrance of Lily, who came in, dressed in her best, and looking as
pretty and modest as any girl in England; and in a few moments brother
and sister were in the streets, arm in arm.
The old man watched them from the window until they were out of sight.
"I am glad my darling has gone to enjoy herself," he thought, but he
could not keep back an uneasy feeling because she was away from him.
He accounted for it by saying that old age was selfish; but that
reflection brought no consolation to him. He went to the street door
and stood there, and felt more than ordinarily pleased as he saw Felix
turn the corner of the street.
"I have come on purpose to tell you something," said Felix, as they
shook hands; "you know that I am looking out for something to do."
"Yes, Felix."
"The matter is difficult enough. I can't go to work as a shoemaker, or
a carpenter, or a bricklayer, because I am Jack-of-no-trade, and don't
know anything. I am neither this nor that, nor anything else. But last
night there was a great fire not very far from here----"
"I read of it in the papers this morning."
"It occurred, as you know then, after midnight. I was there at the
commencement of it, and saw it--saw the children and the mother
standing in their night-dresses at the third-floor window--saw the
flames surrounding them and creeping to them like fiery serpents--saw
that fireman, God bless him! scale the ladder and rescue the poor
things, nearly losing his life in the effort, spoke to him, shook
hands with him, hurriedly got some particulars from him and the poor
woman, and then----"
"Yes, and then," said Old Wheels, sharing Felix's excitement.
"Then went to the newspaper office with an account of the fire, which
they inserted. What you read this morning was mine, and I feel quite
proud of it. It is the first bit of real work I have ever done."
"It is beautifully done!" exclaimed Old Wheels. "Bravo, Felix!"
"That's what I said to myself, 'Bravo, Felix!' Why should not this
lead to other things? And I am so elated that I came to ask you if you
would come with me into the country for a few hours, somewhere close
enough to this city of wonders to enable us to get back in the
evening. It is a lovely day, and perhaps Lily will accompany you."
"Lily is not at home," said the old man thoughtfully, noticing the
colour in Felix's face; "she has gone out with Alfred on just such a
trip as you so kindly propose. She wanted me to come, but I have
business at home and could not, so I cannot accompany you. If you are
not fixed upon any place, why not go yourself to Hampton Court, where
they have gone? You may meet them; I am sure Lily will be pleased to
see you."
"I should like it above all things in the world," said Felix eagerly;
"have they gone by themselves?"
"Yes."
Felix looked earnestly at the old man.
"Thank you, sir, a thousand times. I will go."
Old Wheels smiled to himself as he turned into the house, and sat down
contentedly to his work--a cart which he was making for Pollypod. "I
feel easier now," he said, as he worked.
But although Felix went down at once to Hampton Court, and strolled
into the palace and the picture-gallery and over the gardens, and
stood above the maze to see who were in it, he saw no signs of Lily or
Alfred. This occupied him a couple of hours, and then he resolved to
go into Bushy Park. "I ought to have gone there at first," he thought.
He strolled into the beautiful grounds, and down the grand avenue with
its lines of noble chestnut-trees. In the distance he saw a lady on a
seat, and a gentleman standing by her. His sight, quickened by love,
recognised Lily's form; but the man was not Alfred. He approached
slowly, until he was near enough to distinguish more clearly, and a
keen pang shot through him as he saw Lily sitting on the garden-seat,
and Mr. David Sheldrake bending over her. Alfred was not in sight.