When we returned to the drawing-room after dinner, we found, hidden in a
distant corner, with books and portfolios, and stereoscopes blocking up
the table near him, Johnnie Harley. I have said little of this boy. He
was the proxy which the handsome, healthy family had given for their
singular exemption from disease and weakness--the one sufferer, among
many strong, who is so often found in households unexceptionably
healthful, as if all the minor afflictions which might have been divided
among them had concentrated on one and left the rest free. When Johnnie
was a child he had only been moved in the little wheeled chair, got for
him in his father’s lifetime, when they were rich. Now he was better,
and able to move about with the help of a crutch, but even now was a
hopeless cripple, with only his vigorous mind and unconquerable spirits
to maintain him through private hours of suffering. Partly from his
infirmities--partly from his natural temperament--the lad had a certain
superficial shyness, which, though it was easily got over, made it
rather difficult to form acquaintance with him. He could not be induced
to dine with us that first night--but he was in the drawing-room,
showing the stereoscope to Miss Polly’s little nieces, Di and Emmy, when
we came back from dinner; the other little creatures were playing at
some recondite childish game in another part of the room; but Emmy and
Di were very proper little maidens, trained to take judicious care of
their white India muslin frocks, the spare dimensions of which
contrasted oddly enough with Clary’s voluminous little skirts and flush
of ribbons. Clary was like a little rose, with lovely rounded cheeks and
limbs like her mother, dimpled to the very finger-points, while Di and
Emmy, though by no means deficient in good looks, were made up quite
after Miss Polly’s own model, in a taste which was somewhat severe for
their years. Johnnie Harley veiled himself behind these little maidens
till we were safely settled in the room. He was twenty, poor fellow, and
did not know what was to become of him. He was sometimes very
melancholy, and sometimes very gay; he was in rather a doubtful mood
to-night.
“Look here, Mrs. Crofton,” he said, drawing me shyly aside. “I’ve put
this one in a famous light--do tell me if you like it. I did it
myself.”
I looked, of course, to please him. It was a pretty view of my own house
at Estcourt, with the orphan children who lived there playing on the
terrace--very pretty, and very minute--so clear that I fancied I could
recognize the children. It pleased me mightily.
“_You_ did it, Johnnie,” cried I, much gratified. “I am very much
pleased; but I never knew you were a ‘photographic artist’ before.”
“No more I was,” said Johnnie, who rather affected a little roughness of
speech, “till they got me a camera the other day. Of course I know it
was Alice, and that somehow or other she’s spared it off herself. Do you
know whether there’s anything she ought to have had that she hasn’t,
Mrs. Crofton? One can never find Alice out. She doesn’t go when she’s
made a sacrifice for you and keep hinting and hinting to let you know,
as some people do; but look here--isn’t it horrible to think I’m grown
up and yet have to stay at home like a girl, and can’t do anything. Now
that I’m able to do these slides, I’d give my ears if I could sell them.
I’d go and stand in the market at Simonborough. But of course it’s no
use speaking. Don’t you think, Mrs. Crofton, that there’s surely
something in the world that could be done by a cripple like me?”
“I have no doubt a dozen things,” said I, boldly; “but have a little
patience, Johnnie. Maurice is ten years older than you are, and he does
nothing that I can see. Besides, it is holiday time--I forbid you to
think of anything but the new camera to-night. Is it a good one? What a
pleasure it must be for all of you,” I continued, looking once more into
the stereoscope, where, most singular of optical delusions, I certainly
saw a pretty new winter bonnet, the back of which, in the wardrobe of
Alice, I had already made a memorandum of, floating over the picture of
my old house.
“Ah,” said Johnnie, with a sigh, “if I were a fellow like Maurice!--but
here, Di, you have not seen this,” he added, transferring another slide
into that wooden box. Grave little Di looked at it, and summoned her
sister with a little scream of delight.
“It’s Miss Harley and Baby Sedgwick,” said Di, “and I do believe if any
one was little enough they could go round behind her in the picture. Oh!
let me tell Derwent and Clara, Mr. John!”
Mr. John was very graciously pleased to exhibit his handiwork to any
number of spectators, and shortly we all gathered round the
stereoscope. Alice stood looking on very demurely, while we were
examining her in that pretty peep-show; she listened to all the usual
observations with due calm, while Johnnie, quite in a flush of pleasure,
produced the pictures, at which I understood afterwards the poor youth
had been working all day long, one by one out of the box.
“My love,” said Miss Polly, in a mild aside, “I’d like to see you just
so in a house of your own, my dear.”
Alice colored slightly; very slightly--it was against her principles to
blush--and made no answer, except a slight shake of her head.
“Such a sweet baby,” said Miss Reredos, “I think one might bear anything
for such a darling! Oh, don’t you think so, Miss Harley? I think it’s so
unnatural for a lady not to love children. I think if dear Clement had
but a family I should be so happy.”
“But, dear, shouldn’t you be happier,” said Clara, opening her bright
eyes a little wider, with a laughing humor which now-a-days that young
lady permitted herself to exercise pretty freely, “if you had a family
of your own?”
“Oh! Mrs. Sedgwick, how can you speak so? I am so glad the gentlemen are
not here,” said the Rector’s sister. Alice stood looking at her with a
half vexed, half amused expression. Alice was a little afraid for the
honor of (most frightful of phrases!) her sex.
“As for Alice,” said Clara, laughing, “do you know she thinks it rather
improper to be married? She would not allow she cared for anybody, not
for the world.”
“I think women ought to be very careful,” said Alice, responding
instantly to the challenge with a little flush and start; “I think there
are very few men in the world worthy of being loved. Yes, I do think so,
whatever you choose to say. They’re well enough for their trades, but
they’re not good enough to have a woman’s heart for a plaything. Of
course there may be some--I do not deny that; but I never”----
Here Alice paused--perhaps she was going to tell a fib--perhaps
conscience stopped her--I will not guess; but Clara clapped her hands in
triumph.
“Ah, but if you did ever,” said Clara, laughing, “would you marry _him_,
Alice?”
“If he asked me it is very likely I should,” said Alice, with great
composure; “but not for a house of my own, as Miss Polly says--nor for
fun, like some other people.”
“My love, it’s very natural to like a house of one’s own,” said Miss
Polly, with a little sigh. “I don’t mind saying it now that I am so old:
once in my life I almost think I would have married for a home--not for
a living, remember, Alice--but for a place and people that should belong
to me, and not to another--that’s what one wishes for, you know; but I
never talked about it either now or then; my dear, I wouldn’t if I were
you.”
At this address Alice blushed crimson--blushed up to the hair, and
patted her foot upon the ground in a very impatient, not to say angry,
way. She cast a somewhat indignant side-look at me, to express her
conviction that I was at the bottom of this, and had suggested the mild
condemnation of Miss Polly--which, so far as agreeing thoroughly in her
sentiments went, I confess I might have done. Then Alice went off
abruptly to the piano, and began playing to the children, who gathered
round her; before long her voice was pleasantly audible in one of those
immemorial songs with a fox or a robin for a hero, which always delight
children; and when the song was finished there ensued as pretty a scene
as I have ever looked at. Clara gathered the children in a ring, which
danced round and round, with a dazzle of little rosebud faces, flying
white frocks and ribbons, to Alice’s accompaniment. Such scenes I have
no doubt were of nightly occurrence in the big, grand drawing-room at
Waterflag Hall; and little Derwie took his part so heartily, and joined
in the chant with which they went round with lungs and will so
unmistakable, that, for my part, I was quite captivated. Miss Polly and
I sat down to watch them. Little Di, too shy and too big to join them,
being twelve years old and a grandmother among these babes, stood
wistfully behind us, envying Emmy, who was only ten and a half, and “not
too old for such a game.” Di, a long way older and graver than Mrs.
Clare, stood nodding and smiling to encourage her little sister every
time she whisked past. Miss Reredos behind us was examining Johnnie’s
pictures and talking sentiment in a soft half-whisper to that
defenceless boy, while Miss Polly and I sat on a sofa together, looking
on.
“It is strange,” said Miss Polly, “but yet I’m sure I am very glad. I
thought of asking you, Clare, whether anything had occurred to disturb
that dear girl? I don’t like when I hear young women talk like that, my
dear--it looks to me as if they had something on their mind, you know.
Once I thought there might perhaps be something between Bertie Nugent
and Alice--that would have been a very nice match; but somehow these
nice matches never come about--at least, not without a deal of trouble;
and I suppose it was nothing but an old woman’s fancy, Clare.”
“I suppose not, indeed,” said I, rather ruefully, looking at that
prettiest spectacle before me, and recognizing, as by intuition, that
Mr. Reredos had just come in, and was standing at the door in a glow of
delight and approbation, looking at Alice, and deciding not to delay his
proposal for an hour longer than it should be absolutely necessary to
keep silent. Ah, me! there was some hope for us in Alice’s philosophical
moods; but when she played to her little nieces and nephews in that
shockingly happy, careless, and easy manner, I was in despair.
“It’s very sad when people won’t see what’s most for their advantage,”
said Miss Polly, with a ghost of humor in her pale old face. “I daresay,
Clare, my dear, Bertie’s just as happy. I heard from Lady Greenfield the
other day--one of _her letters_, you know--that the dear boy was getting
on very well, but breaking his heart to get home that he might go to the
Crimea to the war.”
“So he tells me,” said I, “but I rather think I am very glad he has not
the chance of dying on that dreadful hill.”
“My dear, that’s very true,” said Miss Polly; “one faints at the thought
of it, to be sure, for one’s own; but if I could be
philosophical--which--dear, dear, it isn’t to be expected from an old
woman! I’d say it was wrong to be sorry for the dear young creatures,
God bless them! Think what they’re spared, my dear child. I don’t know
but what it’s a great saving of the labor and the sorrow when they die
young.”
“Miss Polly, this is not like you,” I cried in surprise.
“Perhaps it isn’t; but, dear, we’re always learning something,” said
Miss Polly; “there’s Elinor now, and poor Emmy, the unfortunate little
soul! but hush, here’s your new rector coming--I’ll tell you another
time.”