A QUEER HOUSEHOLD
Extract from a letter to Miss Grace Holroyd, dated January 12:
"Since the first scrawl I sent you, telling you of my safe, though
delayed, arrival, and trying to describe this extraordinary place, I
have begun two letters and torn up both in despair. The truth is that
ever since I got here my mind has been rushing round and round, mixing
and curdling itself more like milk in a churn than anything I can think
of. This is Friday. I arrived here on Tuesday, and I find myself just
as bewildered, just as unable to give such an account of my environment
as may sound sane and well considered, as I was the first day.
"I was always conscious of living, at Bramforth, in too deep a groove;
but little did I guess how far I was sunk therein or how hard would be
the process of re-adjustment.
"Having written that down, I pause to wonder whether it is true. Was my
groove so deep? or is the eccentricity of the Guyses to blame for my
mental confusion? Sometimes I incline to one view, sometimes to the
other; but I am beginning to feel quite sure that, strange as this
Pele-place is, the trio of persons who dwell therein are far, far more
improbable.
"First, there is the Indian ayah, striking so bizarre a note of contrast
to begin with, that it makes one quite giddy. She is the only one who
took to me from the first. Judging from what I hear, she is by no means
agreeable to everybody, so I ought to consider myself lucky, I suppose.
"Her affection takes the form of waiting upon me hand and foot. One
would fancy she had been languishing in a far country for years, buoyed
up solely by the hope of being one day permitted to lace my boots!
Picture me, Gracie, after such a youth as you know of, hardly allowed so
much as to wash my own hands! I lie now under a carven canopy, in a
nest of down so thoroughly warmed for me at night that I sleep a kind of
charmed slumber from dusk to dawn. When I awake, it is to find my
handmaid at my side with tea--such tea!--and cream--such cream! While I
sip in luxury, she re-kindles the fire, which usually has not quite gone
out all night, so cunningly does she bank it down.
"In front of this fire she prepares my bath, and--now I beg of you not
to blush--she insists upon bathing me herself, rubbing me from head to
foot with a kind of wondrous massage. She then dresses my hair, and I
go down to breakfast all in a glow, ready for anything, even the Guyse
menage!
"I remember hearing your dear wise mother say that if you give your
household staff thoroughly comfortable quarters and plenty of good food
they would never grumble at work, however hard. Perhaps that is Sunia's
idea about me. I am, indeed, well fed and lodged.
"I breakfast alone with the young man of whom I told you--the one who
brought me here. He goes off to work on his farm immediately after. He
works very hard, I think, for he has only Ezra Baxter, a man named Kay,
and one or two farm labourers to help him.
"At about eleven o'clock, Madam, as Mrs. Guyse is called by everyone in
the house, makes her appearance. When we reach her, we are at the
thickest of the mystery. I cannot understand her one bit. She is not
merely in no want of a companion, she even seems, quite unmistakably, to
be bored by my presence, to look upon me as an incubus, for whom
occupation or amusement must somehow be found.
"Is it not quaint? She wrote to me herself, she offered me unusually
high terms, she was apparently most anxious for me to come at once. Now
that I am here she does not in the least know what to do with me. I
have to make work, for her main idea seems to be to contrive how little
of my company she need endure, to plan reasons for keeping me out of her
sight.
"The idea of her having a companion came, I suppose, from her son.
Sometimes I think he suggested it merely to give him somebody to tease.
One could hardly blame him; a winter here must be an ordeal. There is,
however, another possible reason. I have guessed that he fears the
isolation here is telling upon Madam's mental faculties, and that she
must be taken out of herself, even if she doesn't like the remedy! They
were apparently very rich in former days, and the poor lady's fallen
fortunes have no doubt preyed upon her mind.
"I can't flatter myself that I have made much headway yet. So far, I
have merely made a preliminary examination of the library which, while
anything but up to date, seems valuable, and contains what even my
ignorance knows to be rare editions.
"Let me give you an example of my difficulties.
"The day after my arrival, Mr. Guyse suggested a sleigh drive. I
assented, supposing, of course, that Madam would go too. I found,
however, when the time came, that she had not the least intention of so
doing. I therefore excused myself, pointing out to the young man that I
could not go out and leave her alone the whole afternoon. Upon this, to
my surprise, Madam lost her temper, turned to me and asked what use I
should be if I could not do as I was told? She expected me to take her
place and accompany her son when she could not. She never went out when
the snow was on the ground. Of course, I felt ashamed of having made a
fuss, and I went obediently, but neither of us enjoyed it. He and I do
not get on a bit. His idea of making himself agreeable is either to
chaff or to flirt, and I hate both. This obliges me to be so grim and
stony when I am with him that you would think I had never unbent in my
life. I have the uncomfortable feeling that, if I so much as smile
frankly at him, he will take advantage of it to make some personal
remark about my dimple or some such folly. Well, to continue, I suppose
that he brought some kind of pressure to bear upon his mother after that
drive, for the following day she said she was coming with us, and come
she did. Alas! My triumph was short-lived. Nemesis has overtaken me.
She promptly took cold, and this morning we decided to send for the
doctor. Young Guyse has some grudge against the doctor, so the matter
has not endeared me in that quarter, as you may imagine. However, as I
prefer him out of temper, that doesn't matter much.
"_Saturday._--If I had dispatched this yesterday it would have ended
with an emphatic declaration that I meant to look out for another post
at once. Last night, however, something happened to shake my
resolution.
"As poor Madam was too seedy to come downstairs, I went up to her after
supper to see if I could do anything to amuse her. She had already
informed me that if there is one thing she dislikes more than another it
is having anyone read aloud to her! So I took my little patience cards.
You know, a long experience with grandfather has made me quite a
compendium of Barnes.
"I had noticed a green baize writing-board down in the billiard-room,
and I succeeded in arranging this across the arms of her chair, so that
she could handle the cards conveniently. We started with an easy game,
and before we had been going ten minutes I knew I had lighted upon
something that took her fancy.
"She grew quite interested, displaying a childish eagerness. Then, just
as she was beginning to chatter to me more naturally than she has ever
done, that hateful young man must needs come pounding on the door to
know if I wasn't coming down to play billiards with him.
"He marched in--nobody can shout through these oaken doors--and I saw
her expression change and a nervous look creep into her face, as it does
when she sees him. 'You had better go,' she said uncertainly.
"It came to me all in a minute that she needed a champion; and I got up
and went to him, saying decidedly that I could not go, as he must see,
for we were in the middle of a most interesting game.
"'Oh, tosh!' he said easily, 'come along. I've had the room warmed on
purpose for you.'
"'I'm sorry you took the trouble,' I replied, 'but surely you understand
that when your mother wants me I must be with her.'
"She was making little anxious sounds and coughing significantly. 'Go
with him. I can spare you quite well,' she muttered; but my blood was
up. I went to the door, and he, thinking he had gained his point,
followed me out into the passage, or rather the tunnel. He had a candle
in his hand, so he could see my face.
"'Mr. Guyse,' I said, 'when you brought me here you told me that your
mother was badly in need of distraction--that she suffered from ennui.
Now that I have watched her for several days, I am sure that you did a
right and necessary thing in persuading her to have somebody to live
with her. She leads too solitary an existence, and it is telling on her
health and spirits. To-night, for the first time, she has seemed glad
of my company, and interested in what we are doing. You couldn't be so
selfish as to want me to leave her to herself?"
"He flushed angrily. 'And what price me? Is it good for me to be
everlastingly alone?' he began; and then quite suddenly he broke off and
grinned at me as if it were a huge joke.
"'Right as usual, teacher,' he said. 'Yes, it's true. I knew she ought
to have somebody about. You go right on, and never mind me.'
"I was quite astonished and a little touched. 'I felt you were only
thoughtless,' I said. He remarked that I was evidently born to be the
mistress of a reformatory, but he evidently bore no malice and cleared
off without further ado. As I went back I thought over the speech I had
made, and it did sound horribly priggish! I never spoke so to anybody
before. Isn't it astonishing how different one is with different
people? I don't think I ever struck you as a sanctimonious little
hypocrite; did I, Gracie, my beloved?
"Madam looked so surprised when I came back that I could not help
laughing a little as I sat down by her.
"'Please, Miss Innes,' said she faintly, 'go down and have a game with
poor Nin; he is so lonely.'
"'He may be lonely there, but you are lonely here,' said I. 'Was I
engaged to look after him or you?'
"'He'll be very angry,' she began, but I assured her that he was
not--that he had said he thought me quite right.
"'Oh, he may not show it to you, but it is I who will hear of this
again,' said she.
"'Nothing of the kind,' I said. 'I'll see to it that he shan't tease
you.' (Rather cheek on my part!) 'He doesn't mean to be unkind, but
men are inconsiderate. If I explain matters to him he will be more
reasonable.'
"She looked unhappy and undecided, and then said, in a kind of burst, 'I
am so anxious for you and him to get on together. I don't want you to
go away.'
"Well, that was putting things in a new light. Apparently she thinks
that if I don't make myself agreeable to the master of the house he will
tell her to give me notice. The thought made me quite angry. The
ingenuous speech had also shown me something else. I had not supposed
that Madam liked me, and her unconscious admission bucked me to a
surprising extent.
"'Then you don't want me to go away?' I asked; and she replied
hurriedly, 'No, indeed! I am most anxious, very anxious, that you
should stay.'
* * * * *
"So that was settled, and just for the moment I mean to stay and to keep
up, if I can, my new role of mistress of a reformatory! I worked it
splendidly at breakfast, and was able to refuse a sleigh drive on the
plea that I must not be out when the doctor calls. In spite of his rage
that this said doctor, who is young and good-looking, should be coming
at all, Mr. Guyse was fain to admit that this was a just excuse. He
looked at me curiously, as if in wonder that anyone so severely proper
as I could contrive to exist!
"So far, so good! The difficulty will be to keep it up if we see much
of each other, for he is madly provoking, and, as you know, I have a
tongue!
"Well, I must end this rigmarole, and go and brush my hair in
preparation for receiving Dr. Balmayne, whose impending arrival is
exciting me to an extent that I cannot expect you to understand until
you have lived the best part of a week in a dark tower, cut off from all
intercourse with the world outside.
"You see, we met the doctor on our way up here, and I thought he looked
interesting. He stared at me as if he thought I was not quite proper,
and, seeing what young Guyse is, I can hardly wonder. However, I hope
to persuade him of my moral rectitude, and also (perhaps) of my rare
personal charm, this afternoon! Best love and farewell--Your chum-girl,
OLWEN."