The Cold-Hearted Fates
When Mrs. Day and her daughters had retired that night, their boarder sat
up writing a letter.
Deleah found it pushed under her plate at breakfast the next morning,
Gibbon always breakfasting early and alone.
"I think you behaved nobly," the letter ran. "Do not heed what others in
their spite and jealousy may say. The man Forcus is a purse-proud snob.
But if as such he is too proud to receive you into his family, remember
that there is another that have better taste. My family is highly
respectable, but they would receive you gladly, for my sake. And as for
me, I should always think you did me honour by becoming mine. Which honour
I pray you, my beloved Deleah, to do me."
Deleah crumpled the note in her hand--she was down before her mother and
sister, that morning--and took it into the kitchen where Emily was making
the breakfast toast, and rammed it, with the poker, and a good will, into
the heart of the glowing coals.
She thought as she did so of the talk with her mother the other night in
which the name of the Honourable Charles had figured. She had only half
meant what she had said then, but now--how could she ever so lightly have
contemplated for one moment such a marriage!
"And what young chap's love-letter are you a-burnin' of now, Miss Deleah?"
Emily facetiously inquired, waving the round of toast gracefully before
the bars.
"The love-letter of a young chap who should never trust himself to write
one," Deleah told her, calmly. "His love-letter was abominable, Emily."
She had a love-letter of another sort that morning. It was brought to her,
and given in the presence of her pupils at the mal à propos moment when
Miss Chaplin had unexpectedly entered the little class-room in which the
juniors were taught, and where was Deleah's domain. Miss Chaplin had
thought that she had heard laughter issuing from this direction, and had
burst into the room to beg of Miss Day to keep the children in order.
Poor Miss Day was desperately anxious to retain her post in Miss Chaplin's
Academy, and for that reason, and because Miss Chaplin was quite aware of
the fact, she found it safe and convenient to make of the poor young
teacher the scapegoat for whatever irregularities were committed in the
school, to discharge upon her the pent-up irritabilities she dared not
vent upon the more valuable assistants, who might resent such ebullitions
at inconvenient times.
She had received notice that morning that three pupils of whom she was
proud, who did the school credit, were to leave next quarter. She had had
a "brush" with the German governess, and Fräulein had been insolent. But
Fräulein was valuable, and Miss Chaplin had bottled her wrath, to empty
it on the innocent head of Deleah.
"I must really ask you, Miss Day, to maintain better order in your class.
I heard laughing. Frequently when I pass the door I hear laughing--"
But where was Miss Day who should be responsible for such a terrible state
of things?
One of the tots of pupils had slipped off the form on which she sat, and
rolled under the table, and Deleah had crept under the table too, in
search of her, at which the other pupils had laughed. The abashed
governess received the reproof of her principal on all fours.
"Really, Miss Day!" cried the scandalised woman. "Yours is hardly a seemly
attitude to assume before the pupils, is it?"
And at that least opportune moment, the door of the class-room burst open
again and Kitty Miller, that day scholar who sometimes walked home with
Miss Day and kept "The Deleah Book," appeared. She flourished a letter in
her hand.
"What will you give me for this, Miss Day?" she cried, not till too late
perceiving the awe-inspiring figure of Miss Chaplin.
Deleah took the missive, and it would have been hard to decide whether she
who gave it or she who took it had the guiltier look.
The outraged voice of Miss Chaplin arrested Kitty Miller in the moment of
ignominious flight. "Wait!" commanded the alarming tones. Kitty stood
still, trembling as she heard. "Who employs you to convey letters to Miss
Day, Kitty?"
Kitty, the colour of beet-root, looked at Deleah, lily-white.
"Who gave you that letter, Kitty?"
And poor Kitty, looking piteously at Deleah, lied--futilely, but for the
sake of her friend--and said she did not know.
"Was it a gentleman?"
Kitty, confounded and demoralised, stammered out that she had forgotten.
Deleah came to her rescue. Deleah, who knew well that her hour had come:
"It is from Mr. Reginald Forcus," she said. She had received warnings on
the subject of Reginald Forcus before.
"And what has that gentleman to write to you of such immediate importance
that it must cause an interruption to class?" Miss Chaplin with head in
air demanded.
And Deleah looking at the note in its envelope, said she did not know.
"Open it, and see," Miss Chaplin naturally recommended.
When Deleah hesitated to comply, the schoolmistress held out her hand, but
Deleah, choosing to disregard that gesture, put the letter in her pocket.
The elder lady threw her thin lips into a tight line across her narrow
face. She really thought it immoral for a girl to receive a letter from a
gentleman, she really felt that the high tone of her school was endangered
by that flagrant breach of manners made by Deleah Day. She had to punish
iniquity, she had to protect from the evil effects of pernicious example,
the unsullied young under her care.
When Deleah, that afternoon, came upon Reggie waiting for her at the
corner of the street, a fatuous expression of joy at her approach on his
silly, good-looking face, she had received her dismissal from the school.
She was filled with anger towards him as the cause of that which was to
her a calamity.
"I have been given notice to go. _You_ have done that, Reggie," she
greeted him. "Your silly letter this morning was the finish."
"A rattling good thing too," the irreverent Reggie declared. "I'm jolly
glad to hear it."
"And what do you suppose I am to do now?"
"That's what I came to tell you. It's just spiffin' for my plans, as
you'll see, dear."
"It's not at all 'spiffin'' for mine."
"You. wait! You and I will get married, Deleah. We'll bring it off at
once, do you see?"
"Oh, no, Reggie!"
"Oh, yes, Deleah. See if we won't! I'm not doing anything underhand. I've
told Francis, straight. He's no fool. He knows when I mean a thing. And
I'm my own master."
"But you're not mine, Reggie."
"You wait a bit. We'll fight all that out afterwards. What I've got to say
to you this afternoon is this: I want to put you up on horseback."
"Absurd!"
"Wait! Only wait! Where do you think I've been this afternoon? I've been
over to Runnydale, to look at old Candy's little brown mare. It's the one
his girl has been riding. She's married, and gone away; and I've got the
promise of it for you. No! Now do wait a bit. That little mare's as safe
as a donkey; a child might ride her. All the same, I'm not going to put
you up on her till you've had lessons; and I've been and seen about that
too."
"Reggie!"
"I have, right enough. I went round to Ben Steel's when I came back from
Runnydale. He's arranged to take you out twice a week. I'm going with
you--so as you don't feel strange. I told Ben you'd take to it like a duck
to water. 'That young lady'll look stunning on horseback,' Steel said. A
little cheeky of him, but he's privileged. I say, Deleah, what'll the old
women of Brockenham say when they see you with me, a-cock-horse, riding
side by side past their windows?"
"They'll never see me doing it, Reggie. I'm not going to ride with you, my
dear boy."
"You wait! You'll change your mind when you see Laura Candy's little brown
mare. Let me bring her up for you to see, to-morrow. Look here, I'm to
send over for her to-night. Oh, hang it all, Deleah, we'll put off the
marrying for a time if you like, but I've set my heart on having some
rides together. You don't know how proud I shall be to ride with you
beside me down Broad Street, and through the market-place, and up St.
Margaret's Lane. It will give all the cackling old women something to talk
about."
It was with difficulty she made him understand that to help him to afford
food for gossip was not her ambition, that she declined his escort on
horseback through the streets of her native town, as well as his
companionship through life. The events of the day had hardened her heart;
and she succeeded in convincing him at last.
"And, Reggie, you are not to come to our house any more; you are never to
write me letters; you are not to waylay me in the streets."
"Oh, I say, Deleah! Come! You can't mean it."
"I mean every word."
"But can't I sometimes meet you by accident even?"
"If you do I shall cut you."
"And if I won't be cut?"
"I shall call a policeman."
She laughed, but she made him see that she was in earnest. He walked by
her side, crestfallen, a grieving look on his good-humoured, pleasant
face. The hunting season was not here for several months. His head and his
heart had been filled of late with Deleah, his time had been passed in
riding down Bridge Street in the hope that she might be looking out of
window, in waylaying her when she came from school, in sitting in the room
over the shop with Bessie, to get rid of time till Deleah should appear.
"If I'm to give up seeing you, and trying to see you, what on earth am I
to do?" he asked.
"You are to travel."
"Why that is what Francis has been sticking into me!
"There you are, then. Two people who know what is good for you, Reggie."
"Francis is in a deuce of a hurry. He wants me to go next week."
"And why not?"
"I don't know why not--now," a miserable Reggie admitted.
"Then go at once and tell him you are ready."
For her word's sake to his brother she wrung a reluctant assent from him,
and left him. But an hour later Emily bringing in the tea announced that a
gentleman had called to see Miss Deleah.
"You can guess who 'tis," Emily said, as she spread the cloth. "He's in
his dog-cart at the door, and his horse that resty, he says he can't come
in; but he won't keep Miss Deleah a minute."
Bessie kneeling on the window-seat, was looking down into the street:
"It's Reggie, of course," she said. Then she turned round to her sister.
"Deleah," she said, "don't be silly; _take_ Reggie. Don't be put off by
that stuck-up, conceited old brother; don't trouble any more about me, and
things I've said. It's a real chance. The best you'll ever get. _Take
it_."
She had to call the last words over the balusters, for Deleah, paying no
heed to her exhortation, was running down the stairs.
Beside Reginald Forcus in his smart dog-cart little Franky Day, to his own
delight and surprise, was sitting. He had come running down the street to
his tea, when Reggie had accosted him with the agreeable attention of a
whip-lash curved round his calves.
"Hullo, youngster!" Reggie had greeted him.
"Quite 'ell, I thank ye," Franky had responded.
"Coming for a spin with me?"
No further invitation had Franky required, but had clambered at once,
great eyes sparkling, little heart beating high, into the vacant seat
beside the driver. The exceeding honour was his to hold the reins, the
groom standing at Black Michael's head, while Reggie got down to speak to
Deleah at the door.
"Deleah," he said, "I've come to tell you I've done all you asked of me.
I've seen Francis, and I go away next week."
"Good Reggie!"
"I've done it because you asked me; and now I want you to do just one
thing for me. I know it's all over, and there's no hope for me, and after
to-night I shan't see you any more. I want you to come for a spin with me
to-night."
"No, Reggie."
"Yes, Deleah. I've got to go to Runnydale, to tell old Candy I shan't want
that little mare. Franky is coming. Franky can sit up between us,
Deleah--"
He was very proud of himself for his forethought in securing Franky.
Deleah, chaperoned by Franky, could have no excuse.
She refused him very gently, because of his subdued demeanour, and
because, absurd as it was of him, his voice had faltered when he made his
appeal, and his eyes had grown moist. "But you must not take Franky,
Reggie," she said, and called on the child to descend, and come in to his
tea.
"Le'me go, Deda! Le'me go!" Franky pleaded.
"Oh, Deleah, just to please me--this last time ever I shall see you--you
come too!" the young man tried her again. When again she refused, he flung
away from her in a rage, and mounted to his seat; the groom, leaving the
tossing head of Black Michael, sprang up behind. She called again to
Franky, but they were off without reply. Deleah, looking after them for a
minute, could see the child's excited little face beaming with delight
turned up with admiration to the young man beside him.
Then she went back into the black little entry which did duty for hall,
and mounted the steep, narrow stairs with a lagging step. How brightly the
afternoon sun had shone on Reggie, his fair, smooth hair, vivid necktie,
the flower in his coat. How the brass harness had glittered, and Black
Michael's satin coat had shone; how spick and span was Odgers, the groom,
in his green and buff livery; what an air of wealth and well-being about
every appointment.
Deleah would have liked very well to have sat behind the spirited horse by
kind Reggie's side; to have dashed forth into the sweet-smelling
country--away from cheese and coffee and their mingled odours, away from
Bessie and her complaining over the chance Deleah had thrown away; away
from the society of the boarder who looked at her with such burning eyes,
beneath a penthouse of hand, watching her every movement, who whispered
his recklessly fierce "I love you" when the least excuse could bring his
head near to hers. Away from the thought of Miss Chaplin, and the
necessity to set about finding a fresh situation.
She had not wished to marry Reggie, but now that he was lost to her past
recall, a value which for her he had not before possessed seemed to attach
to him. How easy life would have been with him! Every day Franky might
have gone for a drive; her mother could have turned her back on the
grocer's shop--
From the time she set her foot on the lower stair till she reached the
landing Deleah almost allowed herself to believe she would call the young
man, and all that he stood for to her and hers, back again. But before she
had opened the door of the sitting-room, she had remembered Sir Francis,
and his scorn of her and hers, and her face had burnt with shame.
"Well?" questioned Bessie, as she entered, her eyes glittering with
eagerness.
"He wanted me to go for a drive. I would not go. He has taken Franky."
"Franky, in his old school suit, and without having his collar changed?"
Emily, lurking around, to hear the result of this short interview on the
doorstep, was also horrified to think of the disgrace brought on the
family by the condition of Franky. "His nails is that black when he come
home from school, and often as not his face smudged. What a sight to set
in front of Odgers."
"Odgers has got his back to him."
"For all that I'd have liked to scrape the top of the dirt off him. And
he've got on the knickers with the patch at the back!"
Mrs. Day, having been up for her tea and retired again to the shop, took
her place behind the counter, and dispatched Mr. Pretty to his meal.
No customers came in. She turned her sad and patient eyes upon the street,
thinking--not of the cutler's over the way, with whose son Franky had
formed such an undesirable friendship, nor of the passers by on the narrow
pavement, nor of the tradesmen's carts rattling over the cobble stones;
thinking of Bernard on his way to India and untold danger and privations,
of Deleah and her dismissal from the school. Her pretty, good child, to
have received such shabby treatment! Deleah, who if she had chosen might
have queened it over them all. Of her steadily declining business, too,
she thought, and of how impossible it was for her to cope with Coman's,
down the street. To-morrow was the seventh, the day set apart in each
month by Mr. Boult for going into her affairs; looking through her books,
catechising her, cross-questioning her, giving her advice in his
tyrannical, bullying way. From this her thoughts glanced off to the
subject Bessie had held forth upon in her irritating, worrying fashion,
through tea.
"It is a pity the child did not have his face washed, certainly," she
said.
At last a customer! No, only the cutler's little boy, Franky's chum, from
across the way.
The cutler hired a strip of garden on one of the roads, and when tea was
over, in the summer evenings, Franky and the cutler's son ran off together
to their garden to get into what childish mischief was possible in the
restricted space.
"Franky isn't in, this evening," Mrs. Day told the boy. "He's gone for a
drive with Mr. Forcus." She gave him a screw of acid-drops for himself,
and the boy ran off.
"All ri', thenk ye. Tell Franky I looked in," he called.
The next comer was the fat little maid-of-all-work from the butcher's,
near by. She was red-haired, with a large goitre over which her afternoon
black frock would not quite button. She was hardly worked from early
morning, to late evening, and Mrs. Day, ever full of compassion for the
weak and oppressed, was kind and gentle to her.
She was generally breathless with hurry and the trouble of the goitre, and
Mrs. Day took no special notice of her panting condition now.
"What for you to-night, Alice?" she asked her.
"It's soap," Alice gasped. "Soap, and matches, and six eggs for the
morning's breakfast, and I was to tell you, if you please, as you was to
put in seven, steads of six, for one in the last lot was stale. And have
you heard, please, there's been an accident with that there Mr. Forcus's
tricky horse?"
Mrs. Day's dark eyes gazed at the girl out of a face blanched to the
pallor of the dead.
"There have, then! Master, he jus' come in and said so. His horse is kilt;
and the groom, he's cut about the face; and your little boy, what he took
a ridin' with him, have got his neck broke."