THE STORY OF THE OLD HOUSE.
"Old house! that time hath deigned to spare,
'Mid sunny slopes and gardens fair."--SIGOURNEY.
It all seemed like a dream the next morning. We slept much later than
usual, for we were quite tired out. I can never even now think of that
evening--shut up in the dark in the big bare room--without a sort of
shudder. It really was dreadful: we were so cold that when we did
fall asleep it was only to wake again with a start to find ourselves
shivering and aching. And it was frightening, too: though we squeezed
together as close as we could, we felt dreadfully alone. And alone we
really were; for, as we understood afterwards, there was nobody at all
in the Old House. The person who dusted it was the woman who lived at
the lodge, and only came up in the mornings. Regina had taken her a
little into her confidence. The day she hurried away when a bell rang,
it was the woman ringing to let her know the Rectory pony-carriage was
coming up the lane. Auntie knew that Regina came to the Old House, but
she thought it was just to wander about the garden, and that day she had
promised to call for her at the lodge. For the Old House belonged to
auntie: it had belonged to the Mowbrays for a very, very great many
years. And this brings me to the story of the long-ago troubles which we
were told--the story which explained everything which had puzzled us.
It was Mrs. Munt who told it us. She came into our room--Tib's and my
room--that morning before we were up--we had had our breakfast in
bed--and sat down between our cots.
"My dears," she began, "your dear grandpapa and--and my dear lady, Mrs.
Mowbray, Miss Queenie as was--they have asked me to tell you something
of the past, so that you may understand all. It is a great honour they
have done me, and I will endeavour to show that I feel it such. But oh,"
and here she fairly broke down, "this is a happy, a blessed day--to see
them at one again, and oh, my dears, it was a happy day that brought
you to Rosebuds, for all the anguish of heart of Mrs. Liddy and myself
last night, we shall never but be thankful to the over-ruling powers as
directed the finding of the key, and your innocent minds to the Old
House."
At this point Mrs. Munt stopped. It was a sort of little address which
she thought it her duty to make, and after this, she went straight on.
"It is a many years ago," she said, "that it all happened. When I first
came to Rosebuds as a young girl to help in the cooking, there was
living here your grandpapa, then a little boy of ten, and his brother
Baldwin, and Miss Mary, with their mother, and their father, who was on
the point of going abroad with his regiment. Not long after he left,
Miss Regina was born; then came the news of your great-grandpapa's
death, and the shock affected your great-grandmamma so much that she
never recovered it. She died a year or two after, Master Baldwin being
by that time preparing for the army, for he was five years older than
Master Gerald, and Miss Mary older than he. Miss Mary took charge of
things with a lady to help her. You can fancy that everybody was devoted
to Miss Regina, Master Gerald especially. Some years later, Ansdell
Friars came to Master Baldwin, by his uncle's death. He came home from
time to time, and we used to spend a part of the year there, but it
never seemed home to us, like Rosebuds. Your grandpapa married young--he
was about twenty-four, and Miss Queenie was thirteen. Poor Miss Mary
died the year before his marriage; you have seen her tomb at Ansdell,
and it seemed well to him to marry, to have a lady at the head of
things, him having so much charge like, for his brother. And your papa
was born when Miss Queenie was about fifteen. Your grandpapa's marriage
was a very happy one; Mrs. Ansdell was a very sweet lady, and suited him
well. She had not half the spirit nor the cleverness of Miss Queenie,
and she gave in to her husband, and she joined with him in thinking
there never was so beautiful a creature as Miss Queenie. How they did
spoil her! Poor Master Gerald--your papa, my dears, seemed nobody
and nothing in the family, compared with his auntie, though he was a
dear little boy. Well, to explain--next door to Rosebuds, as you now
understand, is the Old House. It is a far finer and larger place than
this, and it has always belonged to the Mowbrays, who are cousins of
the Ansdells, by a Miss Regina Mowbray having married an Ansdell--your
grandpapa's grandmother she was, as well as I can remember. It is her
picture that hangs in the big drawing-room--"
"The old princess!" we exclaimed, at which Mrs. Munt smiled--"and," she
went on, "it is from her, they always say, that comes the beauty--the
dark hair and blue eyes, the Ansdells are, so to say, proud of.
Well,"--Mrs. Munt here hurried on a little, I think she thought it
not good for us to say much about family beauty; it didn't matter to
_me_, with my shaggy light hair, and browny-greeny eyes, but Tib is
different--"the families at the two houses were very intimate--that door
in the wall was made in the Old House conservatory as a short cut for
the young ladies to run in and out by--they and the rectory family, this
Mr. Lauriston's uncle it was then, but this one was a great deal there,
were all most friendly. At the Old House there were some sisters--one is
living still, being Mr. Truro's mother--and two brothers. The eldest
brother _was_ a nice gentleman, just everything a gentleman should be,
and your grandpapa was delighted when he spoke to him for Miss Queenie.
Miss Queenie laughed and made fun of it, but in the end she said 'yes,'
and all would have been well--for he was a gentleman no woman could have
failed to care for as a husband--had not the younger brother come home
on leave. He had not seen Miss Queenie since she was grown up, for he
was a sailor, and had been long away. He was handsome, and had a taking
way with him--a sort of dash about him, and he was selfish and false. He
fell in love with her, and persuaded her that she had fallen in love
with him, and rather than be open about it, bad as it was to have lured
her away from his brother, he made it worse by getting her to run away
with him, and not let any one know where they were, till he wrote to
say they were married. My dears, from that day till yesterday, your
grandpapa and she never met again."
"Was he so angry?" we asked.
"Anger is no word for it. He was turned to stone to her. The
deceitfulness--that was always his cry. Poor Mr. John Mowbray--his great
friend, the one who had really the most to complain of, was far gentler,
though it broke his heart. He never married, and at his death, two years
ago, all came to your auntie as his brother's widow, for Mr. Conrad, the
brother, was dead. That is how the Old House is now your auntie's, but
she has never lived there. She could not bear it, seeing her brother
would not forgive her, and she had made up her mind to sell it, and came
to stay at the Rectory to get it all arranged. It was partly hearing it
was going to be sold, made your grandpapa think of coming here again
at last--he thought it was all quite settled, and no fear of any one
coming about. For he has not even had any friendliness with the Rectory
folk all these years; the old rector spoke to him before he died, and
begged him to forgive Miss Queenie, but it only made him harder. He
would never hear her name--he scored it out wherever he came across it
in a book--"
"Oh, yes, we saw that in London," we interrupted.
"_Nothing_," continued Mrs. Munt, "but the sight of her poor, sweet,
worn face would have changed him, and to think that _she_ should have
been the one to tell him the good news last night--it is indeed
wonderful how it has come about."
"Was auntie very unhappy with that man--the one she married?" asked Tib
in a low voice. Mrs. Munt looked sad and grave.
"My dears," she said, solemnly, "no good comes of ill-doing. The man who
deceived his kind brother, who set himself to wile a girl away from her
truest and best friends, was not the man to make a good husband. She
must have suffered more than you--or we, maybe--could understand. But it
is past, and you need never think of it again, except as a warning. Your
dear auntie may tell you more herself as you grow older. But for me, I
think I have done my part; and, indeed, I could almost feel the work of
my life is near its end now I have lived to see my dear master and his
best-loved sister united again," and poor Mrs. Munt wiped her eyes as
she kissed us, and said we might get up now--we were to go to the
Rectory to luncheon.
You will be glad to hear that she is living still, and likely to live
for many peaceful years to come.
We were, of course, very much interested in all she had told us. It took
some time to get it quite straight and clear in our heads, especially as
we felt that we should not much like to talk over the saddest parts of
it with any one but ourselves: not even with Regina, for, of course, the
man who had brought so much misery to them all--Mr. Conrad Mowbray--was
her father (I am not going to let her read this last chapter if I can
help it); and even about dear auntie, we felt it would not be kind to
talk about it to Regina--though _now_ I can scarcely fancy even Regina
herself feeling more tender about anything and everything to do with her
mother than Tib and I, who are really only her grandnieces, do.
We were at the same time in a hurry to get dressed, and go down stairs,
and yet a little afraid.
"Last night I wasn't afraid of grandpapa," said Tib; "we seemed all
worked up, so that only the _realest_ feelings mattered. Little top
feelings, like being shy and all that, seemed pushed away."
I didn't answer for a moment. I was thinking over what she said.
"Do you think our being afraid of grandpapa and fancying we don't love
him is only a top feeling after all?" I said.
"Yes," said Tib, "I do. Anyway, _I'm_ going to love him now. Perhaps, if
he has so many to love him now--auntie and Regina, and you and me--all
at once, the lot of it will make up for his having had so little all
these years. Things come like that sometimes, I suppose."
While we were talking--we took a good while to dress, for we wanted to
be very neat to go to the Rectory--there came a tap at the door, and in
walked Gerald, as cool as a cucumber.
"I'm ready," he said, and indeed one could see by the scrubby look of
his cheeks that he had had an extra amount of soap. "I've got my best
suit on to go to the Rectory."
"But, Gerald," said Tib, "don't you want to hear all about how it's all
been. Gussie and I can tell you," for I forgot to say that Mrs. Munt had
told us we had better explain a little to him. "Don't you want to know
why the Old House that we called the palace was shut up, and how it
comes to be auntie's, and how she is our auntie, and--"
"No," interrupted Gerald. "I don't want to know anything. It puzzles me.
I'm only seven years old."
We looked at him in astonishment. Then we fairly burst out laughing.
"I never saw such a boy," said Tib. "You're so lazy, Gerald, you won't
even let your mind work enough to understand about your own family."
"I do understand all I need," said Gerald; "I understand that we've got
an auntie, and that she's very kind, and that Regina is a cousin, and
she's very nice too--so nice that I'm still going to think she's a
fairy. That's what I've settled, and I think it's quite enough when I'm
only seven."
And from that day to this I have never heard him express any curiosity
or make any inquiries as to all that had happened. I fancy Gerald will
get through life comfortably--though to do him justice he is working
very well at school, and doesn't seem to be considered lazy at all.
Tib and I had still enough questions to ask to make up for his not
asking any. We were in a fever to see Regina, and very glad when Gerald
ran up stairs again to say that she had just driven over in the
Lauristons' pony-carriage to fetch us, and was waiting downstairs, and
we hurried down as fast as we could.
"But what about grandpapa?" said Tib, as we got to the first landing.
"Should we not go to say good morning or something to him?"
I hesitated, but just at that moment we heard his voice. He was standing
in the porch talking to Regina. You can't think how funny it seemed.
When he heard us he came into the hall and met us at the foot of the
stairs. Then he kissed us each, in a way he had never kissed us before.
It was like saying, "You understand all now. Let us begin a new life
together;" though his _said_ words were only, "Good morning, my dear
children. Are you all quite well and not tired now?"
"Quite well, thank you, dear grandpapa," and I am sure he understood
"between the lines," as people say of a letter meaning more than it
shows.
"I wish you could come with us, Uncle Gerald," said Regina, as we were
driving off.
"Thank you, my dear, but I am very busy," he said. There was a look in
his eyes to her that I had never seen before.
"But Charlie will be here this afternoon, and he does help you, doesn't
he?" she said.
"Very much," grandpapa replied.
We looked back at him, standing there in the doorway.
"Grandpapa is changed since last night," said Tib.
"How?" said Regina, anxiously. "You don't think he's ill?"
"No," said Tib, "though he does look very pale. But his face seems older
and _yet_ younger. It has got a sort of softer look, as if at last he
wasn't going to fight against himself anymore, but that it has tired
him."
"Yes," said Regina, "I understand. Then _you_ understand now--you and
Gussie?"
"Yes," we answered. "Mrs. Munt has told us a great deal. But there are
some things only you can tell us, and we want dreadfully to ask you."
"Fire away," said Regina, and she did so laugh when we didn't understand
her; for, of course, though she had never had any brothers or sisters,
she hadn't lived the shut-up way we had done.
"We want to know," we began, "how you knew about us going to the--the
Old House, and how you knew our names and about us altogether."
"It was Charlie Truro that told me about you," she said. "He is my
cousin as much--no, a good deal more--than he is yours, and we have
always been a great deal together. He has known what a terrible sorrow
it was to mamma to be estranged from her only brother, and he and I have
often planned what we could do. We were very glad when Uncle Gerald
agreed to take him as a sort of secretary for a while--it seemed a sort
of beginning."
"I wonder grandpapa ever did," I said. "Wasn't it rather a wonder? For
he knew he was a near cousin of yours, I suppose?"
"Yes," said Regina, "but it came about naturally enough, through some
friends who had no connection with us. And once he had seen Charlie,
Uncle Gerald seems to have taken a fancy to him. We came down here to
stay at the Rectory, not knowing any one was at Rosebuds. Your coming
was kept very quiet. Then Charlie told us of it, when he wrote, and
when he came down here he managed to come to see us one day--a Sunday it
was--at the Rectory, and told us all about you. And to me, though to no
one else, he told of your funny trouble, about having got into the Old
House and wondering if it was naughty, and then we planned together--he
and I--that I should meet you there. I don't know exactly what I hoped
for--I think Charlie had a vague idea that some day Uncle Gerald might
see me, and that--with me being so like mamma--it might do some good.
But we hadn't fixed anything, we meant to talk it all over the next time
he came--to-day, that is. He little thought he would find it all done
when he came."
"Won't he be surprised!" I said.
"Mamma sent him a telegram this morning," she said. "He deserved it."
But by this time we were at the Rectory.
We couldn't help feeling rather shy; we had really never been out
anywhere before except once, in London, when we had gone to have tea
with a niece of nurse's, who had a shop in one of the big streets, and
we had tea in the parlour behind. So that was _quite_ different, of
course. At the Rectory it was very nice except for our being shy. But
after luncheon, when we went out into the garden with auntie, she soon
sent away the shyness. She was just as kind and understanding as she
could be, as she has been ever since--such a _perfect_ auntie that our
only wonder now is how we ever did without her all those years.
We had to tell her all _our_ story over again, all from the beginning of
grandpapa's telling us we were to come to Rosebuds, and the book with
the name scored through; we _had_ to tell her, though we were afraid of
making her cry, down to our finding the key and getting into the house,
and the old princess, and the new princess, and all. She asked us
questions, too, about Ansdell Friars, and in what ways it was changed
since she had seen it.
"I should like to see it again," she said; "though it would never seem
as much home to me as here," and she sighed a little.
"But you're not going away from here now, auntie," we said, "You're not
going to sell the Old House?"
Auntie smiled.
"I hope not," she said. "They all think I am in no way bound to Jackman.
Indeed, it was his haggling so about the price that brought me down here
this summer. But one thing I have already given orders for: those horrid
pools are to be filled up at once. I won't have dear Gerald's peace of
mind disturbed by any anxiety _I_ can do away with."
We stared--it wasn't for a minute or two that we understood whom she was
talking of. It was so funny to hear grandpapa spoken of as "Gerald"--and
when we found out whom she meant, we all burst out laughing. And while
we were still laughing we heard wheels, and there was Mr. Truro, who had
looked in for a moment on his way from the station. I don't think I ever
saw any one's face look so happy and pleased as his did!
We all went back together to Rosebuds. Auntie and Regina said they were
going to have afternoon tea with grandpapa, and you don't know how nice
it looked, all neatly put out in the pretty old drawing-room, and poor
auntie kept giving little cries of mixed pleasure and pain as she
recognised one old friend after another among the china and the silver,
and even the _cakes_, which were a secret of Mrs. Munt's that no one
could make but herself.
And after tea we had a great treat. Auntie persuaded grandpapa that the
air would do him good, and so she coaxed him out into the garden and
then down the lane, and so on into the Old House grounds. And then she
and Regina took us all over it--"It is best to get over the first seeing
it again at once," I heard auntie whisper to grandpapa, "and the
children's pleasure will make it seem different."
It _is_ such a beautiful old house. I could write almost another book
about it, and it was so strange to get into the big drawing-room by the
double doors through which Regina used to disappear, to see our old
princess smiling down at us in our happiness just exactly as she had
done in our trouble!
Poor old, ever young princess! We shall always love you, but nothing,
_nothing_ like our own dear bright living fairy who has brought such new
joy and good into our lives. We have seldom been parted from her and
her mother since that day; we are almost always together, grandpapa
and auntie and Regina and we children, and very often Mr. Truro too.
Grandpapa says he is getting very old, but he _really_ doesn't look so,
and even when he _does_ get "very old," we shall all only love him the
better.
THE END.
RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LONDON AND BUNGAY.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Palace in the Garden, by Mary Louisa Molesworth