SPINNEY LAWN.
A change or two began to creep into our life. One afternoon, as
Jaquetta, in her pretty pink gingham and white apron, with her black
hair in the Grecian coil we used to wear when our heads were allowed to
be of their own proper size, was gathering crimson apples from the
quarrendon tree close to the river, a voice came over the water--
"Oh, my good girl, if you would but stand so a minute, and allow me to
sketch you!"
Jaquetta started round and laughed. No doubt she was looking like an
Arcadian; but I--as from under the trees I saw two gentlemen on the
other side of the little stream, and jumped up to come to her
defence--I must have looked more like a displeased if not
draggle-tailed duchess, for there was an immediate disconcerted begging
of our pardons, and a hasty departure.
Jaquetta made a very funny account of my spring forward in awful
dignity, so horribly affronted at her being called a good girl! and she
made Fulk laugh heartily. The gloom did seem to be lightening on him
now.
Walking tourists, we supposed, though one we thought was a clergyman;
and on Sunday we saw him in the desk and the draughtsman in the
parsonage pew; and we discovered that these were the proposed new
curate, Mr. Cradock, and his younger brother. Our rector was a canon
who had bad health and never came near us, and the poor old curate was
past work, and, indeed, died a week or two after he had given up.
I saw that younger brother colour up to the roots of his bright hair as
Jaquetta walked up the aisle, in her drawn black silk bonnet with the
pink lining (made by herself); and I think she coloured too, for she
was rosier than usual when we faced round in the corners of our pew.
We saw no more of them for a month, and a dainty, bridal-looking little
lady appeared in the parsonage seat, with white ribbons in her straw
bonnet, and modest little orange flowers in the frill round her
pleasant face.
Mrs. Cradock she was, we heard; and not only Miss Prior, but Fulk,
wanted us to call on her.
"What's the use?" said I. "Farmers' families are not on visiting terms
with the ladies of the parsonage."
Poor Jaquey uttered an "Oh dear!" but she and Fulk knew I was past
moving in that mood.
However, one morning in the next week, in walked Fulk into the
keeping-room, and the clergyman with him, and found Jaquey and me
standing at the long table under the window, peeling and cutting up
apples for apple-cheese.
"Mr. Cradock, my sister," he said, just in the old tone when he brought
a friend into our St. James's-street drawing-room; and he hardly gave
time for the shaking of hands before he had returned to the discussion
about the change of ministry, just with the voice and animation I had
not seen for two whole years.
We went on with our apples. For one thing, we were not wanted; for
another, there was no fire in the little parlour, and the gentlemen
both seemed to be enjoying the bright one that was burning on the
hearth.
The only difficulty was that dinner time began to approach. The men
could not be kept waiting; and I heard Alured awake from his sleep,
pattering about and shouting; and as we began to gather up our apples
one of the maids peeped in with a table-cloth over her arm.
Mr. Cradock saw, though Fulk did not, and said his wife would expect
him; and then he looked most pleasantly to me, and said he was not at
all wanted at home, while his wife was luxuriating in a settlement of
furniture; but this was, he was assured, the last day of confusion, and
to-morrow she would be quite ready for all who would be so good as to
call on her.
I could only say I would do myself the pleasure; and then he still
waited a moment to say that his brother Arthur could not recover from
his dismay at his greeting to Miss Torwood.
"But," he said, "the boy's head was quite turned by the beauty of the
country. He had been raving all day about the new poet, Alfred
Tennyson, and I believe he thought he had walked into lotus-land."
"Nearer the dragon of the Hesperides, perhaps," said Fulk, laughing.
"Is he with you now?"
"No; he has gone back to Oxford. He is in his second year; and whether
he takes to medicine or to art is to be settled by common-sense or
genius."
"Oh, but if he has genius?" began Jaquetta eagerly.
"That's the question," said Mr. Cradock, laughing. "But I am hindering
you shamefully," and with that he took his leave, having quite
demolished our barriers.
And his wife was of the same nature--simple, blithe, and bonny--ready
to make friends in a moment; and though she must have known all about
us, never seeming to remember anything but that we were her nearest
lady neighbours.
Jaquetta, whose young friendships had been broken short off, because
the poor girls really did not know how to correspond with her under
present circumstances, took to Mrs. Cradock with eager enthusiasm, and
tripped across the park to her two or three times a week, and became
delightedly interested in all her doings, parochial or otherwise.
Dear Jaquey's happy nature had always been content; but when I saw how
exceedingly she enjoyed the variety, liveliness, and occupations
brought by the Cradocks, I felt that it had been scarcely kind to
seclude her to gratify my own sole pride; but then there had been
nobody like the Cradocks--to drop or be dropped.
The refreshment to Fulk was even greater. The having a man to converse
with, and break his mind against, one who would argue, and who really
cared for the true principles of politics, made an immense difference
to him. When after tea he said he would walk to the parsonage to see
how the debate had gone, and we knew we should not see him till
half-past ten, we could not but be glad; it must have been so much
pleasanter than playing at chess, listening to our old music, or
reading even the new books they lent us.
He brightened greatly that winter, and I ceased to fear that he was
getting a farmer's slouch. He looked as stately and beautiful as ever
Lord Torwood had done, and the dejection had gone out of his face and
bearing, when suddenly it returned again; and as Miss Prior was away
from home, I never found out the cause till one day, as I was shopping
at Shinglebay, and was telling the linen draper that Mr. Torwood would
call for the parcel, I saw the lady at the other counter start and turn
round, as if at a sudden shock.
Then I saw the white doe eyes, full of the old pleading expression, and
the lips quivering wistfully, but I only said to myself, "The old arts!
That is what has overthrown Fulk again;" and away I went with a rigid
bow, and said nothing.
There was no exchange of calls. That was not my fault, for we could
not have begun; and we heard that Mrs. Deerhurst said, "The Torwoods
had shown very good taste in retiring from all society, poor things.
Only it was a great mistake to remain in the neighbourhood--so awkward
for everybody!"
Mrs. Cradock was much struck with Emily's sweet looks; but I believe
that Jaquetta told her all about it, and we never met the Deerhursts
there.
In fact they were not intimate, for there must have been a repulsion
between Mrs. Deerhurst and such a woman as Mary Cradock.
The Deerhursts owned a villa on the outskirts of Shinglebay; indeed, I
believe it was the difficulty in letting it that had unwillingly forced
Mrs. Deerhurst home, after having married her second daughter, but not
Emily. She was only a mile and a half from Spinney Lawn, and speedily
became familiar there, being as entirely Hester's counsellor in
etiquette as was Perrault on business. People saw a marked improvement
in elegance from the time she became adviser.
That next winter poor Joel Lea died. I suppose it was merely the
dulness and want of exercise that killed him, for he had lost flesh and
grown languid in manner for months before a low fever set in, and he
had no power to struggle with it.
He had been ill a long time, when he sent a message to beg Mr. Torwood
to come and see him. Jaquetta and I persuaded ourselves that he had
discovered that Perrault had suborned witnesses, or done something that
would falsify the whole trial.
Jaquetta said she should be very glad for Fulk, and if it happened now
little Alured would never feel it; but for her own part, she should
hate to go back to be my lady again. She had never known before what
happiness was.
I could not help laughing. Nobody had ever detected anything amiss
with Lady Jaquetta Trevor's spirits, but that they were too high at
times.
"Of course I don't mean that I was miserable!" she said; "but there's
something now that does make everything so delicious."
"Could you not take that something to the park?" I asked, laughing.
"I don't know! It would not be so bad if I could run in and out at the
parsonage as I do now."
And as I smiled, it smote me as I recollected that Arthur Cradock was
always at the parsonage in the vacations. Jaquetta had been sketched
many a time as nymph of the orchard, and many a nymph besides. And if
he was yielding to his brother's wisdom in making medicine his study
and art his pleasure, was not our unconscious maiden the sugar that
sweetened the cup of prudence? Might not elevation be as sore a trial
to her as depression had been to us?
However, our troubling ourselves was all nonsense. Good Joel Lea would
never have connived at any evil doings. All he had wanted of Fulk was
to be certain of his forgiveness for the injury he had suffered through
his wife, and to entreat him to keep a watch over her and the boy.
"You are her brother, when all is come and gone," he said; "and I do
not trust that Perrault. If ever he fails her, or turns against her,
you'll stand her friend, and look to the boy?"
Fulk heartily promised, and Joel further begged him to write to her
eldest brother, Francis Dayman (who was prospering immensely in the
timber trade), and let him know the state of things--though he had been
so angered at Hester's sacrifice of his mother's good name and his own
birth, that he had broken with her entirely.
"But if anyone can get her out of Perrault's hands, it is Francis,"
poor Joel said; and he went on to talk of his poor boy, about whom he
was very anxious, having no trust in any of Hester's intimates, and
begging Fulk to throw a good word to him now and then.
"He thinks much of you," he said. "I heard him tell Miss Deerhurst
that it was no use for anyone to try to be such an out-and-out
gentleman as his uncle, for they couldn't do it, and he had rather be
like you than anyone else. I don't care for gentlemen, and all that
foolery, as you know. I wish I could leave him to my old mate, Eli
Potter; but you are true and honest, Fulk Torwood, and I think not so
far from the kingdom--"
Then he asked Fulk to read a chapter to him. No one else would do so,
except little Trevor, when now and then left alone with him; but Hester
would not believe him seriously ill, and thought the Bible wearied him
and made him low spirited; and as to his friend the Dissenter, she
would never admit him.
Fulk was so indignant that he wanted to drive to Shinglebay and fetch
Mr. Ball, but Lea thanked him and half smiled at his superstition of
thinking that a minister was needed to speed his soul; but he was
pleased that Fulk came to him on each of the four or five remaining
days of his life, and read to him whatever he wished.
He sank suddenly at last, while Hester was at church on Sunday morning,
and died when alone with Fulk.
Somehow the intense reality of that man and the true comfort his faith
was to him made an immense impression on my brother, and seemed, as it
were, to give the communication between his religious belief and his
feelings, which had somehow not been in force before. He thought and
borrowed books from Mr. Cradock, and there came a deepening and
softening over him, which one saw in many ways, that made him dearer
than ever. He looked more at peace, even though one felt that each
passing sight of Emily was a sting.
Hester was dreadfully stricken down at first, and her anguish of
lamentation and self-reproach was terrible to witness; but she would
not hear of Fulk's fetching either of us--indeed, I fancy that was the
fault of my dry, cold looks--nor would she allow him to do anything for
her.
Mrs. Deerhurst came to be with her, and Perrault managed everything.
They had a magnificent funeral--much grander than my father's--and laid
him in the family vault.
Perrault took the opportunity of insulting Fulk by pairing him with old
Hall, the ex-agent; but Hall found it out in time, and refused to go,
and when the moment came everybody fell back, and Fulk found himself
close to poor little Trevor, who tried to get his hand out of
Perrault's and cling to him; but Perrault held him tight till, at the
moment when they moved to the mouth of the vault and were to go down
the steps, terror completely seized the poor child, and he began to
shriek so fearfully that Fulk had to snatch him up and carry him out of
the church, trembling from head to foot.
It was very cruel to send a sensitive child of six years old in that
way; but Hester was too much exhausted with her violent grief to go
herself, and, devoted mother as she was in all else, she never
perceived that poor child's instinctive shrinking from Perrault.
We tried to be kind to her, and hoped she would soften towards us; but
she did not. I could see her eyes glitter with their keen, searching
glance under her crape veil, as if she were measuring Alured all over
when the child walked into church with me; and, indeed, when he went to
the Zoological Gardens some time later, and saw the cobra di capello,
he said--
"Ursa, why does that snake look at me just like Lady Hester?"
There must have been fascination in the eager mystery of the gaze, for,
strangely enough, he was not afraid of her. She always made much of
him if he came in her way, and he was so fond of Trevor Lea that
nothing made him so eager or happy as the thought of seeing him.
The one idea that her boy was ousted by Alured, and the longing to see
him the heir, seemed to drive out everything else from Hester--almost
feeling for her husband.
Fulk had written to Francis Dayman, and he intended to come and see
after his sister as soon as he could leave his business; but this
rather precipitated matters. Hester was persuaded that Alured could
not live through that eighth year of his life at the utmost, and
Perrault somehow persuaded her, that only as her husband could he
protect her interests and Trevor's, though what machinations she could
have expected from us, I cannot guess; or how, in the case of a minor,
we could have interfered with her rights. But the man had gained such
an ascendancy over her, that she did not even perceive that the
connection was not good for that great object of hers, her son's
position in society. In fact, he persuaded her that he was of a noble
old French family, and ought to be a count. How we laughed when we
heard of it! She did preserve wisdom enough to insist upon having her
fortune conveyed to trustees for her son, so that Perrault could only
touch the income, and not the principal; and as she told everyone that
he had been determined upon this being done, I suppose he saw that any
demur would excite her suspicion.
They went to London, and were married there, while we were still
scouting poor Miss Prior's rumours. We were very sorry when we thought
of poor Joel's charge; and, besides, "the count" had an uncomfortable
slippery look about him. I can't describe it otherwise. He was a
slim, trim, well-dressed man, only given to elaborate jewellery and
waistcoats, with polished black hair and boots, and keen French-looking
eyes, well-mannered, and so versatile and polite, that he soon overcame
people's prejudices; and he was thought to make a much better master of
the house than poor Joel had ever done.