Catharine went home, or rather to the Terrace, soon afterwards, and found
that there was no intention of removing to the High Street, although,
notwithstanding their three months' probation in the realms of
respectability, Mrs. Colston had not called, and Mrs. Furze was beginning
to despair. The separation from the chapel was nearly complete. It had
been done by degrees. On wet days Mrs. Furze went to church because it
was a little nearer, and Mr. Furze went to chapel; then Mrs. Furze went
on fine days, and, after a little interval, Mr. Furze went on a fine day.
A fund had been set going to "restore" the church: the heavy roof was to
be removed, and a much lighter and handsomer roof covered with slate was
to be substituted; the stonework of many of the windows, which the rector
declared had begun to show "signs of incipient decay," was to be cut out
and replaced with new, so as to make, to use the builder's words, "a good
job of it," and a memorial window was to be put in near the great west
window with its stained glass, the Honourable Mr. Eaton having determined
upon this mode of commemorating the services of his nephew, Lieutenant
Eaton, who had died of dysentery in India, brought on by inattention to
tropical rules of eating and drinking, particularly the latter. Oliver
Cromwell, it was said, had stabled his horses in the church. This,
however, is doubtful, for the quantity of stable accommodation he must
have required throughout the country, to judge from vergers and
guidebooks, must have been much larger than his armies would have needed,
if they had been entirely composed of cavalry; and the evidence is not
strong that his horses were so ubiquitous. It was further affirmed that,
during the Cromwellian occupation, the west window was mutilated; but
there was also a tradition that, in the days of George the Third, there
were complaints of dinginess and want of light, and that part of the
stained glass was removed and sold. Anyhow, there was stained glass in
the Honourable Mr. Eaton's mansion wonderfully like that at Eastthorpe.
It was now proposed to put new stained glass in the defective lights.
Some of the more advanced of the parishioners, including the parson and
the builder, thought the old glass had better all come out, "the only way
to make a good job of it"; but at an archidiaconal visitation the
archdeacon protested, and he was allowed to have his own way. Then there
was the warming, and this was a great difficulty, because no natural exit
for the pipe could be found. At last it was settled to have three
stoves, one at the west end of the nave, and one in each transept. With
regard to the one in the nave there was no help for it but to bore a hole
through the wall. The builder undertook "to give the pipe outside a
touch of the Gothic, so that it wouldn't look bad," and as for the other
stoves, there were two windows just handy. By cutting out the head of
Matthew in one and that of Mark in another, the thing was done, and, as
Mrs. Colston observed, "the general confused effect remained the same."
There were one or two other improvements, such as pointing all over
outside, also strongly recommended by the builder, and the shifting some
of the tombs, and repairing the tracery, so that altogether the sum to be
raised was considerable. Mrs. Colston was one of the collectors, and
Mrs. Furze called on her after two months' residence in the Terrace, and
intimated her wish to subscribe. Mrs. Colston took the money very
affably, but still she did not return the visit.
Meanwhile Mrs. Furze was doing everything she could to make herself
genteel. The Terrace contained about a dozen houses; the two in the
centre were higher than the rest, and above them, flanked by a large
scroll at either end, were the words "THE TERRACE," moulded out of the
stucco; up to each door was a flight of stone steps; before each front
window on the dining-room floor and the floor above was a balcony
protected by cast-iron filigree work, and between each house and the road
was a little piece of garden surrounded by dwarf wall and arrow-head
railings. Mrs. Furze's old furniture had, nearly all, been discarded or
sold, and two new carpets had been bought. The one in the dining-room
was yellow and chocolate, and the one upstairs in the drawing-room was a
lovely rose-pattern, with large full-blown roses nine inches in diameter
in blue vases. The heavy chairs had disappeared, and nice light elegant
chairs were bought, insufficient, however, for heavy weights, for one of
Mr. Furze's affluent customers being brought to the Terrace as a special
mark of respect, and sitting down with a flop, as was his wont, smashed
the work of art like card-board and went down on the door with a curse,
vowing inwardly never again to set foot in Furze's Folly, as he called
it. The pictures, too, were all renewed. The "Virgin Mary" and "George
the Fourth" went upstairs to the spare bedroom, and some new oleographs,
"a rising art," Mrs. Furze was assured, took their places. They had very
large margins, gilt frames, and professed to represent sunsets, sunrises,
and full moons, at Tintern, Como, and other places not named, which Mrs.
Furze, in answer to inquiries, always called "the Continent."
Mr. Furze had had a longish walk one morning, and was rather tired. When
he came home to dinner he found the house upset by one of its periodical
cleanings, and consequently dinner was served upstairs, and not in the
half-underground breakfast-room, as it was called, which was the real
living-room of the family. Mr. Furze, being late and weary, prolonged
his stay at home till nearly four o'clock, and, notwithstanding a rebuke
from Mrs. Furze, insisted on smoking his pipe in the dining-room.
Presently he took off his coat and put his feet on a chair, Sunday
fashion.
"My dear," said his wife. "I don't want to interfere with your comfort,
but don't you think you might give up that practice of sitting in your
shirt-sleeves now we have moved?"
"Why because we've moved?" interposed Catharine.
"Catharine, I did not address you; you have no tact, you do not
understand."
"Coat doesn't smell so much of smoke," replied Mr. Furze, giving, of
course, any reason but the true reason.
"My dear if that is the reason, put on another coat, or, better still,
buy a proper coat and a smoking-cap. Nothing could be more appropriate
than some of those caps we saw at the restoration bazaar."
"Really, mother, would you like to see father in a velvet jacket and one
of those red-tasselled things on his head? I prefer the shirt-sleeves."
"No doubt you do; you are a Furze, every inch of you."
There is no saying to what a height the quarrel would have risen if a
double knock had not been heard. A charwoman was in the passage with a
pail of water and answered the door at once, before she could be
cautioned. In an instant she appeared, apron tucked up.
"Mrs. Colston, mum," and in Mrs. Colston walked.
Mrs. Furze made a dash at her husband's clay pipe, forgetting that its
destruction would not make matters better; but she only succeeded in
upsetting the chair on which his legs rested, and in the confusion he
slipped to the ground.
"Oh, Mrs. Colston, I am so sorry you have taken us by surprise; our house
is being cleaned; pray walk upstairs--but oh dear, now I recollect the
drawing-room is also turned out; what _will_ you do, and the smell of the
smoke, too!"
"Pray do not disconcert yourself," replied the brewer's wife,
patronisingly; "I do not mind the smoke, at least for a few minutes."
Mrs. Colston herself had objected strongly to calling on Mrs. Furze, but
Mr. Colston had urged it as a matter of policy, with a view to Mr.
Furze's contributions to Church revenues.
"I have come purely on a matter of business, Mrs. Furze, and will not
detain you."
Mr. Furze had retreated into a dark corner, and was putting on his
waistcoat with his back to his distinguished guest. Catharine sat at the
window quite immovable. Suddenly Mrs. Furze bethought herself she ought
to introduce her husband and daughter.
"My husband and daughter, Mrs. Colston."
Mr. Furze turned half round, put his other arm into his waistcoat, and
bowed. He had, of course, spoken to her scores of times in his shop, but
he was not supposed to have seen her till that minute. Catharine rose,
bowed, and sat down again.
"Take a chair, Mrs. Colston, take a chair," said Mr. Furze, although he
had again turned towards the curtain, and was struggling with his coat.
Mrs. Furze, annoyed that her husband had anticipated her, pulled the easy-
chair forward.
"I am afraid I deprived you of your seat," said the lady, alluding, as
Mrs. Furze had not the slightest doubt, to his tumble.
"Not a bit, ma'am, not a bit," and he moved towards Catharine, feeling
very uncomfortable, and not knowing what to do with his hands and legs.
"We are so much obliged to you, Mrs. Furze, for your subscription to the
restoration fund, we find that a new pulpit is much required; the old
pulpit, you will remember, is much decayed in parts, and will be out of
harmony with the building when it is renovated. Young Mr. Cawston, who
is being trained as an architect--the builder's son, you know--has
prepared a design which is charming, and the ladies wish to make the new
pulpit a present solely from themselves." The smoke got into Mrs.
Colston's throat, and she coughed. "We want you, therefore, to help us."
"With the greatest pleasure."
"Then how much shall I say? Five pounds?"
"Would you allow me just to look at the subscription list?" interposed
Mr. Furze, humbly; but before it could be handed to him Mrs. Furze had
settled the matter.
"Five pounds--oh yes, certainly, Mrs. Colston. Mr. Cawston is, I
believe, a young man of talent?"
"Undoubtedly, and he deserves encouragement. It must be most gratifying
to his father to see his son endeavouring to raise himself from a
comparatively humble occupation and surroundings into something demanding
ability and education, from a mere trade into a profession."
Catharine shifted uneasily, raised her eyes, and looked straight at Mrs.
Colston but said nothing.
Meanwhile Mr. Furze was perusing the list with both elbows on his knees.
The difficulty with his hands and legs increased. He was conscious to a
most remarkable degree that he had them, and yet they seemed quite
foreign members of his body which he could not control.
"Well, ma'am, I think I must be going. I'll bid you good-bye."
"I have finished my errand, Mr. Furze, and I must be going too."
"Oh, pray, do not go yet," said Mrs. Furze, hoping, in the absence of her
husband, to establish some further intimacy. Mr. Furze shook Mrs.
Colston's hand with its lemon-coloured glove and departed. Catharine
noticed that Mrs. Colston looked at the glove--for the ironmonger had
left a mark on it--and that she wiped it with her pocket-handkerchief.
"I wish to ask," said Mrs. Furze, in her mad anxiety to secure Mrs.
Colston, "if you do not think a new altar-cloth would be acceptable. I
should be so happy--I will not say to give one myself, but to undertake
the responsibility, and to contribute my share. The old altar-cloth will
look rather out of place."
"Thank you, Mrs. Furze; I am sure I can answer at once. It will be most
acceptable. You will not, I presume, object to adopting the design of
the committee! We will send you a correct pattern. We have thought
about the matter for some time, but had at last determined to wait
indefinitely on the ground of the expense."
The expense! Poor Mrs. Furze had made her proposal on the spur of the
moment. She, in her ignorance, had not thought an altar-cloth a very
costly affair, and now she remembered that she had no friends who were
not Dissenters. Moreover, to be on the committee was the object of her
ambition, and it was clear that not only had nobody thought of putting
her on it, but that she was to pay and take its directions.
"I believe," continued Mrs. Colston, "that the altar-cloth which we had
provisionally adopted can be had in London for 20 pounds."
A ring at the front bell during this interesting conversation had not
been noticed. The charwoman, still busy with broom and pail outside,
knocked at the door with a knock which might have been given with the
broom-handle and announced another visitor.
"Mrs. Bellamy, mum."
Catharine leaped up, rushed to meet her friend, caught her round the
neck, and kissed her eagerly.
"Well, Miss Catharine, glad to see you looking so well; still kept the
colour of Chapel Farm. This is the first time I've seen you in your new
house, Mrs. Furze. I had to come over to Eastthorpe along with Bellamy,
and I said I _must_ go and see my Catharine, though--and her
mother--though they _do_ live in the Terrace, but I couldn't get Bellamy
to come--no, he said the Terrace warn't for him; he'd go and smoke a pipe
and have something to drink at your old shop, or rather your new shop,
but it's in the old place in the High Street--leastways if you keep any
baccy and whiskey there now--and he'd call for me with the gig, and I
said as I knew my Catharine--her mother--would give me a cup of tea; and,
Miss Catharine, you remember that big white hog as you used to look at
always when you went out into the meadow?--well, he's killed, and I know
Mr. Furze likes a bit of good, honest, country pork--none of your nasty
town-fed stuff--you never know what hogs eat in towns--so Bellamy has a
leg about fourteen pounds in the gig, but I thought I'd bring you about
two or three pounds of the sausages myself in my basket here," and Mrs.
Bellamy pointed to a basket she had on her arm. She paused and became
aware that there was a stranger sitting near the fireplace. "But you've
got a visitor here; p'r'aps I shall be in the way."
"In the way!" said Catharine. "Never, never; give me your basket and
your bonnet; or stay, Mrs. Bellamy, I will go upstairs with you, and you
shall take off your things."
And so, before Mrs. Furze had spoken a syllable, Catharine and Mrs.
Bellamy marched out of the room.
"Who is that--that person?" said Mrs. Colston. "I fancy I have seen her
before. She seems on intimate terms with your daughter."
"She is a farmer's wife, of humble origin, at whose house my
daughter--lodged--for the benefit of her health."
"I must bid you good-day, Mrs. Furze. If you will kindly send a cheque
for the five pounds to me, the receipt shall be returned to you in due
course, and the drawing of the altar-cloth shall follow. I can assure
you of the committee's thanks."
Mrs. Furze recollected she ought to ring the bell, but she also
recollected the servant could not appear in proper costume. Accordingly
she opened the dining-room door herself.
"Let me move that ere pail, mum, or you'll tumble over it," said the
charwoman to Mrs. Colston, "and p'r'aps you won't mind steppin' on this
side of the passage, 'cause that side's all wet. 'Ere, Mrs. Furze, don't
you come no further, I'll open the front door"; and this she did.
Mrs. Furze felt rather unwell, and went to her bedroom, where she sat
down, and, putting her face on the bedclothes, gave way to a long fit of
hysterical sobbing. She would not come down to tea, and excused herself
on the ground of sickness. Catharine went up to her mother and inquired
what was the matter, but was repulsed.
"Nothing is the matter--at least, nothing you can understand. I am very
unwell; I am better alone; go down to Mrs. Bellamy."
"But, mother, it will do you good to be downstairs. Mrs. Bellamy will be
so glad to see you, and she was so kind to me; it will be odd if you
don't come."
"Go _away_, I tell you; I am best by myself; I can endure in solitude;
you cannot comprehend these nervous attacks, happily for you; go _away_,
and enjoy yourself with Mrs. Bellamy and your sausages."
Catharine had had some experience of these nervous attacks, and left her
mother to herself. Mrs. Bellamy and Catharine consequently had tea
alone, Mr. Furze remaining at his shop that afternoon, as he had been
late in arrival.
"Sorry mother's so poorly, Catharine. Well, how do you like the
Terrace?"
"I hate it. I detest every atom of the filthy, stuck-up, stuccoed hovel.
I hate--" Catharine was very excited, and it is not easy to tell what
she might have said if Mrs. Bellamy had not interrupted her.
"Now, Miss Catharine, don't say that; it's a bad thing to hate what we
must put up with. You never heard, did you, as Bellamy had a sister a
good bit older than myself? She _was_ a tartar, and no mistake. She
lived with Bellamy and kept house for him, and when we married, Bellamy
said she must stay with us. She used to put on him as you never saw, but
he, somehow, seemed never to mind it; some men don't feel such things,
and some do, but most on 'em don't when it's a woman, but I think a
woman's worse. Well, what was I saying?--she put on me just in the same
way and come between me and the servant-girl and the men, and when I told
them to go and do one thing, went and told them to do another, and I was
young, and I thought when I was married I was going to be mistress, and
she called me 'a chit' to her brother, and I mind one day I went upstairs
and fell on my knees and cried till I thought my heart would break, and I
said, 'O my God, when will it please Thee to take that woman to Thyself!'
Now to wish anybody dead is bad enough, but to ask the Lord to take 'em
is awful; but then it was so hard to bear 'cause I couldn't say nothing
about it, and I'm one of them as can't keep myself bottled up like ginger-
beer. You don't remember old Jacob? He had been at Chapel Farm in
Bellamy's father's time, and always looked on Bellamy as his boy, and
used to be very free with him, notwithstanding he was the best creature
as ever lived. He took a liking to me, and I needn't say that, liking of
me, he didn't like Bellamy's sister. Well, I came down, and I went out
of doors to get a bit of fresh air--for I'm always better out of
doors--and I went up by the cart-shed, and being faint a bit, sat down on
the waggon shafts. Old Jacob, he came by; I can see him now; it was just
about Michaelmas time, a-getting dark after tea, though I hadn't had any,
and he said to me, 'Hullo, missus, what are here for? and you've been a-
cryin',' for I had my face toward the sky and was looking at it. I never
spoke. 'I know what's the matter with you,' says he; 'do you think I
don't? Now if you go on chafing of yourself, you'll worrit yourself into
your grave, that's all. Last week there was something the matter with
that there dog, and she howled night after night, and I never slept a
wink. The first morning after she'd been a-yelping I was in a temper,
and had half a mind to kill her. I felt as if she'd got a spite against
me; but it come to me as she'd got no spite against _me_, and then all my
worriting went away. I don't say as I slept much till she was better,
but I didn't _worrit_. Now Bellamy's sister don't mean nothing against
you. That's the way God-a-mighty made her.' I've never forgot what
Jacob said, and I know it made a difference, but the Lord took her not
long afterwards."
"But I don't see what that has to do with me. It isn't the same thing."
"Yes, that's just what Bellamy says. He says I always go on with
anything that comes into my head; but then it has nothing to do with
anything he is saying, and maybe that's true, for one thing seems always
to draw me on to another, and so I go round like, and I don't know myself
where I am when I've finished. A little more tea, my dear, if you
please. And yet," continued Mrs. Bellamy, when she had finished half of
her third cup, "what I meant to say really has to do with you. It's all
the same. You wouldn't hate the Terrace so much if you knew that nobody
meant to spite you, as Jacob says. Suppose your father was driven to the
Terrace and couldn't help it, and there wasn't another house for him, you
wouldn't hate it so much then. It isn't the Terrace altogether. Now,
Miss Catharine, you won't mind my speaking out to you. You know you are
my girl," and Mrs. Bellamy turned and kissed her; "you mustn't, you
really mustn't. I've seen what was coming for a long time. Your mother
and you ain't alike, but you mustn't rebel. I'm a silly old fool, and I
know I haven't got a head, and what is in it is all mixed up somehow, but
you'll be ever so much better if you leave your mother out of it, and
don't, as I've told you before, go on dreaming she came here because you
didn't want to come, or that she set herself up on purpose against you.
And then you can always run over to Chapel Farm just whenever you like,
my pet, and there's your own room always waiting for you."
An hour afterwards, when Mrs. Bellamy had left, Mr. Furze came home. Mrs.
Furze was still upstairs, but consented to be coaxed down to supper. She
passed the drawing-room; the door was wide open, and she reflected
bitterly upon the new carpet, the oleographs, and the schemes erected
thereon. To think on what she had spent and what she had done, and then
that Mrs. Colston should be received by a charwoman with a pail, should
be shown into the room downstairs, and find it like a public-house bar!
If Mr. Furze had been there alone it would not so much have mattered, but
the presence of wife and daughter sanctioned the vulgarity, not to say
indecency. Mrs. Colston would naturally conclude they were accustomed to
that sort of thing--that the pipe, Mrs. Bellamy and the sausages, the
absence of Mr. Furze's coat and waistcoat, were the "atmosphere," as Mrs.
Furze put it, in which they lived.
"That's right; glad to see you are able to come down," said Mr. Furze.
"I must say that Catharine is partly the cause of my suffering. When
Mrs. Colston called here Catharine sat like a statue and said not a word,
but when her friend Mrs. Bellamy came she precipitated herself--yes, I
say precipitated herself--into her arms. I've nothing to say against
Mrs. Bellamy, but Catharine knows perfectly well that Mrs. Colston's
intimacy is desired, and _that's_ the way she chose to behave. Mrs.
Bellamy was the last person I should have wished to see here this
afternoon; an uneducated woman, a woman whom we could not pretend to know
if we moved in Mrs. Colston's circle; and what we have done was all done
for my child's benefit. She, I presume, would prefer decent society to
that of peasants."
Catharine stopped eating.
"Mrs. Bellamy was the last person _I_ should have wished to see here."
"I don't know quite what you mean, but it is probably something
disobedient and cruel," and Mrs. Furze became slightly hysterical again.
Catharine made no offer of any sympathy, but, leaving her supper
unfinished, rose without saying good-night, and appeared no more that
evening.