TELLING HOW LILIAS WALSINGHAM FOUND TWO LADIES AWAITING HER ARRIVAL AT
THE ELMS.
When Lilias Walsingham, being set down in the hall at the Elms, got out
and threw back her hood, she saw two females sitting there, who rose, as
she emerged, and bobbed a courtesy each. The elder was a slight thin
woman of fifty or upwards, dark of feature, but with large eyes, the
relics of early beauty. The other a youthful figure, an inch or two
taller, slim and round, and showing only a pair of eyes, large and dark
as the others, looking from under her red hood, earnestly and sadly as
it seemed, upon Miss Walsingham.
'Good-evening, good neighbours,' said Miss Lily in her friendly way;
'the master is in town, and won't return till to-morrow; but may be you
wish to speak to me?'
''Tis no place for the like of yous,' said old John Tracy, gruffly, for
he knew them, with the privilege of an old servant. 'If you want to see
his raverence, you must come in the morning.'
'But it may be something, John, that can't wait, and that I can do,'
said Lily.
'And, true for you, so it is, my lady,' said the elder woman, with
another bob; 'an' I won't delay you, Ma'am, five minutes, if you plaze,
an' it's the likes of you,' she said, in a shrewish aside, with a flash
of her large eyes upon John Tracy, 'that stands betune them that's
willin' to be good and the poor--so yez do, saucepans and
bone-polishers, bad luck to yez.'
The younger woman plucked the elder by the skirt; but Lily did not hear.
She was already in the parlour.
'Ay, there it is,' grinned old John, with a wag of his head.
And so old Sally came forth and asked the women to step in, and set
chairs for them, while Lily was taking off her gloves and hood by the
table.
'You'll tell me first who you are,' said Lily, 'my good woman--for I
don't think we've met before--and then you will say what I can do for
you.'
'I'm the Widdy Glynn, Ma'am, at your sarvice, that lives beyant
Palmerstown, down by the ferry, af its playsin' to you; and this is my
little girl, Ma'am, av you plaze. Nan, look up at the lady, you slut.'
She did not need the exhortation, for she was, indeed, looking at the
lady, with a curious and most melancholy gaze.
'An' what I'm goin' to say, my lady, if you plase, id best be said
alone;' and the matron glanced at old Sally, and bobbed another
courtesy.
'Very well,' said Miss Walsingham. 'Sally, dear, the good woman wants to
speak with me alone: so you may as well go and wait for me in my room.'
And so the young lady stood alone in presence of her two visitors,
whereupon, with a good many courtesies, and with great volubility, the
elder dame commenced--
''Tis what we heerd, Ma'am, that Captain Devereux, of the Artillery
here, in Chapelizod, Ma'am, that's gone to England, was coortin' you my
lady; and I came here with this little girl, Ma'am, if you plaze, to
tell you, if so be it's thrue, Ma'am, that there isn't this minute a
bigger villian out iv gaol--who brought my poor little girl there to
disgrace and ruin, Ma'am?'
Here Nan Glynn began to sob into her apron.
''Twas you, Richard Devereux, that promised her marriage--with his hand
on the Bible, on his bended knee. 'Twas you, Richard Devereux, you
hardened villian--yes, Ma'am, that parjured scoundrel--(don't be cryin',
you fool)--put that ring there, you see, on her finger, Miss, an' a
priest in the room, an' if ever man was woman's husband in the sight of
God, Richard Devereux is married to Nan Glynn, poor an' simple as she
stands there.'
'Stop, mother,' sobbed Nan, drawing her back by the arm; 'don't you see
the lady's sick.'
'No--no--not anything; only--only shocked,' said poor Lilias, as white
as marble, and speaking almost in a whisper; 'but I can't say Captain
Devereux ever spoke to me in the way you suppose, that's all. I've no
more to say.'
Nan Glynn, sobbing and with her apron still to her eyes, was gliding to
the door, but her mother looked, with a coarse sort of cunning in her
eye, steadily at the poor young lady, in some sort her victim, and added
more sternly--
'Well, my lady, 'tis proud I am to hear it, an' there's no harm done, at
any rate; an' I thought 'twas only right I should tell you the thruth,
and give you this warnin', my lady; an' here's the atturney's writin',
Ma'am--if you'll plaze to read it--Mr. Bagshot, iv Thomas
Street--sayin', if you'll be plazed to look at it--that 'tis a good
marriage, an' that if he marries any other woman, gentle or simple,
he'll take the law iv him in my daughter's cause, the black, parjured
villian, an' transport him, with a burnt hand, for bigamany; an' 'twas
only right, my lady, as the townspeople was talking, as if it was as
how he was thryin' to invagle you, Miss, the desaver, for he'd charrum
the birds off the trees, the parjurer; and I'll tell his raverence all
about it when I see him, in the morning--for 'tis only right he should
know. Wish the lady good-night, Nan, you slut--an the same from myself,
Ma'am.'
And, with another courtesy, the Glynns of Palmerstown withdrew.