BOTH Clara and Madge went first to an English day-school, and Clara went
straight from this school to Germany, but Madge’s course was a little
different. She was not very well, and it was decided that she should
have at least a twelvemonth in a boarding-school at Brighton before going
abroad. It had been very highly recommended, but the head-mistress was
Low Church and aggressive. Mr Hopgood, far away from the High and Low
Church controversy, came to the conclusion that, in Madge’s case, the
theology would have no effect on her. It was quite impossible, moreover,
to find a school which would be just what he could wish it to be. Madge,
accordingly, was sent to Brighton, and was introduced into a new world.
She was just beginning to ask herself _why_ certain things were right and
other things were wrong, and the Brighton answer was that the former were
directed by revelation and the latter forbidden, and that the ‘body’ was
an affliction to the soul, a means of ‘probation,’ our principal duty
being to ‘war’ against it.
Madge’s bedroom companion was a Miss Selina Fish, daughter of Barnabas
Fish, Esquire, of Clapham, and merchant of the City of London. Miss Fish
was not traitorous at heart, but when she found out that Madge had not
been christened, she was so overcome that she was obliged to tell her
mother. Miss Fish was really unhappy, and one cold night, when Madge
crept into her neighbour’s bed, contrary to law, but in accordance with
custom when the weather was very bitter, poor Miss Fish shrank from her,
half-believing that something dreadful might happen if she should by any
chance touch unbaptised, naked flesh. Mrs Fish told her daughter that
perhaps Miss Hopgood might be a Dissenter, and that although Dissenters
were to be pitied, and even to be condemned, many of them were
undoubtedly among the redeemed, as for example, that man of God, Dr
Doddridge, whose _Family Expositor_ was read systematically at home, as
Selina knew. Then there were Matthew Henry, whose commentary her father
preferred to any other, and the venerable saint, the Reverend William Jay
of Bath, whom she was proud to call her friend. Miss Fish, therefore,
made further inquiries gently and delicately, but she found to her horror
that Madge had neither been sprinkled nor immersed! Perhaps she was a
Jewess or a heathen! This was a happy thought, for then she might be
converted. Selina knew what interest her mother took in missions to
heathens and Jews; and if Madge, by the humble instrumentality of a
child, could be brought to the foot of the Cross, what would her mother
and father say? What would they not say? Fancy taking Madge to Clapham
in a nice white dress—it should be white, thought Selina—and presenting
her as a saved lamb!
The very next night she began,—
‘I suppose your father is a foreigner?’
‘No, he is an Englishman.’
‘But if he is an Englishman you must have been baptised, or sprinkled, or
immersed, and your father and mother must belong to church or chapel. I
know there are thousands of wicked people who belong to neither, but they
are drunkards and liars and robbers, and even they have their children
christened.’
‘Well, he is an Englishman,’ said Madge, smiling.
‘Perhaps,’ said Selina, timidly, ‘he may be—he may be—Jewish. Mamma and
papa pray for the Jews every morning. They are not like other
unbelievers.’
‘No, he is certainly not a Jew.’
‘What is he, then?’
‘He is my papa and a very honest, good man.’
‘Oh, my dear Madge! honesty is a broken reed. I have heard mamma say
that she is more hopeful of thieves than honest people who think they are
saved by works, for the thief who was crucified went to heaven, and if he
had been only an honest man he never would have found the Saviour and
would have gone to hell. Your father must be something.’
‘I can only tell you again that he is honest and good.’
Selina was confounded. She had heard of those people who were _nothing_,
and had always considered them as so dreadful that she could not bear to
think of them. The efforts of her father and mother did not extend to
them; they were beyond the reach of the preacher—mere vessels of wrath.
If Madge had confessed herself Roman Catholic, or idolator, Selina knew
how to begin. She would have pointed out to the Catholic how
unscriptural it was to suppose that anybody could forgive sins excepting
God, and she would at once have been able to bring the idolator to his
knees by exposing the absurdity of worshipping bits of wood and stone;
but with a person who was nothing she could not tell what to do. She was
puzzled to understand what right Madge had to her name. Who had any
authority to say she was to be called Madge Hopgood? She determined at
last to pray to God and again ask her mother’s help.
She did pray earnestly that very night, and had not finished until long
after Madge had said her Lord’s Prayer. This was always said night and
morning, both by Madge and Clara. They had been taught it by their
mother. It was, by the way, one of poor Selina’s troubles that Madge
said nothing but the Lord’s Prayer when she lay down and when she rose;
of course, the Lord’s Prayer was the best—how could it be otherwise,
seeing that our Lord used it?—but those who supplemented it with no
petitions of their own were set down as formalists, and it was always
suspected that they had not received the true enlightenment from above.
Selina cried to God till the counterpane was wet with her tears, but it
was the answer from her mother which came first, telling her that however
praiseworthy her intentions might be, argument with such a _dangerous_
infidel as Madge would be most perilous, and she was to desist from it at
once. Mrs Fish had by that post written to Miss Pratt, the
schoolmistress, and Selina no doubt would not be exposed to further
temptation. Mrs Fish’s letter to Miss Pratt was very strong, and did not
mince matters. She informed Miss Pratt that a wolf was in her fold, and
that if the creature were not promptly expelled, Selina must be removed
into safety. Miss Pratt was astonished, and instantly, as her custom
was, sought the advice of her sister, Miss Hannah Pratt, who had charge
of the wardrobes and household matters generally. Miss Hannah Pratt was
never in the best of tempers, and just now was a little worse than usual.
It was one of the rules of the school that no tradesmen’s daughters
should be admitted, but it was very difficult to draw the line, and when
drawn, the Misses Pratt were obliged to admit it was rather ridiculous.
There was much debate over an application by an auctioneer. He was
clearly not a tradesman, but he sold chairs, tables and pigs, and, as
Miss Hannah said, used vulgar language in recommending them. However,
his wife had money; they lived in a pleasant house in Lewes, and the line
went outside him. But when a druggist, with a shop in Bond Street,
proposed his daughter, Miss Hannah took a firm stand. What is the use of
a principle, she inquired severely, if we do not adhere to it? On the
other hand, the druggist’s daughter was the eldest of six, who might all
come when they were old enough to leave home, and Miss Pratt thought
there was a real difference between a druggist and, say, a bootmaker.
‘Bootmaker!’ said Miss Hannah with great scorn. ‘I am surprised that you
venture to hint the remotest possibility of such a contingency.’
At last it was settled that the line should also be drawn outside the
druggist. Miss Hannah, however, had her revenge. A tanner in Bermondsey
with a house in Bedford Square, had sent two of his children to Miss
Pratt’s seminary. Their mother found out that they had struck up a
friendship with a young person whose father compounded prescriptions for
her, and when she next visited Brighton she called on Miss Pratt,
reminded her that it was understood that her pupils would ‘all be taken
from a superior class in society,’ and gently hinted that she could not
allow Bedford Square to be contaminated by Bond Street. Miss Pratt was
most apologetic, enlarged upon the druggist’s respectability, and more
particularly upon his well-known piety and upon his generous
contributions to the cause of religion. This, indeed, was what decided
her to make an exception in his favour, and the piety also of his
daughter was ‘most exemplary.’ However, the tanner’s lady, although a
shining light in the church herself, was not satisfied that a retail
saint could produce a proper companion for her own offspring, and went
away leaving Miss Pratt very uncomfortable.
‘I warned you,’ said Miss Hannah; ‘I told you what would happen, and as
to Mr Hopgood, I suspected him from the first. Besides, he is only a
banker’s clerk.’
‘Well, what is to be done?’
‘Put your foot down at once.’ Miss Hannah suited the action to the word,
and put down, with emphasis, on the hearthrug a very large, plate-shaped
foot cased in a black felt shoe.
‘But I cannot dismiss them. Don’t you think it will be better, first of
all, to talk to Miss Hopgood? Perhaps we could do her some good.’
‘Good! Now, do you think we can do any good to an atheist? Besides, we
have to consider our reputation. Whatever good we might do, it would be
believed that the infection remained.’
‘We have no excuse for dismissing the other.’
‘Excuse! none is needed, nor would any be justifiable. Excuses are
immoral. Say at once—of course politely and with regret—that the school
is established on a certain basis. It will be an advantage to us if it
is known why these girls do not remain. I will dictate the letter, if
you like.’
Miss Hannah Pratt had not received the education which had been given to
her younger sister, and therefore, was nominally subordinate, but really
she was chief. She considered it especially her duty not only to look
after the children’s clothes, the servants and the accounts, but to
maintain _tone_ everywhere in the establishment, and to stiffen her
sister when necessary, and preserve in proper sharpness her orthodoxy,
both in theology and morals.
Accordingly, both the girls left, and both knew the reason for leaving.
The druggist’s faith was sorely tried. If Miss Pratt’s had been a
worldly seminary he would have thought nothing of such behaviour, but he
did not expect it from one of the faithful. The next Sunday morning
after he received the news, he stayed at home out of his turn to make up
any medicines which might be urgently required, and sent his assistant to
church.
As to Madge, she enjoyed her expulsion as a great joke, and her Brighton
experiences were the cause of much laughter. She had learned a good deal
while she was away from home, not precisely what it was intended she
should learn, and she came back with a strong, insurgent tendency, which
was even more noticeable when she returned from Germany. Neither of the
sisters lived at the school in Weimar, but at the house of a lady who had
been recommended to Mrs Hopgood, and by this lady they were introduced to
the great German classics. She herself was an enthusiast for Goethe,
whom she well remembered in his old age, and Clara and Madge, each of
them in turn, learned to know the poet as they would never have known him
in England. Even the town taught them much about him, for in many ways
it was expressive of him and seemed as if it had shaped itself for him.
It was a delightful time for them. They enjoyed the society and constant
mental stimulus; they loved the beautiful park; not a separate enclosure
walled round like an English park, but suffering the streets to end in
it, and in summer time there were excursions into the Thüringer Wald,
generally to some point memorable in history, or for some literary
association. The drawback was the contrast, when they went home, with
Fenmarket, with its dulness and its complete isolation from the
intellectual world. At Weimar, in the evening, they could see Egmont or
hear Fidelio, or talk with friends about the last utterance upon the
Leben Jesu; but the Fenmarket Egmont was a travelling wax-work show, its
Fidelio psalm tunes, or at best some of Bishop’s glees, performed by a
few of the tradesfolk, who had never had an hour’s instruction in music;
and for theological criticism there were the parish church and Ram Lane
Chapel. They did their best; they read their old favourites and
subscribed for a German as well as an English literary weekly newspaper,
but at times they were almost beaten. Madge more than Clara was liable
to depression.
No Fenmarket maiden, other than the Hopgoods, was supposed to have any
connection whatever, or to have any capacity for any connection with
anything outside the world in which ‘young ladies’ dwelt, and if a
Fenmarket girl read a book, a rare occurrence, for there were no
circulating libraries there in those days, she never permitted herself to
say anything more than that it was ‘nice,’ or it was ‘not nice,’ or she
‘liked it’ or did ‘not like it;’ and if she had ventured to say more,
Fenmarket would have thought her odd, not to say a little improper. The
Hopgood young women were almost entirely isolated, for the tradesfolk
felt themselves uncomfortable and inferior in every way in their
presence, and they were ineligible for rectory and brewery society, not
only because their father was merely a manager, but because of their
strange ways. Mrs Tubbs, the brewer’s wife, thought they were due to
Germany. From what she knew of Germany she considered it most
injudicious, and even morally wrong, to send girls there. She once made
the acquaintance of a German lady at an hotel at Tunbridge Wells, and was
quite shocked. She could see quite plainly that the standard of female
delicacy must be much lower in that country than in England. Mr Tubbs
was sure Mrs Hopgood must have been French, and said to his daughters,
mysteriously, ‘you never can tell who Frenchwomen are.’
‘But, papa,’ said Miss Tubbs, ‘you know Mrs Hopgood’s maiden name; we
found that out. It was Molyneux.’
‘Of course, my dear, of course; but if she was a Frenchwoman resident in
England she would prefer to assume an English name, that is to say if she
wished to be married.’
Occasionally the Miss Hopgoods were encountered, and they confounded
Fenmarket sorely. On one memorable occasion there was a party at the
Rectory: it was the annual party into which were swept all the
unclassifiable odds-and-ends which could not be put into the two
gatherings which included the aristocracy and the democracy of the place.
Miss Clara Hopgood amazed everybody by ‘beginning talk,’ by asking Mrs
Greatorex, her hostess, who had been far away to Sidmouth for a holiday,
whether she had been to the place where Coleridge was born, and when the
parson’s wife said she had not, and that she could not be expected to
make a pilgrimage to the birthplace of an infidel, Miss Hopgood expressed
her surprise, and declared she would walk twenty miles any day to see
Ottery St Mary. Still worse, when somebody observed that an
Anti-Corn-Law lecturer was coming to Fenmarket, and the parson’s daughter
cried ‘How horrid!’ Miss Hopgood talked again, and actually told the
parson that, so far as she had read upon the subject—fancy her reading
about the Corn-Laws!—the argument was all one way, and that after Colonel
Thompson nothing new could really be urged.
‘What is so—’ she was about to say ‘objectionable,’ but she recollected
her official position and that she was bound to be politic—‘so odd and
unusual,’ observed Mrs Greatorex to Mrs Tubbs afterwards, ‘is not that
Miss Hopgood should have radical views. Mrs Barker, I know, is a radical
like her husband, but then she never puts herself forward, nor makes
speeches. I never saw anything quite like it, except once in London at a
dinner-party. Lady Montgomery then went on in much the same way, but she
was a baronet’s wife; the baronet was in Parliament; she received a good
deal and was obliged to entertain her guests.’
Poor Clara! she was really very unobtrusive and very modest, but there
had been constant sympathy between her and her father, not the dumb
sympathy as between man and dog, but that which can manifest itself in
human fashion.