“No such thing, Milly darling. No, no; not to the war just yet. We are only to leave Edinburgh, nothing more.”
I think I almost fainted at this reprieve5; I could scarcely understand it. The certainty of the other was so clear upon my mind that I almost could have thought he deceived me. I sank down into a seat when I came to myself, and cried in my weakness like a child; Harry all the while wondering over me in a surprise of love and pity. I do not think he quite knew till then how much that terror had gone to my heart.
“No, Milly, darling,” he kept repeating, looking at me{100} always with a strange compassion6, as if he knew that the grief I was dreading8 must come, though not yet; “take comfort, it has not come yet; and before it comes you must be stronger, and able to bear what God sends.”
“Yes, yes, yes, I will bear it,” said I, under my breath, “but say again it is not to be now.”
“No, we are going away to Chester,” said Harry, “be satisfied, I will not try to cheat you when that time comes. We are to go to Chester to let some other fellows away. Now you must pack again and be going, Milly, like a true soldier’s wife.”
Ah, me! if that were all that was needful for a soldier’s wife! Somehow, all that night after, I felt lighter9 in my heart than usual. I had felt all this time as if the sword was hanging over my head; but now that we were sent out wandering again, the danger seemed to have faded further off. Nobody would take the trouble to send a regiment10 from one end of the country to the other, and then send them right away. If they had been going to the war, they would have gone direct from Edinburgh. It was a respite11, a little additional life granted to us. I sang my old songs that night, as I went about the room. I could dare laugh to baby, and dance him about. How he was growing, the dear fellow! He set his little pink feet firm on my hand, and could stand upright. I showed Harry all his accomplishments12, and rejoiced over them. How thankful and lighthearted I was, to be sure, that night! Harry kept watching me, following me with his eyes in the strangest, amused, sympathetic way. He was surprised to see the agony I was in at first; but he was still more surprised to see how easily, as one might have said, I got over it now.
“And, Milly, what is to be done with the sprite?” said Harry.
“Lizzie? what should be done with her? She is an orphan13, she has nobody belonging to her, she has taken shelter with me. Harry, no; we’re poor, but we’re not free to think of ourselves alone. Lizzie shall go too. She is God’s child, and He sent her to me.”
Harry did not say anything, but he kept slowly shaking his head and drumming upon the table. Harry had the common people’s ideas rather about responsibility. He was afraid of the responsibility. For all the kindness in his heart he did not like to step into what might be other people’s business, or to take up any burdens that did not lie in his way.
“Besides, she is the best servant in the world. She is{101} worth all Aunt Connor’s three maids. I can trust her with baby almost as well as I can trust myself; and, besides,” said I, rather hypocritically, “look at the creature’s laundry work; you never were so pleased before.”
“Well, that is rather astonishing, I confess,” said Harry, looking at his fresh wristband with a little admiration14. “I don’t believe those awkward red fingers ever did it. She must keep some private fairy in a box, or have made an agreement with a nameless personage. What if poor Lizzie’s soul were in danger on account of your fine linen15, you hard-hearted Milly! I do not believe you would care.”
“Ah! you can’t deny her talents in the laundry,” cried I, with a little injudicious laughter. “What a triumph that is! You never were content with anybody’s work before.”
Harry looked at me rather doubtfully. “You look very much as if you were a little cheat,” he said. “I’ll have a peep into the laundry one of these days myself.”
“But Lizzie must go with us,” said I. “I have taken very much to the strange creature. You and I are God’s orphans16 too. We have a right to be good to her; and it is not all on one side—don’t think it, Harry; she is very good to me. She helps me with all her might, and stands by me whenever I want, or tries to do it. I had rather have her than half-a-dozen common servants. Leave this to me.”
“But consider, Milly, what you are making yourself responsible for,” cried Harry.
I stopped his mouth; I would not let him speak; and danced away with baby all in my joy and comfort to put him to bed. We met Mrs. Saltoun on the stairs in the dark, and as she kissed the child, I kissed my good old lady out of the fulness of my heart. “We are going away, but it is only to Chester; we shall be together still,” I said in her ear. I never thought how strange she would think it that I should be pleased to leave her, or how she might wonder at my spirits getting up so easily. I was very happy that night.
Lizzie was putting all baby’s things away when I went into the room. She folded and laid them all aside more nicely than I could have done it myself; not, so far as I know, because orderliness came natural to her, but because, with all her heart, she had wanted to please me, and saw with her quick eyes how it was to be done best. When anybody looked at Lizzie, and she knew it, she was just as awkward as ever. How I had laboured to make her hands and her feet look as if they belonged to her, without twisting up or going into angles! but{102} it was all of no use. Whenever anybody looked at Lizzie, she would stand on one foot, and seek refuge of an imaginary pinafore for her hands; but just now, in the firelight, when you could only half see her, you cannot think how tidily and nicely the uncouth17 creature was going about her work.
I paused before the fire after the child was in bed. “Lizzie,” said I, standing18 in the warm light, and looking down into it, “do you like Edinburgh very much?” I did not look round for her answer, I waited till she should come to me; and yet felt pleased to see her, with “the tail of my eye,” as Mrs. Saltoun would have said, flitting about after one thing and another, through the pleasant darkness, with the firelight all glimmering19 and shooting gleams of reflection into it, shining in the drawers, and chairs, and furniture, which Lizzie’s hands had rubbed so bright. I could not help thinking, with a little pride and self-complacency, that it was all my doing. If I had not taught her, and taken pains with her—but then, to be sure, if she had not been wonderfully clever and capable; the one thing had just as much to do with it as the other. But, between her exertions20 and my own, I had been very successful in my little maid.
“Edinburey?” said Lizzie, coming up to me, with a lingering sound in that genuine Edinburgh tone of hers, “eh, mem, isn’t it rael bonnie? They say there’s no such another bonnie town in the world.”
“But there are, though,” said I; “they say quantities of foolish things. Lizzie, the regiment is ordered away.”
Lizzie clasped her hands together, and gave a shrill21 shriek22. “I’ll waken the wean, but I canna help it. Eh, what will we do?” cried Lizzie, in a voice of suppressed and sharp despair. “I heard you say once you would die, and if you die, so will the bairn, and so will I; and what heart would the Captain have to come hame again? He would throw himself upon the spears, the way they do in the ballads23, and get his death. Mem!” cried the excited girl, seizing my arm and stamping her foot upon the floor in an impassioned appeal to my weakness, “if ye dinna bide24 alive, and keep up your heart, he’ll never come hame!”
I cannot explain what an extraordinary effect this had upon me. The sudden flush of excitement and desperate necessity for doing something to inspire and hold up my weakness, which animated25 Lizzie, cast a new light upon myself and my selfish terror. She cared nothing about affronting26 or offending me, the brave primitive27 creature; she thought only of rousing, pricking28 me up to exert what strength I had. Her grasp on{103} my arm, her stamp on the floor, were nature’s own bold suggestions to arrest the evil she dreaded29. I should not give way, or break down—I should not send away my soldier unworthily, nor peril30 the life on which another hung, if Lizzie could help it. What I had escaped for the moment—what I should have to go through with by and by, came all up before me at her words. She whom I was proud of having trained for my service had a braver heart than me.
But when I could explain to her the real nature of the case our position changed immediately. Lizzie’s countenance31 fell; she hung her head, and relapsed into all her old awkwardness. It was neither the bold young soul, resolved, come what might, to inspire me with needful courage, nor the handy little maid busied with her work, but the old uncouth Lizzie, not knowing how to stand or look for extreme awkwardness and eagerness, that stood gazing wistful at me in the firelight. She stood with her lips apart, looking at me, breathless with silent anxiety, muttering as she stood, with an incessant32 nervous unconscious motion, the physical utterance33 of extreme anxiety. She made no appeal to me then; but, like a faithful dog, or dumb creature, kept gazing in my face.
“And so we shall have to go away,” said I, somewhat confused by her eyes; “and you are an Edinburgh girl, and people know you here. I could recommend you very well, and you might get a better place; you must think it all over, and decide what we must do.”
Lizzie’s face showed that she only understood me by degrees; that she should have any choice in the matter not seeming to have occurred to her. When she fairly made it out, she gave a joyful34 shout, and another little cry; but plunged35 me into the wildest amazement36, the moment after, by the following question, in which I could find no connection whatever with the subject under hand.
“Mem,” said Lizzie, “is a’ the Bible true alike—the auld37 Testament38 as weel as the New?”
“Surely,” said I, in the most utter surprise.
“Then I know what I’ll do,” cried the girl; “I’ll bring you a hammer and a nail, and you’ll drive it into the doorpost through my ear.”
“What in the world do you mean, child?” cried I,—“are you laughing at me, Lizzie? or is the girl crazed.”
“Me laughing? if you would do it I would greet with joy; for the Bible says them that have the nail driven through, never gang out ony mair for ever, but belong to the house.{104} Mrs. Saltoun mightna be pleased if it was done in the parlour, but down at the outer door it might be nae harm. Eh, mem, will ye ask the Captain?” cried Lizzie, “and then I’ll never leave ye mair!”
Just then Harry called me downstairs, and all laughing, and with tears in my eyes, I hurried down to him, not knowing whether to be most amused or melted.
Harry had something to consult me about, which he plunged into immediately, so that I had still had no opportunity of propounding39 Lizzie’s petition, when, all at once, about an hour after, she made her appearance at the door. I never saw the creature look so bright; her eyes were shining, her colour high, her breath coming quick with agitation40, excitement, and a mingled41 thrill of joy and terror. In one hand she carried Mrs. Saltoun’s great hammer, in another a rusty42 iron nail; and her resolution had removed at once her awkwardness and her reverential dread7 of Harry. She came up to him with a noiseless air of excitement, and touched him on the sleeve; she held out the hammer and the nail without being able to speak a word. He, on his side, looked at her with the utmost amazement. Lizzie was too much excited to explain herself, or even to remark his astonished look; she had come to prove her allegiance in the only way that occurred to her. I believe, in my heart, that she longed for the grotesque43 extraordinary pang44 which was to make her my bondslave for ever; the spirit of a martyr45 was in the child’s heart.
When Harry understood the creature’s meaning you may imagine what a scene followed. I had to send Lizzie away lest her highly-wrought feelings should be driven desperate, by the agonies of laughter it threw him into. I took her outside the door and put away the hammer, and gave her a kiss in the dark. I whispered in her ear, “That shall be our bond, Lizzie; we will take it out of the New Testament rather than the Old,” and left her sitting on the stairs, with her apron46 thrown over her head, crying her heart out. No one, from that day forward, has ever spoken of leaving Lizzie behind again.
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1
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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3
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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4
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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5
reprieve
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| n.暂缓执行（死刑）；v.缓期执行；给…带来缓解 | |
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6
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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8
dreading
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| v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的现在分词 ) | |
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9
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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10
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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11
respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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12
accomplishments
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| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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13
orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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14
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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15
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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16
orphans
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| 孤儿( orphan的名词复数 ) | |
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uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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bide
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| v.忍耐；等候；住 | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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26
affronting
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| v.勇敢地面对( affront的现在分词 )；相遇 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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pricking
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| 刺，刺痕，刺痛感 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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30
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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auld
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| adj.老的，旧的 | |
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testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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39
propounding
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| v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的现在分词 ) | |
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40
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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41
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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42
rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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43
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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44
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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45
martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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46
apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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