Ascott Leaf had finished his walking the hospitals and his examinations, and was now fitted to commence practice for himself. His godfather had still continued his allowance, though once or twice, when he came down to Stowbury, he had asked his aunts to help him in small debts the last time in one a little more serious; when, after some sad and sore consultation2, it had been resolved to tell him he must contrive3 to live within his own allowance. For they were poorer than they used to be; many more schools had arisen in the town, and theirs had dwindled4 away. It was becoming a source of serious anxiety whether they could possibly make ends meet; and when, the next Christmas, Ascott sent them a five pound note—an actual five pound note, together with a fond, grateful letter that was worth it all—the aunts were deeply thankful, and very happy.
But still the school declined. One night they were speculating upon the causes of this, and Hilary was declaring, in a half jocular, half earnest way, that it must be because a prophet is never a prophet in his own country.
"The Stowbury people will never believe how clever I am. Only, it is a useless sort of cleverness, I fear. Greek, Latin, and mathematics are no good to infants under seven, such as Stowbury persists in sending to us."
"They think I am only fit to teach little children—and perhaps it is true," said Miss Leaf.
"I wish you had not to teach at all. I wish I was a daily governess—I might be, and earn enough to keep the whole family; only, not here."
"I wonder," said Johanna, thoughtfully, "if we shall have to make a change."
"A change!" It almost pained the elder sister to see how the younger brightened up at the word. "Where to—London? Oh, I have so longed to go and live in London! But I thought you would not like it, Johanna."
That was true. Miss Leaf, whom feeble health had made prematurely5 old, would willingly have ended her days in the familiar town; but Hilary was young and strong. Johanna called to mind the days when she too had felt that rest was only another name for dullness; and when the most difficult thing possible to her was what seemed now so easy—to sit down and endure.
Besides, unlike herself, Hilary had her life all before her. It might be a happy life, safe in a good man's tender keeping; those unfailing letters from India seemed to prophecy that it would. But no one could say. Miss Leaf's own experience had not led her to place much faith in either men or happiness.
Still, whatever Hilary's future might be, it would likely be a very different one from that quiet, colorless life of hers. And as she looked at her younger sister, with the twilight6 glow on her face—they were taking an evening stroll up and down the terrace—Johanna hoped and prayed it might be so. Her own lot seemed easy enough for herself; but for Hilary—she would like to see Hilary something better than a poor schoolmistress at Stowbury.
No more was said at that time, but Johanna had the deep, still, Mary-like nature, which "kept" things, and "pondered them in her heart." So that when the subject came up again she was able to meet it with that sweet calmness which was her especial characteristic—the unruffled peace of a soul which no worldly storms could disturb overmuch, for it had long since cast anchor in the world unseen.
The chance which revived the question of the Great Metropolitan7 Hegira8, as Hilary called it, was a letter from Mr. Ascott, as follows:
"MISS LEAF. MADAM,—I shall be obliged by your informing me if it is your wish, as it seems to be your nephew's, that instead of returning to Stowbury, he should settle in London as a surgeon and general practitioner9? His education complete, I consider that I have done my duty by him; but I may assist him occasionally still, unless he turns out—as his father did before him—a young man who prefers being helped to helping10 himself, in which case I shall have nothing more to do with him. I remain, Madam, your obedient servant, PETER ASCOTT."
The sisters read this letter, passing it round the table, none of them apparently11 liking12 to be the first to comment upon it. At length Hilary said: "I think that reference to poor Henry is perfectly13 brutal14."
"And yet he was very kind to Henry. And if it had not been for his common sense in sending poor little Ascott and the nurse down to Stowbury the baby might have died. But you don't remember any thing of that time, my dear," said Johanna, sighing.
"He has been kind enough, though he has done it in such a patronizing way," observed Selina. "I suppose that's the real reason of his doing it. He thinks it fine to patronize us, and show kindness to our family; he, the stout15, bullet-headed grocer's boy, who used to sit and stare at us all church time."
"At you—you mean. Wasn't he called your beau?" said Hilary mischievously16, upon which Selina drew herself up in great indignation.
And then they fell to talking of that anxious question—Ascott's future. A little they reproached themselves that they had left the lad so long in London—so long out of the influence that might have counteracted17 the evil, sharply hinted in his godfather's letter. But once away—to lure18 him back to their poor home was impossible.
"Suppose we were to go to him," suggested Hilary.
The poor and friendless possess one great advantage—they have nobody to ask advice of; nobody to whom it matters much what they do or where they go. The family mind has but to make itself up, and act accordingly. Thus within an hour or two of the receipt of Mr. Ascott's letter Hilary went into the kitchen, and told Elizabeth that as soon as her work was done Miss Leaf wished to have a little talk with her.
"Eh! what's wrong? Has Miss Selina been a-grumbling at me?"
Elizabeth was in one of her bad humors, which, though of course they never ought to have, servants do have as well as their superiors. Hilary perceived this by the way she threw the coals on and tossed the chairs about. But to-day her heart was full of far more serious cares than Elizabeth's ill temper. She replied, composedly—
"I have not heard that either of my sisters is displeased19 with you. What they want to talk to you about is for your own good. We are thinking of making a great change. We intend to leave Stowbury and going to live in London."
"Going to live in London!"
Now, quick as her tact20 and observation were—her heart taught her these things—Elizabeth's head was a thorough Saxon one, slow to receive impressions. It was a family saying, that nothing was so hard as to put a new idea into Elizabeth except to get it out again.
For this reason Hilary preferred paving the way quietly, before startling her with the sudden intelligence of their contemplated21 change.
"Well, what do you say to the plan?" asked she, good-humoredly.
"I dunnot like it at all," was the brief gruff answer of Elizabeth
Hand.
Now it was one of Miss Hilary's doctrines22 that no human being is good for much unless he or she has what is called "a will of one's own." Perhaps this, like many another creed23, was with her the result of circumstances. But she held it firmly, and with that exaggerated one-sidedness of feeling which any bitter family or personal experience is sure to leave behind—a strong will was her first attraction to every body. It had been so in the case of Robert Lyon, and not less in Elizabeth's.
But this quality has its inconveniences. When the maid began sweeping24 up her hearth25 with a noisy, angry gesture, the mistress did the wisest and most dignified26 thing a mistress could do under the circumstances and which she knew was the sharpest rebuke27 she could administer to the sensitive Elizabeth—she immediately quitted the kitchen.
For an hour after the parlor28 bell did not ring; and though it was washing day, no Miss Hilary appeared to help in folding up the clothes. Elizabeth, subdued29 and wretched, waited till she could wait no longer; then knocked at the door, and asked humbly30 if she should bring in supper?
The extreme kindness of the answer, to the effect that she must come in, as they wanted to speak to her, crushed the lingering fragments of ill humor out of the girl.
"Miss Hilary has told you our future plans, Elizabeth; now we wish to have a little talk with you about yours."
"Eh?"
"We conclude you will not wish to go with us to London; and it would be hardly advisable you should. You can get higher wages now than any we can afford to give you; indeed, we have more than once thought of telling you so, and offering you your choice of trying for a better place."
"No; I think we are merely honest. We should never think of keeping a girl upon lower wages than she was worth. Hitherto, however, the arrangement has been quite fair you know, Elizabeth, you have given us a deal of trouble in the teaching of you." And Miss Leaf smiled, half sadly, as if this, the first of the coming changes, hurt her more than she liked to express. "Come, my girl," she added, "you needn't look so serious. We are not in the least vexed32 with you; we shall be very sorry to lose you, and we will give you the best of characters when you leave."
"I dunnot—mean—to leave."
Elizabeth threw out the words like pellets, in a choked fashion, and disappeared suddenly from the parlor.
"Who would have thought it!" exclaimed Selina; "I declare the girl was crying."
No mistake about that; though when, a few minutes after, Miss Hilary entered the kitchen, Elizabeth tried in a hurried, shamefaced way to hide her tears by being very busy over something. Her mistress took no notice, but began, as usual on washing days, to assist in various domestic matters, in the midst of which she said, quietly, "And so, Elizabeth, you would really like to go to London?"
"No! I shouldn't like it at all; never said I should. But if you go,
I shall go too; though Missis is so ready to get shut o' me."
"It was for your own good, you know."
"You always said it was for a girl's good to stop in one place; and if you think I'm going to another. I aren't that's all."
Rude as the form of the speech was—almost the first rude speech that Elizabeth had ever made to Miss Hilary, and which, under other circumstances she would have felt bound severely33 to reprove—the mistress passed it over. That which lay beneath it, the sharpness of wounded love, touched her heart. She felt that, for all the girl's rough manner, it would have been hard to go into her London kitchen and meet a strange London face, instead of that fond homely34 one of Elizabeth Hand's.
Still, she thought it right to explain to her that London life might have many difficulties, that; for the present at least, her wages could not be raised, and the family might at first be in even more straitened circumstances than they were at Stowbury.
"Only at first, though, for I hope to find plenty of pupils, and by-and-by our nephew will get into practice."
"Is it on account of him you're going, Miss Hilary?"
"Chiefly."
Elizabeth gave a grunt35 which said as plainly as words could say, "I thought so;" and relapsed into what she, no doubt, believed to be virtuous36 indignation, but which, as it was testified against the wrong parties, was open to the less favorable interpretation37 of ill humor—a small injustice38 not uncommon39 with us all.
I do not pretend to paint this young woman as a perfect character. She had her fierce dislikes as well as her strong fidelities40; her faults within and without, which had to be struggled with, as all of us have to struggle to the very end of our days. Oftentimes not till the battle is high over—sometimes not till it is quite over—does God give us the victory.
Without more discussion on either side, it was agreed that Elizabeth should accompany her mistresses. Even Mrs. Hand seemed to be pleased thereat, her only doubt being lest her daughter should meet and be led astray by that bad woman, Mrs. Cliffe, Tommy Cliffe's mother, who was reported to have gone to London. But Miss Hilary explained that this meeting was about as probable as the rencontre of two needles in a hay-rick; and besides, Elizabeth was not the sort of girl to be easily "led astray" by any body.
"No, no; her's a good wench, though I says it," replied the mother, who was too hard worked to have much sentiment to spare. "I wish the little 'uns may take pattern by our Elizabeth. You'll send her home, may be, in two or three years' time, to let us have a look at her?"
Miss Hilary promised, and then took her way back through the familiar old town—so soon to be familiar no more—thinking anxiously, in spite of herself, upon those two or three years, and what they might bring.
It happened to be a notable day—that sunshiny 28th of June—when the little, round-cheeked damsel, who is a grandmother now, had the crown of three kingdoms first set upon her youthful head; and Stowbury, like every other town in the land, was a perfect bower41 of green arches, garlands, banners; white covered tables were spread in the open air down almost every street, where poor men dined, or poor women drank tea; and every body was out and abroad, looking at or sharing in the holiday' making, wild with merriment, and brimming over with passionate42 loyalty43 to the Maiden44 Queen.
That day is now twenty-four years ago; but all those who remember it must own there never has been a day like it, when, all over the country, every man's heart throbbed45 with chivalrous46 devotion, every woman's with womanly tenderness, toward this one royal girl, who, God bless her! has lived to retain and deserve it all.
Hilary called for, and protected through the crowd, the little, timid, widow lady who had taken off the Misses Leaf's hands their house and furniture, and whom they had made very happy—as the poor often can make those still poorer than themselves—by refusing to accept any thing for the "good will" of the school. Then she was fetched by Elizabeth, who had been given a whole afternoon's holiday; and mistress and maid went together home, watching the last of the festivities, the chattering47 groups that still lingered in the twilight streets, and listening to the merry notes of the "Triumph" which came down through the lighted windows of the Town Hall, where the open-air tea drinkers had adjourned48 to dance country dances, by civic49 permission, and in perfectly respectable jollity.
"I wonder," said Hilary—while, despite some natural regret, her spirit stretched itself out eagerly from the narrowness of the place where she was born into the great wide world; the world where so many grand things were thought and written and done; the world Robert Lyon had so long fought with, and was fighting bravely still—"I wonder, Elizabeth, what sort of place London is, and what our life will be in it?"
Elizabeth said nothing. For the moment her face seemed to catch the reflected glow of her mistress's, and then it settled down into that look of mingled50 resistance and resolution which was habitual51 to her. For the life that was to be, which neither knew—oh, if they had known!—she also was prepared.
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1
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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2
consultation
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| n.咨询；商量；商议；会议 | |
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contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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dwindled
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| v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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prematurely
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| adv.过早地，贸然地 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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7
metropolitan
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| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
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hegira
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| n.逃亡 | |
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practitioner
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| n.实践者，从事者；(医生或律师等)开业者 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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12
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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14
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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mischievously
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| adv.有害地；淘气地 | |
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17
counteracted
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| 对抗，抵消( counteract的过去式 ) | |
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18
lure
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| n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引 | |
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19
displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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21
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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30
humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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31
stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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32
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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33
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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34
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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35
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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36
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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40
fidelities
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| 忠诚，忠实（fidelity的复数形式） | |
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41
bower
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| n.凉亭，树荫下凉快之处；闺房；v.荫蔽 | |
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42
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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43
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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44
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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45
throbbed
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| 抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 )； （心脏、脉搏等）跳动 | |
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46
chivalrous
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| adj.武士精神的；对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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47
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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48
adjourned
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| （使）休会， （使）休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
civic
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| adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的 | |
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50
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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51
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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