THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA LIBRARY \\ . , i ,v J'< - « Standard N. MISTRESS AO MAID. mt T /fBfe BY MISS JvIULOCH, 1.' Fi U: John Halifax, Greiitiemaiv," "The Ogilviei "Head of the Family;" "Nothing- 3tfe<% : "Ak'atha'a.Husband,"' &c\{ Szc.^ &H. RiniM'jN'D: WIOBT $ .IOIIXSTOX 1-1 f, \faii] Street. ; 36 1. — — -*»-* .' \ V; s^h r ■ 1 *■' ' • ->: — vrsr m S |*0ttWhflM $tM]>, B"y IMIISS MXJLOOH, AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN,'' -OLIVE," "THE OGILVIES," •THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY," "NOTHING NEW," "AGATHA'S HUSBAND." &c„ &c. RICHMOND i WEST & JOHNSTON, PUBLISHERS. 1864. Printed at tha Lynchburg "Virginian" Book and Job Office. . » w r nry. Univ* of H) Carolina MISTRESS AND MAID. CHAPTER I. ding, to iron a 3hirt ; and, moreover, to reflect. las she woke up to the knowedge of how these She was a rather tall, awkward, and strong- things should tie done, and how necessary they i -built girl of about fifteen. This was tht first [were, what must have been her eldest -'.-tor'-. impression the "maid'' jraveto her " mistres- lot during all these twenty years ' Whatpainsj ios, " the M'sses Leaf, when she entered their what weariness, what eternal toil must Johan- kitehen, accompanied by her mother, a widow na have silently endured in order to do ai> and washer-woman, by name Mrs. Hand. I ithose things which till now had seemed to dr. must confess, when they saw the damsel, the'themselves! ladies felt a eertain twinge of doubt as-toj Therefore, after much cogitation as to the whether they had not been rash in offering to bes'fcand most prudent, wav to amend matter.-. take her; whether it would nochave been wi.^r am] perceiving wifcb her clear common sense to have gone on in their old way— now, alas : t ] iatt w j]]jhg as she might be to work in the grown into a very old way, so as almost tokhchen, her own time would be much more make them forget they had ever had any otheri va i ua biy pp ent ; n teachingtheirgrowingschool, —and done without a servant still. It was ft j] arv w ho these Christmas holidavs. Many consultations had the three Bisters grat started the bold idea, " We must have a held before such a revolutionary extravagance servant ;" and therefore, it being necessarv to was determined on. But Miss Leaf was be begin with a very small servant on very 'low -inning both to lookand to feel '• not so voung . va ^ eP> (£3 per annum was. I fear the maxi- as she had been:" Miss Selina ditto: though, being still under forty, she would not have ac- knowledged it for the world. And Miss Hilary, young, bright, and active as she was, could by no possibility do every thing that was to be done In the little establishment : be, for instance, in three places at once — in the school-room, leaching Httle boys and girls, in the kitchen vages, (to per jinim), did they take this Elizabeth Hand. So, hanging behind her parent, an anxious- eyed, and rather bad-voiced woman, did Eliz- abeth enter the kitchen of the Misses Leaf. The ladies were all there. Johanna arran- ging the table for their early tea : Selina lying on the sofa trying to cut bread and butter; Hilary on rfer knees before the fire, making cooking dinner, and in the room3 up stair? ! ,] )e bft of toast, her eldest sister? one mxurv. busy at house-maid's work. Besides, much! This was the picture that her three mistres of her time was spent in waiting upon "poorl se3 preP ,-, n t e d to Elizabeths eves; whirl,. Selina,'' who frequently was, or fancied her self, too ill to take any part in either the schoo' r>r hou«e duties. Though, the thing being inevitable, sh( ?aid little about it. Miss Leaf's heart \\a> often sore to see Hilary's pretty hands smear ed with blacking of grates, and roughened with scouring of floors. To herself this sort ot thing had become natural— but Hilary ! All 'the time of Hilary's childhood, the youngest of the family had. of course, been \ spared all house-work ; and afterward hei studies had left no time for it, , For she was a ■ clevej girl, with a genuine love of knowledge : «* Latin, Greek, and even the higher branche- m of arithmetic and mathematics, were not be 1 yond her range: and this she found much * more interesting than washing dishes or sweep ing floors. True, she always did whatever do mestic duty she was told to do; but her bo^tisat down though they seemed to notice nothing, must, in reality, have noticed every thins;. " I've brought my daughter, ma'am, as you -ent word you'd take on trial," said Mrs. Hand, __ addressing herself to Selina, who, as the tallest, the best dressed, and the most ifl) posing, was usually regarded by strangers as the head of the family. "Oh. Joanna, mv dear." Miss Leaf came forward, rather uncertainly , for she was of a shy nature, and had been so long arcup'omed to do the servant's work of i ho housel old, that she felt quite awkward in the character of mistress. Instinctively she hid her poor hands, that would at once have betrayed her to the sharp eyes of the working- woman, and then, ashamed of'her/nomentary r al8e pride, laid, them outside, her apron and was not in the household line. She had only lately learned to " nee dust," to make a pud- "Wiii vou take a chair, Mrs. Hand? My sister told you, I believe, all our requirements 4 Distress and maid. We only want a good, intelligent girl. Weareling'only, "Good,-b>, Lizabeth," with a nod, willing to teach her every thing." half-encouraging, half-admonitory, which Eli- ,f Thank you, Kindly ; and I be willing and salieth silently returned. That was all the glad for her to learn, ma'am," replied the parting between mother and daughter ; they mother, her sharp and rather free tone subdued in spite of herself by the gentle voice, of Hiss Leaf. Of course, living in the same country town, she knew all about the three schoo'-mis- tresses, and how till now they had kept no servant. "It's her firft place,* and hev'll be awk'ard at first, m Hold head, Lizabeth." neither kissed nor shook hands, which unde- monstrative farewell somewhat surprised Hil- ary. Now, Miss Hilary Leaf had all this, while gone on toasting. Luckily for her bread the tire was low and black; meantime, from up pdurlhind lfer long drooping curls (which Johar I would not let her ''turn up," though she was "Is her name Elizabeth '.'" twenty), she was making her observations or. "Fartoo loftg and too fine," bbsen - a the new servant. It might be that, possessing from the sofa. "Call her Betty." more head than the one and more heart than "Any thing you please, Miss ; but I call her Lizabeth. It wor my young missis's name in my first place, and I never had a second." •' We will call her Elizabeth," said Miss Leaf, with the gentle decision she could use on occasion. There was a little more discussion between the mother and the futui^: mistress as to hol- idays, Sundays, and so on, during which time the new servant stood silent and impassive in the door-way between the back kitchen and the kitchen, or, as it is called in those regions, the house-place. As before said, Elizabeth was by no means the other, Hilary was gifted with deeper pie ception of character than cither of her sister.-, but certainly her expression, as she watched Elizabeth, was rather amused 'and kindly than dissatisfied. ' " Now, girl,- take off your bonnet," said Se- Iina, to whom Johanna had silently appealed in her perplexity as to the next proceeding with regard to the new member of the house- hold. Elizabeth obeyed, and then stood, irresolute, awkward, and wretched to the last degree, at the furthest end of the house-place. "Shall I show you where to hang up your a personable girl, and her clothes did not set thing"? ?'" said Hilary, speaking for the first her off to advantage. Her cotton frock hung' time : and at the new voice, so quick, cheerful, in straight lines down to her ankles, displaying and pleasant, Elizabeth visibly. start her clumsily shod feet aind woolen stockings ; Miss Hilary rose from her knees, crossed above it was a pinafore — a regular child's pin- the kitchen, took from the girl's unresisting afore, of the cheap, strong, blue-speckled print hands the old black bonnet and shawl; and which in those days Was generally worn. A. lit- hung them up carefully on a nail behind the tic shabby shawl, pinned at the throat, and pin- g lay clock. It was a simple action. ned Very carelessly and crookedly- with an old do: |tiite withoutintention,andacceptedwith- black bonnet, much too small jfor her large ioni acknowledgment, except one quick glance head and her quantities of ill b at keen, yet soft grey eye: but years and plet» -rumc [tdid . - after Elizabeth reminded Hilary of it. ably a lady who, being. < gbeen, And now Elizabeth stood forth 'in her own handsome herself, was as much alive ttnproper likeness, unconcealed by bonnet or appearances as the second Mjss Leaf, awl. or maternal protection. The pinafore She made several rather depreciatory c iarcely covered her gaunt neck and long vations, and insisted strongly that the new ser- arms : that tremendous heal of rough, dusky vant shouli only be taken "on trial," with'hair was evidently for the first time gathered no obligation to keep her a lay longer than. into a comb. Thence elf-locks escaped in all they wished. Her feeling on the matter com- directions, and were forever being pushed be- municated itself to Johanna, who closed the hind her ears, or rubbed (not* smoothed : there negotiation with Mrs. Hand, by saying. was nothing smooth about her) back from her "Well,' let us hope your daughter will suit forehead, which, Hilary noticed, was low, us. We will give he! • : dr ha at all events." " Which is all 1 can ax for, Mis;- Leaf. broad, and full, The rest of her face, except, the before-mentioned eyes was absolutely and'i undeniably plain. Her figure, so far as the* Her bean't much to look a', bat tier's willin'lpiuafore exhibited it, was undeveloped and J and sharp, and tier's never told me a be in \ ungainly, the chest being contracted and thf- * her life. Courtesy to thy ndssie ' ->ay sh'otilders rounded, as ' if with carrying child-t thee'lt do thy best. Lizabeth." ren orother w< - idle stiil a growing girl . Fulled itorward did ephitesy, but In fact, nature arid circumstances had appa she; never offer' e«*« imited in dealing unkindly with Eli fueling that fur ail pi iad,beth '' better be shortened, roe from her chair. Mr*. Hfrmi tookth' kih( I id departed, say-; with her? Still hei as ; and what wae to be done RBC MISTRESS A^D MAID. «" Having sent her with the small burden, which was apparently all her luggage, to'the little room — formerly a box-closet — where she was to sleep, t lie Misses Leaf — or as facetious " I think, sisters, we are forgetting tha*. the staircase is quite open, and though I am sure she has an honest look and not that of a listener, still Elizabeth might hear. Shall I iighbors called them, the Miss Leaves — call her down stairs, and tell her to light a took serious counsel together over their tea. Tea itself suggested the first difficulty. They were always in the habit of taking that meal, and indeed every other, in the kitchen. It fire in the parlor?" Whilesheis doing it, and in spite of Selina's forebodings to the contrary, the small maiden did it quickly and well, especially after a hint saved time, trouble, and fire, besides leaving or two from Hilary — let me take the opportu- ne parlor always tidy for callers, chiefly pu nils' parents, and preventing these latter from discovering tin; 1 the three orphan daughters of Henry Leaf, Esq., solicitor, and sisters of Henry Leaf, Junior, Esq., also solicitor, but nity of making a little picture of this same Hi: ary. Little it should be, for she was a decidedly little woman : small altogether, hands, feet, and figure being in satisfactory proportion. whose sole mission in life seemed to havebeenjHer movements, like those of most little wo- to spend every thing, make every body miser- men> . wtre ]j g ht and quick rather than en- able, marry, and die. that these three ladies gant . yet every thing she did was done vith a did always wait upon themselves at meal-time, 'neatness and delicacy which gave an involnn- and did sometimes breakfast without hutter,' tarv sense of grace and harmony. She was, and djne without meat. Now thiB system^ brief, one of those people who aw would not do any longer. 'scribed bv the word " harmonious :" pent-:' isides, there is no need for it," said I- wno neV er set vour teeth on edge, or rub ary, cheerfully. " I am sure we can well afford both to keep and to ,feed a servant, and to have a fire in the parlor every day. Why not take our meals there, and sit there regularly of evenings ?" 14 We.mu.ft," added Selma; decidedly. ''For my pails I couidi with that great opposite, or standing: for how could we ask her to sit with us ? Already, what must she have thought of us — people who take tea in the kitchen?" " I do not think that matters," said the el- dest sister, gently, after a moment's*silence. " Every body in the town knows who and what we are. or might, if they chose to in- quire. We cannot conceal our poverty if we tried : and I don't think -any body looks down upon us for it. Not e'ven snjpe we began to up the wrong way, as very excellent people occasionally do. Yet she was not over-meek or unpleasantly amiable: there was a liveli- ness and even briskness about her. as if the every day wine of her life had a spice of Charti- pagniness, not frothiness but riatural efferves- 't eat. or sew. or do any thing cence f 8p j r j tj meant to " chee not ine ! girl sitting staring briate" a household. And in her own household this gift was displayed. No centre of a brilliant, admiring circle could be more charming,' -more witty, more irresistibly amusing than was Hilary sitting by the kitchen fire, with the oat on her knee, between her two sisters, and the sell boy Ascoit Leaf, their nephew — which four individuals, the cat being not the least impor- tant of them, constituted the family. In the family, Hilary shone supreme. K. keep school, which" vou Thought, was "siicii'a ' recognized her 'as the light of the house, andso terrible thing, Selina." | 9 ; )e " aa " been, ever since she was born, ever " And it was. I have never reconciled my- ; smce " er self to teaching the baker's two boys and the -Dving mother mild, grocer's little giri. You were wrong, J han-| gaid, with accents nndefi(e& na, you ought to hare drawn the line some- . 'Child, be mother to this chHO."-> where, and it ought to have excluded trades- people." H wa8 sai( » t0 Johanna Leaf — who was no; Beggars can not be choosers.'' began Hil- Mrfl - Leaf's own child. But the good step- mother, who had once taken the little mother- less girl to her bosom, and never since mad?. the slightest difference between her and her own children, knew well whom she was trus- ting. . From that solemn hour, in the middie oi the night, when she lifted the hour-old baby out of its dead mother's bed into lrer own,, it "Beggars !" echoed Selina. ' " No, my dear, we were never that,'"' said Miss Leaf, interposing against one of the sud- den storms that were often breaking out be- tween these two. " You know well we have never begged or borrowed from any body, and r hardly ever been indebted to any body, except for the extra iessons that Mr." Lyon would! became Johanna's one object in life. Through insist upon giving to Ascott at .home." a sickly infancy, for it was a child born Here Johanna suddenly stopped, and Ilil-jamidst trouble, her sole hands washed, dres- ary, with a slight colorrising in her faceted, fed it; night and day it ''lay in her said— j bosons, and was unto her as a daughter." MI3TRBS& AND MAID. She was then just thirvy ; not too old to look forward to woman's natural destiny, a husband and children of her own. But years clipped by, and she was Miss Leaf still. What matter! Hilary was her daughter. Johanna's pride in her knew no bounds. Not that she showed it much-: indeed slit deemed it a sacred duty not ow it ; but to mak' h ;hil - just like other, childreu. But she was not. Nobody ever thought sh< was — even in externals.— Fate gave her all those gifts which are some- times sent to make up for the lack 'of world!) prosperity. Her brown eyes. Were as soft a;- loves' eyes, yet could dance with tun and mis chiefif they cliche ; her hair, brown also, with a dark-red shade in it, crisped 'itself in two wavy Hoes over hor forehead, and then turn bled down ip two glorious masses, which Jo hanna, ignorant, alas! '•untidy," and labored combs, or to arrange, in proper, regular curls Her features — well, they feo, were good ;> bet ter.than those unartietic people had any idea -better even thanSelina*s, who in her youth had been the belle of the town. But whethei artistically correct or not, Johanna, though she would on no account have acknowledged it, believed solemnly that there was not such a face in the whole world as little Hillary's. Possibly a similar idea dawned upon the apparently dull mind of Elizabeth Hand, for *he watched her vounsest mistress intent! of ■ art, called very I) vain to quel! undei I hope never again to Pee Aunt Jpha cleaning the stairs, and getting up to light the kitchen fire of winter mornings, as she will lo if we have not a servant to do it for her. Don't you fcee, Ascott?" "Oh, I see," answered the boy, carelei •' But don't bother me, please. Domestic af- fairs are for women, not men." Ascott wa- eighteen, and just about to pass out of his cat- erpillar state as a doctor's apprentice-lad into die chrysalis condition of a medical student in London. " But," with sudden reflection, " 1 hope she. won'i be in my way. Don't let her meddle with any of my books and things." "No: you need not be afraid. I have put hem all into your room. I myself; cleared your rubbish out of the box closet-*-" "The box-ck>8«t! Now, really, L can't stand — " " She is to sleep in the box-closet ; when sould she sleep?'" said Hilary, resolutely, though inly quaking a little; for somehow. fhe merry, handsome, rather exacting lad had acquired considerable influence in this. household of women. "You must put up with the loss of your ' den," Ascott ; it would be a great shame it you did not, for the sake of Aunt Johanna and the rest of us." "Um !" grumbled the. boy, who, though he was not a bad fellow at heart, bad a boy'? dislike to " putting up" with convenience.. " Well, it won't ig. J shall be off shortly. What a jollv lift l'" : .' • ■- u . ie watcneu ner youngest mistress intently. from kitchen to parlor, and from parlor back 1 have in London, Aunt .Hi! to kitchen: and once when Miss Hilary stood -Lyon there too." giving information a? to the proper abode oij "Yes," said Aunt Hilary, briefly, ne broom, -bellows, etc., the little maid gazed aldng to Dido and >Eneas : humble and eas* her with such' admiring observation that the Latinity for a student of eighteen ; but . scuttle she carried was tilted, and the coals Lw as not a brilliant boy, and, being apprenticed' were strewn all over the kitchen floor. At early, his education had been much neglected. which catastrophe Miss Leaflooked miserable, till Mr. Lyon came as usher to the Stpwb.ur; Miss Selina spoke crossly. -and Ascotr, who grammar-school, and happening to meet and just then came'in to'his tea,Tate as usual, hurst j take an interest in him, taught him and his into a shout of laughter Aunt Hilary Latin, Greek, arid mathems It was as much as Hilary could do to help, together, of evenings, aughing herself, she being too near heme- I shall make no mysteries here. Human phew'sowh age always to maintain a dignified nature" is human nature all the world over. aUnt-like attitude,, but nevertheless, . when, A tale vyithout love in it would be nviwr. having' - : r's in the parlor, i.unreal — in fact, a simple lie ; for there are no she coaxed Ascott into the school-room, andjhistories and no lives without love in them : insisted upon his Latin beihgdone — she help- if there could be, Heaven pity and pardon ing him, Aunt Hilary -.elded him well, and them, for they would be mere abortions o bound him over to keep the peace toward the raamtj . new servant. • Thank Heaven, we, most of ub, dot "But she is such a queer one. Exactly like; soph ize; we only live. We like one anof a South Sea Islander. When she stood withjwe hardly know why: we love one another, her grim, stolid countenance, contemplating'; we still less know why. If on the day -):■■ the cOalq—-oh, Aunt Hilary, how killing she|firstsaw — in church it was — Mr. Lyon's grave, .was !" | heavy-browed, somewhat severe face — for t And the regular, rollicking, irresistible boy-jwas a Scotsman, and his sharp, strong Scotch laugh broke, out again. '-features did look " hard" beside the soft, rosy "She will be great fun. Is she really toj well-conditioned youth of Stowbury — ifonthai stay?" ;Sunday any one had told Hilary Leaf tha' " I hope so," said Hilary, trying to be grave. -the faceof this stranger was to be the one fac* MISTRESS AND MAID. of her life, stumped upon brain and heart* and soul with avividness that no other impressions were alrong enough to efface, and retained there with a tenacity that no vicissitudes of time, or place, or fortunes had power to alter, Hilary wouh] — yes, I think she would — have quietly kept looking ou. She would have ac-i 1 her lot,"sucu as it was, with its shine] -hade, its joy and its anguish; it came to! ler Without her seeking, as most of the solemn! things in life do : and whatever it brought with it, it could hjave come from no other source than that from which ail high,' and holy, and pure loves ever must come — the will and per- mission of God. Mr. Lyon himself requires no long descrip- tion. In his first vwft he had told Miss Leaf all ajoout himself that there was to be known : ' that he was, as they were, a poor teacher, who] had altogether "made himself/' as so many, Scotch students do. His father, whom he scarcely remembered, had been a small Ayr- shire farmer ; his mother was dead, and he had ne\ l er had either brother or sister. Seeing how clever Miss Hilary was, and how much as a schoolmistress -she would-need all the education she could get, he had offered to teach her along with her nephew ; and she and Johanna were only too thankful for the advantage. But during the teaching he had also taught her another thing, which neither had contemplated at the time — "to respect him with her whole soul, and to love him with her whole hear:. Over this simple fact let no more be now aid. Hilary said nothing. She recognized it hersell as soon as he was gone; a plain, sad, solemn truth, which there was no deceiving; herself did not exist, even had she wished its! non-existence. Perhaps Johanna also found; it cut, in her darling's extreme paleness andi unusual quietness for awhile; but she too said] nothing. Mr. Lyon wrote regularly to Ascott, j and once or twice to hevMiss Leaf ;• but though every one knew that Hilary was his' particular friend in the whole family, he -did not write to Hilary. He had departed rather suddenly, on account o'f some plan which he said, affected his future very considerably : but Irhich,- though lie was in the habit of telling them his affairs, he did not further explain. BUI] Johanna knew he *v »ood man, a:, J though no man could be quite good enough him, -h trusted for her darling, she liked him. What Hilary felt none knew. Bu; girlish in some things; and her life, was all before her, full of infinite- hope. By-and- by her color returned, and her merry voice and laugh w< i .-J about the house jiost as usual. # This being the position of affairs, it was not jsurprising that after Ascott's last speech Hil- ary r s mind wandered from Dido and Mne&a to vague listening, as the lad began talking of his grand future — the future of a medical student, all expenses being paid by his godfather, Mr. Ascott, the merchant, of Russell Square, once a shop boy of Stowhury. Nor was it unnatu- ral that all Ascott's anticipations of London resolved themselves, in his aunt's eyes, into the one fact that he would "see Mr. Lyon." But in telling thus much about her mistres- ses, I have for the time being lost sight of Eli- zabeth Hand. Left to herself, the girl stood for a minute or two looking around her in a confused man- ner, then, rousing her faculties, began mechan- ically to obey the order with which her mis- tress had quitted the kitchen, and to wash up the tea-things. She did it in a fashion that, if seen, would have made Miss Leaf thankful that the ware was only the common set, and not the cherished china belonging to former days : still she did it, noisily it is true, but actively, as if her heart were in her Work. Then she took a candle and peered about her new domains. These were small enough, at least they would have seemed so to other eyes than Eli- , zabeth's ; for, until the school-room and box- closet above had been kindly added by the landlord, who would have done any thing to show his respect- for the Misses Leaf, it had been 'merely a six-roomed cottage — parlor, kitchen, back kitchen, and three upper cham- bers. It was a very cozy house notwithstand- ing, and it seemed to Elizabeth's eyes a perfect pala.ee. . For several minutes more .-.he stood and contemplated her kitchen, with the lire shining on the round oaken stand in the centre, and the large wooden-bottomed chairs, and the loud-ticking clock, with its tall case, the inside of which, with its pendulum and weights, had been a perpetual mystery and delight, first to Hilary's and then to Ascott's childhood. Then there was the sofa, large and ugly, but, oh ! so comfortable, with its faded, tlowered chintz, washed and worn for certainly twenty years. And, overall, Elizabeth's keen observation was attracted by a queer machine apparently made of thin rope and bits of wood, which hung up to the hooks on the ceiling — an old-fashioned baby's swing. Finally, her eye dv content on the blue and red diamond floor, so easily swept and mopped, and (only Elizabeth did not think of that, for her hard childhood had been all work and no play) so beautiful to whip tops upon ! Hilary and As- cott, condoling together over the new servant, congratulated themselves that their delight in this occupation had somewhat faied, though it was really not so many years ago since one of the former's pupils, coming suddenly out of the school-room, had caught her in the act of whipping a meditative top round this same kitchen floor. 8 MISTRESS AND MAID. Meantime Elizabeth penetrated farther, in-J " What has the girl broken ?" cried Selina. vestigating the back kitchen, with its variousj " Where ha9 she hurt herself?" anxiously conveniences; especially the pantry, everyiadded Johanna, shelf of which was so neatly arranged and Hilary said nothing, but ran for a light, and beautifully clean. Apparently this neatness impressed the girl with a.sense of novelty and curiosity ; and though shecould hardly be said to meditate — her mind was not sufficiently awakened for that— still, as she stood at the kitchen fire, a slight thoughtfulness deepened the expression of her face, and made it less dull and heavy than y) had at first appeared. " I wonder which on /em does it all. 'They must work pretty hard, I reckon; and two p! them's such little uns." She stood a while longer ; for sitting down appeared to be to Elizabeth as new a proceed ing as thinking; then she went up stairs, still literally obeying orders, to shut windows and then picked up first the servant, then the can- dle, and then the fragments of crockery. " Why, it's my ewer, my favorite ewer, and it'=, all smashed to bits, and I never can match it again. You careless, clumsy, good-for-no- thing creature !" "Please, Selina,'' whispered her eldest sis- ter. li . Very well, Johanna. .You are the mis- tress, I suppose ; why don't you speak to your servant?" Miss Leaf, in an humbled, alarmed \\ ay, first satisfied herself that no bodily injury had been sustained by Elizabeth, and then asked he: how this disaster had happened '.' For a seriou? pull down blinds at nightfall. The bedrooms Ijsaster she felt it was. Not onlj was the were small, and insufficiently, nay, shabbily; present loss annoying, but a servant with 8 furnished; but the floors were spotless — ah ! talent for crockery breaking would be a far too poor Johauna ! — and the sheets, though patch- expensive luxury for them to think of retain-, ed and darned to the last extremity, weie «diite ing. And she had been listening in the soli- and whole. Notning was dirty, nothing unti- rude of the parlor to a long lecture from her dy. There was no attempt at picturesque always dissatisfied younger sister, on thegreat poverty — for whatever novelists may say, pov- doubts Selina had about Elizabeth's "suil- erty can not be picturesque; but all things ine-" were decent and m order. The house, poor as it was, gave the impression of belonging to "real ladies ;" ladies who thought no manner of work beneath them, and who, whatever they had to do, took the pains to do it as well as possible. Mrs. Band's roughly-brought-up daughter had never been in such a house before, and her examination of every new corner of it seemed quite a revelation.. Her own. little sleeping nook was fully as tidy and comfortable "Come, now," seeing the girl hesii " tell me the plain truth. How was ft "It was the cat," sobbed Elizabeth. "What a barefaced falsehood !" exclaimed Selina. " You wicked girl, how could it pos- sibly be the cat? Do you know that you are telling a lie, and that lies are hateful, and that all liars go to — " "Nonsense, hush!" interrupted Hilar), rathersharply; forSelina's "tottgue," theterror of her childhood, now merely annoyed her. as the rest, which fact was not lost upon Eliza- Selina's temper was a long understood house- beth. That bright look of mingled softness) hold fact — they did not much mind it, knowing and intellincence — the onlv thine which beau- that her bark was worse than her bite — but it :ified her rugged face — came into the girl's .-yes as she "turned down" ,the truckle-bed, and felt the warm blankets and sheets, new and rather coarse, but neatly sewed.' " Her's made 'em hersel', 1 reckon* La '." VVh'eh of her mistresses the ".her" referred to remained unspecified ; but. Elizabeth, spur- red to action by some new idea, went briskly back into the bedrooms, and looked abo: see if there was any thing she could find to was provoking that she should exhibit hersel! so soon before the new servaut. • The latter first looked up at the lady with simple surprise ; then, as in spite of .the other two, Miss Selina worked herself up into a downright passion, and unlimited abuse fell' uponthe victim's devoted head, Elizabeth'^ manner changed. After onedogged repetit' of, " It was the cat !" not another word could' got out of her. She stopd, her eye=> fixeu do. At last, with a sudden inspiration, shejon the kitehen floor, her brows knitted, and peered into a wash-stand, and found there anjher under lip pushed out— the very picture ol smpty ewer. Taking it in one hand and the sullennees. Young as she was. Elizabeth evi- •jaridle in th , she ran down • de-ntly had, like her unfortunate mJstr Fatal activity! Hilary'., pet oat, -startled temper of her own" — a spiritual deforwjt) ::i sleep on the kitchen hearth, at the same that some people are boin with, as otL ant ran wildly up stairs; there was a .start with hare-lip or club-foot; only, unlike these, —a stumble — and then down came the candle, it may be conquered, though the battle is long the ewer, Elizabeth, and all. and sore, sometimes endingonly with life. It was an awful crash. It brought ev^ry It had plainly never conTmenced with poor member of the family to. see what was the Elizabeth Hand. Her appearance, as she matter. [stood under the flood of sharp words poured MISTRESS AND MAID. 9 out upon her, was absolutely repulsive. Even, Miss. Hilary turned away; and began to think it would have been easier to teach all day and do house-work half the niglft, than have the infliction of a servant— to say nothing of the disgrace of seeing Selina's "peculiarities" so exposed before a. stranger. ' She knew of old that to stop the torrent was impracticable. The only chance was 10 let Selina expend her wrath and retire, and then to take some' quiet opportunity of explaining to Elizabeth that sharp language was only " her way," and must be put up with. Hu- miliating as this was, and fatal to domestic authority that the first thing to be taught a new servant was to "put up" with one of her mistresses, still there was no alternative. — Hilary Lad already foreboded and made up her mind to such a possibility, but she had hoped it would not occur the very first even- ing- : It did, however, and its climax was worse even than she anticipated. Whether, irritated by the intense sullenness of the girl, Selina's temper was worse than usual, or whether, as is always thecase .vith people like her, something else had vexed her, and she vented it upon the first causeof annoyance thatoccurred, certain it is that her tongue went on unchecked till it failed from sheer exhaustion. And then, as she flung herself on the sofa — oh, sad mis chance ! — she caught sight of her nephew standing at the 'school-room door, grinning with intense delight, and making faces at her behind her back. It was too much. The poor lady had no more words left to scold with ; but she rushed up to Ascott, and big lad as he was, she soundlv boxed his ears. On this terrible climax let the curtain fall. CHAPTER II. Common as were the small feuds between Ascott and his Aunt Selina, they seldom reached such a catastrophe as that described in my last chapter. Hifciry had to fly to the rescue, and literally drag the furious lad back into the school-room ; while Johanna, pale and trembling, persuaded Selina to quit the field and go and lie down. This was not dif ficult ; for the instant she saw what she had done, how she had disgraced herself and in- sulted her nephew. Selina felt sorry. Her passion ended in a gush of " nervous" tear6. under the influence of which she was led up stairs and put to bed, almost like a child— the usual termination of these pitiful outbreaks. For the time nobody thought of Elizabeth. The hapless cause of all stood "spectatress of the fray" beside her kitcheu fire. What she thought aietory s&ith uo\, WJ>*b© rude again." ''Oh no; not till the next time," replied Mi**s Leaf, hopele66ly. " But Hilary," with a 6udden consternation, "what are we to do about, Elizabeth ?" • The younger &ist«r had thought of that. She jjftd tQroed over i& Jjer ujir/J all the proe aod eons, the inevitable " worries" that would re- sult from the presence of an additional mem- ber of the family, especially one from whom •lie family skeleton could not be hid. to whom it was already only too fatally revealed. * But Hilary was a clear-headed girl, and she had the rare faculty of seeing things as they really were, undistorted by her own likings or dislikings — in fart, without reference to herself at all. She perceived plainly that Johanna ought not to do the housework, that Stlina would not. and that she could not: ergo, they must keep a servant. Better, perhaps, a s mall servant, over whom 'hey could havethesame influence as o\er a child, than one older and more independent, who would irritate her mistresses at home, and chatter of them abroad. Besides, they had promised Mrs. Hand to give her daughter a fair trial. For a month, then, Elizabeth was bound to stay ; afterward, time would show. It was best not to meet troubles half way. This explained, in Hilary's cheerful voice, seemed greatly to reassure and comfort Ker sister. " Yes, love, you are right : she must remain her month out, unless she does something very wrong. Do you think that reallv was a lie she told ?" ■" About the cat? I don't quite know what to think. Let us call her,' and nut the ques- tion once more. Do you put it, Johanna. I don't think she could look at'you and tell you a story." Other people, at sight of thrjt sweet, grave face, its bloom faded, and Iiairo silvered long before their time, yet beautiful, with an al- most childlike simplicity and childlike peace — most other people would have been of Hil- ary's opinion. " Sit down ; I'll call her. Dear me, Johan- na, we shall have to set up a bell as well as a servant, unless we had managed to combine the two." But Hilary's harmless' little joke failed to make her sister smile ; and the entrance of the sirl'seemed to excite positive* appreben How was it possible to make excuse to a sen va«t for her mistress's shortcomings? how scold for ill-doing this young girl., to. whom,, ere she had been a night in the house, so bad an example had been set? TTohanna hali 'ex- pected Elizabeth to take a leaf out of Selina'B book, and begin abusing herself and Hilary. No: she stood very sheepish, very uncom- fortable, but not in the least bold or sulky— on the whole, looking rather penitent and humble. Her mistress took courage. "Elizabeth I wa»t you to tell me the truth! about that unfortunate breakage. Don't bd afraid. I had ratb& you brokeevery thing id the hou^e vjjwi ii«#vo void uje what waa udj trw." MISTRESS AND MAID. 11 . »' It was true ; it was the cat." " How could that be possible ? You were *ommj? down stairs with the ewer in your ^•Hercrot under" mv feet, and throwe.l me down, and so I tumbled, and smashed the thing agin the floor.' awkwaid at firs'. However, she succeeded in pouring out and carrving into the parlor, with- out accident, three p'latefuls of that excellent condiment which formed the frugal supper of the family' t.ut which tl.ey ate, 1 grieve to iay in an orthodox southern fashion, with. Bftear or treacle, until Mr. Lyon— greatly hoi- k ^ g.«-. at e.ch o.,«. ^ jk-s^j^iKia st" ~* torn of '• supping" porridge with milk. It mav be a very unsentimental thing to confess, but Hilary, "who even at twenty was rather practical than poetieal. never made the porridge without thinking of Robeit Lyon ; and the dav wjien he first stakl to supper, ann ate it, or as he said and was very much laugh- ed at, ate "them" with such infinite relish. Since then, whenever he came, he atwayi asked for his porridge, savins it carried nun hack to his childish days. And Hilary, with that curious pleasure that Avomen take in wait- in rr upon any one unto whom the heart is igm> ranify beginriinsrtOo.wn the allegiance, humbl* vet proud, of Miranda to Ferdinand: " To be your fellow You tmy de>.y me ; but I'll be your Berrant • Whether you will Or no." This version of the momentous event wan probable enough, and the girl's eager, honest manner gave internal confirmatory evidence prettv strong. ,, . , « I am sure she is telling the truth, said Hilarv. " And remember what her mother said about her word being always reliable. This reference was too much for. hlizabeth. She burst out, not into actual crying, but into a smothered choke. . " If you donnot believe me, missus, J d ra- ther go home to mother." . " l'do believe yOu,"said Miss Leaf, kind y : then waited till the pinafore, used as a poeke handkerchief, had dried up grief and restored composure. • , , . , " I can quite well understand the acciden now ; and I am sure if you had put it as plain ■ &" mi :»^S£u£& H„a,v ahva,. contrived ,o n,a«e hi. sapP" wonder. She will be equally glad to find she was mistaken." , Here Miss Leaf paused, somewhat puzzled how to express what she felt it her duty to say. so as to be comprehended by the servant, and yp: not let down the dignity of the .amily. Hilary came to her aid. "Miss Selina is sometimes hasty ; t.ut she means kindly alwavs. You must take care not to vex her. Elizabeth ; and you must neve, answer her back again, however sharply she speaks. It is not your business ; you are onh a child, and she is" your mistress." ^ ^ - " Is her? I thought it was this im. The subdued clouding of Elizabeth's face, and her blunt pointing to Miss Leaf as "this ; un." were too much tor Hilary's gravity She was obliged to relrea' to the press, and begin an imaginary search for a book. -Yes, I am the eldest, and I suppose you mav consider me specially as your mistress, said Johanna, simplv. " Remember always to come to me irt any difficulty ; and above all, to tell me every thins: outright, as soon as it happens. I can forgive you almost any fault, if vou are truthful and honest ; but there is one thing I never could forgive, and that Hj deception. Now eo with Miss Hilary, and she will teach you how to make the porridge for supper." Elizabeth obeyed «ilently \ she had appa rently a great gift, for silence. And she was certainly both obedient and willing; not stu- pid, either, though a nervousness of tempera ment which Hilarv was surprised to find mso big and coarse-looking- a girl, made her rather herself. Those pleasant davs were now -over. Mr. Lyon was gone. As she 'stool a'-one oven- the kitchen fire, she thought— ** now and then die let herself think for a minute or two in her busv prosaic life— of tlr.it August night, stand- ing at the front door, of his last "good-by. i ml last hand-clasp, tight, warm, and firm; and somehow she, like Johanna, trusted in ' Not exactly in his love; it seemed almost i nposflible that he should Inverter, at least till die "few much more worthy of him than now -"but in himself, that he would never be less himself, less thoroughly good and true than now. That, some time, he would be sure to come hack again, and take up his o-d rel* lions with them, brightening their dull ate with his cheerfulness; infusiu* in their fenr.n ine household the new element of a c.ear, ptrono- energetic, manlv will, which spmetuner made Johanna sav that instead of twentydiv the voting man might be forty : and. anov all bringing into their poverty the s.lent sym- pathy of one who had fought his own battle with' the world— a hard one. too. as his face sometimes showed -though he never said much about it. Of the results of thi" pleasant relation - whether die. being theonly truly marriageable person in the house. Robert Lyon intended to marry her. or was expected to do so. or that society would think it a verv odd thing i he lid not do so— this unsophisticated Hilary never tho.. c /.a at all. If he had said to hei that the present state of things was to go ot 13 MISTRESS AND MAID. forever ; she to remain always Hilary Leaf, and he Robert Lyon, tlie faithful friend of tlie family, she would have smiled in his face and been perfectly satisfied. True, she had never had any thing to drive away the smile from that innocent lace"; no vague jpalousies aroused ; no maddening ru- mors afloat in the small world that was his and theirs. Mr. Lyon was giave and sedate in all his ways; he never paid the slightest attention to, or expressed the slightest interest in, any woman whatsoever. And so this hapless girl laved him — just himself; without the s'ightest reference to hir "connections," for he had none; or his "pros pects," which, if he had any, she did not k'nov of. Alas ! to practical and prudent people 1 can offer no excuse for her; excppt, perhaps what Shakspeare gives in the creation of tin poor Miranda. When the small servant reentered the kit chen, Hilary, with a half sigh, shook off" hei dreams, called Ascott out of (he school room and returned to the work-a-day world and tin family supper. This being ended, seasoned with a few quiei words administered - to Ascott, and which oi ' the whole he took pretty well, it was nearh ten o'clock. " Far too late to have kept up such a chili? a6 Elizabeth ; we must not do it again," saiH Miss Leaf, taking down the large Bible with which she was accustomed to conclude tin day — Ascott's early hours at school and theii own house-work making' it difficult of morn ings. Very brief the reading was, sometime 1 - not more than half a dozen verses, with nr comment thereon ; she thought the Word of God might safely be left to expound itself Being a very humble-minded woman, she did not feel qualified to lead long devotional "ex ercises," and she disliked formal written pray ers. So she merely read the Bible to the family, and said after it the Lord's Prayer. But, constitutionally shy as Miss Leaf was to do even this in presence of a stranger cost her some effort; and it was onlv a sense of duty that made her say " yes" to Hilary's sug- gestion, '* I suppose we ought to call in Eliza- beth?" Elizabeth came. " Sit down," said her mistress : and she sal down, staring uneasily round about her, as if wondering what was going to befall her next. Very silent was the little parlor ; so small, that it was almost filled up by its large square piano, its six cane-bottomed chairs, and one easy chair, in which sat Miss Leaf with the great Book in her lap. "Can you read. Elizah-th ?" "Yes, ma'am." " Hilary, giv^ her..' lit! !?." And so Elizabeth followed, guided by her DOt too clean finger, the words, read in that soft, low voice, somewhere out of the Hew j Testament; weds, simple enough for the comprehension, of a child or a heathen. The "South Sea Islander," as Ascott persieted in calling her, then, doing as the family did, turned round to kneel down ; but in her con- fusion she knocked overachair, causing Miss Leaf to wait a minute till reverent silence was restored. Elizabeth knelt, with her eyes fixed on the wall: it was a green paper, patterned with bunches* of nuts. How far she listened, ->r how much she understood, it was impossi- >le to say ; but her manner was decent and lecorous. . " Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those , hat trespass, against us." Unconsciously Miss . leaf's gentle voice rested on these words, bo leeded in the daily life of every human being, ind especially of every family. Was she the inly one who thought of '•' poor Selina ?" They all rose from their knees, and Hilary ->ut the Bible away. The little ser"ant " hung lbout," apparently uncertain what was next to '>e done, or what was expected of her to do. Hilary touched her sister. " Yes," said Miss Leaf, recollecting herself, »nd assuming the due authority, "it is quite - time for all the family to be in bed. Takecar? vf your candle, and mind and be up at six to- morrow morning. This was addressed to the new maiden, who Iropped a court esv, and 6aid, almost cheerful- 'y, *: Yes, ma'am?' " Very well. Good night. Elizabeth." And following Miss Leaf's example, the other two. even Ascott, said civilly and kindly, '.' Good night, Elizabeth." CHAPTER III. The Christmas holjdaya ended, and Ascott left for London. It was the greatest household change the Misses Leaf had known for years, ind they missed hinr sorely. Ascott was not fxactly'a lovable boy, and yet, after the fash- ion of womankind, his aunts were both fond and proud of him; fond,. in their childless old maidenhood, of any sort of nephew, and proud, unconsciously, that the said nephew waeabig fellow, who could look over all their heads, besides being handsome and pleasant manner- ed, and though not clever enough to set Xhe Thames on fire, still sufficiently bright to make , them hope that in his future the family star might again rise. There was something pathetic in these three women's idealization -of him — even Selina'a, who though quarrelling with him to his. face always praised him behind his back — that great, good looking.la/v lad ; who, every body else saw clearly enough, thought more of his own noble self than of all hie aunts put to- MISTRESS AND MAID. IS gether. The only person h« stood in awe of was Mr. Lyon — for whom he always protested unbounded respect and admiration. How far Robert Lyon liked Ascott even Hilary could never quite find out ; but he was always very kind to him. There was one person in the house who, strange to say, did not succumb to the all- Miss Leaf laughed, and the shadow vanish- ed from her face, as Hilary had meant it should. She only sai 1, caressing her, " Well, my pet, never mind. I hope you will have a real sweetheart some day." " I'm in no hurry, thank you, Johanna." But tiow was heard the knock after knock of the little boys and girls, and there began dominating youth. From the very first therelthat monotonous daily round of school labor, was a smouldering feud between him and Eli-|nsing from the simplicities of c. a, t, cat, and zabeth. Whether she overheard, and slowly began to comprehend his mocking gibesabout the "South Sea Islander," or whether her sullen and dogged spirit resisted the first at tempts the lad made to " put upon her" — as he did upon his aunts, in small daily tyrannies — was never found out ; but certainly Ascott the general favorite, found little favor with the new servant. She never answered when he "hollo'd" for her ; she resisted blacking his boots more than once a day ; and she obsti- nately cleared the kitchen fire-place of his messes," as she ignominiously termed va- rious pots and pans belonging to what he call- ed his '• medical studies." Although the war was passive rather than aggressive,' and sometimes a source of private amusement to the aunts, still, on the whole, it was a relief when the exciting cause of it de- parted ; his n*few and most gentlemanly port manteau being carried down stairs by Eliza beth herself, of her own accord, \vith an air of jheerful alacrity, foreign to her mien for some weeks past, and which., even in the midst of he iolorous parting, amused Hilary ex* remely. " 1 think that girl is a character," she said ifrerward to Johanna. "Any how she has juriously strong likes and dislikes." " You may say that, my dear; forshe bright ;ne up whenever she looks at you." Does she? Oh, that must be because 1 iave most to do with her. It is wonderful lOWj friendly one gets over sauce-pans and jrooms ; and what reverence one inspires in he domestic mind when one really knows iow to make a bed or a pudding.'.' " How I wish you had to do neither !" sigh- d Johanna, looking fondly at the bright face ind light, little figure that was flitting about, jutting the school-room to rights befoie the jupils came in. "Nonsense — I don't wish any such thing. 3oing it makes me not a whit less charming ind lovely." She often applied these adjec- ives to herself, wiih the most perfect convic- ion that 6he was uttering a fiction patent to very body. I must be very juvenile also, for ij, o. g. dog — to the eublime keightsof Pmr.ock and Lennie, Telemaque and Latin Delectus. No loftier; Stowbury being well supplied with first class schools, and having a vaaue im- pression that the Misses Leaf, bom ladies and not brought up as governesses, were not com- petent educators except of very small child- ren. Which was true enough .fcntil lately. So Miss Leaf kept contentedly to the c. a, t, cat, and d, o, g, dog. ot the little butchers and ba- kers, as M'ss Selina, who taught only sewing, and came into the school-room but little du- ring the day, scornfully termed them. * The higl er branches such as they were, she left gradually to Hilary, who, of late, possibly out of sympathy with a friend of hers, had begun to show an actual gift for teaching school. . It is a gift — all will allow ;*a rid chiefly those who have it not, among which was poor Jo- hanna Leaf. The admiring envy with which she watched Hilary, moving briskly about from class toclass.with a word 'of praise toone and rebuke to another, keeping ? very one's at-* tention alive, spurring on the dull, controlling the unruly, and exercising over every member in this little world that influence, at once the .strongest and most intangible and inexplicable —personal influence — was only equaled by the way in v^iich, at pauses in the day's work, when it grew dull and monotonous, or when the stupidity of the children ruffled her own quick temper beyond endurance, Hilary watch- ed Johanna. The time I am telling of now is long ago. The Stowbury children, who were then little boys and girls, are now fathers and mothers — doubtless a large proportion being decent tradesfolk in Stowbury still ; though, in this locomotive quarter, many must have drifted, elsewhere — where, Heaven knows! But not a few of them may still call to mind Miss Leaf, who first taught them their letters — sit- ting in her corner between the fire and the window, while the blind was drawn dr wn to keep out, first the light from her own fading eyes, and, secondly, the districting view of 'm certain' the fellow-passengpr at the station green fields and trees from the (youthful eyes d-day took niefor Ascorfs sweetheart. W.hefilby her side. They may remember still her re were saving good by, an old gentleman who dark plain dress and her white apron, on at next him was particularly sympathetic. !whii;h the primers, torn and dirty, looked half .nd you should have seen how indignantly iashaiued to lie; and-above all, her sweet face Uoott replied, " It's only my aunt !" jand sweeter voice, never heard in any thing 14 BIISTRESS AND MAID. sharper than that grieved tone winch signified their being " naughty chililren." They may retail Her 'unwearied* patience with the yen dullest and most wayward t Leaf taught them one thing— to ending With love her. Which, as lien .Johnson said of the Countess of Pembroke, was in iiself a " liberal education." Hilary, too. Often when Hilary's younger and more resiles* spirit chafed against thc monolonv o!' her life : when, instead of wasting her davs'iu teaoliidg small children, she would have liked to he learning, learning— every .lay growing wiser find cleverer, and stretching out mto that bus.:, bright, active world oi which Kobert Lyon had told her— then the sight <>l Johanna's' meek face bent over those dim, spelling hooks would at oi ce rebuk" and com further. She felt, after all, that she would not mind working on forever, «?o long as Jo hanna stili sat there. Nevertheless, tn.it winter seemed to her very long -especially after Ascott was gone. Foi Johanna, partly lor money. kindliness, lund, added to her day's work foui . evening's a week, when a halt educated mothei of one of her little pupils came to he »«*itight to write a decen'f ban I. and to keep the accounts of her shop. Upon which Selina. highly in dignant. had taken to spending ln«r evenings in the school room, interrupting Hilary's soli tary studies there by many a lamentation over the peaceful days when they all sat in the kitchen together and kept no servant. For Selina was" one ot those who never sa^ tin- bright side of any thing till it had gone by. '•I'm sure- I don't krow how w*are to man age -with Elizabeth! That greedy — " 14 Anil growing." suggested Hilary. " 1 sav that greeds girl eats a« much as an\ two of us. A nd as for her clothes — her moth- er does not keep her even decent.'* "She would find it difficult upon three pounds a sear." " Hilary, how dare you contradict me ! 1 am onlv stating a plain tact." •' And I ■another. But, indeed, I don't want to talk. Selina." '' You never dr., except when you arp wished to be silent ; and then your tongue goes like anv race horse." '•Does it? Well, like Gilpin's, ' It carri* uviplit. it rides a race, ITtu fo; .; th'iixnnd pntind?' — an"ys "he did. All the better for us. It maki 0-r fivt Homer. which Mr. Lyou had taken such pleasure in her wonderfully patient with our troublesoi I. rats. It wns'only today, when that h« Utile Jackv Smith hurt himself so, that I 6 Elizabeth "lake him into the kitchen, wash {'are and hands, and cuddle him up and co fort him. quite motherly. Her forte is ( lainlv chililren." " You alwavs find something to say her." " I should be ashamed if ( I could not h something to s*.y tor any body who is alw abused." Another pause— and then Selina returne the charge. '• Have von ever observed, my dear, the traordinary vwiy phe has of fastening, or ra cr. not fastening her gown behind? She jB hooks it together at the vop and at the wal while between there is a — " '• Hiatus vilrfedcjlcndus. Ob dear me ! .-hall I do? '^flina. how can I help it girl of fifteen years old is not a paragon ot lection? as of course we' all are, if we ( could find it out." And Hilary, in despair, rose to carry candle and books into the chilly but quiet room, biting her lips the while, lest she »h he tempted to say something which S' calle.l ' - impertinent." wjiich peihnpsit from a younger sister to an elder. I dol -ei Hilary'up as a perfect character. Throlj -orrow only do people goon to perfection :■ ...now. in its true meaning, the chenshedB had never known. Put that night, talking to Johanna he& they went to bleep— they had always alepll MISTRESS AND MAID. 15 Sether since the time when the elder pisterlmust have a new gown, and you Timet give used to walk the mom of nights with iliat pn ling, motherless infant in her arms — Hilary anxiously started the question of the litt'e jervant. "I am afraid I vexed Selina, greatly ahout her to-night , and yet what can one do? Se lina is so very unjust — alwa-ys expecting im Elizabeth ymr brown merino. ' Hilary laughed, and replied not. Now it might be a pathetic indication of a girl who had very few clothes, tint Hilary had • a superstitious .weakness concerning hers. — ^ very dress hud its own peculiar, chronifcle of the scenes where it had been, the enjoyments she had shared in it. Particular dres-eswere possibilities. She would like to have Eliza beth at once a first rate cook, a finished special memorial* ot berloves, her pleasures, house-maid, and an attentive ladvV maid, and her little passing pains; a« long as a bit re- mained of the poor old tabric the sight ot it recalled them all. This brown merino — in which she had sat all witluMt being taught ! Mie gives hei things to do. neither waiting to see ir'theVare comprehended by her, nor showing her how to do them. Of "con se the girl stands gaping »wo whole winters over her Greek and Latin and staring and does not do them, or iioes them so badly, that she gets a thorough scold ing." " la she very stupid, do yoi^think?" asked Johanna, in unconscious appeal to her pet's stronger judgment. ♦. " No, I don't. Far from stupid ; only very ignorant, and— you would hardly believe it — very nervous, Selina frightens her. She gets on extremely well with me.". " Anv one would, mv dear. That is," added -the conscientious elder sister, .still aftaid ofi w,,lle . Johanna planned and rep lanneu— cal by Hubert Lyon's side which lie lia-1 once »toppe,d to touch and notice, saying what a pretty color it was. and tiow be liked sofi- f"el ing dresses tor women — to cut up this old brown merino seemed to hurt lierso she could ajii'ost have ci ied Vet what would Johanna think if the refu- sed? And there was Elizabeth absolutely in want of clothes. " I must be growing very wicked," thought poor Hilary. She lav a good while siferst in the dark, making the "child" vain, "any one whom you took pains with. But do you think you can ever make any thing out of Elizabeth ? Her month eirdd to morrow. Shall we lei her go?" "And perhaps get in her place a story-tellpr — a tale-bearer — even a thief. No. no; let us ' Rather boar the ills w? have, • .' • Than fly to others that we know not of;' and a thief wo lid be worse than even a South Sea Islander." " Oh yes, my dear," said Johanna, with a shiver. ' "By-the-bv, the first step in the civilization of the Polynesians was giving them clothes. And I have heard say that crime and rag^ often go together ; that a man unconsciously ating how. even with the addition of an old cape of her own, .which was out oi' the same piece, this hapless gown could be made to fit the gaunt frame of Elizabeth Hand. — Her poor kindly brain was in the last extrem- ity of muddle, when Hilary, with a desperate effort, dashed in to ihe rescue, and soon made all clear, contriving body, skirt, sleeves and all " You have the best h r ad in the world, my love. 1 don't know whatever I should do without von." . •'Luckily you are never likely to be tried. So give me a kiss; and good-night, Johanna." I misdoubt many will sav I am writing about small, ridiculously small, things. Yet is not the whole of life made up of infinitesi- mally small things ? And in its strange and solemn mosaic, the full pattern of which we feels that he owes something to himself and- ntfver 8ee clearly till looking back on it from eocietv in the wav of virtue' wln-n he has a' fi,r awav dare'** eav of any thing which the clean face and clean shirt, and a decent coat hank amaist as gurle '* the now" it is too common or too snfall 1 , CHAPTER IV. While her anxious mistresses were thus talking her over the servant lav on her hum- being Bpeciaiiy possessed by Hilary. She hie bed and slept. They' knew she did. for counted over hVr own wardrobe and Iohan-;they heard her heavy breathing througn the na's but found nothing that could be spared, thin partition wall. Whether, as Hilary s-.ig- -'" Yes, my "love, there ip one thing. Yon gested. she Has too ignorant to notice the < certainly shall never put on that old brown of the week, or montn', or. as Seliiia thought., toeriuo again ; though you have laid it so care- too stupid to care for any thing beyond eat- fully by, as if you meant it to come out as ing,. drinking, and sleeping. Elizabeth mani- Sffii 8f IF** VM w i»*r» ^0> iiliwy, you feated y.o au*iety about ^erdelfor her destiny. 16 MISTRESS AND MAID. She went about her work just as usual ; a!" She is very handy when one is ill," even little quicker and readier, now she was be-ISelina allowed. coming familiarized to it ; butshesaid nothing.; '" And I assure you I was talking most She was undoubtedly a girl of silent and un-;kindly to her; about the duties of her posi- uemonstrative nature. • tion, and how she ought to dress better, and "Sometimes still waters run deep," saidlbe more civil behaved, or else she nevercould Miss Hilary. iexpeet to keep any place. And she stood in her. "Nevertheless, there are such things asjusual sulky way of listening, never answering canals," replied Johanna " When do youia word — with her back to me, staring right mean to have your little talk with her?" ' jont of window. And I had just said, 'Eliza- Hilary did not know, She was sitting rather more tired than usual, by the school room fire, the little people having just depart ed for their ^Saturday half-holiday. Before clearing oft' the debris which they alwsy* left behind, she stood a minute at the window, refreshing her eyes with the green field oppo site, and the far-away wood, crowned by a dim white monument, visible in fair weather, on which those bright brown eyes had a tri'ck ol lingering, even in the middle of school hours. For the wood and the hill beyond belonged to a nobleman's "show" estate, five miles off— the only bit of real landscape beautv that Ilil ary had ever belreld. There, during the.taat holidays but one, she, her sisters, her nephew, and, by his own special request, Mr. Lyon, had ppent a whole long, merry, midsummer day. ,She wondered whether such a day would ever come again! But spring was coming again, any how ; the field looked smiling and green, specked here and there with white dots which, she opined, might possibly be daisies. She half wished she was not too oldanddignified to dart across the road, leap the sunk ft?nce. and run to see. "I think, Johanna — Hark, what can that be?" For at this instant somebody came tearing down the stairs, opened the frontdoor, an.l did — exactly what Hilary had just been wishing to do. "It's Elizabeth, without her bonnet or shawl, with something white flying behind hpr. How she is dashing across the field ! What can she be after? # Just look. But loud screams from Selina's room, the front one, where she had been lying in bed all morning, quite obliterated the" little servant from their minds. The two sisters ran hastily up stairs. Selina was sitting up, in undisguised terror and agitation. • "Stop her ! Hold her ! I'm sure she has gone mad. Lock the door, or she'll come back and murder us all." "Who? Elizabeth! Was she here? What has been the matter ?" But it was some time. before they could make out anything. At las' they' gathered that Elizabeth had been waiting upon Mi^s heth, my girl' — indeed, Hilary 1(i I was talking to her in my very kindest way—" 9 ' " I've no doubt of it — but do get on." " When she suddenly turned round, snatch- ed a clean towel from a chair back, and an- other from my head — actually from my very head,' Johanna — and out bhe ran. I called after her, but she took no more notice than if I had bepn a£one. And she left the door wide open — blowing upon me. Oh, dear ; she has given, me my death of cold." And Selina broke out into piteous complainings. Her elder sister soothed her as well as she could, while Hilary ran down to the frontdoor •and, looked, an/i enquired every where for Elizabeth. She was not to be seen on field or road ; and along that quiet terrace not a soul had even perceived her quit the house. "It's a very odd thing," said Hilary, return- ing. "What can have come over the girl ? You are 6ure, Selina, that you said nothing which — " " Now I know what you are going to say. You are going to blame me. Whatever hap- pens in this l.ouse you always blame me. And perhaps you're right. Perhaps I am a nuis- ance — a burden — would be far better dead and buried. [ wish I w%re!" When Selina took this tack, of course her sisters were silenced. They quited her a lit- tle, and then went down and searched the houpe all over. All wasin order; at least in as much order as was to be expected the hour bofore dinner. The bowl of half-peeled potatoes stood on the back kitchen "sink;" the roast was down be- fore the fire ; the knives' were ready for clean- ing. Evidently Elizabeth flight hao 1 not-been premeditated. "It's all nonsense about her going mad. She has is sound a head as I have," said Hilary to Johanna, who began to look serious- ly uneasy. " She might have run away in a fit of passion, certainly ; and yet that is im- probable; her temper is more sullen than furious. And having no lack of common sense she must know that dping a thing like this is enough to make her lose her place at once." • Yes." ?aid Johanna, mournfully, " Fm afraid after this she must go." "Wait, and set what she has to say forher- Seliua, putting vinegar clothe on her head ,jaelf," pleaded Hilary. "She will burely be, and doiog varioue things about tue room.lbeok io two or tore* qHputep." • MISTUESS AND MAID. IT But she was nor, nor even in two or three! fears were true, and the girl had really gone hours. mad; but Hilary's quicker perceptions jurap- Her mistresses' annoyance became disp; a,- ed at a different conclusion, ure, and that again subsided into serious ap- " Quiet yourself, Elizabeth," said she, fa- prehension. EvenSelina ceased talking over king a firm hold of her shoulder, and making and over the incident which, gave the sole her sit down, when the rolled-up apron drop- information to be arrived at; rose, dressed, 'ped, and showed itself all covered with blood and came down to the kitchen. There, after jspots. Selina screamed outright. long and anxious consultation, Hilary, ob- serving that "Somebody had better do some- thing," began to prepare the dinner as in pre- Elizabethan days ; but the three ladies' appe- tites were small. # About three in the afternoon, Hilary, giving utterance to the hidden alarm ot all, saia — "I think, sisters, I had^ better go down as quickly as I can to Mrs Then Elizabeth seemed to become half con- scious that she had done something blamable, or was at least a suspected character. Her warmth of manner faded; the sullen cloud oi dogged resistance to authority was risiug in her poor duty face, when Hilary, beginning with, " Now, we are not going to scold you ; but we must hear the reason of this," contri- ved by adroit questions, and not a few of them, This agreed, she stood consulting with Jo- to elicit the whole story, hanna as to what could possibly be said to the It appeared that,' while standing at Miss mother in case that unfortunate child had not Selina's window,. Elizabeth had watched three gone home, when the kitchen door opened, little boys, apparently engaged in a very favor- and the culprit appeared. ite amusement of little boys in that field, go- Not, however, with the least look of a cub ing quickly behind a horse; and pulling out prit. Hot she was, and breathless ; and with tile longest and handsomest hairs in his tail her hah; down about her ears, and her apron to make fishing lines of. She saw the animal rolled up round her waist, presented a most give a kick, and two of the boys ran away; forlorn and untidy aspect; but her eyes were' the other did not stir. For a minute or soBhe bright, and her countenance glowing. She took a towel frorti under her arm.— "There's one on 'em — and you'll get back — the other — when it's washed." Having blurted out this, 6he leaned against the wall, trying to recover her breath. noticed a black lump lying in the grass ; then, with the quick instinct for which nobody had ever given her credit, she guessed what had happened, and did immediately the wisestand only thing possible under the circumstances, namely, to snatch up a towel, run across the Elizabeth ! Where'have you been ? How field, bind up the child's head as well as she dared you go ? Your behavior is disgraceful — most disgraceful, I say. Johanna, why don't you speak to your servant ?" (When, for remissness in reproving others, the elder sister herself fell under reproof, it was always emnhatically "your sister" — "your nephew" — "your servant."). But, for once, Miss Selina's sharp voice could, and carry it, bleeding and insensible, to the nearest doctor, who lived nearlv a mile off. She did not tell — and they only found it out afterward — how she had held the boy while under the doctor's hands, the skull being so badly fractured that the frightened mother fainted at the sight : how she had finally car- failed to bring the customary sullen look to.ried him homeland left him comfortably set- Elizabeth's face, and when Miss Leaf, in her tied in bed, his senses returned, and his life milder tones, asked where she had been, she answered unhesitatingly — "I've been down the town." " Down the town !" the three ladies cried, in one chorus of astonishment. " I've been as quick as I could, missis. -. I runned all the way there and back ; but it was a good step, and he was some'at heavy, though he is but a little 'un." " He! who on earth is he, ?" saved. " Ay, my arms do ache above a bit," she said, in answer to Miss Leaf's questious. "He wasn't quite a baby — nigh upon twelve, I reck- on ; but then he was very small "of his age. And he looked just as if he was dead — and he bled so." Here, just for a second or two, the color left the "big girl's lips, and she trembled a little, Miis Leaf went to the kitchen cupboard, and "Deary me ! I never thought of axing ; butjtbok out their only bottle of wine — adminis- tered in rare closes, exclusively as medicine. " Drink this, Elizabeth ; and then go and wash your face and eat your dinner. We will talk to you by-and-by." Elizabeth looked up with a long, wistfull his mother lives in Hall street. Somebody saw me carrying him to the doctor, and went and told her. Oh ! h'e was welly killed, Miss Leaf — the doetor said so ; but he'll do now, and you'll get> your towel clean washed to- morrow." While Elizabeth spoke so incoherently, and with such unwonted energy and excitement, JoBanoa looked as if she thought her sister's C stare of intense surprise, and then added, " Have I done any thing wrong 1 , missis V " I did uot say so. But drink this ; and don't talk, child." 18 MISTRESS AND MAID. She was obeyed. By-and-by Elizabeth dis- appeared into the back kitchen, emerged thence with a clean face, hands, and apron, and went about her afternoon business as if nothing had happened. still more difficult to break through the stiff bairiers which see'meTi to rise up between her, a gentlewoman well on in years,- and this coar.se working girl. She felt, as she often complained, that with the kindest intentions, Her mistresses' threatened "talk" with her she did not quite know how to talk to Eliza- never came about. What, indeed, could they beth. say? No doubt the little servant had broken ''My sister means," said Hilary, " that as the strict letter of domestic law by running off in that .highly eccentric and inconvenient way ; but, as Hilary tried to explain by a se- ries of most ingenious ratiocinations, she had fulfilled, in the spirit of it, the very highest law — that of charity. She had also shown prompt courage, decision, practical and pru- dent forethought, and above all, entire self- forgetfulness. " And' I should like to know," said Mies Hilar)', warming with her subject, " if those are not the very qualities that goto constitute a hero." "But we don't want a hero; we want 'a maid of-all work." " I'll tell you what we want, Selina. ]^e want a woman; that is, a girl with the making we are not likely to have little boys half killed in the field every day, she trusts you will not be running away again as you did this morn- ing. She feels sure that you would not do such a thing, putting us all to so great annoy- ance and uneasiness, for any less cause than such as happened to-dav. You promise > that?" " Yes, Miss Hilary." "Then we quite forgive you as regards our- selves. ■ Nay" — feeling in spite of Selina's warning nudge, that she had hardly been kind enough — " we rather praise than blame you, Elizabeth. And if you like to stay with us and will do your best to improve, we are will- ing to keep you as our servant." "Thank vou ma'am. Thank vou, Miss of a good woman in her. If we can find that. Hilary. Yes, I'll stop.'' all the rest will follow. For my part, I would rather take this child, rough as she is, but with her truthfulness, conscientiousness, kind- liness of heart, and evident capability of both self-control andself-devotedness, than the most finished servant we could find. My advice is — keep her." This settled the matter, since it was a cu- rious fact that the " advice" of the youngest Miss Leaf was, whether they knew it or not. almost. equivalent to a family ukase. When Elizabeth had brought in the tea- things, which she did with especial care, ap- patently wishing to blot out the memory 01 the morning's escapade by astonishingly good behavior for the rest of the day, Miss Leaf called her, and asked if she knew that her month of trial ended this day? "Yes, ma'am," with the strict tormal courtesy, soVnething between that of the old- v or Id family domestic — as her mother migh I have been to the Miss Elizabeth Something she was named after — and the abrupt " dip" of the modern National school girl; which constituted Elizabeth Hand's sole experience of manners. " If you had not been absent I shoull-have gone to sppak with your motbei to-day « In- deed Miss Hilary was going when you came in ; but it would have been with a very differ- ent Intention from what we had iri the murn- ing. However, that is not likely to happen again." " Eh?" said Elizabeth, inquiringly. Mirs Leaf hesitated, and looked uneasily at her two sisters. It was always a trial to her shy nature to find herself the mouth-piece >of the family ; aud this ertme shyness made it She said no more — but sighed a great sigh, as if her mind were relieved — ("So," thought Hilary, "she was not so indifferent to us as we imagined" — and bustled back into her kit- chen. "Now for the clothing of her," observed Leaf, also looking much relieved that the decision was over. " You know what we agreed wpon; and there is certainly no time to be lost. Hilary, my dear., suppose you bring down your brown merino?" • Hilary went without a word. People who inhabit the same house, eat, sit, and sleep together — loving one another and sympathizing with one another, ever BO deeply and dearly — nevertheless inevitably have momentary seasons when the intense solitude in which we all live, and must expect ever to live, at the depth of our being, forces itself painfully upon the heart. Johanna must have had many such seasons when Hilary was a child ; Hilary had one now. She unfolded the old frock, and took out of ck,ct, a hiding place at once 'little likely to be searched, and harmless 1l discovered, ;■, poor little memento of that happy midsummer day. •■ 1>, "/■ Miss Hilary. theti, I Yours truly, Robert I The only scrap of note she had ever re- ceived ; he always wrote to Johanna ; as reg- ularly as ever, or more •-<>, now Ascott was gone; but only to Johanna. She read over the twolinesj wondered where she should keep them now that Johanna might not notice them; and then recoiled, as if the secret were a wrong to that dear sister who loved her so well. MISTRESS AND MAID. 10 late idleness, so absorbed that she seemed not to bear Hilary's approach. " I did not know vou could write, Eliza- beth." • " No more T can," was the answer, in the most doleful of voices. " It bean't no good. I've forgotten all about it. T letters wonna join." " Let me look at them." And Hilary tried to contemplate gravely tbe scrawled and blot- ' ted page, which looked very much as if a large spider had walked into the ink bottle, and then walked out again on a tour of investigation. 'What did you want to write?" asked she, suddenly. Elizabeth blushed violently. " It was the woman. Mrs. Cliffe, t' little lad's mother, you know : she wanted somebody to write to her husband as is at work at Birmingham, and 1 said I would. I'd* learned at the National, but I've forgotten it all. I'm just aa Miss Selina says — I'm good for nowt." "Come, come, never fret :" Tor there was a sort of choke in the girl's voice. "There's many a good person who never learned to write., But. I don't see why you should nor. learn. Shall I teach you?" Utter amazement, beaming gratitude, suc- ceeded one another, plain as light, in Eliza- beth's eyes, but she only said, " Thank you, Miss Hilary." "Very well. I have brought you an old gown of mine, and was going to show you how to mike it up for yourself, but I'll look over your writing instead. Sit down and let me see what you can do." In a state of nervous trepidation, pitiful to behold, Elizabeth took the pen. Terrible scratches resulted; blots innumerable: and one fatal deluge of ink, which startled from their seats both mistress and maid, and made Hilary thankful that she had taken off tier better gown foi a common one, as, with sad thriftiness, the Misses Leaf always did of eve- nings. When Elizabeth saw the mischief she had done, her contrition and humility were un- bounded. " No, Miss Hilary, you can't make nothin' of me. I be too stupid, I'll give it up." " Nonsense !" And the bright*active little lady looked steadily into the heavy face of this undeveloped girl, half child, half woman, until some of her own spirit seemed to be reflected always busy, over the perpetual toil of thoseUhere. Whether the excitement of the morn- who have not yet learned the mysterious art of ■inghad roused her, or her mistresses' kindness arrangement and order, nor, as sometimes. j had touched Elizabeth's heart, and — as in hanging sleepily ovor the kitcher, fire, waiting most women — the heart was the key to the for bedtime: but actually sitting, sitting down [intellect ; or whether the- gradual daily influ- at the table. Her candle was flaring on one ence of her changed life dnring.the last month side of her : on thf other was the school room had been taking effect, now for the first time inkstand, a scrap of waste paper, and a pen to appear — certain it is that Hilary had never But she was not .writing; she sat with heriperceived boibre what an extiomelv intelligent head on her hands, in an attitute of disconso-jface it was ; what good sense was indicated in " But nothing make8 me love her less ; no- thing ever could. She thinks me quite happy, as I am ; and vet — oh, if I did not miss him so!" And the aching, aching want which some- times came over began again. Let us not blame her. God made all our human needs. God made love. Not merely affection but actualWocir — the necessity to seek and find out some other being, not another but the com- plement of one's self — the " other half," who brings rest and strength for weakness, sympa thy in aspiration, and tenderness for tender- ness, as no other person ever can. Perhaps, even in marriage, this love is seldom found, and it is possible in all lives to do without it. Johanna had done so. But then she had been young, and was now growing old ; and Hilary was only twenty, with a long life before her. Poor child, let us not blame her ! Site was not in the least sentimental, her natural disposition inclining her to be. more than cheerful, actually gay. She soon recov- ered herself, and when, a short time after, she stood, scissors in hand, demonstrating how very easy it was to make something out of nothing, her sisters never suspected how very near tears had lately been to those bright eyes, which were always the sunshine of the house. "You are giving yourself a world of troub le." said Selina. " If I were you, I would just make over the dress to Elizabeth, and let her do what she could wi»h it." " My dear, I always find I give myself twice the trouble by expecting people to do what they can't do. I have to do it myself after- ward. . Prove how a child who can't even han- dle a needle and thread is competent to make a gown for herself, and I shall be most happy to secede in her favor." "Nay," put in the eldest sister, afraid of a collision of words, "Selina is right : if you do not teach Elizabeth to make her own gowns how can she learn ?" " Johanna, you are the brilliantest of wo- men ! and you know you don't like the parlor littered with rags and cuttings. You vish to get rid of me for the evening ? Well, I'll go ! Hand me the work basket and the bundle, and I'll give my first lesson in dress making to our South Sea Islander." But P'ate stood in the way of Miss Hilary's good intentions. She found Elizabeth not as was her wont, m MISTRESS AND MAID. the we'll shaped head and forehead ; what ten- derness and feeling in the deep-set grey eyes. " Nonsense,," repeated she. " Never give up any thing : I nerer would. •We'll try a different plan, and begin from the beginning, as I do wtth my little scholars. Wait, while I fetch a copy book out of the parlor. press." She highly amused her sisters witli a de- scription of what she called her " newly insti- tuted Polynesian Academy j returned, and set to work to guide the rough, coarse hand through the mysteries of caligraphy. To say this was an easy task would not be true. Nature's own laws and limits make the using of faculties which have been unused for generations very difficult at first. To suppose that a working man, the son of working men, who applies himself to study, does it with as little trouble as your upper-claas children, who have been unconsciously -undergoing educa- tion ever since the eradle, is a great mistake. All honor, therefore, to those who do attempt, and to ever so small- a degree succeed in, the best and wisest culture of all, self-culture. Of this honor Elizabeth deserved her share. " She is stupid enough," Hilary confessed, after the lesson was over ; " but there is" a dogged perseverance about the girl which I actually admire. She blots her fingers, her nose, her apron, but she never gives in ; and she sticks to the grand principle ot one thing at a time. I think she did two whole pages of a's, and really performed them satisfactorily, before she asked to go oh to b's. Yes !*I be- lieve she will do." " I hope she will do her work, any how," said Selina, breaking into the' conversation rather crossly. "I'm sure I don't see the good of wasting time over teaching Elizabeth to write, when there's 'so much to he done in the house .by one and all Df us, from Monday morning till Saturday night.'" " Ay, that's it," answered Hilary, medita- tively. " I don't see how I ever shall get time to teach her, and she is so tired of nights when the work is all done : she'll be dropping asleep with 'the pen in her hand — Thave done it my- self before now." Ay, in those days when, trying so hard to " improve her mind," and make herself a lit- tle more eqtial and companionable to another mind she knew, she had. after her daily house cares and her six hours of school teaching, at- tempted at nine p. m. to begin close study on her own account. And though with her strong will she succeeded tolerably, still, as" she told Johanna, she could well understand how slow was the "march dfintellect" (a phrase which had just then come, up) among day laborers and the like ; and bow difficult it was for these Mechanics Institutions, which were now talk- ed so much of, to put ah;, new ideas into the p(>or tired heads, rendered sluggish and stupid with hard bodily lab " Suppose I were to hold my Polynesian Academy on a Sunday?" and she looked in- quiringly at her sisters, especially Johanna. Now the Misses Leaf were old fashioned country folk, who lived before the words Sab- batarian and un-Sabbatarian had ever got into the English language. They simply " remem- bered the Sabbath day to keep it holy ;" they arranged so as to make it for all the household a day of rest : and they went regularly to church once — sometimes Selina and Hilary went twiee. For the intervening hours, their usual custom was to take an afternoou walk in the fields ; begun chiefly for Ascott's sake, to keep the lad out of mischief, and put into his mind better thoughts than he was likely to get from his favorite Sunday recreation of sit- ting on the wall throwing stones. After he left for London there was Elizabeth to be thought of; and they decided that the best Sabbath duty for the little servant was to go and see her mother. So they* gave her every Sunday afternoon free ; only requiring that she should be at home punctually after church time, at eight o'clock. But from thence till bedtime was a blank two hours, which, Hilary had noticed, Elizabeth not unfrequently spent in dozing over the fire." " And I wonder," said she, giving the end of. her long meditation out loud, " whether going to* sleep is not as much Sabbath breaking as learning to write? What do you say, Jo- hanna ?" *Johanna, simple, God-fearing woman asshe was, to whom faith and love came as natural as the breath she drew, had nevei perplexed herself with the question. She only smiled ^scence. But Selina was greatly shock- ed. Teaching to write on a Sunday ! Bring- ing the week day work' into the day of rest! Doing one's own pleasure on the holy day ! iShe thought it exceedingly wrong. Such a | thing had ifever been heard of in their house. Whatever else might be said of them, the Leafs were always a respectable family as to keeping Sunday. Nobody could say that even poor Henry — But here Selina's torrent of words stopped. When conversation revived, Hilary, who had been at first half annoyed and half amus- ed, resumed her point seriously. " I might say that writing is'nt Elizabeth's week-day work, and that teaching her is not exactly doing my own pleasure; but I won't creep out of the argument by a quibble. The question is, What is keeping the Sabbath day 'holy?' I say — and I stick to my opinion — that it ja by making it a day of worship, a rest day — a cheerful and happy day — and by doing as much good in it as we can. And therefore I mean to teach Elizabeth on a Sunday." " She'll never understand it. She'll consid- er it work." "And if A\t did,: work is a moie rellgiout MISTRESS AND MAID. 21 thing than idleness. I am sure I often feel that, of the two, I should be less sinful in dig- ging potatoes in my garden, or sitting mending stockings in my parlor, than in keeping Sun- day as some people do— going to church gen- teelly in my best clothes, eating a huge Sunday relation— (and yet that is right, for the relation and authority are ordained of Clod) — but be- tween the educated and the ignorant, the coarse and the refined. " Well," she said, after a pause of consider- ation, " you always have it in your power to dinner, and then nodding over a good book, J repay my ' kindness,' as you call it. Theelev or taking a regular Sunday nap till bedtime.". erer you become the more useful you will be " Hush, child!" said Johanna, reprovingly ; to me ; and the more good you grow the better for Hilary's cheeks were red, and her voicel I shall like you." angry. She was taking the hot, youthful partj Elizabeth'smiled — that wonderfully bright, which in its hatred of forms and shams, some-jsudden smile which seemed to cover over°al! times leads — and not seldom led poor Hilary — her plainness of feature. a little too far on the other side. "I think,"! "Once" upon a time," Hilary resumed by- Miss Leaf added, "that our business is with land-by, "when England was very different ourselves, and_not with our neighbors. Let from what it is now, English ladies used to the Sabbath » according to our con- us keep science. Only, I would take care never to do any thing which jarred against my neighbor's feelings. I would, like Paul, 'eat no meat while the world standeth' rather than ' make my brother to offend.' " Hilary looked in~her sister's sweet, calm face, and the anger died out of her own. "Shall I give up my academy?" she said, softly. " No, my love. It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day, and teaching a poor ignorant girl to write is an absolute good. Make her understand that, and you need not be afraid of any harm ensuing." " You never will make her understand," said Selina, sullenly. " She is only a serv- ant." "Nevertheless I'll try. have what they call ' bower-women,' whom they took as girls, and brought up in their service ; teaching them all sorts of things — cooking, sewing, spinning, singing, and, prob- ably, except that the ladies of that time were very ill-educated. themselves, to read and write also. They used to spend part of every day among their bower-women ; and as people can only enjoy the'company of those with whom they have some sympathies in common, we must conclude that — " • Here Hilary stopped, recollecting she must be discoursing miles above the head of her little bower-maiden, and that, perhaps; after all, her theory would be best kept to lierself, and only demonstrated practically. "So, Elizabeth, if I speudalittle of my time teach i in teaching you, you must grow up my. faithful and attached bower-maiden-? 1 ' Hilary could not tell how far she succeeded; " I'll grow up any thing, MissJJilary, if it's in simplifying to the young servant's com pre- to please you," was the answer, given with.'a hension this great question, involving so main ^mothered intensity that quite startled the points — such as the following of the spirit aixlyo-ing mistress. the l^ter, the law of duty and the compulsion i" " I "do believe the girl is getting fond of me," ■of love, which, as she spoke, seemed openmgjsaid she, half touched, half laughing to Jo- out so widely and awfully that she herself in-ihanna. "If so, we shall get on." It is justas voluntarily shrank from it, and wondered that; with our school children, j ou know. We have poor finite creatures should ever presume to, to seize hold of their hearts first, and their squabble about it at all. j heads afterward. Now, Elizabeth's head may But one thing the girl did understand — her be uncommonly tough, but I do believe she young mistress's kindness. She stood watch- likes me." ing the delicate little hand that had so patiently j Johanna smiled; but she would not for the guided hers, and now wrote copy after copyjworld have said— never encouraging the small- for her future benefit. At last she said— est vanity in her child— that she did not thinl "You're taking a deal o' trouble wi' a poor this circumstance so very remarkable. wench, and it's very kind in a lady like you." Miss Hilary was puzzled what answer to make. True enough it was " kind," and she was "a lady;" and between her and Mrs. Hand's rough daughter was an unmistakable difference and distinction. That Elizabeth perceived it was proved by her growing' res- pectfulness of manner — the more respectful, it ■eemed, the more she herself improved. Hilary could not bear to make her feel CHAPTER V. A household exclusively composed of wo- men has its advantages and its disadvantages. It is apt to become somewhat narrow in judg- Yet'ment, morbid in feeling, absorbed in petty more, 1 interests, and bounding its vision of outside sharply than was unavoidable the great gulf things to the small horizon which it sees 'from that lies and ever must lie — not so much be- its own fireside. But, on. the other hand, be- tween mistress and servant, in their abstract|thi& fireside often abides a settled peace and 22 MISTRESS AND MAID. purity, a long-suffering, generous forbearance, and an enduring atfectionateness which the othe other sex can hardly comprehend or credit. Meu will not believe, what ia never- theless the truth, that we can "stand alone" better than they can ; that we can do without them far easier, and with less deterioration of character, than they can do without us ; that we are better able to provide for ourselves in- terests, duties, and pleasures ; in short, strange as it may appear, that we have more real self- sustaining independence than they. Of course, that the true life, the highest life, is that of man and woman united, no one will be insane enough to deny ; I am speaking of the substitute for it, which poor humanity has so often to fall back upon and make the best of— a better best very frequently than what appears best in ihe eyes of the world. In truth, many a troubletl. care ridden, wealthy family, torn with dissensions, oV frozen up in splendid fornialities, might have envied that quiet, humble, maiden household ol the Misses Leaf, where their only trial was poverty, and their only grief the one which they knew the worst of, and had met patiently for many "B year— poor Selinft's " way." I doubt not it was good for Elizabeth Hand that her first place — the home in which she received her first impressions — was this fem- inine establishment, simple and regular, in which was neither waste nor disorder allowed. Good, too, that while her mistresses' narrow means restricted her in many things enjoyed by servants in richer families, their interests, equally nan-Qw, caused to be concentrated up- on herself a double measure ot thought and care. She became absolutely "one of the fam- ily," sharing in all its concerns. From its small and few carnal luxuries — such as the cake, fruit, or pot of preserve, votive offerings from pupils' parents — up to the newspaper and the borrowed book, nothing was either literal- ly or metaphorically "locked" up from Eliza- beth. This grand question of locking up had been discussed in full conclave the day after her month of preparation ended, the sisters taking opposi|e sides, as might have been expected. Selina was for the immediate introduction of a locksmith and a key basket. " While she was only on trial, it did not so much signify ; besides, if it did, we had only buttons on the press doors ; but now she isour regular servant we ought to institute aregular system of authority. How can she respect a family that never locks up any thing?" '• How. can we respect a servant from whom we loch up every thing 1" " Respect a servant ! What do you mean, Hilary?" •' I mean thai if I did not respect a servant I would be very «orry to keep her one day in any house of mine." » " Wait till you've a houec of. your own to keep, Miss," said Selina, crossly. " I never heard such nonsense. Is' that the way you mean to behave to Elizabeth ? leave every thing open to her — clothes, books, money ; trust her with all your fecrets ; treat her as your most particular friend V " A girl of fifteen would be rather an incon- venient particular friend! And J have happily- few secrets to trust her with. But if 1 could not trust her with our coffee, tea. sugar, and so on, and bring her up from the very first iu the habit of being trusted, 1 would recommend her being sent away to-morrow." "Very fine talking; and what do you say, Johanna? — if that is not an unnecessary ques- tion after Hilary has given her opinion." " 1 think," replied the elder 6ister, taking no notice of the long familiar inuendo, "that in this case Hilary is right. How people ought to manage in great houses I can not say : but in our small house it will be easier and better not. to alter our simple ways. Trusting the girl — if she is a good girl — will only make her more trustworthy ; if she is bad. we shall the sooner find it out and let her go. But Elizabeth did not go. A year passed ; two years ; her wages were raised, and with them her domestic position. From a "girl" she was converted into a regular servant ; ber pinafores gave place to grown-up gowns and aprons; and her rough head, at Miss Selina'' s incessant inst; je, was concealed by a cap — caps being considered by that lady a? the proper and indispensable badge of servant- hood. To say that during her transition state, or even now that she had reached the cap era, Elizabeth gave her mistresses no trouble, would be stating a ^..'f-evident improbability'. -iVhat young lass under seventeen, of any rani?, does not cause plenty of trouble to her natural guardians? Who can "put an old head on young shoulders ?" or expect from girls at the most unformed and unsatisfactory period of life that complete moral and mental discipline, that unfailing self-control, that perfection of temper, and every thing else which, ofcour-i:. all mistresses always have? I am obliged to confess that Elizabeth had a few — nay, not a few — most obstinate faults ; that no child tries its parents, no pupil its school teachers, more than she tiied her three mistresses at intervals. She was often thought- less and careless, brusque in her maViner. slov- enly in her dress : sometimes she was down- right "bad," filled full — as some of her eldere and betters are, at all ages — with absolute naughtiness ; when she would sulk for hours and days together, and make the whole family uncomfortable, as many a servant can make many a family small as that of the Misses Leaf* But still they never lost what Hilary termed MISTRESS AND MAID. 23 their "respect" for Elizabeth ; they never found | even Johanna satd sometimes, "dangerous" her out in a lie, a meanness, or an act of de- ception or dishonesty. They took her faults as we must take the surface faults of all con- nected with us — patiently rather than resent- Fully, seeking to correct rather than to punish. And though "there were difficult elements in "the household, such as their being three mis- tresses to be obeyed, the youngest mistress a thought too lax and the second One undoubt- edly too severe, still no girl could live with these high-principled, much-enduring women without being impressed with two things which the serving class are slowest to understand — the dignity of poverty, and the beauty of that which is the only effectual law to bring out good and restrain evil — the law of loving-kind- ness. Two fracas, however, must be chronicled, for after both the girl's dismissal hung on a thread. The first was when Mrs. Cliffe, moth- er of Tommy Clift'e, who was nearly killed in the field, being discovered to be an ill sort of woman, and in the habit of borrowing from. Elizabeth stray shillings, which were never returned, waa forbidden the house, Elizabeth resented it so fiercely that she sulked for a whole week afterward. thus to put before Elizabeth a standard of ideal perfection, a Quixotic notion of life — life ■in its lull purp08e, power, and beauty — su.cb as otherwise never could have.crossed the mind of this working girl, born of parents who, though respectable and worthy, were io no re- spect higher than the common working class ? I will not argue the point: I am not making Elizabeth a text for a sermon ; I am simply writing her story. One thing, was certain, that by degrees the young woman's faults lessened; even that worst of them, the unmistakable bad temper, not aggressive, but obstinately sullen, which made her and Miss Selina sometimes not on speak- ing terms tor a \*eek together. But she sim- ply "sulked:" she never grumbled or was pert: and she did her work just as usual — wiih a kind of dogged struggle not' only against the superior powers but against something within herself much harder to fight with. " She makes me feel more sorry for her than angry with her," Miss Leaf would sometimes say, coming out of the kitchen with that grieved face, which was the chief sign of dis-< pleasure her sweet nature ever betrayed "She will have up-hill work through life, like lis all, The other and still more dangerous crisis in and more than many of us, poor child !" Elizabeth's destiny was when a volume of Scott's novels, having been missing for some days, was found hidden in her bed, and she lying awake reading it was thus ignominious- ly discovered at eleven p. m. by Miss Selina, in consequence of the gleam of candlelight from under her door. It was true neither of these errors were ac- tual moral crimes. Hilary even roused a vol- ley of sharp words upon herself by declaring they had their source in actual virtues : that a girl who would stint herself of shillings, and hold lesolutely to any liking she had, even if unworthy, had a creditable amount of both self-denial and fidelity in her disposition. Al- so that a tired out maid-of all-work, who was kept awake of nights by her ardent apprecia- tion of the " Heart of Mid-Lothian," must possess a degree of both intellectual and moral capacity which deserved cultivation rather than blame. And though this surreptitious pursuit of literatuie under difficulties could not of course be allowed, I grieve to say that Miss Hilary took every opportunity of not on- ly giving the young servant books to read, but of talking to her about *,hem. And also that But gradually Elizabeth, too, copying invol- untarily the rest of the family, learned to put up with Miss Selina : who, on her part, kept a sort of armed neutrality. And once, when a short but sharp illness of Johanna's shook the house from its even tenor, startled every body out of thetr little tempers, and made them cling together and work together in a sort of fear-stricken union against one common grief, Selina allowed that, they might have gone far- ther and fared worse on the day they engaged. Elizabeth. "After this illness of his Aunt, Ascott came home. It was his first visitsince he had gone to London ; Mr. Ascott, he said, objected to holidays. But now, from some unexplained feeling, Johanna in her convalescence longed after the boy —no longer a boy, however, but nearly twenty, and looking fully his age. How proud his aunts were to march him up the town, and hear every body's congratulations on his good looks and polished manners ! It was the old story — old as the hills 1 I do not pretend to invent any thing new. Women, especially maiden aunts, will repeat the tale till the end of time, v so long as thev have a large proportion of these books were — tojyouths belonging to them on whom to expend Miss Selina's unmitigated horror— absolutely their natural tendency to clinging fondness, fiction ! -stories, novels, even poetry — books and ignorant, innocent hero worship. The that Hilary liked herself— books that had buijt up in her own passionate dream of life ; where- in all the women were faithful, tender, heroic, self-devoted; and all the men were — something not unlike Eobert Lyon. Did she do harm ? Was it, as Selina and Misses Leaf--ay, even Selina. whose irritation against the provoking boy was quite mollified by the elegant young man— were no wiser than their neighbors. But there was one person in the household who still obstinately refused to bow the knee 24 MISTRESS AND MAID. to Ascott. Whether it was, as psychologists might explain, some instinctive polarity in their natures : or whether, having ©nee con- ceive! a prejudice, Elizabeth held on to it like grim death ; still there was the same unspo- ken antagonism between them. The young fellow took little notice of her except to ob- serve " that she hadn't grown any handsom- er^' but Elizabeth watched him with with a keen severity that overlooked nothing, and re- sisted, with a passive pertinacity that was quite irresistible, all his encroachments on the I'amity habits, all the little self-pleasing ways which Ascott had been so used to of old, that neither he nor his aunts apparently recognized them as selfish. " I canna bear to see him (" can not," sug- gested her mistress, who not seeing any reason why Elizabeth should not speak the Queen's English as well as herself, had instituted' h's, and stopped a few more glaring p;oviucial- isms.), " I cannot bear to see him, Miss Hil- ary, lolling on the arm-chair, when Missis looks so tired and pale, and sitting up o' nights, burning double fires, and going up stairs at last with his boots on, and waking every body. 1 dunnot like it, I say." " You forget ; Mr. Ascott has his studies. He must work for the nex^ examination." " Why doesn't he get up of a morning the* instead, of lying in bed, and keeping the break- fast about till ten ? Why can't he do his learning by daylight? Daylight's cheaper than mould candles, and a deal better for the eyes." Hilary was puzzled. A truth was a truth, and to try and make it out otherwise, even for the dignity of the family, was something from which her honest nature revolted. Besides, the sharp-sighted servant would be the first to ,i av detect the inconsistency of or.elaw of right for the parlor and another for the kitchen. So she took refuge in silence and in the apple- pudding she was making But she resolved to seize the first opportu- nity of giving Ascott, by way of novelty, the severest lecture that tongue of auht could be- stow. And this chance occurred the same af- ternoon, when the other two aunts had gone out to tea, to a house which Ascott voted " slow," and declined going to. .She remained to make tea for him, and in the mean time took him for a constitutional up and down the public walks hard by.. Ascott listened at first very good humored- iy : once or twice calling her " a dear little prig," in his patronizing way — he was rather fond of patronizing his Aunt Hilary. But when she seriously spoke of his duties, as no longer a boy but a man, who ought now to assume the true, manly right of thinking for " Now stop that, Aunt Hilary : I'll not have you coming Mr. Lyon over me." " What do you mean ?" For of late Ascott had said very little about Mr. Lyon — not half so much as Mr. Lyon, in his steadily peisistent letters to Miss Leaf, told her about her nephew Ascott. '• 1 mean that I'll not be preached to like" that by a woman. It's bad enough to stand it from a man; but then Lyon's a real sharp fellow, who knows the world, which women don't, Aunt Hilary. Besides, he coaches me in my L'ttm and Greek ; so I let him pitch into me now and then. But I won't let you; so just stop it, will you." , Something new in Ascott's tpne — speaking more of the resentful fierceness of the man than the pettishness of the boy — frightened his little aunt, and silenced her. By-and-by she took comfort trom the reflection that, ae the lad had in his anger betrayed, he had be- side him in Londou a monitor whose preach- ing would be so much wiser and more effectual than her own that she determined to say no more. The rare hearing of Mr. Lyon's name — for,, time and absence having produced their nat- ural effect, except when his letter came, he was seldom talked about now — set Hilary thinking. " Do you go to see him often ?" she said at ,'Who? Mr. Lyon?" And Ascott, delight- ed to escape into a fresh subject, became quite cheerful and communicative. " Oh, blesd you ! He wouldn't care for my going to him. He lives in a two-pair back, only one room, ' which serves him for kitchen and parlor and all :' dines at a cook shop for nine-pence a and makes his own porridge night and morning. He told me so once; for he isn't a bit ashamed of it. t But he must be precious hard up sometimes.' However, as he contrives to keep a decent coat on his back, and pay his classes at the University, and carry off the very first honors going there, nobody asks any questions." That's the good of London life, Aunt-Hilaiy," said the young fellow, drawing himself up with great wisdom. "Only look like a gentleman, behave yourself as such, and nobody asks any questions." " Yes," acquiesced vaguely Aunt Hilary. And then her mind wandered yearningly to the solitary student in the two-pair back. He might labor and suffer : he might be ill ; he might die, equally solitary, and " nobody would ask any questions." This phase of Lon- don life let a new light in upon her mind. The letters to Johanna had been chiefly filled with, whatever he thought would interest them.. Witli his characteristic Scotch reserve, he had. and taking care of other people, especially hisjsaid very little about himself, except in the aunts, Ascott began to flush up angrily. (last, wherein he mentioned that he had " done,- MlrfTHESS AND MAID, it* pretty well" atthecolkige. this term, and meant! family not to have heard of such a person, to "go in tor more work" immediately, ' And his knowing her was a tolerable proof of What this work entailed — how much more his identity ; besides, unconsciously^ the girl .toil, how much more poverty— Hilary knew was influenced by that look ami 'mien of true not. Perhaps even his successes, which As- jgentlemanhoo 1. as courteous to the poor maid- cott went on to talk of, had less place ir, her of-all-work. as he would have been to any thoughts than the picture oftbe face she knew, [duchess born; and by that bright, sudden sharpened with illness, wasted with hardworklemile, which came like sunshine over his iace, and solitary care. and like Sunshine warmed and opened the •• And 1 can not help him — I can not help! heart of every one that met it. him!" was her bitter cry j until, passing from It opened that of Elizabeth. She relaxed theVlream-land of fancy, the womanly nature her Cerberus keeping- of the door, and even asserted itself. She thought if it had been, or if it ware to be. her blessed lotto be chosen by Robert Lyon, how she would take care of him ! what an utter slave she would be to him ! How no penury .would frighten her. no household care oppress or humble her. if done for him and for his coinfort. To her brave heart no battle of life seemed too long or too sore, if only it were fought for him and at hip side. And as the early falling leaves were blown in gusts across her path, and the misty autumn night -began to close in, r.ature herself seemed to plead in unison with the craving of her heart, which sighed that youth and summer not always: and that, "be it ever so humble." as the song says, there is no place so bright and beautiful as the fireside of a love- mi home. While the. aunt and nephew w«re strolling •thus, thinking of very different things, their own fire newly lit — Ascott liked a fire — was blazing away in solitary glory, for the benefit of all passers-by. At length one — a gentleman — stopped at the gate, and looked in, then tbok a turn to the end of the terrace, and stood ga- zing in once more. The solitude of the room apparently troubled hiriu twice his hand was on the latch before he opened it and knocked at the front dcor. Elizabeth appeared, which seemed to sur- "prise him. " Is Miss Leaf at home ?" ' ; No, Sir." "Is she well? Are all the family well?" and he stepped right into the passage, with the freedom of a familiar foot. (" I should ha' slammed the door in his face," was Elizabeth's comment afterward : • ''only, you see. Miss Hilary, he looked a real gentleman. ")i The stranger and she mutually, examine'! One another. " I think I have heard of you," said he, -'..iling. "You are Miss Leaf's servant — Elizabeth Hand." " Yes, Sir," still grimly, and with a deter- mined grasp of the door handle. "If, your mistresses are likely to be home soon, will you allow me to wait for them? I am an old friend of theirs. Mv name is Lyon." Now Elizabeth was far too much one of the went so far as to inform him that Miss Leaf and Miss Selina were out to tea, but Miss Hilary. and Mr. Ascott would beat home sliorrty. He was welcome to wait in the par- lor if he liked. Afterward, seized with mingled euriosity ana misgiving, she made various errands to go in and look at him ; but she had not courage to address him, and he never spoke to her. He sat. by the window, gazing out into the gloam- Except just turning his head at her en- trance, she did not think lie had once stirred; the whole time. . ■ Elizabeth went back to her kitchen, and stood listening for her young mistress's famil- iar knock. Mr. Lyon seemed to have listened too, for before she could reach it the door was already opened. There was a warm greeting — to her great relief: for she knew eho hud broken the do- mestic laws in admitting a stranger unaware;'. — and 'then Elizabeth heard them all three go into the parlor, where they remained talking, without ringing for either tea or candles, a lull quarter of an hour. Miss Hilary at last came out. but much to Elizabeth's surprise, went straight up intoher bedroom without entering the kitchen at all. It wassome minutes more before she descend- ed : and then, after giving her orders for tea, and seeing that all was arranged with special neatness, she stood absently by the kitchen fire. Elizabeth noticed h#w wonderfully bright her. eyes were, and what a soft, happy smile she had. She noticed it, because she had never seen Miss Hilary look exactly like that before ; and she never did again. ." Don't you be troubling yourself with wait- ing about here." she said; and her -mistress seemed to staii at being spoken to. " I'll get the tea all right. Miss Hilary. Please go back into the parlor." Hilary went in (JfMPTER VI. Elizabeth got tea ready with unwonted diligence and considerable excitement. Any visitor was a rare occurrence in this very quiet family ; but a gentleman visiter— a young gen- ^6 MISTRESS AND MAID, Ueman too — was a remarkable fact, arousing both interest and curiosity. For in the latter quality this girl of seventeen could scarcely be expected to be deficient : and as to the former, she had so completely identified herself with the family she served, that all their concerns were her concerns also. Her acute comments on their few guests, and on their little schol Scott, Fenimore Cooper, Maria Edgeworth, and Harriet Maftineau. When this strange gentleman appeared — in ordinary coat and hat, or rather GMengary bonnet, neither partic- ularly handsome nor particularly tall, yet whose coming had evidently given' Miss Hila- ry so much pleasure, and who, once or twice while waiting at tea. Elizabeth fancied she had are, sometimes amused Hilary as much as her seen looking at Miss Hilary as nobodv ever criticisms on the books she read But as nei- looked before — when Mr. Rebert Lyon appear- ther wereever put forward intrusively or imper-'ed on the horizon, the faithful "bower maiden" tinently, she let them pass, and only laughed "over them with Johanna* in private. Jn speaking of these said books, and the questions they led to, it was not likely but that the other seventeen — should occasionally light upon a subject, rather interesting to women of was a goo ideal disappointed. She had expected something better: at all events, something different, flcr first bril- liant caStle in the air fell, poor lass ! but she mis tress and maid — one aged twenty-two, and "quickly built it up again, and, with the vivid imagination of her age, she mapped out the whole future, ending by a vision of Miss II il- iheir ages, though not commonly discussed ary, all in white, sweeping down the Terrace between mistresses and maids. Nevertheless, in a. carriage and pah — to fortune and happi- when itdidcomein theway, Mies Hilary never ness ; leaving herself, though with a sore want shirked it, but talked it out, frankly and freely, at her heart, and a great longing to follow, to -he would to any other person. " The girl has feelings and notions on the .natter, like all other girls, i suppose," reas- oned she to herself ; "so it is important that devote the remainder of her natural life to Miss Johanna. ** Her couldna do without somebody to see to her — and Miss Selina do worrit her so," her notions should be kept clear, and her feel-; muttered Elizabeth, in the excitement of this ings right. It may do her some good, and save her from much harm.' And so it befell that Elizabeth Hand, whose blunt ways, unlovely person, and temperament no oddly nervous and reserved, kept her from attracting any " sweetheart" of her own class, had unconsciously imbibed her mistress's the ory of love. Love, pure and simple, the very Almaschar vision, relapsing into her old pro- vincialisms. "So, even if Miss Hilary axes me to come, I'll stop. T reckon. Ay. I'll stop wi' Miss Leaf." This valorous determination taken, the poor maid servant's dream was broken by the opening of the parlor door, and an outcry of Ascott's for his coat and gloves, he having to deepest and highest, sweetest and most solemn! fetch' his aunts home at nine o'clock, Mr. Lyon thing in life: to be believed jn devoutly untillaccompar.ying him. And as they all stood it came, and when it did come, to be held to, together at the frontdoor, Elizabeth overheard firmly, faithfully, with a single-minded, settled; Mr. Lyon say something abo'uf what a beau- constancy, till death. A creed, quite impos- tiful night it was. siblei many will say. in this ordinary world, and most dangerous to be put into the head of a poor servant. -Yet a woman is but a ivp- rnaii, be she maid-servant or queen ; and if, from queens to maid-servants, girls were taught thus to think of love, there might be a "It would do you no harm; Miss Hilary ; will you walk with us '.« if you like." Hilary went up stairs for her bonnet and shawl : but when, a minute or two after, Eli- zabeth followed her with a candle, she found : 'ew more '•broken" hearts perhaps, but therelher standing in the centre of the room, all in vould certainly be fewer wicked hearts; far ewer corrupted lives o 1 ' men, and degraded ivt-s of women ; far fewer unholy marriages, desolated, drear 7, homeless homes. . Elizabeth, having c!t : aied away her tea- lungs, Btood listening to the voices in the parlor, and pondering. . She bad .sometimes wondered in her own mind that no knight ever came to carrv nit [ark, her face white and her 1 hands trem- bliug. ■• Thank you,thauk you !" she said mechari ically, as Elizabeth folded and fastened hei shawl for her — and descended immediately. Elizabeth watched her take, not Ascott's arm. but Mr. Lyon's, and walk down the Terrace in the starlight. •• Some'at's wrong. I'd like to know who's been a-vexin' of her.'' though! fiercely the voung servant. her charming princess — her- admired and be- loved Mise Hilary. Mis II ilnry, on her. p;. seemed totally indiilV-n ; fo the youth ■ '■'■ No, nobody had 1 ■•en "a-vexing" her mi»- Stowbury ; who indeed v> ere. Elizabeth 1 ess. There was nobody to blame; only •d. . t-uite unwi.i !i\ her regard. The only suit- there had ed to Hilary one of those aide lover few her young mistress must be) things which strike like a sword through a somebody exceedingly grand and noble — a young and happy heart, taking all the life and compound of the best heroes, of Shak6peare,J youth out of it. MISTRESS AND MAID. 27 Robert Lyon had, half an hour ago, told her — a"nd she had had to hear it as a piece of sim- ple news, to which she had only to Ray, " In- deed !" — that to day and to-morrow were his two last Jays at Stowbury — almost his last in England. Within a week he was to sail for India. . There had befallen him what most people would have considered a piece of rare good fortune. At the London University, a fellow student, whom he had been gratuitously '-'coaching" in Hindostanee, fell ill, and was " thrown upon his hands," as- he briefly defined services which must have been, great, since the, - had resulted in this end.* The young man's father — a Liverpool and Bombay mer- chant — made him an offer to go out there, to their house, at a rising salary of 300 rupees a is over, but it has left its scars. Strange ! I have been poor all my life, yet I never till now felt an actual terror of poverty/' Hilary shrank within herself, less even at the words than at something in their tone — something hard, nay fierce; something atonce despairing and aggressive. " It is strange," she said : " such a terror is not like you. I feel none ; I can not even un- derstand it." " No, I knew you could not," he muttered; and was silent. So was Hilary. A vague trouble came over her. Could it be that he, Robert Lyon, had been seized with the auri sacra fames, which he had so often inveighed against and despis- ed ? that his long battle with poverty had caused in him such an overweening desire for month for three years : after the third year to riches that, to obtain them, he would sacrifice become a junior partner : remaining at Bom- every thing else, exile himself to afar countrv bay in that capacity for two years more. This he tola to Hilary and Ascott in almost as few words as I have here put it — for brevity for years, selling his verv life and soul for gold? Such a thought of him was so terrible — that seemed a refuge to him. It was also to one of is, would have been were it tenable — that them. But Ascott asked so many questions Hilary for an instant telt herself shiver all that his aunt needed to ask none. She onl\|Over. The next she spoke out — injustice tc .listened, and tried to take all in, and understand him she forced herself to speak out — all her it. that is, in a consecutive, intelligent, business honest soul. shape, without feeling it. She dared not let: " I do believe that this going abroad to make herself feel it, not foY a second, till they were a fortune, which young men so delight in. is out. arm-in-arm, under the quiet winter stars, often a most fatal mistake. They g've up tar Then she heard his voice asking her, more than they gain — country, home, health. •'So you think I was right?*' II think a man has.no rightto sell his life any more than his soul for so many thousand- " Right?" s-he echoed mechanically. *• I mean in accepting that sudden chance, and changing my whole plan of life. I did not do it — believe me — without a motive." "What motive? she would once unhesita- tingly have asked: now she could not. Robert Lyon continued speaking, distinctly and yet in an undertone, that though Ascott was walking a few yards off', Hilary felt was year. Robert Lyon smiled — '"No, and I am not selling mine. With my temperate habits I have as good a chance of health at, Bombay as in London — perhaps better. And the years I must be absent I would have been absent al- most as much from you — I mean they would have been spent in work as engrossing and a- hard. They vviU soon pas.s, and then I shall Do von think I are meant for her alone to hear . "The change is, you perceive, from the lifeicome home rich — rich, of a student to that of a man of business. Iigrowing mercenary?" do not deny that I preferred the first. Once! " No." upon a time to be a fellow in a college, or a! "Tell me what you do think about me?'* professor, or the like, was my utmost aim and I would have half killed myself to attain it. Now, 1 think differently.'"' He paused, but did not seem to require an answer, and it did not come. " I want, not to be rich, but to get a decent competenco^and to get it as soon as I can. " I — can not quite understand.'" "And I cannot make you understand. Per- haps I will, some day when I come back again. Till then, you must trust me, Hilary." It happens occasionally, in moments of a!' but intolerable pain, that some small thing, a word, a look, a touch of a hand, lets in such want not to ruin my health with incessant a gleam of peace that nothing ever extin- study. I have already injured it a good deal. "Iguishes tb£ light of it: it busns on for years " Have yon been rTl ? You never said so.'' and years, sometimes clear, sometimes ob- "Oh no. it was hardly worth while. Andscured, but as ineffaceable from life and mem- I knew an active life would soon set me right ory as a star from its place in the heavens, again. No fear ! there's life in theold dog yet. [Such, both then, and through the lonely years He does not wish to die. But," Mr. Lyon'fo come, were those five weds, " You must pursued, '■ I have had a ' sair fecht' the la 5 -' trust me. Hilarv." year or two. 1 would not go through it again,! She diu . uud in the perfect ::ess of that trust «or see any on« dear to me go through it. It] her # own. separate identity, with all^its con- 28 MISTRESS AND MAID. sciousness of pain, seemed annihilated; she; did not think of herself at all, only of him. and with him, and for him. So, for the time being, she lost all sense of personal suffering'. and their walk that night was as cheerful and happy as if they were to walk together fori weeks and months and 'years, in undivided confidence and concent, instead of its being the last — the very last. Some one has said that all lovers have, soon or late, to learn to be only friends: happiest and safest are those in whom the friendship is the foundation — always firm and ready to fall back upon, long after the fascination of pas- sion dies. It may take a little from the ro- mance of these two if I own that Robert Lyon talked to Hilary not a word about love, and a good deal about pure business, telling her all his affairs and arrangements, and giving her as clear an idea of his future life as it was pos-, sible to do within the limits of one brief half hour. • Then casting a glance round, and seeing that Ascott was quite out of ear-shot, hesaid^with that tender fall of the voice that felt, as some poet hath it, " Like a still embrace," " Now tell me as much as you can about yourself." _ At first there seemed nothing to tell ; but gradually he drew from Hilary a good deal. Johanna's feeble health, which caused her continuing to teach to be very unadvisable ; and the gradual diminishing of the school— I from what cause they could 'not account — which made it very doubtful whether some change would not soon or late be ncessarv. What this change should be she and Mr. Lyon discussed a little — ae ■;•!•, indefiii. itiou of affaire was !>os:-i : Also, from some other qu .- j. his, she spoke to him about another dread which had lurked in her mind, and yet to which she could give no tangible shape, about, Ascott. He could not remove it, he did not attem but be soothed it a little, advising with her' as to the best way of managing the wilful lad. His'strong, clear sense, just judgment, and, above all, a certain un3poken sense of union, as if all, that concerned her and hers he took naturally upon himself as his own, gave Hila- ry such comfort that, even on this night, with a full consciousness oi' nil 'hat was to follow, ahe was happy— nay. she uacLnotbeen so ha o py foryeais. Perh . . ;. : ( ,id. the glorious truth o; tru lrl recog- nition, spoken or silent., co the only perfect joy of life, that of t» > tmUU one)—] haps she had net mee ahe w r f.s born. • , The last thing he d ! ,;,■ J; , ; , give him an assurance thai in any and all difnen ahe would apply to him. " To me, and to noone else, remember. No one but myself must help you. And I will, so long as I am alive. Do you believe this?" She looked up at him bv the lamp light, and said, " I do." ' And vou promise?" " Yes." Then they loosed arms, and Hilary knew that they should never walk together again till — when and how ? Returning, of course, he walked with Mise Leaf: and throughout the next day, a terribly • wet Sunday, spent by them entirely in the lit- tle parlor, they had not a minute of special or private talk together. He did not seem tc wish it; indeed, almost avoided it. Thus slipped away the strange, still day — a Sunday never to be forgotten. At night, after prayers were over, Mr Lyon rose suddenly, saying he must leave them now; he was obli- ged to start from Stowbur-y at daybreak. " Shall we not see you again ?" asked Jc- hanna. "No. This will be mv last Sunday in En- gland. Good by!" He turned excessively pale, shook hand lently with them all — Hilary last — and almost before they recognized the fact, he was gone. With him departed, not all Hilary's peace or faith or courage of heart, for to all whole truly, while the best beloved lives, and lives worthily, no parting is hopeless and no grief, overwhelming; but all *the brightness of her youth, all the sense of joy that young people have in loving, and in being beloved again, in fond meetings and fonder partings,, in endk ke and talks, in sweet kisses and clinging am . v ..h happiness was not for her : when, sire saw it the lot of others, she said to herseH ■ •times with a natural sharp sting of pair, but oftener with a solemn acquiescence, " It is the will of God : it is the will of tiud." Johanna. Too, who would have given her life almost to bring some color back to the white face of her darling, of whom she asked no questions, and who never complained nor. confessed any thing, many and many a night when Hilary either lay awake by her side, or- tossed and moaned in her sleep, till the eld sister took her in her arms like a baby —Jo- hanna, too. said to herself. " This is the will ot God."' I have told thus much in detail, the brief, sad story of Hilary's youth, to |)iow how im- ible i; was that Elizabeth Hand could live in the house with these two women without being strongly infhiencfU by them, as even person — ly every woman — influence.' 1 , for good or '"or nvil every other person connect- ed, with her, or dependent upon her. Elizabeth was a girl of close observation and keen . . Besides, to must people, whether or not their sympathy be univerotti, eo far a* the individual is concerned, any deep MISTRESS AND MAID. 29 attection generally lends eves, tact, and deli- cacy. Thus when on the Monday morning at break- fast Miss Selina observed, " What a fine day Mr. Lyon was havingfor his journey : what a lucky fellow he was ; how he would be sure to make a fortune, and -if 60, she wondered whether they should ever see or hear any thing of him again" — Elizabeth, from the glimpse she caught of Miss Hilary's face, and from the quiet way in which Miss Leaf merely answered, " Time will show :" and began talk- ing to Selina about some other subject — Eliz- abeth resolved never in any way to make the smallest allusion to Mr. Robert Lyon. Some- thing had happened, she did not know what : and it was not her business to, find out ; the family affairs, so far as she was trusted with them, were warmly her own, but into the family secrets she had no right to pry. Yer, long-after Miss Selina had ceased to "wonder" about him, or even to name him — his presence 01 absence did not touch her per- sonally, and she was always the centre of her own small world of interest— the little maid- servant kept in her mind, and pondered over at odd limes every* possible solution of the mystery of this gentleman's sudden visit ; of the long wet Sunday when he sat all day talk- vith her mistresses in the parlor; of the And the sight of Miss Plilary going about the house and school room as usual, with that poor white face of hers; nay, gradually bring- ing to the family fireside, as usual, her harm- less little joke, an,d her merry laugh at it and herself — who shall say what lessons may no', have been taught by "this to the humble serv- ant, dropping deep sown into her heart, to germinate and fructify, as her future life's needs required?. It might have been so — God knows! He alone can know, who, through what (to. us) seem the infinite littleness of our mortal exist- ence, is educating us into the infinite greatness of His and our immortalitv. CHAPTER VII. Autumn soon lapsed into winter ; Christ- mas came and went, bringing, not Ascott, as they hoped and he had promised, but a very serious evil in the shape of sundry bills of his, which, he confessed in a most piteous letter to his Aunt Hilary, were absolutely unpayable out of his godfather's allowance. They were not large — or would not have seemed so to rich people — and they were for no more bla- niable luxuries than horse hire, and a dinner evening prayer, when Miss Leaf had twice to or two to friends out in.the-country ; but they stop, her voice faltered so; and of the night: looked serious to a household which rarely when, long after all the others had gone to was more than five pounds beforehand with bed. Elizabeth, coming suddenly into the -par- the world.* lor, had found Miss Hilary sitting alone over He had begged Aunt Hilary to keep hisse- the embers of the fire, with the saddest, sad- cret, but that was evidently impossible ; so on dest look! so that the girl had softly shut the the day the school accounts were being written floor again without ever speaking to "Mis-out and sent in, and their amount anxiously sis." (reckoned, she laid before her sisters the lad's Elizabeth did more; which, strange as it lettei, full of penitence and promises may appear, a servant who is supposed tp know nothing of any thing that has happened can often do better than a member of the faui- I will be careful — I will indeed — if you will help me out this once, dear Aunt Hilary ; and don't think too ill of me. I have done ily who knows every thing, and this knowledge nothing wicked. And you don't know Lon- is sometimes the most irritating consciousness don ; you don't know, with a lot of young a sufferer has. She followed her young mis- 1 fellows about one, how very hard it is to say tress with a steady watchfulness, so quiet and no. silent that Hilary never found it out; saved her every little household care, gave herevery little household treat. Not much to do, and less to- be chronicled; but the way in which she did it was all. During the long dull winter days, to come in and find the parlor fire always bright, the hearth clean swept, and the room tidy : never At that unlucky. postscript the Misses Leaf sorrowfully exchanged looks. Little the lad thought about it: but these few. words were the very sharpest pang Ascott had ever given to Jiis aunts. " What's bred in the bone will come out in the flesh." Like father like son." "Thesins of the parents shall be visited on the children." to enter the kitchen without the servant's face So runs many a proverb ; so confirms the un- clearing up into a smile; when her restlesslerring decree of a just God, who would not be irritability made her forget things and growja just God did He allow Himself to break His quite vexed in the search after them, to seefown righteous laws for the government of the that somehow her shoes were never misplaced, universe : did He falsify the requirements of and her gloves alw.ays came to hand in some His own holy and pure being, by permitting mysterious manner — these trifles, in her first any other wages for sin than death. ' And heavy days of darkness, soothed Hilary more though, through His mercy, sin forsaken es- than words could tell. [capes sin's penalty, and every human being 30 MISTRESS AND MAID. iias it in his own power to modify, if not to: understand concur, any hereditary moral as well as phys- 1 '« We must not let the boy remain in debt ; ical disease, thereby avoiding the doom and it would be such a disgrace to the family " alleviating the curse, still the original Jaw re- " It is not the remaining in debt, but the mams in force, and ought to remain, an ex- incurring oft it, which is the real disgrace to ample and a warning. As true as that every A«c6tt and the family " • individual sin that a man commits breeds! " Hush, Hilary/', said Johanna, poinUi multitudes more, is it that every todividual the opening dooi ; but it was too late sinner may transmit his. own peculiar tvDe of pi;,„u„.i ■ u ■ • , ' , weakness or wickedness to a whole racTdis- I JSfw ft IT 8 * J 'KZ ^ lU appearing^ one generation', re-appearing in J^^u 1 ? tZ TF^f 7*a ?** T°* another, exactly the same as physical pecu-i ™S! K 'i " «*&"?* h / T ~ haA liaritiesdo. requiring the utmost caution MSS^^A^^U^^^^ tier conscious lace showed it ; more especially education to counteract the terrible tendencies of nature— the "something in the blood" which is so difficult to eradicate - : which make the third amijfourth generation execrate the memory of him or her who was its origin. The long life-curse of Henry Leaf the elder, and Henry Leaf the younger, had. been — the women of the family well knew— that they were men who " couldn't say No." So keenh were the three sisters alive to this fault — i'l could hardly be called a crime, pud yet m its consequences it was so — so sickening the ter- ror of it which their own wretched experience had implanted in their minds, that during As- cott's childhood and youth his very fractious- ness and roughness, his little selfishness, and his persistence in his own will against theirs, had been hailed by his aunts as a good omen that he would grow up "so unlike his poor lather." 11 the two unhappy Henry Ifcafs — father and son — could have come out of their graves that night and beheld these three women, daughters and sisters, sitting with Ascott's let- ter on the table, planning how the household's small expenses could be contracted, it- smaller luxuries relinquished, in order that the boy might honorably pay for pleasures he might so easily have done without! If they could have seen the weight of apprehension the bright scarlet which covered both her cheeks when Miss Leaf said " Hush \" She ay eve^ st00( ^ apparently irresolute as to whether she should run away again : and then Her native honesty got the upper hand, and she advanced into the room. " If you please, missis. I didn't mean to— but I've heard—" " What have vou heard ; that is. how much?" "Just what Miss Hilary said. Don't be afeared. I shan't tell. J never chatter about the family. Mother told me not." "You owe a great deal, Elizabeth, to your good mother. .Now go away." '• And another rime." said Miss Selina, " knock at the door." This was Elizabeth's first initiation into what many a servant has to share — the.seoret burden of the family. After that day. though they Sid not actually confide in her." her mis- tresses used no effort to conceal thai they had cares: that the domestic economies must, this winter, lie especially studied: there must fte no extra fires, no candles left burning tp waste ; and once a week or so, a tew butterfesa br fasts or meatless dinners must be partaken of cheerfully, in both parlor and kitchen. The Misses Leaf never stinted their servant in anv which then sank like a atone on these long "' which they did not stint themselves tried 'hearts, never to be afterward removed ; lightened sometimes, but always — however Ascot: might promise and amend — always there ! On such a discoi ery, surely, these two "poor. ghosts'' would have fled away moan- ing, wishing they had died childless, or that during their mortal lives any amount of self- restraint and self-coin pulsion had purged from their natures the accursed thing: the Bin which any rea had worked itself out in sorrow upon every one belonging to them, years after their owii laid in the quiet dust. ; We must do it," was the conclusion the Mi--e> Leaf una vimoush came to; even Seli- na; who. with ai. her faults, haVTa fair share Strange. to say, in spite of Miss - pro- phecies, the girl's respectful conduct did not abate: on the contrary, it seemed to increase. The nearer she was lifted to her mistress'-; level, the more her mind grew, so that sin could better understand her misti and the deeper became her consciousm the only thing which gives one human bein- over another — personal authority character; Therefore, though the family means were' narrowed, and the family .luxuries few, Eliza- beth cheerfully put up with all ; she even felt a sort of pride in wasting nothing and in ma- king the bes! of every thing, a.- the others did. of good feeling and ct that close clmgmg to Perhaps, it may le"8aid*»he was an exceptions kindred whu h is found in fallen households, servant : and yet I would not do her class the or households whom the sacred bond of com mon poverty, has drawn together in a way that wrong to believe so-I would rather believe thai there are many such among it ; many good, i ui j — il • i • "*— ™"* w <* 1C maiijr ouuii among u ; many goou, large, well-to-do home circles can never quitej.honest, faithful girls, who only need goodmie- MISTRESS AtfD MAID. 31 tresses untolwhorn to be honest and faithful, and they would be no less so than Elizabeth Hand. ' The months, went by — heavy and anxious months : tor the school gradually dwindled away, and Ascott'a letter — now almost the only connection his aunts had with the outer world. but what he wrote was like what he spoke, the accurate reflection of his own clear, orig- inal mind and honest, tender heart. His letters gave none the less .com'fort be- oause, nominally, they were addressed to 'Jo- hanna. This might have been from some crotchet of over-reserve, delicacy, or honor- fpr poverty necessarily diminished even their the same which made him part from her for years with no other word than, ' You must, trust me. Hilary;" but whatever it was she respected it, and she did trust him. And whether Johanna answered his letters or not, month by month they unfailingly came, keep- ing her completely informed of all his proceed- ings, and letting out, as epistles written from over the seas often do, much mere of himself and his character than he was probably aware that he betrayed. And Hilary, whose sole experience of man- kind had been the scarcely remembered father, the too well remembered brother, and the anx- iously watched nephew, thanked God that there seemed to be one man in the world whom a woman could lean her heart upon, and not feel the support brSak like a reed beneath her — one man whom she could entirely believe in. and safely and sacredly trust. small Stowbury society — became more and more unsatisfactory; and the want of infor- mation in them was not supplied by those other letters which had once kept Johanna's heart easy concerning the boy. " Mr. Lyon had written once before sailing, nay. after sailing, for he had sent it home by the pilot from the English Channel: then there was, of course, 'silence. October, No- vember^December, January, February, March — how often did Hilary count the months, and wonder how soon a letter would come, wheth- er a letter ever would comeagain. And some- limes — the sharp present stinging her with its small daily pains, the future looking dark before her and them all — she felt so forlorn, so forsaken, that but for a certain tiny well- spring of hope, which rarely dries up till long after three-ar.d twenty, she could have sat down and sighed, " My good days are done." Rich people break their hearts much sooner than poor people ; that is, *hey more easily get into that morbid state which isglorified by the term, " a broken heart." Poor people can ndt afford It. Their constant labor "physics pain." Their few and narrow pleasures sel- dom pall. Holy poverty ! black as its dark side is, it has its bright side too, that is, when it is honest, fearless, free from selfishness, wastefulness, and bickerings : above all, free from the terror of debt. " We'll starve we'll go into the work house rather than we'll go into debt!" cried Hilary once, in a passion of tears, when she was in aore want of a shawl, and Selina urged her to get. it, and wait till she could pay for it. "Yes: the workhouse! It would be less shame to be honorably indebted to the laws of the land than to be meanlv, indebted, under false pre- tences, to any individual in it - " And when, in payment for some accidental lessons, she got next month enough money to ance. For they were poorer than they used buy a shawl, and a bonnet, too— nay,by greatlto be; many more schools had arisen in the ingenuity, another bounet for Johanna— Hil-itown, and theirs had dwindled away. It was ary could have danced and sang — 6ang, in thej becoming a source of serious anxiety whether gladness and relief of her heart, the glorious they could possibly make ends meet; and euthanasia of poverty. when, the next Christmas, Ascott sent them a But these things happened only occasional-' five pound note — an actual five pound note, iy : the daily life was hard still ; ay, very hard. 'together with a fond, grateful letter that was even though at last came the letter from " for- worth it all — the aunts were deeply thankful, eign parts;" and following it, at regular inland very hay; tervals, other letters. They were full of facts! But still the school declined. One night rather than feelings — simple, straightforward ; they were speculating upon the causes of this, Worth little as literary compositions; school-jand Hilary was declaring, in a half jocular, master and learned man as he was, there wasjhalf earnest way, that it must be because a nothing literary or poetical about Mr. Lyon ; prophet is never a prophet in his own ceuu- OHAPTEK VIII. Time slipped by. Robert Lyon had been away more than three years. But in the mo- notonous life of the three sisters at Stowbury, nothing was changed. Except, perhaps, Eliz- abeth, who had grown quite a woman ; might have passed almost for thirty ; so solidly old fashioned were her fi i her manners. 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 m small debts- the last time in one a little more serious; when, after some sad and sore consultation, it had been resolved to tell him he must contrive to live within his own allow- MISTRESS AND MAID. 32 try. " Tlie Stowbury people will never believe . how clever I am. Only, it is a useless sort of cleverness, I fear. Greek. Latin, and mathe- matics are no good to infants under" seven, •such as Stowbury persists in sending to us." '•They think 1 am only fit t© 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 thp 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/' Thar was true. Miss Leaf, whom feeble health had made prematurely oM, would wil- lingly have ended her days in the familiar town; but Hilary was young and strong. Jo- hanna called to mind the dfys when she too had felt that rest was only another name for dullness ; and when the fnost 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 unfail- ing letters from India seemed to prophecy thai 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 wouklftikely be a very different one from that quiet, colorless life of hers. And as she looked at her younger sister, with the twilight glow 511 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 Johan- na 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 characteris- tic — the unruffled peace of a soul, which no worldly storms could disturb overmuch, for it had long since cast anchor in the world un- seen. The chance which revived the question of the Great Metropolitan liegira, as Hilary called it; was a letter from Mr. Ascott, as fol- lows : •■Mis.-; LbAE- '■Mvdaji,— 1 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 Bhould settle in London as a surgeon and general practitioner I •' His education complete, I consider that I haTe done my duty by him ; but I may assist him occassonally still, unless he turns out — as his father did befire him — a young man who prefers being helped to helping himself, in which case I Bhall have nothing more to ilo with him. "I remain. Madam, your obedient servant, * •■ I'etkp. Ascott." The sisters read this letter, passing it round the table, none of them apparently likii he the first to' comment upon it. At length Hilary said : "I think that reference to poor Usury ie perfectly brutal." " And yet he was very kind to Henry. And if it had not been for hiscommon sens* in send-, ing 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 !iis doing it. He thinks it fine to patronize us, and show kindness to our family'; he, the stout, 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 mischievously, ipon which Selina drew herself up in great indig- nation. And then they fell to talking of that anxious question — Ascott's future. A little they re- proached themselves that they had left the lad so long in London — so lon^out of the influ- encc that might have. counteracted the evil, sharplj hinted in his godfather's letter. But once away — to lure 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 kitch- en, and told Elizabeth that as soon as her work was done Misb Leaf wished to have a little talk with her. " Eh ! what's wrong? Has Miss Selina been a-grumbling a* ine ?" EiKfibe'h was in one of her bad hum which, though of course th-ey never ought to have, servants do have as well as their supe- riors. Hilary perceived this by the way she threw the coals on and toesed the chairs about. But to-day her heart was full of far '..ore se- rious cares than Elizabeth's ill temper. She replied, composedly — ' " I have not heard that either of my sisters is displeased wijh.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," MISTRESS AND MAID, S3 " Going to live in London !" Now, quick as her tact ami observation were — her lieart taught her these things — Eli- zabeth's head was a thorough Saxon one, 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 add- ed. " vi. u needn't look so serious. We are not slow to receive impressions, it was a family, in the least vexed with you; we shall be very saving, that nothing was 80 hard as to put a I sorry to lose you, and we will give you the new idea into Elizabeth except to get it out best of characters when you leave." • again. for this reason Hilary preferred paving the way quietly, before startling her with the den intelligence of their contemplated change. " Well, what do you say to the plan ?" ask- ed she. .good humoredly. •' I dun no! like it at all," was the brief gruff answer of Elizabeth Hand. • Now it was one of Miss Hilary's doctrines 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 anothercreed, was with her the result of circumstances. But she held it firmly, and with that exaggerated one-sidedness of feeling which any bitter fam- ily or personal experience is sure to leave be- hind — a strong will was her first attraction to every body. It had been so in the case of Robert Lyort, and not less in Elizabeth's. But this quality has its inconveniences. When the maid began sweeping up her hearth with a noisy, angry gesture, the mistress did the wisest and most dignified thing a mistress could do under the circumstances., arid which " 1 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 mi nates 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 6 is so ready to get shut o' me." '• It was for your own good, you know." " You always saiu 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 she knew was the sharpest rebuke she could. the first rude speech that Elizabeth had ever administer to the sensitive Elizabeth — shej made to Miss Hilary, and which, underother immediately quitted the kitchen. circumstances she would have felt bound se- For an hour alter the parlor bell did not jVerely to reprove — the mrstress passed it over, ring; and though it was washing day, no Mies That which lay beneath it, the sharpness of Hilary appeared to help in folding up the wounded 'ove, touched her heart. She felt 'hat, 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 clothes. Elizabeth,, suborned and wretched, waited till she could wait no longer; then knocked at the door, and asked humbly if she should bring in supper? that fond homely'one of Elizabeth Hand's. The extreme kindness of the answer, totfie Still, she thought it right to explain to her effect that she must come in. as they wanted to that London life might have many difficulties, speak to her, crushed the lingering fragments that, for the present at least, her wages could of ill humor out of the girl. not be raised, and the family might at first be "Miss Hilary has told you, our future plans, I in even more straitened circumstances than Elizabeth ; now we wish to have a little talk; they were at Stowbury. with you about yours." "Only at first, though, for I hope to find "Eh?" plenty of pupils, and by-and-by our nephew " We conclude you will not wish to go with will get into practice." us to London : and it would be hardly advis-j " Is it on account of him you're going,Mis3 able you should. You can get higher wages Hilary ?" now than any we can afford to give you ; in- "Qhiefly." deed, we have more than once thought of tell- Elizabeth gavea* grunt which said as plainly on so. and offering you* your choice of as words could sav, " I thought so;" and re- ing for a better plac lapsed into what she, no doubt, believed to be " You're very kind," was the answer, stolid virtuous indignation, but which, as. it was rather than grateful. testified against the wrong parties, was open " No: I think we are merely honest. We to the less favorable interpretation of ill hu- should never think of keeping a girl upon low- mor — a small injustice not uncommon with us er wages than she was worth. Hitherto, nil." how%ver, the arrangement has been quite fair : I do not pretend to paint this young woman I you know, Elizabeth, you have given us adealjaj a perfect character. She had her fierce dis- of trouble in the teaching of you." And Miss j likes as well as her strong fidelities ; her faults 1! 34 MISTRESS AND MAID. withiu and without, which liSid to be struggled jumph" which came down through the lighted with, as all of us have to struggle to the very windows of the Town Hall, where the open-air end of our days. Oftentimes not till the battle 'ca drinkers had adjourned to dance country is nigh over— sometimes not till it is quite over dance?, by civic permission, and in perfectly — does God give us the victory. pectable jollity. Without more discussion on either side, it « j wonder," "said Hilary— while, despite was agreed that Elizabeth should accompany Bome natura i regret, her spirit stretched itself her mistresses. Even Mrs. Hand seemed to out eagerlv from the narrowness of the place be [-.teased thereat, her only doubt being lest ^i^ s i, e was boj . n into lie great wide world: her daughter should meet and be led astray by t ], e WO rld where so many grand things were that bad woman, Mrs. Clifre, Tommy Cliffe's thought and written and done: the world mother, who was reported to have gone to Robert Lyon had so long fought with, and London. But Miss Hilary explained that this wa8 fighting bravelv still—" I wonder, Eliza- meeting was about as probable as the ronton- beth, what sort of place London is, and what tre of two needles -in a hay-rick ; and besides. om . ]jf e , v \[\ b e j n ,f '"> Elizabeth was imt the sort of girl to be, easily ; E]izal)eth gaid nothi For lhe moment led astray by any body. L f ^ catch the reflected glow of *o .norhersagoodwench.thouglilsaysjh j . a , it ttM ^ inlu It, replied the mother, who, was too hard., •. . - '.. , A ■ . • „ - A _ M -i„ f {_ 1 ' , r. , . , ' . that look of mingled resistance and resolution worked to have much sentiment to spare. "1 ... , * ... ° , , -p # ,.,. .■, t ■ i i.v 1-ij.i ; ■ i x. i which was habitual to her. t or the life that wish the little ; uns mav take pattern by our . , ... ., , „ v V - j*,i.„ w as to be, winch neither knew — oh, it they You'll send her home, maybe, ink ', i. ; years' time, to let us have a look Elizabeth two or three at her ?" Miss Hilary promised, and then took her way back through the familiar old town — so soon to be familiar no more — thinking anx- iously, in spite of herself, upon those two or three years, andwhat they might bri It happened to be a notable day — that sun- shiny 28th of June — when the little, round- own 1 — she also was prepared. CHAPTER IX. Tun day of the Grand Hegira came. " 1 remember," said Miss Leaf, as they rum- bled for the last time through. the empftj mor- ning streets of poor old Sjowbury : " 1 renvem- cheeked damsel, who is a grandmother novi andmother telling me that when my' had thecrown-ot three kingdoms first set upon) grand y= her waa C0UTtin g her, and she out of her youthfal head ; and Stowbury, like eve-ry;^ ^ refuged him> ]l£ r set off on horeeback other town , n the land, was a perfect boweFof L Q l Loni \ nn and ghe wag so wre tched to'think green arches, garlands, banners ; white cover- l f M the d , 3 ])e mn on the jom . nev . ailli ed tables were spread in the open n jn Lcmlon ^ that sh reste(J ti|] , lu . almost every street, where poor men dined, or t Ljm back mu] then ^mediately married poor women drank tea : and .every body was u: m » out and abroad, looking at or sharing in the ., Xo ^ ( . at as(rophe islikelv to happen I to holiday making wild with merriment, and) of ex t perhaps t0 Elizabeth," said brimming over with passionate loyalty to th aUaryj ( F r>vi ' ng iQ l gQl Qp & liuIe feeble Maiden Queen. » mirth, any thing to pass away the time and That day is now twenty-iour years ago : but , essen ^ . of £. n whjch wag a]most all those who remember it must own there toQ mu(jh £ r Johanna# "?, What do you 9av? never has been a day like it when all over L)o u meaQ tQ married m Londoil> E ]i z . the country, every man s heart throbbed with aDe fu s» chivalrous devotion, every woman's with wo- ' But ' E , izabet h could make no answer, even manly ^tenderness, toward this one royal girl,| to kit|(1 Mie& H * ]ary Thcy bad nQt jlna „ incd she felt the leaving her native place so much. She had watched intently the last glimpse of xuiwj caiicu ,w, Kuvpruu^M t.ixuu»i. mr Stowlmrv c ] nlrch tower/and now sat with red- crowd, the little, timid, widow lady who had flened ' 8tari blanklyput ol thecarriage taken off the Misses Leaf s hands their house window and furniture, and whom they had made very _,.. , happy — as the poor otto: can make those still poorer than themselves— by refusing to accept Once or twice a li >w tea? gathered on any thing for the ''good will" of the school, each of her eyes, but it was shaken olf angrily Then she was fetched by Elizabeth, who had from the high cheek boms, and never settled been given a whole afternoon's holiday ; and into absolute crying. They thought it be mistress and maid went together home, watch- take no notice of her. Only, when reaching who, God bless her deserve it all. ! has lived to letain and' ing the last of the festivities, the chattering 'he new. small station, where tl le "• resotan! groups that still lingered in the twilight streets, steam eagles'' were, for the first time, beheld and listening to the merry notes of the "Tri-by the innocent Stowbury ladies, there areas MISTRESS AKD MAID. 35 a discussion as to the manner of traveling. Tear, toward her eldest sister, who looked so Miss Leaf said, decided! j " Second olass; and old and fragile beside that sturdy, healthful then we van keep Elizabeth with us." >n servant girl. " Elizabeth!" Elizabeth, rnb- wbich Elizabeth'!? mouth melted into some* bing Miss Leaf a feet, started £t the unwonted thing between a auiver and a smile, sharpness of Miss Hilary's tone. "There: Soon ii was'all over, and the little house- I'll do that for my Bister. Go and look out of hold was compressed into the humble second the window at London.'' class carnage, ■ hionless, For the great smoky cloud which began to whirling through indefinite England in a way Lj se in t j !e rainv horizon was indeed London, that confounded all the:: aphy and to-^ oon through the thickening nebula of houses pography. Gradually a d |they converged to what was then the nucleus into heavy, chilly July nun, the scarcely ke; railway traveling, the Euston Terminus, np spirits of the four passengers began to sink; aD£ ( were hustled on to the platform, and Johanna grew very white and worn. Selina j , t |.. ; ] helplessly to and fro these poor coun- became. to use Ascott's phrase, 'as cross as trv j^Jies ! Anxiously they scanned th% crowd twosticks, and even Hilary, taming her eyj ange faces for the one only face they knew from the gray sodden looking landscape with out, could find no spot of comfort to re within the 4 carriage, except that round rosy face of Elizabeth Hand's. Whether it was from the spirit of contradic- tion' existing in most such natures, which, es- pecially in youth, are more strong than sweet, or from a better feeling, the fact was noticea- ble, that when every one else's spirits went down Elizabeth's went up; Nothing could fit so sat in the great metropolis — which did not ap- pear. " It is very strange : very wrong of As- cott. Hilary, you surely told him the hour correctly. For ouce, at least, he might have been in time " So chafed Miss Selina, while Elizabeth, who by some miraculous effort of intuitive genius. ucceoded in collecting the luggage, wa* now engaged in defending- it from all comers. bring her out of a "grumpy torily as her mistresses falling into one. When es P ecia11 porters, and making of nt a comfort- •Miss Selina now began to fidget hither and thither, each tone of her fretful voice seeming' able seat for Miss Leaf. " Nay, have patience, Selina. We will gn e -o throng her eldest ster's every nerve. him J U8t live minutes more ' Hilary." till even Hilary said, impatiently, "Oh, Seli- ^ nd Johanna sat down, with her sweet, na, can't von be quiet?" then Elfzabeth rose^alm, long suffering face turned upward to that from the depth of her gloomy discontent up younger one, which was. as youth is apt to be. to the surface immediately. ' ' hot - and worried, and angry. And so thev She was ool/a servant ; but Nature bestows 'waited till the terminus was almost deserted, that strange vague thing that we term " iorcei^nd the last cab had driven off, when, sudden- of character" indepei of position. Hil-j'y, dashing up the station yard out of another, ary often reraember< how muchi came Ascott. more comfci tab! irney was] He was so sorry, so very sorry, downright than she had expected — how Johanna lay at grieved, at having kept his aunts waiting. But ease, with her feet in Elizabeth's lap. wrapped his watch was wrong— some fellows at dinner in Elizabeth's b vvJ ; and bow, detained him — the train was before its time when Selina's whole attention was turned toisurely. In, fact,' his aunts never quite made an ingenious contrivance with a towel and fork out what the excuse was ; but they looked into and Elizabeth's basket, for stopping the rain his bright handsome face, and their wrath out of the carria. —she became far less melted like. clouds before the sun. He w. jreeable, a/id even a little proud of her gentlemanly, so well dressed — much better pwn cleverness. And so r nere was a tempo- dressed than even at Stowbury — and beseemed lull in Hilary's cares, and she could sit so unfeignedly glad to see them. He handed ; quiet, with her eyes fixed on the rainy land- them all into the cab — even Elizabeth, though ! scape, which she did no- 'her though- ering meanwhile to his Aunt Hilary, wandering towfrd that unknown place and " What on earth did you bring her tor ?" and unknown life into which they were sweeping, then was just going to leap on to the box him- as we all sweep, ignorantly, unresistingly, al-'self, when hestopped to ask ""Where he should most unconsciously, into new destinies. Hil- tell cabby to drive to?" jtry, for the first time, began to doubt o& theirs. ''Where to?" repeated his aunts in undis- Anxious as she had been to go to London, andguised astonishment. They had never thought wise as the proceeding appeared, now that the of any thing but of being taken home at once die was cast and the cable cut, the old simple, by their boy.' peaceful life at Stowbury grew strangely .dear. " You see," Ascott said, in a little confusion, " I wonder if we shall ever go back again, or •• you wouldn't be comfortable with me. A what is to happen to us before we do go back," young fellow's lodgings are not like a house of she thought, and turned, with a half defined, one's own, and, besides — " 36 MISTRESS AND MAID, " Besides, when a young fel!ow is ashamed it :" which was the one only thing she conde- Of his old aunt?, lie can easily find reasons." scended to approve in London. She had sat "Hush, Selina!" interposed Miss Leaf, all evening urate in her corner, for Miss Leaf " My dear boy, your old aunts would r.ever let would not send her away into the terra incog- you inconvenience yourself for them. Take \nita of a London hotel." Ascott, at first con- us to an inn for the night, and to morrow wc siderably annoyed at the presence ol what he will find lodgings for ourselves." called a" skeleton at the feast." had afterward Ascott looked greatl 7 relieved. • got over it, and run on with" a mixture ol " And you are not vexed with me. Aunt childish glee and mannish pomposity about Johanna ?" said he, with something of hisohlhis plans and intentions — how he meant to childish , tone of compunction, as he saw — be take a house, he thought, in one of the squares, could not help; seeing — the utter wearineBsjor a street leading out of them ; now he would which Johanna tried so hard to hide. 'put up the biggest of brass plates, with "Mr. " No, my dear, not vexed. Only I wish we had known this a little sooner that we might have made arrangements. Now, where shall we go?" ' Leaf, surgeon," and soon gpt an extensive practice, and have all his aunts- to live, wtth him. And his aunts had smiled and listened, forgetting all about the silent figure in the Ascott mentioned a dozen hotels, but they corner, who perhaps had gorfe to sleep, or bad found he only knew them, by name. At last also listened. Miss Leaf remembered one, which her father- "Elizabeth, come and look 6ut at Lon- used to go. to, on his. frequent journeys toldon." London, and whence, indeed, he had beenj So she and Miss Hilary whilcd away an- brought home to die. And though all the other heavy three quarters of an hour in watch- recollections about it were sad enough, still it|ing and commenting on the incessantly shift- felt less strange than the rest, in this dieariness irtg crowd which swept past Ilolborn Bars. of London. So she proposed going to the "Old Miss Selina sometimes looked out too. but Bell," Ilolborn. more often sat fidgeting and wondering why " A capital place!" exclaimed Ascott, ea Ascott did not come'; while Miss Leaf, y.;ho gerly. ." And I'll take and. settle yon there -.never fidgeted,, became gradually more and and we'll order supper, and make a jolly night j more silent. Her eyes were fixed on the door; of it. AH right. Drive on, cabby." with an expression which, -if Hilary could have He jumped on the box, and then looked in remembered so far back, would have been to mischievously, flourishing his lit cigar, and her something not painfully new. but still shaking his long hair — his Aunt Selina'a two more painfully old — a look branded into her great abominations — right in her indignant face by many an anxious hour's listening for face : but withal looking so merry and good] the footstep that never came, or only came to tempered that she shortly softened into a bring distress. It was the ineffaceable token smile. of that long, long struggle between affection "How handsome the boy is growing!" and conscience, pUy and scarcely repressible " Yes," said Johanna, with «a slight sigh contempt, which] for more- than one genera- " and did you notice?" how exceedingly like 1 ion, had been the appointed burden of this his — " imily — at leas: the women of it — till some- .The sentence was left unfinished. Alas! if times it seetped to hang over them almost like every young man, who believes his faults and la fate. follies injure himself alone, could feel what it' About noon Miss Leaf proposed calling for must be, years afterward, to have his nearest the hotel bill. Its length so alarmed thecpun- kindred shrink from saying, as the saddest, try ladies that Hilary suggested not staying to most ominous thing they could say of his son. dine, but going immediately in search of lodg- that the lad is growing "so like his father!" ings. It might have been — they assured each other " What, without a gentleman ! Impossible! that it was — only the incessant', roll, roll of I always understood ladies could go nowhere the street sounds below- their windows, which in London without a gentlemen !" kept the Misses Leaf awake half the night of " We shall come very ill 4>iY then, Selina. this their first night in London. And »> hen But any how I mean to try. You know the they sat down to breakfast — having waited an region where, we have heard, lodgings are hour vainly for their nephew — it might have cheapest and best — that is, best for us.. It can been only the gloom of the little parlor which not be far from here. Suppose I start at cast a slight shadow over them all. .Still the once?" shadow was there. "What, alone?" cried Johanna, anxiously. It deepened despite the sunshiny morning " No, dear, I'll take the map with me, and " into which the last night's rain had brightened, Elizabeth. She is not afraid."' till Hoi horn Bars looked cheerful, and Hoi- Elizabeth smiled, and rose, with that air of born pavement actually clean, so that, as Eli- dogged de voted ness with which she would have zabeth said, "you might eat your dinner off prepared to follow Miss Hilary to the North MISTRESS AND MAID. m Pole, if necsssarv. So, after a few minutes of| "« ^t to win, * feel more worthy thee." arguing with Selina, wlio did not press her Such thoughts made her step firmer and point overmuch, since she hersell had nut to her heart lighter; so that sh.e hardly noticed commit t lie impropriety of the expedition, the distance they must have walked till the After a few minutes more of hopeless lingering olese London air began to oppress her, and about--till even Miss, Leal said they had b t-|the smooth glaring London pavements made ter wait no Ionizer — mistress and maid took slier Stowbury feet ache sorely. farewell nearly as pathetic * if they had been "Are you tired, Elizabeth? Well, we'll reallv Arctic voyagers, and plunged right into rest soon. There must be lodgings near here. thedusti glare" and hurrying crowd of the Only I can't quite make out- ' sunny side" of Uolborn in July. \ strange sensation, and yet there was some- As Miss Hilary looked up to the name of the street the maid noticed what a glow came thing exhilarating in it. The intense solitude into her mistress's face, pale and tired as it that~there is in a London crowd the.6e country was. Just then a church clock struck th<» gi r ] s — for Miss Hilary herself was no more! quarter hour. than a girl— could not as vet realize. They "That must be St. Pancras. And this— onlv felt the life of it: stirring, active, inees-lyes, this. is Burton Street, Burton Crescent." Bantly moving life; even though it was-of a; "I'm sure /Missis wouldn't like to live «rod that they knew as little of it as the crowd there," observed Elizabeth, eyeing uneasily did of them." Nothing struck Hilary more the gloomy re: dc-chaussee, familiar to many a than the self absorbed look of passers-by ; each so busy on his own affairs, that, in spite Of Selinas Warm, for all notice taken of them, they might as well be walking among the cows and horses in Stowbury field. generation of struggling respectability, where, in the decadence ot the season, every second house bore the announcement "apartments furnished." " No," Miss Hilary replied, absently. Yet Poor old Stowbury ! They felt how far she continued to walk up and down the whole away they were from it when a ragged, dirty, length of the 6treet ; then passed out into the vicious looking girl offered, them a mo-s rose dreary, deserted looking Crescent, where the fcud for "one pennv, fltoly one penny ;" which trees were already beginning to fade: not. ibeth, lagging behind, bought, and found however, into the bright autumn tint ot coun- it onlv a broken off bud stuck "on to a bit of try woods, but into a premature withering, f wire. u »'y ar) d sad to behold. " That's London wavs, T suppose," said she. '-"lam glad he is not here— glad, glad!" severely, and became so misanthropic that she thought Hilary, as she realized the unuttera- would hardly vouchsafe a glance to the hand- ble dreariness of those years when Kobert some square 'they turned into, and merely ob Lyon lived and studied' in his garret from served of the tall houses, taller than" any 'month's end to month's end— these few dusty Hilary had ever seen, that she " wouldn't, trees being the sole memento of the green fenny running up and down them stairs." country life in which he had been brought up. But Hilary was cheerful in spiteof all. She and which she knew he so passionately loved, was gladto be in this region, which* theoretic- Now she could understand that "calenture" kUy, she knew by heart— glad to find herself which he had sometimes jestingly alluded to. pj the* body, where in the spirit she had come as coming upon htm at times, when he felt so many a time. The mere consciousness of literally sick for the sight of a green field or a. this seemed to refresh her. She thought she hedge full of birds. She wondered whether would be much happier.in London : that in the same feeling would ever come upon her in the long vears to come that must be borne, it this strange desert of London, the vastness of would bYgood for her tohavesomethingtodo which grew upon her every hour, as well as to hope for; something to fight: She was glad he was away ; yes, heart glad ! with as well as to endure, Now more than, And yet, if this minute she could only have* ever came pulsing in and out of her memory seen him coming round the Crescent, have a line once repeated in her bearing, with an met his smile, and the firm, warm clasp of observation of how "true" it was. And though his hand — originally it was applied by a man to a woman, For an instant there rose up in her one of and she smiled sometimes to think how "un- those wild, rebellious outcries against fate feminine" some people— Selina for instance— j when to have to waste years of this brief life would consider her turning it the other way. of ours, in the sort of semi-existence that living still she did so. She believed that, for woman is, apart from the treasure of the heart and as for man. that is the purest and noblest love delight of the eyes, seems so cruellv, cruelly which is the most self existent, most indepen- hard! pendent of love returned ; and which can say. "Miss Hilary." each to the other equally on both sides, that; She started, and " put herselfunder lock and the whole solemn purpose of life is, underjkey" immediately. God's service, •' I " Mies Hilary ; you do look so tired !"\ 38 MISTRESS AND MAID, "Do I? Then we will go and sit down in we will find out Mr. Ascott's number, and this baker's shop, and get rested and fed. We inquire." cannot afford to.wear Ourselves out, you know. No, there was no mistake. Mr. Aecott We have a great deal to do to-day." Leaf had lodged there for three months, but More indeed than she calculated, for they had -riven up hi? rooms that very mornin walked up one street and down another, inve-- " Where had he gone to?" • ing at least twenty lodgings before any The servant— a London lodging house serv- appeared which seemed fit for them. Ye tj ant all over — didn't know ; but she fetched (be- some place must be found where Johanna '.- landlady, who was after the same pattern of the poor, tired headcould rest that night. AtlastJdozen London landladies with whom Hilary completely exhausted, with that Opprsssivelhad that day made acquaintance, only a little exhaustion which seems tocrush mind as welljmore Cockney, smirking, dirty, and tawdrily as body after a day's wandering in London /fine. Hilary's courage began to ebb. Ohforanarm "Yes, Mr. Leaf had gone, and he hadn't to lean on. a voice to listen for, a brave heart leit no addre&s. Young College gentlemen io come to her side, saying, " Do not be afraid., often found it convenient to leave no address. there are two ol us !" And she yearned, with ! P'raps he would if he'd known there would be an absolutely sick yearning %uch as. only a a young lady acalling to see him." woman who now anil then feels the utter help " I am Mr. Leaf's aunt," said Hilary, tu'rn- lessness of her womanhood can know, for the ing as hot as fire. witl I ctvu "Oh, in-deed." was the answer, incredulousness. But the woman was sharp of perception— as often-cheated London landladies learn to be. After looking keenly at mistress and maid, slit changed her tone: nay. even launched out u> mdofhei praises of her late lodger : what a pleasant Id forgive him .'gentleman he was: what good company he 'cept. and how be hod promise i vienu only arm she cared to lean on. the only voice dear enough to bring Iter comfort, the only heart that she- felt sbe could trust. Poor Hilary ! And yet why pity her ? To her three alternatives could but happen : were Robert Lyon true to her she would be his entirely and devotedly, to the e did he forsake her. she wou should he die, she would be faithful to him eternally. Love of this kind may know an- her apartments .to his friends, guish. but not the sort of anguish that : or the little some'at of rem, Mi-- and -weaker loves do. If it is certain of no-. — tell him it makes no matter, he can pay me thing can always be certain of itself. I when he Jikee. If he don't call soon, p'raps 1 might m . I to send his trunji and ln^ books over to! . ;ott*s of— dear me, I for- number and the equar And even in its utmost pangs is an nnder- Hilary uhsuspiciouely supplied both, lying which often iproacb — the old gen'leman as Mr. lute joy. line with every other Snnda r. a Hilary roused herself, and Lent her mini .eh old gentleman, who. he say.-.. : lily on lodgings till she discovered oh« him ail his money. Maybe a relation of from the parlor ©J which yon coul : i yours, Miss?" trees of Burton Crescent and hear tlu >raethinp Saint Pancras'B clock. >ut the ring frbm Mr. i " I think we may do here — at least for a ver -he hurried while." -aid she cheerfully; and then ICii - e hc-th heard her inquiring if an extra bedroom "Won't you be tired if you ild he hi ry. There was only one small attic. "Ascot* HilaJry stopped, choking. Helplessly she tiever could put up with that,' - said Hilary, looked un and down the forlorn, wide, glaring, half to herself. Then suddenly — "I think I dush - nking into the dull sli will see Ascott before 1 decide. Elizabeth, |ol a London afternoon, will you go with me. or remain here '.'" " Let us go home V' And at the word a sob "I'll go with you, if you please, Miss Hil- hurst out— just one passionate pent up Bob. arv.'' ° more. She could not afford to waste "If you please," so not unlike, "if . th in cry" please." and Elizabeth had gloomed over eth, I am getting tireil : little. " Is Mr. Ascott to live with u- 1 that will not do. Let me hing " I suppose 60." must' And she stood still, p Xo more words were into '< till thej ing her hand over her hot brow and ey< -. " i reached Grower street, when Miss Hilary oh- will g md take the lodgings, leave voi ot' the . Kli/- wa'k so fast. served, with evident surprise, what a hand- some street it was there to make all comfortable, and then fetch my Bisters from the hotel. But stay first, I "I must have made some mistake, StilVhave forgotten eoniethisg.'' MISTRESS AND MAID. 39 She returned to the house in Gower Street, jpulsive as they are. Unless, indeed, their and wrote on one of her card.-; an address — tbejtalent for incessant locomotion degenerates only permanent address she could think of — into rootless restlessness, and they remain for- that of the city broker i%o was in the habit oflever rolling stones, gathering no moss, and paying them their yearly -income oi £o0. quiring gradually a smooth; hard surface. "If amy creditors inquire for Mr. Leaf, give! Which adheres to nothing, and to whicR no- them this. His friends may always hear of body dare # venture to adhere. him at the Londen University. But there are others possessing in a painful "Thank you, ma'am," replied the now civil degree^ this said quality of adhesiveness, to landlady. "Indeed, 1 wasn't afraid of the wb,6m the smallest change is obnoxious ; who young gentleman giving us" the slip. For like drinking out of a particular ciip, and sit- though he was careless in his bills he was ting in a particular chair; to whom even a every inch the gentleman. And I wouldn't/ variation in the position of furniture is un- object to take him in again. Or p'raps you pleasant. Of course, this peculiarity has its yourself, ma'am, might be a-wanting rooms." bad side, and yet it is not in itself mean or "No, 1 thank you. Good morning." And (ignoble. For is not adhesiveness, faithfulness, Hilary hurried away. [constancy— call it what you will — at the root Not a word did she say to Elizabeth, or EH- of all citizenship, clanship, and family love ? zabeth to her, till they got into the dull, dingy parlor — henceforth, to be their sole apology tor "home:" and then she only talked about Is it not the same feeling which, granting they remain at all, makes old friendships dearer than any new ? Nay, to go to the very sacred-** domestic arrangements — talked fast and ea- est and closest bond, is it not that which makes gerly, and tried to escape the affectionate eyes which she knew were so sharp and keen. Only to escape them — not to blind them ; she had long ago found out that Elizabeth was too an old man see to the last in his old wife's faded face 'the beauty which perhaps nobody ever saw except himself, but which he se< and delights in still, simply because it isjja-il quick-witted tor that, especially in any thing miliar and liia own. that concerned "the family." She felt con-! To people who possess a large share of this vinced the girl had heard every syllable that rare — shall 1 say fatal? — characteristic of ad- passed at A-cott's lodgings : that she knew allihesiveness, living in lotlgmgs is about the sad- that was to be known, and guessed what wasidest life under the sun. Whether some dim to be feared as well as Hilary herself. ' jforebodingot this fact crossed Elizabeth's mind •' Elizabeth "-^she hesitated long, and doubt- as she stood at the window watching for her ed whether she should say the thing before! mistresses' first arrival at "home." it is im- she did say it — " remember we are all stiang- possible to say. She could feel, though she |rs in London, and family matters are best: was not accustomed to analyze her feelings, kept within the family. Do not mention But she looked dull and sad. Not cross, even either in writing home, or to any body here.'Ascott could not have accused her of "sav- about — about — " [ageness " She could not name Ascott : she feltsohor- riblv ashamed. CHAPTER X. i f And yet she bad been somewhat tried. First, , in going out what she termed " marketing," she had traversed a waste of streets, got lost several times, and returned with light weight in her butter, and sand in her moist sugar; also with the conviction 'that London trades- men were the greatest rogues alive Second- ly, a pottle of strawberries, which she had Living in lodgings, not temporarily, but lanently, sitting down to make one's only bought with her own money to grace the tea "home" in Mrs. Jones's parlor or Mrs. Smith's table with the only fruit Miss Leaf cared for, fir.-t floor, of which not a stick or a stone thai had turned out a largo delusion, big and beau- own, and whenceon at top, and all below small, crushed, and be evicjted or evade, with a week's notice or ajstale. She had thrown it indignantly, pottle week's rent, any day — this sort of life .is natu and all, into the kitchen fire, ral and even delightful t$ some people. There Thirdly; sii war with the landlady. ire those who, like strawberry plan irtly on >;' their file — which, with such an errant disposition, that grow them her Stow bury Bbtipns on the subject of coals, wln-re you will, they will soon absorb all the seemed wretchedly mean amis mall— and part- pleasantht-s of their habitat, and begin casting ly on the question of table cloths at tea, which out runners elsewhere; nay, if not frequently Mrs. Jon " never heard of," especially transplanted, would actually wither and die.lvi of plate and lin included ;ch are the pioneers of society — the emi-lin the rent. And the.dinginess of the article grants, the tourists, the travelers round thej produced at last (»ut'of a* omnium-gatherum world: and great is the advantage the world sort of kitchen cupboard, made an ominous derive* from them, active, energetic, and im- impression upon the country girl, accustomed 40 MISTRESS AND MAID. to clean, tidy, country ways — where the kitch- en was kept as neat as the parlor, and the bedrooms were not a whit behind the sitting rooms in comfort and orderliness. Here it seemed as if. supposing people could show a lew respectable living rooms, they were content to sleep any There, and cook any how, out of; any thing, in the midst of any quantity of con-; fusion and dirt. Elizabeth set all this down as "London," and hated it accordingly. She had tried to ease her mind by arranging and rearranging the furniture — regular lodg^ ing house furniture — table, six chairs, horse- hair sofa, a what-not, and the cbiffonnier, with a tea-caddy upon it, of which the respective keys had been solemnly presented to Miss Hilary. But still the parlor looked homeless and bare ; and the yellowish paper on the walls, the large patterned, many colored Kid- derminster on the floor, gave an involuntary ^ense of discomfort and dreariness. Besides, No. 15 was on the shady side of the street — cheap lodgings always are; and no one who ias not lived in the like lodgings — not a house; — can imagine what it is to inhabit perpetu-j ally one room where the sunshine just peeps in for an hour a day, and vanishes by eleven a. | M. : leaving behind in winter a chill dampness, and in summer a heavy,^usty atmosphere, that' weighs like lead on the spirits in spite of one's self. No wonder that, as is statistically known and proved, cholera stalks, fever rages, and ; the registrar's list is always swelled along the shady side of a London street. Elizabeth felt this, though she had not the! dimmest idea why. She stood watching the; sunset light fade out of the topmost windows o('i the opposite house —ghostly reflection of some sunset over fields and trees far away ; and she listenedjo the long monotonous cry melting away rWhid the cres.cent, and beginning again at the other end of the street — "Straw-berries! — stravv'-ber-ries I" Also, with an eye to to- morrow's Sunday dinner, she investigated the cart of the tired costermonger, who crawled; along beside his equally tired donkey, reitera- ting at tunes, in tones hoarse with a day's bawling, his dreary " Cauli-flower ! Cauli-flow- er ! — Fine new pease, sixpence peck!" But, alas! the pease were neither fine nor new; and the cauliflowers were regular Satur- day night's cauliflowers. Besides, Elizabeth suddenly doubted whether she had any right.. unordered, to buy these things which, from be ing common garden necessari^p, had become luxuries. This thought, witn some others that it occasioned, her unwonted state of idle iCSS and the dull: veiy thing about her — what is so dull as a "quiet" London - on a summer evening? — actually made Kiiza-i tieth stand, motionless and meditative, for a quarter of an hour. Then she started to hear two cabs drive up to the door; the "family" had at length ar- rived. Ascott was there too. Two new portman- teaus and a splendid hat-box cast either igno- miny or glory upon the poor Stowbury luggage ; and — Elizabeth's sharp eye noticed — there was also his trunk which she had seen lying detained for rent in his Gower Street lodgings. But he looked quite easy and comfortable ; handed out his Aunt Johanna, commanded the luggage about, and paid the cabmen with such a magnificent air. that they to ached their bats to him, and winked at one another as much as to say, " That's a real gentleman !" In which statement "the landlady evidently coincided, and courtesied low when Miss "Leaf introducing him as " my nephew," hoped that a room could be found for him. Which at last there was, by his appropriating Miss-. Leaf's, while she and Hilary took that at the top of the house. But they agreed, Ascott must have a good airy room to study in. " You know, my dear boy." said his Aunt Johanna to him — and at her tender tone he looked a little downcast, as when he was a small fellow anddiad been forgiven something — " You know- you will have to work very hard." '"All right, aunt! I'm your man for that ! This will be a jolly room : and I can smoke up the chimney capitally !" So they came down etaifs quite cheerfully, and Ascott applied himself with the best of appetites to what he called a " hungry'' tea. True, the ham, which Elizabeth had to fetch from an eating house some streets oil", cost two shillings a pound, and the e?gs, which caused her another war below over the relight- ing of a fire to boil them, were dismissed* by the young gentleman as " horrid stale." Still, woman-like, when there is a man in the ques- tion, his aunts let him have his way. It seemed as if they had resolved to try their ut most to make the new home to which became, or rather was driven, a pleasant home, and to bind him to it with cords of love, the only cords worth any thing, though sometimes — Heaved knows why — even they fail, and are snapped and thrown aside like straws. Whenever Elizabeth went in and out of the parlor she always heard lively talk goil among the family : Ascott making his. joras, telling about his college life, and planning his come, a- a surgeon in full practice, on the most scale. And when he brought in the chamber candles, sin saw him his aunts affectionately, and even hel| \ut.t Johanna — who looked frigbtfnllj pale ana* tired, but smiling still— to her bee room door. "You'll not sit up long. m\ fle&r! V reading t6-night?" said she. anxiously. •• Not a bit of it. And III be up with the lark to-morrow Tnorning. \ really will, MISTRESS AND MAID. 41 auntie. I'm going to turn over a new leaf, yon know." She smiled ag'iin at tlie immemorial joke, kissed and blessed him, and the door shut up- on her and Hilary. Ascott descended to the parlor, threw him- self on the sofa with an air of great relief, and an exclamation of satisfaction that "the wo- men" were all gone. He did not perceive Elizabeth, who, hidden behind, was kneeling to arrange something in the chiffonnier, till she rose up ami proceeded to fasten the parlor shuttero. "Hollo! are you there? Come, I'll do that when I go to bed. Yon raav 'slope' if von like." " Eh, Sir." "Slope, mizzle, cut your stick: don't you understand. Any how, don't slop here, both- ering me." "I don't mean to," replied Elizabeth: grave- ly, rather than gruffly, as if she had made up her mind to things as they were, and was de term i tied to be a belligerent party no longer. Besides, she was older now ; too old to have things forgiven toherthat might be overlooked in a child ; and she had received a long lecture from Miss Hilary on the necessity of showing respect to Mr. Ascott, or Mr. Leaf, as it was now decided he was to be called, in his digni ty and responsibility a3 the only masculine head of the family. As he lay and lounged there, with his eyes lazily shut, Elizabeth stood a minute gazing at him. Then, steadfast in her new good be havior, she inquired "if he wanted any thing more to-night?" "Confound you! no! Yes; stop." And the young man took a furtive investigation o; the plain, honest face, and not over graceful ultra-provincial figure, which still character- ized his aunt's " South Sea Islander." " I say, Elizabeth, I want you to do some thing for me." He spoke so civilly, almost coaxingly. that Elizabeth turned round sur- prised. " Would you just go and ask the landlady if she has got such thing as a latch- kev?" "A what, Sir?" "A latch-key — a — oh, she knows. Every London house has it. Tell her I'll take care of it, and lock the front door all right. She needn't be afraid of thieves." " Very well, Sir." Elizabeth went, the information that Mr.?. Jones had gone to bed; in the' kitchen, she supposed, as she could not get in. But she laid on the tab.J the large street door key. " Perhaps that's what you wanted. Mr. Leaf Though 1 think you needn't be the least afraid of robbers, for there's tkree bolts, and a c besides." " All right !" cried Ascott, smothering dow.i a laugh. "Thank you! That's for you," throwing a half-crown across the table. " Elizabeth took it up demurely, and put it down again. Perhaps she did not like him enough to receive presents ftom him ; perhaps she thought, being an honest minded girl, that a young man who could not pay his rent had no business to bd giving away half-crowns; or else she herself had not been so much as many servants are. in the habit of taking them. For Mis« Hilary hid put into Elizabeth some of her own feeling as to this habit, of paying an inferior with money for any little civility or kindness which, from an equal, would be ac- cepted simply as kindness, and only requited with thanks, Any how, the coin remained on ihe table, and the door was just shutting upon Elizabeth, when the young gentleman turned round again. " I say, since my aunts are so horridly timid of robbers and such like, you'd belter not tell them any thing about the latch-key." Elizabeth stood a minute perplexed, and then replied briefly: "Miss Hilary isn't a bit timid ; and I always tells Miss Hilary every- thing. " Nevertheless, though she was so ignorant as never to have heard of a latch- key, she had the wit to see that all was not right. She even lay awake, in her closet oil Miss Leaf's room, whence she could hear the murmur of her two mistresses talking together, long after they re- tired — lay broad awake for an hour or more, trying to put things together— the sad things that she frit certain must have happened that day, and wondering what Mr. Ascott could possibly want with the key. Also, why he ;iad asked her about it, instead of telling his Hints at once : and why he had treated her in. the matter with such astonishing civility. It may be said a servant had no busiuessto think about these things, to criticize heryoung master's proceedings, or wonder why her mis- tresses were sad: that she had only to go about her work like an automaton, and take no interest in any thing. I can only answer *o those who like such service, let them have it: and as they sow they will assuredly reap. But long after Elizabeth, young ami hearty, was soundly snoring on her hard, cramped bed, Johanna and Hilary Leaf, after a brief mutual pretence of sleep, soon discovered by both, lay consulting toge'her over ways and means. How could the family expenses, be- ginning with twenty-five shillings per vveekas rent, possibly be met by the only actual cer- tain family income, their £50 per annum from a mortgage ? For the Misses Leaf were or that old-fashioned stamp which believed that to reckon an income by mere probabilities is insanity or dishonesty. nmon arithmetic soon proved that this ■ild not maintain them ; in fact they must soon draw on the little sum— al- 42 MISTRESS AND MAID. ready dipped into to-day, for Ascott— which thought smote her painfully thatmany ayoung had been produced by the sale of the Stowbur of his age stay and bread win- furniture. That sal now found had nor of some widowed mother or sister, nay. been a mistake ; and they half feared whether even ■ and child, sti heer- the whole change from Stowbury to London fully, " What can one expect from him? He had not been a mistake— one. of the- only a rors in judgment which we all commit some- God help the women w ho, lor those belong- times, and have io abide by, and make the ing to them -husbands, fathers, brothers, lov- best of. and learn from it "we can. H >ns— have ever those who i; Dinna erect ower spilt milk'— a When they came in sight of St. Pan« proverb wise ascheerful, which Hilary, know- Church, Ascott e 1 think. me well who it came from, repeated to Johan- na to comfort her — taachea a second brave lesson, how to avoid spilling the milk a second time. And then they consulted anxiously about what was to be done to earn money. Teaching presented itself as* the o know vour way now. Aunt Ilii; inly." V " Because— you wouldn't be vexed ii 1 left you? I hive an encasement some fellows that I dine with, out at Hampstead, or Rich- mond, or Bla very Sunday. Nothing ,d, I assure you. And you know it's source. In those days women's work 1/for one's health to get a Sunday in women's rights had not been discussed so I i h air." " Yes ; but Aunt Johanna will be sorry to ly as at present: There was a strong feeli that the principal thing required was our du- miss you." ties— owed to ourselves, our home, our fon.. and friends. There wa* a deep conviction— now, alas 1 slowly disappearing — that a wo- man, single or married, should never throw herself out of the safe circle of domestic life till the last extremity of necessity ; that it is wiser to keep or helpto keep a home, by learn- ing how to expend its income, cook its dinners, make and mend its clothes, and, by the law that " prevention is better than- cure," study- ing all those preservative means of holding al ill she? Oh, you'll smooth her down. Stay ! -Tell her I shall be back to tea." " We shall be having tea directly." '• I declare I had quite forgotten. Aunt Hil- ary, you must, change your hours. They don't suit me at all. No men can ever stand early dinners. ' By, by ! You are the very prettiest auntie. Be sure you get home Hollo, there ! That's my omnibus."' He jumped on the top of it, and was oil'. Aunt Hilary stood quite confounded, and -that there was any actual badness broken, unsexed : turned into be-in his bright and handsome young facet Still fa'uiilv together- as women, and women al ith one of those strange sinkings of the heart can— than to dash into men's sphere of. trades! which had come over her several times this and professions, thereby, in most instances, day. It was not that showed any un- fighting an unequal battle, and coming out of kindness- it maimed, broken, unsexed : turned into be-in his bri & . im's that are neither men nor women, with [there was a want there— want of earnestn the faultsand corresponding sufferings of both, steadltistness, truthfulness, a something more and the compensations of neither. scoverable as the lack of something else than "Idon't see," said poor Hilary, "what I as aught in itself tangibly and perceptibly can do but teach. And oh, if 1 could on ■ rong. It made her sad : it caused her to look daily pupils so that I might cgnfe home oi forward to his future with an anxious heart. nights and creep into the fireside; and have It was so different from the kind of anxiety, time to mend the stockings and look after As- and yet settled repose; with which she thought cott'a linen that he need not be so nwfullv ex- oi the only other man in whose future she felt travagaut." th« smallest interest. Of Robert Lyon, she °' ' ..s certain that whatever misfortune visited him he would bear it in the best way it could be borne ; whatever temptation assailed him he would fight against it as a brave and good ristian should figh't. But Ascott? coif's life was as yet an unanswered que- She could but leave it in Omnipotent hands. ■ av home, asking it i CHAPTER XI. mt Hilary fixed her hoe - Kl ,j-.. :';..,, — the lad,.so little;. J vet. who at tn ■' "'it .,..;.,, ;,,,.;, a8 t >i : of civil policemen, and going a little ,)d : and 6l:e felt thankful tl ;iake this romantic ,].,. v ha to London t i about so sensible and practical a be beside him, to help him. lo save him, if he needed saving, as w.-men only can. For, after all, he was but a boy. And though as he walked bv. her side, stalwart and manly, the : little woman? — that she might walk once up Hurtn i and down again. But nobody knew the (act, and it did nobody any harm Meantime at No 15 the afternoon bad pass- MISTRESS AOT MAID. 43 ed heavily enough. Miss Selina had gone to lie down : she always did of Sundays, and Elizabeth, alter making her comfortable, by the little attei tice boy, now Mr. Peter Ascott, of Russell Square. She rose to receive him : there was always Leaf's reception of stran- had descended to the dreary n a slight formality belonging to her own had been appropriated to herself, under the Dame of a " private kit< u the which, all the i improvement could achieve, sat lil the ruins : for the tidy bright Already; from her ■ration, and to the time when the were a "coun'y family." Perhaps this extra dignity, graceful as it was, overpowered the little man ; or else, being a bachelor, he unaccustomed to ladies' society: but he grew red in the face, twiddled his hat, and 'brief ex] . she had decided that London, then east a sharp inquisitive glance toward people v rid shams, because th ier. not in the leasl care to have their kitchens comfortable. She wondered how she should ever exist in this one, and might have carried her sad and sullen face up stairs, if Miss Leal had not comedown stairs, and glancingabout with that ever gentle smile of hers, said kind- ly. •■ Well, it is not very pleasant, but you have made the best of it, Elizabeth. We must all put up with something, you know. Now, as my eves arc pot very good to-day, suppose you come up and read me a chapter." So, in the quiet parlor, the maid sat down opposite her that P>%k which says distinctly '. that w doetlt . t And yet says immediately after-: " ] iring thr ]) And I think thi ed. not in pn acl ing on] practice, when he sent back theslave * hiesiinus to Phil- emon, praying that he mi . 'mot now:- ant, but above a servant, a bro- ther beloved," that Divic have "Miss Leaf, I presume, ma'am. The eld- " I am the eldest Miss Leaf, and very glad to have an opportunity of thanking you for your long kindness to my nephew. Elizabeth, give Mr. Ascott a chair." While doing so, and before her disappear- ance, Elizabeth took a rapid observation of the visitor, whose name and history were perfectly familiar to her. Mt)st small towns have their heio, and Stowbury's was Peter Ascott, the icer's boy, the little fellow who had gone up mistress, and read aloud out of; to London to seek his fortune, and had, strange ay, found it. Whether by industry or xcept that industry is luck, and luck is lier word for industry — he had grad- n to be a large city merchant, a dry- onclude it would be caUed, with a e house, carriage, etc. He had never his native place, which indeed could 'e expected of him, as he h'ad no relations, when asked, as was not seldom of course, he subscribed liberally to its charities. Altogether he was a decided hero in the place, and though people really knew very little about him, the less they knew the more they gossiped, holding him up totherisinggen- eration as a modem Dick Whittington, and reverencing him extremely as one who had shed glory on his native town. Even Eliza- beth had conceived a great idea of Mr. Ascott. looked. tenderly upon these t .en — both When she saw this little fat man, coarse and women, though of such different age and po- common looking in spite of his good clothes sition, and :■ lem through His Spirit in and diamond ring, and in manner a curious lfi< word, as ixture of pomposity and awkwardness, she The reading v sd by. a can nghed to herself, thinking what a very unin- driving up ing individual it was about whom Stow- mendously grand nan's knock, which made art in her easy chair. " B^t it can't be visitors to us. We know nobody. Sit still, Elizabeth." It was a visitor, however, though by what ingenuity he found them out remained, when bury had told so many interesting stories. However, she went up to inform Miss Seli- na, and prevent her making her appearance before him in the usual Sunday dishabille in which she indulged when no visitors were ex- pected. After his first awkwardness, Mr. Peter As- they came to think of it. a great puzzle. A cotl became quite at his ease with Miss Leaf, card was sent in by the dirty servant of Mrs. He began to talk — not of Stowbury, that was Jones, speedily followed by a stout, bald- [tacitly ignored by both — but of London, and headed, roucd faced man — I suppose I ought, then of "my house in Russell Square, "my to write "gentleman" — in whom, though she carriage," "my servants" — the inconvenience had not seen him for years, Miss Leaf found, of keeping coachmen who would drink, and no difficulty iu recognizing the grocer's preu-|footmen who would not clean the plate prop- 44 MISTRESS AND MAID. erlv: ending by what was a favorite moral jlhen into his hat, then, at good luck would axiom of his, that " wealth anil position arc have it. out of the win. low, ivhere he caught heavy responsibilities.'' u ol'liis cirriage ami horses. These revi- He himself seemed, however, not to have vol his. spirits, and made him recognize what been quite overwhelmed by them; hewasfal he was — Mr. Ascott, of Russell Square, ad- and flourishing — with an acuteriess and powei dressing himself in the character of a benevo- in the upper half of his face which accounted lent patron to the Leaf family, for his having attained his present position. "Glad to see you. Miss. Long time since The lower half, somehow Miss Lent did not we met — neither of us so young as we have like it. she hardly knew why, though a phya been — but you do wear well, I must say." iognomist might have known. For Peter Miss Selina drew back;; she was within an Ascott had the underhanging, obstinate, sen- sual lip, the large throat — bull-necked, as it has been called — indications of that essentially inch of being highly offended, when she top happened to catch a glimpse of the carriage and horses. So she sat down and entered into animal naiure which may be born with the conversation with him ; and when she liked, nob'eman as with the clown; which no edu nobody could be. more polite and agreeable cation car. refine, and no talent, though it may than Miss Selina. co-eqi.-t with it, can ever entirely remove. He So it happened that the handsome equipage reminded one, perforce, of the rough old prov- crawled round am! round the Crescent, or stood erb; " You can't make a silk purse out of ajpawing the silent Sunday street before No. 15, sow's ear. ' for very nearly an hour, even till Hilary came Still, Mr. Ascott was not a bad man, though home, something deeper ihanjiis glorious indift'er-l It was vexatious to have to make excuses enceto grammar, and his dropped h's — which, Ifqr Ascott: particularly as his godfather said to steal some ee;i with a laugh, that, "young fellows would be swept up in bushels from Miss Leaf's parlor young fellow*." they needn't expect to see the — made it impossible for him ever to be, by , lad til! midnight, or till to-morrow ruprning. any culture whatever, a gentleman. But though in ibis, and other things, he They ta'ked of Asco:t, as being the mo-t somewhat annoyed the ladies from Stowbury, convenient mutual subject; and Misi Leaf Me^one could say he was not civil to them — exjie-sel the gratitude which her nephew fell Singly 'civil. He offered them Botanical and she earnestly hoped would ever show, .to- 'Garden tickets — Zoological Garden tickets; ward his kind godfather. he even, after some meditation and knitting Mr. A-coft looked pleased. of his shaggy grey eyebrows, bolted out with p "Um — yes, Aseo't's not a had fellow — be- 1 an invitation for the whole family to dinner at lieve he means well: but weak, ma'am, l^rlr Russell Square the following Sunday., afraid he's weak. Known nothing of business, "I aLvave give my dinners on Sunday. I've — ha? ud business habits whatever. Howev- no time any other day," said he, when Miss er, ve must make the best of him; I don't Leaf gently hesitated. " Come or not, just as repent aiy thing I've done for him. ' \ou like." •' I hope not," said Miss Leaf, gravely. Miss Selina, to whom the remark was chiefly And then there ensued an uncomfortable addressed, bowed the most gracious accept- pause, which washnppilv broken by the open- ance. ing of the door, and the sweeping in of a large, The visitor took very little notice of Miss goolly figure. Hilary. Probably, if asked, he would have " My sister, Mr. Ascott : my sister Selina." The lirtle stout man actually started, and, as he bowed, blushed up to the eyes. Miss Selina was. as I have stated, the beautv described her as a small, shabbily-dressed per- .-on. looking very like a governess. Indeed, the factof iier governess-ship seemed suddenly to recur to him ; he asked her it she meant of the family, and had once been an acknowl- to set up another school, and being informed edg 'd Stowbury belle. Even now, though nigh that she rather wished private pupils, pro- upun forty, when carefully ami becomingly mised largely that she should have the full dressed, her tall figure, and her well featured, benefit 6f his "patronage" among his friend*. fair complexioned, unwrinkled face, made her 6till appear a very personable woman. At any rate. ,«he was not faded enough, nor the city magnate's heart cold enough to prevent a sud- den revival of the vision which — in what now Then he departed, leaving a message for As- cott to call next day, as he wiHhed to speak to him." '■ For you must be aware, Miss Leaf, that though your nephew's allowance is nothing- seemed an a'mo look like home. When she told, sometimes gayly. someti with burning, bursting tears, the tale of her day's efforts andflay's failures, it was always comfort to feel Johanna's hand on her hair, Johanna's voice whispering over her, "Never mind, my child, all will come right in time. All happens for good." And the face, withered and worn, yet calm as a summer .sea, full of the "peace which don." Still, she put it on with agoo ■ t-.d all through her peregrination day it vanned not only her r$, but her heart; Coming home, she paused wistfully before 1 a glittering hop: her poor little feel were so soaked and cold. Could she possibly afford a new pair of boots? ft was not a matter ot vanity — she had passed that. She did -not care now how ugly and shabby looked the "wee feet" that had once been praised ; but she felt it might be a matter of health and MISTRESS AND MAID. 47 prudence. Suppose she caught cold — i'ell ill She nevei thought of being annoyed with the — died: died, leaving Johanna to struggle shopkeeper, who, though he trusted her with alone: died before Robert Lyon came home, the sixpence, carefully took down her name Both thought-; struck sharp. She was too and address : still less to suspecting the old young, stil r, or"had not suffered enough, calmly lady opposite, who sat and listened to the .oik of death and dying '• It will do no harm to inquire the price might stop it out in omnibus* trarisaction — apparently a well-to-do customer, clad in a rich black silk and handsome sable furs — of looking down upon her and despising For this was the way that every new article her. She herself never despised any body of dress had to be procured — "stopping if out" of something else. After trying several pairs— with a fierce, ash at a small hole which the day's sing had worn in her well-darned stock- except for wickedness. So she waited contentedly, neither thinking of herself nor of what others thought of her: but with her mind quietly occupied by the two thoughts, which in any brief space of rest al- ings, and which she was sure the shopman 'ways recurred, calming down all annoyances, saw, as well as an old lady who sat opposite and raising her above the level of petty pains -Hilary bought the plainest and stoutest of boots. The bill overstepped her purse by six I ence, but she promised thai sum on delivery, and paid the rest. She had got into a nervous horror of letting any account stand over for a single day. Look tenderly, reader, on this oicture of Johanna and Robert Lyon. Under the in- fluence of these her tired face grew composed, and there was a wishful, faraway, fond look' in her eyes, which made it not wonderful that the said old lady — apparently an acuteoldsoul in her way — should watch her, as we do occa- sionally watch strangers in whom we have struggles so small, of sufferings so uninterest-: become suddenly interested, ing and mean. I paint it not because it is 1 There is no accounting for these interests, original, but because it is so awfully true. or to the events to which they give rise. Thousands of women, well born, well reared,|s m e times they are pooh-pooh-ed as"roman- know it to be true— burned into them by the t j c> » "unnatural," "like a bit in a novel ;" cruel conflict of their youth ; happy they if it and yet they are fact8 cont inuallv occurring, ended m their youtn, while mind and body especially to people of quick intuition, observ- had still enough vitality and elasticity to en-Ljfo^ am i Rympa thv. Nay, even the most 1 paint it, because it accounts for the orilinrirv pe0 p le have " known or heard of such, resulting in mysterious, life-long loves ; firm friendships : strange yet often wonderful hap- sudden revolutions of fortune things utterly unaccountable unscru table accusation sometimes made — especially by men — that women are naturally stingy. Pos- sibly so: but in many instances may it not '. )V marriage have been this petty struggle with petty wants, an j destinv : this pitiful calculating of penny against penfiy, L^ except' by the"belieTin' the how best to save here and spend there, whichjp rov j ( j eftCe w hich narrows a woman's nature in spite of herself ?j it sometimes takes years of comparative ease and freedom from pecuniary cares to counter- act the grinding, lowering effects of a youth of [ overty. And J paint this picture, too, literally, and "Shape? < u ■ ends. Rougbihew tliem as we will." When Hilary left the shop she was startled by a voice at her elbow. " I beg your pardon, but if your way lies up not on its picturesque side — it, indeed, poverty Southampton Row, would' you object to give has a picturesque side — in order to show an- other side which it really has — high, heroic, made up of dauntless enduranee, i-ifice. and self control. Also, io indicate that bless ing which narrow circum an old woman a share of that capital umbrella of youi -•'."' "With pleasure," Hilary answered, though the oddness of the request amused her. And it was granted really with pleasure ; for the the habit of looking more to the realities than old lady spoke with those "accents of the to thi of things, and of finding pleas- mountain tongue*' which this foolish Hilary ure in enjoyments mental rather than sensuous, never ized without a thrill at the heart. inward rather than external. When people " May be you think an old woman ought to can truly recognize this they cease either to be take a cab, and not Le intruding upon strang- afraid or ashamed of poverty. - ; but 1 am hale and hearty, and beingonly Hilary was not ashamed: — not even now. a street's length from my own door, I dislike when hers smote sharper and harder than it to waste unnecessary shillings.'' had ever done at Stowbury. She felt it a sore thing enough : but i* never humiliated nor an- gered her. Either she was too p oud or not " Certainly," acquiesced Hilary, with a half sigh : shillings were only too precious to her. " I saw you in the boot shop, and you proud enough; but her low estite always seemed the sort of young lady who would do a seemed to her too simply external a thing to kindness to an old body like me ; 80 I said to affect her relations with the world outside, myself, * 111 ask hex.' " 48 MISTRESS AND MAID. " I am glad you did." Poor girl ! she felt Iquidder, a prudent person, who never did unconsciously please 1 at finding herself still tilings by halves, and, like most truly gener- ate to show a kindi -SS to any body. |ous people, was cautious even in her extreme&t They walked on a:.d on — it was certainly a I fits of generosity, at tkat very moment was long street's length— to the stranger's door.'sitting in Mrs. Jones's first flsor, deliberately and it took Hilary a good way round from hers :jdiscovering every single thing possible to be but she said nothing of this, concluding, of learned about the Leaf family, course, that her companion was unaware ef| Nevertheless, owing to Selina's indignant where she lived; in which she was mistaken, pertinacity, Hilary's own hesitation, an 1 adira They stopped at laat before a respectable: hope of a pupil which rose up and faded like house near Brunswick Square, bearing a brass the rest, the possible acquaintance lay dormant plate, with the words "Mi*s Balquidder." for two or three weeks ; till, alas! the fabulous "That is my name, and very much obliged wolf actually came to the door; and the sis- to you, my dear. How it rains ! Ye're just ters, after paying their week's rent, looked droukit,." |aghast at one another, not knowing where in Hilary smiled and shook her damp shawl. !the wide world the next week's rent was to ''I shall take no harm. I am used to go out in all weathers." " Are you a governess ?" The question was so direct and kindly, that it hardly seemed an impertinence. " Yes; but I have no pupils, and I fear 1 shall never get any." "Why not?" " I suppose, because I know nobody here. It seems so very hard to get teaching in Lon- don. But I beg your pardon." " I beg yours," said M'ss Balquidder — not without a certain dignity — " for asking ques- tions of a stranger. But I was once a strang- er here myself and ba.l a ' ssir fecht,' as we say in Scotland, before 1 could earn even my daily bread. Though I wasn't a governess, still I know pretty well what the sort of life is, and if I had daughter* who must work for their bread, the •tie "thing I would urge upon them should be — 'Never become a govern- ess.'" " Indeed. For what reason ?" " I'll not tell you now, my dear, standing with all war wet clothes on ; but as I said, it you wiil do me the favor to call — " " Thank you!" said Hilary, not sufficiently initiated in London caution to dread making a not coue from. "Thank God, we don't owe any thing: a penny !" gasped Hilary. " No ; there it* comfort in, that," said Johan- na. And the expression of her folded hands »nd upward face was not despairing, even though that of the pesr widow, when her bar- rel of meal was gone, and her cruse of oil spent, would hardly have been sadder. '• 1 am sure we have wasted nothing, and cheated nobody ; — surely God will help us." " I know He will, my child." And the two sisters, elder and younger, kiss- ed one another, cried a little, and then sat down to consider what was t« be done. Ascott must be told bow things were with them. Hitherto they had not troubled him much with their affairs : indeed, he was so little at home. And after sems private con- sultation, both Johanna and Hilary decided that it was wisest to let the lad come and go as he liked ; not attempting — as he once in- dignantly expressed it — " to tie him to their apron strings." For instinctively these maid- en ladies felt that with men, and, above all, young men, the only way to bind the wander- ing heart was to leave it free, except by trying their utmost that home should be always a new acquaintance. Besides, she liked the. pleasant heme. rough hewn, good natured face ; and the Scotch accent was sweet te her e*r. It was touching to see their efforts, when Ascott came in of evenings, to enliven for Yet when she reached home she was half his sake the dull parlor at JNo. 15. How Jo- sh v of telling ber sister* the engagement shejhanna put away her mending, and Selina had made. Selina was extremely shocked. jceased to grumble, and Hilary began her and considered it quite necessary that the lively chat, that never failed to brighten and London Directory, the. nearest clergy man, or, \ amuse the household. Her nephew even perhaps, Mr. Ascott, who living in the parish. 'sometimes acknowledged that wherever he must knew— should be consulted as to Mis'- went, he met nobody.se "clever" as Aunt Balquidder's respectability*. [Hilary. So, presuming upon her influei.ee with hiin, on this night, after the re°t were gone to bed, she, being always the boldest to do any un- She does not know asinglethingabout pleasant, thing, said to him, me . } "Ascott, how are your business affairs pro>- Whicl/faet, arguing the natter energetic grossing? When do you think you will be ally two days after, the young lady might notable to g(t into practice?" have been so sure of, could she have peuetra- " Oh, presently. There's no hurry." ted the ceiling overhead, In truth, Miss Bal- ( " I am not so sure of that. Do you know, ">*>he has much more reason to question our.-:." reco'lected Hilary, with BQme amuse- ment: for I never iold her my name «r ad- dress. MISTRESS AND MAID. 49 toy dear boy" — and she opened her purse,; meant no harm. She repeated over and over which contained a tew shillings — "this is alljagain that the lad meant no harm. He had the money we have in the world." no evil ways; wai always pleasant, good- " Nonsense," .-