Agnes Giberne

“ Laurence. "Stay—I am not sure—" And she had to wait while he stood up and shook my hand warmly. "I owe you a great deal, Miles," said he. "You once saved the life of my godson; and now, it may be, you have saved the life of my grandchild too, by your promptitude. She is a delicate little creature, and a chill is a dangerous thing. I hope Crane and Nurse will not suffer. Yes, pray go, Matilda; certainly you had better go. And tell Mr. Bertram that I wish him and Miss Adela to return at once. If the others are not ready, the fly can go again for them." ”

“ Mrs. Crane and Nurse shrieked again; and the pony put his ears back and looked wicked, and I could hear Miss Adela begging, "Oh, museum-boy, do get us out!" But that was easier said than done; for the pony had got an obstinate fit, which we found afterward was his way; and he wouldn't budge for anything or anybody. The moment I loosened my grasp he began to back again, and as long as I held firm he kept pretty still; but move forward he wouldn't. It was no earthly use for me to pull.
"What is to be done? O dear me!" gasped Mrs. Crane. "Hold on tight, Miles—do! there's a good boy! Don't let go! ”

“ There was a great dented blow on one side of her forehead, where a cruel rock had struck and slain her. Only it had come so sudden, she had had no time to feel fear or pain, and the little lips were smiling still.
They had dressed her in a frilled nightgown of Miss Rosamund's, and had laid her on a small mattress, her little hands outside the sheet; and somebody had scattered a lot of white flowers all over and around her, and a white rosebud was in her fingers.
"You see, she did not suffer. It was all in a moment," said Mrs. Kingscote. ”

“ Sometimes I do wonder, when I see maidservants in nice places, with good food, and all sorts of comforts, and kind mistresses, and no cares, I do wonder when I see them in such a hurry to go and get married, and set up for themselves. Not as I'm saying a word against girls marrying, when it's right and proper for them, if it's a good sober steady man that's in question, and if he has regular work, and if there's a store laid by against a rainy day, and if the girl is fit to manage a little home and to do for her husband comfortably, and if neither of them are in too great haste ”

“ Just there the pond wasn't deeper than up to her waist; but she had no presence of mind for finding her feet or standing up; and if I had not been at hand, it is as likely as not that she would have been drowned, out of sheer fright and helplessness.
Well, I pulled and tugged her to shore somehow, she spluttering and screaming as much as she had breath for; and she did look a woeful-looking object, to be sure, all streaming with water and streaked with green slime: and her best bonnet was a wonderful sight. Next I went after Nurse, and brought her out too. ”

“ It was worse to me than losing my little Bessie. For I could think of her as always happy and cared for; but if Jervis was to be a helpless cripple, he'd be miserable, and I should be miserable, and there was no knowing what would become of us all.
I suppose there's hardly any sort of trouble that folks don't get in a manner used to as time goes on. Even if it's a trouble that changes everything, still one gets used to the change after a time, so as to bear it patient; and even if it's a burden always pressing, one learns to bear up better under the burden. ”

“ Still, I think that even then the real strength of Miles' affection went out towards Bertram. Everybody loved Bertie, and Miles was no exception. If Bertie wanted him, and Nichols was in a mood to make no objection, the boy's face would gleam with delight. Bertie liked Miles greatly; and the two boys drew together, much after the same fashion that Mrs. Murchison and I drew together; belonging indeed to different positions in life, yet none the less each loving and trusting the other. ”

“ Just hold tight on, there's a good boy," begged Mrs. Crane, in a despairing voice. "Perhaps he'll change his mind presently; the horrid little beast! Or somebody may go by. Don't let go, Miles. What a mercy you came, to be sure!"
She had never spoken so politely to me before; and I began to see a dawn of better days. But I had no time to think of myself, for there was no knowing what trick the pony might be up to next; and I didn't want to have them all soused in cold water, on a January afternoon, three miles away from home; more especially Miss Adela, who was given to taking bad colds. ”

“ Murchison, with her husband and children, came down for a few hours from Littleburgh to Ermespoint, fully intending to return the same evening. How powerless we are to carry out our intentions, unless God wills that we should! How seldom, as we go through life, have we the least idea of what lies ahead! ”

“ Miles was happy enough I could see. He liked flowers, and he liked the pony; and he would do anything in the world for Master Bertram.
"Well, it don't seem we've much choice yet awhile," says Jervis. "They'd have him in the works at Littleburgh; but he wouldn't earn what he's earning now, and you couldn't do with less."
"And you don't mind?" says I, wondering to myself. He had such a peaceful sort of look.
"It don't do no good to worry," says he; "only makes other folks wretched. I'm laid here, and I've got to lie here, just as long as God tells me to. That's where it is, Annie," says he. ”

“ Crane was at tea, and I saw directly that I wasn't to be treated any more as an interloper. She gave me the best of everything on the table, and she talked to me politely, and, altogether, she put me on a footing with herself, which certainly she had never done before. It wasn't Mrs. Crane's way to acknowledge herself in the wrong, or to say she was sorry for the past, and I don't think she ever went so far as actually to thank me for pulling her out of the pond; but "actions speak louder than words," and she made a difference in her manner of treating me, which nobody could have mistaken. ”

“ My husband was so busy next day that I undertook to explain to Nichols about the new arrangement. He listened solemnly, his under lip protruding, and his shaggy eyebrows drawn together.
"Yes, ma'am," he said, when I stopped, and he said no more.
"I am sure you will find it a great comfort in a little while," I said. "Miles will be here distinctly to help you, and to do whatever you tell him. I think you will find him quick and willing."
"Can't abear boys," growled Nichols. "More trouble than they're worth." ”

“ Laurence gave me a look, and asked—"Would you like it?"
"I should like to learn all about everything here," I said.
"So you shall—as far as I can put you in the way of learning. No man alive knows 'all' about any one thing; but some of the little that can be known you shall learn. You will have a key, and when you are not here the door is always to be locked. By-and-by I hope you will be able to copy out things for me. I know that you write a clear hand. Remember, if you wish to be of real use to me by-and-by, you must study and read steadily. ”

“ Bertram, as they took him at his word. "Get warm, if you can; and mind you have something hot to drink, the first thing."
"O Bertie! it has been so dreadful!" sighed Miss Adela.
"I say, Addie, just look at them trying to run," said Mr. Bertram, in a whisper, to make her laugh, for she was sobbing still, off and on. "Don't you mind," said he. "It'll be all right. Nobody's drowned. We've got to unharness the pony now, and then Miles must walk or ride him home and send a fly to the farm. Send dry clothes too for Crane and Nurse. One of the maids, will see to that. Shall I help you, Miles?" ”

“ The house was a white one, in the middle of a row of white houses, all exactly alike; and when we drove up a boy stood lounging on the pavement. "That's Alick," pronounced Miss Adela. "It's Mrs. Crane's cousin's son, isn't it, Mrs. Crane? Look, museum-boy! And he always takes the pony. Doesn't he, Mrs. Crane?"
I believe Mrs. Crane had meant to use me as I had meant to be used, for she looked rather disconcerted. "There was no need for him to be here," she said. "Miles could just as well have taken the pony to the stables." ”

“ I hardly knew what to do with the boy; he was so overpowered with remorse, for having unwittingly guided the poor Murchisons into danger. Yet nobody could justly blame him. The little talk with Mrs. Murchison, from which I had hoped so much, seemed rather to add to his distress. Her look of patient sorrow impressed him, I suppose, as it had impressed me.
When I reached home, after leaving her with her husband at Mrs. Coles', Ellie told me that she had seen nothing of Bertram meanwhile. He had gone straight to his room, she said, and had not since come out. ”

“ Murchison hardly realised how the days were slipping by, and how slight was the improvement in her husband's state, until one particular afternoon when the whole appeared to come upon her sharply, like a fresh blow. I had seen her in the morning, anxious, yet placid, able to smile and be pleased when I told her how we all liked Miles. Later in the day I went again, to find her alone, seemingly overwhelmed. I cannot forget the hollow look of misery in her eyes, as she stood gazing at me.
"He will never get well, ma'am," she said quietly, with the quiet of despair, "never! ”

“ Most folks would rather hear a story than be preached to.
It came all as a sort of surprise to me one day, when my husband said to me unexpected-like—
"Annie," said he, "I've set my mind on a day by the sea."
"You have, Jervis!" says I; for I couldn't think whatever he was at.
"A nice long day by the sea," says he. "I'll get a day off work— they'll give it me, I'm always so regular—and we'll go early. We'll get to Ermespoint by ten o'clock," says he, "and we won't be home again till past nine at night." ”

“ A woman does like her husband to look nice, you know, and I'm pretty sure a husband likes his wife to look nice. And though one may say folks don't love each other for their looks, yet it is wonderful what a lot of difference looks make in one's feelings. Anyhow, I know I liked to see Jervis in his Sunday coat; and I know he liked to see me in my Sunday bonnet, which was quiet but pretty. ”

“ She had managed to keep her head and shoulders dry, by not losing all her wits. The question in my mind, as I helped Nurse to land, was, what in the world to do with them next? For there was the cart to be righted, and the pony to be seen to; and Miss Adela was looking like a ghost; and we were near three miles from home; and Mrs. Crane was declaring that nothing in the world should ever make her sit behind that pony again; and yet if she and Nurse couldn't get into dry clothes quickly, it might cost them their lives. ”

“ Look how it is marked."
"That's an ammonite," I said, glad to know the first thing she asked.
"An am-mo-nite?" said she. "Yes; go on," and she nodded her head.
So I told her what little I was able, how the ammonite had once been a living sea-creature, swimming about in the ocean; and how it had somehow died out, so that no ammonite was ever found now alive; and how the only ones ever seen were these fossil ammonites, which had lived so very, very long ago, that their remains were turned to stone. ”

“ To have a little home of one's own sounds nice, and it ought to be nice, and it may be nice; but folks don't know beforehand what a deal of toil is wanted to keep it nice, nor how many get tired of the toil in a little while, and let it go nasty and get dirty and messy and untidy, more like to a pig-stye than a home. More especially when a lot of children come, and when one don't feel good for anything, and work never ends, morning, noon, nor night. ”

“ So I do: she is true to the backbone, and her memory is as true as herself.
We had been so short a time in Ermespoint, and so busy while there, as to have had little leisure yet for learning much about it. Ellie and Rose had been down to the beach several times, but only near at hand—except just once, the day before, when old nurse and they went along the shore under the west cliff; and they came back full of the beauty of the place. My husband took a stroll the same way in the evening; and he spoke, on his return, of the remarkable overhanging of the cliffs. ”

“ Even my husband, after one walk under the cliffs, had not thought of forbidding the children to go there. He had only noticed as curious the remarkable overhanging of the rock. I suppose, if Philip had been a scientific man, he would have read more clearly the state of things; but then he never was scientific. Whatever there is in Bertram of a scientific tendency, he inherits from my family, not from his father's. But I am wandering from the point.
I did my best to make poor Bertie see this,—how completely he was himself free from blame in the matter ”

“ Everybody knew that if Mr. Laurence said a thing he meant it. Mrs. Crane was not obliged to stay, but if she stayed she had to do what Mr. Laurence chose, which was only fair and just, seeing she received his money, and ate his food, and was sheltered by his roof. She was much too wise to want to leave, and so she gave in; but all the same I could feel I wasn't welcome.
There were no indoor men-servants, for Mr. Laurence disliked the bother of them. The maids could all be under Mrs. Crane, but a man he would have had to manage himself. ”

“ We lived at Littleburgh, and my husband was foreman in the building works, and he was trusted and liked. I didn't wonder neither—I who knew him as only a wife can know her husband. Some men are trusted and liked by outside people, and their own wives could tell a mighty different tale if they chose to speak out, which most wives won't do; but it wasn't so with Jervis and me. ”