Hesba Stretton

“ Kate’s eyebrows went up a good deal, and her eyelids smarted a little as if with coming tears, when she saw it. It was a morsel of coarse beef, which would not have covered the old woman’s hand, but which she regarded with unconcealed satisfaction and delight.
‘That cost sevenpence,’ she said, ‘and I bought two pennyworth of greens, and a twopenny loaf to eat with it—me and a friend of mine, as is coming to dine with me. It’s a very poor lame girl as lives down the court; very poor, indeed, so I asked her to come and help to eat my Christmas joint, which is exceedingly pleasant to me. ”

“ Will you forgive me, mother?’
‘Forgive you, Johnny!’ she murmured, ‘it’s a easy thing to forgive a body when you love a body.’
The last words dropped faintly, syllable by syllable, from the old woman’s white lips, and Kate’s heart sank like lead. The withered face had grown paler, and the wrinkled eyelids closed slowly over the filmy blue eyes. Kate uttered a low cry of trouble, and Philip Carey turned quickly towards her. ”

“ Towards the close of the day Kate grew more agitated in her secret gladness. Philip might come in at any hour; he knew they dined at six, and Kate was fully prepared to see him arrive then. But he did not appear; and the dinner passed very nearly in silence, for Kate was unable to talk, and Dr. Layard was tired with his day’s work.
‘Do you know, Kate,’ he said suddenly, ‘young Carey is appointed assistant physician at Lentford Hospital? It’s a splendid opening for so young a man. But he’s a fine fellow is Carey; I shall be more than content if one of my boys turns out like him. ”

“ But then Ann was only a woman; a man should have more control over his tongue.
So Sam Franklin did not say a word about his savings, though they seemed to grow like seed sown in good ground. Every week he gave his wife the sum they had first agreed upon, and she made the best of it cheerfully, letting him know how every penny was spent, and sometimes wondering to him how his comrades’ wives managed to be so much smarter than she was. At first he had thoughts of buying her a new bonnet or shawl, but he scarcely liked to own that he had been keeping back the money from her. ”

“ Layard’s that evening, and delighted him beyond measure by asking him for Kate. Mrs. Duffy recovered and lived two or three years longer in undisturbed happiness, and in a degree of comfort to which she had been unaccustomed throughout her life. For her son, who had not prospered much in Australia, worked industriously and steadily to maintain her at home, and devoted himself to her with real tenderness. It was not till after her death, when Kate Carey was standing beside her coffin looking down at the placid face and closed eyes of the old woman, that he told the story of his return home. ”

“ Carey was quick enough to prevent her. He threw himself on his knees at Kate’s feet, and laid his strong arm gently across the old woman. Every one else stood motionless and thunderstruck. The man himself did not stir hand or foot.
‘That’s my son as went to Australy,’ continued Mrs. Duffy; ‘please let him come and kiss me. Don’t you know your poor old mother again, Johnny?’
‘Oh, mother! mother!’ exclaimed the man, striking his hard hands together, ‘that’s my mother sir, as I came back to, and was looking for. I hadn’t seen her these thirty years, and she’s nothing like the woman she was. ”

“ Duffy’s bed, and they had looked at one another with a sympathy which had seemed at the moment the most natural thing in the world. She had called him Philip, too! How her cheeks burned at the very recollection. She wished she had preserved to the end an icy dignity of [64] manner towards him; but she had altogether forgotten herself, and it had been a happier moment than she had felt for these four weeks past. Perhaps utter forgetfulness of self is the only real happiness. ”

“ Are you strong enough?’
‘I will be strong enough; I will do it,’ said Kate, lifting up her head with determination and endurance in every line of her face.
It did not occur to Dr. Layard that his carriage was a new one, handsomely lined and fitted up; but the servant’s soul ran more upon such subjects, and he began to protest against lifting the wounded and bleeding woman into it. Such a very miserable old creature, too, thought Bob, not a bit of a lady.
‘Dolt! idiot! brute!’ ejaculated Dr. Layard, in high wrath; and Bob, who had only uttered half his protest, shut his mouth, and was silent. ”

“ There was no one in the school room except themselves and the gentleman who was ready to receive their payment and give them the ticket for buying clothes to the value of ten shillings and sixpence. But before he could write out the ticket Ann glanced round, and saw a thin, care-worn little face peering in through the window.
‘Oh, Sam,’ she cried, ‘we don’t want it so badly after all, and I think if it belonged to Him, Jesus Christ, he would give it to the poor man up in the attic to pay his rent with. ”

“ She recollected how all her poor people had bewailed and mourned after him when he went away; and what a pang it had often been to her, a pang yet a pleasure, to hear his name so often on their lips. Oh! how good she must be to make herself good enough for him! She must be the best doctor’s wife in all Lentford. ”

“ Perhaps she would even have the misery some day of seeing his wife, the girl who had supplanted her, and made her life a blank. For Kate felt sure that it would be impossible for her ever to love another man. No one else could be to her what Philip Carey had been.
The hour passed away, and there were several quiet signs of excitement. Dr. Layard and Dr. Carey came in, felt the old woman’s pulse, and gave her a cordial. Kate was told that if she could be calm she had better remain where she was, as Mrs. Duffy held [56] her hand closely, and wished her to stay. ”

“ Yet never had they been so happy in former days. Their simple faith in the Saviour gave them a peace different from anything they had ever felt before; and Sam, who had now no secret care or pleasure to brood over in his own mind, grew frank and open with his wife. They pinched and denied themselves to get out of debt; and when the next winter came they were again in the comfortable circumstances which had been theirs when Ann sold the valuable old waistcoat.
‘Sam,’ said Ann, a day or two before Christmas-day, ‘Johnny’s been putting threepence a week into the school club. ”

“ Carey, Everton Square, Liverpool.’
How Kate had come to write Liverpool instead of Lentford she could never understand. It was true Philip had gone to Liverpool after leaving Ilverton, but how stupid of her to make such a dreadful mistake! Then he, too, had been passing through [65] as miserable a time as herself. He must have come to the conclusion that she did not care for him, and that she had not even the grace to thank him for the love he had bestowed upon her in vain. What could he have thought of her? It must have been a pain to him. She would make it up to him in some way. ”

“ Duffy’s heart was very full, and before she could swallow a morsel, she said in a slow and tremulous voice: ‘I can’t think what’s come to folks this year. It’s like them blessed Christmases we shall have when everybody’s friends, when the lion is friends with the lamb, and the cockatrices with the babies. Here’s Dr. Layard’s daughter asked me to tea, and I’ve got a Christmas joint, and now there’s such a breakfast as I never see before, and me done nothing for it. I can’t think what’s come to folks ”

“ She did not speak to him the next morning before he set off to the yard, though she knew he had lain awake all night like herself, and had not swallowed a morsel of breakfast. It was a cold, wintry day, with a drizzling mist filling the air. Sam was wet through before he reached his work, and there was no chance of drying his clothes. He was wet through when he came home, but there were no dry, warm things laid out for him. He might wait upon himself, thought Ann; it would be well for him to see the difference between a good wife and a bad one. ”

“ Helping people is a good step towards making them and yourself happy.’
‘That is what I want to do,’ said Kate, eagerly. ‘I want you to manage so that I can have some of your poor patients to tea here, in the large kitchen, on Christmas Day; it would make them a little bit happier, I think. I don’t know that it would do much good, but they would enjoy it, wouldn’t they, father?’
‘It would do them good, Kate,’ said Dr. Layard; ‘making people happy sometimes goes before making [37] them good. In the hospital at times we make our patients as happy as they can be before the sharp operation ”

“ I’m a very poor old woman, my good young man. If I’d got a penny, I’d give it you, and welcome.’
‘I must have your shilling,’ he said, doggedly.
‘I can’t give it you, indeed,’ she answered; ‘there’s my rent, and coals, and other things; and I’m very poor. You’d only drink it.’
She had scarcely finished speaking, when she saw the stranger produce a pistol from under his jacket, and point it at her. There was a sudden flash before her eyes, and she felt a keen pain; then she fell down without feeling or consciousness under the hedge-bank on the high road. ”

“ I reached Ilverton by the last train on Christmas Eve, but I didn’t know as mother were gone to live in the town. It were a bitter night, and I slept on a bench at the railway station. I hadn’t a penny left, when I set out to seek mother; and I were wandering about very miserable, when I saw a decent old woman coming along all alone. I only thought I’d frighten a shilling out of her. I never meant no harm. The pistol were an old pistol I’d had in the bush ”

“ Duffy’s sunken blue eyes brightened, yet filled with tears, as she looked up into their faces bending pityingly above her.
‘Well, old friend,’ said Dr. Layard, heartily, ‘you are better already. We are going to pull you through, you’ll see, Carey and me. We know what a tough old lady you are. Carey used to play you some tricks in the old times, and now he’ll make it up to you by pulling you through. Won’t you, Carey?’
Kate had not seen him enter the ward, and now she sat down, feeling weak and tremulous, on a [54] chair at Mrs. Duffy’s head, keeping her eyes fixed upon the old woman’s face. ”

“ Of all my poor patients, she ought to be present at your soirée.’
Dr. Layard persisted in calling the intended tea-party Kate’s soirée, and had taken an unusual interest in it. She was feeling more sorrowful than ever, this Christmas Eve, when everybody seemed so absurdly gay. She was wearing her dowdiest dress; and she found it difficult to get up a smile when her father spoke of the soirée. How different it would have been if Philip Carey had been true to her!
‘Can I find Mrs. Duffy this evening?’ she asked, [38] willing to escape from her sad thoughts for a little time. ”

“ If there is any hope for me, if you can trust your whole happiness to me, write but the one word “Come,” and I will come over immediately after my official appointment on the 30th, and speak to Dr. Layard. If you do not write, I shall understand your silence.’
Kate sat, with the letter crushed between her hands, gazing blissfully into the fire. All the world was changed, quite suddenly. The day was no longer dull and dreary. It seemed almost too good to be true. Philip Carey was the very man to be a physician in the Lentford Hospital ”

“ Duffy, when Kate went in, and delivered her message, ‘and the good doctor, too. It isn’t everybody as has such friends as me—on a Christmas Eve, too, when a body feels so lonesome wi’out friends. I don’t mind so much on working days, my dear, but one wants friends of a holiday like-Christmas. One can work wi’out friends ”

“ It gave to him a secret consciousness of wealth among his fellow-workmen, which was very pleasant for a time; but by-and-by this feeling passed away, and a strange, unaccountable dread of being poor took possession of him. He began to talk about bad times, and the high prices of provisions and clothing, and the expenses of a family, though his own consisted of his cheery, managing wife, and one boy only. ”

“ Duffy, in a matter-of-course tone; ‘he couldn’t write, and I couldn’t write. But he went to Australy, and he is in Australy now, if he hasn’t tumbled off. I can’t help thinking at times he must ha’ tumbled off, though the flies never do tumble off the ceiling. I’ve watched ’em for hours and hours together, thinking of my Johnny, and no fly never tumbled off yet. They have to walk with their heads downwards in Australy, like them flies; but my Johnny wasn’t brought up to it, and I’m afeard for him at times.’
‘Oh, no, he couldn’t tumble off,’ said Kate, laughing a little ”

“ But she grew up like a daughter to them; and not long ago she became their daughter by marrying Johnny Franklin. The wedding took place a day or two before Christmas, the anniversary of the day when Johnny readily gave up his small fortune for little Bell.
‘Oh, Sam!’ said his wife, as she thought of it, ‘how would it have been if we’d kept the nine shillings to buy clothes for Johnny?’
‘We should have kept the nine shillings and lost the forty-five pounds,’ answered Sam. ‘It’s true, “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord ”

“ Mrs. Duffy’s eyelids were closed, and her lips moved as if in prayer. She looked up at last; and her dim blue eyes, which were full of terror, like those of a child who wakes frightened, changed like those of a child, [58] when it sees that the face bending over it is a familiar face.
‘Why,’ she cried, in a voice at once firm and glad, ‘it’s my boy! It’s my Johnny!’
Her wrinkled features began to work with emotion, and she was about to raise herself up to stretch out her arms to him, but Dr. ”