Josephine Elizabeth Anstice Clifford

“ Home was more dear, home faces were more beloved than ever; but coming to it all with a fresh eye and a matured mind, she saw, as she had never seen before, how the whole family was groaning under the heavy pressure of poverty.
"But that, at all events, I'll see to," thought she; "while I am at home Cilla and the dear mother shall always have something that they can eat: but how will it be when I am gone? Well! sufficient to the day is the evil thereof, and I have six whole weeks to spend at home." And comforted by this thought, Mary Mackworth slept soundly on this first night of her return. ”

“ And at the same hour, Mary, who kept her precious secret for the morrow to disclose, lying wakeful beside her sleeping sister, poured out her earnest thanksgivings for troubles over, and peace beginning.
"How kind he is!" she thought with tears. "How nicely he spoke of Harry! How he listened when I talked so much! How could I talk so much to a stranger? But somehow, I don't feel as if he were a stranger; I feel as if he must belong to us some day. Is that prophetic, I wonder! Is he to be the knight I have always dreamed of, who was to come and carry off my Cilla? May be. ”

“ So when the curate came home in the evening, he found all his household in a state of feminine bustle; a snowy shower of muslin heaped on the sofa: and a bewildering mass of ribbons and tapes lying on the table. As he stood amazed at the door, Cilla danced up to him, all excitement, with the wonderful news that they were going to the Nettlehurst ball; Mary hastily adding that it depended on whether he liked them to do so.
"My dears, do you really wish to go? Won't you feel very much at a loss? You can't dance, any of you." ”

“ Rather timidly, for the place was new to her, she approached the counter, and, to her great joy, found what she wanted at a more moderate price than she had dared to hope. She could not repress an exclamation of pleasure, and then coloured, feeling that her earnest "Oh! that is nice!" low-toned though it was, had attracted the attention of a gentleman who was standing by, waiting for a box of books. The box made its appearance just as Mary had laid down her money, and taken possession of her book, and he politely held open the door for her. ”

“ See, Mary," he added, pointing out one of Millais' gorgeous pieces of colouring; "is not this what you once described to me?"
"Oh! yes," cried Mary eagerly, as pleased as if she were greeting an old friend: "it was in the Royal Academy two years ago."
"Do you often go to the Royal Academy?" asked Mr. Langley.
"Whenever I can. Mrs. Halroyd likes her children to go sometimes, and then I take them. I am their governess," she said, in answer to Mr. Langley's inquiring look.
"I treat myself to an hour there, too, whenever I can; it does one good after a dull day's work." ”

“ Mackworth and I must go over it together."
"It is perfect," said Mary, as a vision of the pleasant roomy house and bowery garden rose before her. "Thank you, thank you! You may think I care a great deal about money, but it is not that. It is such pain to see one's own dear people wanting anything, and not to be able to give it to them."
"You will, at all events, be freed from your slavery now, I hope," said Mr. Langley.
Mary looked surprised.
"I have nothing to complain of, though it will be nice to be at home of course, nicer than anything." ”

“ Mackworth as, after following a low park wall for some distance, they found themselves close to tall iron gates, spick and span, and fresh and neat, as was the picturesque lodge, its trim garden, and the broad carriage drive. A woman, as tidy as everything else, in her Sunday garb, admitted them, and they walked on through well-kept plantations first, and then through a small park, somewhat dreary now, with its tufts of blackened heather and dead bracken. ”

“ Nothing could have been more becoming than the rich full colour was to her; and at her openly expressed admiration of Cilla, the parents exchanged a smile which meant that Mary herself was by no means unworthy of being admired and sought after. Harry appeared to less advantage than his sisters. It was not in Mary's power to make his dress anything very first rate; and he was at the age when a lad is painfully conscious that he has ceased to be a boy, and is a very poor imitation of a man. ”

“ Mary had just returned from some parish visiting, and Cilla, who considered herself to have a cold, was lounging in the armchair with a novel which Mrs. Halroyd had lent her governess to read on the journey home.
"Oh! let us open it by all means," Mary said, "only I will light the candle first, and draw the curtains, my dear; you must be killing your eyes reading by fire-light!" ”

“ Lester: "don't you think so?" She turned her agreeable face on Mary, who laughed and hazarded no opinion. To tell the truth, she would have had no objection at all to those five hundred pounds and the comfort they would bring to her mother and Cilla, the advantages to Harry, the addition to every one's well-being. No doubt papa was right, and she was low-minded and ignoble, but still!—so she said nothing, and her father rejoined:
"As to my poor people, if you like to spend the sum in charity, there are plenty of ways of doing so, which I am sure I need not point out to you. ”

“ Halroyd came in: a pretty, faded woman, still quite young, but with the matronly figure and somewhat worn countenance which generally distinguish the mother of a "large small family."
"How good-natured of you, Miss Mackworth," she said, glancing at the governess's work: "you spoil those little people!" And then, as she laid an envelope on the table, she said nervously, colouring and hesitating, "I think, you will find that quite right: and I will let you know the day of our return—probably not before the 20th of January—my mother-in-law wishes for a long visit this year." ”

“ The discovery that her unknown friend was the banker himself caused great amusement to the younger branches, and Mr. Mackworth gave a little sigh of resigned surprise at the folly of youth and womankind, when he found that even his wife seemed more interested in hearing all about Mr. Langley and his sister, than in what he had to say about that beautiful Millais, those exquisite Landseers, and that Madonna after Sassofer Zata, which he really almost thought must be an original. ”

“ And Harry and Mary and Cilla all chattered at once, and the gentle mother smiled and listened, and Jack and Laurry got between everybody and the fire, and were ordered to bed, and refused to go: and altogether it was very pleasant. For whatever their faults might be, these people thoroughly loved and believed in each other, and even Cilla would with all her heart have endorsed the proverb, that "Home is Home, be it never so homely."
"Mary!" she exclaimed one darkening afternoon, nearly a week after Christmas Day: "here is this mysterious brown-paper parcel lying on the chimney-piece. ”

“ I hope the servants will take good care of you." And Mrs. Halroyd departed, congratulating herself on having got over her quarterly penance of paying Miss Mackworth's salary: a thing to which she never could get accustomed. She always fancied that it must be as painful to the governess as to herself; wherein she was wholly mistaken, for it appeared to Mary the most natural and desirable arrangement in the world that she should work hard and be paid for doing so. ”

“ Fancy seeing Cilla at a ball! She would be the prettiest girl there, and how I should enjoy watching her, and hearing what people said!"
"My dear, you don't suppose any of us could ever go to a ball? Why a fly from Brigham would cost fifteen shillings, let alone clothes and gloves and things. Balls are not much in our line, nor anything else worth having."
The tone was even more desponding than the words, and Mary leaned forward to look into his face, which he immediately turned, so that the light of the gig lamps should not fall on it. ”

“ And I have heard so much of the good he does at Farley. It would fare ill enough without him, for old Lowther scarcely ever goes near the place."
"Mr. Lowther is dying, is he not?"
"He is by way of being ill, but he has cried wolf so often, that he is sure to live for ever. People of that sort always do."
"I will call to-morrow," said Mrs. Lester, rising; "and, as to the ball, though I dare say they won't come, people like to be asked. However, to tell you the truth, we have quite girls enough already." ”

“ I think it is going to clear." Herewith, as if to contradict her, came a gust of wind and sleet which nearly knocked her over. The stranger laughed. Mary could not help following his example, and next moment found that he was handing her into a Hansom cab. She made one more horrified protest.
"Oh! no, I can't think of it. What will you do! With that box of books too——"
"I will wait here, and send for another cab; it is no inconvenience to me, I assure you. Where shall I tell him to drive?"
A rapid calculation passed through Mary's mind. "How far can I go for a shilling?" ”

“ You'll be a good man, and a gentleman too, whatever you are. I know that."
Harry muttered something, and then broke out with: "The injustice of the thing is what makes me frantic. To see that fellow Langley, for instance, throwing away sums on his horses and carriages, and balls and stuff, when a quarter of the money would set us all up for life. And that old twaddle, Lowther, pocketing his nine hundred pounds a year for the living, and just giving my father two hundred pounds for doing all his work. ”

“ He is so unselfish," said the sister, proudly. "But there will be no trouble about the army now, thanks to you."
Mr. Langley was touched by this simple girl's great idea of the capabilities of their new income.
"How should I feel?" he thought, "if I were obliged to live on nine hundred a year! Well; this lad's commission may be a means of paying my five hundred pounds."
"You will let me come to-morrow?" he said aloud: "I must see your father, and go over the rectory with him; and I shall see you too, shall I not?"
"Certainly," said Mary; "I don't go back to London until the 20th." ”

“ I will undertake to coach Harry and Cilla—if we may, papa."
"But your clothes? Where is the money for them to come from?"
"I believe Mary is a conjurer," said her mother; "she produced all this finery at a moment's notice."
And then Mary began explaining how she had bought the white muslin some months before, when she found it necessary to have a best evening dress tor Carrie's birthday, and how, just as she had done so, Mrs. Halroyd had made her a present of another white muslin, ready made up, silk under skirt, and all. ”

“ Is there no second post at Farley?"
"Not unless we send to Brigham."
"That accounts for it; they wrote to tell me as soon as it happened. Poor old Dr. Lowther died yesterday morning."
Mary felt shocked.
"I had no idea he was really ill," she said in an awe-struck voice.
"It is the old story of boy and wolf," said Mr. Langley. "Poor old fellow! I really fancy he might have lived to ninety if he could have thought less about his health; but a man can't go on taking physic all his life without taking too much of it at last."
"Poor Dr. Lowther! ”

“ I never can fancy anything else, never; and I know my father wouldn't mind, though it isn't much in his line. And once in it I'd make my pay do, and never ask him for a farthing. I'd get to India if I could. ”

“ But even he showed some interest when the girls made their appearance in the parlour early in the evening, ready dressed, in order that they might not keep the brougham one moment waiting.
Laurry and Jack, who had insisted on the unwonted extravagance of two pairs of candles, in order that their sisters' magnificence might appear to advantage, capered about in a high state of excitement, in dangerous proximity to the floating muslin robes.
"You really are worth looking at, I must say," cried Mr. ”

“ Lester, "a small, sharp, pretty little woman, with a face like a good-natured hawk;" but she had so little to say about Mr. Langley that Harry reproached her for ingratitude, and the fire of family wit kindled again, reducing the curate to fall back on one of his often repeated and most utterly disregarded injunctions: "My dears, do try to talk about things; not people."
"I suppose," Cilla suggested, as the evening drew to a close, "there is no chance of our being asked to the Nettlehurst ball."
Mary shook her head. "Though," she said, colouring a little and glancing at her father, "Mr. ”