L. T. Meade

“ The sun shone all over her as she worked. She made a gay bit of colour, and more than one person turned to look at her. Her black rippling hair was coiled round and round her shapely head. Her turban, too hot for this sultry day, was flung on the ground by her side. Her black dress fitted her slim figure to perfection, and her gay many-coloured apron gave a bizarre effect to her costume, which exactly suited the somewhat foreign type of her face.
The flower girl who eat next her, in her untidiness, her dirt, and almost rags, acted as a foil to Jill. ”

“ It’s a mighty thing, Jill, for any girl to get all the love of a strong man like me—the love that has been gathering up in me for close on forty year. Some folks, they love dozens o’ people; they’ll give a little love to this one, and t’other one—they, so to speak, splits up their love. But that ain’t me. In all the wide wide world I love no one but you, little Jill, so you can guess as you has got something strong—when you has won the love o’ a man like me. ”

“ The delight o’ it is a’most past belief. When I thinks on you as keeping the cottage, bright, and cooking my meals for me, and watching as nobody comes and picks off the best blooms when I’m away at the market, I can scarce contain myself, I don’t believe in all the wide world there’ll be a happier pair nor you and me, Jill, for all that I am eight-and-thirty and you not seventeen yet. ”

“ For instance, they can take a bird’s-eye view of events; from their lofty standpoint they can look down on more than one place at a time in this small world. Doubtless things of immense and overpowering importance to us assume their juster proportions from this immeasurable distance.
On the night which should have been Silas Lynn’s wedding night, there was a clear sky, the moon was at its full, and the stars shone in multitudes in the deep blue firmament. ”

“ The way to do a thriving business was to mix the stale goods discriminately with the fresh, and to sell one with the other. Jill would not hear of it, and Poll had to own that Jill by her honesty and method, and by her own bright and spruce appearance, had gained a very tidy connection.
But though Poll liked the money which now flowed in regularly, she sighed more than once for the good old days when she need not scrub her sitting-room nor polish her windows, nor worry herself about her unsold flowers. ”

“ Ah, worra me, it’s a sorrowful day when they don’t wake the dead. There they go! there’s the first—six foot high if he was an inch—a powerful big coffin he takes. Well, he’ll find it damp getting under the earth on a day like this. My word, Jill! Look at the flowers! Why, they’re heaped up on that coffin, and chice ’uns too—roses and lilies, and them big white daisies. Oh, shame, they’ll all go underground, I expect. Here’s the second! Can you see it, Jill? He’s not so big, five foot seven or eight, I guess. Heaps of flowers, too. Simple waste, I call it, to give flowers to a corpse. ”

“ The crowd was too thick for Jill to see what attracted them, but a sound, full, strong, and sweet, drew her attention. She was walking quickly past the people, but this sound arrested her steps. It caused the colour to flame into her cheeks, and an angry light to leap out of her eyes. With a rapid, deft movement she pushed her way through the people. She guessed, even before her eyes assured her of the fact, what was the matter.
“Go it again, Poll Robinson!” shouted the men. “Oh! you took that note prime. You never wor in better voice. ”

“ This flower merchant’s name was Silas Lynn. He was a heavy-built man, with a powerful face, a rough shock of hair, and small, deeply set eyes. His mouth was coarse, his hands and feet enormous. He owned a cottage and a couple of acres of ground in Kent, and brought his flowers and fruit daily to the market, transacting all his business himself, and allowing no middleman to interfere with him. ”

“ Why do you ask?”
“But old Hastie down in the street, he said that she had gone and—why, what’s the matter, Jill? You look so fierce that you quite take the heart out of a fellow.”
“You shut up,” said Jill. “You whisper in this room one word of what Hastie said, and you’ll feel my fist, I can tell you.”
“Only it’s true, Jill, and you know it,” said Bob, putting down his plate, and coming up and standing by his younger brother’s side. “You needn’t beat the life out of poor Tom for telling the truth. You know that Hastie only spoke the solemn truth, Jill, and you has no call to round on Tom.” ”

“ It had been his intention to go back to the little cottage at Newbridge, in order to get it more completely ready for the sweet bride who was to enter it on the morrow. His flowers wanted extra watering and extra care in order to greet that one brilliant living blossom who was going to take root and settle down in their midst. Silas thought of encircling the porch of the cottage with a wreath of roses, of decking the table with which the wedding-feast would be spread with flowers in many strange and lovely devices ”

“ Of all flowers under the sun, there seems to me to be more in a toolip than in any other. For one thing, it comes arter the dead, cold winter; then it’s so prim and yet so gay—so proper all round, and yet there’s sech a frolicsome look ’bout the little tips o’ the flowers jest where they half opens to let in the sunlight and the sunshine. Yes, you mind me o’ one o’ them dark red, rich-looking toolip-buds as comes in the spring.”
Jill scarcely replied to these words from Silas. ”

“ Ef not—now, Nat, come in and speak, man.”
There was a little buzz amongst the guests. Mary Ann Hatton was heard to say afterwards that she never felt nearer fainting in her life. She uttered a little gasp which no one heard; Aunt Hannah gave a snort which no one listened to. All the pairs of eyes were fixed on the handsome straight-looking young man who came into the room, who blushed as deeply as Jill did, and walked at once to her side.
“Jill,” he exclaimed, “there never wor such a noble fellow as this yere Silas Lynn. ”

“ He took up his hat and walked as far as the door. “Ha’ you counted the money—are you sure as it’s all right?” called Jill after him.
“’Course it’s all right; what matters the money? You go and break a chap’s ’eart, and you talk to him o’ money. You send a chap right away to the devil, and you talk to him o’ money. What’s money to me to-day! I say, curse all women, curse goodness. I say—oh, Jill, Jill, you don’t mean it. It’s a trick you’re playing on me. Jill, my little love, my little sweet-heart, come back to me—come back.”
Nat’s voice was broken. ”

“ She was ambitious and intended to rise in the world. Even a London flower girl can have ambition. As in all other callings, that of the flower girl has many grades. Between the poor, little, sloppy, ragged victim, who hawks miserable, withered flowers, reeking with stale vegetation and the infection of badly ventilated rooms, and such a flower girl as Susy Carter, there is a very vast gulf fixed.
Susy heard of the Flower Girls’ Guild, she was one of the first to join this admirable band, she delighted in the sanitary conditions imposed upon her. ”

“ I’m abundantly willing to marry yer, Silas.”
“Thank you, my little gel,” said Silas. “Thank you, too, Aunt Hannah, but in a case like the present a man must judge for himself. I’ll ask yer now one plain question, Jill. Look solemn into yer ’eart, my gel, and tell me true as you wor standing afore the angels, is there no man on this ’arth what you love better nor me? You answer me that pint werry plain. Do you love me, Silas Lynn, better nor anyone else on God’s wide ’arth?” ”

“ Had not Silas, who knew her so much better than Peters, always noticed that latent sadness in her charming face. He loved her all the better for it.
“It’s jest her kind heart,” he murmured; “it’s jest as there is trouble in the world, and she can’t help noticin’ of it. Why, see her to-night, when Mary Ann Hatton dropped the chaney saucer. Even that were too much for my Jill. Oh, yes, Peters is quite mistook. Jill loves me, for sure, and I’m jest the werry happiest feller in the wide world.” ”

“ Molly was rather cross when she came back, but as Jill gave no explanation whatever with regard to her sudden rush down the road, she soon relapsed into gloomy silence and into many anxious thoughts with regard to her little sick Kathleen.
The brilliant sunshiny morning did not fulfil its promise. In the afternoon the wind veered round, the sky became overcast, and between two and three o’clock a steady downpour of rain began.
Such weather is always fatal to the selling of flowers; at such times the ladies who are out in their fine summer dresses are little inclined to stop and make purchases. ”

“ The time was night, and the more important shops were shut, but the great houses in Grosvenor Square revealed at this moment their fullest and most brilliant life, for this was the time when the great receptions of the season were given.
Before one of the largest and most important of these mansions a small crowd had collected. It was the sort of crowd who are fond of getting peeps inside the lovely palaces which they must not enter. Rough-looking boys, eager, pinched women, a few men, and even some babies were present. ”

“ She had also made up her mind that the tea-drinking out of that delicate “chaney” should prove a success.
When Jill arrived, and when shortly afterwards she echoed Aunt Hannah’s sentiments with regard to the lovely cups and saucers, the old woman’s heart was completely won. She ceased to oppose Silas’s marriage. She kissed him when she next saw him, and told him that the “gel wor a sweet-looking gel, and she made no doubt as she’d be humble and teachable, and willing to learn, not only of her husband, but of her Aunt Hannah.” ”

“ Poll gave a quick, impulsive sort of sigh.
“Well, I’m glad as you finds the comfort o’ it, Betsy,” she said. “But what can I do for you? We’re most at the market now.”
“Ef you could lend me a shilling to buy flowers, neighbour? My man came in drunk last night, and he carried away every penny as I put by in the tin box. There’s little Jeanie, she is low and wake, and I’ve nothing for her breakfast but some tea-leaves that I’ve watered twice afore. Ef you lend me a shilling, Poll, jest to see me over to-day, I’ll pay you back sure and faithful to-morrow morning, so I will.” ”

“ He had to attend to a list of orders which Aunt Hannah had provided him with for the wedding-feast; and last, but not least, he must manage to call at Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital with the little shawl for old Peters’s sister, Rachel Riggs. Silas knew Mrs Riggs, and with all those new qualities which the sunshine of prosperity had awakened into being, it occurred to him that it would give her pleasure if a bunch of flowers accompanied the shawl. Silas would never have thought of giving Mrs Riggs flowers in the old days, but he did many things now which astonished himself. ”

“ He crept quietly out of bed, and with the light agile movements of a little cat went across the kitchen. He reached the bureau, and bending down pulled the drawer open, which contained Jill’s hard-earned savings.
Tom was a little person who possessed neither conscience nor fear. He soon emptied the contents of the stocking into his eager little palm. The brown-paper parcel which contained Nat’s five sovereigns was clutched in his other hand. He then ran across the room, slipped the coins into his trousers pockets, put his trousers on and returned to the bureau. ”

“ It were orful sudden, and poor Clara’s nearly off her head.”
Nat spoke huskily; the sorrowful feelings of the morning were moving him again.
“He’s dead,” he continued; “the best feller living, the kindest heart as breathed. I’ll never meet his like, he wor that trusting and that companionable. We wor mates for close on three year, and never was there a word atween us. I can’t get over his dying off so sharp; but it is a good thing as you has the money safe, Jill.”
“Yes; that’s a werry good thing,” replied Jill. ”

“ I wor suffering from a sort of a tumour in my breast, and I can’t tell yer, Silas, what the suffering were like; it seemed to shrink me all up, and the only way I could get ease, day or night, was by taking a drop o’ gin. Sometimes I took perhaps mor’n I ought, and once or twice I know I forgot myself, and the sperits seemed to go into my ’ead; and what with the ease from pain, and the light, cheery sort of feeling in my ’ead, I used to sing songs in the street, and even dance, and folks collected round me, and I brought shame to my pretty, sweet gel. ”