M. A. Curtois

“ Perhaps Nat understood—Nat, happy, useful, honoured, with an ever-widening education, and with ever higher hopes; or perhaps Annie knew—beautiful, admired, and prosperous, in spite of the shadow of sorrow that rested always on her face; her children had more education than herself, and could understand better how things should come to be, could look back on the timid love that had trained and tended them, and in their worst moments had risen, and proved itself strong to save. Such love, unobtrusive, unpraised, unknown to fame, may be found in our homes through the whole length of our land ”

“ But Tina had other moods—alas! poor girl—which could also find their expression in her face, a weary bitterness that could make her lips cold and hard, could rob her cheek of its freshness and her features of their youth. And then, besides, if she ever found herself alone with any member of the sex that was not her own, there was yet another expression to be observed in [81] her eyes, which could impart to them the most attractive charm—a look of the softest, tenderest sympathy, which held as by magic the male glance bent on hers. ”

“ Before, however, she had time to speak, the farmer’s wife had some other news to give—she was to tell Miss Gillan that Nat Salter had been waiting all the evening at the Farm. And, as if on her tumult of anger a new idea had fallen, Tina ordered with shining eyes that he should be summoned immediately.
What did she want with him, why should her tempestuous anger be calmed at once by the thought of this interview; what possible advantage could she hope to gain from one who was only a village-labourer? ”

“ Is not its worst grief the knowledge, owned in silence, that the daughter, once close, is now distant, far away; that some unfathomable gulf has intervened between the souls of the mother and the child? Jenny had felt that gulf widening through the summer months, when she knew that her son and daughter had secrets of which they would not speak to her—and now, on one side at least, the ruin had come, and her daughter lay silent on her bed, whilst the village talked outside. ”

“ It’s like as I may be going to thy home—Annie will be there, I suppose—’ there was a tremor in his voice. ‘One must make the best o’ such days as one can get, it isn’t oft as I can be free. Good-day to thee, lad,’ but Nat only bestowed a nod for answer, and without looking back went on quickly to his work. The eyes of the young workman followed him as he moved, a solitary figure in the grey morning light, a shapely lad with hair crisp beneath his cap, and his bag of tools slung upon shoulders that bore the burden well. ”

“ It went along the road to the Fens as if it would get out into the country; and then, once more turning, proceeded up the hill, this time by more devious ways to the left of the village, with fields on one side of it, and the glowing Fens below. To the right, below a wall, there was a deserted stone-pit, all covered and shrouded with ivy and trees, and beneath that wall crouched an unseen auditor, a young lad who lay and listened, but who dared not raise his head. The procession of men would have known him if he had shown his face; he was Nat Salter, who was Rob Salter’s son. ”

“ A sudden remembrance of the Rantan frolics, in which he had joined himself when a younger, better man, a sudden horror of shame and indignation rushed down upon him, and for a moment choked his breath. He sat silent, panting, the excitement of drink in [127] his eyes, at that moment almost like the dark, handsome suitor who had wooed pretty Jenny in her girlish days. And now the clamour had turned into the lane, and they could hear the hooting and laughing of the lads—Rob could hear his own name in shouts, groans, and hisses, accompanied by such opprobrious titles as village wit could furnish. ”

“ So easily, with such heedless footsteps, do we make our own paths to the temptations of our lives.
All was quiet outside when he had dropped from the window; the noise in the village had completely died away; in the west, beyond the great, dim field of the Thackbusk, a pale after-glow from the sunset still lingered. The public-house at the corner was quiet, though it was lighted; he came out of the lane into the lower village-street; and, turning into the principal street, where the Rantan had begun, he began to mount the hill towards the Manor Farm. ”

“ The whole Rantan was in confusion in the lane, the grotesque banners were lowered, the clanging pans were silenced, the lads were gathered in terror-stricken groups, appalled at the consequences of their fun. No one noticed that from the back-door of the cottage an unseen figure had fled into the fields—it was Annie, with wrath and terror in her heart, escaping from this fresh misery in her life. Alas! the poor child—and alas! for such poor children who find their incentives to evil within the shelter of their homes. ”

“ As, saying these words, Tina pauses for a moment, with the novels and hair-pins in disorder at her feet, with her pretty hands twisted behind her back, her face uplifted, and her dark eyes bright with thoughts—in that instant’s repose let us seize the opportunity to claim for our own the picture that she makes. A dainty creature! small, slim, lithe, and dark, with a foreign grace, and a southern colouring, with full lips, whose redness relieves the darkness of her face, and with glowing eyes that have sparks and glints of light! ”

“ Ah! the Voice, the Voice in our hearts that comes to us from above, that speaks in our ears [115] and tells us what to do—what marvel if those who struggle in the tumult should long for the guidance that can heal and save—that Annie should raise her eyes in astonishment at the thought of a help so simple and direct, so different from all the blind and weary struggles that closed round her life like the gloom of mist at night? Mr Bender could see the inquiring eyes she raised, the dark, lovely eyes which seemed to plead for help ”

“ Within, all was bright and tending to cheerfulness, and Tim’s books would be piled on one of the wooden chairs; and, whilst he made mechanical drawings, or knit his brows in study, Alice’s strips of red knitting grew longer on her lap. It is so comfortable, in one’s times of trouble, to be near to another who has suffered like oneself, and to feel, through the silence of uninterrupted business, the presence of an unspoken [221] sympathy. But it is the sheep in the fold who can thus draw near to each other; the wanderers are in darkness and alone. ”

“ A contrast himself!—Mr Lee was not refined or pleasing, but his grey eyes were clear and bright beneath his brows, and every line of his harsh, rugged face was graved with a decision that almost rose to power. A passionate face, but with passion well-subdued, a face untender, proud, and illiterate, not softened by love, not refined by education, not enlarged by wide views, and general sympathy. ”

“ Mr Lee’ll be the t’other, I daresay; but that won’t be the same; I shall be glad to think as you will be near the child!’
Was that like Annie, so proud and self-sufficient, so scornful of the brother with whom she had shared her youth? Nat was very much touched, so much moved he could not speak; he went to the baby and kissed it, and then turned to her again. For a while he stood by her, and held her in his arms—his grasp had already the strong clasp of a man.
‘We’ll be better children,’ said Annie, as soon as she could speak. ‘An’ we’ll do better by mother as has been so good to us. ”

“ For the first time Nat felt drawn to forbidden pleasures, to anything that would still the raging thirst of life—he longed to enter the lighted public-house, to sing and dance there, and drink away his fear and shame. His old pride restrained him, that pride of old respectability which is too often the only safe-guard left. He would wait till he saw if the Squire had any suspicion ”

“ Let us go to Mr Lee; when we are once inside his house, the village and the Salters may look out for themselves.’
Her voice had risen, and her companion appeared to check it, to draw her away, to speak in lower tones; through the darkness came the sound of their retreating footsteps, like echoes becoming fainter in the night. It seemed to Jenny as if her brain were ringing, as if flakes of fire fell and shone before her eyes; when she lifted her head giddiness overpowered her, and she could not attempt to [227] follow them or rise. ”

“ But Nat sprang from his corner with the sudden, violent anger into which his impatience could be kindled by reproach, his cheeks flushed into feverish beauty, and his lips shaking with the emotion that quivered through his young frame like starts of pain. ‘It’s allays the way—it’s been allays so,’ he said; ‘ye care for my sister, but ye willent care for me. It’s nothin’ to ye as she’s the talk of all t’ village, as she’s shamed an’ disgraced you till she’s well-nigh mad with it. So long as it isn’t me ye can forgive, though I’ve done no harm, I’ve been allays good to ye. ”

“ The hearts of both men—even of the uncle—must have been beating quickly, for both were panting, and did not reply. Jenny stood in the midst of the room, very pale, and perfectly quiet, but with a self-possession that would have been impossible in her shrinking girlhood—the self-possession that comes with years and trials. Her dress showed signs of her long walk, but it could not conceal that her figure was slight; and her close black bonnet was no unfitting setting for her Madonna-like, worn, troubled face. ”

“ Yet never in vain is it for two human souls to be brought thus near together before the throne of God; that evening must have remained as a sanctifying influence in the minds and the lives of Annie and of Nat. They were not soon to meet; he went to work in London; and Annie was to share with her mother the home of Mr Lee.
That morning passed on, and before the strokes of noon the whole air was full of the sound of wedding-bells. Alice Robson and Tim Nicol had a bright day for their marriage; and many were the friends who came to see the sight. ”

“ Jenny asked no questions, and only said a word or two; and Annie kissed her, and went up to her room; whilst Nat, without kissing her, also stole upstairs, and undressed hastily, and lay down in his bed. He slept, village-fashion, in the corner of his mother’s room, which he had occupied almost since he was born.
He slept soon, heavily; the young slumber hard and well; but to his mother no such relief could come—the poor mother who felt a pang beneath her anger, because her boy could sleep though he would not speak to her. ”

“ It is true indeed that Tim had emerged from the darkness—but there are those whom the darkness overwhelms.
This then was the workman, lean, and lithe, and active, with an anxious brow, and ‘poor Annie’ on his lips, who parted from Nat in the grey light of the morning, and turned his footsteps towards the village streets. Some hours later, with a face that was still anxious, and yet with something like eagerness in his tread, he left the Farm where he had been breakfasting, and went down the hill towards Jenny Salter’s home. ”

“ Reckless, capricious, improvident, with no education in the laws of right and wrong, with a love of amusement which had never been restrained by any fear for another besides herself—Tina might have been held, in spite of comparative youth and innocence, to represent one part of the darker side of life, the type of woman who through all succeeding ages has been able to be the danger, if not the ruin, of man. ”

“ They went down the steep road, shouting, clashing, hooting, the evening stillness rebuking them as they went, and reached the bottom of the hill without any interruption, and turned forthwith into the lower village street. Men and women stood at their gates to see them pass, the mothers holding their babies in their arms; and little children, too young to join in the tumult, babbled at them with great excitement and delight. ”

“ Some hours later, when the evening light had faded and the crescent of the moon shone on the garden-paths—in the time of darkness and silence, of barred doors and closed windows, the lodgers at the Farm returned. Tim was waiting for them in the shadowed, moonlit yard, having undertaken that office in order that the yard-boy might go home—but he did not look on them with the eyes of favour, being displeased, like the rest of the household, at the lateness of their return. On their part, the lodgers appeared to be in the worst of tempers—they did not even speak to each other ”

“ DRESSING FOR DINNER AND, whilst poor Jenny was pursuing her lonely way through the darkness, one whom she deemed her enemy was in a very different case—Miss Tina Gillan, at that moment dressing for the evening, in an apartment of Mr Lee’s house at the top of Lindum Hill. It was a large room that had been prepared for her, the darkness and lights of the valley were hidden by closed blinds, there was a blazing fire which made cheerful, dancing radiance, and her dress for the evening was laid out upon the bed. ”

“ The village was grey in the early morning light, with a great stillness upon cottages and roads, though already blinds were drawn up, and doors open here and there, showing that the work of life was even now astir. ”

“ And still, as he wandered, and felt that he was lost, he could hear in the room above his sister’s tread, pacing ceaselessly up and down with restless footsteps, which seemed a part of the confusion of his dream, until, as deeper slumber closed on his fatigue, both footsteps and dream were lost in the stillness of the night—the night-time which bears on its pinions so many wandering fancies of the wandering souls soothed for a while to rest. No lasting relief can it give, and yet to men’s fierce impatience that interval of rest may not be quite in vain. ”

“ An hour later, in intensest midnight blackness, through which the lights in the streets shone at intervals, Nat found his way through the night-time, with faltering footsteps, as one scarce waked from a dream. He must find his sister, his mother, and give them what help he could; in time he might be able to think how to help himself. ”

“ Not parsimonious, but not at all luxurious, he had not the least love for society and its ways, and his establishment at the top of Lindum Hill was conducted with the utmost simplicity, though not penuriously. In the house with him were only his favourite attendant—a dark-faced, under-sized, active boy—an old woman who was his housekeeper and cook, and her husband, who had been his coachman many years. The cathedral bells chimed at a little distance from the house; beneath it lay the valley in endless lights and shades ”