Hetty

“ Hetty betrayed no annoyance or incredulity: she felt none. She was too sensible and reasonable a woman to have felt either, even if it had been simply a change of purpose on the doctor's own part which had brought him to Springton. The thing which had lent the shade of constraint to Hetty's voice, and which lay like an icy mountain on Hetty's heart, was the look which she had seen on his face, the tone which she had heard in his voice, as he greeted Rachel. In that instant was planted the second germ of unhappiness in Hetty's bosom. ”

“ Hetty was dressed in a dark crimson velvet frock, trimmed with rich old yellow lace, which enhanced the warmth and richness of her complexion, and gave a reflected glow to her dark and deep-fringed eyes. A crop of crisp short curls of a dusky chestnut colour was discovered when her hat was removed. No ungenerous prejudice prevented Mrs. Enderby from acknowledging at the first glance that Hetty had a most charming countenance.
"And this is Hetty! how she has grown!" said Mrs. Enderby, taking the child's little hand between her own and looking at her in a friendly manner. ”

“ Just heedless—that's about it, Hetty dear. Do you ever pray to be made heedful?"
"Oh, Matty! I'd never think of asking such a thing. I pray to be made good, and holy, and kept from saying bad words, like Emma Simmons, or stealing, like—"
"Now listen, Hetty. You've no temptations to do those things, thanks to your good, careful mother. It's just as if a railway man in the station down yonder should pray that he might not be drowned, when there is not so much as a pond in the place big enough to hold him, and never give a thought to the real dangers he lives among. ”

“ Again Hetty paused; and said still more pleadingly:
"Please look at me, Eben. Indeed I can't talk to you if you do not."
Like one stung suddenly by some insupportable pain, he wrenched her hands from his knees, sprang to his feet, and walked swiftly back and forth. She remained kneeling by the chair, looking up at him with a most piteous face.
"Hetty," he exclaimed, "you must be patient with me. Try and imagine what it is to have believed for ten years that you were dead; to have mourned you as dead; to have spent ten whole years of weary, comfortless days ”

“ The last evening spent by Hetty in the drawing-room at the Hall was that one on which she had entertained the company with her mimicries. Then, full of pride and delight in her own powers of giving amusement, she had felt herself in a position to despise all disapproval and dislike. Now, how was she fallen! Yet Mr. and Mrs. Enderby received her kindly, and paid her as much attention as if she had been an ordinary visitor. ”

“ Eben hesitated.
"I think sea-air might help her; but I am not sure," he replied.
"Would you go with us?" asked Hetty. "She wouldn't go without you." The doctor hesitated again. He looked into Hetty's eyes: they were fixed on his as steadily, as unembarrassedly, as if he and Hetty had been comrades for years. "What a woman she is," he thought to himself, "to coolly ask me to become their travelling physician, when for six weeks I have been coming to the house every day, and she would not even speak to me!" ”

“ Oh, ma'am, if you could only forgive me, I'd take heart and try to do better. I'll take Matty's way now, for I'm sure it's the right one."
"You are quite right, Hetty. We are all of us more given to one fault than to others, and only God can cure us of them. He gives us time, and grace, and many lessons; some, sad ones. This has been a sad one to you, but you see it has opened your eyes to your sin. As to forgiving you, I do indeed, Hetty, and so does Mr. Eyre."
"And Miss Flo? Oh! Does she forget me altogether?"
"Forget you? No, indeed—she is never done crying for you. ”

“ But Hetty, you are a jolly queer girl I can tell you, and I can't half understand you. Think of anyone standing two hours to be pierced through and through with cold, rather than drop a fellow's string and run away!"
Hetty looked at him wistfully, recognizing the truth that he never could understand the sort of feeling that led her into making, as he considered, such a fool of herself. Miss Davis gazed at her kindly and pityingly, thinking of how many hard blows she would get in the future, in return for acts like that which had so puzzled Mark. ”

“ If your love for me bore you up through that lie, it can bear you up through this."
"Shall we never go home, Eben?" asked Hetty sadly.
"To Welbury? to New England? never!" replied her husband with a terrible emphasis. "Never will I take you there to draw down upon our heads all the intolerable shame, and gossiping talk which would follow. I tell you, Hetty, you are dead! I am shielding your name, the name of my dead wife! You don't seem to comprehend in the least that you have been dead for ten years. ”

“ The harsh New England May laid aside for them all its treacheries, and was indeed the month of spring. Their mornings they spent on the water, rowing or sailing; their afternoons in driving through the budding and blossoming country. Always the baby lay in Hetty's lap: from the beginning, his nurse had found herself perpetually set aside by Hetty's imperious affection. As Eben Williams looked, day after day, on the picture which Hetty and the baby made, he found himself day after day more and more bewildered by Hetty. ”

“ Hetty clasped her hands, and said pleadingly:
“Oh no! not only as priest: you are a good man. My father always said so. We were not Catholics; and I could not be of any other religion than my father's, now he is dead,” (here Hetty unconsciously touched a chord in Antoine Ladeau's breast, which gave quick response) : “but I recollected how he trusted you, and I said, if I can hide myself in that little village, Father Antoine will be good to me for my father's sake. ”

“ Sally and Raby slept on. Still Doctor Eben held Hetty close, and looked with a keen and exultant gaze into her eyes.
“It isn't fair when I am so cold and sleepy,” whispered Hetty, with a half twinkle in her half-open eyes.
“It is fair! It is fair! Any thing is fair! Every thing is fair,” exclaimed the doctor in a whisper which seemed to ring like a shout, and he kissed Hetty again and again. Still Sally and Raby slept on: the hickory fire leaped up as in joy ”

“ As the gay procession moved away crying, "Good-night, good-night!" Hetty stood on the porch and watched them. She was on the point of calling them back. A strange dread of being left alone seized upon her. Never since she had forsaken her home had she felt such a sense of loneliness, except when she was crouched under the hemlock-trees by the lake. She watched till she could no longer see even a fluttering motion in the distance. Then she went into the house. The silence smote her. She turned and went out again, and went to the paddock, where the little lamb was bleating. ”

“ Eben.
"Oh, no!" replied Hetty, "I did not mean such sea-shore as this. But even here, I should find it sad if I were alone."
"All places are sad if one is alone, Miss Gunn," replied the doctor, in a pensive tone, rare with him.
Hetty turned a surprised glance at him, and did not speak for a moment. Then she said:
"Yes; but nobody need be alone: there are always plenty of people to take into one's house. ”

“ In a few minutes, Hetty came back with hot broth which she had prepared for him. Her light step did not rouse him. She stood still by his chair, looking down on his face. His clear-cut features, always handsome, were grand in sleep. The solemnity of closed eyes adds to a noble face something which is always very impressive. He stirred uneasily, and said in his sleep, "Hetty." ”

“ Eben walked up to the spot where Hetty sat under one of the old Balm of Gilead trees sewing, with the baby in its cradle at her feet. It was still early morning: the Safe Haven spires shone in the sun, and the little fishing schooners were racing out to sea before the wind. This was one of the prettiest sights from the beach at “The Runs.” Every morning scores of little fishing vessels came down the river, shot past like arrows, and disappeared beyond the bar. ”

“ If he were an ugly dwarf, I should love him just as well. Oh, Hetty, if you only knew how good he was to me, when I was sick seven years ago! I should have died if it hadn't been for him. There wasn't a woman at the Corners that ever came near me, except Mrs. Patrick, the Irish woman I boarded with; and, he used to stop and make broth for me, on my stove, with his own hands, and sit and hold the baby on his knees, and talk to me so beautifully about her. ”

“ Hetty, has she eaten anything since we went out?"
"No, ma'am."
"Take me to bed!" cried Flo desperately. "I will go to bed. Mamma, give Lina and Edgar the biscuits; do, mamma, please."
Hetty put her to bed; she was very silent, until she was tucked snugly into her little white nest, when she said, "Good-night, Hetty. I am a very unhappy person. After what has happened, no one will love me."
Hetty laughed, and kissed her. "That's a funny notion, Miss Flo. Why, here's Zelica. After being asleep the whole evening, she is wide awake now; I had better take her back to the parlour." ”

“ Presently steps were heard; then a voice saying cheerfully, "There, Lina; well done—you have run like a lamplighter. Are you very wet, Celia? Here we are safe at home, and nobody a bit the worse. Hilloa! What's this? Who are you, girl? What are you doing here? Why, Celia, it is Hetty!"
"Hetty!" exclaimed Mrs. Eyre, hurrying forward. "Oh, Hetty! how did this happen? Some one knocked, I suppose, and the door shut of itself; that happened to me once. Oh, my poor little Flo! You should have been more careful, Hetty. John, dear, open the door; you have the latchkey." ”

“ Macgowan walked away with a certain lofty, indifferent air, which English people so well understand, of washing one's hands of matters generally.
There had, indeed, been a sore struggle between Hetty and her husband on this matter of their being remarried by Father Antoine. When Dr. Eben first said to her: “And now, what are we to do, Hetty?” she looked at him in an agony of terror and gasped:
“Why, Eben, there is only one thing for us to do; don't we belong to each other? don't you love me? ”

“ I tiptoed over to grandmamma's mantel, and looked at her little French clock. It was late! Eight, and past, and Hetty had not called us. What could be the matter?
Down I flew to find out what ailed Aunt Hetty. She was usually an early riser.
Before I reached her room, which was on the same floor with the kitchen, I heard groans issuing from it, and Hetty's voice saying: "Dear me! Oh, dear me!" in the most despairing, agonizing tones. Hetty always makes the most of a "misery in her bones." ”

“ Father Antoine's rosy face turned rosier. He was not used among his docile Canadians to any such speech as this. The unvarnished fashions of New England honesty grated on his ear.
"It is not well for men of one religion to rail at the men of another," he said gravely. "I doubt not, there are those whom the Lord loves in all religions; but there is but one true Church."
"Forgive me," said Hetty, in a meeker tone. "I did not mean to be rude: but I thought I ought not to let you have such a mistaken idea about father. Oh, please, be my friend, Father Antoine!" ”

“ At last becoming thoroughly tired she closed her book and raised her eyes wearily, when they fell on a jar of wild flowers which yesterday she had arranged and placed upon a bracket against the wall. It was spring, and in the jar was a cluster of pale wood-anemones with some sprays of bramble newly leafed. Hetty's eyes brightened at the sight of these flowers, and noted keenly every exquisite outline and delicate hue of the group. It seemed to her at the moment that she had never seen anything so beautiful before. ”

“ And Pierre, reassured by this maternal carte blanche for the best lie he could think of, raced away, first tucking securely into a niche of the stone basin the little pot with a red carnation in it which he had brought for his contribution to the birthday fète.
When Hetty saw Pierre waiting at the corner, she exclaimed:
“What, Pierre, loitering here! The sunset is no time to idle. Where are your goats?” ”

“ Hetty heard poor little Flo giving way to a most unusual fit of whining.
"Why can you not give me cherries, mamma? Only one pennyworth!"
And Hetty heard no more, for she closed the hall door and ran on down the terrace.
"Poor Mrs. Eyre!" thought she, "not to be able to spare one penny, when the dear little soul wants them so badly. Oh I declare I might get some for her myself; that sixpence of Ned's is in my pocket."
She ran after the woman and bought two bunches, each containing six or seven cherries. These she popped into her pocket, as she had not time to run back with them. ”

“ The last glimpse I got of Hetty, she was sitting very close to her husband, and looking into his face. That poor young face of his looked worn and anxious enough, but Hetty knew nothing of the anxiety, and nothing of Jack’s fall from the paths of honour;—to her he was a prince—the first of men.
I sighed as I left the railway station. “Poor Jack!” I said to myself, “the path that lies before him will not be too easy to climb. Fancy having a little wife like Hetty to look after and support, and no means whatever to earn money for either of them. ”

“ The little Enderbys were thinking how very odd it was that the little girl whom they had often seen, as they walked with their nurse or drove past in the carriage with their mother, playing on the roads in a soiled pinafore, should be now presented to them as a new cousin. Phyllis, the eldest, was much displeased, for pride was her ruling fault. Mark and Nell were charmed with the transformation in Hetty and very much disposed to accept her as a playfellow, though they remembered all the time that she was not their equal. ”