Nannette

“ Leaving the doll leaning in a one-sided way against the door, Nannette posed her dimpled chin in her hands, and sat quietly looking into the street. Presently a woman came along with a bundle in her arms, and seeing Nannette and "Didy" in the doorway, went up the steps and asked the little girl if she would not like to have a real little live baby.
"One that will cry?" eagerly asked Nannette. ”

“ Ethel answered with suppressed eagerness.
“Impossible, in my invalid condition.”
“Aunt Nannette,” cried Ethel, throwing down the paper and clasping her hands together in her excitement, “people will be flocking there from all parts of the land and the civilized world. I have a presentiment that my mother will be there, and that we shall meet her if we go!”
“Child, child! do you really think it?” cried the Madame, starting up, then sinking back again upon her cushions panting and trembling.
“I do, Aunt Nannette, I do indeed! and we shall never, never have such another opportunity. ”

“ I am glad my dearest wife got safe home, and without being whipped, for I should be very jealous if anyone should peep into Nannette's backside but myself. I assure you when I have got you once more in my arms, I'll so belabour it I'll make it black and blue, and cram it full of my elixir to nourish young Lord Tunbridge. Adieu my soul's life; think of your own. ”

“ From the library Ethel went up to the schoolroom, where Nannette and the younger cousins were engaged with their tasks for the morrow.
“Oh, I’m so glad you’ve come at last, Ethel, dear,” said Nannette. “It always seems lonesome without you, and besides I want your help with this lesson; it’s so hard, and you always know how to explain things and make them easy.” ”

“ Dorothea and Junior were allowed to sit up far beyond their usual bedtime, and after they were at last quiet upstairs, Eugene and Nannette continued to sit and read, loth to leave until their young victim should return repentant and they could tell her just what they thought of her for her base ingratitude. When you know you have done wrong yourself there is nothing so soothing as to be able to scold some one else.
When Nannette finally went upstairs to bed she took the borrowed fox fur and flung it across Joyce’s bed, with its tail dragging on the floor. ”

“ Blanche had her sewing also, and Ethel some of the fine needlework taught her years before by Mrs. Coote. They could not forget their recent bereavement, and often when alone together their tears would fall as they thought or talked of Nannette, rejoicing for her that she had safely reached the better land, but mourning for themselves that they would see her dear face no more upon earth. ”

“ The words burst involuntarily from her lips:
"Oh, how ugly!"
"She is uglier than she looks," said Nannette. "She has ruined more men than any other woman in the city. She has kicked that fool out half a dozen times because he did not give her more money. I should not wonder now, if he has stolen his wife's watch to give that wretch."
And this was the woman that Athalia had been toiling for her husband to pamper. ”

“ At night you be,
With waxen taper light to bed
By poor Nannette, your chambermaid.
Enter Lapoche, gets round, and turns Nannette from Henry.
Lap. Ah! here is fine doings in my house!—And you come here vid your vaxen taper, and your caper; your smile and your smirk, on dis English boy—Pardi! I vill knock his head against de— [Turns to Henry.] Hope you had a good sleep, sir. [To Nannette.] Get you down stair—I vill tump his nose flat; allez, allez! [Exit Nannette.] ”

“ She always wanted a daughter you know. And after Aunt Helen died,—she didn’t live many months after her husband, just faded away you know—why mother did everything for Joyce.”
“Well, I think she did more than she had any right to do for just a niece,” said Nannette scornfully. “It’s time you had your innings. I think your mother should have thought of her own son and her grandchildren, and not lavished fox furs on a mere relation. She just spoiled Joyce. She thinks she has to live in luxury, and it’s going to be very hard to break her in to working for her living.” ”

“ At that Nannette looked up piteously, and with quivering lip, into Ethel’s face, but did not dare to so much as whimper. It was a very faint and watery smile Ethel gave her in reply.
They were hurried into the dining room, a barely furnished apartment with whitewashed walls, green paper window blinds, and rag carpet; exquisitely neat and clean, but wearing like its mistress a cold and cheerless aspect in striking contrast with the beautiful homes of their uncles, which the children had left but a few hours before. ”

“ Enter Nannette.
Nan. Oh, madam! madam! here my master has brought in a new lodger with him; the charmingest, beautifulest young officer—our countryman too!—
Lord W. Young officer!
Nan. I ask pardon, sir; I didn't see you.
Lord W. Then I see the necessity for our immediate departure: I'll instantly order a chaise, and remove you, my love, out of this group of jockeys, grooms, peers, and pickpockets.
[Exit.
Nan. Ah, madam! See all the men in the globe, give me an Englishman after all!—This pretty officer— [Opens the folding Doors wider—Henry discovered asleep on a Sofa.] —Dear madam, look! ”

“ How soon will Joyce be back?” “Why, I’m not just sure,” shifted Nannette uneasily. “Couldn’t I give her a message?”
“Well, you might tell her Martha Bryan called up to know if she would take her Sunday-school class next Sunday. I know it’s a little hard on her to ask her to do it just now when she’s been through trouble, but she isn’t one to sit down and eat her heart out when there’s work to be done, and I thought perhaps it would help her over a hard day to feel she was doing the Lord’s work. She and her Aunt Mary always were ones you could rely on to help. ”

“ Several years had passed, bringing to the members of our little family scarce any changes except such as time brings to the young and growing everywhere. Ethel was more mature in looks and manners, Harry becoming quite manly in appearance, and in character also, the two younger girls were budding into lovely womanhood, Nannette being especially winsome in manner. ”

“ Well, she isn’t spoiled, that’s one thing certain, but it always seems to me when you work real hard to escape one trouble, you’re like as not to run head on to another that’s about as bad. Look what’s happened now. I don’t blame Joyce Radway one little mite for not standing that Nannette. She’s got a tongue like a hissing serpent, and she can wind that light-minded, weak-chinned, bull-headed husband of hers around her little finger. How that poor bag of meal ever came to be Mary Massey’s son I can’t figure, even with a husband like Hiram Massey, for Mary Massey was the salt of the earth. ”

“ It was necessary that I purchase the raiment needful to the young Marquis de Grez according to his state, and for the Marquise his sister also. It was not to be contemplated that we should travel except in apartments of the very best in the ship. Is not gold enough in America even for sending in great sums for relief of suffering? Have I not seen it given in the streets of Paris? Is it not there for us? Do you make me reproaches?” And Nannette began to weep into the fine lawn of her nurse’s handkerchief. ”

“ Every summer she, Blanche, Harry, and Nannette had the great pleasure of a visit to Mr. Donald Keith’s; and to the ladies there Ethel opened her heart, earnestly asking advice as to her future course.
Both replied, “You are too young yet to go into any kind of business, and are doing the right thing in trying to learn all you can.” That gave her great encouragement, though she felt it hard to wait, and often wished she could grow up faster. ”

“ It cannot do any harm,” said her uncle Albert.
Blanche and Nannette eagerly awaited the return of their brother and sister, and on their coming besieged them with questions, asking what their uncles thought and said, and what was going to be done to find “Grandpa and Grandma Eyre.” Neither Ethel nor Harry was disposed to keep anything back, but the others were disappointed that there was so little to tell, and were almost indignant that it should be thought that their grandparents were dead. They urged Ethel to write at once and find out certainly whether they were or not. ”

“ It was George Wendall.
"See the fun"—what could it mean? She felt like anything but fun. Is it fun for a man to see a woman's heart broken?
They went on, Fred remarking, "she is dev'lish pretty; curse me if I don't try my hand there. I will walk into her affections." [186]
Such is the opinion of the roué—that the door of woman's affections is always open for every self-conceited puppy to walk in.
Her heart was in her throat. She choked it down, and went in and inquired for Miss Nannette, and was shown up to her room. A gentleman was there, whom Nannette introduced as Mr. ”

“ The world was getting too healthy. Has it ever struck you that we have neither of us been sick for a day this year? I have had to mother the chickens, but there has been no [pg. 149] suffering. I'm not glad to have pain come into the world, but it is good to be able to alleviate it. We will put Nannette in a sling till her leg has a chance to set, and by the time it is well she won't want to leave us. As for the kids, I expect they will be like the plague of frogs, and we shall find them in our beds and our ovens and our kneading troughs. Oh, Adam, there is the house! ”

“ Those letters were deliberate forgeries, but the innocent little ones never dreamed of such deceit and wickedness on the part of the man who professed to be so good, and poor Ethel was well nigh heartbroken that her uncles should think so ill of her and her dear little brother and sisters, and write so cruelly to them.
She tried very hard to be good and industrious at her tasks, wanting the time to come as soon as possible when she would be able to support herself, Blanche, Harry, and Nannette. ”

“ They discussed it a long time after they got home and Eugene had got done scolding his wife for having been the cause of Joyce’s leaving. Eugene wanted to get a detective at once and find Joyce. He was frantic. He couldn’t stand the night through with this matter of the house facing him. He even had the telephone in his hand to call up a detective bureau in the city, but Nannette grappled with him for it, and pleaded with him to be reasonable for once.
“Just as soon as you get a detective the whole thing will be out, and everybody will be talking. ”

“ I wonder what is to become of them. If I were only a rich man instead of a poor one with a family of my own to support—ah, well! I hope there are relatives somewhere who will see that they are clothed, fed, and educated.”
CHAPTER II.
“Oh, papa is better, dear, dear papa!” cried Ethel, jumping and dancing in delight.
“Oh, I’m so glad! I’m so glad!” cried Blanche and Harry in chorus.
“I so blad! I so blad!” echoed Nannette. “But I don’t want to doe home, Ethel; I’se tired.”
“Then we’ll go and sit down a while under the trees by the little brook over yonder,” returned Ethel in soothing tones. ”

“ Let him go to the dogs. Probably he never saw Joyce at all. What difference does it make if he did? Serves her right if she gets in trouble. [65] I’m not going to hunt him up that’s certain. I’ll get a detective. What’s he got to do with Joyce anyhow I’d like to know?”
“Then everybody’ll find out—” wailed Nannette.
“What’s the difference if they do? They’ll find out if she doesn’t come back at all, won’t they? You haven’t a brain cell working. You’re just like a woman—!”
“But Gene, why don’t you see that this man is the only clue you have to where she was last seen?” ”

“ Morgan discovers the depth of depravity to which one of those teachers had dragged down her husband. Yet, no sooner is Athalia placed by misfortune in a position to be subject to temptation, than she offers [231] her gratuitous services to Mrs. Laylor, to effect her complete ruin. What for? Who can answer? I cannot, unless the fable of the fox that lost his tail in a trap, will give a cue to the solution. I fear, that we are too apt to wish others no better than ourselves. It must have been some such motive that actuated Nannette: the little pecuniary advantage offered by Mrs. ”

“ You think it's dreadful, Nannie, to be blind, and I used to think so too. But God never takes anything from us without giving us something else to make up for it. You think I sit in the dark always; but it isn't dark, Nannie; it's all light—a light brighter than the sun: it's the light of heaven; I see it constantly. It isn't only those that live in heaven that can say they have no need of the sun or moon, for the Lamb is their light: I can say it too.—Yes," she went on, more to herself than Nannie,—"yes, dear Saviour, thou art my light." ”

“ People that have always had their sight only see something different when they go to heaven; but I haven't seen anything for ten years. Just think what it will be to me to see those beautiful things you read about!"
"What are they, Nannie?"
Nannie said, "Golden streets, gates of pearl, the tree of life, the wall of jasper. I don't remember any more."
"And Jesus, Nannie; you don't forget him? Think of these poor blind eyes, that have seen nothing for so long, opening at last upon his face! I love to think of those blind people Jesus healed, and think that he was the first thing they saw." ”

“ Nanette, I can't believe it. I can't believe that this great and beautiful woman could give in like that. Everywhere you see the small ones breaking down. But the great spirits like hers—oh they must keep up. What else is there left for us if they give up, too?
Nanette. If you could hear her talk, Monsieur Robert. The things she says.... Sometimes I have to run away and lock my door. I am afraid of her.
Robert. I cannot stay now, Nanette. I couldn't bear it. It was hard enough for me before. What can I say to her, Nanette, when my own grief finds no comfort? Maurice was like my own son. ”