Norah

“ AN ARMISTICE LORD LYNBOROUGH walked down to the edge of the terrace; Lady Norah stood half hidden in the shrubbery.
“And that, I suppose, ought to end the matter?” he asked. “I ought at once to abandon all my pretensions and to give up my path?”
“I just thought you might like to know it,” said Norah.
“Actually I believe I do like to know it—though what Roger would say to me about that I really can’t imagine. You’re mistaking my character, Lady Norah. I’m not the hero of this piece. There are several gentlemen from among whom you can choose one for that effective part. ”

“ Norah, speak! What are you thinking about?” He had to bend forward to hear the answer, for Norah’s lips were dry, and her throat parched as with thirst.
“Poor father!” she gasped; and Rex started at the sound with a stab of pain.
“Don’t! I can’t bear it. Norah, for pity’s sake don’t give in—don’t give up hope. Something will happen—it will—it must! We shall get out all right.”
“But if we can’t go forward, and if we can’t go back, and if no one can hear us call,” said Norah, still in the same slow, gasping accents, “I don’t see—how—we can. ... Rex! ”

“ But who are believers, Norah? Though heaven lie straight afore us all, I take it that few will be so bold as to say that all who are called Christians will get to heaven."
Norah did not answer for two or three minutes, and then said, "Are not believers those who love the Lord Jesus Christ?"
"Right again!" cried Ned Franks. "And now tell me, Norah, is it not true that when we love any one much, we are ready and glad to do something for his sake?" ”

“ Norah broke in with a passionate gesture.
"Hush, for shame on ye!" spoke her mother. "Have ye no pride? The man's yours, and he knows he's yours, and what's to fear, I want to know?"
Norah gave a bitter laugh. "D'ye think all men are like your own husband?" she asked harshly. "Nolan's turned from me to her." ”

“ Norah murmured, suddenly beginning to be Pat's champion in this wild adventure, though she had advised against it. “As for you—he thinks he can protect you, if you'll trust him. And, oh, Ourïeda, dear little rose, though I am very anxious, I believe you can trust him. He would rather die than live without you.”
“And I, rather than live without him. Oh, if we can but die together, for me it will be sweet! Norah, you give me courage and strength. I will try to do what he wishes.”
“I will help. Is there some door which leads into your father's part of the house—another as well as this grille?” ”

“ Now, Norah! Don't go off. I'm as sure as my name's Thomas Openshaw that you knew nothing of this robbery. But I do think you've been imposed on, and that's the truth. Some good-for-nothing chap has been making up to you, and you've been just like all other women, and have turned a soft place in your heart to him; and he came last night a-lovyering, and you had him up in the nursery, and he made use of his opportunities, and made off with a few things on his way down! Come, now, Norah; it's no blame to you, only you must not be such a fool again! ”

“ Norah bore the epithet meekly—she held the view that it was better to be dead than fat. There was something boyish in the straight, slim figure in the blue linen frock—perhaps the quality was also to be found in a frank manner that was the product of years of the Bush and open-air life. The grey eyes were steady, and met those of others with a straight level glance; the mouth was a little firm-set for her years, but the child was revealed when it broke into smiles—and Norah was rarely grave. No human power had yet been discovered to keep in order the brown curls. ”

“ Norah rose to go, without a word. Her thoughts were these:
'If they tear me to pieces, they shall never know through me. He may come—and then, just Lord have mercy upon us all! for some of us are dead folk to a certainty. But he shall do it; not me.'
You may fancy, now, her look of determination, as she faced her master alone in the dining-room; Mr and Mrs Chadwick having left the affair in their nephew's hands, seeing that he took it up with such vehemence. ”

“ Thank you, Norah.” Rex turned his head aside quickly, but Norah saw that he was trembling with emotion, and waited in awed suspense for his next words.
“Norah—it is a long time—three years—five years—I can’t tell which it may be. I shall think of you all the time. There never will be anyone else for me; but it will be different with you. You will meet new friends up in London. There will be other fellows—better than I am—who will care for you too. ”

“ As a rule the Marchesa admired and applauded Norah’s candour, praising it for a certain patrician flavour—Norah spoke her mind, let the crowd think what it would! On this occasion she was somehow less pleased; she was even a little startled. She was conscious that any man with whom Norah was gracious enough to fall in love would be subjected to no ordinary assault; the Irish colouring is bad to beat, and Norah had it to perfection; moreover, the aforesaid candour makes matters move ahead.
“After all, it’s my path he’s trespassing on, Norah,” the Marchesa remonstrated. ”

“ And lo! between Norah and the window there suddenly appeared a little old woman in a long cloak, whose features were hidden by the large hood she wore.
"Oh!" exclaimed Norah, almost breathless in her astonishment and delight.
"I have come," said the stranger in cracked, quavering tones.
"I'm so glad to see you," replied Norah politely, too excited to feel shy.
"I—your fairy godmother—am here to test you and see if you are really worthy. See this slate which I have brought under my cloak. Every little lady should be able to do arithmetic right. Can you do this sum?" ”

“ Norah knew that not one could be harboured and indulged, save at the peril of her soul. She felt that the religion which does not purify the life is not true religion at all.
Norah's mind was so restless and uneasy as she sat down to her work, that even the prospect of the amusement before her, gave as much pain as pleasure. She dared not think of her uncle, far less of those truths which she had heard from his lips.
When we yield to one temptation we have less power to resist another. Waters entering through the narrowest breach soon make for themselves a wider way. ”

“ All the years the home had helped him to fight his loneliness and his longing. Now——. He stared at it with eyes suddenly grown old.
Then across the grass came a little odd figure—Norah, still grimy with smoke, and very shaky, with Brownie’s arm near her to help, and Jean not far off. Norah, her coat open over her blue pyjamas, and her hair, in her own phrase, “all anyhow,” about her, and her grey eyes swimming as she looked from the house to her father’s face. David Linton put down the hose and held out his hand to her silently, and Norah clung to him. ”

“ He lay on his back under a little tree, his battered old felt hat pulled over his eyes, and his skinny limbs flung carelessly in the abandonment of sleep. His mouth was wide-open, and snores proceeded from him steadily.
“Sweet child,” said Wally admiringly. “Nothing lovelier than a sleeping cherub, is there? What did I tell you, young Norah Linton? Grovel.”
“I grovel,” whispered Norah, laughing. “Poor old Billy, he must have been horribly dull.”
“Not he, lazy young nigger. Plenty to eat and nothing to do is a blackfellow’s heaven,” responded Wally, in an energetic whisper. ”

“ Now you'll think, after this, Norah got married to some great lord;—but she hadn't the luck. The fairest bird in the air gets caught for its plumage; while the owl, and birds like him, go through the world with little danger; and just so, beauty, that always adorns, too often destroys, them that has it:—but that you've heard before, no doubt, in them same or other words, and a great deal more, to the back of it, which I could spake, if I liked, but I won't. It will answer every purpose, I hope, if I say plainly, that it got whispered Norah had met with a misfortune. ”

“ Suddenly he leaned over Norah. "What made ye come here, Norah? What were ye after?"
"Where should a woman be but with her husband?" she answered evasively.
"Thrue for you," he said with a strange look. He knew that he had torn her heart. "Thrue for ye. Where should she be except with her husband—and the child."
She stared at him. Her face grew white. "The child!" she murmured. "Shure, I have no head, Nolan. I don't see at all. at all. I am sorry I spoke so wild and bad to the girl, but there was something in me that drove me crazy. And I don't understand, Nolan dear." ”

“ And the story of that interposition would be scored up against me, in the family debtor and creditor account, to be used as another missile, when the tale of Norah’s clumsiness, bearishness, multitudinous stupidities, was once more the well-worn domestic theme. How amusing it would be to recall the day when the five men took her out to dine. How incredible it seemed, and, indeed, was. One must have dreamed it. By degrees, quite possibly, a legend would grow up that it was an elaborate practical joke which those five gentlemen had planned among themselves. ”

“ Norah, has Mr Hammond really done as he says? What have you been doing?”
She favoured me with an accusatory glance, as if I had been guilty of the blackest crimes. Audrey came to my rescue.
“To do her justice, so far as I have seen, Norah has been doing nothing. Norah has been sitting mumchance; scarcely saying boo! to a goose, as if she were on prickles. The men appear to have done all the doing—unless they have been indulging in an elaborate practical joke, at her expense, and ours, which they have already carried too far to be in the best of taste. ”

“ Instinctively I knew that her sin—not sin, but mistake—was due to her innocence. And some day Norah might become like Gourock Ellen. The thought terrified me, and almost drove me frantic. Only now did I know what Norah Ryan really meant to me. For her I lived, and for her alone. I loved her, then it was my duty to help her. Love is unworthy of the name unless it proves its worth when put to the test. I went to Glasgow and made enquiries for my sweetheart. ”

“ Norah got paler and much thinner, and her lips lost their colour, and her eyes sunk; but she was just as tidy as before, and held up her head bouldly, in spite of the sneers of her neighbours; so that the few half-friends she had left was obliged to confess she was a bit too barefaced. ”

“ Martin, and Norah, who was waiting at the table, watched with interest to see the result.
"Worthless, every one of them!" cried Mr. Lowndes, first replacing the coins in their bag, and then the spectacles in their case. "It is well for your little maid there that she did not attempt to pass them, unless she could easily prove that she had nothing to do with Puller or any of his set."
Norah felt like a rider who has suddenly reined up on the brink of a dangerous precipice, and who looks down, shuddering but thankful, on the deep chasm into which he so nearly had fallen! ”

“ The girl was ashamed of her mistake, and at once set it right, but it was soon followed by another. Norah turned over two pages at once and read on, quite unconscious that her blunder rendered a sentence absolute nonsense.
Again Mrs. Martin recalled her to herself in a patient, gentle way; but Norah still read in so dull and lifeless a manner, that it could be no pleasure to hear her.
"You may shut the book, Norah," said the lady; "perhaps yesterday's long walk has tired you; I will only have my evening chapter from the Bible; there is no reading like that." ”

“ Norah caught his arm.
“Wally! Look there.”
From behind the tent suddenly emerged a figure, looking round cautiously. As she straightened up they could see her face plainly—a black woman, shapeless and bent as in the manner of all black “gins,” when their first youth is passed. Her broad face, hideous in its dark ugliness, shone with the peculiar polish of black skins. She was dressed in rags, principally of sacking, amidst which could be seen the remnant of an old print frock that had once been red ”

“ For one moment Norah was stupefied with amazement, the next her eyes shone, and the dimples dipped in her cheeks, for with a flash of intuition she had grasped the significance of the situation! What the advanced lady really desired was not a companion who would talk and air her own opinions, but a dummy figure to whom she herself could lay down the law ”

“ Norah held her left hand high in the air, and began checking off the fingers with ostentatious emphasis. “I resolve always to get up in the morning as soon as I am called, and without a single grumble; always to be amiable when annoyed; always to do what other people like, and what I dislike myself; always to be good-tempered with the boys, and smile upon them when they pull my hair and play tricks with my things; always be cheerful, contented, ladylike in deportment, and agreeable in manner. ”

“ I wouldn’t go into that room now, after what he has heard, for fifty thousand pounds!”
“Norah, look here, if you will go and sit with him until four o’clock, Lettice and I will finish your work between us, and we will all come and have tea in the drawing-room, and help you out for the rest of the afternoon!”
“Yes, Norah, we will; and I’ll give you that pink ribbon for your hair. Do, Norah! there’s a good girl. You won’t mind a bit after the first moment.” ”

“ Norah explained, lucidly. “It’s Wally Meadows—my brother’s chum.” At which Wally removed his hat and said: “How do you do?” with such fervour that it seemed that his peace of mind hung upon Miss Winter’s answer. That severe person’s coldness was a trifle modified as she answered, but it was Arctic again when she turned back to Norah.
“I saw you crossing the grass—and the flower bed!” she remarked. “Such conduct is inexcusable, Norah—I am amazed at you. The garden is not the hockey field, nor is the arrival of any friend to be the signal for such conduct!” ”