Teesdale

“ Teesdale lay back and stared at the ceiling, thinking hard. She thought of their long married life together; and had she been a good wife to David? She thought of the easy-going, sweet-tempered young man who had made laughing love to her long ago in some Yorkshire lane; of the middle-aged philosopher who had found it rather amusing than otherwise to watch worse men making their fortunes while he stood still and chuckled; of the frail, white-haired sleeper who would presently awake with a smile to one day more of indolence and unsuccess. ”

“ Teesdale turned upon him as fiercely as though he had spoken from a brief in Missy's defence.
“What if she had confessed? I'm ashamed of you, David, going on as though that could ha' made any difference! She'd still have deceived us and lied to us all these weeks. Black is black and this—this woman—is that black that God Himself couldn't whiten her!”
And Mrs. Teesdale shook her fist at the guilty girl. ”

“ Mr. Teesdale was discovered in earnest expostulation with the girl from England, who was smoking his pipe. She had jumped on to the wooden armchair upon which, a moment ago, she had no doubt been seated; now she was dancing upon it, slowly and rhythmically, from one foot to the other, and while holding the long clay well above the old man's reach, she kept puffing at it with such immense energy that the smoke hung in a cloud about her rakish fringe and wicked smile, under the verandah slates. A smile flickered also across the entreating face of David Teesdale ”

“ This surprised them; it had the air of a sudden thought as suddenly spoken.
“But Miriam's your name,” said Arabella, laughing.
“Your father has never spoken of you as anything else,” remarked Mr. Teesdale.
“All the same, I'm not used to being called by it,” replied their visitor, who for the first time was exhibiting signs of confusion. “I like people to call me what I'm accustomed to being called. You may say it's a pet name, but it's what I'm used to, and I like it best.”
“What is, missy?” said old Teesdale kindly; for the girl was staring absently at the opposite wall. ”

“ Fancy taking such a creature for me! It was scarcely a compliment, Mrs. Teesdale. A more utterly vulgar person one could hardly wish to see.”
“My dear,” began Mr. Teesdale nervously, “she behaved very badly, we know; yet she had her good points——”
“Hold your tongue, David!” cried his wife, whom nothing incensed more than a good word for Missy. “She curry-favoured with you, so you try to whitewash her. I wonder what Miriam will think of you? However, Miriam, I can tell you that I never believed in her—never once! ”

“ Teesdale went on to say:
"Capital, bravo, excellent! Always look to you, Whicher, to sing us a good song! First time I heard you sing that was years ago, when our old friend Hardy gave us a supper on the occasion of opening his dancing school! Poor Hardy, not well, eh? or he'd have been here among us! Push the bowl about, eh? Ah, we're likely to have plenty of that sort of fun soon, if I'm correctly informed!"
"What's that, Muster Teesdale?" asked Farmer Adams. "Somebody going to be married, eh?"
"No, no, one at a time, Adams, one at a time." ”

“ I’ve never seen it myself; but I’ve lived five miles from it all my life, an’ it’s a fine, famous place is th’ High Force.” A fair sample of what the inhabitant of Upper Teesdale knows, or cares to know. This singular incuriousness is almost general. The facts of Nature are accepted as matters of course, and without inquiry. The report of the adventurous traveller is enough. In the first fifty miles of wandering by Tees-side I encountered only one man who was proud of his information, and this related exclusively to the places of public entertainment in the village of Yarm. ”

“ Suddenly she raised hers, looked him in the eyes, and burst out laughing.
“How clever you are!” she said. “I'm not a bit like that now, now am I?”
She made him look well at her before answering. And in all his after knowledge of it, he never again saw quite so bold and dibonnaire an expression upon that cool face framed in so much hot hair. But from a mistaken sense of politeness, Mr. Teesdale made a disingenuous answer after all, and the subject of conversation veered from the girl who had come out to Australia to those she had left behind her in the old country. ”

“ Teesdale access to him, yesterday. There is some disputed election account, and Mr. Teesdale was most urgent to see Mr. Creswell, but I thought it better to prevent him."
"You did perfectly right; he must be denied to everybody save those immediately around him, and all matters of business, and anything likely to excite or worry him in the least, must be studiously kept from him." ”

“ Mr. Teesdale became greatly depressed as he made these reflections, and gradually got as much of the blame on to his own shoulders as one man could carry. It was very dark. He was sitting out on the verandah and smoking; but it was too dark to enjoy a pipe properly, even if David could have enjoyed anything just then. He was sitting in one of those wooden chairs in which he had so often sat of late while Missy read to him, and one hand rested mournfully upon the seat of the empty chair at his side. Not that he as yet really dreaded never seeing Missy again. ”

“ They were descending the stairs as the doctor spoke, and in the hall they found Mr. Teesdale, who had just ridden up in hot haste, and was parleying with one of the servants. He took off his hat when he saw Mrs. Creswell and the doctor, and was about to speak, but Marian was before him—"I hope you are not again wishing to see my husband, Mr. Teesdale, as I shall be compelled again to refuse you! Dr. Osborne here will tell you that I am acting in accordance with his strict orders." And the doctor then repeated to the agent all that he had just said to Marian. ”

“ Teesdale In the administrative county of Durham— the urban district of Barnard Castle; the rural district of Barnard Castle; the lands common to the parishes of Lynesack and Softley, Hamsterley and South Bedburn in the rural district of Barnard Castle. In the administrative county of Yorkshire, North Riding, the rural district of Startforth. ”

“ Croke!" said Mr. Teesdale, who had been a silent and an amused spectator of this scene. "No doubt Tommy Bokenham, who they say is a clever chap, and who'll be well backed by his father's banking account, is a formidable opponent. But I much doubt if our side won't be able to bring forward some one with as good a head on his shoulders and as much brass in his pockets!"
"Where's he to be found, Muster Teesdale? Sir George won't stand, and it would welly nigh break any one else's back in the neighbr'ood, 'less it were young Rideout, and all his money goes in horse-racin'!" ”

“ Teesdale (Mr. Gould had been called away to superintend certain other strongholds where the fortifications showed signs of crumbling) , was supplemented by the copy of a medical certificate from Dr. Osborne, which stated that Mr. Creswell's condition was such as to imperatively demand the utmost quietude, and that any such excitement as that to be caused by entering on an election contest would probably cost him his life. ”

“ The door was slammed, and the girl gone.
Mr. Teesdale was the first to rise. His face was very pale and agitated. He crossed the room and laid a hand upon the shoulder of Mr. Appleton, who was still pounding with all his heart at the old piano. ”

“ Mr. Teesdale wrinkled his forehead, but said nothing. Evidently it was of the first importance that Missy should not keep her friends waiting. Of these people, however, she had already spoken so lightly that David was pleased to fancy her as not caring very much about them. He was pleased, not only because they took her to the theatre, but because he wanted no rival Australian friends for his old friend's child; the farm, if possible, must be her only home so long as she remained in the Colony. ”

“ However, come here, and I won't insist on your coming a step further.”
“Honour bright?”
“Of course.”
“Hope to die?”
“I don't understand you, Missy; but I meant what I said.”
“Then I'm coming. One moment, though! Is anybody about? Is Mrs. Teesdale in the house?”
“No, she's gone to chapel. So has Arabella, and John William's milking. They'll none of 'em be back just yet. Ah, that's better, my dear girl, that's better!”
Missy was back in her old wooden chair. Mr. Teesdale sat down again in its fellow and put his hand affectionately upon the girl's shoulder. ”

“ The mistake might be Missy's; but a little waiting by the curb convinced Mr. Teesdale that it was his own; for Missy never came back, as he argued she must have done if she really had gone in at the stage door.
CHAPTER V.—A WATCH AND A PIPE. Mr. Teesdale drove on to the inn at which he was in the habit of putting up when in town with the buggy. His connection with the house was very characteristic. Many years before the landlord had served him in a menial capacity, but for nearly as many that worthy had been infinitely more prosperous than poor David, who, indeed, had never prospered at all. ”

“ It struck Arabella as very odd indeed that the only one of them after whom Missy did not ask should be Mrs. Teesdale. But was it odd? Quite apart from any rights or wrongs, Mrs. Teesdale had been Missy's natural enemy from the first. Moreover, she had struck Missy as an old woman who would never grow older or die; and Arabella let it pass. She was in a hurry, and it was now her turn to get answers from Missy.
“Where have you been,” she repeated, “if you never went back to Melbourne? ”

“ Teesdale. She was by no means so strong a woman as her manifold and varied exertions would have led one to suppose. A hot two hours in the kitchen had left their mark upon her, and being tired at all events, if not in secret bodily pain, she very quickly became angry also. There was, in fact, every prospect of a scene, when David interposed and took the entire blame for having divulged to Miss Oliver the all too modern history of the hare. Then Mrs. Teesdale was angry, but only with her husband. With Miriam she proceeded to sympathise from that instant ”

“ Thence he passed to Barnard Castle, Egglestone, and Gainford in Durham, Long Horseley, Northumberland, Heighington, and Croxdale, and lastly to the perpetual curacy of Satley, Durham. He devoted himself, while holding these cures, to acquiring a knowledge of the botany of Teesdale. Although he wrote nothing, botany owes him much. ”

“ In fact, a man in livery held the reins, the afternoon sun made fireworks with the burnished harness, and the buggy was a very good one indeed.
Missy kept her eyes upon it as she approached the house. She never saw the faces that appeared for an instant at the parlour window and then disappeared. Her foot was lifted, to be set down in the verandah, when the door was flung open, and Mrs. Teesdale marched forth. ”

“ However, if we've everything made snug for her to-night, I'll lay hands on her to-morrow if she's in Melbourne; and then she shall come out here for a month or two to start with, just to see how she likes it.”
“How d'ye know she'll want to come out here at all?” asked John William. “Don't you believe it, father; she wouldn't care for it a little bit.”
“Not care for it? Not want to come out and make her home with her parents' old friends? Then she's not her father's daughter,” cried Mr. Teesdale indignantly; “she's no child of our good old friends. ”

“ Spalding," replied Teesdale; "and he'll make the Lion his head-quarters, won't he, Mr. Tilley?" he said to the old landlord, who had just entered bearing a steaming bowl of punch.
"I hope so, sir—I hope so!" said the old man, in his cheery voice. "The Lion always was the Blue house. I've seen Sir George Neal, quite dead beat wi' fatigue and hoarse wi' hollerin', held up at that window by Squire Armstrong on one side, and Charley Rea, him as left here and went away to Chiney or some furrin' part, on the other, and screechin' for cheers and Kentish fires and Lord knows what, to the mob outside! ”

“ The hills W. of the central plain, covering nearly the whole of the W. Riding and the N.W. of the N. Riding, are part of the great Pennine Chain (q.v.) . These hills consist of high-lying moorland, and are not generally remarkable for great beauty of outline. The higher parts are bleak and wild, and the slope towards the central plain is gradual. The chief beauty of the district is to be found in the numerous deeply scored valleys or dales, such as Teesdale, Swaledale, Wensleydale (q.v.) ”

“ Parmelia crassa.
Lichen cartilagineus.—With. 4. 29.
On the Marble Stone near Middleton, in Teesdale, D.
Obs. Specimens of this occur sometimes, which approach very near to Lichen saxifragus, Tr. of Linn. Soc. if they be not the same. This Parmelia has long branched Roots, like those of Lichen saxifragus.
1337. Parmelia hypnorum.
Lichen hypnorum.—Dick. Crypt. fasc. 3. 14. With. 4. 22. Eng. Bot. t. 740.
On Moss upon Stones, and at the Roots of Trees in Hag Crag Wood, in Teesdale Forest, D.
1338. Parmelia lepidora.
On Earth and decayed Moss about Egleston and Middleton, D.
See Obs. ”

“ On Rocks at the foot of Cheviot, N.
1234. Lecidea cupularis.
Lichen marmoreus.—With. 4. 22. Eng. Bot. t. 739.
On Rocks at Fawdon Slate and Bolyhope Bourn. On the Marble Stone near Middleton in Teesdale, and on calcareous Rocks and Mosses in Harwood, D.; [also on calcareous Rocks near Wycliffe, Yorkshire.] —H.
Obs. These Words of Withering's Account of L. tricolor, "Mr. Griffith has lately met with it on calcareous Sandstone, the Saucers considerably raised above the Crust," appear to have Reference to Lichen marmoreus ”