Books: The Pillars of the House, V1

C >> Charlotte M. Yonge >> The Pillars of the House, V1

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Wilmet hardly entered into this enormity. She had made a discovery
which interested her infinitely more. Little Theodore, hitherto so
inanimate, had sat up, listened, looked with a dawning of expression
in the eyes that had hitherto been clear and meaningless as blue
porcelain, and as the music ceased, his inarticulate hummings
continued the same tune. Could it be that the key to the dormant
senses was found? His eyes turned to the piano, and his finger
pointed to it as soon as he found himself in the room with it, and
the airs he heard were continually reproduced in his murmuring
sounds; that 'How beautiful!' which had first awakened the gleam--his
own birthday anthem--being sure to recur at sight of Lance; while a
doleful Irish croon, Sibby's regular lullaby, always served for her,
and the 'Hardy Norseman' for Felix, who had sometimes whistled it to
him. Wilmet spent every available moment in awaking the smile on the
little waxen face that had never responded before; it seemed to be
just the cheering hope she needed to revive her spirits, only she was
almost ready to renounce her journey with Alda for the sake of
cultivating the new-found faculty.

No one would permit this; and indeed, so far from waiting to be
exhibited to Lance's friend, the two sisters received their billet
de route on the very day he was expected; and there was no appeal,
since a housekeeper was to travel from Centry, who would take charge
of them to London, whence they would go down with Mr. Underwood. Poor
Wilmet was much dismayed at leaving Geraldine to what they both
regarded as the unprecedented invasion of a strange boy; indeed, the
whole charge made Cherry's heart quail, though she said little of her
fears, knowing the importance of Wilmet's having and enjoying her
holiday; and Mr. Audley promised extra aid in keeping order among the
boys.

But as they came in that evening from the practice at the church, to
which Clement had insisted on their coming to hear Lance, Mr. Audley
beckoned Felix to his room with the words, 'There's a thing I want to
talk over with you.'

Felix recollected those ominous words to Mr. Underwood, and stood
warming his hands in dread of what might be coming. It was all he
feared.

'I wanted to say--I wanted to tell you--' began Mr. Audley. 'I would
not have chosen this time, but that I think it may save Wilmet
something to be able to tell her friends that the present arrangement
is to cease.'

'Wilmet!' exclaimed Felix; then bethinking himself. 'Was _that_ what
Tom Underwood meant? But you will not trouble yourself about such
rubbish.'

'Well, you see,' began the Curate, with heightening colour, 'it can't
be denied that your sister _has_ grown up, and that things are
changed.'

'Mrs. Froggatt _did_ ask me if you were going on here,' said Felix,
still unconvinced; 'but can't we leave people to be _stoopid_ without
interfering with us?'

'Felix, you ought to be a better protector to your sisters. You would
not like to have my Lady remonstrating--nay, maybe writing to my
mother: she is quite capable of it.'

Felix's cheeks were in a flame. 'If people would mind their own
business,' he said; 'but if they _will_ have it so--'

'They are right, Felix,' said the Curate quietly; 'appearances must
be carefully heeded, and by you almost more than by any one. Your
slowness to understand me makes me almost doubtful about my further
design.'

'Not going away altogether!'

'Not immediately; but things stand thus--Dr. White, my old tutor, you
know, and Fernan's, is nearly sure of the new Bishopric in Australia,
and he wants me.'

Felix hardly repressed a groan.

'Any way I should not go immediately; but when your father spoke to
me about the guardianship, he made me promise not to let it stand in
the way of any other call. I fancied he had mission work in his mind,
and it disposes me the more to think I ought not to hold back; but
while your dear mother lived, I would not have gone.'

'Yes, you have been very good to us,' was all Felix could say. 'But
when?'

'Not for some time; but I am not going this moment. Three months'
notice Mr. Bevan must have, and if he requires it, six; I must spend
some time at home, and very like shall not be off till you are of
age--certainly not if I find there is any difficulty in handing the
management of things over to you. How long I remain with you must
depend on circumstances. How much notice must you give before leaving
this house?'

'I do not know--half a year, I fancy. You think we ought to give it
up? I suppose it is too large for us now.'

'And you could take no lodger but one of the old-lady type.'

'Horrid!' said Felix. 'Well, we will see; but it will be a great
stroke on poor Cherry--she can remember nothing before this house.'

'It will be very good for her to have no old associations to sit
brooding over.'

'My poor little Cherry! If I saw how to cheer up her life; but
without your lessons it will be more dreary for her than ever!'

'Give her all you can to do, and do not be over-careful to keep your
anxieties from her knowledge. She is very much of a woman, and if you
leave her too much to herself, she will grow more introspective.'

'Wilmet and I have always wanted to shelter her; she never seems fit
for trouble, and she is so young!'

'Compared with you two venerable people!' said Mr. Audley, smiling.
'But her mind is not young, and to treat her as a child is the way to
make her prey upon herself. I wish her talent could be more
cultivated; but meantime nothing is better for her than the care of
Bernard and Stella. I hope you will not be in a hurry to promote them
out of her hands.'

'Very well; but she will miss you sorely.'

'I hope to see her brightened before I am really gone, and I am not
going to decamp from this house till some natural break comes. To do
that would be absurd!'

There was a silence; and then Felix said with a sigh, 'Yes, a smaller
house, and one servant. I will speak to Wilmet.'

'Perhaps you had better, so that she may have an answer in case she
is attacked.'

Wilmet was aghast at first, but a hint from Alda made her acquiesce,
not with blushing consciousness, but with the perception that the way
of the world was against the retention of the lodger; and sorry as
she was to lose Mr. Audley, her housewifely mind was not consoled,
but distracted, by calculations on the difference of expenditure.
Again she tried to beg herself off from her visit, in the dread that
Felix would go and take some impracticable house in her absence--some
place with thin walls, no cupboards, and no coal-hole; and she was
only pacified by his solemn promise to decide on no house without
her. She went away in an avalanche of kisses and tears, leaving
Geraldine with a basketful of written instructions for every possible
contingency, at which the anxious maiden sat gazing anxiously, trying
to store her mind with its onerous directions.

'Shall I give you a piece of advice, Cherry?' said the Curate, as he
saw the dark eyebrows drawn together.

'Oh, do!' she earnestly said.

'Put all that in the fire!'

'Mr. Audley!'

'And go by the light of nature! You have just as many senses as
Wilmet, and almost as much experience; and as to oppressing yourself
with the determination to do the very, thing she would have done
under all circumstances, it is a delusion. People must act according
to their own nature, not some one else's.'

'Certainly,' said Geraldine, smiling. 'I could never walk stately in
and say, "Now, boys!"--and much they would care for it if I did.'

'It seems to be a case for "Now, boys!" at this moment,' said Mr.
Audley; 'what can all that row be?'

'Oh, it must be that dreadful strange boy, Lance's friend,' sighed
Geraldine, almost turning pale. Then, trying to cheer up, 'But it is
only for the day, and Lance wished it so much.'

As she spoke, the shout of 'Cherry, here's Bill!' came nearer, and
the whole of the younger half of the family tumbled promiscuously
into the room, introducing the visitor in the midst of them. To the
elders, 'no end of a chap' appeared, as Mr. Audley said, to mean all
ends of shock hair, and freckles up to the eyes; but when Fulbert and
Lance had whirled him out again to see the lions of Bexley, Robina
and Angela were overheard respectfully pronouncing that he was nice
and spotty like the dear little frogs in the strawberry-beds at
Catsacre, and that his hair was just the colour Cherry painted that
of all the very best people in her 'holy pictures.'

The object of their admiration was seen no more till the middle of
dinner, when all three appeared, immoderately dusty; and no wonder,
for the organist had employed them to climb, sweep fashion, into the
biggest organ-pipe to investigate the cause of a bronchial affection
of long standing,--which turned out to be a dead bat caught in a
tenacious cobweb.

Shortly after, the guest was found assisting Angela in a tableau,
where a pen-wiper doll in nun's costume was enacting the exorcism of
the said bat, in a cave built of wooden bricks.

Clement was undecided whether to condemn or admire; and Geraldine, to
whom Edgar had lent some volumes of Ruskin, meditated on the
grotesque.

Before there had been time for the fanciful sport to become rough
comedy, Lance had called off his friend to see the potteries; and to
poor Cherry's horror, she found that Robina had been swept off in the
torrent of boyhood. Clement, pitying her despair and self-reproach,
magnanimously offered to follow, and either bring the little maid
back, or keep her out of harm's way; and for some time Cherry reposed
in the conviction that 'Tina was as good as a girl any day.'

But at about a quarter to six, a little tap came to Mr. Audley's
door, and Angela stood there, saying, with a most serious face,
'Please, Mr. Audley, Cherry wants to know whether you don't think
something must have happened.' And going upstairs, he found the poor
young deputy in a nervous agony of despair at the non-return of any
of the party, quite certain that some catastrophe had befallen them,
and divided between self-reproach and dread of the consequences.

'The very first day Wilmet had gone!' as she said.

It was almost time for Harewood's train, which made it all the more
strange. Mr. Audley tried to reassure her by the probability that the
whole party were convoying him to the station, and would appear when
he was gone; but time confuted this pleasing hypothesis, and Cherry's
misery was renewed. She even almost hinted a wish that Mr. Audley
would go out and look for them.

'And then,' he said, smiling, 'in an hour's time you would be sending
Felix to look for me. No, no, Cherry, these waiting times are often
hard, no doubt; but, as I fear you are one of those destined to
"abide by the tents" instead of going out to battle, you had better
learn to do your watching composedly.'

'O Mr. Audley! how can I? I know it must be very wrong, but how can I
not care?' And verily the nervous sensitive girl was quivering with
suspense.

'"He will not be afraid of any evil tidings, for his heart standeth
fast and believeth in the Lord,"' answered Mr. Audley. 'I see that
does not tell you how not to be afraid; but I imagine that a few
trusting ejaculations in the heart, and then resolute attention to
something else, may be found a help.'

Cherry would have sighed that attention was the most impossible thing
in the world; but before she had time to do so, Mr. Audley had begun
to expound to her his Australian scheme. It excited her extremely;
and as a year and a half seemed an immense period of time to her
imagination, the dread of losing him was not so immediate as to damp
her enthusiasm. They had discussed his plans for nearly an hour
before Cherry started at the sound of the door, and then it was only
Felix who entered. He was irate, but not at all alarmed; and
presently the welcome clatter of steps approached, and in dashed the
whole crew, mired up to the eyes, but in as towering spirits as ever.

Their delay had, it appeared, been caused by a long walk that ensued
upon the visit to the potteries, and a wild venture of Will Harewood
upon impracticable ice, which had made him acquainted with the depths
of a horse-pond. There was none of the dignity of danger, for the
depths were shallows and the water only rose to his waist; but the
mud was above his ankles, and he had floundered out with some
difficulty. He wanted to walk back with no more ceremony than a
water-dog; but the Underwoods had made common cause against him, and
had dragged him to a cottage, where he had the pleasing alternative
of an old woman's blankets and petticoats while his garments were
drying. He was as nearly angry as a Harewood could be, Lance
observed, declaring that they should never have got him into the
cottage without fighting him, if Tina had not been so tall, and if
Robin had not nearly cried; while he, throwing off all responsibility,
ascribed all his lateness to his friend's 'maggots.' No more trains
stopped at Bexley till after midnight, but as to his absence causing
any uneasiness at home, he laughed at the notion, and was corroborated
by Lance in averring that they had too much sense; listening with
undisguised amazement to the elaborate explanations and apologies about
Robina, which Clement was scrupulously pouring forth to his brother and
sister, saying that he would have brought her home at once, but that he
really did not like to trust those boys alone.

Whereat Lance held up his hands with a dumb show of amazement that
convulsed Fulbert, Bill Harewood, and Robina herself, with agonies of
half-suppressed merriment. The boy had come in, prepared to be grave
and quiet, as knowing how lately affliction had come to the family,
and having been warned by Lance, that 'as to going on as we do in the
precincts, why it would make Cherry jump out of her skin.'

But by some extraordinary influence--whether it were the oddity of
William Harewood's face, or the novelty of his perfect insouciance
in the household whither care had come only too early--some infection
seized on the young Underwoods, and before the end of the evening
meal, if the 'goings on' were not equal to those in the precincts,
they were, at any rate, not far short of it.

Lance presently incited his friend to show 'how he had mesmerised
Lucy.' Clement made a horrified protest; and Geraldine looked alarmed
at her eldest brother, who began, 'Indeed, Lance, we can have nothing
of that sort here.'

'But, Felix, I do assure you there is no harm.'

'Upon my word and honour, there's not a spice of anything the
Archbishop of Canterbury could stick at,' added Will Harewood.

'It is impossible there should not be harm,' interposed Clement; but
the boys, including Fulbert, were in such fits of laughter, that
Felix began to suspect the seriousness of the performance; and when
Lance sprang at him, exclaiming, 'I'll go to Mr. Audley! Fee--Cherry-
--will you be satisfied if Mr. Audley says we may?' Felix and Cherry
both consented; and Lance rushed off to make the appeal, and returned
not only with full sanction, but with Mr. Audley himself, come to see
the operation. This perfectly satisfied Felix, who even consented, on
the entreaty of his brothers, to become the first subject; and Cherry
knew that where the Curate and Felix had no scruples, she need have
none; but, for all that, she was more than half frightened and
uncomfortable--above all, when Clement, amid shouts of mirth from the
three schoolboys, indignantly marched away to shut himself up in his
cold bedroom.

By and by, after some unseen preparation--all the more mystifying
because carried on in the kitchen, where Sibby always used to keep
Theodore in a cradle till Felix was ready for him--Will Harewood
caused Felix to stand exactly opposite to him and to the spectators,
with a dinner-plate in his hand, and under injunctions to imitate the
operator exactly. Armed with another plate, William rubbed his own
finger first on the under side of the plate, and then, after some
passes and flourishes, on his own forehead, entirely without effect
so far as he himself was concerned; but his victim, standing meekly
good-natured and unconscious, was seen by the ecstatic audience to
be, at each pass, painting his own face with the soot from a flame
over which his plate had been previously held. The shrieks of
amusement redoubled at the perplexity they occasioned him, till they
penetrated the upper rooms: and suddenly a cry of horror made all
turn to the door and see a little white bare-footed figure standing
there, transfixed with fright, which increased tenfold when Felix
hurried towards it, not yet aware of the condition of his visage,
until a universal shout warned him of it; while Lance, darting in
pursuit, picked up Bernard, and by his wonderful caressing arts, and
partly by his special gift of coaxing, partly as the object of the
little fellow's most fervent adoration, made the scattered senses
take in that it was 'all play,' and even carried back the little
white bundle, heart throbbing and eyes staring, but still secure in
his arms, to admire Felix all black, and then to be further relieved
by beholding the restoration of the natural hue at the pump below
stairs.

Then amid Sibby's scoldings and assurances that the child would catch
his death of cold, Bernard was borne upstairs again by Felix, who
found Clement in the nursery comforting the little girls, and
preventing them from following the example of their valiant pioneer.
Felix, now thoroughly entering into the spirit of the joke,
entertained for a moment the hope of entrapping Clement; but of
course Bernard could not be silenced from his bold and rather
doubtful proclamation, that 'The funny boy made Felix black his own
face, and I wasn't afraid.'

'Naughty boy!' commented Stella. 'Poor Fee!'--and she reared up to
kiss him, and stroke the cheeks that had suffered such an indignity.

'What! It was only a trick?' said Clement slowly, as if half
mystified.

'Of course,' said Felix; 'could not you trust to that?'

'I don't know. Cathedrals are very lax, and it had a questionable
name.'

'O Clem! if it had not been in you before, I should wish you had
never gone to St. Matthew's. Come down now, don't let us disturb the
little ones any longer. --Good-night, Angel; good-night, little star;
we'll not make a row to wake you again.'

Clement, in a severe mood, followed Felix downstairs; but some
wonderful spirit of frolic was on all the young people that night--a
reaction, perhaps, from the melancholy that had so long necessarily
reigned in that house, for though the fun was less loud, it was quite
as merry: a course of riddles was going on; and Clement, who really
was used to a great deal of mirth among the staff of St. Matthew's,
absolutely unbent, and gloried in showing that even more conundrums
were known there than by the house of Harewood. He was not strong in
guessing them; but then Will Harewood made such undaunted and
extraordinary shots at everything proposed, that the spirit of
repartee was fairly awakened, and Cherry's bright delicate wit began
to play, so that no one knew how to believe in the lateness of the
hour, and still less that this was the same house that grave Wilmet
had left that morning.

'Poor dear little Cherry!' said Felix to Mr. Audley, after helping
her upstairs, 'she is quite spent with laughing; indeed my jaws ache,
and she is ready to cry, as if it had been unfeeling.'

'Don't let her fancy that. We certainly were surprised into it to-
night; but I only wish for her sake--for all your sakes--that you
could keep the house merrier.'

Felix sighed. He too felt as if he had been betrayed into unbecoming
levity; and though he would not dispute, his heart had only become
the heavier. However, he did not forget, and when Cherry again
breathed a little sigh as to what Wilmet would think of their first
day, he stoutly averred that there was no use in drooping, and no
harm in liveliness, and that no one had ever been so full of
joyousness as their father.

She owned it. 'But--'

And that _but_ meant the effects of the three years that she had
spent as the companion of her mother's mournful widowhood, and of the
cares of life on her elder brother and sister.

It was true, as Mr. Audley said, that the associations of the rooms
were not good for her spirits in her many lonely hours and confined
life; and this reconciled Felix more than anything else to the
proposed change. He was keeping his promise to Wilmet of not seeking
a house till her return, when Mr. and Mrs. Froggatt, whose minds had
been much relieved by hearing that the lodger would consult the
proprieties, communicated to him their own scheme of taking up their
residence at a village named Marshlands, about two miles from Bexley,
where they already spent great part of the summer in a pleasant
cottage and garden which they had bought and adorned. Mr. Froggatt
would drive in to attend to the business every day, but the charge of
the house was the difficulty, as they did not wish to let the rooms;
and they now proposed that the young Underwoods should inhabit them
rent-free, merely keeping a bedroom and little parlour behind the
shop for Mr. Froggatt, and providing firing in them. With much more
diffidence, at his wife's earnest suggestion, the kindly modest old
man asked whether Miss Underwood would object to his coming in to
take a piece of bread and cheese when he was there in the middle of
the day.

It was an excellent offer, and Felix had no hesitation in gratefully
closing with it, even without consulting Wilmet. Her reply showed
that a great weight was taken off her mind; and she was only longing
to be at home again, contriving for the move, which was to take place
at Lady Day. She was burning to study the new rooms; nevertheless, as
by kind Marilda's contrivance, she was taking lessons in German every
day from a superior Fraulein who had once been her cousin's
governess, and was further allowed to inspect the working of a good
school, her stay was extended, by Miss Pearson's entreaty, a full
fortnight beyond what had been intended. Nor had anything gone wrong
in her absence. Even the overlooking of the boys' linen, which she
had believed impossible without her, was safely carried on by Cherry,
and all were sent off in sound condition. No catastrophe occurred;
and the continual occupation and responsibility drove away all the
low spirits that so often had tried the home-keeping girl. She _did_
enjoy those tete-a-tete evenings, when Felix opened to her more
than he had ever done before; and yet it was an immense relief to
have the day fixed for Wilmet's return, and how much more to have her
walking into the room with all the children clinging about her in
incoherent ecstacy, which had not subsided enough for much
comprehension when Felix came joyously in. 'Hurrah, Wilmet! Mr.
Froggatt sent me home a couple of hours before time!'

'How very good! I met him in the street, just now. Really, he is the
kindest old gentleman in the world!'

'I believe you dazzled him, Mettie; he says he did not know you till
you spoke to him, and if he had realised what a beautiful and
majestic young lady you were, he should hardly have ventured to
propose your taking up your abode under his humble roof.'

'That must be the effect of living with Alda,' said Wilmet merrily;
'but, oh! I am glad to be at home again!'

'And I never was so glad of anything in my life,' said Geraldine
eagerly.

'I am longing to go over the house, and know what to do about
furniture,' continued Wilmet.

'There! now W. W. is herself again!' said Felix.

'Mrs. Froggatt came and called on me,' said Geraldine. 'She talked of
leaving us the larger things that will not go into the cottage.'

'Which is well,' said Felix; 'for how much of ours will survive the
shock of removing is doubtful.'

'All the things that came from Vale Leston are quite solid,' said
Wilmet, bristling up.

'That carpet is solid darn,' said Felix. 'We tried one evening, and
found that though the pattern of rose-leaves is a tradition, no one
younger than Clem could remember having seen either design or
colour.'

'You should not laugh at it, Felix,' said Wilmet, a little hurt: for
indeed her mother's needle and her own were too well acquainted with
the carpet for her to like to hear it contemned.

Felix and Cherry both felt somewhat called to order, as if their
mistress had come home again; and Cherry was the first to break
silence by inquiring after Wilmet's studies at Brighton.

'Oh yes,' said Wilmet, 'I do hope I am improved. That was all
Marilda's kindness. She quite understood how I missed everybody and
everything; and at last, one day, when I was wishing I could
pronounce German like Alda, and that Alda had time to give me some
lessons--'

'Alda hasn't time!'

'Oh, you don't know how useful she is! She writes all the notes.
Marilda devised getting this Fraulein--such a good-natured woman! and
when she heard what I wanted, she got leave for me to come every day
to study the working of the school. I do believe I shall teach much
better now, if only I were not so ignorant. I never had any notion
before how little I knew!'