Chapter IX.

Otago Witness, Issue 1778, 19 December 1885, Page 25

Chapter IX.

Mrs Masson meantime, in the comfortable assurance that everything was going on as right as could be with the reunited lovers, for all the world like the last scenes of the plays at Garrick's Fields, and not deeming it advisable, as we have seen, to await the absolute tag and fall of the curtain, put on her bonnet, in order to take her evening stroll along the meadow paths. Before leaving the house she stopped to tap at the kitchen door, with the intention of acquainting Miss Barway with the fact of her temporary absence. Hearing voices, however, on the other side of the door, which contrary to custom was closed, Mrs Masson decided not to disturb her landlady nor her visitors. It was, in point of fact, no less a person than Boanerges Garwaker, who for some inscrutable reason had elected to enter the house by the back garden gate and so to the kitchen door, where he paused after lifting the latch, aud, peering in in search of Miss Barway, explained, as she turned round from something occupying her attention at the dresser not without some surprise to face the intruder, that he had " come to inquire after the lost sheep." „ " Then," said Miss Barway, in acrid tones, " if my opinion was in any ways asked, I should Bay as it were a bit of a pity as you come, Mr Garwaker, like the thief did whose own the sheep was not." " That observation had reference, my good — h'm — Miss Barway, not to the sheep, but to the hireling." " It fits equal well my way," said Miss Barway, looking from beneath her knitted brows out of window. " A-terrifyin' of my pore cat out of his wits, too, like that ! " she went on, a? her indignant gaze fell upon the aggrieved animal, who had fled at sight and sound of Boanerges into the" cabbage-bed at the bottom of the garden, where he sat slowly recovering his composure. "He can't abear men — small blame to him, neither. Was you wishful, Mr Garwaker, of not being observed by the parties in the parlour," she added, " that you come sneakin' in — you'll excuse me for sayin' so — by the scul'ry door ? " " Supposing that even were so," replied Boanerges, "it would, I presume, be excusable — trader the circumstances," he added, as he seated himself uninvited, and laid his wideawake on the table. Miss Barway offered no comment. She glanced at a heap of sewing on the window sill, and waited till the opening lips of the minister delivered themselves of further speech. " It is scarcely necessary for me to explain, I imagine, that I come on the part of " — here a dry cough momentarily impeded Boanerges' atterance — " of Mrs Garwaker." " 'Twould ha' bin less needful if you'd ha' showed yourself somewheres about this hour last night, Mr Garwaker," replied Miss Barway, " and if Mrs Hawk— Garwaker, as I should say, had come herself. I should have bid her welcome — under the circumstances, as you put it, sir — for all me and her did part a bit cool. Circumstances and standin'-outs goes to the wall when folks has bin as anigh their coffins as Miss Daisy has." "We were assured, however, of her safety," said Boanerges, " as long ago as last evening." " Of course you was," rejoined Miss Barway, increasing scorn gathering in the looks which were regarding the minister — " of course you was, if Sprowker's man give my messidge right. 1 sent up to Belvedere a'most afore she was thorough come to, so that Mrs Hawk — Garwaker's mind should be relieved." "And it was relieved," fervently assured Boanerges, " intensely relieved. You cannot doubt that, Miss Barway." " I don't see as I can," drily returned Miss Barway. " Perfectly so, I should suppose, seem' as she hasn't showed her face here to see how her child's a-goin' on." " That must be set to my account," said the minister with a soft smile. " She has remained in her bedroom all day by my express injunctions." 11 Yours ! " ejaculated Miss Barway, in tones that caused the minister's drooped eyelids to twitch uneasily. | " Mine," he said, quickly recovering himself. \ 41 The — ahem — terrible intelligence so disordered Mrs Garwaker's nervous system as to occasion hysterical disturbance, and subsequent lassitude and headache. Even your severe judgment, Miss Barway," went on the minister, when this intimation was received in silence, " will permit you to conceive that" — and Boanerges again I coughed mildly — " my wife's health ought to be my first consideration." " And I make no doubt that it is, neither, Mr Cfarwaker. I - never was one to blame nobody for seem' after the featherin' of their nestis, provided he sets about it fair and decent, and don't disturb the young brood about 'em. And no one but a born idjiet, as I say, 'd be for seeing his goose with the golden eggs getting so much as a feather harmed. And idjiet you're not ; your worst enemy don't say it of you/ Boanerges, feeling that things have always to be relatively considered, smiled feebly in appreciation of the shadowy compliment. •" You're as knowin' a — a one as ever got into & black long-tail coat, some says. That's as it may be. You're a stranger to me, pretty nigh, $nd I don't see it's likely as we'll ever get much more close acquainted. The dear old gentleman whoße money you're enjoyin' of at this here

present — if so be as you find it enjoyment — he used to say as for his part he hoped the parish church 'd last out his time. And amezi to that, say I ; but if it don't, I don't see as it's t>n the books that I should find my comforb in settin' under you. That's neither here nor there, howsoever, and I'm not for sayin' as ever I've heard ill, so to speak, of you ; and there's some — quite a many — as say you've a deal of g"ood in you, take you right side uppermost.'' •' You are really very kind," said Boanerges blushingly, and writhing a little on the hard Windsor chair — " quite too kind." " No," said Miss Barway, "it behoves us all to speak the best, we can of our neighbours, and more especial when we pity 'em." " Pity ! " ejaculated the minister. " There it is," rejoined Miss Barway, " and I don't see as it's anyways possible not to pity any pore feller -creature that a woman old enough to be his mother — grandmother, not to say — has trapped into marridgtv' 5 " Trapped ! " " And them that marries for filthy lucre miif.t be pore creatures indeed. I'd rather live in a four-pair-back myself, and have want for my master. But there ! " indulgently added Miss Barway, "who knows? p'raps she took and married yer afore you rightly knew where you was. It has been done times again, and will be while men are fools. And what's done can't bo undone — can it, Mr Garwaker ? And there's many a better man than you has made the best of his bad bargain, and got in his hay while the sun shines for him." " I must be permitted to say that 1 do not in the least understand you, Miss Barway," said Boanerges, with quivering white lips. " I mean as the sun must shine for other folks as has more right to it one of these days, and if there is justice in this world come to the top it must, sooner or later." " I really do not know what you mean," piteously stammered the unfortunate man. " No," said Miss Barway, after a silence of some duration, the keen piercing gaze she had . fixed on him softening a little as she spoke, " I don't altogether think you do. I don't think that ever I did hold you for so miserable bad as that 'd come to-^-anyways I never will again. And as to her as calls herself that pore dear child's mother " " Woman ! " chokingly interrupted Boanerges. " They plaster statters standin' on the grassplot afore Belvedere drorin'-room winders cares more for Miss Daisy than her as calls herself her mother. But you don't need of tellin' that, Mr Garwaker." . "Am I to stand by and — and " — began Boanerges wrathfully, snatching up his hat, and striding to the kitchen door — " and hear my — my — my wife insulted ?" " You can please yourself about stoppin' or goin', sir. I've spoke a truth or so, and truth is wholesome at all times, special when you don't come acrost it every day. But maybe you'll be brought to a clearer understanding of it as the years grow over your head, and if there is a just Heaven above us, and I think there is — sure as my name's Jane Barway I do think there is." And something between a smile and a sigh crossed Miss Barway 's lips as she listened to the sound of her late visitor's retreating footsteps, and took up her sewing again, which for a while so completely absorbed her attention that sbe did not observe a letter which Boanerges ere he beat his retreat had flung down on the table. It met her eyes, however, when at last she lifted them in search of an errant pair of scissors, and having read its address, which was to " Miss Hawkstone, Belvedere, Twickenham,"' she took it into the parlour. • "My ! Bless me ! Where's your ma, Mr John ? " she inquired of John, who stood in the bow window absorbed even more intently than ever in contemplation of the misty veil slowly gathering over the meadows beneath the lustre of a rising young moon. " Whoever was to know as she wasn't here ! Truly I beg pardon, Miss Daisy " • " Gone out," hurriedly interrupted the lovers in a breath, " five minutes ago," Less celestial pieces of mechanism than Cupid's chronometer might have made it nearer half an hour, but that was of no consequence. " I never heard her go out," continued Miss Barway. "We was talking a bit loud in the kitehing, and the door was to. But he's gone now. What may you be a-smilin' at now, Mr John ? " she went on rather tartly, detecting a flicker of risibility on John's lips, and bestowing at the same time an appreciative glance in the chimney-glass at her own comely proportions. "'Jane's got a follerer,' thinks you, 'tucked away snug.' But Jane never had no such a — encumbrance, and ain't a goin' to begin now. She leaves that to the young folks, Mr John. And such follerin' as it was were after you, Miss Daisy, not after mo." " What ? " challenged Johu, turning round sharply. " There ! there ! Don't you be uneasy, Mr John. 'Twas only Mr Garwaker, your precious stepfather, Miss Margaret, coir.c to bring your mother's love. No, now I think of it, he didn't bring no such a thing — nothing but this," and she handed Daisy the missive. " Oh, John ! '' cried Daisy, dismay beclouding her bright face as she hastily tore it open. " And to think I never thought of it from that time till this." " Wliat time, dearest, and what is it ? " said John. Daisy, momentarily bereft of speech, placed the open letter in her lover's hands. Its contents consisted of a few curtly written lines demanding from Daisy an explanation of her neglect to put in a due appearance that same morning at her new employer's house. Such obliviousness John Masson thought, when Daisy had assisted him to grasp the whole significance of the letter, was of small j enough account beside the fact that she had contemplated taking such a step. " Daisy ! " he said. " It's not possible. You I can't be serious. Go to live among strangers ? Leave home ? " " Home ! " eshoed she bitterly. " What sort of a home has it come to be ? Is that home where no eye brightens at your coming or grows dull at your going ? Beside such a living death as that Robinson Crusoe with his cats and his goats was a lucky creature. Did you ever think how it feels to be of no use in the world — just a tolerated breathing encumbrance? John, I tried — indeed, indeed I tried hard to bear it, until — dear— until I couldn't, and then " And then Dai>y broke down. " To think it had come to that," murmured Johu, more to himself than to her as he wiped away her tears. " Daisy. I didn't think ib had come to be so bad as that." " No, John, I'm sure you didn't," said Daisy, with an April smile. " But it's a dreadful thing. What is to be done ? What am I to do ? " she added, addressing Miss Barway, who stood looking at the pair, a world of perplexity in her shrewd face. " Oh, it's clear enough. . I'll go myself. What's the address ? Ah, all right ! " And, pocketing the letter, John strode to the door and out into the hall. " What shall I say exactly, I)aisy ? " he asked, coining back smooth-

ing his hat. " Oh — ah — h'm — to be sure — that an accident " " No, for goodness sake don't say that ! " implored Daisy, in a toue of alarm ; " they'll think I sha'n't be able to come at all. Look here, John, wait a minute jiow. Tell the truth, of course, and say " " All right," said John ; " I know what I'll say." Then he was gone.