EVELYN AS TABLEMAID.

Otago Witness, Issue 3861, 13 March 1928, Page 81

EVELYN AS TABLEMAID.

By

Mary I. Findlay.

Evelyn wag tired of it —the strain of poverty, the anxious balancing of her money, the doing without, the struggle to keep up appearances before the other boarders. At last she owned herself beaten. But she had lost neither her pride nor her spirit. She wept a little after making her final decision. But she obliterated every trace of tears before going downstairs to interview her landlady. “ Mrs Stuart, I am sorry I must leave here. I am going to live nearer the room in which I give my piano lessons. It will be—more convenient.” “ I see.” Mrs Stuart laid down the spoon she was polishing, picked up another, and looked at her boarder with keen, probing eyes. Probing—yes, that was the word. Evelyn felt they were probing her now, reading her very soul. “ Have you many pupils, if I may ask? ”

Evelyn blushed. “ No. Not many.” “ Twenty ? A dozen ? Half a dozen T Or thereabouts? ” Evelyn blushed still more, somewhat resenting this insistent questioning. Should she bluff ? The probing eyes were looking at her not unkindly. “At present I have only four. Lately I have been unfortunate. Several of my pupils have left Edinburgh, gone south—gone abroad ” Four? And you are trying to live on that? It’s impossible ! ” “Yes—here.’ But I will get a tiny bed-sitting room somewhere. 1 will make it do. I didn’t mean to tell you, but it is better you should know the real reason why I am leaving. I have liked being here. It is as nice and comfortable as any boarding house can be for a lonely woman. I’ve been happy here, but lately it has been difficult for me to make ends meet. Now your busy season i s coming on you will b e able to let my room 10 times over.” '■ That’s true.” Mrs Stuart laid the second spoon beside a row of others, and leaning her e lbows on the table gave all her attention to Evelyn. “To tell you the truth the busy season is worrying me a bit this year. Since Lizzie left I haven’t been able to get a really good girl to take her place. It is important to have a good head tablemaid in a house like this. You saw what Julia was like? —utterly incapable, always breaking dishes 1 And Nellie, untidy, do what I could to make her menddier ways. Now Matty—l sent her packing an hour ago—l found out she was dishonest.” “Ohl I am sorry! You are having worries, too, Mrs Stuart. I need not imagine I am the only one! ” Again Evelyn felt the little probing eyes, and it suddenly struck her that they were looking at her with a purpose. She was right, judging by the landlady’s next words. ’■ I say, Miss will you be willing to listen to a proposal of mine? I watch my boarders. Some I like pothers I don’t. Now I have liked you ever since you came. You’re a real lady—a bit stand-offish and proud, but not too proud underneath the reserve. I wish I could ask you to stay on here as things are; and not mind about payment, only I can’t afford to do that ” “Of course not! I never dreamt of such a thing ! ” “ I can’t afford to do that,” Mrs Stuart went on in a slightly flustered way as if she was venturing out of her depth, and was uncertain of the result. “ But if you are not too proud to accept it r I want to offer you the-situation here-as head tablemaid. I will give you a pound a week, and two hours off every forenoon and the same in the afternoon for yojir pupils. You can keep the bedroom you have, but you would have to take your meals with me in the-.back parlour,” ? “You are offering me—this?” Evelyn had changed colour. “Yes—-if you are not too proud -sto accept it,” Mrs Stuart repeated with a flush on her honest, lined face. “You must not be offended, my dear.” “Offended? No. It is only-—unex-pected. But it is a : kind offer, Mrs Stuart, .a good offer, and I thank -you for it.”: A sudden smile broke over her pretty face. “ I say, do you honestly think I could do it? ” v ; ' “Of course I do, or I’d never have asked ye. It will be a bit difficult in the beginning to wait on folk you have • sat at table with. But now, if you think it over, taken individually, which ono of them need you mind ? ” ’ Evelyn considered for a few moments. “Not one—not a single one.” ’ She began ticking them off on her fingers. “ There is prosy old Mr Pepperton, and inquisitive Mrs MacDonald, and sweet’ old Mrs Ross, and bitter, old-young Miss Taylor, and her friend, Miss Milne. And young Simpson and Craig and—the rest

of them. Airs Stuart, won’t they smile? ” Evelyn’s youth had reasserted itself. She could not suppress a laugh as she pictured their faces of astonishment on seeing her in cap and apron coming in with their soup and roast mutton. Then she gave a sigh. It would need courage on her part—a great deal of it. But, after all, as Airs Stuart had pointed out, which of them need she mind? Not one now that Professor Lawson was away. Her thoughts flew to him immediately. How thankful she was now that he was away! With him here she would have refused immediately. Her pride would have been up in arms. “ Then you agree ? ” “ Y-e-s. I agree. And I thank you for giving me this chance. When would you like me to begin ? ” “As soon as ever you can. Alatty has gone.” “ Ah! That means this evening. At dinner ? ” “ Yes.” That evening the monotony of Airs Stuart’s boarding house was broken. The boarders got something decidedly unexpected to talk about. That girl—the daughter of the late learned man of letters, who had given herself airs—so most of them had thought—had descended to the rank of tablemaid! Instead of taking her place at the small table by the window in the becoming dress of blue taffeta—a relic of former happier days—there she was in black with white collar and cuffs and a muslin apron, and one of the dinkiest little caps it had ever fallen to the fate of any young servant girl to wear —Airs Stuart had seen to that. And she waited on them. She did it well too, quick!j' and nimbly, guessing their - wants almost before they had voiced them. They could hardly have believed she had had it in her. The exertion, together with a good deal of natural excitement, had brought colour to her usually pale cheeks. “By Jove! She’s prettier than ever,” young Simpson exclaimed, while Craig echoed his words. So did most of the other men and one or two of the ladies. Others were different, and critical. “ Pride always has a fall,” said oldyoung Aliss Taylor to Aliss Alilne. She had always been jealous of Evelyn’s youth and beauty. “ Poor as a church mouse all the time! You never would have guessed it from the way she held her hea<J.” Evelyn overheard those words, and grew red of face, and wondered. Was it true? Had she been as proud as all that ?

Her first evening as waitress was not easv.

Later on others were difficult too, though in a slightly different way—the one in which old Air Pepperton, lingering after the others had gone, dared to chuck her under the chin and try to kiss her! — the one in which young Simpson, three years her junior—she was 24—blurted out that it was “ a shame she had to do this sort of thing,” and “ wouldn’t she marry him instead? They could go abroad together. Aloney could be made quicker and easier abroad.” Often, too, as the season wore on, in the hot summer days she got dead tired being so much on her feet. But she stuck it out, and was always sweettempered and obliging. But in spite of the many drawbacks to her new position Evelyn was not unhappy. She had not time to be, and she never lost her sense of humour. Gradually her feelings towards Airs Stuart’s boarders changed. As she waited on them she got to know them better, and so began to make allowances for their peculiarities, to realise their loneliness, and their individual troubles. And as the movement and exercise of her duties put a pretty permanent colour in her cheeks, so her new-born sympathy and understanding and thought for others made her prettier too. Her eyes became kinder, the curves of her lips relaxed and grew sweeter. Altogether she was finding life more interesting and enjoyable. And then the deluge came—Professor Lawson unexpectedly returned! He came north from London for a few days. He was a tall, gentlemanly man, immaculately dressed, shy, with the reserve of many scholarly men. Airs Stuart had liked him, but she remembered that he had been engrossed in his lectures and his writings and his books. After she had given him his old room, he hesitated, as if he had something he wanted to ask her and could not get it out. “ I suppose,” he said at last, “ I suppose you have mostly the same people with you who were here when I left in February? They do not move away quickly from a comfortable place like

this.” “ Yes. They are all here yet except Air Cantlay, who went abroad in Alareh to Alanila; I think, and Airs Boss, who goes up to Inverness every summer for » a month or two.” “ Good! I am looking forward to seeing my old friends again.” Airs Stuart wondered which of her boarders he considers his old friends. Evelyn was out at the time, giving a music lesson, and she omitted to mention the fact of his arrival to her when she returned. The professor was down early for dinner that evening, and sat at a table near the wall which Airs Stuart herself assigned to him. His eyes rbccame glued to the door. The other boarders came in and took their places. One or two of them recognised him and crossed over and shook hands with him. The small table at

which Evelyn had used to sit was still vacant, but presently a plump lady with a little girl came in and sat down at it. At that Professor Lawson rose to his feet, then he sat down again abruptly. He had almost gone up to tlfc intruders and said, “ Excuse me, please, but this table is not yours. It belongs to the sweetest girl in the world!”

But, of course, he did not say those words; he only thought them, while he frowned at the plump lady and her daughter till it occurred to him that it was not their fault that they were there, not their fault that he had come north on a fool’s errand! Airs Stuart began giving out soup from a table near the door, while tw'o maids handed it round. It came to his turn. The girl was putting it down before him when she chanced to look at him; then suddenly the plate crashed on to the table and its contents ran all over the white cloth. “ Oh! I beg your pardon! How stupid of me!” He looked up quickly. He hail recognised her voice at once. There she was, all red of face—embarrassed —dressed like a servant maid in cap and apron—the sweetest girl in all the world! “ You!” “ Yes,” she answered. “ This mess — I’ll put it right—another tablecloth—clean spoons and forks—” “ Allow me.” He got up and began to help her. “Please don’t!” she entreated, much embarrassed. But he did not reply, only went on helping. “I have never been so clumsy before! I will get you more soup.” He followed her up to Airs Stuart at the side tabic, and insisted on carrying ' back his plate himself. Before it was empty he noticed Evelyn removing soup plates from other tables and putting them on to a tray by the door, so he hastily gulped down tiie last two mouthsful, and, getting up, crossed over and put his own plate on top of a pile of others, after first carefully removing the spoon, as Evelyn had done. “Oh! I’d have taken away, your plate!” she panted quickly, breathlessly. “ Not at all,” he answered politely.

“ Please sit down.” He took no notice. Now she was distributing platcsful of white fish.

He began to help her. He served the plump lady and her little girl, and the man at the table next-their’s —a' stranger with a big corporation. By this time everybody had begun to notice, to stare at him as he carried plates about. They were rather anxious about the plates. A young lady giggled. • AL s Stuart was uncomfortable; at a loss what to say or do. Evelyn was flustered, more embarrassed than ever, angry at last —she who had never been known to be angry before. At last she went up to him. “ Please sit down,” she commanded again.

Still he took no notice. He tripped on the hearthrug, pulled it straight again, and gravely went on helping. “ Sit down! ” Evelyn said a third time, very decidedly now. “ You are making yourself ridiculous—and me! ” ”Am I really ? He dropped a fork on to the floor in sheer anxiety. “ I only wanted to help you.” Yes you are,” she answered, very 'red of face, replying to his first words, and ignoring the others. At that he sat down abruptly with a frown of perplexity on his scholarly face, and the dinner proceeded. The other waiting maid now served the professor—Evelyn saw to that. It was over at last—that dinner that had been like a nightmare, and Evelyn thankfully hurried downstairs to wash the glass and cutlery and hide her hot cheeks. Mrs Stuart went to her own back room, where dinner was laid for two, but she was hardly there when a knock came to the door, and Professor Lawson came in and shut it again behind him. He did not beat about the bush. “ Mrs Stuart,” he began at once, “ 1 want you to explain to me the meaning of this? IVhy Miss Hamilton is wearing that dress ? It suits her—anything would suit her! —but it looks unusual. Why she was waiting on those bounders?—you must admit some of them are bounders, the vyomen as well as the men.” . Neither did Mrs Stuart beat about the bush. She saw at once how the land lav, and she told him more than Evelvn would have admitted, or allowed. But s he did it for Evelyn’s good. He listened patiently with his lips pressed together.

I want to see her alone,” he said, when she had finished. “May I? Now, at once, please? ” Mrs Stuart rang the bell. “ Matilda. Tell Miss Hamilton to come her e immediately. And. Matilda, put off our dinner till I ring for it.” Evelyn came slowly upstairs. Was Airs Stuart going to dismiss her? She had behaved clumsilv, stupidly, but she had not been altogether to blaine—it had happened so unexpectedly—his coming. If only she had had a little ■warning she would have met it in a different way. And he—dear, foolish man ! —laughter and tears came simultaneously to her eves at the thought of how he had behaved. She pushed oven the door of tlie little back parlour. To her surprise Mrs Stuart was not there—sh e had made good her escape but someone else was—Professor Lawson.

She would have hurried out again, but quick as she was, he was quicked, and she was not used to quick action. He shut the door and stood with his back to it, and there they were—the two of them—standing gazing at each other stupidly, neither saying a word !

At last Evelyn began to laugh. Then quite suddenly, unexpectedly to herscl , her laughter ended in tears, and she co.lapsed on to a chair by the table, hiding her face in her hands.

He was beside her in a moment, his arm round her shoulders, patting her gently, caressing her, his face bent ’down till it was against her own. “My dear! My dear! ” That was all he said for a while, but he began to dry her tears with his big silk handkerchief. ’’Forgive me! ” she began. “ How soon can we get married, Evelyn ? ” “ How soon ? her voice died away in astonishment.

“ I said, ‘ How soon can we get married, Evelyn? ’ ”

“Is it pity?” she asked, raising her pretty, tear-stained face. “It is not! ” His voice was emphatic. “ I loved you while I was here, but—fool that I was— l had to go to London before I found it out. Darling! Please do not turn me down If you could even begin by liking me? ” But here Evelyn interrupted him, her April face smiling through her tears.

“Oh ! Don’t you know ? Didn’t you guess that I loved you all the time ? Even when you went away and I thought I would never see you again ? Men are so stupid, so blind.” . “ Bless my soul ! , I believe you are right! You must teach me to improve. There is more need of haste than ever, so now, sweetheart—for the third time of asking—how soon can we get married? ” —Weekly Scotsman.