THE LADY GUIDE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 19, 7 May 1892, Page 470

THE LADY GUIDE.

A ROMANCE in real life

rtffiSfeijF'j, AYN’T I go to some of the exhibitions alone!’ Gertrude asked. W4|fjSXjfc ‘ Girls can't go to public places without sjfil IJoT a c * la P eron - • Then to see some of our fiiends ’ ■•©iSKfess® • We don’t want any of them to know that we are in town, and then they won’t SwyFi be offended at our keeping away from * them.’ ‘Am I to see nothing, then ?’ ‘ You shall see everything there is to see when we are done.’ ‘ And when will that be ?’ ‘Ah, if we did but know ?’gasped Mrs Earle, just as if her daily stage of duty at the shops was not the very joy of her life. Mrs Earle and her daughters were staying in London. Millicent had come to order her trousseau—Gertrude to enjoy herself ; but she had discovered that this was out of the question, for her companions were dead to every pleasure but that of shopping. (lertrude had suggested theatres —they were too tired ; pictures—they were too busy ; visits —they had no time to waste on friends. ‘You often say how delightful it would be to “do” London as one does a nice foreign town. Take a rest from your shops this morning and let us go to the Tower.’

‘ The Tower !’ Millicent murmured sweetly ; ‘ but I had made up my mind to begin to the shoes to day.’ ‘ Oh, not the shoes, dear !’ exclaimed Mrs Earle ; ‘do

leave them until we have gone steadily through the underclothing.’ • That’s always the way !’ thought Gertrude. ‘ Even if J do make them realise how appallingly dull I am, they forget it again the next moment.’ Gertrude herself was not an accommodating person, even at the best of times, and now she had a grievance, for her mother would neither take her anywhere uor let her go alone.

‘Haven’t you settled that yet?’ exclaimed Gertrude. ‘ There are hundreds of things to see all round about us, and 1 shall not see one.’

‘ 1 wish you had brought Jenkins, mother,’ said Millicent. ‘ It is hard on Gertrude.’

‘ It is so expensive to bring a maid to a hotel,’ pleaded Mrs Earle.

• I have an idea !’ cried Millicent, joyfully. ‘ Is it trimmed with cambric or embroidery ?’ sneered Gertrude.

‘ How weak ! Do you really want to explore London ?’ • Well, not particularly, but it is better than doing nothing.’ • Suppose you engage a lady guide. I know where to get une-come and settle it at once.’ They went to the oflice, and Miss Routh, a pretty girl of two and-twenty, was commissioned to take Gertrude to the Tower.

• But are you sure that you can imbue my daughter’s mind with all that it is necessary for hei to know in connection with that historic building?’ asked Mrs Earle, mindful of a mother’s duty. Miss Routh blushed and promised to do her best.

• And you will bring her back to the hotel?’ Mrs Earle said, as they all left the oflice together. • How strong you must be,' remarked Gertrude, ' to go all

the way to the Tower and over it, and back to the Alexandra with me, and then to your home again without being tired.’

Miss Routh blushed again, and said that she was ‘ trying to learn not to be easily tired.’ Millicent was sorry when her insensitive sister observed : • But you oughtn’t to do your guide's work in a black dress ; nothing gets shabby so quickly.’ Millicent touched Gertrude’s arm, for she saw Miss Routh’s mouth quiver. • It’s true, I assure yon, Millicent! Black gets shabby directly, doesn’t it, Miss Routh !’ • Yes, I think so ; but I must wear it.’

‘Ah ! that comes of being in London, I suppose. We in the country are very lax about mourning,’ said Gertrude, gaily. ‘ You see, we live far from all the other relations of anybody for whom we have to put it on, so we just go in and out exactly as we like. No one sees what we do, and no one’s feelings are hurt.’ ‘lt is my own feelings that make me wear it,’ Miss Routh replied, and Millicent did not forget the expression of her face till she had got to Swan and Edgar’s. • You have enjoyed yourself, I hope,’ said her mother when Gertrude came home.

‘ Oh, yes, not badly. She knew a lot about all we saw, but that kind of thing rather bores me. Some of the great officials were friends of hers, so I saw more of the Tower than is usually shown—l liked that !' ‘ Yes, the shut up places are always the most interesting.’ ‘ That’s not what I meant! I don’t know that they were

more interesting really, but one can always say that they were, and it is so nice to have been over places that other people are dying to get a sight of and can’t. If you happen to see her to-morrow she will tell you what these places were, for I forget.’ ‘ I am so glad that you are going out again with her,’ said Millicent. ‘ She is a sweet girl !’ ‘ You are always taking a fancy to people who look at you appealingly and have badly hidden sorrows. When I engage a person like Miss Routh I don’t want to be always wondering why she looks sad, and what has made her have to go out as a guide. I just want a guide, and a good one, and that’s all.’ • Isn’t she a good one ?’ • She is to me, but she wouldn’t be to you.’ ‘ Why not ?’ ‘ Because it is pretty evident that she has had some great trouble lately, and can’t forget it. If she were with you, you would be pitying her, and then you would be weeping in each other’s arms in no time -, but I remember that she is a paid guide, and take care' to keep her up to the mark.’ • Poor girl !’ • Yes, poor girl, but poor to herself and not to me. It would be perfectly dreadful if I had to be worried about her troubles.’

‘ She looks such a lady 1’ • I dare say she was one before she came to this. I can quite imagine that she may have been in society—she seems to know exactly how to speak to people. But why are we talking so much about her? I paid her, so I have done with her till to-morrow.’

Next day Gertrude and her guide went to one or two of the city churches and some of the Inns of Court. • I have a barrister brother in Blackstone’s buildings,' said Gertrude. ‘ Let us look in and see if he is at home,

and if he is, make him give us some tea.’ • But wouldn’t you like me to leave you ?’ ‘ Oh, no, he might not be pleasant, and then I should go at once and want you.’ Clifford was surprised to receive a visit from his sister, and still more surprised to see such a pretty girl with her. He revised his first impression almost immediately, however, and thought: ‘ She is more than a pretty girl—she is beautiful, and there is a strange something about her that would make her charming even if her face were plain,’ and then he unconsciously echoed Millicent’s words and mentally added : * And what a lady she looks !’

His sister did not treat her like one. He felt as if he had done an atrociously ill-bred thing himself when she said : • This is Miss Routh, Clifford. She is a guide I have. I got her from the office for them. I have brought her in here with me because we shall most likely do more sightseeing when we leave you.’

He purposely bowed with more respect than he would have accorded to any Duchess-. He had never seen any woman who looked more emphatically a lady than this dignified, yet timid and shrinking girl. ‘ I am to dine with my mother this evening,’ said Clifford.

‘ Then I may as well go home with you, and need not take Miss Routh.’ • But can't we take Miss Routh home first ?’

‘ My home is quite out of your way, thank you,’ said she.

‘ Besides, who wants to go three in a hansom ? Miss Routh is all right. She knows how to get about London far better than you do, Clifford.’ ‘ Yes, I am quite used now to finding my way alone,' she said, with a slight touch of bitterness in her accent. ‘Of course yon are,’ remarked Gertrude, ‘ and other people’s, too.’ • But do allow us to take you as far as our routes are identical,’ he persisted. ‘ I will walk a little way and then go in the omnibus—l prefer it, thank you.’ • Of course she prefers it! Clifford, if you waste much more time, we shall be late. I will pay Miss Routh, and then we must go. Clifford, you are frowning at me ! But lal ways do pay her at the time. Don’t I, Miss Routh ?’ Lest Gertrude .should proceed to explain that a guide

being necessarily poor, it was probably a matter of importance to Miss Routh to be paid daily, he hurried on in front to get a hansom. • Your manner to Miss Routh is most offensive 1’ he said angrily, when they were alone. • You speak of her as “ she,” and you shouldn’t talk about paying her 'so openly and coarsely.’ • People oughtn’t to do things for money if they can’t bear to have it named. Not that she minds. She has a father or mother or something depending on her and the more money she gets the better she’s pleased. She didn’t get much from me to-day though, for she had no right to expect it. She had such an easy afternoon that I only gave her half what we agreed she should have.’ • Gertrude !’

‘lt was easy ! We were an hour in your room doing nothing at all and she had tea and that ought to count for something—’ • I am—’

‘ And when we went out yon were the guide, not she, so it would have been absurd to pay her for that part of the time I’

‘ I am ashamed of you, Gertrude. Miss Routh was engaged for the afternoon. You engaged her time and you had it and ought to have paid her for it. I insist on you giving her the rest of the money to morrow. ’ ‘ I won’t do anything of the kind ! If I did it would be tantamount to owning that I had wished to cheat her, but that my courage had failed.’ • If you do not send Miss Routh that money, and send it with pleasure, I will never forgive you.’ *,lf you like to do so come to tea at my chambers to-morrow at 4.30, I will go out with you myself.’ • Then if I have you I needn’t have Miss Routh.’ • Oh, yes, have her. You will probably want to do some

sight-seeing before you come to me, and it’s safer to have her, for work might come in any moment that would stop my going.’ No work did stop him, either on that day or on many that followed. Gertrude was much too self satisfied, and firmly convinced of Miss Kouth’s absolute insignificance from every point of view, to recognize that her brother was taking more and more pleasure in her companionship. He saw more of the city in ten days than he had seen in ten years, and learned what a sweet and noble woman can train herself to endure with gentleness and dignity, when working for means to brighten the lot of those dear to her. Gertrude was by this time so accustomed to have her brother in attendance on her (as she thought) that she had ceased to be on her good behaviour before him. She was herself, therefore—changeable, exacting, and inconsiderate. Miss Routh obeyed her mortifying orders and humoured her tyrannical caprices with patient exactitude, and, watch as he might, the only sign of impatience he ever saw was a slight hint of a line between her eye-brows or a faint Hush in her cheeks.

‘ I can’t go out with you to day,’ he said when they were having tea with him for the eleventh time, ‘ but come back if you can and I will take you home, and set Miss Routh free.’ The word ‘free’ was forced upon him by indignation. Ever since Gertrude entered his room she had been speaking to Miss Routh in a way that enraged him, and if he checked her it seemed to make her worse.

‘ You are always taking Miss Routh’s part. What with her vexing me and you standing up for her, it’s dreadful. She is not ill treated by me. She never does anything that she dislikes. She refuses to go to Dynes Hall with me.’ • Oh, do you want to go there 1 How odd !’

‘ Why odd ?’ • Because this very morning I made up my mind that I must see that place myself. You read about it in the Times, I suppose ?’ Dynes was a place near Maidenhead that was for sale. ‘ Yes, and that sulky woman won't go I She will have it that we are both too young to go so far. Do you see any harm in it?’

‘ No. You go about London, and that’s worse.’ ‘So I said ; but she told me that if I insisted on going I had better engage some older person. I know it is a false excuse, and 1 don’t like old persons, do you ?’ ‘ I prefer Miss Routh, but she will go. Ask her again, and ask her civilly.’ ‘ I did ask her again, and civilly, and she flatly refused.’ • What did she say ?’ ‘ That she would much rather not.’

• There is nothing very flat about that.’ ‘ But when I said I did insist, and that she was engaged to do what I liked, she burst into tears and said she couldn’t and wouldn’t and would go to the office herself, if I liked, and find me an older guide : so I just told her plainly that if she did find one, I should keep her altogether, and she might consider herself dismissed.’ ‘lt is your pleasure to treat her as a servant ! This is a very different account from that which you began by giving 1’ ‘ Very likely ! When one’s vexed, accounts do get different. She vexed me frightfully, but I have made her understand that she will either have to obey me and go, or make up her mind to be dismissed. I shall keep to that, for what’s the use of her if she objects to things ?’ ‘ She never objects to taking you to any part of London. Keep her for London, and I will escort you to Dynes.’ ‘ You can’t go by the 12 train, and you wouldn’t come to the ‘Alexandra’ for me at 11.30? That’s what she would have to do.’

‘ Yes, I can and will.’ ‘ What is making you so wonderfully obliging all at once ?’

‘ Your example, I imagine. No ; I intend to buy a place near London, and Dynes might suit me.’ During dinner a telegram, answer prepaid, came from Miss Routh. Gertrude read aloud, ‘ Will go to Dynes tomorrow if you like. Will call at 11.30.’ ‘ She has knocked under,’ said Gertrude. ‘My enemy has fallen ! Doesn’t that show what a fright she is in lest I employ her no more?’ ‘ Poor girl! How hard it must be to have to do what she dislikes, because she has no money,’ said Mrs Earle. ‘ Beggars shouldn’t be choosers ! And why on earth should she dislike it? Well, as she is going, Clifford, I suppose you won’t. Or will you, and shall I use up her prepaid telegram in telling her not to come as I have made other arrangements? How I shall enjoy that ! It would make her so uncomfortable.’

‘Gertrude,’ said he, ‘I sometimes fear that you will make me unable to have any liking for you at all ! Miss Routh has been uniforndy obliging to you, and you shall at least behave with decency to her. Write “ Please come, if fine.” ’

‘ Why “ please,” I should like to know ? The girl is very well paid for what she does.’ ‘ Oh, yes ; I will if I can. It would be foolish to lun any risk of losing Dynes, but as I might at the last moment be prevented, it is well that you have Miss Routh to fall back on. I gain an hour by only joining you at Paddington.’ ‘ I am glad you made up your mind to come,’ said Gertrude next morning, as if Miss Routh’s decision implied a praiseworthy return to the path of duty. ‘ I am very sorry if I annoyed you by hesitating.’ ‘ Oh, you have come now,’ replied Gertrude with lofty graciousness, ‘ so we will not say any more about it.’ Clifford joined them at the station with an armful of newspapers, read an interesting debate, and Miss Routh scarcely o .cj raised her eyes from the Saturday llevicw. ‘ She is only pretending to read,’ thought Gertrude. ‘ln reality she is in an awful temper because I forced her to come. What a temper she has !’ The drive from the station to Dynes was beautiful. Gertrude’s enjoyment took the uncomfortable form of incessant exclamations which were so like questions they were difficult to deal with, for did they require an echo oi answer ? ‘ Oh, isn’t it lovely, Clifford ?’ 1 Isn’t it quite too lovely, Miss Routh ?’ They said it was, or they echoed her words, and that generally appeased her for three minutes, when the ceremony had to be repeated. The house was a long, castellated building, with wide, low windowsand a singularly picturesque toners. It was surrounded by gardens and shubbeiies which were the pride of the country. *lt is lovely, Clifford !’ said Gertrude. ‘ Don't you call it lovely, Miss Routh ?’

‘ I do indeed,’ she answered, and her eyes wandered on every side to take their fill of beauty. ‘ You think it lovely, don't you, Clifford ?’ Gertrude asked, as he had not spoken. ‘Of course I do. But to my mind the special charm of the place consists in the strangely overmastering sense of long-established peace and rest, and security from outside intrusion and trouble that there is about it '.’

‘ There can’t be much of that security in reality, or the people who are selling it would be here still.’ ‘ I have never heard anything about them,' he said. ‘No more have I, but I will have one of their roses. They are not here to see me, so they can’t object,’ and before he could stop her Gertrude had wrenched one from the trellis.

‘ I hope you will excuse me, but I am not the person who ought to show you the house,’ said the woman who came to the door. * She’s away to-day burying her mother. My name is Wooler, and I am a stranger and know very little about the place, but somebody had to be here while she was gone, so I came.’ They entered a hall with windows framed by roses. ‘ It’s considered handsome,’ said Mrs Wooler, ‘ but the pictureshave been sold, and the floor has gone out of polish, and— ’

‘ I'd put sheets of good plate glass instead of those ugly windows,’ said Gertrude.

‘ I wouldn't,’ said Clifford, ‘ I delight in windows of that kind.’

‘ The late family used to have tea here in the afternoons with the door set wide open, and all the beautiful smell of the flowers blowing in.’ ‘ What was the name of the last owner ?’

‘ Mr—Mr—oh ! I’ll tell you in a minute, sir—l have such a memory ! They was kind folks, sir, but unfortunate. First they had one trouble and then another, and at last a bank broke and they had to go, but everybody pitied them.’

They went about admiring all they saw. Miss Routh alone found no good word to say. ‘She won’t own she admires anything,’ whispered Gertrude. ‘ Now you must see that all I have told you is true. She has a vile temper and won’t seem pleased because she was brought here against her will.’ It really did look as if there were some foundation for Gertrude’s charge, and yet he would not believe it. ‘ Isn’t there a room upstairs where Charles 11. slept ?’ he asked, to divert his sister’s attention.

‘ Yes, sir, but the bed is gone—everything is gone !' ‘A great deal more ought to go,'exclaimed Gertrude. ‘ Those high mantelpieces are hideous, and the doors should be at least three feet higher. The house wants a thorough doing up.’ ‘ You would ruin it,’ said Clifford. ‘ I like it just as it is.’

The bedrooms were as attractive as the sitting-rooms. They went to see Charles ll.’s, and Mrs Wooler showed them the door of one that had, she said, always been kept locked when the late family was there. ‘ Oh, but we must go into it! Come into this room that was kept locked,’cried Gertrude, seizing Miss Routh by the hand and dragging her in. • Yes, but everything for the sake of which it was locked is gone, Miss. It is the room that Mr—oh, I wish I could remember his name’s—wife died in, and he never would have anything in it altered,’ said Mrs Wooler. ‘ Oh ! for mercy’s sake don’t waste any more time here, Clifford ! There must be some things that are interesting. Where is Miss Routh ?’

• She was here a minute ago, Miss’, said Mrs Wooler ; ‘ I saw her.’

They sought her upstairs and down, but she was nowhere to be found.

‘ Perhaps she has gone to the garden,’ suggested Gertrude.

‘ I hope not !’ cried Mrs Wooler, ‘ for Carlo is loose. He is a dog, Miss —a dog that belonged to the late family, and that savage, by all accounts, that no one can manage him but a gardener that’s here who lived with them.’ ‘ I must find her at once,’ said Clifford, very anxiously. ‘Oh ! don’t go now,’ urged Gertrude. ‘ Nothing is likely to happen to her in the next few minutes. Mrs Wooler says that the kitchen is well worth seeing. The tiresome girl should have stayed here—don’t go to her—come to the kitchen with us.’

‘ The first thing I do must be to find Miss Routh,’ he said ; and snatching up a stout stick which he found in the hall, he ran to the garden. She was not there, nor yet in the kitchen garden. He called her, but no voice answered his. He sought her on every side, and at last found her near the Dutch garden. She was sitting on the close-cut grass with her head bent down as if weeping, and the great dog, which, in spite of what he saw, he could not help thinking must be the dreaded Carlo, was with her, his head laid affectionately on her knees, and his eyes riveted to heis.

‘ Miss Routh ! Miss Routh !’ Clifford cried while yet at some distance, and with an amazed growl, for his attention had been so wholly given to her the huge beast rushed at him, barking furiously. ‘Carlo! Carlo! come back!’ she cried, authoritatively, and Carlo stopped short. Another call brought him back to her side, where he stood growling. ‘ Lie down this moment!’ she said, and then, as he was slow to obey, she put her arms round the dog’s neck and drew him down, and he lay as before, only not so happily, for now his eyes were watching the intruder with an expression that seemed to say : ‘ I hold myself in readiness to put an end to you, sir, at any instant.’ ‘ They told me that this dog was so savage that you were not safe. 1 was in misery till I found you. How have you learned the secret of taming him ?’

‘Can't you guess?’ she replied, without taking her eyes from the ground. ‘Oh ! can’t you guess ? and do you not understand now why I shrank from the torture of coming here ?’

‘This was your father’s house and he had to leave it.' It had flashed into his mind with suddenness and certainty. ‘ Yes. Cntil six months ago this was my home, and then I lost it forever,’ and he saw her eyes slowly fill with tears. ‘ Not forever. Let it be your home again,’ he exclaimed, flinging himself down at her feet, regardless of Carlo—regaidless of everything but her. Carlo growled savagely, but for the moment contented himself with showing that he was on the alert. Miss Routh

was in such terror that she scarcely knew what he was say ing.

‘ I will buy Dynes. I should like to buy it and give it to you, for I love you." ‘Oh, Mr Earle! Oh, Carlo, dear Carlo, do be quiet! Oh, what shall I do?’ said the distressed girl, for she felt that she could not restrain the dog unless she gave her entire attention to him, ami how was it possible to do that now ?

‘ I have loved you ever since I first saw you,' he said, trying to take her hand ; but instead of that, Carlo made a snatch at his.

‘Carlo! Carlo!’ she cried again, and dragged his head back. *Mr E trie, do be careful ! Don’t move. It is all I can do to hold him. He will let me talk to you if you will go a little further off, and put down that great stick, ami not make any attempt to touch me. He thinks you are attacking me.’ ‘ I will sit here, then,’ said Clifford, unwillingly retiring to a spot about a yard away from her, ‘ ami I will put my stick down and do anything you like if will you but say that you will come back to Dynes. Say you will try to love me.’ • My father an I I are alone in the world—l could not leave him.’ ‘ You need not think of leaving him. This shall be his home exactly as it was before, except that he shall give me his daughter. We would be with him continually. Now, will you be my wife ?’ ‘ I will,’ she said ; but this promise could be ratified by no kiss or grasp of hands, for Carlo was there. ‘ Oh ! do let us try to get that dog tied up,’ said Clifford, who found the situation unbearable. ‘VV e will take him to his kennel. I know where it is and can chain him up myself.’ They set out therefore to the stable yard. ‘ Do you know it strikes me that almost every time you went out with my poor sister Gertrude you must have endured something very like what I am enduring now from Carlo.’ Her smile was sweet to see. ‘ Yes, but I was very grateful to her for providing me with an opportunity of earning some money. We were so poor just then that we scarcely knew how to pay our way.' ‘ And she forced you to come here !’ ‘ Yes ; but even that, bad as I thought it, has ended in great happiness.' The woman he loved said this and he might not even take her hand.

‘ Shall we be worried with that brute much longer ?’ he asked impatiently. ‘ There is a proverb—but I forgive you ! We shall reach his kennel almost directly, but he is quite good now.’ So he was as long as Clifford kept his distance, but Carlo had his ideas on the subject and liked to have a full yard between the two human beings who were accompanying him.

‘ Coming here must have been a martyrdom to you and how brave you were ! Not once did you make a sign that you were suffering.’ ‘ I had to run away when she took us into my mother's room.’

‘ Gertrude’s remarks must have been so painful—’ ‘ Oh, no ! They were swallowed up in the great pain, and the great pain is now swallowed up in turn. Don't let your sister know what has happened until I have left you. I could not bear it.’ ‘ Then you may have to bear some of her speeches.’ ‘ I shall think of you.’ They chained up Carlo, and then they walked to the house under the overarching trees. They went thither as they intended to go through the journey of life, hand in hand and heart open to heart. ‘ I have loved you from the first day I saw you,’ he said. ‘ I am afraid I was beginning to love you,’ she answered, and he said : ‘ Why afraid ?’

And of such things, old as the world and young as the new born day, the lovers’ heaven consists. They were torn from it in less than ten minutes by Gertrude from the vantage point of a window. ‘ Miss Routh, how could you be so unkind as to waste our time and give us such a fright ?’ Hastily they dropped each others hands—a bough had hidden from her that they were locked together—but both Clifford and Miss Routh were too much startled to make any answer.

‘ My poor brother came here to see this property with an idea of buying it, but this foolish affair of you and the dog has lost us so much time that I don’t see how he is to know what he wants to do.’ ‘ Not a moment of my time has been lost, and I know what to do. I shall buy the place.' ‘ And let me have my say about the alterations ?’ When Gertrude and her brother reached home, Mrs Earle said gaily : • Rejoice with me ; our shopping is done, the trousseau is off our minds, and, thank Heaven! there will be no more weddings in our family for some time.’ ‘ Don’t count too much on that mother. I—’ ‘Clifford, you engaged !’ exclaimed his mother. * Oh ! bother !’ muttered Gertrude.

Margaret Hunt.