Copyright Story. Genius at Milwood.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 10, 9 March 1910, Page 55

Copyright Story. Genius at Milwood.

By

KATHARINE TYNAN.

ILWOOD did not know whether ill to be pleased or otherwise when AI F it discovered that a famous man / had taken Shottermere Cottage. the wonderfully picturesque little place by the sideof beautiful Shottermere. Shottermere was the delight of artists

who were always coming to paint it. The artists put up at the Bell and were taken no notice of by Milwood people, to whom artists, authors, musicians and all their kind were Bedlam folk.

Ralph Thornton might be a very great man to the outside World. He would have been one of the Bedlam folk, something to be looked at askanee as belonging to a disreputable class if it were not for Lady Darien, the Lady of the Manor, whose will in Mil-wood was law. ■ Lady Darien’s first interest in the Thorntons—there was a Mrs. Thornton as well—was on the score of the insanitariness of Shottermere Cottage. “My dear,” she said to her niece, Celia; “I must really call on the poor things, if only to point out to them the impossibility of the Cottage in winter. It is all very well in this beautiful summer, when they can be out of doors all day and needn’t light, fires. Wait till the winter comes and the Mere is covered with white mist: when the doors and windows won’t close properly and the chimneys won’t draw. I think it is perfectly shocking of Lord de Sales to let scuch a place for habitation at all.” “Oh, -but someone must live in it to keep it aired, Aunt Mary,” Celia protested. “The dear old place' You wouldn’t have it drop to pieces .rom the damp? What would the artists do?” Lady Darien looked at Celia with a hint of severity in a very tender gaze. She had. been a little annoyed with Celia the previous autumn when, through' an indiscretion of someone or other' her niece had made the acqriaintance of one of the artists who lodged at the Dell—• a tall gipsy-looking fellow, who seemed to Lady Darien when she encountered him carrying his easel across her park, and sitting down by the Mere to paint it in one of its ever-changing aspects, quite unnecessarily strange and Bohem-ian-looking. The acquaintance had not gone very far. Lady Darien had acted with great promptitude, carrying Celia off to the Highlands as soon as she discovered her acquaintance with the artist. Celia was destined in the masterful little lady’s mind to marry her distant cousin, Lord Chilton. That the young pimple had shown no leaning that way did not matter at all. Of course Celia would be ready to marry Chilton when he asked her. Lady Darien had everything but money. Shotterdale Manor House was falling to pieces for want of a little money to repair it. By " and bye all there was would go to Lord Chilton. The old lady had saved what she could to dower her penniless nieee, but that w as not much. She had to keep up a certain state at the Manor House; and she had not starved its hospitality. But w-hat, after all, did it matter, when presently Celia would be Lady Chilton? Lord Chilton was a pleasant and kindly young man. H was not likely any girl should object to marrying him. “I believe Chilton spoke of this Mr. Thornton,” she -went on,-her eye softening as it always did if it rested long enough on Celia’s charming face. “Chilton seemed to admire him very much. I don t quite fall in with the modern fashion of receiving everyone who paints or plays or writes as equals. Still—Chilton was certainly very enthusiastic,”. “Do go and see them, Aunt Mary,” urged Celia. “Poor things! the rheumatism will have them in its grip before they know where they are. It is really your duty to warn them.”

“There is Nutgrove empty,” Lady Darien said consideringly. “If they give me an opening. . . . Not that I particularly want anyone of that kind in Nutgrove.

Someone like dear old General Baines would please me better.’

Lady Darien . called in the Thorntons and came back with the verdict that they were really pretty much what she expected. He was a littlg. brown-bearded man with very absent, soft, brown eyes, who had sat caress-

ing his beard abstractedly for the greater part of Lady Darien’s visit. Mrs.Thornton had apparently made up for her husband's silence. “She chatters like a starling, my dear,” said the old lady. “Not a very discreet person and not quite a lady. I don’t consider her up to her husband's level at all; but no doubt she is a very good wife. She seemed quite alarmed when I told her about the state the cottage was in in the winter; and she showed a proper deference to my o-pin-

ion. I have not yet come to the point of letting them have Nutgrove. I don’t care to begin admitting these outsiders to our society. You never know where it will end. Still. . , When the neighbourhood heard that Lady Darien had called on the Thorntons, the neighbourhood called unanimously. People took a rather virtuous standpoint about it, saying, that if writers and such folk would take houses in the place it would be, of course, quite wrong to leave them lonely, with only Mr. Fullerton, the vicar, who was stonedeaf, and Dr. Maggs, who drank, for society. “Besides. . where dear Lady Darien showed the way,” said Mrs. Poingdestre to Flora Hammersley. the elder of the two Hammersley girls, who would never see fifty again, “Where dear Lady Darien showed the way they must *ll follow.”

Mrs. Poingdestre and Miss Hammersley called together on the Thorntons with a sense of supporting each other and were surprised to find Celia Humphreys there before them; and so much at home that she (positively poured out tea for Mrs. Thornton, who was short-sighted and either half-filled the cups or overflowed them. They had a comfortable feeling of their own condescension and even expressed an interest in Mr. Thornton's work, of which they had never read a line. “I hope he'll consent to see you,” Mrs. Thornton said, beaming at .. them through her glasses. “But if he does you will be lucky. Of course he’s never disturbed at his work. I guard him from all intrusion. It isn’t likely, ladies, you'll see him. so you may as well prepare yourselves for disappointment.” While Mrs. Poingdestre and Miss Hammersley stared with amazement at this incomprehensible point, of view, the great man made his appearance. He was wearing a shabby velvet coat and down-at-heel slippers; and he came in carrying a pipe with a very large bowl between his fingers. He smelt shockingly of tobacco, but he seemed to be quite unaware of the fact as he bowed absently to the two ladies and asked for tea.

“If you could spare my wife for a few minutes,” he said, “I want her assistance with my work. I won’t keep her long. As a matter-of-fact,” he add-

ed amiably, “I’ve got into difficulties with my cbaracters. I depend upon my wife's knowledge of the ways of the aristocracy. Naturally I don't know anything about them. My father was a Welsh miner, you see.” “Oh, please go with him. Mrs. Thorn ton,” Miss Humphreys said, with an easy intimacy that quite shocked the good ladies; "we shan't mind, Mrs. Poingdestre, shall we? Everything must give way when it is a question of Mr. Thornton's work. I shall just take Mr. Thornton's tea into’ the library. . . .” Mrs. Poingdestre and Miss Hammersley talked a good,deal about the visit. They, too, had discovered that Mrs. Thornton was not a lady. Ralph Thornton's simplicity in accepting her as a guide to the ways of the aristocracy seemed to them merely ridieti; lous. How on earth could Mrs. Thornton know anything about the ways of

the aristocracy—unless she had bee* a governess or a companion to the aristocracy ? “More likely a lady's maid,” Flor* Hammersley said, narrowing her already thin lips. Mrs. Poingdestre looked at her with sudden illumination. “I believe you are right, my dear.” she said; "she was certainly a lady's maid.” Celia Humphreys was present when someone repeated the story of Mrs. Thornton’s having been a lady's maid in one of the Shotterdale drawingrooms. She contradicted the storv flatly. "It isn't a bit true,” she said. “As a matter-of-fact she was a waitress at a tea-shop in Birmingham when Mr. Thornton saw her and fell in love with her. He adores her. The whole of the Monna Delieia was written to her.” The drawing-room gasped. It didn't know anything about the Monna Delieia and didn’t care. What it did care about was that it should have received in its midst, admitted to its houses, called upon, an ex-waitress in a Birmingham tea-shop.

After the first pause the ladies began chattering hard and fast-. Someone or other had the intrepidity to say that they were quite sure Lady Darien would know how to put Mrs. Thornton back into the place she occupied by right, and the discussion- became slightly acrimonious when Celia Humphreys replied

that it was an immense honour for anyone of them to know the Thorntons. Celia reported these happenings to Lady Darien, and, as might have been expected, the old lady took the view that for anybody to object to people she had called upon was an unheard-of presumption. She and Celia were sitting at lunch when this story wws told and Celia happened to be facing a large mirror at the other end of the room. In it she saw the reflection of Griggs, the staid parlour maid, who was waiting in the temporary absence of the footman. Griggs had the impassive face of the well-trained servant, a drab respectable face. Now it was animated by the most extraordinary interest. There was life and colour in it as though the woman had suddenly come alive. Her eye* turned towards Lady Darien with a* expression of • • • * was it grati-

Jude? What on earth had Griggs to feel epeeially grateful for at that moment?

She was tilting the gravy tureen at a dangerous angle as she held it towards Celia. Celia restored it to its proper (position gently; then turned away with a. curious sense of having for a moment seen the woman behind the machine.

She forgot all about it in the little excitement that followed the unexpected arrival of Lord Chilton. He had run down South for a few days, and, of course, he had come to see Cousin Mary. Lady Darien was pleased. She liked Kg men and pretty attentions from ; and she was very fond of this young cousin. But, of course, it was to see Celia he had come. It was only the boy’s pretty way to say that he had come to see her. Was it likely that he had come to see her? Was it likely that an old woman in the seventies should draw a young man from the North of Scotland to the South of England ?

Chilton was immensely excited over the prospect of meeting Ralph Thornton. It was a revelation to Lady Darien, though she would not pretend it, that a young man of Chilton’s position in life should speak like a humble disciple of a mere writer. However, she veered round to his point of view with amazing readiness. She herself took Chilton to

call on Ralph Thornton. She was going to give a luncheon party in the Thornton’s honour, making Lord Chilton’s visit to the Manor House the occasion. She wanted to teach the I’oingdnstres, the llammersleys, and the rest of them how very little their opinion counted for with her. It w:ns somewhat of a disagreeable surprise to Lady Darien when they reached Shottermere Cottage and. were ■ushered into the tiny drawing-room, to see a long loose figure get up from an easy ehair, attired in easy and rather shabby homespuns. It was the artist who had stayed at the Bell last summer,' Mr. John Kenyon, and he seemed quite glad to see them. Lady Darien was glad that he had the grace to put aside his pipe before speaking to her. She was very glad Celia hid not happened to be with her. She was prepared to be very cold to the young man; but ito her amazement, Chilton and he were old friends. It was C-hillon who introduced Mr. Kenyon to her in the absence of the hostess. “Tile best fellow in the world,” Chilton said, with one arm about John (Kenyon’s shoulder.

The two young men smiled into each other’s eyew with frank camaraderie. In view of this unexpected development of affairs, how on earth was she going to treat John Kenyon with the chilliness rhe had intended? How was she going to exclude him from the luncheon [tarty, seeing that he wax staying with the Thorntons?

K z <s. Thornton came in and was followed presently by Ralph Thornton. Again ii was a revelation to Lady Darien to see how Chilton sat at the writing man’s feet, the ingenuous colour in his face and light in his eye as Ralph Thornton talked to him. Somewhere in the back of her mind Lady Darien had an implicit confidence in the decision of the male. She had ruled these many years alone; but it had been a bitter grief to her that there had been no son of hers to whom she might have yielded up her kingdom. Site gave her invitation, which was accepted. She included John Kenyon, with a half-willing smile in his direction. Presently she found her attention straying from the domesticities of Mrs. Thornton, who was a wonderful housekeeper, towhat the three men were saying. John Kenyon was doing most of the talking in a lazy drawl. He seemed to delight the other two, keeping them in explosions of laughter; or at least Chilton exploded, while Ralph Thornton chuckled in quiet enjoyment, looking at John Kenyon the while as though he were a well-beloved son. She had an eye for good looks, and she could not but acknowledge that Kenyon was exceedingly graceful; his dark face, with the Southern eyes and the humorous mouth, was very attractive. She had asked quite a large party to

meet the Thorntons and John Kenyon. Not only Poingdestre and Miss Ilammersley and other who needed to be taught a lesson, but some of the exclusive persons from the next parish. Lord de Sales was coming, and the Duchess of. Monte Alba, an English lady with an Italian title. There were also Sir George Neville and Ijady Neville. Sir George had once been a Cabinet Minister, and was a great person in the county. Altogether it was tp be a memorable party.

The morning of ' the eventful day Thomas the footman had an accident with a cracked tumbler and was incapacitated from waiting. Lady Darien "Was annoyed by the incident; but, after all, Griggs could help William. Griggs was an excellent waitress, and there need be no-hitch.

She would have been surprised if she had seen the seared face with which Griggs received the intimation that she was to assist William in the dining-room. Eor a moment she looked as though she would refuse. When she appeared in the dinning-room it was with a set face of endurance as though she had braced herself to go through with something that had to be done. Griggs, behind her plain unemotional face, had a very real attachment to her mistress, as I ndy Darien was perfectly a-ware. When she appeared in the dining-room that day of the luncheonparty, Griggs was animated by something of the same lofty ideals of duty which have brought many a martyr to the stake. The hors d’oeuvres had gone round.

followed by oeufs-sur-le-plat. Griggs was removing the plates quickly and dexterously when an extraordinary thing occurred.

Mrs. Thornton had been talking of puddings to Sir George Neville, who seemed greatly interested in the subject. Suddenly she uttered a shriek and stood up, staring at Griggs who was at the opposite side of the table. Everyone looked -in amazement. Some people thought that Mrs. Thornton had gone suddenly mad; others that a mouse or some sueh nervedestroying animal had attacked her person. As for poor Griggs, she stood looking down, still holding the plate she had just lifted from before Mrs. Poingdestre, her colour going from its ordinary drab to something almost ashen. “ What is it?” Lady Darien asked, in perplexity.

Mrs. Thornton seemed to recover herself and sat down.

“ It is only that. . . that. . . ” she said very pale and agitated, “ that I have recognised in your parlour-maid a long-lost sister of mine. I hope your ladyship will excuse ray disturbing your party like this, and permit me to retire.” Her ladyship rose to the occasion beautifully. No one could suspect the shock she had received.

“My dear Mrs. Thorntoon,” she said, "I am so glad you have made such a

happy discovery under my roof. You shall have abundant opportunity of seeing your sister as soon as lunch is over. Please retire whenever you like.” Mrs. Thornton chose to retire then and there, which was a relief to everyone, and, after a second or two, the talk went on as though the strange thing had not happened. Only about the end of lunch Lady Darien called to her the muchenduring Griggs, who had waited through all the courses as unerringly as though she ’had not just been recognised rfs ; a sister by one of the guests at her lady’s table.

; “You 'will find your sister in my boudoir,” her ladyship whispered to Griggs. “Go and talk to her. You will have much to say to each other. Don’t trouble about the coffee. William can manage very well.” It helped through the awkwardness of the business that Mr. Thornton seemed to be unaware of any awkwardness at all. He remarked to Lady Darien, on whose right hand he was sitting, that Jane had missed her sister dreadfully since she had lost sight of her in the early years of their marriage and he was so glad that she bad found her again: and then went on with his lunch, apparently forgetting the whole incident. It might have been a triumph for Mrs. Poingdestre and the Hammerslcys if her Ladyship had not taken the -wind out of their sails by treating the whole business as something delightfully appealing and roniantie. “It has really been a blow to ma t*

give up. Griggs, my faithful Griggs. I suppose I shall have to call her Mis* Griggs now,” she said, taking the whole world into her confidence. “It is really a most interesting story. It seems that Griggs—Miss Griggs, I ought to say,— was quite a mother to Mrs. Thornton, reared her, looked after her, sacrificed herself for her in every way. She was in service when her sister married Mr. Thornton; and she would not consent to be a burden on what were their very slender means by going to live with them as they desired. Nor would she hamper her sister's social advancement by appeal - ing as Mrs. Thornton’s sister who was in service. She simply disappeared, covering up the trail with an ingenuity you’d never have expected of Griggs. She made a mistake. The Thorntons were really great-souled enough not to be ashamed of her. Mrs. Thornton insists on having her to live with her now. She hasn’t as much time as she might to look after her house and children, because Mr. Thornton can’t write unless his wife is in the room. So Griggs will look after things for her. They are going to give up the Cottage and move into Nutgrove, so I trust we shall have them here for many years. They are a delightful addition to the society of the neighbourhood. Such a distinguished man! And what a happy marriage!” After that the county was prepared for anything, even to hear that Lady Darien had agreed to her niece’s marriage with the painting man, John Kenyon. Not but what the whole county was presently in love with John Kenyon, and truly amused by him as it had never before been amused. It was understood that Lord Chilton had made the way easy for his cousin’s marriage with his old friend —he and John Kenyon had been at Heidelberg together—by giving Gelia a handsome dowry, as well as winning over the old lady. In time the nine days wonder about Mrs. Thornton’s sister was forgotten, People grew accustomed to the quiet figure in grey or black presiding over Mrs. Thornton’s tea table and playing beneficent maiden aunt to the Thornton children and the household generally; and since the Thorntons seemed quite unaware that there was anything to -be ashamed of in Miss Griggs having been parlour-maid at the Manor House, there was no point in the malicious remembering it. As Lady Darien used to say Griggs was always such a good creature. It was evident in the peace of Miss Griggs’ face that goodness had for once been fully rewarded. - - -