One Maid's Mischief
Miss Mary Rosebury took an interest in his garden and in his botanical pursuits, but nothing like this. She did not keep picking weeds and wild flowers from beneath the hedge, and listen with rapt attention while he pointed out the class, the qualities, and peculiarities of the plant.
Helen Perowne did, and it was quite a privilege to a weed to be picked, as was that stitchwort that had run its long trailing growth right up in the hedge, so as to give its pale green leaves and regular white cut-edged blossoms a good long bathe in the sunshine where the insects played.
“I have often seen these little white flowers in the hedges,” she said softly. “I suppose they are too insignificant to have a name?”
She stooped and picked the flower as she spoke, looking in her companion’s eyes for an answer.
“Insignificant? No!” he cried, warming to his task. “No flower is insignificant. The very smallest have beauties that perhaps we cannot see.”
“Indeed,” she said; and he looked at the blue veins beneath the transparent skin, as Helen held up the flower. “Then has this a name?”
“Yes,” he said, rousing himself from a strange reverie, “a very simple, homely name – the stitchwort. Later on in the season you will find myriads of its smaller relative, the lesser stitchwort. They belong to the chickweed tribe.”
“Not the chickweed with which I used to feed my dear little bird that died?”
“The very same,” he replied, smiling. “Next time you pluck a bunch you will see that, though tiny, the flowers strangely resemble these.”
“And the lesser stitchwort?”
“Yes?” he said, inquiringly. “Is it like this?”
“Nearly the same, only the flowers are half the size.”
“And it grows where?”
“In similar places – by hedges and ditches.”
“But you said something about time.”
“Yes,” replied the Reverend Arthur, who was thinking how wondrous pleasant it would be to go on teaching botany to such a pupil for evermore. “Yes, it is a couple of months, say, later than the great stitchwort.”
“Ah!” said Helen, with a sigh. “By that time I shall be far away.”
The stitchwort fell to the ground, and they walked on together, with Helen, Circe-like, transforming the meek, studious, elderly man by her side, so that he was ready to obey her slightest whim, eagerly trying the while to explain each object upon which her eye seemed to rest; while she, glorying in her new power, led him on and on, with soft word, and glance, and sigh.
They had been at least an hour in the garden when they reached the vinery, through whose open door came the sweet, inviting scent of the luxuriant tender growth.
“What place is this?” she cried.
“My vinery. May I show you in?”
“It would give you so much trouble.”
“Trouble?” he said; and taking off his hat he drew back for her to enter.
“And will all those running things bear grapes?” she asked, as, throwing back her head and displaying the soft contour of her beautifully moulded throat, she gazed up at the tendril-handed vines.
“Yes,” he said, dreamily, “these are the young bunches with berries scarcely set. You see they grow too fast. I have to break off large pieces to keep them back, and tie them to those wires overhead.”
“Oh, do show me, Mr Rosebury?” she cried, with childlike eagerness.
“Yes,” he said, smiling; “but I must climb up there.”
“What, on to that board?”
“Yes, and tie them with this strong foreign grass.”
“Oh, how interesting! How beautiful!” she cried, her red lips parted, and showing the little regular white teeth within. “I never thought that grapes would grow like this. Please show me more.”
He climbed and sprawled awkwardly on to the great plank that reached from tie to tie, seating himself astride with the consequence that his trousers were dragged half way up his long, thin legs, revealing his clumsily-made garden shoes. In his eagerness to show his visitor the growing of his vines he heeded it not; but after snapping off a luxuriant shoot, he was about to tie the residue to a stout wire, when a cry of fear from Helen arrested him.
“Oh, Mr Rosebury, pray, pray get down!” she cried. “It is not safe. I’m sure you’ll fall!”
“It is quite safe,” he said, mildly; and he looked down with a bland smile at the anxious face below him.
“Oh, no,” she cried; “it cannot be.”
“I have tested it so many times,” he said. “Pray do not be alarmed.”
“But I am alarmed,” she cried, looking up at him with an agitated air that made him hasten to descend, going through a series of evolutions that did not tend to set off his ungainly figure to advantage, and ended in landing him at her feet minus the bottom button of his vest.
“Thank you,” she cried. “I am afraid I am very timid, but I could not bear to see you there.”
“Then I must leave my vines for the present,” he said, smiling.
“Oh, if you please,” she cried; and then, as they left the vinery, she relapsed into so staid and dignified a mood, that the Reverend Arthur felt troubled and as if he had been guilty of some grave want of courtesy to his sister’s guest, a state of inquietude that was ended by the coming of Miss Rosebury and Grey.
Volume One – Chapter Eight.
Helen’s Discovery
The nearness of the date for the long voyage to the East came like a surprise to the occupants of the Rectory and the Misses Twettenham’s establishment. Dr Bolter had come down to stay at the Rectory for a few days, and somehow – no one could tell the manner of its happening – the few days, with occasional lapses for business matters, had grown into a few weeks, and still there seemed no likelihood of his leaving.
What was more, no one seemed to wish him to leave. He and the Reverend Arthur went out on botanical rambles, and came back loaded with specimens about which they discoursed all the evenings, while Miss Rosebury sat and worked.
Upon sundry occasions the young ladies from Miss Twettenham’s came over to spend the day, when Grey would be treated by Miss Rosebury with affectionate solicitude, and Helen with a grave courtesy that never seemed to alter unless for the parties concerned to grow more distant.
With the Reverend Arthur, though, it was different. Upon the days of these visits he was changed. His outward appearance was the same, but there was a rapt, dreaminess pervading his actions and speech, and for the greater portion of the time he would be silent.
Not that this was observed, for the doctor chatted and said enough for all – telling stories, relating the experiences of himself and the curate in the woods, while Helen sat back in her chair proud and listless, her eyes half closed, and a languid look of hauteur in her handsome face. When addressed she would rouse herself for the moment, but sank back into her proud listlessness directly, looking bored, and as if she tolerated, because she could not help it, the jokes and sallies of the doctor.
The incident of the tall, fair young man was dead and buried. Whatever encouraging looks he may have had before, however his young love may have begun to sprout, it had been cut off by the untimely frost of Helen Perowne’s indifference; for no matter how often he might waylay the school during walks, he never now received a glance from the dark beauty’s eyes.
The unfortunate youth, after these meetings, would console himself with the thought that he could place himself opposite in church, and there dart appeal into her eyes; but the very first Sunday he went it was to find that Helen had changed her seat, so that it was her back and not her face at which he gazed.
A half-crown bestowed upon the pew-opener – young men at such times are generous – remedied this difficulty, and in the afternoon he had secured a seat opposite to Helen once again; but the next Sunday she had again changed her place, and no matter how he tried, Helen always avoided his gaze.
A month killed the tender passion, and the young gentleman disappeared from Mayleyfield for good – at least so it is to be hoped, for no ill was heard of the hapless youth, the first smitten down by Helen Perowne’s dark eyes.
“And I am very glad we never see him now,” said Helen one day when they were staying at the Rectory, and incidentally the troubles at Miss Twettenham’s were named.
“So am I,” said Grey, quietly. “It was such a pity that you should have noticed him at all.”
“Nonsense! He was only a silly overgrown boy; but oh, Grey, child,” cried Helen, in a burst of confidence, “isn’t the Reverend Arthur delicious?”
“Delicious?” replied Grey, gazing at her wonderingly. “I don’t understand you.”
“Oh, nonsense! He is so droll-looking, so tall and thin, and so attentive. I declare I feel sometimes as if I could make everyone my slave.”
“Oh! Helen, pray don’t talk like that!” cried Grey, in alarm.
“Why not? Is a woman to be always wearing a pinafore and eating bread and butter? I’m not a child now. Look, there comes Dr Bolter along the lane. Stand back from the window, or he’ll be blowing kisses at us, or some nonsense. I declare I hate that man!”
“I like Dr Bolter,” said Grey, quietly.
“Yes, you like everyone who is weak and stupid. Dr Bolter always treats me as if I were a child. A silly, fat, dumpy little stupid; feeling my pulse and making me put out my tongue. He makes my fingers tingle to box his ears.”
“I think Dr Bolter takes great interest in us,” said Grey, slowly, and she stood gazing through the open window of their bedroom at the figure of the little doctor, as he came slowly down the lane, his eyes intent upon the weeds, and every now and then making a dart at some plant beneath the hedge, and evidently quite forgetful of his proximity to the Rectory gate.
“Interest, yes!” cried Helen, who, in the retirement of their bedroom threw off her languid ways, and seemed full of eagerness and animation. “A nice prospect for us, cooped up on board ship with a man like that! I declare I feel quite ashamed of him. I wonder what sort of people we shall have as cabin passengers.”
“They are sure to be nice,” said Grey.
“There will be some officers,” continued Helen; “and some of them are sure to be young. I’ve heard of girls going out to India being engaged to be married directly. I say, Miss Demure, what fun it would be if we were to be engaged directly.”
Grey Stuart looked at her old schoolfellow, half wondering at her flippancy, half in pain, but Helen went on, as if getting rid of so much vitality before having to resume her stiff, distant ways.
“Did you notice how silly the Reverend Arthur was last night?”
“No,” replied Grey. “I thought he was very kind.”
“I thought he was going down upon his knees to kiss my feet!” cried Helen, with a mocking laugh; and her eyes sparkled and the colour came brightly in her cheeks. “Oh, Grey, you little fair, soft, weak kitten of a thing, why don’t you wake up and try to show your power.”
“Nelly, you surprise me!” cried Grey. “How can you talk so giddily, so foolishly about such things.”
“Because I am no longer a child,” cried the girl, proudly, and she drew herself up and walked backwards and forwards across the room. “Do you suppose I do not know how handsome I am, and how people admire me? Well, I’m not going to be always kept down. Look at the long, weary years of misery we have had at that wretched school.”
“Helen, you hurt me,” said Grey. “Your words are cruel. No one could have been kinder to us than the Miss Twettenhams.”
“Kinder – nonsense! Treated us like infants; but it is over now, and I mean to be free. Who is that on the gravel path? Oh! it’s poor Miss Rosebury. What a funny, sharp little body she is!”
“Always so kind and genial to us,” said Grey.
“To you. She likes you as much as she detests me.”
“Oh, Nelly!”
“She does; but not more than I detest her. She would not have me here at all if she could help it.”
“Oh! why do you say such things as that, Helen?”
“Because they are true. She does not like me because her brother is so attentive; and she seemed quite annoyed yesterday when the doctor spent so long feeling my pulse and talking his physic jargon to me. And – oh, Grey, hush! Come gently – here, beside this curtain! Don’t let them see you! What a discovery! Let’s go and fetch the Reverend Arthur to see as well.”
“Oh, Helen, how wild you are! What do you mean?”
“That!” whispered Helen, catching her schoolfellow tightly by the arm as she wrenched her into position, so that she could look out of the little flower-decked window. “What do I mean? Why that! See there!”
Volume One – Chapter Nine.
“I am Forty-Four.”
There was very little to see; and if Grey Stuart had accidentally seen what passed with unbiased eyes, she would merely have noted that, as Dr Bolter encountered Miss Rosebury at the gate, he shook hands warmly, paused for a moment, and then raised one of the lady’s soft, plump little hands to his lips.
Grey would not have felt surprised. Why should she? The Reverend Arthur Rosebury was Dr Bolter’s oldest and dearest friend, to whom the Rosebury’s were under great obligations; and there was nothing to Grey Stuart’s eyes strange in this warm display of friendship.
Helen gave the bias to her thoughts as she laughingly exclaimed:
“Then the silly little woman was jealous of him yesterday. Oh, do look, Grey! Did you ever see anything so absurd! They are just like a pair of little round elderly doves. You see if the doctor does not propose.”
“What nonsense, Helen!” cried Grey, reproachfully. “You are always talking and thinking of such things as that. Miss Rosebury and Dr Bolter are very old friends.”
“That they are not. They never met till a few weeks ago; and perhaps, madam, the time may come when you will talk and think about such things as much as I.”
Certainly there was little more to justify Helen Perowne’s remark as the doctor and Miss Rosebury came along the garden path, unless the unusual flush in the lady’s cheek was the effect of the heat of the sun.
But Helen Perowne was right, nevertheless, for a strange tumult was going on in little Miss Rosebury’s breast.
She knew that Dr Bolter, although he had not said a word, was day by day becoming more and more impressive and almost tender in his way towards her.
He lowered his voice when he spoke, and was always so deeply concerned about her health, that more than once her heart had been guilty of so peculiar a flutter that she had been quite angry with herself; going to her own room, taking herself roundly to task, and asking whether, after living to beyond forty, she ought ever for a moment to dream of becoming different from what she was.
That very day, after feeling very much agitated by Dr Bolter’s gravely-tender salute at the gate, she was completely taken by surprise.
For towards evening, when the Reverend Arthur had asked Helen if she would take a turn round the garden, and that young lady had risen with graceful dignity, and asked Grey to be their companion, Miss Rosebury and the doctor were left in the drawing-room alone.
The little lady’s soul had risen in opposition to her brother’s request to Helen, and she had been about to rise and say that she too would go, when she was quite disarmed by Helen herself asking Grey to accompany them, and she sank back in her seat with a satisfied sigh.
“I declare the wicked thing is trying to lead poor Arthur on; and he is so weak and foolish that he might be brought to make himself uncomfortable about her.”
She sat thinking for a few moments as the girls left the room, and then settled herself in her chair with a sigh.
“It is all nonsense,” she said to herself; “Arthur is like me – too old now ever to let such folly trouble his breast.”
A loud snap made her start as Dr Bolter closed his cigar-case after spending some time in selecting a cigar, one which he had made up his mind to smoke in the garden.
Just then their eyes met, and the little lady rose, walked to her writing-table, took a brass box from a drawer, struck a match, and advanced with it in her fingers towards the doctor.
He replaced his cigar-case, and held out one hand for the match, took it, and blew it out before throwing it from the open window.
“Was it not a good one?” said Miss Rosebury, beginning to tremble.
“No,” he said, quickly, as he thrust the cigar into his waistcoat pocket; “and I could not smoke here.”
As he spoke he took the little lady’s hand in his left and looked pleadingly in her face.
“Dr Bolter!” she exclaimed; and there was anger in her tone.
“Don’t – don’t,” he exclaimed, huskily, and as if involuntarily his forefinger was pressed upon her wrist – “don’t be agitated Miss Rosebury. Greatly accelerated pulse – almost feverish. Will you sit down?”
Trembling, and with her face scarlet, he led the little lady to the couch, where, snatching her hand away, she sank down, caught her handkerchief from her pocket, covered her face with it, and burst into tears.
“What have I done?” he cried. “Miss Rosebury – Miss Rosebury – I meant to say – I wished to speak – everything gone from me – half dumb – my dear Mary Rosebury – Mary – I love you with all my heart!”
As he spoke he plumped down upon his knees before her and tried to remove her hands from her face.
For a few moments she resisted, but at last she let them rest in his, and he seemed to gain courage and went on:
“It seemed so easy to tell you this; but I, who have seen death in every form, and been under fire a dozen times, feel now as weak as a girl. Mary, dear Mary, will you be my wife?”
“Oh, Dr Bolter, pray get up, it is impossible. You must be mad,” she sobbed. “I must be mad to let you say it.”
“No, no – no, no!” he cried. “If I am mad, though, let me stay so, for I never was so happy in my life.”
“Pray – pray get up!” she cried, still sobbing bitterly; “it would look so foolish if you were seen kneeling to an old woman like me.”
“Foolish! to be kneeling and imploring the most amiable, the dearest woman – the best sister in the world? Let them see me; let the whole world see me. I am proud to be here begging you – praying you to be my wife.”
“Oh! no, no, no! It is all nonsense. Oh, Dr Bolter, I – I am forty-four!”
“Brave – courageous little woman,” he cried, ecstatically, “to tell me out like that! Forty-four!”
“Turned,” sobbed the little lady; “and I never thought now that anybody would talk to me like this.”
“I don’t care if you are fifty-four or sixty-four!” cried the little doctor excitedly. “I am not a youth, Mary. I’m fifty, my dear girl; and I’ve been so busy all my life, that, like our dear old Arthur, I have never even thought of such a thing as marriage. But since I have been over here – seen this quiet little home, made so happy by your clever hands – I have learned that, after all, I had a heart, and that if my dear old friend’s sweet sister would look over my faults, my age, my uncouth ways, I should be the happiest of men.”
“Pray – pray get up, doctor,” said Miss Rosebury sadly.
“Call me Harry, and I will,” he cried, gallantly.
“No, no!” she said, softly, and there was something so firm and gentle in her words that he rose at once, took the seat she pointed to by her side, and would have passed his arm round her shapely little waist, but she laid one hand upon his wrist and stayed him.
“No, Henry Bolter,” she said, firmly; “we are not boy and girl. Let us act like sensible, mature, and thoughtful folk.”
“My dear,” he said, and the tears stood in his eyes, “I respect and love you more and more. What is there that I would not do?”
She beamed upon him sweetly, and laid her hand upon his as they sat there side by side in silence, enjoying a few brief moments of the greatest happiness that had ever been their lot, and then the little lady spoke:
“Henry,” she said, softly, “my dear brother’s dearest friend – my dearest friend – do not think me wanting in appreciation of what you have said.”
“I could never think your words other than the best,” he said, tenderly; and the little lady bowed her head before resuming.
“I will not be so foolish as to deny that in the past,” she went on, “there have been weak times when I may have thought that it would be a happy thing for a man whom a woman could reverence and respect as well as love to come and ask me to be his wife.”
“As I would always strive to make you respect me, Mary,” he said, softly; and he kissed her hand.
“I know you would,” she said, “but it cannot be.”
“Mary,” he cried, pleadingly, “I have waited and weighed all this, and asked myself whether it was vanity that made me think your dear eyes lighted up and that you were glad to see me when I came.”
“You did not deceive yourself,” she said, softly. “I was glad to see my dear brother’s friend when he first came, and that gladness has gone on increasing until, I confess to you freely, it will come upon me like some great sadness when the time is here for you to go away.”
“Say that again,” he cried, eagerly.
“Why should I?” she said, sadly.
“Then – then you do love me, Mary?”
“I – I think so,” she said, softly; and the little lady’s voice was very grave; “but love in this world has often to give way to duty.”
“Ye-es,” he said, dubiously; “but where two people have been waiting such a precious long time before they found out what love really is, it seems rather hard to be told that duty must stand first.”
“It is hard, but it is fact,” she said.
“I don’t know so much about that,” said the little doctor. “Just now I feel as if it was my bounden duty to make you my happy little wife.”
“And how can I think it my duty to accept you?” she said, smiling.
“Well, I do ask a great deal,” he replied. “It means going to the other side of the world; but, my dear Mary, you should never repent it.”
“I know I never should,” she replied. “We have only lately seen one another face to face, but I have known you and your kindness these many years.”
“Then why refuse me?”
“For one thing, I am too old,” she said, sadly.
“Your dear little heart is too young, and good, and tender, you mean.”
She shook her head.
“That’s no argument against it,” he said. “And now what else?”
“There is my brother,” she replied, speaking very firmly now.
“Your brother?”
“You know what dear Arthur is.”
“The simplest, and best, and truest of men.”
“Yes,” she cried, with animation.
“And a clever naturalist, whose worth has never yet been thoroughly known.”
“He is unworldly to a degree,” continued the little lady; “and as you justly say, the simplest of men.”
“I would not have him in the slightest degree different,” cried the doctor.
“I scold him a good deal sometimes,” said the little lady, smiling; “but I don’t think I would have him different in the least.”
“No; why should we?” said the doctor.
That we was a cunning stroke of diplomacy, and it made Miss Rosebury start. She shook her head though directly.
“No, Henry Bolter,” she said, firmly, “it cannot be.”
“Cannot be?” he said, despondently.
“No; I could not leave my brother. Let us join them in the garden!”
“I am not to take that for an answer?” cried the doctor.
“Yes,” she replied; “it would be cruel to leave him.”
“But Mary, dear Mary, you do not dislike me!” cried the little doctor. “I’m not much to look at I know; not a very gallant youth, my dear!”
“I think you are one of the best of men! You make me very proud to think that – that you could – could – ”
“And you have owned to liking me, my dear?” he whispered. “Say yea. Arthur would soon get used to your absence; and of course, before long we should come back.”
“No,” she said firmly, “it could not be!”
“Not be!” he said in a tone of so much misery that little Miss Rosebury added:
“Not for me to go out there. We must wait.”
“Wait!”
“Yes; a few years soon pass away, and you will return.”
“But we – I mean – I am getting so precious old,” said the doctor dismally.
“Yes, we should be much older, Henry,” said the little lady sweetly, as she held out her hand; “but surely our esteem would never fade.”
“Never!” he cried, kissing her hand again; and then he laid that hand upon his arm, and they went out into the garden, where the little lady’s eyes soon made out the Reverend Arthur bending over his choicest flowers, to pick the finest blossoms for a bouquet ready for Helen Perowne to carelessly throw aside.