Spring Comedies, etc

Chapter I

INTRODUCTORA*. I SUPPOSE people Avho are going to be married think that all seasons and places are con venient and appropriate. I have heard arguments advanced in favour of a Christmas wedding, and have been often told that spring is a delightful time for choosing new bonnets and neAv furniture. As for the east wind — perhaps it Avon't bloAV for more than three consecutive months this year ; and, after all, what does it matter ? But in spite of this sophistry my convictions remain unaltered, and I hereby give notice that I I! [i- SPRING COMEDIES. 2 refuse my consent to the marriage of all my female friends and relations unless the ceremony is arranged for Midsummer. And it must also take place in the country-. A London Avedding is too profoundly dispiriting. Everything and every body looks so cold and hard and business-like.

It seems a mere question of getting the whole affair over Avith as much speed and as little sentiment as possible. The officials have not a thought beyond their backsheesh, and argue in favour of the bride's chances of happiness in pro portion to the amount of the bridegroom's fee. Poor man ! I suspect eA'en the bridesmaids judge of his character and disposition according to the value of their lockets. I once saAv some floAvers strewn before a bride at a London Avedding, but the camellias and azalias had a palpable florist-look about them, not in the least like those groAvn in a country greenhouse. They Avere cut Avith an economy of stalk and leaf Avhich spoke plainly of a professional knife; and the prim, smartly-dressed maidens, Avho alloAved them to slip through their well-gloved fingers over the sooty pavement, did it with an air Avhich said as plainly as words, "There goes eighteenpence, — this one cost half-a-crown."

Even the bride '•] A WEDDING STORY. 3 could not find it in her feet to tread on them, and after we had all passed on I saw ragged, sharp-eyed children scrambling for their possession, fighting and quarrelling over the frail treasures. No ! my grandchildren and nieces, and even my goddaughters, must all be married on a fine summer's day quietly in the country, if they Avant to see me and my gold-headed cane at the ceremony. Yet if any one in the Avorld ought to have had their faith shaken in Aveddings, even Avhen the June roses are in fullest beauty, I am that person, for I Avas once engaged to be bridesmaid at a Midsummer marriage Avhich never came off; and it is about this failure I am going to tell you. It all happened so very, very long ago that I have no fear of reviving painful memories in the thoughts of the principal actors ; most of them have passed aAvay to the happy land Avhere hearts are open and partings are over.

Those Avho still remain behind on earth do not dislike to think or speak of that time, though it was certainly one of great family embarrassment. School-girl friendships are proverbial. Helen Ramsay's and mine was no exception to the rule. Of course our appearance contrasted as strongly B ['• SPRING COMEDIES. 4 as our characters ; for I Avas a little pale, quiet thing, with a very decided will hidden under a meek exterior, and I ruled Helen with a firm hand. She Avas one of those people Avho like to be ruled, and that made her sudden development of an invincible determination all the more remarkable. It Avas I Avho used to spirit up Helen to achieve Avonders for her music-master, and Avho insisted on her trying for the prize in English composition. " Dear me," said Helen, Avhen the idea was first suggested to her, " I'm quite sure I can't compose English or anything else.

" But her little friend marched up and doAvn the long dingy school room, declaiming Avith so much eloquence on the excitement of the coming strife, and the glories aAvaiting the Minerva Victrix of Miss Pringle's establishment, that at last poor, worried Helen gave Avay, and consented to try for the sprig of gilt laurel and the accompanying smart copy of Milton's Poems. She only stipulated that I should tell Miss Pringle of her resolution, or rather my resolution. I glanced at her in surprise. "You don't mean to say you are afraid, Helen ? " " No, indeed, Edy," she said ; " who could be afraid of poor dear Miss Pringle ? She always looks as «•] A WEDDING STORY. 5 if she Avere afraid of us. But I don't think she will believe me." Well, I told Miss Pringle, Avho certainly was rather incredulous; but after a time I made her acknoAvledge that Helen had a chance.

She dis missed me with a friendly pat on the shoulder, accompanied by the new and original remark that it Avould be quite an instance of the Lion and the Mouse. This Avas rather more applicable in our case than most of the other similes which our friendship called forth ; for I was not so very unlike a mouse, with my little pointed face, bright eyes, and quiet movements ; Avhilst our glorious Helen had the taAvny hair and golden-brown eyes Avith which we credit the com-entional lion. That sort of colouring nearly always goes with fine physical proportions, and Helen stood five feet eight in her shoes, and had the shoulders and bust ofa young contadina. Yet with all this height and breadth she did not look in the least too much for one's nerves. In the first place, she was a lady in all her thoughts and actions, perfectly natural and unaffected, with a nice voice and quiet ways.

And then she was " finished off," as she said herself, so neatly ; delicate [I- SPRING COMEDIES. 6 little wrists and ankles, and fairy-small hands and feet. I don't remember Avhether her features were beautiful ; the portrait so deeply graven on my heart and memory is of a SAveet frank face, with health and good-temper sparkling in its kind eyes, and curving pleasant lines around the mouth. I only knoAV that although no doubt she Avas a handsome girl enough, she aged into a far lovelier old woman, Avith bright silvery hair, and the most exquisite calm and repose shed all over her. HoAvever, that is glancing much too far ahead, and it is not fair besides. In these opening days of our life and love, Miss Ramsay Avas only sixteen, and I very little older. My few additional months gave me a great hold at that time over Helen.

Whenever she disobeyed my advice, I brandished them verbally before her, adding, " So I ought to know." This formula Avas in constant use during that last school-term, for whenever poor, easily discouraged Helen announced that no ideas on her part Avere forthcoming for this dreadful "Essay on True Heroism," I insisted on her per severance, adding that I kneAV she could do it if she tried. Never shall I forget that essay, and the anxiety it cost me! We Avere not allowed to help each '■1 A WEDDING STORY. 7 other, but still all my discourses would turn on heroic deeds and Avords; and I considered that some very fine things were said on the subject. Helen's great stronghold Avas an equivalent to " suffer and be strong," and this oft-used sentiment Avas brought into play more than once. However, she really turned out the best paper of the lot, which is not saying very much for the others.

I thought myself that Mary Wright's Avas the most interesting; but that audacious damsel had actually gone into the realms of fiction for her examples, and had collected thrilling and romantic episodes, chiefly turning on unhappy and heroic lovers. Miss Pringle's face changed from red to Avhite, and she looked ready to sink into the earth with confusion as she heard this novelette — for it was really more like that than anything else — read aloud before the parents and guardians, as well as the pupils. Dismal Avere her forebodings of Mary's future. Had the thing existed in those days, she would have prophesied, as a fearful fate, that the sinner would become a sensation novelist ; but as it Avas, she could think of nothing more dreadful than that the girl Avould run away with an ensign. Poor Mary ! she did nothing of the sort ; she never Avrote [i 8 SPRING COMEDIES. another line, married a country doctor, and lived the quietest and happiest life possible.

None of the "girl-graduates" ever performed a heroic action, as far as I know, in spite of the run upon heroes and the hero-A\rorship which that essay called forth. Helen's performance Avas correct, even to in sipidity ; and perhaps it was due to the revulsion of feeling produced by Mary Wright's romance that Miss Pringle, Avho gave the casting vote, decided that "Yours, my dear Helen, is the best example of English composition, and I have much pleasure," &c. &c. When Helen took home her laurel spray and her splendidly bound book, Mrs. Ramsay seized on the occasion to declare that she meant to leave oft parting Avith her daughter. The poor lady Avas very lonely in her large empty house, and missed Helen's delightful companionship more and more every time that the holidays ended. The fatal Monday of school-boy notoriety Avas only Black to Mrs. Ramsay, avIio was quite Avretched Avhen the time arrived to send the girl back to her school ; and it was the mother who had to be 'consoled and comforted by anticipations of hoAV soon the next holidays Avould come round, not the pupil. i-J A WEDDING STORY. 9 Miss Pringle ahvays took both Helen's and my joy at returning to Holly House as a tribute to the scholastic charms of that establishment ; whereas the happiness of meeting each other there was our great attraction to its prim precincts.

Helen invited me over and over again to come and visit her, but I Avas too popular a little personage in my OAvn quiet home to be spared for a single day during holiday-time. The boys scouted the idea of Edy's going aAvay for a Avhole Aveek, and thought me a selfish monster if I mentioned the subject ; whilst dear, gentle mamma — ah! hoAv long, how very long it is since those days — said plaintively, "You knoAV, Edy, it isn't as if there were any more girls to help me, but you really do get through so much, and amuse the boys so well, that we can't spare you." I Avas very glad not to be easily parted Avith, and made Helen quite envious by dwelling a good deal on the duties and cares of an elder sister with half a dozen school-boy brothers. And yet many people would have envied Helen, and not me ; for, so far as our dim earth-sight could reach, her future looked calm and secure, whilst mine was pretty sure to be full of cares and anxieties ; but still I would not have changed fates with her for Li- SPRING COMEDIES. 10 the Avhole world.

She was an only daughter — indeed an only child now — for her brother had died some years before we met at Miss Pringle's " Finishing Establishment," and her mother only lived for Helen's happiness in the present, and Helen's Avel fare in the future. Mrs. Ramsay's life was rather a dull one ; she Avas too perfectly comfortable and correct in all her circumstances and surroundings to lead anything but a monotonous existence. She did not possess a poor relation in the Avorld, who might have turned up unexpectedly AA-ith a startling tale of a neAv and crushing misfortune, to A'ary her existence. Her means Avere ample and secure, and she had not even delicate health to amuse her. When Helen was at school, therefore, her days passed slowly and heavily enough. For about a month after her child left, Mrs. Ramsay used to go into the empty room every day, and sit down in the girl's low chair by the Avindow, crying lonely tears until her maid or her housekeeper found her out and scolded her well.

Then she kept away until a few weeks before the joyful date of Helen's return, Avhen she commenced happy little flutterings toAvards the beloved but forbidden chamber, and every order given inside or outside Holm Bush bore !•] A WEDDING STORY. 11 reference to something which was to conduce towards Miss Helen's comfort or her pleasure. What Avonder Avas it then that, in such an atmo sphere of peace and plenty, Helen grew like a stately lily, and ripened in body and soul like a peach in the sunshine ? Sometimes I used to think she had not much depth of character, because, in spite of her really excellent spirits, she looked so placid. I Avas always in a ferment, with a thousand little cares of my OAvn and everybody else's on my shoulders ; and I strongly suspect I must have been a conceited little puss, Avho thought she kneAV better than anyone else.

I quite enjoyed my sovereignty at Miss Pringle's, for all the girls, more or less, deferred to my opinion, partly because I Avas so quick at my lessons that I never fell into disgrace with the teachers, and partly because Helen adored and believed in me, and they all adored Helen. But our happy, busy school-days came to an end soon after Miss Ramsay had distinguished herself, and astonished even her warmest admirers, by gaining the prize for English composition. In the letter which told me of Mrs. Ramsay's determination to keep her daughter at home in future, Helen said : " It is all the fault of that essay. I really should have [I. SPRING COMEDIES. 12 liked to have gone back once more to Miss Pringle's, but mamma says if I am clever enough to write prize essays I need not return to school.

Of course I am glad to remain at home for some reasons, but I shall miss you dreadfully, Edy ; and neither you nor Mrs. Maude shall have one moment's peace until you promise to come and pay me a long, long visit." I did not go to Holm Bush just then, and one thing added to another kept Helen and me apart for nearly two years. At last the younger boys left off having measles and scarlatina, and the elder ones began to pay visits to their own schoolfellows during the holidays. Also, there came a pause in my constant copying for papa, as he took the first five volumes of his great biographical Avork, consisting of nearly every body's memoir, up to London to be published ; and mamma's only sister — a pale-faced, languid Avidow — returned from India, and I could depend on the new source of interest thus aroused at home, to keep my dear little pet mother from missing her active, elf-like daughter.

When I felt quite at ease about home duties and home cares, I Avrote and told Helen that I could come noAv and pay her this long-promised visit ; she seemed, by her reply, to be just as A WEDDING STORY. 13 fond of me as ever ; and never was there a warmer Avelcome given to a weary traveller than that Avhich greeted me AA'hen I reached Holm Bush late one raw autumn evening, two years from the time when Helen and I had parted, Avith quivering lips and tear stained eyelids, under the stately portals of Miss Pringle's Finishing Establishment. I had only come about fifty miles, but I had been all day about it, for I had travelled with an old friend and neighbour by the Velocity stage-coach ; and I wish that the luxurious young people of the present day, who grumble at everything, could have felt hoAV even my young bones ached after that tiresome journey.

I don't think we Avere so often killed in our travels as people are now, but there is this to be said, that, when an accident did happen to the Velocity or any other coach, there were no Avires to flash the dreadful tidings all over the country in an hour or two, and so raise a momentary storm of pity and anger in men's breasts. No, Ave broke our necks or dislocated our joints in strict retirement, and without exciting any compassion except among our fellow-travellers. About a Aveek, or often more, after a stage-coach accident had hap pened, a vague rumour Avould be whispered about, A\rhich in its turn took the shape and form of a short SPRING COMEDIES. [I- 14 newspaper paragraph ; this Avas immediately con tradicted, and long after even the principal actors had ceased to take an interest in the story of their mishap, a certain portion of the truth was administered homceopathically to the public.

Chapter II. Holm Bush

A FRIENDLY and amiable critic has just said to me, "But there's no Mr. Ramsay!" I do not intend that there should be a Mr. Ramsay, for I never saw and hardly ever heard of him. It may perhaps be as Avell to state here, however, that he died soon after Helen was born, leaA-ing, as he thought, a moderate dot for the baby girl, and a fine fortune to the sturdy three year-old boy, of whom he was dotingly fond. The little fellow missed his father dreadfully, and showed his grief and his remembrance in a thousand touching Avays. A whole year after, when the child sickened of the complaint which ended his short earth-life, his last baby words were an entreaty that his father might be told how sick Tony Avas, and how badly he wanted his dadda to kiss and make him well. Li- SPRING COMEDIES. 16 Helen told me all this when we first began to exchange our little domestic confidences.

She was saying that she had never knoAvn a real anxiety or a grief, for this blank in her small home circle had been long ago filled up by the gracious heal ing hand of Time, drawing her mother's heart closer and closer to her own, year by year. Noav I have positively done Avith the long retro spective glance which possesses so much fascination for the old, and I will go on Avith my story, passing briefly over that first autumnal visit to Holm Bush. The Aveather Avas bad : I remember it far more distinctly than the meteorological vagaries of last year ; and I can hear now the dismal plash of the rain against the Avindows in Helen's room as Ave sat by the fire the night after I arrived. My first evening at Holm Bush gives me back only a dim, shifting scene of lights and floAvers and gay colours ; for my journey had so thoroughly shaken and tired me, that I could be conscious of nothing except the blessedness of rest and warmth and an early departure to bed.

Mrs. Ramsay was so deliciously motherly in all her Avays that I did not feel in the least strange or shy Avith her ; and Avhen she came the first night '■] A WEDDING STORY. 17 to kiss me after I was in bed, she could not keep her hands from giving the bedclothes that final smooth and tuck which tells, more than any action I know, of a soft womanly nature. I don't believe the Ladies Avho Avant their Rights now-a-days, could do it if they tried. A good night's sleep is Nature's OAvn patent medicine for the young, to be taken in any quantity, and Avarranted never to fail in effecting a cure. I slept the clock round, as old nurses say, and woke perfectly strong and Avell again. Helen had charged me on no account to get up until she came to see me, and had given strict orders that I was not to be disturbed before I rang my bell.

It Avould not do to confess what time of day the clock hands announced Avhen, after the tidy elderly housemaid — head chambermaids as they Avere called then — had ansAvered my summons and drawn the thick curtains back, my lazy eyes travelled sloAvly, resting on each unfamiliar object by the way, towards the chimney-piece. I only know that I felt so thoroughly demoralized it seemed of little consequence now Avhat enormity in the way of lying in bed Avas committed ; so, instead of being startled or shocked to see the lateness of the hour, I merely said, " Tell Miss Ramsay I am awake, and Avould be glad to see her, please." c [I- SPRING COMEDIES. 18 " I'll tell the mistress if you please, Miss," ansAvered Martha. " Miss Helen, she's in the stables with Mr. Charles — leastways Mr. Kenneth, and she won't be in, not just yet, Miss."

" Have they done breakfast, then ? " I asked, Avith some slight daAvning sense of shame. Martha glanced at the clock, as if Avondering to Avhat hours I had been accustomed, and said, " Oh yes, Miss, times and times ago ; but Mrs. Ramsay ordered breakfast to be served in Miss Helen's mornin' room when ever you Avas pleased to want it." " Oh, that's next door, isn't it, Martha ? " I inquired ; " so I Avill get up directly. And I suppose I can go in there in my dressing-goAvn, can't I ? " " Yes, Miss, certingly," was Martha's demure reply, as she curtsied herself towards the door, and left me to get out of that delicious bed Avherein I had found such stores of comfort and rest, as Avell as a fresh supply of strength and high spirits — that is, high spirits for me ; but at my best I was a repressed little creature in those days, and had an absurd fancy that the more staid and undemonstrative I was, the more people would look up to me.

It must have made me very uninterest ing to strangers; but at all events it is a comfort to perceive that the damsels of the present day are not likely to fall into their grandmothers' I-] A WEDDING STORY. 19 errors. They can scarcely reproach themselves for prim steadiness. I felt very small and lost, I remember, in that large room ; my own tiny apartment at home not being much bigger than one of its spacious cupboards, but the fact Avas that the boys had accumulated such treasures in the shape of birds' eggs and birds' skins, and screens of feathers, little mats of imperfectly tanned mouse-hides, models and powder-flasks, that, as they outgrew the nursery, I gradually gave up one room after another to them, and had retreated to a last fast ness, whose strength consisted in its cramped pro portions.

As I went on with my toilette in the large room at Holm Bush I thought to myself, " Did I not see a young gentleman last night ? Of course I did, tall and fair, rather like Helen herself. She has never told me anything about him : perhaps he has only just come ; " and yet, saying this, I felt as perfectly persuaded as if Mrs. Ramsay herself had announced it, that Mr. Charles, " leastways Mr. Ken neth," either was noAv, or was going to be, Helen's lover. I don't know how I jumped to that conviction, but I became quite certain that the affair was C Li. SPRING COMEDIES. 20 arranged ; and by the time I had finished dressing, my speculations had reached the point of wonder ing Avhere they Avould live. Near this of course, little Miss Absolute decided, shaking her neat head Avith its frightful bows of hair as shining and glossy as hard brushing could make them.

I gave one more twitch to my huge gigot sleeves, noticed with satisfaction that my Avaist Avas quite as high up under my arms as Helen's had been last night, glanced at my shoes to see that their broad ribbon sandals Avere crossed precisely at the right angle, and tapped at the morning-room door. You see, dear reader, I had given up the Avild notion of breakfasting in my dressing-goAvn. The idea had only sprung from the recklessness of finding myself in bed at nearly midday. With the shock of the cold Avater on my face, I had returned to the regions of common sense and propriety. Besides, I Avas so interested in thinking out the subject of Mr. Charles, and settling all his and Helen's future lives, that I found myself dressed as usual before I knew Avhat stage of my toilette had been reached.

The door of the morning-room AAras opened, as my fingers touched its handle, by Mrs. Ramsay herself, Avho seemed delighted to perceive hoAV com pletely, both in letter and in spirit, I had obeyed >■] A WEDDING STORY. 21 her injunctions to sleep well, and she noAv considered the only thing to prescribe was a good breakfast. She Avas one of those active Avomen Avho Avould really be much happier poor, — or Ave'll say poor-/j/*, — than rich, for she liked doing things herself, especially for those dear to her ; and her household was unfortunately so numerous and so Avell drilled, that she never had the least scope for her love of movement and serving. Although it Avas quite foreign to my nature and habits to stand still and be Avaited on, I perceived that Mrs. Ramsay was so pleased to bustle about, that I gave myself up to her kind -will, and walked about the room Avhilst she fussed over the arrangement of the fire and screen, a comfortable chair, and so forth.

I daresay you Avould not admire Helen's room very much if you contrasted it with the smart chintz boudoirs of the present day ; but I felt thoroughly at home in it at once, and after all that is the highest praise you can give to any room in any house. No doubt, of a fine day, the view over the Park to the distant hills Avas a lovely one ; but my first outlook only showed me driving rain, bending trees, and eddying flying leaves, through a blurred and in distinct haze of cloud and mist. I turned towards the corner where Helen's harp Li- SPRING COMEDIES. 22 stood, securely fastened up in its stamped leathern case. " Ah, the idle puss, she Avants Edy to play duets Avith her," I thought ; but I asked Mrs. Ramsay if Helen practised steadily. "N — o — no, not very steadily lately," she acknoAv ledged ; and the mother's deprecating air and faltering voice made me feel still more sure of the truth of my little romance : however, I said nothing, but went on exploring Helen's apartment.

She had collected all the most old-fashioned articles of furniture in the house — quaint inlaid chairs Avith spidery legs, marvellously upright sofas, and two or three really beautiful carved oak chests, but the greatest success Avas a narrow recess in one corner, Avhich Miss Ramsay had filled Avith a tall Indian cabinet, on Avhose shelves Avas set forth an elabo rate toilette service in filagree silver. The mirror itself had grown black with age and damp, but its frame Avas exquisite ; and the chasing of all the bottles and pots for confection of roses, elder-floAver water, and what not, rendered them Avorks of art. No amount of out-door bad Aveather could make that room look dull Avith its great beautiful pot of autumn flowers and its effective bits of colour, gloAving out of an old red arm-chair or a table-cover contrived from a gay Indian shawl. '■] A WEDDING STORY. 23 Suddenly I felt Avith a pang that, after all, it was the thought that Helen had taken pleasure in arranging these details, that she had lately sat in the old red-leather chair, and would perhaps come in directly to the circle of bright warmth around the open hearth, Avhich constituted the chief charm of the room.

If there was any truth in my idea about Mr. Kenneth, what would become of Mrs. Ramsay ? Who Avould make up to me for the loss of Helen ? One always thinks at first of the marriage of any one very near and dear to them, as if the tidings were those of death, not of happy love. " What shall I do without her ? " is a sister's first thought, even when she is glad of the news so shily whispered. I felt desperately anxious to know the worst at once, so I came back to the sofa on the large, though somewhat faded, Turkish rug before the blazing hearth. Mrs. Ramsay was standing with one foot on a quaint brass fender which shone like gold, and I felt sure, little as I had studied her face, that a new expression had come into it since we last met. She looked happy and proud, but there was a wistful tenderness in the deep blue eyes which had not always been there ; I perceived also a slight flutter in her way of moving, and she started if spoken to suddenly.

Indeed she shrank back as if I had struck n. 24 her when, not being able to keep silence any longer, I asked quite abruptly, " Who is Mr. Kenneth, Mrs. Ramsay ? and Avhere does he live ? " She answered my second question first, as if it had been the most important, and eagerly replied, " Oh, quite near here, only a short six miles' drive, and a very good road." " Who is he, though ? " I repeated ; and added, with a little acrimony, "I Avish Helen AA-ould not go off with him the first morning I arrive." " Dear Edy, you and I must both learn not to expect too much from Helen now," the poor mother replied, as she sat down next me on the sofa, and bent her head till it reached my shoulder. She could not go on, poor soul ; though she was not actually crying, she seemed unable to find Avords in which to tell me the neAvs I had already guessed.