Gentle & Simple

Front matter

GENTLE & SIMPLE VOL. I. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. THOMASINA: a Novel. Third Edition. 2 vols. crown 8vo. cloth. 'An amusing, animated, and well told story The women are ably drawn Two lively, simple, and pleasant volumes.' Spectator. ' The men and women are true and natural; they act and talk just as people do in real life. "Thomasina" is an original and well drawn character Gives pleasure without trouble and without weariness.' Guardian. VANESSA : a Novel Second Edition. 2 vols. crown 8vo. cloth. * The book has other characters besides Amy Mertoun ; plenty of subsidiary heroines, with heroes to match, and they all fit comfortably into a very pretty and interesting story.' Times. ' The characters are nicely conceived and sustained; and we notice one striking advance upon the drawing of those in "Thomasina," that the men are nearly as lifelike as the women.' Spectator.

C. KEGAN PAUL & CO., I Paternoster Square, London. GENTLE & SIMPLE B\ MARGARET AGNES PAUL AUTHOR OP ' DOROTHY' ETC. How blest the humble cotter's fate ! He woos his simple dearie ; The silly bogles, wealth and state, Can never make them eerie. O why should fate sic pleasure have, Life's dearest bands untwining ? Or why sae sweet a flower as love Depend on Fortune's shining? Robert Burns IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. LONDON C. KEGAN PAUL & CO., i PATERNOSTER SQUARE (The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved.) CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTER PACE I. The House of Bondage i II. Auld Robin Gray 26 III. The Moat Farm 57 IV. Wraxted Manor 72 V. Thunder in the Air 96 VI. The Bolt Falls 126 VII. Brentham Hall 155 VIII. Wedding Visits . . . . . . . 179 IX. The Water Party 191 X. An Overture 217 XI. Another Overture 242 XII. Broken Troth 264 XIII. The Revelation 285 XIV. Up-rooted

Chapter I. The House Of Bondage

Ivy House, Putney, is, or was, an establishment for young ladies, in which may be heard at all hours of the day the discordant sounds evoked by young per formers from three or four cracked pianos. At one of these, which was placed in a dingy little front parlour, a mere child was seated, plodding through an easy piece of music with laborious industry, while Millicent Winter, the pupil teacher, counted time for her with the mechanical accuracy of a metronome. ' One, two — a wrong note — play that bar again, Fanny.' A third girl was at the writing-table, not so intent on her French exercise as to be unconscious of the sound of approaching wheels ; and when a carriage was driven into the little sweep, darkening the window for a moment before the horses were pulled up at the VOL. I. B front door, she started up with an impetuosity which threatened to carry off the table cover of checked worsted damask, and land its contents on the floor.

Millicent, by a dexterous twitch, just saved the large pewter inkstand from deluging the carpet, and Lucy warmly expressed her gratitude. ' Good gracious ! what an escape ! You have saved me a half-crown forfeit at least, not to mention the lecture by which it would have been seasoned. I was interested in the visitor on your account, for I am almost sure it is your uncle's carriage. Yes,' she added, peering through the dusty wire blind, ' I have just caught a glimpse of his iron-grey whiskers. It is certainly Mr. Hamilton.' ' Mrs. Cameron said that he might come to-day,' said Millicent. 'You have still another quarter of an hour, Fanny. Play over your scales.' ' You are an extraordinary girl,' said Lucy, turning round to stare at her companion as if she were some portent of nature. ' You are young, you are beautiful.

Yes, it is of no use to blush so furiously, for you know it just as well as I do. You have been imprisoned in this odious, dismal house for ten whole years, school time and holidays, and now, when the rich, influential uncle has come down to settle what next is to be done with your life, you do not seem to care.' ' What is the use of caring ? My uncle has only come to decide whether I am to be teacher here or at some other school. I believe that he is tired of pay ing for me, and that Mrs. Cameron is so used to my teaching the little ones for nothing, that she does not think me worth a salary, and now they have got to settle it between them.' 'Only look at the horses!' said Lucy, as the coachman drove the sleek and pampered creatures round the little sweep. ' I think that a man who can afford to keep such splendid animals ought to do more for his niece.

I suppose that he is immensely rich, Millicent ? ' ' You know just as much about him as I do,' replied Millicent impatiently. ' I know that the first Mrs. Hamilton was kind to me, and used to ask me to spend Saturday afternoons with my cousin Celia, but I have never been to Belgrave Square since her death, six years ago.' ' But Mr. Hamilton comes to see you.' ' Yes, I have seen my uncle twice a year for five minutes at a time in Mrs. Cameron's drawing-room, when he has made a few formal remarks on my looks and my school report, and has given me a pound for pocket-money, which I always hated to take.' ' Because you are proud, as the other girls say. B That is why you do not get on with them and the teachers. But I have always liked you, Millicent, even when you were most high and mighty ; and I hope that you will get away from this vulgar, stupid place, and go among kind people, who will admire and make much of you.' While this discussion went on below, the arbiter of Millicent's fate was closeted with Mrs. Cameron in her state drawing-room, adorned with marvels of bad taste in the form of bead mats, potichomanie vases, and waxen flowers, the offerings of former pupils, and useful advertisements of the arts to be acquired in her establishment.

Mrs. Cameron had arrayed herself in a puce-coloured silk and a cap decked with rose-buds to receive her expected visitor, and her appearance was quite in keeping with her surroundings. She was a prim, half-educated, second-rate schoolmistress, and addressed Mr. Hamilton, a tall, dark man of imposing presence, with extreme deference. ' I am sure, Mr. Hamilton, I should have been most happy to meet your views, but I do not see my way to giving Miss Winter a salary at present. I have two valuable teachers already, and she is still young and inexperienced ; but after all the advantages she has enjoyed in this establishment, there is little doubt that she may obtain a situation elsewhere.' ' It is quite time that she should do something for herself,' said Mr. Hamilton : 'she must be eighteen or nineteen.' ' Indeed I think so, Mr. Hamilton.

It is ten years last May since she entered this establishment, and I think she was then eight years old — a little wild, shy thing. I had a great deal of trouble with her,' added Mrs. Cameron with a sigh. Mr. Hamilton divined the meaning of that sigh, as implying that the trouble which Millicent had given in the course of her early training entitled Mrs. Cameron to claim her gratuitous service now that she was of an age to be useful, and he stiffly resumed. ' For those ten years you have received an annual sum of 6ol. for the expenses of my niece's dress and education. That, as you are aware, represents an out lay of 600/., a considerable sum to expend on one who has absolutely no claim on me.' ' You have indeed been most liberal,' murmured Mrs. Cameron. ' It might nourish false expectations if I were to continue to pay for the girl now that she is of an age to support herself; and the only question is whether she had better look for a situation as teacher in a school or as a resident governess.' ' There is one thing I ought to mention,' said Mrs. Cameron, hesitating a little, ' which has weighed with me in my decision not to retain her as a governess.

Her good looks, Mr, Hamilton, really are a disadvan tage to a girl in her position. She is so tall, and her colouring is so brilliant, that it attracts attention, al though she is, as far as I can see, perfectly modest and well-conducted. But I do not like to send her out with the girls without one of the elder teachers, since they say that people positively turn round to stare at her.' ' That is all nonsense,' said Mr. Hamilton rather roughly ; ' no girl need be stared at who dresses and behaves as becomes her station. But as I am here, Mrs. Cameron, perhaps I had better see Millicent, and judge for myself, and I should like to see her alone, if you will be good enough to allow it.' Mrs. Cameron complied with this request, and in a few minutes Millicent entered the room. Her dress certainly could not be regarded as unsuitable to her position, since it was to be that of a poor dependant, for it was of that peculiar fabric of coarse claret coloured merino generally selected for school-girls and scullery maids ; and, although she is my heroine, a regard for historical truth compels me to add that her soiled linen collar and cuffs revealed the fact that the week was drawing to an end.

But the dangerous gift of beauty was scarcely disguised by its indifferent setting : she was tall, graceful in movement, regular in features, picturesque in colouring, and she carried her small shapely head with a certain air of distinction. ' How do you do, Millicent ? ' said Mr. Hamilton, stiffly extending his hand, and then acknowledging their relationship so far as to brush his whiskers across her glowing cheek. ' You have grown very much I see.' ' I have not grown for the last year,' said Millicent bluntly. ' I am glad to hear it,' resumed Mr. Hamilton with an air of dignity. ' You are a woman now, and it is time that you should be doing something for yourself. I shall be glad to learn that the sum of 700/. (he had called to mind some other items of expense, doctors and the like, since his interview with Mrs. Cameron, and it was better to express them in a round sum) expended on your education has not been spent in vain.' ' I have been pupil-teacher for the last three years,' said Millicent, when her uncle paused for a reply.

She knew that she ought to express gratitude for such an investment of capital, but her rebellious lips refused to utter the words. ' Yes, but Mrs. Cameron seems to think that you can no longer be useful to her in that capacity ; and besides, it is quite time that you should earn your own living, either as a school teacher or as governess in a private family. I wish to know which you prefer ? ' ' If I have a choice,' said Millicent, speaking by a sudden irresistible impulse which brought the colour into her cheeks and the tears into her eyes, ' I should like to be anything but a governess. I am so sick of teaching, and I know so little myself.' ' Such a suggestion is certainly a proof of your ignorance. May I ask what you propose to do ? ' ' There are other ways of earning a livelihood. A good many women are employed in the post-office.' 'This is folly, Millicent.

Mrs. Cameron must have some motive for prejudicing you against the only vocation for which you are fitted.' ' Mrs. Cameron has nothing whatever to do with it,' replied Millicent impetuously. ' She has told me all my life, that is, all my school life, that I had to depend on my own exertions for a living ; and I am quite ready to do so, but I do hate teaching.' ' That will do, Millicent. It is evident that you have the stature without the sense of a woman, and that the decision must rest with me. Go now, and send Mrs. Cameron to me.' Summoned in this regal manner to her own drawing-room, that lady received Mr. Hamilton's verdict with due deference. 'I cannot get much satisfaction out of my niece. She seems to be a headstrong girl, and I have determined to have her under my own roof in order to eradicate the foolish notions of independence which she has imbibed.

Mrs. Hamilton must look out for a situation for her, and I shall of course use your name as a reference as to her competency as a teacher. There is no need to mention the relationship between us,' he added after a moment's hesitation. ' Certainly not,' said Mrs. Cameron, although per fectly aware that Millicent Winter's rich uncle was an object of lively interest to the whole school. ' The fact is,' continued Mr. Hamilton, feeling that his own dignity required such an explanation, 'her poor mother disgraced herself. She was a self willed girl — Millicent reminds me of her— and ran away with her drawing-master, a young man of quite low origin. It was impossible for me to recognise her. When they died of fever, within a week of each other, leaving this child perfectly destitute, I felt it my duty to support her, but you can easily believe that the connection is very painful to me.' ' Yes, indeed,' said Mrs. Cameron sympathetically. 'You are at liberty to mention the circumstances to Millicent, if you think it will render her more docile and sensible of her obligations to me, and you may add that she is to come to Belgrave Square in a cab to-morrow, and that I hope to hear no more of her silly scruples, since she must hold herself ready to accept any situation which Mrs. Hamilton and I think suitable.

That is all at present, I think, Mrs. Cameron. Be so good as to send your account and it shall be discharged at once.' He bowed himself out of the room, and Mrs. Cameron breathed more freely when he was gone. Mr. Hamilton had been her richest and most influential patron, and the grand total of 600/. had an imposing sound which she liked to recall, although it would have been still more satisfactory to recall the sum itself, for since it was distributed over a term of ten years, the transaction had not been so very profitable after all. If she had it now — and she fell into a reverie as to the indulgences it would pro cure — how she would paper and paint, pay the out standing tradesmen's accounts, and spend all the summer holidays at Margate, instead of only a fortnight. She was roused from the pleasing dream by a knock at the door, and Millicent once more entered the room. ' I thought I might ask, ma'am, what my uncle has settled.' ' Quite right, my dear, I was going to send for you.

He was not quite pleased with your manner, Millicent ; those faults of sullenness and self-will are always cropping up.' ' I know that I shall have to do as he wishes, Mrs. Cameron. LJwas foolish enough to think for a moment that he wanted to know what / wished.' ' Well, my dear,' said Mrs. Cameron cheerfully, ' I daresay that it will all turn out for the best. He seems to think I cannot manage you, and you are to go to Belgrave Square at once, actually to-morrow. These rich men of business are always so prompt in action, and I would not say a word of my personal inconvenience, though it wants a fortnight to the holidays, and it is awkward to be short-handed just at the busiest time of the half-year.' ' He could not be displeased if I were to write and represent the inconvenience to him, and ask to be permitted to stay another fortnight,' said Millicent heroically, although her heart leaped at the prospect of release from her house of bondage.

The impression made by Mr. Hamilton's auto cratic manner was so recent that Mrs. Cameron dared not entertain the suggestion. ' It is better not to risk it, Millicent. I can see that your uncle is accustomed to prompt obedience, and you had better go and put your, things together. This hurried summons must excuse any deficiencies of your wardrobe which I should have been glad to supply, even at my own expense, for the sum I was able to set aside for your dress was sadly insufficient for a girl of your size and age. You must explain all that to your uncle or Mrs. Hamilton. One thing more before you go. Mr. Hamilton has been speaking of your parents.' ' Yes ! what did he say of them ? ' ' It seems to have been a sad story. Your mother married beneath her, a drawing-master, I think he said, and the marriage ended disastrously, as such marriages always do.

It behoves you, my dear Millicent, to be doubly circumspect in your conduct when you remember your parentage, and to be dutiful and obedient to the uncle to whom you owe so much.' And Mrs. Cameron cleared her throat with compla cent satisfaction that she had delivered herself of so well-rounded a sentence. ' I remember my parents, my dear father and mother, quite well,' replied Millicent. ' I know that they were poor, but they were good and dear to me and to each other. They died of fever and want, as I remember the landlady of our lodging telling Mr. Hamilton when he came to fetch me away after the funeral. If they had had some of the money he now boasts of having spent on my education, they might have been alive now.' And Millicent covered her face with her hands and burst into tears. ' Gently, my dear Millicent.

You do not know all the circumstances, and indeed it is quite as well that you should not know them. I am sure that your uncle is eminently just and even liberal in all his dealings. Go to your own room, and as soon as you have recovered yourself, join your companions, who may lay aside their studies for this evening.' It did not take Millicent long to recover herself, that is, to wipe away her tears and to collect her few possessions, which could all be stowed away in the shabby hair trunk which she had brought with her to Putney ten years before. She shared a room with the other pupil-teacher, and there was a whole series of photographic portraits above Miss Wilmot's bed, besides the shelf which contained all the trinkets and trifles which may be acquired in the vicissitudes of school-girl friendship.

Millicent's treasures consisted only of a miniature of her mother, as a little brown eyed child, and of a packet of old letters which she had never ventured to open, believing it to contain the love-letters which passed between the husband and wife, too sacred for the eyes of others. She sat brooding over their wrongs and sorrows, her scanty recollection of those early days, separated from her as they were by the arid and monotonous waste of her ten years at school, until the school tea-bell rang ; and since the most tragic view of life does not silence the calls of a healthy young appetite, she lost no time in going down to the repast, consisting of weak tea and thick slices of bread and butter. Millicent's hurried departure was the subject of general interest and discussion, and the elder girls were more disposed to envy than to pity her.

There was something mysterious and romantic about the whole affair, and one girl of lively imagination suggested that Mr. Hamilton intended to declare her his heiress, instead of sending her out as a governess ; but Millicent set aside the suggestion with the blunt sincerity which had not conduced to her popularity among school-fellows to whom an atmosphere of intrigue and mystery was most congenial. ' My uncle has a daughter of his own, and I believe a son by his second marriage. I am sure that he intends to keep me in Belgrave Square for as short a time as possible.' She was right in this surmise, and indeed her going there at all was a very serious grievance to Mrs. Hamilton. Her husband, always rather secretive in his ways, said nothing of his visit to Putney that after noon, but on the following day, just as he went off to business, he turned round to say : ' I did not mention, my dear, that you must have a room ready for Millicent Winter.

She is coming here this afternoon, and I wish you to make inquiries at the Governesses' Institution about any situation suitable for a girl of eighteen or nineteen. Perhaps you had better wait till she comes, however, as you will be able to say more of her qualifications after you have seen her.' ' Millicent Winter, that unfortunate girl whose education has been such a drain upon you ! I thought you had got her off your hands, Alfred.' ' So I shall when you have found her a place,' said Mr. Hamilton shortly. ' I have no time to talk about it now, but do not forget to tell the servants to let her in if she should come while you are out.' ' Your dear papa has no consideration,' said Mrs. Hamilton plaintively when the door was closed, and she was left alone with her stepdaughter. 'Just in the height of the London season, when the servants have quite as much to do as they can get through, it is really too bad to have another inmate.

If he had said anything about it yesterday, I should have had the bed -hangings taken down, and have written to say that we had no spare room.' It is probable that the brief notice which Mr. Hamilton thought fit to give was due to some prevision of this policy. ' Millicent is not likely to exact much attendance,' replied Celia. ' I fancy that she has been at a very second-rate school. I remember her coming on Saturday afternoons when we were both small children. Generally we were shy, and bored with each other, and I used to give her my best toys to play with, and go into the other corner of the room with a book ; but sometimes her heart was opened to relate her grievances, and she would say how sordid and uncomfortable it all was. It is a dreary reflec tion that she has been there ever since.' ' Yes, indeed,' said Mrs. Hamilton, surveying the situation from another point of view. ' Your father has kept her at school for years and years.

I am sure that he must have paid a thousand pounds for her from first to last, and now we shall have all the trouble of starting her in the world. I wonder whether it will do for her to take her meals in Ben son's room ? ' ' Certainly not,' said Celia quickly ; ' there is my boudoir, if you do not want her to come down-stairs.' ' I thought she would be such a gine toyou, my dear Celia ; but of course, if you do not mind, that will be the best arrangement. She is sure not to be presentable in the drawing-room — a shy, awkward, ill-dressed school-girl ; and any inquiries about her would bring up her mother's discreditable story which is now I hope almost forgotten.' Thus the matter was arranged, and when Milli cent arrived at her uncle's house in Belgrave Square that afternoon, she was informed that Mrs. Hamilton was out driving, and had left directions that Miss Winter was to be shown to her own room.

A housemaid was summoned for the purpose, and Millicent followed her up four flights of stairs to the servants' quarter, and was shown into a small attic with a sloping roof. As it was, however, intended for the accommodation of ladies'-maids, it was tolerably fur nished and appointed. The housemaid said, civilly enough, that the room was heated by the afternoon sun, and that Miss Hamilton hoped that Miss Winter would take tea in her boudoir. Accordingly Millicent descended again to the lower storey, and was ushered into what she remembered as the school-room, then somewhat meagrely furnished, but now altogether transformed. The glare of the hot June sun was tempered by clear muslin draperies, and the air was fragrant with the scent of mignonette from the flower-boxes. The room was luxuriously furnished, and filled with objects of art, and while Millicent reclined in an easy chair, and sipped her tea from a cup of the finest porcelain, all VOL. I. C which met her eye afforded the most grateful contrast to the appointments of the school parlour.

She took up a volume of Tennyson which lay on the table, and turned over the leaves, idly at first, but she soon became entranced, since she had been restricted at school to a diet of Tupper, Montgomery, and Long fellow, and anything like true poetry was a revelation to her. Stirred by the rhythmic melody of the ' Lotos eaters ' she unconsciously repeated the words aloud, ' Why are we weighed upon with heaviness, And utterly consumed with sharp distress, While all things else have rest from weariness ? All things have rest ; why should we toil alone And make perpetual moan, Still from one sorrow to another thrown ?' ' You have come home early to-day, Celia,' said a man's voice from an adjoining room, and Millicent started, stopped short in her recitation, but made no reply to the appeal. In another moment the door of communication was pushed open and the speaker entered — a tall, fair young man, wearing an artist's velvet blouse, and al together of very picturesque appearance, with finely cut features, crisp brown hair, and beard and moustache of a lighter shade.

Millicent blushed, and rose from her seat in the deepest embarrassment. ' I beg your pardon,' he said, but in an off-hand manner. ' I called out, thinking that it was Miss Hamilton, and since she did not answer, I must frankly avow my curiosity to discover which of our housemaids has a taste for poetry. It was poetry which I heard you repeating.' Millicent's colour only rose higher : the stuff gown she wore was coarser in texture, and more unfashion ably made than that of the maid who had shown her upstairs, and it was evident that she was mistaken for one of the servants. ' I am Millicent Winter,' she said, after a moment's pause. The young man also coloured to the roots of his hair. ' Forgive the impertinence of the intrusion, Miss Winter. I think I heard Celia say at lunch that you were expected.

I am Claude Entwhistle, your uncle's stepson, and in a certain sense your cousin, for although there is no blood relationship, Celia and I have been brought up together like brother and sister. So that we need not stand on ceremony with each other, and I may venture to ask you for a cup of tea.' Millicent complied with the request in abashed silence, but Claude's embarrassment was much more transient, and he talked on, as if to give her time to recover herself, ' Celia will soon be in, Miss Winter. She is out driving with my mother, but as they are to c dine out this evening they will not be late. Have you come far to-day ? ' ' Only from Putney.' ' I was also at school at Putney — an establishment for young gentlemen, where I acquired that distaste for learning which obliged me to take to art as a profession.

There is a wider scope for genius if an artist does not know how to read and write.' Millicent smiled reluctantly, and made no other response, and it was a relief to both that Celia entered at the moment. Celia's appearance was in no way remarkable : her eyes and hair were light, her face square, and rather heavy when not brightened by a smile. But she had good teeth, and her smile was very sweet, so that Millicent was inclined to think that they might be friends when the barrier raised by her own shyness was removed. Celia kissed her cousin, and regretted that she had not been at home to receive her. ' You must make yourself at home here for the evening ; we dine out, and mamma has gone to her own room to rest, until it is time to dress. I hope thatyou will not feel Ion ely.' ' It is a great luxury to be alone,' said Millicent. ' Miss Winter cannot forgive me for invading her solitude,' said Claude, with a smile.

Millicent made no reply, but murmured something about having to unpack, and left the room. She had reached the foot of the stairs when she remembered that she had left a pair of ancient kid gloves behind her, which would not bear inspection, and she turned back to fetch them. As she re-entered the room, Claude was saying with a peal of laughter, ' Really, Celia, it was the most absurd bevue ! ' He stopped short, and Millicent snatched up her gloves, and vanished with flaming cheeks. She flew upstairs, tore open her trunk, and dived into it in search of a French dictionary, that she might turn up the word. ' Bevue, blunder.' He had then taken her for a housemaid, and she shed tears of mortification and wounded pride. Disconcerted for a moment by Millicent's unexpected return, Claude presently resumed : ' I am really very unlucky.