The Story of a Shower. A novel

Chapter I

" As usual, all at sixes and sevens — not a decent hole to sit down in any where. I never saw such a house as this ; upon my honour, I never did ! AVhat are you about with all the chairs in the middle of the room ?" " Oh, Godfrey, is it you ? How jolly ! Do come along and have a game with us — just the least bit of one, there's a dear old boy !" ". Game, indeed, at this time in the VOL. I. B morning ! Why are you not at your lessons ?" " Mamma has got a headache." " So you kick up this row to cure her. Can't you take your books and slates, and be quiet?" "I have nobody to tell me what to learn, or to set me any sums." " Have you no work to do ?" " I can't find my needle." " Patience, child ! is there only one needle in the house ?" " I don't know ; I never have more than one." " And that you contrive to lose.

Well, you have the use of your hands, so you might have rung the bell to have the breakfast taken away." " Primrose began, but she was wanted upstairs, so she said it would do when she came to set the table for dinner." " A nice tidy plan, certainly. Charley, what are you about there ?" " He is only wood - carving, God frey." " Carving with what ? One of the breakfast-knives, I declare ! It is a mercy he has not sliced his thumb off. Give me the knife, Charley, that's my man. I'll find you a better one for wood-carving than this. Nicely you have chipped the edge ; but I doubt if any one will notice it. What wood were you carving? Not the bread-platter, I hope ?" " Now don't be angry with him, God frey dear; he only thought it looked so smooth and white and nice, it must be easy to cut, and he was making a border b round the edge.

Oh, Charley, though — I did not see what you had been doing — here is a great piece out. What will Margaret say ?" "Aye, that is just what I was going to ask ; or rather, where is she ? for this room does not look as if she had been in it this morning," observed God frey, as he placed the damaged platter on the sideboard, and pulled desperately at the bell. " I have only a few hours to be at home, and I shall make them fewer if I am to find everything in this mess. Primrose ! there you are — come in here, like a good woman, and clear away. I want to write at this table, and the children will ruin half your things if you leave them about." " They just will, Sir ; you are right, I'm sure," said Primrose, a stout, easytempered maid-servant, who had early discovered that there was no occasion to do more work than she chose, and therefore chose to do as little as possible.

" I'll take them away now, Mr. Godfrey, as you want the table ; I'd have done it before, but Miss Margaret was out." " What had that to do with your tray and table-cloth ?" " Why, Sir, I had to help upstairs and down ; the housemaid don't know all the ways of the house yet, and cook is new to the sort of place ; and if Miss Margaret is not after them both half the morning, everything goes I don't know how." " So it seems. I wonder what would become of the house if Miss Margaret were not to come back ?" "Dear me, Sir, what a thing to say. You'll dine here to-day, of course, Mr. Godfrey ?" " Of course, if you have anything for me to eat. Is cook new at dinner, as well as at other things ?" "Well, Sir, she does pretty middling when you see after her, only Miss Mar garet not being at home I really can't say whether she has had her orders or not."

" Dinner not ordered yet, and it is nearly twelve o'clock ! Where are the other young ladies ?" " In the drawing-room, I think, Sir. The dressmaker was with them just now. Obliged to show her in there, Sir, because the rooms were not done upstairs — Miss Margaret being out seems to have put everything out, as I may say." " It looks like it, certainly. My mother is unwell, I hear." " She has one of her headaches, Sir, and is just sleeping it off. She was up rather late last night, and had her breakfast in bed. She will be all alive directly she hears you are come." " Don't let her be disturbed on any account. Do you know where Miss Margaret is gone?" " No, Sir ; only that she started at six o'clock this morning, before any body was up, and I thought she would have been in by this, I'm sure."

Godfrey shrugged his shoulders, told Lucy and Charles that if all their litter were not cleared away, and the chairs put in their proper places in five minutes, he would do — words could not express what — and walked to the drawing-room in quest of a more promising welcome. The apparition of his head, as he thrust it cautiously in at the door, elicited a shriek from the sister who saw it; and the next minute he was dragged in, and overwhelmed with greet ings and questions. " Never mind Miss Shaw ; she knows one does not get one's brother every day. Come in, and give us the benefit of your taste and opinion. Miss Shaw has brought us the newest shapes and patterns for our summer hats and jackets, and we ought to be dressed alike, and all three prefer something different ; so if you can give the casting vote, you will save both time and trouble, not to mention heart-burnings and ill temper."

Godfrey looked very grave. " If I give an opinion at all, remember it will be strictly conscientious. Miss Shaw, be so good as to show me the vanities in question. Those are the hats, are they ? and the choice lies among those three. Well, settle among yourselves which of you is the plainest, and then decide on that which is most becoming to her. I have puzzled them now, Miss Shaw. Come, I will help you, girls, better than that. Try which becomes Margaret, and dress as like her as you can." There was a merry laugh at this from the three young ladies. Miss Shaw smiled discreetly, but made no other comment. She again exhibited her tempting goods, and with unwearied patience tried on, for the third time, each article respecting which there had Tlie Story of a Shower. 10 been doubt or indecision, that the amused elder brother might pass his judgment.

He certainly helped them to decide more quickly than they might otherwise have done, and in about half an hour had the satisfaction of seeing Miss Shaw and her bandboxes depart. "It is lucky she kept her fly, for it is pouring with rain," observed Char lotte, the eldest of the three, as she glanced out of the window. " How for tunate that you were not caught in it, Godfrey. Now do sit down, and tell us what you have been doing, and how much of your company you can spare for your disconsolate family. Don't look about you in that censorious way. One must have new things sometimes, you know ; you hate to see us badly dressed." " My dear, is it essential to good dressing that your mother's drawing room should be turned into a mantua maker's back-parlour? I declare I never saw such a house as this is now ; only look at the room, and tell me if it is fit for any one to sit down in?"

" Well, not exactly, perhaps ; but, you see, we could not help it this morning. (Joanna, you may just as well pick up those books and things from the floor, and put the table straight, as stand looking at yourself in the glass.) Margaret has been out ever so long, and we could not get any other room — our maids are such tire some, lazy creatures. I am sure Prim rose does nothing at all, and every new servant finds that out; and so they all Shoioer. 12 follow her example, unless Margaret is after them, doing half their work. I wish mamma would let me keep house ; I would soon send them all about their business, unless they behaved better, and they know it." " I am sure we try new ones often enough," observed her second sister, Ethel, " and it always comes to the same thing in a week or two.

Servants are the greatest plague in life, as every body knows." " From Mrs. Price of Portsmouth downwards," said Godfrey. " I suppose if you have told Rebecca to mend the hole in the carpet once, you have told her twenty times, eh ? I begin to think we are more like those good people than I had any idea of; and it is not flattering. There is some queer management somewhere, or, with the income my mother has, you surely need not always be in a muddle." " I don't know anything about it, Godfrey, dear," said Charlotte, frankly. " I only know mamma never seems to have any money, or to know either what she has done with it, or what she ought to have. If she would let Margaret keep her accounts, we should know where we were ; but that she will not hear of, so I believe they are not kept at all. What becomes of the money, I can't say — I only know I never have any.

" You have your allowances, have you not ? I understood that was all settled." " Oh yes ! we have our allowances, and much good they are when it is all gone months beforehand. How we are to pay for these things of Miss Shaw's which one cannot do without, I suppose she knows. I don't." " Why have what you cannot pay for ?" " Oh, we must have them, because there is to be a large party at the Townsends next week, and it would be thought odd if we did not go, and still worse if we were seen in the old things we had worn all the spring. One must do as others do, of course. You will try and come over for the day, and go with us, Godfrey, won't you ? As you walked here once for your own pleasure, you can do it again for )j ours. He replied that he would see about it, and sauntering to the window, with his hands in his pockets, appeared to be watching the weather.

The rain had been very heavy while it lasted, but the sun was already breaking through the clouds, and though large drops still fell, there was promise of a fine after noon. " Where is Margaret gone ?" he asked presently, without turning his head. " To X , about some business which mamma recollected last night had not been attended to, and ought to be settled to-day. So Margaret arranged to go by the first train, and come back in time for dinner. She ought to be here by this time. I wish she was. Only hear what a racket those children are making ! An idle morning is sure to set them at mischief." " Why did nobody give them any thing to do ?" "I'm sure I don't know. Everybody was late, and we got talking after break fast, and did not see how time was passing, and then Miss Shaw came over, and we could not put her off, of course.

There is mamma calling — I will run down and tell her you are here, and, Joanna, just put the room straight meanwhile, there's a darling." "Aye! do," said Godfrey, "and you shall have a pair of lemon-coloured gloves for the party, Joanna. I shall go and see if I can meet Margaret. I am afraid she will get very wet." " Oh, no, she had her cloak and umbrella with her, for she thought there was a chance of rain. She never minds weather, you know, and I don't be- Shoioer. 17 lieve she knows what it is to catch cold." " She has a good chance of learning to-day, at any rate," muttered Godfrey, as he armed himself with an umbrella from the family collection in the hall, aud sallied forth to meet his cousin, wisely judging that the temporary irrita tion of his feelings had better be dis pelled by exercise before he paid his greetings to his mother.

He was a good-humoured, light-hearted fellow, not at all a severe or exacting elder brother; and much more disposed to enjoy himself among his sisters than to find fault, or bestow lectures. But the state of things that morning had annoyed him more than he liked to show, and as he strode along through the still plashing shower, he said to vol. I. o himself again and again, that something must be done to make them better — must ! and there was an end of it. It might be an end, but the question was how to arrive at a beginning. He wondered it had never struck him so forcibly before ; perhaps the bad habits had increased during his absence, or per haps — it was not impossible — he saw things more clearly to-day, because he was looking at them as they would ap pear in the eyes of some one else.

His father, who had been dead three years, had enjoyed a good income, partly from a retiring pension, partly from the savings of long service in India. He had settled down in the country with his family, sunk a good deal of money in the house and garden which he pur chased in one of the prettiest shires in England, and spared nothing to make his children happy, as far as indulgence went. Unfortunately, Mrs. Woodman was one of those easy, indolent people whom nothing could teach — because she would not learn — how to manage house, family, or income ; and their expenditure was always fully up to their means, often beyond them, with comparatively little to show as the result. Her husband's death left her, of course, in considerably reduced circumstances ; but still with enough, had she possessed the gift of management, to allow her to live in comfort, and finish her children's education.

As it was, everybody, servants in cluded, did what they pleased, as far as possible ; money was spent, nobody knew how, and was therefore not forthc coming when wanted; and at the end of three years they were poorer than at the beginning, poorer than many with half their means. Godfrey, who was studying law, had not been much at home for the last eighteen months, and had therefore grown less accustomed to the normal state of things. No wonder that it worried him; for though he in some degree inherited his mother's easy disposition about money matters, he had his own reasons for wishing everything to look at its best just now. " I shall have a talk with Margaret," was his most consolatory reflection, " she is the only one with any notion of management or comfort; and I only wonder what they would do without her altogether, if they get into this muddle because she is out for half a day !"

That question had occurred to more than one person, who had any acquain tance with the Woodman household. Margaret Erne was his mother's niece, and, having no home of her own, had boarded for some years with them before her uncle's death. In his last illness, she was his devoted nurse, and it was his dying request that she would do what she could to help her aunt, and look after the children. No stronger proof could have been afforded of his estimation of her value. It never occurred to him to recommend her to his wife's care — it was enough that his wife should be under hers. Godfrey always bore the charge in mind ; and he knew better than any of the others how difficult she had found it to fulfil. The problem he had suggested was still far from solution, when a turn of the road showed him a slight figure coming rapidly across the downs, which lay between their house and the railway station of Haldon.

Her head being bent, and her dripping hat pulled low down, on account of the wind, now blowing smartly in her face, Godfrey was close to her before she perceived him. " Nice weather for a walk, Margaret ?" he exclaimed, as soon as he was re cognised, " and a nice, prudent woman you are to trust such clouds without taking either umbrella or cloak — unless, indeed, you lost them on the way. Why, you must be drenched to the skin. How could you be so mad ?" " Don't scold me, Godfrey," was the reply, " I took both with me, and but for a little adventure should have them now. I will tell you all about it by-ancl by. No, I cannot take your arm, my dear boy ; I should give you the rheumatism. Keep the umbrella over your self, for a little moisture, more or less, will not hurt me now." It seemed probable, for she could not have looked much wetter had she just come out of the sea.

A thunder shower on Haldon Downs, without even an umbrella, was about as satisfactory a bath as could be taken. To Margaret Erne, who hardly knew what a day's real illness was, being wet through was simply an inconvenience, and she was ready enough to laugh at her own phght ; but Godfrey looked at her in dismay, and declared her only chance of life was to go to bed directly, with a large tumbler of hot brandy and water. He knew a fellow who caught cold by only half as much of a ducking as she had had. To be sure, he had no lungs to speak of, but hers were not made of brass. And regardless of her experience, he scolded her all the way home, very much to her amusement. She was convinced it was rather a treat to him than otherwise, and she had no breath to spare in self-defence or controversy.

"You are just like good Abbot Boni face, I declare," she said, at last, " you are so pleased to have a little imprudence to lay at my door, after the dozens I have deposited at yours, that you cannot make enough of the opportunity. Wait till you see me really laid up, and then you may lecture me as much as you please, if you think it will work a cure. Meanwhile, I can tell you this; in my case you would have done just the same, and I should have found you in your dripping shirt-sleeves, glad that you had had the chance !" " Now, what do you mean by that ? whom have you met, or seen, that makes you fancy such a thing ?" And Godfrey's cheeks flushed, half with anger, half with secret expectation. " Wait, till I have breath for my story, and you shall hear it in all its details. You have not yet told me a word about yourself; why you are come, and whence, and for how long."

" That is soon told. I came to see you all, and consult you in particular. Old Bustard had business in the neigh bourhood, and thought he should want me ; but, luckily found his client too bad to see him, so I was set free till the evening. It is some blessed old will that seems very hard to arrange, and the chances are we may be backwards and forwards a dozen times before it is done. Never mind that now. I say, Margaret, what makes our place look like a rag fair and bear-garden combined, directly your back is turned ?" " Does it ?" said she, in some con sternation. " Does it ! you may well ask. I walk into the dining-room at twelve o'clock — breakfast not cleared away, and the youngsters playing high jinks with the furniture, and consuming the jam be cause Margaret's out. I go after the young ladies to the drawing-room, and find chairs and tables strewed with their toggery and band-boxes — everything top sey -survey.

Mother not downstairs, and great doubts thrown on the im portant subject of dinner, because you were not come back. Now I know you are the willing horse of the team, and pull a great deal harder than you should ; but this ought not to be, and you will just spoil those girls till they are fit for nothing." Margaret's pleasant face wore a tran sient expression of distress. " I am very sorry; I tried to get back sooner, but could not manage it; there was no fly at the station, even if I had thought it worth while to take one, and you see this in surance business had been put off to the last day, and it was necessary to see Mr. Douce about it, and your mother did not feel equal to going herself." " That has nothing to do with it. You have a right to go out when you please, and come in when you please, if only you will arrange, somehow, that the establish ment does not tumble to pieces directly you do.

Must you superintend everything from the top of the house to the bottom, to ensure that the cook shall have her orders, and the children do their lessons, and the girls try on their finery in the proper place ?" Margaret was silent ; they were now within sight of home, and one of the sisters appeared at the garden gate on the watch for their arrival. The sun had come out, and the rain was passing away. " I am afraid we do not manage cleverly, and that is the truth," she admitted with some reluctance, as they approached the gate. " I have thought so some time, but I do not know how it is to be remedied. Yes, dear," as Joanna uttered an exclamation at her drenched appearance, " I am too wet to come in that way. Take care of Godfrey — I shall look more respect able in a few minutes." And she vanished in the direction of the back premises.

What happened in the interval between the vanishing and sitting down with them all at the dinner-table, Godfrey had no means of ascertaining. It was an interval of nearly two hours, and she had at any rate changed her dress. She looked a little tired and flushed, but that was only to be expected. Mrs. Woodman's usual dinner hour was two, but it was three be fore they sat down to-day; however, there was no fault to be found with the meal itself, neither were there any vestiges of the chaos of which Godfrey complained. His own attention was nearly absorbed by his mother, who had descended at her leisure and liked him to sit by her, and listen to the oft told tale of all she had to go through. Whatever her sufferings from headache might have been in the early morning, they had left no traces either in her complexion or appetite, and nobody would have suspected she had felt any.

She said, several times, that no one could tell what a relief it was to her mind to know that insurance business was done ; and, of course, no one could, and nobody thought it necessary to inquire why the relief had not been sooner obtained. It had been dearly bought by Margaret's un usual absence, so it was to be hoped it was of value, especially as she had had the risk of catching her death of cold. " We are only waiting till you have time to tell your story, you know ;" said Godfrey, as they lingered over their dessert ; " did you hear, mother, that I met her coming home like a drowned rat, because she had lent her cloak and umbrella to somebody else ? Wise and reasonable, was it not?" " My dear, how could you be so im prudent ?" said Mrs. Woodman, placidly, as she sipped her glass of port wine.

" My dear aunt, it was not imprudence ; it was a simple act of humanity, as you will hear. (No more strawberries, Charley; you have had quite enough, and you know you are not to ask in that way. See how Lucy behaves.) I was walking from the station, all the flys being engaged, or else I think I should have taken one to save time ; and I knew the cut across the downs would be shorter than the high road. It had just occurred to me that a heavy shower was coming, and it was as well I had brought my cloak, when I came upon two people, sitting on a warm bit of rock under the shelter of the bank, who were evidently beginning to realise that the weather was changing. " They were an elderly gentleman and a young lady, whom I remembered meet ing a day or two ago, and observing how fearfully delicate she looked.

This morning she had more colour from exercise, and it was very becoming. I was thinking how pretty she was, and that she ought not to be out in the high wind, when the gentleman stepped forward, lifting his hat, and asked if I could tell him where to find a conveyance for his niece before the rain came on. They had walked further than he thought, and had no umbrella, and he could see no shelter anywhere ; in short, poor man, he was in an agony of trouble, and I could give him no comfort. There were no car riages at the station, even if they could have reached it in time, and the young lady was panting and coughing already. " There was only one thing to do, and that was to make her put on my cloak, and give him my umbrella ; and after a little battle of civility, more with her than with him — he resisted out of polite ness, but I knew he was only too glad all the time — I made her submit, gave them my address, and we parted just as the shower came on in earnest.

I ran, from a sense of duty, till I was quite soaked through, and then I knew I might do as I pleased. And now you have my vol. i. d adventures, and I only wish the poor girl may be no worse for it than I am. I am afraid there is no mistaking the look in her face." " It was an adventure, indeed," said Charlotte; "and they ought to be very much obliged to you. It was more than I should have done for a perfect stranger. I think I have seen the people — a white haired gentleman, is he not ? and the niece a tiny bit of a thing in an exquisite French mushn — at least, she had one on when I saw her; stylish-looking, both of them. I think they are putting up at the Royal Hotel." " She had a pretty muslin dress on, certainly, and my cloak came down to her heels, poor httle thing ; no doubt they are the same.

I believe the uncle meant to give me his card, but we were Shoioer. 35 in such a hurry, he had no time, and I never thought of it till afterwards. We shall know, however, when they send back my goods " "If ever they do," suggested Godfrey; " but the chances are ten to one you never see them again. I know a fellow who was choused out of his umbrella by a charming female party, just in the same way; and when he called at the address she gave him, found that she had ske daddled that morning, umbrella and all. And that reminds me that I want a stitch put into my coat-cuff before I go ; a wretched bachelor away from home is always out at elbows and wrists, and I can't show down in the town till I am put to rights. Who has a thimble ready ? Don't all speak at once." " My dear boy, you had better ring d for Primrose," said his mother ; " she has nothing whatever to do."

" No, mother, and never will have, if she can help it. I can't afford to wait till she has summoned sufficient energies to thread a needle. There is Margaret pining for a job ; she has been obliged to sit with her hands before her for five minutes, and they must be growing stiff for want of exercise. Come," and he pushed his chair briskly back, " come and do it in the little room. It won't take you long, and then, if the girls have a mind for a walk, I'm their man."