A March in the Ranks

Front matter

A MARCH IN THE RANKS VOL. I NEW AND POPULAR NOVELS AT ALL THE LIBRARIES. CAST OUT. By Morice Gerard. 2 vols. NORMAN AND I. By Kate Cousins. 3 vols. HER HEARTS DESIRE. By H. Prothero Lewis. 3 vola. GEORGE VYVIAN. By E. Katharine Bates. 2 vola. A HAPPY WOOING. By H. Cliffe Halliday. 2 vols. /*«?S' HURST & BLACKBKr^K, GEEA?1 MAELBOHODQH STEEET. A MARCH IN THE RANKS BY JESSIE FOTHERGILL AUTHOR OF • THE FIRST VIOLIN,' ' KITH AND KIN,' ' PROBATION,' ' FROM MOOR ISLES,' ETC, ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : HURST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1890. All rights reserved. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTER PAGE I. On Dressmakers' Dummies . . . 1 II. A Familt History 10 III. Hilda is Surprised 36 IV. At Home 58 V. The Eve of Departure .... 67 VI. Letty Explains her Views ... 73 VII.

Miss Alizon — and Others 94 VIII. Mrs. Van Bibber on the Situation 112 IX. The Tug of War . . .' .127 X. A Friend in Need 147 XI. ' Vale ' Dr. Burton 165 XII. Rest and be Thankful .... 181 XIII. Miss Alizon again 193 XIV. At Great Undermoor .... 214 XV. Physician and Patient .... 232 XVI. Le Mot de l'Enigme . . . .249 XVII. Physicians, Widows, and Others 267 XVIII. Moral Therapeutics . . . .283 A MARCH IN THE RAINES.

Chapter I. On Dressmakers'

dummies. ' There ! I think that looks well.' Speaking very emphatically, Hilda Noble leaned as far back in the rocking-chair as it Avould go, and while Avith one hand she absently stuck a needle into the bosom of her goAvn, Avith the other she held out and in a satisfied manner turned about a dress bodice of black satin, adorned Avith lace and beads. ' Very Avell it looks,' her sister Lucy agreed Avith her, as she almost mechanically picked up pins and thrust them into the pincushion with her hands, while her eyes gazed fascinated upon the piece of finery which so pleased them both. VOL. I. B ' And I know it fits,' pursued Hilda. ' What a comfort ! My mind is now entirely free from all anxiety, and . . . what time is it, Letty?' ' Six o'clock — exactly six.' ' Six? Godfrey should be here directly.

He leaves his Avork at half-past five. Let me see ! We dine at half-past seven, and I must do some Avork before I dress, this blessed night ; aud some more after I come back, too. How tired I shall be ! As tea is coming in I think I A\dll have a cup with you, to prepare me for my exertions.' ' I always observe that both before and after these magnificent spreads that you go to, you require some kind of nourishment over and aboA'e that Avhich you are hrvited to go and eat,' said Letty, sarcastically. Hilda laughed. ' Well, yes ; I get so excited sometimes that I can't eat. I have knoAvn myself come home positively famished after a dinner of eleA-en courses. Therefore, Letty, if you don't sit up (and Avhy should you ?) be sure you leave me a little bread and butter and a glass of milk.' ' Well, you know, I'm not a genius, but I call that simply idiotic,' said Letty, with strong con viction in her tones. ' If I Avent to so much trouble in getting my clothes ready, and dress ing myself up, and having cabs, and getting there, I really would make a good dinner Avhile I was about it.

What can there possibly be of such an exciting nature as to make you forget your food '? Such nonsense !' • Nonsense to you, no doubt,' returned her sister, tolerantly, but in the tone of one uncon vinced. ' There is no accounting for family or individual peculiarities. I expect that to-night I shall enjoy myself far too much to eat. Noav I am going upstairs. Oh, tea is here now. Yes, it is too tempting. I will Avait and haA'e some.' The sisters had been seated at a small table in the window. It was a window looking out upon a garden and a garden walk about a yard and a half long, and as Avide as the house front, which meant narrow. Beyond the yard and a half of ground Avas the street, the foot path on their side of it, and the houses, similar, to their own, over the way. The window had muslin curtains drawn almost all the Avay across it, as such Avindows usually have, not perchance B because the inhabitants of the houses prefer darkness to light, but because some shred of privacy is dear to their souls, and only in this way can they secure it.

The bright, pleasant hght of an early April evening came in at this window, and during the latter part of the discussion a neat-looking maid servant had laid the table in the middle of the room with tea-things. An elderly lady had come in, dressed in black, with a white cap on her head. She Avore no crape, and her cap had not any conventional shape to betoken what she had lost, but one knew quickly on seeing her that this Avoman was a Avidow. As she came forward and the maid went out of the room, Hilda stood up, stretched her arms high aboA-e her head and stood on tiptoe, giving herself a prolonged stretch; then, going back into her natural attitude, she remarked, cheerfully, 'How stiff one gets, really!' and stood on the hearthrug, thinking apparently. She was a tall, slender girl, Avith a handsome nervous face, fine eyes, and abundant bright brown hair.

She was pale, and her good features Avere less striking in themselves than the general air of distinction. — rarest and most precious quality — which stamped her Avhole manner and appearance. For she Avas too thin and spare to be really a beauty, and Avith all her spirit there was a certain underlying ex pression of tiredness, speaking of less than per fect vigour. To a discerning obserA-er, too, her mouth and eyes betrayed too much nervous sensibility ; so much of it, indeed, that unless she had it well under the control of a strong Avill, it would probably cause trouble to herself and others before her story was told. Letty, Avho looked very much younger, and who was, in fact, nearly nine years her sister's junior, was a very handsome girl of seventeen : a true brunette, full of life and force, with a less intellectual expression and of a larger and stronger build, physically, than Hilda.

Letty was distinctly in the hobbledehoy stage of girl hood; at least, it appeared so to her family. She was happy and contented at home, Avhere she Avas at her ease, cracking her jokes and laughing her Avild, explosive laughs unreproved, and without any misgivings on her own part. In anything like strange or pohte outside society she was a misery to herself and a comical object to others, by reason of her uncontrollable bashfulness and floundering aAvkAvardness of demeanour. Letty could not imagine why people ever gave balls or went to them. The bare idea of such an ordeal for herself made her shudder, so she said. She was, she declared, devoutly thankful that they Avere poor, so that she was not called upon to ' dress up ' frequently and go to any of these much-dreaded enter tainments. ' Well, have you finished your dressmaking ?' asked Mrs. Noble, looking with her mild eyes upon her daughters, as she seated herself before the tea-tray.

Very mild were the eyes, very delicate and gentle the face ; yet both were able to take an expression of severity which rougher lineaments cannot ahvays command. ' Yes, indeed ! Wait till you see me in it !' said Hilda, vivaciously. ' 1 am so glad I did not go to the extravagance of sending it to a dressmaker. I haA-e not spent Avhat I should have done.' ' Perhaps not in money,' her mother replied, quietly. ' In money — Avhat do you mean, mother V ' Merely that I think you Avaste your strength in doing such things. Unless I am much mistaken, you will sit up writing to-night when you should be sleeping.' ' Oh, I need very little sleep.' ' You give yourself very httle, at any rate. Miss ShaAv would have made you the bodice for a trifle, and you might have had the after noon in which to do your work, and could have gone to bed at a reasonable hour.' ' Miss Shaw's things are aAvful ; no one can help looking a frump in them,' said Hilda, shortly. ' " Reefers," as she calls them, are her one idea of ornament for a dress bodice, and •' cross-bands " for a skirt.

Oh, heavens ! Those " cross-bands." I Avonder if she has ever opened her eyes to look upon the fashion of dress since she first shut herself into that stuffy httle back parlour, and hung out a card from her front Avindow with the delusive promise that " ladies ' own materials " should be " reasonably and stylishly made up." ' Letty laughed. In this she Avas at one Avith her sister. 'Never mind,' pursued Hilda, as she seated herself at one corner of the table. ' " Tis but a little while." Soon I shall be so rich that I shall be able to go and order my things at Smithson's, regardless of expense ; and, in the meantime, I Avould so much rather make them myself than give them to Miss Shaw.' (With profound contempt.) Mrs. Noble smiled and shook her head, and the two sisters thereupon plunged into a conversation on the subject of dressmakers' dummies. ' They are so expensive,' said Letty. ' Oh, no, they are not.

I saAv a very nice one for fourteen shillings in that little shop in Stan ton Road. The next fourteen shiUings I have to spare is going to the purchase of three books that I want very badly. The one after that I will devote to buying the dummy in question.' ' I wish you Avould. It would be a great relief to me, I know,' sighed Letty. ' And to me as well. You get tired, I dare say, but 1 get nearly frantic when you stand on one leg just at the most critical moment in the arrangement of a drapery. A dummy won't do that.' ' Fancy the head mistress of the High School for Girls on her knees before a dressmaker's dummy, in her hours of relaxation, feverishly arranging draperies, or taking skirts up, or letting them down!' cried Letty, Avith a loud laugh. ' Oh, how I should like the Dean and Mrs. Dean, or Mrs. Farquharson, or Professor Leet, or any of the learned and majestic beings to come and catch yeu at it.' Again Mrs. Noble smiled and shook her head, while Hilda laughed and contentedly sipped her tea, swaying backwards and forAvards in her rocking-chair.

Chapter II

A FAMILY HISTORY. THE room in which the two girls and their mother sat Avas a common-place room enough, exactly like hundreds of other rooms in hunch-eds of other houses of the same rent in the same town, and in "the same kind of street ; a front parlour — one of those rooms which their owners may call what they please, dining-room, drawing-room, or any thing else, and which they may furnish as they please also, but Avhich no name conferred, and no amount of taste or expenditure can make to appear anything but exactly what it is — the ' front parlour ' of a small house iu a row, the row in a street, the street in a town, and a dingy town at that. ' Front parlour ' is stamped upon every line of it, and that the ' back parlour ' is behind it is a no less self-evident fact. The Nobles had not ahvays lived in such a house, or in such surroundings.

They all (except perhaps Letty) had recollections of very different doings — of a pleasant detached house in a large garden, away from the toAvn ; of a modest but sufficient staff of servants (now they had one). The mother in particular re membered the good days which uoav seemed so far back, as indeed they were — days when Letty had been a baby— Avhen the father and the bread-winner had been still living, and her days had not been harassed, anxious, toilworn, not with the toil that brings profit, but Avith the barren, grinding kind, popularly known as the ' trying to make both ends meet.' She remembered well those days, aud how light her heart had been. Then, the sudden, incomprehensible awful blank and blackness ; the crash ; the groping passage through a long, strange, terror striking dream, the details of which, though hardly received into her consciousness at the time, she now remembered with the intensest clearness and accuracy; and hoAV she had at last aAvakened from the dream.

She remembered, so well, the very moment in which she had, as it were, come to herself and found her self one quiet afternoon, Avhen some good friend had taken the children under herAving for a feAV hours, sitting alone in a room, in an arm-chair near a fire, and looking down at her hands, from which all the rings save one had been stripped, and which lay folded one over the other upon the crape drapery Avhich flowed about her to the ground. Upon her fair broAvn hair lay a black crape cap, which, though not a heavy cap, oppressed her, because she had neA'er had a cap on at all before. Then and there, as the sunshine glinted in through the Avindows of the house they were soon to leave, it was borne in upon her mind — it came home to her — that she was a wddoAv ; that a widow's heart Avas beating under her crape bodice ; that a Avi clow's eyes they Avere which strayed round the Avell-knoAvn room ; and that the dull ache which she had been enduring for three months, in the vague idea that it might pass aAA'ay, Avould, on the contrary, never pass away, but would abide with her always.

It was the feeling that AvidoAvs had — Avomen aaLo had had good hus bands and had lost them suddenly — a different kind of headache from any other in the world. With this knowledge, Avhich, as it were, opened the door and stepped in just then, en tered also another guest, as it frequently does in cases like this : the capacity to endure and to stand alone through any kind of vicissitudes, in any gale or storm of fortune. Soft, gentle nurtured creatures Avho have knoAvn no adversity, no publicity, no strain of any kind since the men they loved took them to their hearts and asked nothing better than to shelter them from every rough breeze — women of this kind will de\-elop this capacity, and live on Avhen all that made their best of life has been swept from their grasp. So Mrs. Noble lived on henceforth, for her children — not because there Avas sweetness in hfe for herself.

She smiled at her crape draperies. The mourning in her heart made them appear ridicu lous ; moreover, they would be very poor, and crape is expensive. She never had any more after the first Avidows' goAvns that were got for her, but donned a black stuff Avorking dress, and never, from that day, varied in her attire : tAvo very simple black gowns, Avithout trimming or ornament of any kind ; one for the day and its work, the other to put on in the evening for a change, though no eye save her own could have discerned the difference be tAveen them. On Sundays, to go to church in, another black gown, a little better than these others. A black mantle, a black bonnet, black gloA-es, all of the simplest and plainest kind — these formed her Avardrobe ; and it is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to say that Mrs. Noble's gOAvns lasted her a long time.

For many years this had been her unvarying attire. She had neA-er had occasion for any other. But lately a little change had taken place. Within the last few years she had had to go out sometimes. Godfrey had his career to make. Hilda had turned out rather brilliant, intellect ually, at any rate, if in looks she fell short of actual beauty. EA'ening parties, and an occa sional dinner-party, had fallen in Mrs. Noble's way. Hilda had rooms of her OAvn, entirely at her command, in the great school of which she was noAv the head-mistress, and, though she ■continued to live at home, she occasionally had official receptions, or assembled her private friends in these rooms, and on such occasions she considered her mother's presence indispens able. For these solemnities Mrs. Noble had gone to the extra A'agance of indulging in a plain rich black silk gown, and there her finery ended.

They numbered four in family : herself, her son — the eldest — and her two daughters. Mrs. Noble's income Avas a very small one ; it scarce ly amounted to two hundred a year, and it would die Avith her. The circumstances under which she enjoyed it at all were rather peculiar. Her husband, an educated but poor man, had held a responsible post in a A'ery large business house in the city, near which they had lived. The principal of the firm, a A'ery fair example of a merchant prince as they go now, had been deeply attached to him, and it had always been intended that at a certain time Mr. Noble should have some small share in the business whose interests he seiwed so faithfully. Before the arrival of that time came his sudden death. After this event Mr. Warburton, the principal, with a long memory, and an accurate one, of the services of his late confidential clerk, had at first offered to pension the widow, but to this she Avould not consent.

She Avould, she said, be thankful for his assistance, but to depend on his charity — no, she was sure he would not have approved of that. Her husband had left just a thousand pounds of savings. This must be in vested to the greatest advantage, ' and if that is not enough,' said the widow, smiling from her fainting heart, ' I must Avork. Surely I can do something.' Upou this, Mr. Warburton said she must give him the thousand pounds and he would use it in his business, and pay her a high interest for it. This was some salve to her oA'er-sensitive conscience. Two hundred pounds per annum as interest on a capital of one thousand, certainly is a very high per centage, and Mrs. Noble knew it perfectly well, but she thanked Mr. Warburton and took it. It Avas not, she often told herself, as if she gaA'e nothing for it.

There Avas that thousand pounds. It is very certain that little income saA-ed her from having to lh*e through a martyrdom, and it was a matter equally beyond dispute that if John Warburton Avas ever afflicted with sleepless nights they Avere not induced by reflections upon his own harsh conduct towards the widow and the fatherless. Such instances are rare, but they exist. The merchant would have gone further and provided a berth for Godfrey in some branch of his business. But the obstacle to the carrying out of this proposition, Avhen the time came for making it, was Godfrey himself. A doctor he must and would be — that, and nothing else. And London was the place where he was determined he would, if possible, take his degree. Though his mother represented to him that it would be absolutely iudecent to refuse Mr. Warburton's offer, Godfrey seemed as if he meant to perpetrate that indecency, saying that only if there was nothing else for it would he go into the couting-house.

Mrs. Noble was nearly heart-broken about it. ' And he is not a selfish boy, Mr. Warburton, as a rule,' she said, wringing her hands as she spoke of her son's unaccountable obduracy. Mr. Warburton interviewed Godfrey, and afterwards informed his mother that he quite approved the decision ; so much so that he was VOL. I. C Avishful to contribute something towards carrying it out, and that she really must try to make some sacrifice for that boy — he knew what he wanted, and it Avould pay to let him haA'e his Avay. She was grateful, but still indignant Avith Godfrey's determination, using the very feminine argument that it was indeed shameful if what had been good enough for his father was not good enough for him. And again she repeated her assertion that he was not, as a rule, a selfish boy. ' No,' replied Mr. Warburton, Avith a queer, shrewd expression, ' 1 don't think he is a selfish boy.

And it isn't a question of not being good enough — it's a question of suitability. As I have already remarked to you, I think you will find it pay to give him his way in this thing. I Avill contribute two-thirds of his expenses if you can find the rest. Then he Avill start in hfe equipped with the weapons which, he says, he has the greatest desire to Avield.' ' You are too good. I think he might haA'e made up his mind to try business. So much less expensive and troublesome,' she murmured. ' And so much less interesting and inspiring — for him. No, let us rather make of him a good surgeon than a bad merchant. And your daughters, Mrs. Noble? What are they doing?' ' My eldest daughter is studying hard for the university local examinations, Mr. Warburton. She has brains. She resembles her father in that,' said the lady, Avith gentle pride. ' She will pass her examinations, take her certificate, aud then, as I am assured, she may select her own situation.' ' Aha !

Very good ! Very Avell ! And the other ?' 'Ah— Letty is but a little girl yet.' The mother's lips began to quiver, and her eyes to fill. She was not ashamed of work, not she ; nor afraid of it. But her little one — surely they needed not to plan out years of toil for her already. ' She has only just begun to go to school,' she added, in a trembling voice. ' Yes, yes, no need to talk about her. She'll do for a Avhile,' Mr. Warburton said, quickly. This rough man (he was in some quarters con sidered A'ery rough) had wonderful tact in dealing Avith such a case. Mrs. Noble left his presence comforted, set up, with no false notions C2 as to the life she Avas going to lead, no delusions on the subject of the destiny of herself or her children. This interview had taken place some years after her husband's death, Avhen the ques tion had arisen of Godfrey, and hoAv he was to be disposed of.

Work Avas the lot that lay before them ; hard work and plenty of it. This she understood, and did not fear it. She understood also that saA-ing and pinching must be the order of the day in her little household : but that was easy to a woman of her temperament ; that was easy, so long as there w*as the blessed knowledge that eA-en if work Avere scarce and seasons of difficulty and darkness should come, still, there would ahvays be something ; the trifle in hand. and that secure of coming, and making what is to such as her the difference betAveen happiness and misery. Bravely, in her quiet way, she had gone about the task Avhich lay before her, and AA-hich she, and many another of her stamp, understand so Avell : the close economy necessary to pre serve an appearance of order and decency, to keep the house going, to provide clothing and edncation on a tiny stipend ; to preserve in her children the habits of ladies and gentlemen ; to make them keep all the observances of gentle folk ; and so to train them that Avhile they eat cold meat and potatoes, or perhaps sometimes the potatoes without the cold meat, on tAA'o-thirds of the days of their lives, they should yet know enough of other things and conditions to insure their committing no solecisms if they should eA'er find themselves in other scenes — at dinner parties or social gatherings.

A poor, narrow, negative kind of life-work, many may say. Perhaps it is. It wants a determined character to go on Avith it year after year, through bad times and good times, against eA'ery disadvantage, and all the temp tations poA'erty brings to drop doAvn to a lower level than the remembered one of former days — the possible one of some dim, golden, future time. Mrs. Noble did it, and perhaps in the doing it came as near to being a saint, and a heroine as some others who ha\'e made more noise in the world. If Hilda had not had quite such a choice of situations, on first being ready to take one, as her mother had anticipated for her, still she had never been quite without Avork, though often it had been of a ' dree ' kind. She had worked, indeed ; worked incessantly ; gone through her drudgery, taken her disappointments, told to none her secret hopes, ambitions, and sorrows.

To a creature of her ardent, nervous eagerness of temperament, the self-repression must haA-e cost a great expenditure of mental and moral force and nerve-tissue. But, tAvo years ago, when she had just passed her tAventy-fourth birthday, a sudden change had arrived in her fortunes and prospects. A set of Avealthy and influential men and Avomen in the city, who interested themselves greatly in the spread of education amongst Avomen — good middle-class education, as exemplified in that now popular institution, the High School for Girls, resolved that should have a High School if they could bring it about. Much money Avas expended, a committee Avas formed, and a head-mistress was sought. The person chiefly consulted on this matter was a certain Miss Barclay, the principal of a first-class ladies' college in which Hilda had for some time held a post as lecturer on different subjects.

This lady, Avho had attained her high position by the exer cise of her rare faculties of obserA'atiou and discrimination, at once specified Miss Noble as being in her opinion better suited for the post than anyone else with whom she was acquainted. The committee of influential persons had never heard of Miss Noble. Of course, Miss Noble herself was as much sur prised as anybody when the news was broken to her of what was in contemplation ; for the committee, acknowledging their own ignorance, Avere quite disposed to give Miss Barclay's highly eulogised protegee a trial. And so it came to pass that all at once Hilda had found herself in a post of great respon sibility, at the head of the new school, Avith what appeared to her an enormous income guaranteed to her, and certain capitation fees to augment it when the number of pupils should have passed a certain point.

The Avork, hoAv ever, was hard, the responsibility tremendous, the duties onerous. It all made Hilda feel very graA*e, and did not tend to take away from the austerity (for it was no less than austerity) of the life she had hitherto led. But it suited her thoroughly. She looked forward to continuing in it until her working days were past, and her Avhole mind was given up to her work. Her position of course brought her into contact with many persons whom before she had only known by hearsay. It was discovered that Miss Noble was exceedingly clever — perfectly wonderful for her age. She must have given up her whole time to study, and not a bit pedantic with it. She was a great acquisition. Such was the nature of the verdict pronounced upon her. InA'itations to entertainments of all kinds began to be frequent.

Carnages and pairs were to be seen not seldom rattling through the dingy street, and up to the modest front door, much to the puzzlement of those neighbours Avith A\"hoin Mrs. Noble had never made up her mind to associate, or allow her children to associate, and much to the amusement of Hilda and Letty. Mrs. Noble, though shaking her head a little at the late hours to which Hilda Avould often pro long both her work and her pleasure, now that she had them, was yet pleased with and proud of the new state of things, and was not surprised that after so many years of pin ching and denial, her girl should wish to enjoy the larger conditions when they were at last open to her. She did not marry, and Mrs. Noble heard of no lovers ; though she had once or twice thought that one or two of Godfrey's friends, on the rare occasions on which he ever brought one home Avith him, had cast not indifferent looks on her tall, pale daughter ; but Hilda had never appeared even to see these friends of Godfrey's. Indeed, the Nobles' Avas a household in Avhich there Avas never any talk of marriage ; the only thing they ever talked about there, as a prospect, was work — getting something to do.