Bread upon the Waters. A novel

Front matter

BEEAD UPON THE WATERS. % SoktI. DY MAEIE J. HYDE. SAMUEL TINSLEY, 10, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND. 1876. [All Right* WMTWA] CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE i. " old maggot's gal " . . . .1 ii. a wandering " star " . . . .6 iii. a young coquette . . . .22 ia*. stella feels rather out of place . 25 v. cleighton and its " cross " . . .39 vi. an unflattering reception . . .44 vii. a black-bordered envelope . . .52 viii. under a cloud 61 ix. miss belle's opinion of " parsons " . 75 x. " mutual improvement " . . .83 xi. " love charms " 89 xii. " we have been friends "... 100 xiii. irritating to say the least of it .112 xiv. a sad, sad story 129 xv. " off with the old love — on avith the new" 135 xvi. at the flower-show .... 143 xvii. struck by lightning .... 154 xviii. castle thornton 164 xix. star or blue-light ? . . 175 xx. the sleeve-clasp 184 xxi. self-examination, and its results .

CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE XXII. A PIC-NIC ...... 207 XXIII. FOR LOVE OF A STAR .... 221 XXIV. " FOR RICHER, FOR POORER "... 237 XXV. ANGLING FOR AN OFFER .... 246 XXVI. THE ANGEL OF DEATH .... 254 XXVII. WHAT MRS. MASON THINKS OF SIR EDWARD 261 XXVIII. IN WHICH JOHN CADBURN COMES TO LIGHT IN SOME DARK BUSINESS . . . 266 XXIX. STRANGERS IN THE CHURCH . . . 277 XXX. A CANCELLED ENGAGEMENT . . . 288 XXXI. STELLA MAKES A DISCOVERY . . .301 XXXII. A BURNT OFFERING 310 XXXIII. WHICH IS THE IMPOSTOR ? . . . 322 XXXIA7. SELF-SACRIFICE 330 XXXV. " FOUR LITTLE WORDS " . . . . 340 XXXVI. JOHN CADBURN ATTEMPTS TO MAKE MIS- CHIEF 348 XXXVII. HEART-WOUNDS HEALED .... 352 XXXVIII. MISS LYNNE MAKES UP HER MIND TO "TELL"

Chapter I

"OLD MAGGOT'S GAL." " Here, Stella, child ! give me something to drink ; I'm half-dead with thirst — and hunger too, though, for that matter ; but goodness knows how we're going to get anything to eat — I don't ! " The girl thus addressed — a small, pale, half-starved looking object, some thirteen years old in reality, but not looking a day more than ten — rose wearily from the low three-legged stool upon which she had been sitting, in the path of a faint watery bar of second hand sunlight which, reflected from the window of the opposite house, had managed to straggle into the dismal little room. " I'm sure I don't know, either," she said, pushing back her long light hair with both hands, revealing by the action a pinched, woe-begone, freckled face — a face that was only redeemed from absolute plainness by the large, dark, earnest eyes— quiet and mournful enough now, but which could sometimes light up and transfigure the whole face.

"I don't know, either," she repeated. " Here's nothing but a little cold tea, mother." " Cold tea ! Well, give me that, then. Cold tea ! haven't you got a drop of the beer left ? " " No, " said the girl, with a slight touch of bitterness in her tone. " You must have been drinking it, then ! " the fretful voice went on. " I should think you might have left that for me — ill as I am, too ! " "Mother!" — the crimson flamed up for a moment in the wan face — " I never touched a drop of it ! you know that — you know I gave you the last this morn ing ! " " Oh, did you ? Well, pray don't get so tetchy, child — there's no such thing as speaking a word to you ! and, drawing the scanty bedclothes round her with an injured air, the speaker settled herself as comfortably as possible, while the girl she had called Stella, reseat ing herself upon the stool, relapsed into the day-dream from which she had been awakened.

She was recalled again presently; once more the peevish voice broke in upon her reverie. " Stella, isn't there anything left at all that you can sell, to get me a little beer ? " There was a world of scorn in the girl's face as her eyes slowly wandered round the bare little room. "Beer — beer — always beer !" she murmured to her self, bitterly. " It used to be gin, before we got too bad off to get it ! If it wasn't for the everlasting ' beer,' we needn't be so poor as we are ! Sell ? " she added aloud ; "yes, here's this stool I'm sitting on, and there's the bed, and that cracked tea-cup — oh ! and my rose-bush — that's everything we have in the world ! What shall I sell out of our abundance ?" and the words were followed by a little mirthless laugh, sad indeed to hear from such young lips.

Suddenly her face lit up with a new expression, and she went across the room, and opened the window. Outside, upon the ledge, stood a tiny rose-tree, which gave fair promise of 'future perfection, in a broken red flower-pot — a relic of brighter days, still carefully cherished by Stella. " Oh ! I do believe — yes, there is one out enouo-h ! " she exclaimed eagerly, as her eye fell upon a half-bfown crimson rose, peeping out from the clusters of oreen leaves that surrounded it. "What are you doing, Stella? Pray shut that window." " See ! " Stella went on, holding up the flower ; " I will take it out ; I can sell it for a penny, I daresay, and that will get us a penny loaf for tea." " Tea ! I don't want tea ! Bring some beer in with it, Stella." " I won't spend it for beer," said the girl, resolutely.

" But I haven't got it yet, so we needn't quarrel about it," she added, seeing the fierce gleam in the sick woman's eyes, and fearful of the effect that any excite ment might have upon a frame enfeebled by privation and intemperance. " Can I do anything for you before I go, mother ? " she asked, gently, as she stooped over the bed., "No," was the sullen reply; "go along, and make haste back with you." With a half-sigh Stella turned away, and taking up the rosebud and a few green leaves, she went her way, no instinct warning her that she was stepping on the threshold of a new existence. It was late in May. The day was hright and clear, but very cold, and Stella shivered as she walked briskly along, for she wore nothing but a thin cotton dress and petticoat, all other articles of wearing apparel be longing to the poor child having disappeared long ago.

For a long time Fortune seemed unpropitious. In vain Stella silently held up the tiny bouquet — for words she had none with which to importune the passers-by — for answer, she only received a quiet shake of the head, or else a disdainful stare ; the latter cutting the girl to the quick, and causing the young head to droop with shame and humiliation: The wind was blowing keenly, and the poor little bare feet and arms were getting quite blue and numbed with the cold; she was faint— oh, so faint ! — with hunger, and she began drearily to contemplate the possibility of having to retrace her steps without obtaining the means of pro curing a mouthful of bread for herself or old Margot. " Old Maggot," Stella's only protector was derisively styled among the youth of both sexes who swarmed in the dark narrow street where Stella and her mother lived.

They had not always been so poor — so very poor — as they were now; Stella could remember the time when they lived in a decent tenement, in a much more respectable part of the town — to be sure, they only rented one room, but it was a large airy one — when Margot earned a comfortable living for both Stella and herself by her skill as a laundress. That was before the " gin fiend " stepped over their humble threshold, and seized old Margot in his relent less grasp. At first he came seldom, and each yielding to the tempter was followed by a long period of sobriety and apparent repentance ; then his visits became more and more frequent ; presently- — as he always does — grim, gaunt Poverty followed in his wake. At last, old Margot became a confirmed drunkard, and their slips down-hill were rapid indeed.

Margot's dissolute habits lost her one situation after another ; for a long time they were dependent on the money she earned by an occasional day's work at the laundry ; then that, too, failed, together with Margot's health, for intemperance brought on disease ; and at length, after a hard struggle with absolute want, they came face to face with it in a small, dreary garret, in one of the worst parts of London. Stella had a mother only in name. Even at first, in those comparatively happy days, no gentle mother's eye watched over the gradual unfolding of the child's character — no tender mother-love met and answered the wealth of tenderness and affection that Stella longed to lavish upon her unresponsive parent. Margot's relentless indifference nipped, with icy hand, the clinging tendrils of the young heart that would fain have twined themselves around her : what wonder, then, that they drooped, and almost died, in the frosty atmosphere surrounding them ?

Sometimes, indeed, it seemed as if old Margot could hardly bear the sight of the child she had reared as if that child were an incumbrance, of which she would gladly rid herself, if she could. At such times her usual coldness and unkindness deepened into absolute cruelty, and imprecations, abuse, and since Margot had given herself over to the full power of the " gin fiend " — blows, fell unsparingly upon Stella's devoted head. Thus forced back upon herself, with no outlet for the impulsive tenderness of her nature, Stella lived, the greater part of her time, in a new, beautiful world of her own — a world of reveries and day-dreams, of bright hopes and eager anticipations — a world in which there was no poverty, or hunger, or misery — in which the future was rose-tinted with happiness. Those day-dreams of Stella's always irritated Margot exceedingly ; and whenever she saw the child indulging in one of her " vacant fits," as she was pleased to designate them, she would roughly arouse her.

" There you are again ! " she would say, impatiently, seizing the child's arm and shaking her violently, — " doing nothing, and staring at nothing, like a born idiot ! What a lazy, good-for-nothing little brat you are, to be sure ! You shan't sit mooning there ! Be off with you, out to play with the rest of the young uns, if you won't work ! " And Stella had to go — out of doors, at least ; " play with the rest of the young uns," she could not ; she shrank instinctively from intimate association with her fellow " Arabs " — grimy, dirty, ragged as herself, though scarcely so unhappy — there was nothing in common between her and them; she disliked them thoroughly, and they, in turn, repaid the dislike with interest. When forced into their society, " old Maggot's gal" had no pleasant time of it.

Like some small Ishmael, though her hand was not " against every man's," every man's — or rather, every boy's and girl's — hand was against hers. As soon as she appeared, she was greeted with a storm of hisses, and sometimes with a shower of small stones or other missiles. Often she crept back to her miserable home, bruised and bleeding from the rough treatment she had re ceived at their hands, only to be again assailed by Margot with a fresh torrent of abuse, and railed at as a " wretched little coward, who couldn't be trusted out of her own sight for an instant, without getting into mischief." Generally Stella bore the ill-usage to which she was subjected with entire submission ; a long course of it had utterly cowed her, and she was just what she looked, — a timid, cringing, hroken-spirited little creature, thankful when she happened to escape without a beating, and seldom giving utterance to any expression of resentment against her tormentors.

Never before, indeed, had she displayed as much courage as she had done during the colloquy with which our story opens, and her daring at that time was entirely owing to the fact that she knew old Margot was too ill to inflict the punishment with which such a rebellious exhibition of spirit would, otherwise, have certainly been rewarded — a knowledge in which Stella, though she was sincerely sorry for Margot's illness, secretly rejoiced.

Chapter II

A WANDERING "STAR." The afternoon was waning. Stella had wandered intf a more aristocratic part of the town, where the streets were broader and cleaner; and the girl's mournful eyes took quick note of the fact. " I wonder how it is that our street is always so muddy," she thought ; " I expect, though, it's because the people that live in it are all so poor. How nice it must be to live in such a place as this, where they keep the streets so nice and clean ! It would be nicer to have a good tea, though — I'm so hungry ! Oh dear ! shan't I ever sell this rosebud, I wonder?" and the childish voice quivered almost despairingly. In exceeding weariness, Stella held up her flower before the next pedestrian, who, as she thought, looked likely to purchase it. BREAD UPO:- THE WATERS. 7 Raising the light cane that he carried, the man struck savagely at the offending rosebud ; the blow fell upon Stella's fingers, and, with an involuntary little cry of pain, she let her treasure fall upon the pavement, almost under the feet of the man, who kicked it contemptuously out of his way, and, muttering a threat to " have the girl locked up," passed on out of sight.

Poor little Stella ! the hot tears rushed to her ej'es, and her lips quivered pitifully, as she stooped down to rescue the flower from the heedless, trampling feet that were hurrying along the pavement. Too late, alas ! the slender stem had snapped in two, about half an inch below the head, and Stella's last hope had vanished. "Oh! what shall I do ? what can I do?" she said, in utter dismay. " Nobody will buy it now ; it is spoilt — quite spoilt !" and, exhausted by cold and hunger, she leaned against a lamp-post, and wept bitterly. Curious e}-es looked at her as she stood there, deep, anguished sobs shaking her whole frame ; and one passer-by, more tender-hearted than the rest, stopped, and kindly asked the weeping girl what was the matter. For all answer, Stella pointed, in mute despair and agony, to the symbol of her ruined hopes — to him, it was only a broken rosebud, and, as such, unworthy of a moment's consideration.

" What ! crjdng like that over a flower ? For shame ! What a great baby you must be !" he said, reprovingly. And he, too, passed on, leaving her to her grief. Courage, Stella ! the darkest hour is just before the dawn. Presently she heard the quick sharp click of horses' hoofs upon the gravelled road, and, looking up through her tears, she saw two gentlemen on horseback canter ing rapidly towards her. Young and tolerably hand some both were — one with a bright laughing face, fair curling hair, and a fair, but not effeminate com plexion ; not at all a weak face — the firm red lips and mischievous blue eyes held a certain power of their own ; just now, however, it was a latent power — they were brimming over with fun, as he bandied jests with BREAD UrON THE WATERS. his companion, a dark-eyed, dark -haired, earnest-faced young fellow, Marmaduke Langley by name, and the son of the younger brother of Sir Roderick Langley, of Helstone Priory, with only the life of a delicate cousin between himself and the heirship of the time honoured title and broad acres of his uncle.

Marmaduke had travelled far and wide. In one of his trips on the sunny blue Mediterranean, Count Vladimir Sadseldorf, a young Russian nobleman, who spoke English well, except for an occasional hesitation, had been his compagnon du voyage, and the two had struck up a friendship, all the firmer, perhaps, for the contrast in their appearance and character. The young count was now paying a long-promised visit to England and his friend, at the town residence of the latter. Upon the afternoon in question, the two friends had started off upon an " exploring expedition," as Vladimir laughingly called it. " Ah, Madame Langley," he said gaily, kissing the tips of his glove-fingers to that lady, as she stood at the window to see them ride away, " my prophetic soul warns me that we shall perform some wonderful feat — isn't that what you call it? — before we return.

Au revoir!" They were laughing and chatting merrily when they caught sight of Stella. "Ah! Niobe, on my word!" exclaimed Vladimir. " I told you so — here is adventure number one !" "What a beauty !" said Marmaduke, as he reined in his horse beside the shrinking child. "Which — the flower or the girl?" asked Vladimir. " If you mean the former, I agree with you, hut, as to the other — well, she must alter considerably before I can conscientiously echo your exclamation." " I didn't mean the girl — though she will be a beauty one day. Her eyes are magnificent." Count Vladimir took a good look at the said " eyes." " Like a pair of saucers ! " was his disdainful comment ; "just about three sizes too large for the face !" " Hush ! she will hear you. What is the price of that floral treasure ? " said Marmaduke, kindly, bending down to the child.

" Only a penny, sir ; please buy it ! " pleaded a soft, musical voice, and the " saucers " looked up shyly, through their long veiling lashes, into his face. " Of course I will. What is your name, little one ?" was the next question. "Stella, sir." " Stella ! — a fallen star then ! " said Vladimir, lightly. " No, no ! " said Marmaduke, more earnestly than the occasion seemed to warrant, — "not fallen — only wandered from its proper orbit ! " The young Russian turned away with a smile and a slight shrug of the shoulders, and amused himself by whipping the flies from his horse, while the conversation between the other two proceeded. "Stella what?" continued Marmaduke, with a change of tone, turning to the girl, whose dusky orbs were raised wonderingly, first to one face, and then to the other.

" Stella Martyn, sir," was the reply. An expression of intense pity swept over the young man's face as the answer to his next query — " Where do you live ? " was given. He took out his note-book, and wrote down the address. " I may come to see you some day — who knows ? " he observed quietly, as he replaced the note-book, looking keenly the while into the girl's face, to see how the intelligence was received. But if he had felt any doubts as to her veracity, they were instantly dis pelled by the look of gratification that overspread tho tear-stained, sunburnt face. Appropriating the rosebud, Marmaduke was about to place it in the buttonhole of h;s coat, when he observed its damaged condition. " Why, it is broken — it has no stalk ! " he exclaimed. "How is that?" Stella flushed crimson. She was afraid that the flower was about to be returned on her hands.

"Oh, please, sir," she said, earnestly, again raising her pleading eyes to his face, — " please, sir, I couldn't help it ! It wasn't broken before — but a gentleman knocked it out of my hand, and spoilt it." "A gentleman?" said Marmaduke, indignantly. "Yes, sir — with his cane," replied Stella, simply. " Indeed, I couldn't help it ! Won't you have it, sir ? I'm so hungry ! " and again the tears rose to the child's eyes. " Have it ? of course I will, my poor child ! " said Marmaduke, depositing the poor little rosebud in the pocket of his riding-jacket for safe keeping. " There, don't shed any more tears now — here is something to bu}7 you some supper ; " and placing a coin in the girl's palm, Marmaduke rode off again, followed by his companion. Stella stood as if rooted to the spot, gazing after them till they had disappeared ; then she bethought herself to look at the coin in her possession.

It glit tered very much, and looked very yellow, in the cold, bright afternoon sunlight, and Stella looked at it again and again before she could believe the testimony of her eyes. " A — a sovereign ! " she whispered, breathlessly ; and then, weariness, hunger, and cold all forgotten in the glad delight that thrilled her frame, the little bare feet twinkled rapidly along the pavement, on their way home to Margot. As she sped along, Stella debated in her own mind the important question, whether she should buy some provisions at once, and take them in with her, or go first to Margot, with the news of her good fortune. Finally, an irresistible desire to exhibit the bright new sovereign to her mother made her decide upon the latter course. " It won't hinder me above a minute," she reflected ; " and I want her to know directly."

She scarcely felt the ricketty old stairs as she bounded up them, two steps at a time. She had just reached the top, when the door of their miserable room was opened from the inside, and a tall, broad shouldered, ruffianly-looking man appeared upon the threshold. The joyous exclamation upon Stella's lips was hushed, and she instinctively closed her fino-ers tightly upon her precious sovereign. She knew very well that if the man once caught a glimpse at it, her treasure was hers no longer. She knew him at a glance, though she had not seen him for years, never since the far away time of their comparative respect ability, when, sometimes alone, and sometimes accompanied by a boy, with very dark, flashing eyes, he visited them occasionally, always, when he departed, taking with him every farthing of Margot's earnings that he could lay his hands upon.

"Halloa!" he said, catching sight of Stella; "this is the brat, is it ? Come here, young un, and shake hands with your dad." With a deftly executed little bit of legerdemain, Stella transferred her treasure unobserved to her left hand, and placed her right in the coarse horny one held out to her by the man she had been taught to call father. " Your mother says you are going to the dogs," he went on. " Is that true ? " " Yes, sir," answered Stella. " What do you mean by that ? Say, ' Yes, father,' can't you ? " " Yes, father," responded Stella, obediently. " Pity you ain't a little handsomer ! " muttered the man. " She might make money by you — get some body to adopt you, and take you off her hands ! Well, I always make it a rule not to waste my time where I can't get anything by it — so goodbye !

" and he slouched down the stairs, and out at the front door. Stella stole down and looked after him to make sure that he was really gone, then rushed upstairs again. " See here, mother ! " she burst forth, as she opened the door. " A sovereign — a whole, new, bright sove reign ! Oh, how glad I am ! I think we shall never want money again ! " " Can't you^shut the door after you ? " demanded Margot's voice from the bed. " That's right, bang it now, of course ! there's no medium with you — and you can't be spoken to ! Got a sovereign, have you ? Well, you had better go and get me some beer directly, then." Stella's grateful joy had made her soft-hearted ; so she said briskly — " Oh, yes, you shall have some beer, mother ; I'll bring some in with me — I can borrow a can at the Wedge." " Well, look sharp, then !

" With her high spirits slightly damped, Stella "looked sharp" to the baker's shop, where she preferred her modest demand for " A crusty brick, please, ma'am — stale, if you've got it." The "brick" was weighed, and placed upon the counter before Stella, who laid down her pretty bright sovereign as if very loth to part with it ; her eyes followed it longingly, as the shopwoman, after a quick, sharp glance at her customer, proceeded to ring, bite, and otherwise test it. " What's your name ? " she asked, suspiciously, con vinced at last of its genuineness. " Stella Martyn," said the girl, wonderingly. " Stella Martyn — yes, but ain't you old Maggot's daughter ? " "Yes," said Stella, wondering when her questioner was going to give her her change, and let her go. That, however, the sharp-eyed lady seemed in no hurry to do.

" Where did you get that sovereign ?" was the next query. " A gentleman gave it to me," Stella said ; then, giving a gentle hint that she was in a hurry, she added, timidly, " Please, ma'am, you haven't given me my change yet." " I'll see about that presently. Who wTas the gen tleman ? " " I don't know, ma'am ;" and Stella wondered what difference it made to her interlocutor who gave her the money. " Don't know ! Well, what did he give it you for ?" "For a rosebud." " Oh, yes — likely story that, very ! " muttered the lady. " Come, tell the truth, there's a good girl — how did you get that money ? " Stella, more and more bewildered, repeated her assertion, that a gentleman had given it to her. " You wicked child ! don't tell me such stories as that," said the shopwoman, indignantly. " Here, just you stand still a minute — I must see to this ;" and, opening the door communicating with a little room at the back of the shop, she said a few words in an undertone to a tall, shock-headed youth, who, mut tering that she was " allus a findin' summat for folks to do," reached down a disreputable-looking " billy " from a peg, and cramming it down on his tangled red locks, took himself out at the front door, passing Stella — who was hungrily devouring the piece of bread that had been given her as " make-weight " — with a glare that might have made her tremble in her shoes, if she had possessed such articles, and, as it was, inspired her with an uncomfortable feeling of impending evil.

" Please, ma'am, I can't wait any longer," she said at length ; " mother's ill, and I'm in a hurry — if you'll please give me my change." " Then you'll have to wait," was the grim answer ; " I'm not going to give you any change, till I know you came by that sovereign honestly." " Honestly ! I told you how I got it, ma'am," said Stella, with flaming cheeks. "Do you think I — I — stole it ? " " Never mind what I think." " But clo you, ma'am — do you ? " asked Stella, earnestly, clasping her hands supplicatingly. " Indeed — • indeed, I've told you the truth ! " " Oh, you persist in your story, do you ? Ah, well, you'll have to wait for your change till you've proved it," was the shopwoman's ultimatum ; and Stella was compelled to submit to her decree, however much she might rebel' inwardly. It seemed to Stella as if she stood in that little shop for hours ; in reality, ten minutes had not elapsed since the departure of the red-haired youth, when he reappeared, accompanied by a gentleman clad in raiment of the peculiar hue' usually patronised by members of " the force."

"See here," remarked the latter worthy, as he entered the shop, " you've got to come along with me, young un." " Where ? " asked Stella, in dismay, shrinking back as he was about to seize her hand. " Never mind where ! you've got to come, that's all ; and you'd better come without making a piece o' work over it — it'll be all the worse for you, if you don't." "Yes," put in the shopwoman, "it's plain enough she's guilty ; she don't colour up like thatffor nothing. Fancy ! the cheek of the little cat ! coming here, as bold as brass, with a sovereign, and then, when I asked her how she got it, making up a tale about a gentleman and a rosebud ! As if I was going to believe such a story as that ! Why, it bears a falsehood upon the very face of it ! Gentlemen ain't so flush of their money — if she was a decent-looking girl, it would be different !