Neighbours [A novel.] ... With illustrations, etc

Front matter

"THEN YOU MUST OFTEN COME," SAID VANDA. —Page 144- NEIGHBOURS HY MRS. MOLESWORTH AUTHOR OF ■"CARROTS," "THE PALACE IN THE GARDEN," " FIVE MINUTES STORIES, "THAT GIRL IN BLACK," "THE THIRD MISS ST. QUENTIN," ETC, ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY M. EI.LEN EDWARDS LONDON HATCHARDS, PICCADILLY, W. 1SS9 Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, london and bungay. TO Bab^ Betts \~lth May, 1S89, LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. TAGE " THEN \'0U MUST OFTEN COME," SAID A'ANDA . Front. SHE FANNED HER CRIMSON FACE WITH HER HAT 6 " MISS BETTA7," SAID FRA'ER, " I HEAR THE CARRIAGE COMING" 29 " THERE, NOAV—" SAID BETTY, HUGGING AVOOLLY BEAR 40 " ALEX," SAID VANDA, " HOAV ArOU ARE STARING ! " . 47 CATHERINE SITTING IN THE GARDEN 64 "THEN I'D MUCH RATHER NOT GO," SAID SUSIE 71 SUSIE LOOKED UP AGAIN 94 NED MEANWHILE AVAS FAVOURING SUSIE WITH HIS FLUTE AND AVITH HIS CONVERSATION IIO HER PRAISE HUMBLED SUSIE MORE THAN ANY OF LAVINIA'S SHARPEST REPROACHES 133 CESAR AND VANDA '47 THIS LETTER AVAS READ AVITH VERY DIFFERENT FEELINGS FROM THOSE AVITH AVHICH IT HAD BEEN AA'RITTEN Ij6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

VIII PAGE "GOOD MORNING, MISS. STEP IN, IF YOU PLEASE" . 165 A MORNING OF MEETINGS 1 84 SHE AND CATHIE SAT IN A CORNER BESIDE LAVINIA, FEELING .... "OUT OF IT" 210 "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, LAVINIA?" 245 HE MADE HIS WAY TO THE TWO SISTERS 254 THE MORNING .... SAAV SUSIE TOILING ALONG THE ROAD TO THE DELL NEIGHBmm

Chapter I

>^HE Thickness family had always lived ■*- at Leaford. It was their world, and on the whole they were satisfied Avith it. And to many, if not all of the other inhabitants of the place, it would scarcely have seemed itself without the brass plate on the door of the red-brick house at the end of the High Street, bearing the familiar name — the brass plate B [chap. NEIGHBOURS. 2 Avhich had served the present Mr. Thickness father as Avell as himself, and which bid fair to last out another generation. For Martin Thickness Avas turning out a model young man, and it was far from improbable that in time to come he might succeed to his father's shoes as managing partner of the County Bank. They had had their troubles, of course, like other people. Still, these had not come to them in very tragic or acute form.

Mrs. Thickness's death had been sad certainly, very sad. But it had been preceded by a long and gentle illness, during which her husband and children had groAvn, as it were, accustomed to what must be its end. And the sympathy felt for them all in the town and in the neighbourhood had been, as Lavinia herself expressed it, " most gratifying." H NEIGHBOURS. 3 Lavinia was the eldest — she was four years older than Martin even, and to the younger members of the family, Martin had always seemed grown-up. Lavinia's position among them even surpassed this in dignity. She had not only always seemed grown-up, she had ahvays seemed middle-aged ! And yet even noAv she was not really so ; Lavinia's age was a subject seldom alluded to in the family. Not that it was a sore point with her, quite the contrary ; but there was a tacit feeling that, preserving a faint flavour of mystery as to this and some other personal concerns of the eldest Miss Thickness, was but treating her with the respect she had an undoubted right to.

In point of fact she was now thirty. Martin came next her ; then followed George, a curate, and a hard-working one, but seldom at home ; Catherine, Susie, a B couple more brothers, thus down to fifteen years-old Emily, the baby of the family, though in her own esteem and in the un expressed judgment of Lavinia, the worthiest to rank after herself. For Emily had been of her own making and moulding. The mother's ill-health had begun while she was yet a very tiny damsel, and on her Miss Thickness had expended all her powers of training and education, those powers which doubtless Avould have surrounded her with model sons and daughters of her own, had it been her fate or her choice to marry. There were legends in Leaford that the latter of the two expressions was the more correct. The Thicknesses dined at six.

There had been a feeble attempt on the part of Catherine and Susie to make it half an hour later, on the plea that six came so very near afternoon tea time, but it had never gone further. And •■1 NEIGHBOURS. 5 tAvice a week — but if this state secret Avere knoAvn in Leaford it was at least never alluded to — they did not "dine" at all. That is to say, luncheon took an extra importance on those days, practically and materially speaking, but without having the credit of it, like an active but unrecognized partner in a firm ; afternoon tea was ignored, and " late tea " — the Thicknesses objected to the ex pression "high tea" — replaced the usual six o'clock dinner. There were reasons for this arrangement, reasons culinary and domestic, but into these we need not pry. We may rest satisfied that as they originated with Miss Thickness, they were the best of their kind.

Into the somewhat old-fashioned looking, scrupulously neat, slightly faded drawing room at the back of the house, whose Avin doAvs overlooked, indeed opened into, the brick-walled garden, came Susie Thickness one late September afternoon. It was hot 'SHE FANNED HER CRIMSON FACE WITH HER HAT.' weather still, and Susie had been walking fast. She fanned her crimson face with her hat as she crossed the hall, hesitating for an •■] NEIGHBOURS. 7 instant at the draAving room door as if half inclined to put her hat on again before enter ing, but yielding finally to some irresistible influence that dictated haste. "If I put it on in a hurry, without a glass, it will only look untidy and crooked, and if I go up stairs it will be such a time before I can tell them," she decided, as she turned the handle.

" Susie ! " exclaimed her sister Catherine, " how late you are ! " " And how over-heated," added Miss Thickness looking up from her work. " You should really be more careful. You look as if you had been — running /" "So I " began Susie, but stopped short ; " I knoAV I am late," she went on, " but I met Mrs. Vyner, and she begged me to walk part of the way home with her. She wanted me to stay to tea, but I wouldn't. [chap. NEIGHBOURS. 8 Have you had tea ? Oh ! I forgot. It is Wednesday, and I am so thirsty." "You should not walk so fast," said Emily. " I was so excited," said Susie. They all looked up at this with expressions varying between reproof, surprise, remonstrance, arid sympathy, but with one under lying sentiment common to all, that of curiosity. " So excited, Susie ? " said all three voices.

" Yes — I know, sister, you don't think one should ever be excited," said Susie half apologetically, "and thing, but sometimes can one ? " I know it's not a good -one can't quite help it, " No," murmured else spoke, though Catherine, but no one Emily's rather sharp, bright eyes looked as if she would gladly have '•] NEIGHBOURS. 9 shaken Susie to make her go on, had such a proceeding been conceivable. Silence however in many circumstances gives a kind of permission as well as consent. Lavinia had said nothing more, so Susie took courage and continued. " It is," she went on, "about what I heard when I was out. Just fancy, sister," and she turned to Lavinia, " The Dell is taken." In spite of herself, Miss Thickness looked up eagerly. "The Dell taken," she exclaimed, "after all these years ! And at this season — it seemed so much more likely to let in spring or summer.

I am glad for the Saviles' sake ; it must really have been a considerable loss to them. I suppose," she went on slowly, though not as if taking any strong personal interest in the matter, " I suppose you did not hear, Susie, Avho the new tenants are ? " " Oh, yes," said Susie, opening her eyes, "that is the — the point of it. It Avould not have been at all, at least not nearly so interest ing if it had been only old people, or — or humdrum sort of people Avho had taken it. But it isn't — it's Lord William Jerome and his family who are coming." She stopped a moment. " Lord William Jerome's family ! " repeated Catherine and Emily. " What does the family consist of? Do you knoAV anything about them, sister ? " Lavinia sighed faintly. " I have heard of the family," she said. " He is a very distinguished soldier.

But — I am rather sorry to hear it. It will make me Avish for the Saviles back again more than ever." "Why?" asked Susie. "Mrs. Vyner seemed to think it would be rather nice to '•] NEIGHBOURS. 11 have some new people here, and there are young people, sons and daughters — she said so, particularly. And they may be very nice. We cannot possibly tell what they wont be." "We cannot possibly tell what they will be," said Miss Thickness; "and though it Avould be both wrong and unchristian to be prejudiced, still, young people brought up in the world as they must have been — no doubt they have both travelled a good deal and been a good deal in London — cannot be all I should wish for companions for you. You have been very fortunate, unusually fortunate in your surroundings, and you will realize this more and more as you grow older."

" Yes," said Catherine, " it is a great com fort to think that we have not been exposed to the kind of temptations many are thrown among. You mean, sister, that a family like these Jeromes cannot, one may almost say, but be worldly and — and — frivolous." " I should be afraid to contradict you, certainly, Catherine," said Lavinia. " But, sister — ," began Susie, her face flushing a little. "Well, Susie?" " If you put it that way, I mean if you say they cannot help it, then it's no fault of theirs, and I don't see that we've any right to be down upon them for it," Susie blurted out, her pretty eyes glancing up at her eldest sister half mischievously, half defiantly, only however to droop again instantaneously on meeting Miss Thickness's steady, slightly reproachful look. " What silly things you do say, Susie," said Emily rather pertly ; " don't you see what confusion one would get into if one put things that way ?

You might as well say that we I-] NEIGHBOURS. 13 shouldn't look down upon those dirty people at the Cross Roads for being dirty and drunken just because they've been brought up to it, as they have. But all the same it wouldn't be right for us to make friends of them and pass our time among them, as if they could teach us any good." " And worldliness and frivolity are far more insidious than almost any other form of temptation," said Lavinia, in her calm, measured voice. " Only," said Catherine gently, " might we not perhaps do them — I mean girls such as these Jeromes are likely to be — good, sister ? " Lavina shook her head. " If opportunities for doing good come dis tinctly in our way, I hope we should not neg lect them," she said. " But I am no advocate for going out of our way to seek them.

I dislike any appearance of pharisaism or in terference with others. Susie, do leave off swinging your hat about — and your hair is so untidy." Susie gave a pat to her rebellious locks. " It's all coming down, I know," she said, " but I really can't be troubled to do it twice a day in this hot weather — and what does it matter, Avhen there's no one to see it ? I suppose you mean then, Lavinia," she went on, " that you won't call on them — on the Jeromes ? There's a Lady William — and two or three daughters, but 1 don't fancy they're very rich. They're only going to have one gardener, and Mrs. Welsh at the lodge has got orders to find them quite a young girl as kitchen-maid, and — " " You haven't been gossiping about them with Mrs. Welsh, I hope," interrupted Lavinia severely. i-] NEIGHBOURS. 15 Susie looked rather indignant.

" Really, sister, I think you're too bad,' she said. " I never talk to Mrs. Welsh or to any of the poor people about, except the people in our own district, and we never gossip with them. We just change their books and put their names down for the club money, and speak to the mothers whose children don't come to school and that sort of thing. No, indeed. It was Mrs. Vyner Avho told me all I've been telling you. She's full of it — just the way she always is, you know. She's going to call at once, next week I believe. They're coming next Tuesday, though they only took the house the day be before yesterday — or if they're not coming themselves, they're sending down servants to get it in order." " That will be it, you may be sure," said Miss Thickness. " It is most unlikely that [chap. NEIGHBOURS. 16 they would see to practical things themselves — they must be far too fine ladies for that !

As if any real Avoman's work was beneath real ladies " — and again she sighed with a touch of superior pity for the follies of others. "Yes, indeed," Catherine agreed. " Then you will not call on them, Lavinia ? " she added. Miss Thickness turned on her rather sharply " I never said so. I shall do whatever is due to our — to papa's position," she said. " And perhaps — if they are not very rich and luxurious," said Susie, " we may know them a little, sister ; may we not ? " " It is really extraordinary that you should still be so childish, Susie," was all the answer her eldest sister vouchsafed. " Surely you have enough duties and interests in your '■] NEIGHBOURS. 17 OAvn life without always needing to be running after novelties." " That's all the thanks I get for bringing in a real piece of news for once," said Susie, in a Ioav voice, as she turned to leave the room, followed by Catherine and Emily.

" You Avouldn't come in for much of the acquaintance in the first place, any Avay," answered Emily in the same tone. " If Lavinia took any one, it would be Catherine, not you. f might have a chance of going to Avait for them in the pony-carriage, but certainly not you, Miss Susie." " Keep your remarks till they are asked for," retorted Susie, snappishly. Emily laughed, and her laugh sounded mocking. " How thankful I am not to have your temper, my sweet Susie," she said, as she pushed past her sister, and ran up stairs. c [chap. I. 18 NEIGHBOURS. For the habit of politeness and consider ation in small things for each other was not a characteristic of the Thicknesses, notwith standing their undoubted family affection, and the almost exaggerated esprit de corps with which they resented the slightest in sinuations from outside that they were, in any respect, open to criticism.

Chapter II

" T T never rains but it pours," seems to -*- me a saying much more figuratively than literally true. The first announcement of the advent of neAv tenants at the Dell was^quickly followed by the same piece of news from half a dozen other sources. That very evening, as the Thicknesses were assembled together at the Wednesday " late tea," Martin looked up from his plate of cold ham with a sudden gleam of interest in his somewhat impassive face. c NEIGHBOURS. [chap. 20 " Did my father tell you, Lavinia," he said, " that the Dell is let at last ? " "No," Miss Thickness replied, "papa has not told us, but we heard it- — Susie heard it this afternoon from Mrs. Vyner. I am glad of it for the Saviles' sake. I hope they have let it well ? " " Very well, I should say," said Mr. Thick ness, from his end of the table.

" I have not heard the rent they are getting, but it is to people of good standing. Some of the Jerome family. You did not hear that, I suppose, Lavinia ?" "Yes," Miss Thickness replied; " you may be sure Mrs. Vyner would not rest satisfied without knowing all the details. I wanted to speak to you, papa, about the kitchen boiler," she went on. " Cook feels almost sure it is leaking again, and I think Smithson should be spoken to sharply about having done it so II.] NEIGHBOURS. 21 imperfectly. He really should be made to do it again at his own expense." There was no mistaking her tone. It said as plainly as words to her father that the subject of the new neighbours was not to be discussed except in the smallest of " small committees " — that is to say, by herself and him, and Martin perhaps, when the other members of the family were safely disposed of.

" I will send for Smithson to see about it," Mr. Thickness replied. But he gave a little inaudible sigh. " Lavinia is really a wonderful woman," he said to himself, " quite extraordinarily above the ordinary weaknesses of her sex." Weaknesses with which now and then poor Mr. Thickness had an unacknoAvledged sympathy. For like most elderly gentlemen who have spent by far the greater part of their lives in one place, he was by no means devoid of interest in all local concerns, and but for the influences which hedged him round, there is really no saying but that this genial spirit of his might have degenerated into a love of mild gossip. But he was a very well-trained papa — save on the very rarest occasions he had never been known to oppose his eldest daughter. And seriously speaking, she was devoted to his interests and to those of the rest of the family.

What he would have done without Lavinia, how he would ever have "brought them all up," Mr. Thickness would have shuddered to think of. So the conversation faded into the unex citing topics, not unfrequently the only ones discussed in the Thickness family circle. The demoralization among plumbers and workmen in general was regretfully alluded «•] NEIGHBOURS. 23 to ; the prospects of a hard winter naturally suggested by the mention of the men of pipes were touched upon. Martin threw in a hope that there might be better skating than last year, but as his sisters did not skate, their interest in the possibility was limited. And no word, no syllable even, was let fall which might have shed light upon the question which Susie was burning to ask, which Catherine too, and even Emily at the bottom of her really childish heart, were, though unacknowledged to themselves, longing to have answered : " Will sister call on the Jeromes ?

Shall we know them ? " The Dell Avas really a pretty place, and in some respects a more important one than its name might suggest. The grounds were not very large, but the house was roomy. It was just the place for a family accustomed to live comfortably and gracefully, though not neces sarily at great expense, and it was so near Leaford that for housekeeping considerations, questions of parcels and packages fetching from the station and so on — a more con venient situation could not have been desired. One bright afternoon, about a week after the interesting news of the advent of the Jerome family had reached their future neighbours, a young girl was standing at the open door of the till recently uninhabited house. Standing, that is to say for the moment, for she had been spending the last hour or two in most restless fashion, running to and from the lodge gates, then rushing indoors to throw a last glance of inspection round the various rooms, to make sure that nothing had been forgotten, looking at the timepiece in the drawing-room every five minutes, and nearly driving the servants out of their minds by dashes into the kitchen to remind them to have the kettle " quite, quite boiling," the moment the carriage was heard coming up the drive.

" Oh dear, dear, Miss Betty, you'll wear yourself out before her ladyship and Miss Jerome and all of them come. Couldn't you sit down just for five minutes, quietly ? I'll warn you, so that you may be at the door. You see, Miss Betty, I feel rather responsible. I don't want her ladyship to think I've let you knock yourself up, or she'll never trust us again." The speaker was a very respectable looking, very small, middle-aged woman. She had begun her career in life as nursery maid in the family before Betty was born, and had remained with them as " useful sewing-maid " ever since, though the term NEIGHBOURS. [chap. 26 but feebly expresses the hundred and one helpfulnesses of which little Fryer was capable. The sorrow of her life was her unusually diminutive stature, which had made it impossible for her to become regular "lady's maid " to her dear young ladies.

But the lines had fallen in pleasant places, never theless, for Fryer. She had accompanied her master and mistress and their children through many journeyings and shared many of their joys and sorrows. And next to their mother there was no one whom the young Jeromes trusted more fully. It had been greatly owing to Fryer's advocacy that Betty had got leave to come down to Leaford some days before the rest of the family, on the, to her, delightful mission of getting the house in order for the others, and making everything as pretty and home-like as possible in their new quarters. " You needn't be afraid, Fryer," said Betty; "no one could say that I look any thing but well, and I'm as strong as a horse always ; and I do think mamma will say we've got it all into very nice order, really. I should be so pleased if she were to say I'd done nearly as well as Vanda would have done."

" I'm sure she will," said Fryer. " It's a nice little place in many ways. I only hope there'll be some pleasant neighbours about. It wouldn't do to be dull for Mr. Alex." " No, of course not," said Betty. " But there are sure to be nice neighbours, Fryer. We've never been anywhere where we didn't find some ; and people are always so pleased to know mamma and Vanda, because they're so pretty and charming, and — people are ahvays nice to me too, Fryer. I do think [chap. 28 NEIGHBOURS. it's such a mistake to make out that the world's full of selfish, horrid people." " Miss Vanda will be looking out for some poor people to visit, too," said Fryer. " Of course I don't mean only rich ones when I speak of nice neighbours," said Betty. " It isn't only Vanda that likes poor people, Fryer. It's just as much me, though I don't say I know how to look after them as well as she does.

Won't it be nice to have a regular country Christmas of our own — not merely visiting in relations' houses ? We must have a Christmas-tree for the poor children and another for the old people — no, I mean a tea-party for the old people, and " " Miss Betty," said Fryer, " I hear the carriage coming. " Oh," said Betty with a scream of delight, " and I meant to have been at the lodge gates if not out in the road. Oh, you horrid old woman, to have beguiled me into chattering so ! 1 believe you did it on purpose." "MISS BETTY," SAID FRYER, "I HEAR THE CARRIAGE' COMING. So Betty did not get further than the hall door after all. But a very charming picture she made as she stood there, her bright face and pretty figure in its light dress thrown into relief by the darkness of the wainscoted hall within, her wavy brown hair fluttering over her forehead, her eyes dancing with eager delight.

" Mamma, papa, Vanda, Alex," she cried, as she caught sight of the dear home faces, nearly as bright and eager as her own ; " no, Alex is not here. What's become of Alex ? " she went on, as she kissed them all in turn. " He's walking up from the station because of Woolly Bear. The poor thing was so unhappy at being separated from us, that Alex wouldn't leave him," said Vanda. " The darling," Betty ejaculated. " He had to travel in the guard's van, then. But he'll soon be at home here. Isn't it a lovely IL] NEIGHBOURS. 31 place, Vanda ? And oh, mamma, do come inside, I have made it so nice already. You'd hardly know the drawing-room again. It did look so stiff. And papa, dear, I've unpacked everything of yours I could get hold of — pipes and all — and put them out in your little room." " And not broken anything, Betty ?

Really, old woman, you are becoming a second Vanda," said Lord William as he kissed her. Then they all made a tour of inspection together, and Vanda, Avho had not before seen the Dell, was as delighted as even Betty could have desired. Alexis and Woolly Bear, a beautiful, mild-eyed St. Bernard, arrived in the meantime ; and Betty, betAveen welcoming her brother and her pet, retailing all her adventures during the last few days, and doing the honours of the tea-table, which on this occasion she felt to be pre-eminently her duty, was well-nigh distracted. " Come out into the garden for five minutes, Van and Alex," she said, when tea was over. "I'm so hot and fussy. And Ave can look at the kennel for Woolly Bear — he must have a kennel, for the name of the thing, though Woolly Bear's kennel is only a pied-d-terre, isn't it, darling ?

Now Alex, you're never enthusiastic, I knoAV, but isn't the Dell perfection ? " Alexis, a tall, good-looking young fellow, Avith a face pleasant in expression, though occasional quick contractions of the brows and certain fidgety lines about the mouth told of a temper by no means under perfect control, stood still and glanced about him. " Yes," he said, " it's not a bad place. Still—" Vanda glanced at him. " Alex, dear," she said gently, " you're not to say you regret the Cromers' invitation. You have made papa and mamma so happy by giving it up. And after all, it isn't very long you have to be with us — only till April." The young fellow's face relaxed. " I know," he said. " I don't mean to grumble. Especially when my father's been so good to me. But it was rather a tempting idea, you must allow."

"It Avould have been horrid for us," said Betty. " Cesar won't be here till December, and poor Van and I would have had nobody to go about with." " Where do you want to go about to ? ' said Alex. " That's the worst of taking a place even for a few months in a perfectly new part of the country — you just get to D know the people when it's time to be leaving." " But there are sure to be some nice neighbours," said Betty hopefully, " and any way, Alex, you're sure of plenty of shooting at Farnham, thanks to Cesar." " Yes," said Alex, his face clearing, "/shall do very well, I dare say. It's more you girls I was thinking about," he went on with the superiority of his one-and-twenty years. " Farnham's no good, except for the shoot ing, as it's shut up. And it's all very well for you to look after poor people, and that sort of thing, in moderation, but mamma agrees with me, you shouldn't take up that line too strongly."

Vanda smiled " Not to the extent of making ourselves disagreeable bores, certainly," she said. " But I don't think there's much fear of that. And you know, Alex, we've really had a great deal of society and travelling and variety in our lives. Betty and I don't mind in the least even if we have what some people would call a dull winter. Besides, there are sure to be some nice people about." " You must look them up then," said Alex. " That's to say, they must call on you in the first place, of course — I keep forgetting I'm not in India — but you might let it be under stood, through that Mrs. — Mrs. — what's her name ? " " Mrs. Vyner," said Betty. " That you won't object to making some decent acquaintances if there are any," said Alex. It was one word for them and two for himself, as Vanda knew, but she answered pleasantly.