Parkwater, and other stories ... Twentieth thousand

Front matter

■ I ■ I ■ ■ ■ ■ I I ■ ■ PARK WATER, AND OTHER STORIES. PARKWATER, AND OTHER STORIES. BY MRS. HENRY WOOD, AUTHOK Ob' "EAST LYNNE," "THE CHANNINGS," "JOHNNY LUDL0W," ETO. CTuicnticri) CTljousanb. LONDON: EICHAED BENT LEY AND SON, publishers in ©vjinarrj to pJrr ffflajtstg ttje ©ucm. 1890. (.All rights reserved.} CONTENTS. PAEK WATER. CHAFTKtt PAGB I. Bringing up ... .., ... ... ... 1 II. Home from France ... ... ... 15 III. Mr. Fred. Lyvett ... ... ... ... 31 IV. At Paiskwater ... ... ... ... 51 V. Captain Devereux ... ... ... ... 69 VI. Suspicion ... .. ... ... ... 80 VII. Sophia's Desolation ... ... ... ... 92 VIII. Hard Times ... ... ... ... 103 IX. The Advertisement in the "Times" ... 115 X. Warning ... ... ... ... ... 126 XI. A Stolen March ... ... ... ... 140 XII. The Countrywoman ... ... .. 154 XIII.

A Fit of Shivering ... ... ... .170 XIV. An Expedition in the Dusk ... 183 XV. The Child ... .. ... ... ... 198 XVI. At Mrs. Cooke's ... ... ... ... 207 XVII. The Apprehension ... ... ... ... 222 XVIII. At Home ... ... ... ... ... CONTENTS. VI CHAPTER FAGK XIX. Condemned ... ... . ••• — 249 XX. At Lady Haeriet's ... •■• 261 XXI. A Race with Time ... .. ■•• ... 272 Conclusion... ... ... ••• •• 292 MR. NORTH'S DREAM: I. Driven forth ... ... ... ■■• ••• 297 II. The Dream ... ... ... ... ■■■ 307 MARTYN WARE'S TEMPTATION: PART THE FIRST. I. The Mother's Grief ... ... ... ... 337 II. Helen's Knight-errantry ... ... ... 352 PART THE SECOND. I. Mr. Vavasour's Promise ... ... ... ... 369 II. The Fall ... .. ... ... ... 390 FEATHERS AND SPANGLES «3 PARKWATER.

Chapter I. Bringing Up

In a certain quiet street of London, chiefly if not entirely filled by lawyei-s and their offices, there flourished some years ago the eminent firm of Lyvett, Castlerosse and Lyvett. An extensiA-e practice had they; and certain other firms in the street Avould Avatch with an envious eye the shoals of letters and deeds delivered at their doors by the morning postman, Avishing that only a tenth part of such shoals Avould come to them. The partners bore the character of honourable men; and certainly they were so. The three floors in the house Avere consecrated to business. The ground-floor AAras chiefly appropriated to clerks; on the first-floor were the private and consulting rooms of the partners; and on the next story were clerks' rooms again. This left free the kitchens, Parkwater. PARKWATER. 2 which Avere under-ground, and the attics in the roof; in which apartments dwelt a man of the name of May, his Avife and daughter.

May Avas the trusty porter or messenger of the firm, took care of the house on Sundays and at nights, and Avas much esteemed by his employers as an honest, respectable servant. Mrs. May cleaned the offices, made the fires, and scoured the stairs ; and Miss May Avas a damsel of ten years old. She Avas being brought up — Avell, we shall see how. Mr. Lyvett, the first partner in the firm, was a Avealthy man. Apart from the proceeds arising from a long and successful practice (which had come down to him from his father), his Avife, who was of good family, had brought him a large fortune. They lived at thc West-End, and mixed more in fashionable life than it is usual for lawyers to do. All Mrs. Lyvett's connections lay amidst it ; and Mr. Lyvett himself Avas of fairly good descent. Their family consisted of tAvo sons, James and Frederick, and several daughters.

James was already taken into partnership, and his name Avas the third in the firm. He Avas married, and had a house of his own. Frederick, the youngest of the family, was not yet a partner. One winter's night, a clerk chanced to remain at the office beyond the usual hour. When the rest of the clerks departed, he stayed behind. It was young Mr. Jones. He was just articled, had copied a deed carelessly and imperfectly, and so Avas ordered to remain over-hours and copy it again. A strict disciplinarian was Mr. RoAvley, the overlooking clerk of Lyvett, Castlerosse and Lyvett. The porter was out that evening, and Mrs. and Miss May were in the kitchen ; the former Avashing up the tea-things, the latter seated on a Ioav chair, and devouring by the blaze of the fire the fresh number of Caterpillar's Penny Weekly Re pository of Romance: Caterpillar being a popular writer Avith the million.

"Anything new there, Sophiar ? " asked the mother. " LaAAr, ma, yes ! Such a splendid tale ! ' The Knight of the Blood-Red-Hand.' It begins beautiful." " You'll try your eyes reading by firelight, Sophiar. Come to the candle." "I Avish you Avouldn't make a fuss," Avas Miss Sophia's ansAver. " You'll not read long, I can tell you. As soon as ever I have finished these tea-things, I'm a-goinoto clear the pianer, and you'll come and practise." The young lady gaA'e a jerk AA'ith her shoulders, and a kick with her feet, both of Avhich movements might be taken as emblematical of rebellion. Mrs. May Avas a foolish woman. To say the least of it, she was so in regard to her child. All her own spare time was deAroted to devouring a certain kind of umvholesome literature, supplied then as extensively to the "million" PARKWATER. as it is noAv ; perhaps more so.

It served to fill her head Avith the most ridiculous notions ; and May, her husband, sanctioned them. Mrs. May had resolved that the child, Sophia, should be brought up a " lady ; edicated, and raised above her spere," as she rather often expressed it. In this resolve she Avas upheld not only by May, but by her own sister, a Miss Foxaby, Avho was a lady's-maid in a very fine family some where up West. Sophia had no objection in the Avorld ; she was already an incipient coquette, inordi nately vain, and quite as much at home in the in tricacies of the Weekly Repository of Romance as was her mother. Poor child ! Poor child ! its pernicious teachings Avere groAving with her groAvth, and strengthening Avith her strength. Mrs. May Avas as good as her word. She cleared the square piano, Avhich appeared to be laden Avith miscel laneous articles of culinary utility, not generally found in association Avith pianos ; opened it, and put one of the Avooden chairs before it.

Miss Sophia, hoAveArer, declined to disturb herself. " What was the good of your father a-buying of the hinstrument, and what's the good of your having a genus for music, if you don't practise ? " demanded Mrs. May. "Come, miss, no shuffling. And you have not looked at your book-lessons j^et." " Ma, Iioav you do bother ! " " Come this minute, I say, or I'll put you to bed : and give them stupid romances to me," added Mrs. May, snatching the leaves out of the child's hand. " You don't call them stupid Avhen you read them yourself; and you don't like to be disturbed at them, though you disturb me," raved the girl, in a voice between screaming and sobbing. " The other night, Avhen father kept asking for his supper, you Avere in the thick of the ' Blighted Rose,' and you AArouldn't stir from it ; and he had to get out the bread and cheese himself, and fetch the beer !

" "Never you mind that, miss. You come to the pianer, as I bid you. It's not your place to reflect on me." Sophia, finding resistance useless, flung a feAV books on the chair to make it higher, and flung herself upon them, dashing into Avhat she called " the scales " and her mother "the jingles." Mrs. May dreAv a chair before the fire, placed her feet on the iron fender, snuffed the candle on the table behind her, opened the publication she had taken from her daughter. Before however, she Avas fairly immersed in its beauties, or the first few bars of the jingles had come to an end, a tremendous noise overhead caused them both to start. " Sakes alive ! " uttered Mrs. May — a favourite ex clamation of hers : " what's that ? " A somewhat prolonged noise, as of a stool or chair PARKWATER. being moved violently about, Avas noAv heard.

Sophia jumped off the books. " Mother ! suppose it should be an apparition ! " " Suppose it should be a robber ! " was the more practical remark of Mrs. May. " He may have stolen in to kill us, while he Avalks off with the law papers. I daren't go and see." " I'll go and see," answered Sophia. " I'm not afraid of robbers ; and I don't suppose they'd hurt me." She took the candle from the table, hurried fear lessly upstairs, and knocked at the front office door. Mr. Jones, the young clerk, not being used to solitary evening employment, had dropped asleep over his Avork, with his stool on the balance. Certain musical sounds caused him to aAvake Avith a start, Avhen he and his stool Avent doAvn together. Picking himself and his stool up irascibly, he inflicted on the latter sundry bumps on the floor, by Avay of revenge, and Avas just settling to his copy again, when the knock came to the door.

" Come in," cried he, sullenly. Very much astonished he looked when the intruder presented herself: a blue-eyed, pretty child, with flaxen hair that curled on her shoulders. Dressed AveU, she Avould have been an elegant child : but, dressed as she Avas, in all the colours of the rainboAV, flaunty, dirty, and Avith a profusion of glass beads glittering about her as necklace and bracelets, she looked like a little itiner-ant actress at a country fair. " Why ! Avho and Avhat are you ? " demanded the young gentleman. " If you please, we did not know anybody was left," replied Sophia. " When the noise came, we thought it Avas a robber got in, so I came up to see ; but ma Avas afraid." " Who on earth's ' ma ' ? " repeated Mi\ Jones, unable to take his eyes off the child. " My ma. DoAvnstairs." " Do you live here ?

" " Yes," said she, draAving herself up. " I am Miss May." " Oh, indeed ! " returned the young man. " Was not that a piano tinkling ? It Avas the sound of that startled me up, and sent the stool off its legs. The first time I eATer heard of a piano in a laAvyers office." " It's mine, sir. Father bought it for me." " Yours ! Where do you keep it ? " " In the kitchen," ansAvered the little girl. " We moA^ed the dresser out into the back place, Avhere the copper is, to make room for it. It's opposite the windows, and I practise at night Avhen I come home from school." " Why don't you give us a serenade in the daytime ? " demanded young Mr. Jones, delighted at the amuse- PARKWATER. ment Avhich appeared to be striking up. " We might get up a Avaltz when the governors are out." Miss May shook her head.

"Father says it must never be opened till every body's gone ; the gentlemen would not like it. So ma keeps dishes and things atop of it all day, for fear I should forget and unlock it, when I'm at home from school at twelve o'clock." " Well, this is a rum go ! " muttered Mr. Jones to himself. ' " How many brothers and sisters have you, child ? " " I have not go: any of either. And that's why ma says she can afford to spend more upon me. I'm to be a lady when I grow up." "Thank you, my little girl, for the information. You look like one. I should say you might be taken for an Arabian-Nights' princess : only you are too smart." The child took the mocking compliment to be meant in earnest. She bridled her head ; her un occupied hand stole up to tAvirl round the ends of her pretty ringlets. In the endowment of vanity, Nature has been prodigal to many of us, but she had been remarkably so to Sophia May.

" Sophiar ! " called out a voice, timid and panting, from the lower regions. " Sophiar ! What is it ? " " Who is that ? " quickly asked Mr. Jones. That's ma. She— Sophiar, I say ! Who are you talking to ? Who is there ? " repeated the voice. " Ma," ansAvered the child, putting her head out at the door to speak, " it's one of the gentlemen, not yet gone." Up raced Mrs. May, flurried and dubious. Mr. Jones recognized her as the lady he had seen on her hands and knees, cleaningthe front door-step the first morning he came, when he had misunderstood the clerks' time, and had arrived an hour too early. She kneAv him as the young clerk recently entered, whose friends were intimate Avith the Lyvetts. " Bless me, sir ! I should not have took upon mj'self to send Sophiar in here, but we thought eveiy body was gone, and was alarmed at the noise.

Sophiar, miss" — changing her tone to a very angry one— " Avhen you saAv it Avas all right, why didn't you come away again directly ? " "Don't put yourself out, Mrs. May; she has done no harm. What time do you get this office open in the morning ? " he added, as if struck with some sudden thought. "About half-past seven, sir, these dark mornings. I begin with this floor first. But I get all my sAveep ing over and the fires alight before I sit down to my breakfast." PARKWATER. 10 "Then I'm blest if I Avon't knock off for to-night, if I can get in at that hour," ejaculated Mr. Jones. " I shall have time to finish this beastly thing before old RoAvley comes. But he had best mind, again, how he gives me my day's writing to do over twice, for I won't stand it. Good-night to you, Dame May. Put out the gas."

" Sophy," said Mrs. May, when they returned to the kitchen, " did he hear the sound of the pianer ? " Sophy nodded in the affirmatiA'e. " What did he say ? " " He asked if the piano Avas here ; and I told him it Avas, and Avas ours." " Then you Avere a little ape for your pains. You should have told him that it Avas a sound from the next house ; and .stood to it that it was, if he'd disputed it. Your father don't want the Mr. Lyvetts and Mr. Castlerosse to knoAv of the pianer ; they'd make a fuss, perhaps. Never scruple to tell a fib, child, in a necessary cause." " Can I have that paper now ? " asked Sophia. " No," snapped Mrs. May, " I have hardly begun it. Get on with your jingles." From the aboATe little episode of one evening, the reader may gather someAvhat of the manner in Avhich Sophia May was being trained.

It need not be enlarged upon. Her parents were making that most reprehensible and fatal mistake of rearing her to be above her station; above themselves. Such mistakes were not so common in those days as now, for AA'hat I am writing of took place many years ago ; but, as the Avorld knows, they are springing into mad fashion at present. No training for the working classes can be more pernicious, or is likely to bring forth more dis astrous fruits. In Sophia May's case — and hers is a true history — the error AA'as added to by her being 'allowed the run of those Avretched Aveekly romances. Sophia's parents had married late in life, and Avere decent, hard working people ; and if they had had the good sense to make their child hard-working too, they would have given her comfort and content for her portion.

Mrs. May had been an inferior servant in a family of distinction, had picked up some exalted ideas, and the publications she had addicted herself to reading did not tend to sober them. Undoubtedly the child Avas a pretty, fairy -looking little thing; and a fancied resemblance to one of the aristocratic daughters in the family in which Mrs. May had served, first put ridiculous notions for Sophia into her brain. The father was more sensible ; but he was so ardently attached to this only child that he too readily fell into the snare, and upon that one point AA'as uoav as extravagant as his wife. For their station they Avere in easy circumstances. The man's wages sufficed for PARKWATER. their Avants, in the humble way they were accustomed to live ; Mrs. May had saved money, and Miss Foxaby was ever ready to produce funds to be spent on her pretty niece Sophia.

She furnished not only funds, but clothes. All the very smart things Sophia flourished in came from her: cast-off relics of the family she served. Strange that the father and mother could not see the incongruity of Avhat they were doing ! The child, with her flounces and furbe lows, her music and dancing, her pernicious romance reading, and her fostered vanity ; and they, Avith their household drudgery, living amidst their kettles and saucepans and cooking and cleaning ! What an absurdity it all was ! Sophia Avent to a day-school in the neighbourhood, Avhere she mixed with a rather better class of children as to position : indeed the mistress had refused to take her at first on the score of her parentage. There she picked up some learning, and left off some of her idioms. The way in Avhich the child was dressed out on a Sunday was something wonderful to behold.

Muslins in summer, satins in winter, streamers of many colours, gaudy artificial flowers, and snow-white feathers ! Nearly all of them were Miss Foxaby's gifts, and all of them had the first bloom off. In the morning of Sunday, the child would be, as the mother expressed it, " in her dirt," Avatching the preparations for dinner, or exercising at the piano, and at one o'clock fetching the beer from the public-house ; for May liked to take as much rest as he could get on a Sunday, even from beer-fetching. But in the afternoon she Avas turned out in style, and told to "walk up and down the street that people might see her ; " her father and mother, who on that day would sit at the windows of Mr. Lyvett's room on the first-floor, watching her Avith looks of love and admiration : the former with his pipe, and his beer in a peAvter pot ; the latter Avith her Aveekly neAvspaper, Avhich, however, she could scarcely coax her eyes to read a line of, so absorbed was she Avith that vision pacing the quiet street in her young vanity, whose long-tailed silken steamers fluttered out behind her, to the amazement of every chance passer-by.

They did not go to church ; they did not take her. Noav and then, indeed, Mrs. May Avould attend evening service Avith Sophia ; but it was A'ery rarely. They were moral, Avell-behaved people, the father and mother, but religion was not known in their house : that is, religious teaching and religious exercises. What did they promise themselves would be the end of all this Avhen the child grew up ? — that she Avould be content to continue her abode with them, and live as they did ! Where else Avas she to live ? Poor Sophia May ! events that really did PARKWATER. happen in after life Avere not so much her fault as the fault of her most foolish parents. And this is a true picture ; a simple narrative of events that actually occurred.

Chapter II. Home From France

Several years had gone by. One Thursday night in summer, the quiet street already mentioned (and it Avas the dullest and quietest street imaginable after business hours, Avhen the Ararious laAvyers and their clerks had deserted it for the night) Avas aroused from its silence by the echoes of a cab, Avhich came fast doAvn it, and pulled up at the door of Lyvett, Castle rosse and Lyvett. What could the cab Avant there at that hour ? Cabs, and carriages too, might be seen before the door in the day, many of them ; but never at night. " Why, if it's not old May ! " exclaimed Miss Jen kins, putting her head out at the next-door window ; she and her sister being laundresses to that house, which accommodated several firms. " Where has he been to in a cab ? Here, Esther, come and have a look at old May in a cab !

" Miss Esther Jenkins quickly ran to the AvindoAV. PARKWATER. A young lady in a blue veil Avas folloAving old May out of the cab. " Well, I never ! " cried Miss Esther. " Who can it be, Martha ? There's the gaslight on her face now — AA'hat a nice-looking young lady ! " " Why, it must be the daughter come home ! She Avas expected, you knoAv. Oh, it's nobody but her ; you may rely upon it, Esther." " I'll go in and see what she's like presently, Avhen they are settled a bit," cried Miss Esther. " It's her, safe enough." " Safe enough " it AAras. Miss May, Avho had been for two years at a school on the French coast, had now completed her education, and returned home for good. When Miss Esther Jenkins entered, she found her sitting in the kitchen with her parents. Sophia Avas eighteen now, and certainly very good-looking.

The long curls she had worn as a child were now tAvisted in a peculiar way, " French and fashionable," Miss Jenkins called it, round her head. She Avas above the middle height, and easy in her movements, very much pinched in about the Avaist, with fine falling shoulders, an admirably fitting dress, and a prodigious deal of pretension. Miss Jenkins stood, taking it all in at a glance, and noting various items in her mind, especially the young lady's first declaration that she did not knoAv hoAv she should get on in London, as she had forgotten her English. Sophia turned to the place of the old piano. It Avas there still, and she opened it. She struck a feAV chords and started back with a scream. " Mais, c'est horrible, ce piano-la ! Je ne " Do try to speak in English, Sophiar," urged Mrs. May, Avith tears in her eyes.

" Hoav ever shall Ave get along if you don't ? What is it that's the matter ? Did you see anything that frightened you ? " " It is such a — Avhat do you call it in English ? — dreadful piano. I had as soon haAre touched an electric battery. It has set all my finest musical nerves on the jar : ma tete est percee. I shall never be able to touch it again : jamais." " She has not quite forgot her mother-tongue," interposed Miss Jenkins. " Which is a consolation Avorthy of thanksgiA'ing." Sophia turned a sharp look upon her. There AA'as a sarcastic ring in the words that she did not like. " Did you have no English girls Avhatever at the school, Sophiar ? " asked Miss Jenkins. " Mais oui." "Did you have no English girls Avhatever at the school ? " repeated the visitor, apparently determined to persevere till she received a reply she could under stand.

Parkwater. « PARKWATER. Some of the young ladies Avere English." And did you never talk together ? " " De temps en temps. Noav and then," more hastily added Sophia, perceiving the question Avas about to be repeated, as before. " Then it's very singular Iioav you can have forgot it at all," retorted Miss Jenkins, significantly, "for Avhen schoolgirls get together they do talk." The tone brought heat into the temper of Miss May. She cast a look of scorn on the offender, and coolly turned her back upon her. " It is not agreeable to me to be troubled Avith strangers to-night," she said, more curtly than politely. " I am tired Avith my sea-voyage, Miss Jenkins, and the company of my father and mamma is as much as my nerves will support." " Then I'll make myself scarce," said Miss Jenkins, Avho Avas more inclined to laugh than to take offence ; 11 and come in some other time Avhen you are in company cue, Sophia."

Sophia gave only a cold nod in answer. " Hoav can I ever again support the companionship of these Avretchedly Ioav people ? " ran her thoughts. Miss Jenkins was inwardly making her comments on her : tit for tat. " I say, Esther," Avhispered Mrs. May, following Miss Jenkins upstairs to fasten the door, ". she don't mean ■* 19 no offence; she's only knocked up after the sea sickness." " Where no offence is meant, none is took," replied Miss Jenkins. "I know what the little tempers of young folks is. We Avas young ourselves once." "But ain't .she beautiful?" pleaded Mrs. May. " And such style ! Nobody could take her to be any thing but the real lady." "Thoroughbred," responded Miss Jenkins. " Good night." " Good-night, Esther. Oh— I say ! I wish you'd tell your Martha to beat her mats of a morning towards the house on your other side, instead of on this.

She's later than I am, and her dust makes my steps and pavement in such a mess. One day Mr. Lyvett asked if I had cleaned them. Good-night." " I Avish 'em joy of her, Martha," were the first words of Miss Jenkins to her sister. "Such an affected, stuck-up fine lady you never saAv. What they'll do Avith her in that kitchen, I can't tell. She wants a saloon and a pair of footmen." "What can they do with her!" debated Miss Jenkins. " If they've only a kitchen, they can't put her in a parlour." " I don't know. Rely upon it, she'll neverreconcile herself to staying there with them." " She's handsome, is she not, Esther ? " PARKWATER. "A handsome face, and a handsome figure; I don't say to the contrary : but she has an ugly look, if she's put out. I knoAv this: if fortune had blessed me Avith a daughter, I'd rather see her a female travelling tinker, than I'd bring her up to be a fine lady, not being one myself."

Before the folloAving day Avas over, Mrs. May aAvoke to the same fact that Miss Esther Jenkins had only suspected — Sophia Avould never remain at home with them. Was it likely that she Avould ? She, with her good looks, and her semi-education ; her superficial accomplishments, and her mind formed on Caterpillar's romances ! — could her father and mother expect her to make her home in a kitchen, amidst kettles and saucepans ? "Your Aunt Foxaby says she can get you a beautiful place as head lady's-maid, Sophiar," remarked Mrs. May. " Your French tongue " " My Aunt Foxaby says — what ? " interrupted Sophia, turning to face her mother. " Get me a place as lady's-maid ! Why, do you suppose, or does she suppose, that I Avould become a servant ? " " But you'd live quite the life of a lady, Sophiar," replied poor Mrs. May.

"Them ladies'-maids in a good place mostly does." " For goodness' sake don't talk nonsense ! " " Well, my dear, I don't see Avhat else you be to do, if you can't reconcile yourself to staying along of us here." Sunday came. And after dinner Mr. May started to Hyde Park, to fetch his wife's sister, impatient that she should feast her eyes Avith the improvement in Sophia. Mrs. May began to Avash up the dishes, and Sophia ascended to the " Sunday AvindoAvs," and sat down there. She held in her hand the weekly neAvs paper, but she glanced at it discontentedly. The fruits of her education Avere already beginning to shoAv themselves. She had been discontented eArer since she came home. A slight dispute Avith her mother, arising out of her own ill-temper, had occurred the previous day, in Avhich she had said that the home Avas no fit home for her, and that the vulgar atmosphere of a kitchen would kill her.

Her residence in France had not tended to improve the tone of her mind and heart, however it may have helped her French. She had been to one of the cheap seminaries there : tAventy pounds a year, paid quarterly in advance, included everything, from the first day of January to the thirty-first of December. Shrewd Miss Esther Jenkins might have spoken out her opinion of them, had she gone to pass a week in one, as to their eligibility for a girl who was to be "a lady." Sophia May sat at the first-floor AvindoAv, feeling PARKWATER. 22 very miserable, longing for excitement, vowing that she would not long put up with this, and sullenly glancing over the "bete" newspaper. After the beauties of Eugene Sue's novels, which the school had procured en cachette, English literature was tame, even that of a sensational weekly paper.