Youth on the Prow. A novel

Chapter I

' ' 0 happy those whose lucid brains Ne'er suffer arithmetic pains, But with a tranquil resolution Find the hard problem's quick solution." After a short delay, Albert appeared with a perturbed countenance, and asked Helena if she knew where Miss Sable could be found. " She is gone out to walk," said Helena. " She will not be back for some time. Is Lord Santly ill ? " she continued, seeing the foot man's distressed face. "No, miss, only dreadful put out. He has got a bill, or twenty bills in one, seemingly, and his house-steward is gone to the market to sell the corn, and ray lord is in such a fury that he cannot add the bill up to rights, VOL. III. I! so he sent for the governess to go over the accounts." " I can do accounts, pretty well," said Helena. " Perhaps, miss, you had better come, for I dare not go back without somebody."

Helena preceded Albert to the library, and walking up fearlessly to Lord Santly, who had the folio bill in his hand, over which his promi nent blue eyes flashed sparks of fire, she said, " I can do accounts, sir, if you will permit me to try." He held the paper out without reply. " You wish all the columns to be added up, and the sums charged against each article ? " " Yes ; do it," said the peer. Helena looked at the labour, and saw that it would take an hour to complete. "Shall I take it away, my lord, or do it here?" "Do it here," growled the old man. "Sit down at the table." The bill was from a general shop, and had been incurred by the servants during Lord Santly's absence from home, without his know ledge or that of his housekeeper. Helena found that the value of each article had to be calculated, such as two pounds six ounces of bacon at Is. 2\d. per pound, three yards and a quarter of house-flannel at Is. per yard, and thus on over a space of two years and some months.

She took a half-sheet from the waste-basket to make her small sums, and then marked the errors, which were numerous, by the side of the page. The old peer gazed at her delicate face, slightly flushed by her calculations, aud thought she showed high breeding in her form, and that it was a pleasant thing rather than not to have a beautiful child to do his accounts, if indeed she could manage anything so intricate as this horrible and unexpected bill. As he thought of this, with his elbows resting on the arms of his chair, and the tips of his white fingers meeting each other, as if he wished to fit the extremities exactly, he dropped them unknowingly, and his head sank back gently, and he slept. Twilight drew on, and Helena's eyes seemed B destined to suffer, both by her patron's requi sitions and those of her governess.

At length her task was accomplished, and she sat still as a mouse in the presence of a majestic tom-cat. She dare not move, lest he should resent being awakened. She was thankful that Turk had followed her closely as she entered the library, and was crouched up under the folds of her frock. " Dear Turk ! I cannot be quite unhappy whilst I have you," she whispered, and he responded by a loving touch of his cold nose. At length Lord Santly started up, and rang the bell sharply. " Candles ! " he cried, " and a lamp ! " When they were brought, he saw Helena, and remembered all his previous vexation. " Well ! have you done it ? Have you done it? " he repeated, eagerly. " Yes, sir ; I believe I have done it correctly, but it seems to be full of errors, and I should prefer that Mr. Elms, the steward, should go over it."

" Where do you find it wrong? " cried the peer in a harsh voice. Helena brought the folio over, and, kneeling down, opened it before Lord Santly, and pointed her finger at a mistake in the pounds in the first page. " I knew it — I knew it — that is what I made it. I knew the scoundrel was wrong ! " " There are several other mistakes," said Helena, "and the sum total which Mr. Dyer states to be one hundred and thirty-seven pounds, I make one hundred and twenty-three pounds seven shillings and sixpence halfpenny." " It is cheating — rank robbery ! " cried the peer. " It may be carelessness," said Helena, timidly, " for sometimes he cheats himself; but the sum total certainly looks awkward." " I will not pay him a penny of his bill ! " said Lord Santly, who knew that the law was against him, and that he was liable for all the articles if correctly rendered.

He was a man particular in his expenditure, and very determined not to have any bills. During his absence the servants were put on board wages, but they ran up bills at a general shop at Oldchester in his lordship's name. Mr. Dyer allowed the account to run on for some years, knowing that when once presented the purchasing would be put a stop to. " What a nuisance it is to be so cheated ! " said his lordship aloud, Helena being sole auditor. " If you please, sir," suggested the girl, " Mrs. Delacy had a little printed book of orders for the different tradesmen ; when she required anything, she wrote the quantity down and signed it, and the tradesmen dared not charge any not signed. I know, because I have been sent for goods when Mrs. Delacy was out, and they have refused me." Lord Santly looked up.

" Very good, my practical young lady ; they seem to have taught you accounts at Mrs. Delacy's ? " "Yes, sir; it was a little deformed writing master who taught the young ladies, and very few learnt anything of him, so he liked to teach me." "Tell Mr. Dyer to come up," said Lord Santly, ringing his bell for Albert. Helena was gliding out of the room. " Stay," said the peer, in a harsh voice. The owner of the general shop appeared — a lean, evil-faced man with a squint, and a shambling gait. " What the devil do you mean, you scoundrel, by letting my servants run up bills at your d — d shop for three years without sending it in ? " " If you please, my lord, I only send the bills at Christmas, and your lordship has not been here at that season. I did send the account in, but perhaps it was mislaid.

Maybe the woman in the house could not tell where your lordship was. I sent bill delivered, but your lordship would have the articles put down." " I should think so indeed ! and a fine mess you've made of it ! Do you know there are several errors in the bills ? " " No, sir — no, my lord ; they are all right — that is, I'm sure Mr. Elms, the steward, will find them so." Mr. Dyer knew that the old peer was too indolent to go over the account, and the steward was a very good friend of his, and would detect no error even should they be, like Falstaff's reasons, plentiful as blackberries. " It is a matter of indifference to me whether Mr. Elms finds the account right or wrong," said the peer, with a new-born determination — " I have found them wrong. In this page there is two pounds nineteen shillings overcharged.

The real account due for your most rascally bill is one hundred and twenty-three pounds, seven shillings and sixpence halfpenny. I will write a cheque for the money, and never dare to show yourself on my estate again. I shall dis charge any servant who goes to your shop." The man saw the round, carefully-written, childish hand of Helena, and darted a malign glance at her as he left the room. He would revenge himself some day, he trusted, on that young miss who had detected his dishonesty. " You are a good girl, usefully taught," said the peer — all my doing, he thought. " You will do well — I shall employ you again." Helena curtseyed and returned to the school room. She expected a reproof from Miss Sable for not having made more progress with the torn flounce, but the weather was not likely to be propitious for thin dresse.s, and her object in giving it to Helena was to prevent her watching her possible interview with the young Doctor.

Moreover, Albert had informed her that his master had been dreadfully angry, and had ordered Miss Sable to go to him. She under stood that Lord Santly had been very angry at her absence. " I told the young lady she had better go and try to pacify my lord," said Albert. " I fancy master fell asleep, and she, poor young lady ! dared not stir till he rang the bell for lights." As Albert left the room, Helena entered " For what did my lord want you ? " said mademoiselle. " To add up a long bill." " Rather you than I. I was not hired as an accountant," said the lady, grandly. She was not in a happy mood ; for though she had wandered in the woodland till quite dark, the young Doctor had not appeared, having been sixteen miles in an opposite direction. On the following afternoon Helena was summoned again by Albert to attend on Lord Santly, and again he set her down to long sums of accounts, for he had begun to suspect Mr. Elms, his steward, of appropriation.

He marked the leaves she was to add up, and desired her to place the sums total on another sheet, which, when finished, he directed her to put into a certain drawer. " When you have done that, you need not wait to show it to me. I shall not examine the accounts again till to-morrow morning." So Helena worked, and Lord Santly slept, lying back in his chair, till the moon rose and threw her pallid light on his high, white fore head, fringed round with silvery hair. Helena lighted a candle and shaded its rays from his lids, till her appointed task was accomplished, when she deposited the sheets of annotation in the drawer he had specified and departed. She took a little run with Turk and then joined mademoiselle at the tea-table. Miss Sable had the sleekly sinister air of a pussy cat, that hears the nibbling of a mouse in her dreams ; she smiled to herself for she was in good spirits, which meant good temper.

She had seen Doctor Abner ; not in the woodland but driving alone; the high road. She seemed to be walking in the direction in which he was driving, and pulling up his horse he sprung out, and politely begged permission to convey her in to any place where she might wish to go. Miss Sable had not come out unarmed for conquest. Her large, languid, deep-lidded eyes were shadowed by a small hat, which came coquettishly over the brow. Her dress was tight-fitting, and a delicate scarf gave lightness and movement to her attire. She thanked him with an air of timid reserve, and said she should be obliged if he would carry her to a cottage just before reaching the town. " A visit of charity," said the doctor, with admiration in his eyes. The lady caught the glance and looked down in silence. "I hope to goodness," said she to herself, " that he has no patient there, and that he will ask me no questions."

" ' Do good by stealth and blush to find it fame,' " said Doctor Abner, glad to have an appro priate quotation to fling at the lady, whereby he might impress her with a sense of his culture. Poor dear man ! he did not know how trite it was, or he would not have been so proud of it. Miss Sable thought it her duty to blush, so she went through the form of turning away her head. She had a small basket on her arm, and Doctor Abner, whose eyes were ever alert, saw a bit of green leaf partly shut in by the cover. " Dittany," said he to himself. " Are you fond of botanising ? " he asked. " Yes," said the lady, " I have taught it a little sometimes. Ladies like their daughters to learn. They think it such an innocent occupation." The Doctor was silent. He thought of teach ing the young idea how to shoot, but feared he might be thought to imply some pun.

He did not quite agree with the " ladies " referred to, so he took refuge in silence. After a short pause, he continued : " I found a fine specimen of the bee orchis in the woodland once last spring, near the spot where I first had the pleasure of meeting you." " Ah ! a bee orchis ! I have never been happy enough to find a plant of it," ignoring the pretty little reference to their first meeting. " If you remain in this neighbourhood, I shall be most happy to introduce you to the spot where they grow next spring." Miss Sable sighed. " I hope I may remain. You know I am the instructress of Miss Vernon, who is Lord Santly's ward. I do not know what his lordship's intentions may be with regard to my pupil — but here is the cottage." The Doctor pulled up, and getting down handed the lady out. But as he looked, the German grammar, which he had taken to conju gate a verb on his journey, fell at the feet of Miss Sable.

She recognised the book at once, and said, " Gotto ! you are studying German. Ah ! I see the page is turned down at Lieben." Doctor Abner became very red. " You see," he said, apologetically, " it is so important to me to be able to read scientific works on medicine and surgery in German. They beat us so thoroughly, I am glad to take any chance I can of a spare half-hour to get some of the language into my stupid head. You are a German scholar, no doubt ? " " Oh ! " said the lady, " I am an Alsatian, and learnt both German and French as a child, so I am able to speak each like a native." She was arranging the folds of her dress after her change of position as she spoke, and had no idea that by that simple admission she had given the finishing touch to her attractions in the opinion of her auditor.

A man who has looked longingly at a pretty girl, thinking she has not a penny, and that he dare not commit himself by proposing to her, and finds accidentally that she has fifty thousand pounds and is probably beyond his reach, might have some idea of Doctor Abner's feelings at the quiet statement made by Miss Sable. The possible possession of fifty thousand pounds would have offered less attraction to the young man than the acquirement of the German language. There are some men who are so superfluously active that they prefer climbing a hill to being carried up in a carriage. Miss Sable remained for an instant at the gate of the little cottage-garden, lest Doctor Abner should turn to look at her after his parting bow, and see that she did not enter. When he had turned the corner, she retraced her steps towards the mansion, not at all dis pleased by her little drive with the Doctor.

Inside the cottage an old woman was crooning over a few sticks she had gathered up in Lord Santly's park, and with a Bible on her knees sat a fair-haired girl, who was waiting to read a chapter to her. The old woman preferred speaking to listening, which is not unnatural to the old, who feel their time is short. She was grumbling over her cough at night And her rheu matics in the day, and Emily sat like " dejected pity " at her side, when the sound of wheels was heard, and the girl's face flushed, and her heart beat quicker, for her watchful ear had learnt the sound of Doctor Abner's gig. It fluttered still more when there was a sudden pull up outside the door. She looked to the window, but the BROW monthly roses and withered briony had obscured the lattice-panes, and she could only distinguish some dark body.

Then the Doctor ceased to obscure the light. He had sprung out. She heard his cheerful voice, and the soft tones of a Avoman's accents in answer. Then the gig went on, and presently after a pause she saw over the roses a beautiful face, surmounted by a coquettish hat, and her heart sank within her. The impulse of jealous curiosity was too strong, and she opened the cottage-door and looked after the retreating figure. Mademoiselle turned at that moment, and the eyes of the two girls met. Those of the fair creature expressed indignation. The dark eyes looked defiance. " The wind cuts my legs right off," murmured the old crone. " It's a fine thing for these reckless girls to think they are doing their duty, a-coming to read, forsooth to a poor body, and then to set the door open and let in the cold draught right upon one.

Ladies are the same as poor girls, always a-gandering after men ; that's their pleasure, not reading to old bodies." Emily heard half, and was conscience stricken. She came back. " I will read to you with pleasure, Goody, if you like it." " It do put me off to sleep a bit sometimes, so you may do a chapter, if 'tis a short un." Emily read aloud Saint Paul's fine description of charity. " Charity thinketh no evil ; charity suffereth long and is kind." She was trying to apply what she read to herself, when the old woman broke in, very practical in her ideas. " That's all very fine, but what I call charity is to give a poor body a shilling, or maybe half a-crown, and a good thick blanket at Christmas time. I don't suppose I shall be alive then," she added regretfully ; " and Mrs. Prior, she who married the cousin to the housekeeper at Lord Santly's, she got a pair of blankets, and a petticoat too."

" She has seven children, Goody ! " replied Emily. " Well ! I've had fourteen ! " " But you have not got them now, so you can't want so manv blankets." VOL. III. "I've got a body to warm as well as other people ; and my flannel petticoat is like a colander." " You shall have one, Goody, if I can manage it," said the girl, gently ; " and now I must leave you." " Thank you, miss ; don't leave the door on the jar." Emily returned home. There are some na tures who cover up a grief and a mortification as if it were a shame. Mrs. Elming observed that Emily was depressed during the evening, and tried to get at its cause. This process generally has the same effect as touching an insect, which immediately rolls itself up tight for self-preservation. " Has the walk tired you, Emmy ? " " No, mamma, I thank you.

I am not tired." " How far did you go ? " " To Dame Goody's. She wants a flannel petticoat, and fears she shall die before Christ mas ; mamma. I must give her one of mine, if you cannot afford to let me make one." " She is an ungrateful old woman, my child," but I daresay she is often cold and hungry." " Cold and hunger," mused Emily. And she wondered if they equalled the punishment of an aching heart. "I saw Doctor Abner," said Mrs. Elming, cheerfully. " He only bowed, for a man was talking to him very earnestly, and when he went away the Doctor drove on very fast to the sur gery, and the man followed him for medicine I daresay. Did you see him ? " "At a distance," said Emily, truthfully, as far as her w7ords went ; but she felt as if she could not tell her suspicions. She connected those laughing voices with the Doctor's averted eyes, and felt more miserable than she had ever felt before, even when her father died ; for it is from their contemporaries that the young receive their acme of pleasure or pain.

Mrs. Elming had ordered a cake to be made, and the baker's boy brought it home just in -time for tea. Doctor Abner liked a new plain cake, and the widow had an idea that he would drop in that afternoon. Detecting a listening look on c Emily's face, she seemed as if she must go out and find him, and " compel him to come in." She put off the sacred time of tea full half an hour, though the kettle was dancing its lid im patiently, and sending large puffs of steam from lid and spout. Then with a sigh she made the tea, and desired Emily to cut the cake. There was no reason why they should keep it for the un grateful man who cared not seemingly for their company. In the meantime Doctor Abner's thoughts were running on Miss Sable. When he snatched a quiet hour, that rare blessing to him, and immersed himself in his studies of German, every Gordian knot of lingual difficulty which his weary brain sought to disentangle, brought before him the idea of Miss Sable, who w7ould cut it by two words of explanation, with that keen-edged sword, her tongue.

The Doctor had once been called in to attend a self-taught artist in an attack of brain fever. He had tried various systems of perspective, and jumbled them hopelessly in his mind till perception failed, and he raved of ground plans and vanishing points, points of sight and horizontal lines. The Doctor cured him, and to prevent a relapse brought with him one morning a master in perspective, who taught the patient in six lessons all that he had wasted his time and strength in attempting to acquire by him self in vain. * Doctor Abner thought of this with a feeling of rage that he could not at once seize the German governess and seat her there on the opposite side of the table till he had extracted as much information from her as his brain would receive in a limited time. As this was impossible, he turned over many wild schemes as to improving his acquaintance with mademoiselle.

"French, too!" he mur mured ; but French was less important to him than German. He could not picture any inter view which was not surrounded by four walls, and of which the accessories were not a table, two chairs, a grammar, dictionary, and voca bulary. He looked round his own room : could she be tempted to come there in some of her walks and give him a lesson ? She would have been perfectly safe, of course, but what tittle-tattle for the inhabitants of Oldchester would be made out of the transaction. The poor girl would lose her character, and I my practice. A medical man should never be suspected. His seeming purity must be intact. Then with a scornful laugh at his own folly, he tossed away the suggestion till some fresh difficulty sent him on to a fresh field of speculation. What if the widow would like Emily to have a few lessons in French and German, and would permit her to come and study there with Miss Sable ?

The strict propriety of that worthy woman would silence every ill-natured observation. Emily had learnt French at school, he had been told, but he had never seen her reading a French book, nor heard her utter a French sentence. With the usual blunder-headedness of his sex, he thought the idea an excellent one, and saw no chance of its being negatived by the ladies. The only possible objection was in his anticipation on the part of Lord Santly, who might not admire that the lady whose services he had re tained for his ward should be, as it were, under let. On that point he must satisfy himself. It would not do to communicate with the widow till Lord Santly's permission were accorded. It is true that the governess might not un naturally desire to have some voice in the matter, but instinct rather than reflection gave the Doctor the idea that there wrould be but small demur on her part.

Chapter II

' ' What voice is this, thou evening gale, That mingles with thy rising wail ? And as it passes sadly seems The faint return of youthful dreams." In the meantime the autumn evenings closed in, and the young governess and her charge curtailed the hours of lessons to take a walk before their dinner-hour rather than trespass on the hours of shadow. " It is quite right that you should not go out in the twilight, Miss Vernon. I see that you are delicate. For me, I am strong, and no inclemency of the weather affects me." Helena usually spent the afternoon in doing Lord Santly's accounts, so she lost no amuse ment or relaxation by the new arrangement. One day as she walked by the side of her governess on the boundary of a dense planta tion she fancied she heard a voice once familiar and always beloved, calling her name.

She stopped and listened. " What is it ? " asked mademoiselle. " Why do you stop X " " Do you hear nothing X " asked the girl " Yes, I hear the sound of the brook over the pebbles." " It must have been fancy," said Helena, but her cheeks remained blanched with emotion. " Come along," said Miss Sable ; " you are always fanciful." As she spoke Helena fancied she heard the same sounds, but the nearer tones of mademoi selle's voice prevented her being assured that it was not fancy, and they walked on. There were ears, however, with intelligence that sur passed that of bipeds. Turk had been behind them when Helena first had her attention attracted by the familiar tones of a beloved voice, and when, having forgotten him for a few minutes, she turned to call him, he was not seemingly within the sound of his name, for he made no response.

Helena soon became nervous at his absence ; her heart began to beat fast and thickly. " I am afraid — afraid," she gasped, " that he may be caught in a trap ! " "You would hear him well enough then," replied the elder lady. " Not if he were caught in a snare," said Helena, so white and blue in the colouring of her skin that Miss Sable thought she might faint • and if she does, said the governess to herself, one might have a good reason for sending for Doctor Abner. "Ma'mselle," said Helena in desperation, " I must hunt through this covert ! Please do not trouble yourself about me. If I tear my clothes I can mend them." " I would not take the loss of a filthy animal so much to heart," said Miss Sable. " I shall not remain here ; you may follow me when you are tired of looking. Probably the dog will be home before you."

Helena did not wait for any further per mission ; she put aside some of the branches and pursued her way, clinging to the sides of the birches which made an arch over the little stream, where her progress seemed clearest of obstacles. At length, with hands wounded by clinging to the rough bark, and feet occasionally soaked by slipping into the stream, she arrived at the open warren, calling dismally on Turk. The country was studded with bunches of fern, and the colour where it was withered seemed not unlike the colour of Turk's coat in its lightest portion. " Surely he will answer to my call, poor dear dog ! He must be half-suffocated in a snare, and cannot utter a sound ! " and Helena wept agitated tears of terror and suspense. She ran hither and thither, listening at intervals, till at length she saw something quivering at the entrance of a rabbit-burrow.

She walked up to it, and saw it was the waving plume of Turk's tail. His body had disappeared, but the narrowness of the aperture had prevented his further progress, and he was too busy in excavating to listen to the voice of his mistress. With many reproaches Helena seized his tail and dragged him back. He looked up at her with appealing eyes, wanting to return to his chase, but she refused sternly,. and carried him in her arms to a long distance in the direction of the house, with depressed ears and tail. He walked sullenly when, tired of carrying him and feeling that she was late, she hurried on. Before she entered the door she stooped to brush off the earth which had lodged on the back of his neck and shoulders. " Be quiet, Turk ! Be still, good dog ! What a provoking little brute you are !