At her mercy, by the author of 'Lost sir Massingberd'.

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CHAPTER I. "without so much as a god-be-with-you."

BS|B1R. HULET received Evy's ac- Llgnfid count of her interview with Mrs. ••irmPri Storks with mingled feelings; he was distressed that she had given up what promised to be a happy home, but he could not conceal from her his joy that she had refused it.

" Not but that it would have been better on the whole, Evy, that you should have

VOL. III. I

AT HER MERCY.

left me," sighed he, " for then my troubles would have been the sooner over."

"The sooner over! How so, under she had asked with unfeigned surprise.

" Because, without you, my darling, I should die," was his calm reply ; and to see his face and hear his tone, was to believe his words. It was in truth aljnost impossible to recognize the fretful, but by no means infirm invalid of ten days ago, in the broken, woe-worn old man, who looked, whenever his heavy eyes fell anywhere save on his niece, as though death was indeed beckoning to him. When he heard that there was a letter for him from Mrs. Hodlin Barmby, he only said, " Indeed f then fell back into the fit of melancholy musing from which his niece's coming had but half aroused him.

" Shall I read it to you, uncle ?" asked Evy.

" No, no, I do not need that/' was his strange rejoinder ; " every word is burnt in on my brain."

" But, my dear uncle, you have not seen it," exclaimed Evy, her apprehensions once more excited for the old man's wits. " It is here in my hand unopened."

His eyes slowly wandered towards it, then to her, when the consciousness of her meaning seemed to flash upon him for the first time. " Yes, yes ; from Mrs. Hodlin Barmby," he murmured. "Let us hear what the good lady has to say."

Evy drew her chair closer to his, and laid her hand upon his knee to insure his attention as much as to express her love, then read as follows : —

" ' Lucullus Mansion, Balcombe.

" * My dear Mr. Hulet,— My husband and myself have heard with great regret that a severe pecuniary misfortune has happened to you in addition to that do-

AT HER MERCY.

mestic one which has been such a source of sorrow to us alL He and I both know what it is to lose one's money, and may therefore claim to have some sympathy with you upon the matter, without offence ; moreover we hope that you consider us as your sincere friends* This is all very stiff and formal, a circumstance which probably arises from my literary experience being so much confined to informing our would-be visitors that there is no rQom for them at the Mansion, but you must take it for granted that we feel all the kindness I may fail to express. I am a woman of business > and it is my way to come to the point We want you and your dear niece to come and stay with us — to live with us — not as guests (for we know that that would be distressing to you), but quite in another sort of way. The fact is, my dear sir, that though I wouldn't let my husband know it (who thinks I am

" WITHO UT A GOD-BE- WITH- YO U. n 5

Cocker himself) for fifty pounds, I have never made my accounts exactly right, for a week together, ever since I have had the management of this establishment :

u 1 u Multiplication is vexation, Addition is as bad, Each' little bill does trouble me, And practice drives me mad.' n

That last line is the truest part of the proverb, which, after all, I believe I have not quoted quite correctly. It is the practice — the continually having to work at those odious figures, which is intolerable to me ; instead of making me perfect it makes me wretched. Now, dear Miss Evy, as I have happened to observe, is a first-rate arithmetician. I have asked her sometimes to check an account for me, and the way in which her eye has run up and down the columns, without even putting what you carry down on the right-hand so as not to forget it, always filled me with

AT HER MERCY.

admiration. Then she always found out where the mistake was, which I never can do, for the oftener I go over the thing the more errors I make ; just as when mending a hole in very delicate lace, I have known folks to make half a dozen new ones. Now my proposition is that dear Miss Evy should come to Lucullus Mansion — there's a nice sitting-room on the ground floor next the garden, with a couple of bedrooms opening into it, which would just suit you two — and keep our accounts. It would not only be an immense satisfaction to me, and saving of wear and tear in the way of remorse, to see the item, " Lucifers and Sundries," in our expenditure sensibly diminished, but it would be a very considerable pecuniary saving. You would live, of course, as you have been wont to do here — pray excuse me for mentioning these details, but use is second nature, and be-

" WITHOUT A GOD-BE-WITH-YOUP sides, it is so much better, I always think, that people should have a thorough mutual understanding upon business matters, none of that " I leave it to you, ma'am/' as the cabman says to us ladies, and which always ends in our being cheated ; and I would also pay Miss Evy a salary, not according to her personal merits, indeed, for it would take Mrs. Bullion to give that, but in proportion to the advantage I derive from her assistance. I write all this, my dear Mr. Hulet, upon the assumption that your pecuniary losses have been such as to render this suggestion worth your attention, and in case your dear niece may not have thought fit to accept an offer of another kind, which Mrs. Storks will make in the first instance. I dare not say she would be so happy with me as with the excellent widow ; but we will do our very best to make her thoroughly at home with us, and at home I don't think she would ever feel herself to be, except with her uncle. Above all, do not fear that she will find it incompatible to keep accounts, and also her position as a lady; for, though I have not succeeded in the former, the degradation, if any, of course, lies in the attempt to do so, and I have myself tried it these many years, without, as I hope and believe, losing that respect and consideration to which I was accustomed before I became a landlady. There is a piece of "proper pride" for you, which will make dear Miss Evy smile ; I hope it will, I am sure. To win her for a moment from her sorrows would be a pleasure to me : to be able to lighten them for the future is what, next to my husband's happiness, I may honestly say, I have most at heart. And now for a piece of private information. Captain Heyton —

9 a

" WITHOUT A GOD-BE- WITH- YO W 9

" I think Mrs. Barmby means this for your private ear, not mine," said Evy, quietly, and handing the letter over to her uncle. Taking her hand in his, and retaining it with a tender clasp, Mr. Hulet read on to himself :

"Captain Heyton has suddenly left us and will certainly not return again, there is therefore no fear of your darling Evy being distressed by meeting with him, in case you may wish to exchange your quarters at the cottage during the sale (as you will probably do) for our roof at once. I had some talk with him, though not upon that subject, upon which I cannot think without tears of regret; and he told me, to my surprise, that it is not his intention to return to Dunwich. It seems he has made up his mind for the future to reside in town. His manner was forced, and distrait to a degree which, notwithstanding io AT HER MERCY.

my knowledge of what had happened, was most surprising and inexplicable. I take it for granted, of course, that Miss Judith is no longer to be a resident with you ; and have consequently not contemplated her in the above arrangements.

"With our united kindest regards to yourself, and my best love to dear Evy, " I am your sincere friend,

"Catherine Hodlin Barmby."

" There was no great secret to be told after all, Evy," observed Mr. Hulet, slowly,, as he folded up the epistle. " Well, what do you think of our good friend Mrs. Barmby's offer ?"

" It is a most kind and thoughtful one, dear uncle, and I am sure merits our best thanks," answered Evy, simply ; the idea of Mr. Hulet living at Balcombe, the very place of all others where he would be most exposed to the breath of scandal, seemed so utterly impossible to herself, that she did not understand that he was seriously putting the question to her as to whether they should accept the offer or not.

"Yes, we ought to be thankful," continued Mr. Hulet, wistfully ; " for though I would much have preferred to be the bread-winner for you, my darling, than that you should work for me "

"Oh, that is not what I was thinking of, uncle, dear," interrupted Evy ; " indeed, the idea of doing something, however slight, for you, is the strongest recommendation in my eyes that the proposal possesses ; M rs. Barmby would, I am sure, be a most lenient taskmistress, and I have no doubt that I could please her, but "

She stopped and looked at her companion, who had once more apparently sank into despondent musing, with pitiful eyes. How could she tell him what was her real objection ?

" Captain Heyton has left Balcombe for London, where he has resolved to live in future," observed Mr. Hulet, slowly, and checking off each sentence on his fingers. " We shall be poorer, Evy, dear, even than you imagine, and this offer of a home and an income, however small, is as opportune as it is unlooked for. It is the only plan that seems to admit of our living together, and I confess, that in my selfish eyes, that consideration is paramount. Then, as to the account-keeping, that is just the sort of

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thing for which I am still fit for, and you need never write a figure with your own pretty fingers unless you please."

" But, uncle," reasoned Evy, driven to her wit's end for an objection, and wondering beyond measure that the one in her own mind did not also strike her companion, " there is Judith ; she is not a favourite with Mrs. Barmby, and "

" I know, I know ; but there will be no difficulty about that, Judith leaves us at once, for London."

" For London ? But to whom is she going ?"

" To Mrs. Bullion's. She had a general invitation from her, it seems, and she wrote yesterday to accept it. She will have her reply to-morrow, and if it is in the affirmative she will start forthwith. Then we shall be alone, my darling."

Pained as Evy was at Mr. Hulet's evident determination to accept Mrs. Barmby's offer, the unexpected news of Judith's departure almost counterbalanced her distress. After all, it seemed they had nowhere else to go ; nor the means of living anywhere else. If her uncle confined himself to their own apartments — very retired ones, she i 4 AT HER MERCY.

remembered, though with a most cheerful outlook — and did not mix with the general company at the table d'h6te, he might possibly avoid hearing the ill-natured talk of which, for his sake, she stood in such fear. And as for herself, she would try not to mind what was said by anybody — but to attend to her duties, whatever they might be, and help kind Mrs. Barmby all she could. Seeing therefore that her uncle had once more sunk into meditation, she made no further remonstrance about the matter.

At breakfast, the next morning (of which meal the two girls now partook alone) when the letters came, and one of them for Judith, Evy could hardly keep her eyes off her as she read it, seeking to gather the nature of its contents from her countenance ; that it was from Mrs. Bullion, she felt sure ; the question was, had that lady expressed willingness to receive her self-invited guest. Evy was not long kept in suspense.

" I am going to town, to Mrs. Bullion's/' observed Judith, quietly, as she poured out her second cup of tea. " I suppose Mr. Hulet told you that it might be so."

" Yes/' answered Evy, " he did hint at something of that sort" She scarcely knew what else to say. She could not affect sorrow at her companion's departure upon her own account, and still less on that of her uncle, who had absented himself from the common meals, as she could not but conclude, from sheer disinclination to meet her companion.

What an unhappy state of things it is when the time for separation comes, and it is impossible to say, "How I shall miss you," to one of our own blood or household. Nay, when our secret thought is, " Well, I trust we two here part for good and all."

"Yes," repeated Evy, since Judith remained silent ; " uncle said you might be going. Do you make any long stay with Mrs. Bullion ?"

" That is doubtful — it depends on circumstances. But one thing is certain, I shall not return hither : nor to your uncle's roof again."

Judith's tone was harsh, so much so that it seemed designed to provoke a question ; but Evy took no notice. She was apprehensive that her companion wished to lead her into a discussion about her uncle, which she was resolved to avoid.

" And when are you thinking of leaving us, Judith ?"

" This morning ; at once," answered the other. " I ordered a fly from Balcombe to take me to the railway, expecting this

"WITHOUT A GOD-BE-WITH-YOW 17 note would come — and — hark ! I think I hear its wheels !"

There was certainly some wheeled carriage coming slowly down the lane that led from the high road.

"What, have you then packed and all,

Judith ?"

"Yes, I am quite ready. I have even made my adieux to your uncle ! There is nothing to be done save to wish you good-bye, Evy."

There was a little tremor in her voice ; something of tenderness or pity, very alien to it, and which softened Evy towards her. They had lived six months together, under the same roof ; and they were about to part, perhaps for ever.

" I wish you all happiness, Judith ; and especially where it has been denied to me, as you may have guessed or heard."

Judith bowed assent. Evy was glad she j 8 AT HER MERCY,

did not speak ; the breaking off of her engagement with her lover was a subject even more to be avoided with Judith than with her uncle ; and it was only because she felt assured that her companion knew of that matter that she had even alluded to it.

" I suppose we shall soon hear, Judith, of your own marriage, now that you are independent, and there is no necessity for further delay ?"

" I suppose so ; yes," answered Judith, mechanically. She seemed to be thinking of something else, though her facer-on which that pitying expression still lingered — was fixed upon her interlocutor.

" How long is i^ Judith, since you have

seen Mr. I mean your Augustus V

It struck Evy, not for the first time of course, but with greater force than it had ever done before, how singular it was that she had never been told his surname.

" Well, I don't know ; it must be many months." That was strange, too, thought Evy, for this girl not to know for certain when last she saw her lover. For her own part she remembered the very day and hour when she had parted from Captain Heyton in Dirleton Park — and as for that interview of yesterday, it seemed to her that though her days should be unhappily prolonged to the extreme limit of human existence, that its exact date would never be erased from her recollection.

" He will have a beautiful bride, whenever it may be, Judith/' observed Evy: She had a genuine admiration of her companion's good looks, and to speak of them was almost the only means she had of making herself pleasant to her with sincerity. Flattery was always welcome to her companion, yet she did not acknowledge this liitle compliment even by a smile. After an uncomfortable silence, " Well, I will go and put on my things," said Judith; and she rose and left the room to do so, while the servants brought her boxes down the stairs.

Evy remained in the drawing-room, listening at first to the tread of footsteps, but presently falling into a melancholy reverie, from which she awakened with the sense of having indulged in it for some minutes. This could scarcely have been, however, since Judith, who was generally very quick with her toilette, had not yet come downstairs. All was quiet now. There was the sound once more of a vehicle in the lane, only it seemed to grow fainter and fainter, leaving the cottage instead of approaching it. What could it mean ? She opened the door ; the stairs

"WITHOUT A G0D-BE-W1TH-Y0U* 21 and passage were empty; and on the gravel sweep in front, which was visible from where she stood, there was no vehicle, as she had expected to see.

" Jane, Jane/' cried she, " where is Miss

Judith r

" Gone, miss/' was that domestic's sententious reply.

" Gone ! But she never said ' Good-bye ' to me," exclaimed Evy, too astonished at this proceeding to consider the prudence of commenting upon it before one with whom, as she knew, Judith was no favourite.

" Perhaps she didn't wish to, miss," was Janes cynical rejoinder, " that is, if (as I've heard said) good-bye means ' God-be-with-you.' "

Evy did not reply, but the words of the serving-maid struck a responsive chord within her own bosom of the existence of which she had been hitherto unconscious. Perhaps Judith was indeed her enemy, albeit) she had done nothing to deserve her hate — and had. felt disinclined to make that show of affection which might have seemed incumbent upon her, at parting. Or, on the other hand, had Judith done her some wrong, the consciousness of which forbade her to receive her own good wishes ? And if so, what wrong ? Evy asked herself this question in vain. The materials for the true reply were happily not to be found in her own guileless nature.

Chapter II. The Draining Of The Cup

MT was well for Mr. Hulet in those M days of trouble that the details BfflfflffiPi of the approaching sale at the cottage perforce occupied his thoughts. Happy for those whom a supreme sorrow oppresses, when they have no leisure to brood upon it ; when want urges them to action ; when helpless mouths, which look to them to be filled, cry aloud to them for bread. For once, Lazarus has then the better of Dives ; for it is only the rich who can afford to indulge in what the cynic has well called the luxury of grief.

Even the removal to Lucullus Mansion that he had left as a guest, and was now re-entering as a dependent, and to which Evy hail looked forward with shuddering, as to a cup of bitterness, did not seem seriously to affect her uncle. He was even more cheerful on that occasion than he had been for days. His last act on leaving the cottage had been a singular one ; he had cleared his cupboard of all its potions and medicaments, and emptied them into the sea. Evy had ventured a remonstrance upon this proceeding, upon the ground that some of the medicines were very costly.

" That is true, my dear," said he. "But as I shall not be able to afford to lay in any new supplies, I may as well get out of

my extravagant habits in that way at once."

Actuated by the same motive, Mr. Hulet would have abandoned at his meals the use of wine, but for the manifest offence which his attempt to do so gave to the Barmbys, who loaded his private table with dainties both of food and drink. It was surprising to Evy that he gave way in this with such cheerful readiness, although she well perceived it was for her own sake that her uncle made it his study to conform in all things to the wishes of their patrons.

It seemed as though Mr. Hulet had made his plans for fitting himself for the changed circumstances of his life, and that Judith's departure had released the spring of action, and set it a-going. As for her own part, it would not have been a difficult one to fill, even if her employer had not made it easy for her with all the tender delicacy of a woman's friendship. Whatever of work she had to do was accomplished in her own room ; and it was there, whenever it was necessary to confer with Mrs. Barmby, that their conferences were held. If Evy's position at the Mansion was that which some of her own sex did not scruple to describe as that of " a barmaid," she was a very glorified sort of a barmaid indeed. The chief drawback ta it indeed was the opportunity it afforded persons to make ill-natured speeches which Evy did not hear, and which, if she had heard, so long as they referred to herself alone, she would have disregarded. Detraction would never have embarrassed her, as did the generous solicitude of her friends ;. but when after the sale of Mr. Hulet's effects she found their already well-furnished parlour crowded with knick-knacks that had once adorned their little drawing-room, all presents from good Mrs. Barmby, who had gone down to the cottage, notebook and pencil in hand, to " bid for bargains " professedly upon her own account ; and when, as a climax, her own pet piano was wheeled in, " with the kind regards of Mrs. General Storks," appended to the address, her heart was full indeed Not the least welcome of their gifts was one which arrived with this characteristic note from Mr. De Coucy : —

" My dear Miss Evy, — Lest I should run the risk of seeming to put you and your good uncle under an obligation, from which I know you both shrink as the sea anemone from the finger, let me inform you that the total cost of this superficially magnificent present was exactly six and twenty shillings and sixpence. No larger sum did your respected ancestor, the executioner of his most sacred Majesty, Charles I., fetch from an undiscriminating public, frame and all. Yours ever faithfully, " T. De Coucy."

This piece of salvage from the wreck of their household gods pleased Evy exceedingly upon her uncle's account, and indeed he received it in her presence with every show of satisfaction ; yet, happening to look in upon him unexpectedly a few minutes afterwards, she found him with his head buried in his hand, and sobbing like a child. He did not observe her, and she withdrew with precipitation, but that unhappy spectacle was a revelation to her. The philosophic contentment which he had exhibited was, it was now only too evident, assumed but for her sake. Her uncle was as wretched as herself ; and how should it not be so ? how could she have imagined it to be otherwise, since, like herself, he had lost his all ? That " all,"

it was true, had different significations; but if she had lost her lover, had he not exchanged wealth and ease for a position the most sad conceivable — dependence upon the exertions of one whom it should have been his task to shield from the least breath of adversity and trouble ? The reflection troubled her, yet strengthened her all the more in her resolve to fulfil her novel duties ; a salary had been attached to them, small indeed, yet out of which in time it might be possible to save sufficient to enable them to live elsewhere, alone together, and away from scenes rendered painful by association or the sense of contrast ; and in that meagre hope lay what remained to her of comfort.

To " save " enough " in time," after long, long years of toil and trouble — to enable us to cease from saving, cease from, toiling — is no bright vision ; yet it is the.

brightest vouchsafed to most of us. How others who have enough, and if, as the phrase goes, they were "to die to-mor-. row," could leave behind them competence for their little ones, should find caitee for complaint in this world seems passing strange.

Of old, when at Lucullus Mansion, it had appeared quite natural to Evy to have what she required for the asking, or even before it; to take no thought for the. morrow, to welcome her pleasures as they •came without surprise. But now she wondered at herself for having been so unconscious of prosperity and so unthankful for it Her duties, as we havfe said, were light, and by no means degrading or even distasteful. She hid true-hearted friends, in whose conduct towards her could be discerned no change, save an increased kindliness of manner — a more delicate solicitude to please and not to hurt; yet companionship with them had lost its ease for them, its charm for her. Her life seemed to be cut off from theirs ; and to have nothing in common with it She had hitherto had no conception of the immense chasm which lies between the Rich and the Poor. As a social fact — that is in connection with friendship, sympathy, and the like — she had of old even denied its existence. She had pictured to herself, if any of her own acquaintances should suffer from loss of fortune, how she would, in all relations with ^herself, at least, compel them to. forget it. But she now perceived that that would have been impossible. Shp examined the ^natter with some interest, for her own sorrow was for too deep upon another account to permit this change to affect her very poignantly, and noticed with a melancholy surprise that so it was. Her friends had not withdrawn from her, nor was she conscious of having shrunk from them; there was an affectionate esteem on both sides, even stronger than before, and, on one side, a most heartfelt gratitude. But friendship, in the social acceptation of the term, had vanished altogether. With persons not her friends, and yet who perhaps desired to be so, Evy now began to open a new relation ; for the first time in her life she learnt what it is to be patronized. Some of the female visitors at Lucullus Mansion having experienced considerable interest in the very lady-like and modest young person who seemed to assist Mrs. Barmby, but whose position in the establishment they could not exactly understand, they were good enough to express it. This was not very pleasant, but it was endurable, except where curiosity concerning

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" that sad affair of your poor aunt" mingled with their sympathies. The questions that some of these people — people with whom she had never exchanged half a dozen words even — put to Evy were wonderful in their impertinence, and such as " you would never believe had you read them in a book." One good lady broke into Evy's sitting-room one morning, when Mr. Hulet happened to have gone out for a solitary walk, with the avowed purpose of cross-examining the poor girl, and "hearing the whole story of that inquest from beginning to end;" and she even gave her reasons for so doing. " I go about a good deal, my dear, and wish, for your own sakes, to have the true version of the affair as it

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really took place ; people are so scandalous and so reckless in their assertions that I should like to feel myself in a position to give them a positive contradiction."

"A contradiction to what, may I ask, madam?" inquired Evy, with indignation in her eyes and voice.

" Nay, I can't state wkaf, my dear Miss Carthew, for it wouldn't be good manners ; but they do say all kinds of things about your uncle — a most respectable" old gentle* man he looks, I'm sure, and apparently quite incapable of driving any one to drown herself, far less of mur "