My mother's diamonds

Front matter

lYffliEDlAMO

MY MOTHER'S DIAMONDS.

Uniform in size and price ivit'i this volume.

Contents

CHAPTER

I. A MYSTERIOUS ANNOUNCEMENT

II. NEW TO THE WORK

Chapter I. A Mysterious Announcement

" Where summer light is strongest thrown

The shadows deepen here ; No perfect day is born on earth Without a farewell tear."

" SHE is a rock of sense."

" But a rock is a very hard thing, Rachel."

" And you are very hard to please, let me tell you, Richard."

"I hope not. Simplicity satisfies me. That is simple enough, surely ?"

If " those that live in glass houses should not throw stones," those that stand at open windows should not speak loud. I think the proverb ought certainly to be improved upon so far, since there is not even the transparent protection of the glass to avert risk in the latter case.

The sash of the bow-window in our pretty drawing-

I

MY MOTHER'S DIAMONDS.

room at Crystal Lodge had been thrown up, and I was returning from the garden with some freshlygathered flowers, when the foregoing remarks reached me. Though no name had been mentioned, I knew by an instinct whom they concerned, and with the blossoms half scattered from my hold, I sprang impulsively into the room.

" Oh, papa, you are not going to give us a governess ?" I exclaimed, running up to the gentleman.

" Give is not exactly the word, Ellie," he rejoined quietly. " It will cost me something, and if I make a sacrifice you should be ready to yield up your wishes in return."

I felt my cheeks flushing all over. I divined at once the quarter whence the interference came, and I cast a reproachful glance on Aunt Rachel. She was my father's maiden sister, his senior by six or seven years, and she endeavoured to rule him as well as everybody else.

It seemed to me hard enough that both father and mother should be leaving us for a time without the added trial of an unwelcome visitant. Their intended departure for New York for an absence of two or three months had only been announced to me the evenin^ before, and I felt nothing of freedom at the thought, only a sense of solitary sadness. I was the eldest of six children, but my responsibilities scarcely weighed upon me when my dear mother was amongst us to direct and determine all. My father, Mr. Wynham was a gentleman of small independent means,, and for some years he had abandoned his profession as a physician, and lived with us quietly in the pretty country place which was our present home. He taught the boys himself, and my mother was the only instructress of my sisters and myself. There was something mysterious about the projected visit which disturbed me now. It was sudden and secret, at least so it seemed to me, though possibly I was not taken as early into the confidence of my elders as I would have wished. Aunt Rachel, unluckily, was on the scene, and I knew that she counselled the discipline of tasks and tuition in our parents' absence. This might be all very well for the younger ones, but not if it involved a restraint over me. I had set a plan before my mind which this suggestion of hers wholly interfered with. I was ambitious of proving a certain talent for rule which I flattered myself I possessed. Doing little as yet, my abilities only extended themselves to criticism of others ; and thus my experience being limited, my confidence was unbounded. I was fond of management, and eager for authority, and that either would be misplaced in my hands never occurred to my buoyant views. With my seventeen years of wisdom and an untold amount of self-reliance, I was, in my own eyes, the proper person to be placed over the household.

"Father," I pursued now, "please leave the children with me while you are away. I am certain

MY MOTHERS DIAMONDS.

I can manage them. You know Fred is to go to a tutor in the mornings, and surely I can teach the others, and look after them too."

" You must speak to your mother about it, Ellie," was the reply. " She and your aunt Rachel agree that it would be better to have a governess."

The mention of my aunt's name completed my resolve. I .was off in a bound from the drawing-room, flew up the stairs, and had soon gained the apartment overhead where my mother was busily engaged in the process of packing. Her sweet face looked paler than usual, and there was a very troubled expression on it which the little worries attendant on present operations could scarcely have called up.

Again a feeling of doubt, melancholy, and mysticism overcame me, and I could only throw my arms round her neck.

"Mother, why are you leaving us ?" I cried. " Don't — don't go away !"

She returned my embrace with her warmest clasp, but then, with some resoluteness, she checked emotion, and asked me to help her with the folding of a silk dress.

" Ellie, dear, this journey is a necessity," she murmured. " Let us not discuss that, but what changes it involves. Your aunt has mentioned a very excellent lady to us, who would take the regulation of everything in our absence."

"Not of me, I hope," I interposed warmly. "I thought you would have trusted me more than that, mother. I shall be lonely in any case, but I shall be quite wretched if you give me nothing to do. Why cannot I continue lessons with the younger ones ? And as to other matters, I have watched you too long not to know how to jingle a bunch of keys and give a good dinner."

" But perhaps not a homely one, which is what you will want," said my mother, checking the expression. " This unexpected expedition will put your father and me to a good deal of expense. Carefulness must be borne in mind for some time to come."

The word " unexpected " was what caught my ear here rather than the implied economy, and my curiosity was alive anew. But it was in vain to probe my mother on this point. She arrested all inquisitiveness with a calm reticence which was impenetrable. I had to fall back upon the former argument, and assert my capabilities of foresight and frugality with an eloquence which finally won my cause — that is, in a measure. The governess institution was abandoned, but Aunt Rachel was brought in as a terrible substitute. She was to keep guard over us all, but I was to house-keep ; she was supposed to inspire awe, I to instil instruction. In fact, she was to be the head, I was to be the hands. The arrangement did not quite suit my views, but it was better in some ways than the first proposal. I was allowed a slight scope for the display of my talents, and I determined to merit

MY MOTHER'S DIAMONDS.

approval and applause. It never occurred to me that I might miss both. A failure is only pictured to the eyes of humility.

The day of departure came. There was beautiful June sunshine without; the air was full of warmth and fragrance, and the carol of happy birds. But a shadow fell on everything for a while as tears veiled the prospect of summer joyousness, and only the sound of farewell echoed in our ears. We children had all gathered together in the portico when the travelling-carriage drew up, and the excitement which the event of a departure always calls up in the youthful mind was held in check now by a species of expectant awe. My father's adieu was hearty, though hurried.

" God bless you, my darlings," he said ; " and keep you safe and well till we meet again."

My mother was the last to come out on the steps. Had she not been absorbed very evidently in some thought connected with this strange voyage and distant journeyings she could scarcely have been so composed. As it was, she gazed at the waiting group with almost dreamy intentness, caught each in turn tightly to her heart, and then with a quick, even resolute step, followed my father to the carnage. Lucy, the youngest, was the only one who moved her at all. Fred lifted up the child for a last kiss, and as the curly-headed pet, with big tears on her pink cheeks, wound her dimpled arms around mamma's neck and sobbed to be taken with her, my mother leant from the window, and her eyes sought me.

" Ellen, Ellen !'' she called out with quivering voice, " take care of my little Lucy !"

It was her parting word, and it struck on me somehow with a half pang. I may as well confess at once that I had jealousy to face as one of my foremost foes, and it proved often a very combative one. The cold elongation of my name now, coupled with the more loving mention of the little one, roused the feeling at once, and for a moment the blank of loneliness, the pain of separation, were scarcely so present as this torturing throb. But they returned all the more keenly afterwards, and with an added sadness. I understood and allowed that my mother was only carrying out my own wish in making me in a degree independent of her care, and remembering another who stood in need of it. If her fondness did not show itself in a last anxious thought for me, could I blame any one but myself? If I constituted myself the first in one way, and chose to stand strong and self-confident, I must become secondary in another. I could not expect in their fullest measure both trust and tenderness.

I was roused from reverie by the voice of Aunt Rachel. She was calling to me from the library, where she held herself ensconced in a sort of chair of state. The parting for her had been borne stoically in the seclusion of this retreat, and she signified her pleasure now to have us all marshalled before her for a kind of roll-call.

Aunt Rachel was scarcely a favourite in our circle. She was too full of oddities to fall in easily with a child's fancies, or accommodate herself to juvenile tastes. Her dress even was against her. It was formed on some principle of rainbow effects, which was more curious than captivating. I have often wondered why such dreadful dyes are invented and awful articles manufactured, but wonder must cease on view of the chosen garb of my aunt Rachel. Her pet gown was a mixture of orange and green silk ; and, as she generally adopted crimson in her cap, it is superfluous to add that her presence was formidable.

When we answered her summons on the present occasion I, of course, headed the procession. Next to me came Fred. He was three years my junior, but his age, or rather his youth, did not intimidate him. He was a daring boy, full of spirits and audacity. The love of teasing was his governing principle as yet, the champagne of his existence, kept always at high pressure, and ready to be let off at unexpected moments with explosive effect. Merylle, who followed close upon his steps now, was the nearest to him likewise in age. She was just thirteen, but scarcely looked so much, being round in form and rosy in face, quite a chubby child in fact, instead of a slim, steady girl as she ought to have been.

Fred was so fond of her and she of him that he could make her do just what he pleased, and as his movements were not always worthy of imitation this touching affection was of dubious excellence.

A space came again between Merylle and Dick. The latter was only nine, but, seeing what he was, I might have spared the "only." To have been older would have been deplorable disgrace, with his wild ways and blackened face. Dick, I lament to say, was seldom clean. He had always a smudge somewhere, acquired by some mysterious and infallible process of his own which baffled prevention or detection. In fact, one word will suffice for Dick. He may be simply and vividly described as a " pickle."

George, aged seven, was a solemn child. He spake little, but ate amply. He had large dark eyes, which were not particularly expressive, and pale — somewhat puffed — cheeks. The quest of food was plainly his one object in life at present, and he followed it with a devotion worthy of a better cause. I always thought my mother indulged him too much in this way, and I had sketched out a scheme in my mind for raising him resolutely to a more elevated tone of being.

Lucy, the youngest little darling, has been already mentioned, and as she was the pet and plaything of the household, I need scarcely say that she was lovely and endearing. Indeed, she was the only one amongst us with any "hints" of beauty. Merylle might develop into anything ; but, as she stood now, a dumpling was the nearest comparison to be found for her; and as to

MY MOTHER'S DIAMONDS.

myself, too high a colour and too low a forehead, too thick hair and too thin a figure, gave me a grotesque air, as if I were top heavy, and needed some proper ballast to the system.

Aunt Rachel viewed the array set before her with scrutiny, even suspicion, as if we were already in a state of insubordination. As we were not so, but rather meek and depressed, the imputation was irritating, and Fred resisted it in the way most natural to him.

He began an expressive action with his eyes, twirled his fingers into some apt imitation of aunt's head-gear, and caught a foot surreptitiously round Dick, all but sending him flat upon his face. Merylle gave a feeble titter, and aunt pounced upon her forthwith. She was rather afraid of Fred.

" You unfeeling little girl !" she exclaimed. " Are you actually laughing ? and your dear parents only driven from the door! They are driven fast from your thoughts at all events. I don't know what children of the present day are coming to ! The very name of my grandmother was enough for me."

I did not quite see the connection here, or how the name of grandmother was to bear upon the memory of a mother. However, Aunt Rachel had evidently satisfied herself with the utterance. She struck her hand emphatically on a table before her, and seemed to think a climax had been reached.

" I will take them off to their lessons," I interposed,

A MYSTERIOUS ANNOUNCEMENT. n

assuming the authority I pined for. I might not have gained it at once without an intervening lecture, but for a favourable conjuncture. Aunt, luckily, had her pug to attend to, and as this duty occupied the first precious moments of the day, she let us depart with a groan.

"We are to have a holiday, to-day; mamma promised it," said Merylle, the moment we were outside the door.

" Only a half one, as I understood it," I rejoined, "and Merylle, I believe you are a heartless little girl. Would you really wish to go and play at once ?"

" And would you really wish to go and teach ?" she retorted.

"That is a different affair," I began hotly, but Fred stopped me.

" I tell you what it is," he exclaimed. " We will start for the hay-field, take our books with us, and read under one of the ricks. That's not out of course —eh, Nell ?"

I scarcely liked to let the law pass so quickly from my hands. Still, to begin with contention like Aunt Rachel was worse policy again, and I yielded assent.

" We will bring Lucy with us," added Fred, catching up his cap, and popping something like a battered mushroom on Merylle's head. " You can have Dick and George."

But this was too much. To leave me this dreadful remnant of the family while he surrounded himself

MY MOTHERS DIAMONDS.

with the more choice members was dethronement at once. I felt my face in a glow.

"You shall not have Lucy," I broke out excitedly. " She has been entrusted especially to me. The boys I will hand over to you with pleasure."

Dick shrank from the offer, and put a blackened finger appealingly on my arm. He stood in wholesome dread of Master Fred, who teased him unmercifully. As to George, whatever he felt, he could utter nothing. He had already an immense bun in his mouth, a parting gift from his mother. But for the sake of the donor he should not have demolished it in peace, but I could not find it in my heart to check him so soon. The matter was ended by the disappearance of Fred and Merylle in close partnership, while the three little ones were left in a touching group around me. When I entered the schoolroom, and had placed them on high chairs by the table with picture-books spread out before them, I felt that I had done my part for the present, and I subsided into a sort of reverie. From this I was roused by a call from Aunt Rachel.

"Ellen, have you seen about dinner?" she demanded. " Remember it is to be at two o'clock in future. And Flossy is not very well to-day, so you had better order spring chickens, and then he can have a bit of the liver."

Had I been partial to lap-dogs this suggestion would have been too much for me. As it was, I had no love for a plethoric pet like Flossy, and I determined that for that day the feathered tribe should, one and all, prolong their existence, even if his were shortened thereby.

I liked the sound of the keys as I trotted along the passage with the big bunch at my side, but I did not particularly relish what they opened the way to. The store-closets were well stocked, it is true, but I found it wearisome work weighing out and tidying up, and no longer wondered at the time my mother had bestowed upon this duty. More than once I had called to her impatiently when she was in the midst of her operations, and had thought it tiresome she could not come immediately. I had said to myself, at such times, that I could get through the process much quicker. I would have no consultations with the cook, but would give forth my mandates clearly and concisely. If I had substituted for these terms " obstinately and obtusely," I should have been nearer the mark, at all events according to my coadjutor's reading of them. I decided smartly enough what we should have for dinner, but as the joints specified did not happen to be in the larder, not much way was made here. Cook was mistress after all — not only suggested but governed — settled the dinner and me too. I thought I might hold a higher hand when we came to the sweet-meat department. Surely a " trifle " was not beyond me ? But I had just awoke to the humiliating fact that even here ignorance prevailed, and that the dish could not be produced without preliminary notice, when an awful scream reached me from the schoolroom. The glass bowl I outheld might have been reeling under tipsy-cake already, it tottered so helplessly in my hands. Fortunately the cook caught it from me, but I came into undignified collision with her at the moment as I sprang wildly over the threshold.

The voice had been Lucy's, or it might not have moved me so much, and I was breathless when I reached the schoolroom. The first vision was George with another bun puffed into his cheeks, and his eyes as vacuous as ever. His food supply being uninterrupted, no change could be looked for in him. Not so elsewhere.

Dick seemed to have quadrupled his limbs in a mad scramble over the table to compass or conceal something. I need scarcely say that he was blacker than ever, for a huge ink-bottle had been upset, the contents streamed abroad, arid he was arresting their course bodily. In a first panic he had caught at Lucy's head as a mop. Her pretty curls were besprinkled and bedabbled, and she was in a torrent of tears.

I could not help it — I had made a vow against corporal punishment, but it was broken forthwith. In a second I had seized Dick, and boxed his ears soundly. I did not come spotless out of the transaction. There was a stain on my white cuff, and the thought that I had yielded to passion left a deeper blot behind. Often had I felt impatient with my dear mother for her forbearance, and had fancied more effect could be gained by peremptoriness, but the thought of her calm sweet face was a reproach to me now.

I was flushed and panting, Dick was howling, and Lucy's woe, instead of being appeased by my action, was doubly aggravated. She was a gentle child, and could never bear anything of a disturbance. To punish another was almost as bad to her as personal chastisement.

When the fracas was in a measure abated I bethought me of my open store-room, my incomplete arrangements, and had to rush off again. The result of inexperience was a dinner behind time, appetites before it, servants out of sorts, and Aunt Rachel out of patience. Other matters fell out adversely too. Despite the lateness of the repast Fred and Merylle appeared at it with not only unsmoothed hair, but with sundry hay-straws adhering to it in porcupine fashion. Aunt bristled at the sight, and a passage of arms would have been imminent, had I not rushed in to their rescue with apologies and assurances.

" This has been a holiday, aunt," I said ; "and they are making the most of it and the sunshine. To-morrow you will see what better order we shall be in. I will look after them well."

The promise was easily spoken, but my own heart failed me, even as it was made. Already I missed the gentle ruling hand which did everything in love without noise or anger, and recognised how inadequate was mine to replace it.

When I retired to my room at night, I felt a few tears stealing from beneath my lashes as I looked out through the open window on the summer prospect which had grown lonely, and saw a sort of veil of sadness stealing over each well-known object. Something was wanting, something was absent when the " good-night " of loving parents had not a lingering echo in my ears. Silence became oppressive, solitude haunting, and I only slept at last by the oft repetition of my evening hymn.

" The day is passing from me, But night hath no alarms, For Jesus is my Guardian, He holds me in His arms.

" In shade, in happy sunlight

No change shuts out His smile, When eyelids close full wearied Love waketh all the while.

"And I will trust Him truly,

Though darkness groweth deep, He watching over Israel Will slumber not nor sleep."

Chapter II. New To The Work

" Hope rules a land for ever green ; All powers that serve the bright-eyed queen

Are confident and gay ; Clouds at her bidding disappear ; Points she to aught? — the bliss draws near And fancy smooths the way."

WORDSWORTH.

I ROSE the next morning braced and buoyant. I had undertaken a duty and I meant to perform it. So far, all was well. But my confidence had not departed. It had yielded in no way to humility. My own strength seemed sufficient for me, and I went forth in it anew.

During the absence of the heads of the household, it had been arranged that we were all to have our meals together, and at the children's early hours The dining-room, however, was substituted for the nursery ; and the little ones, being enfranchised so far, became unduly elated. George, it is true, remained solemn as ever ; but as his gravity had a close affinity to greediness, I scarcely rated it very high.

Aunt Rachel appeared in gloom, a dread weight upon her brow. Even her cap seemed sombre, and nodded ominously. Black lace had replaced white in it, and the red ribbon had faded into purple. Flossy had not recovered yet, and was borne in tenderly in a basket. I saw that aunt eyed Fred closely and suspiciously, and wondered what was wrong.

He, smiling as ever, settled himself at the breakfast table with some preliminary attention to Dick, which left him shaky on his high chair. I had been glowing with pride hitherto. Dick was spotless. His "overall " uncrumpled, his hair shining, his cheeks fresh as a rose. But at this juncture his mug of cocoa went over him instantaneously. I think the catastrophe rather relieved him. The unnatural strain of tidiness was too much for his repose.

Aunt Rachel, however, rose in a fume.

" This is intolerable !" she cried. " Who could sit at table with such children? — one and all are the same. Some one fastened a cord to the bottom of my door last night, and when I opened it this morning Eliza, the housemaid, was nearly taken off her feet. The strings stretched everywhere."

" It wasn't me" exclaimed Dick impulsively, and his mug was just gone again.

George was speechless, but then that couldn't count for much, seeing that his cheeks were distended, and a thick slice of bread and butter had already vanished from off his plate.

All eyes were turned on Fred.

" It was you, sir — I know it !" said my aunt fiercely.

" I — I was working out a mathematical problem," began Fred ; but I stopped him at once.

Now or never I felt that my authority must interpose.

" Fred, I am ashamed of you !" I exclaimed. " I wonder you would be such a baby as to play pranks ' like these. You promised your father you would behave quietly and rationally. You were to help me, he said."

"Oh! and what prodigies have you been up to, Nell, that I was to bear a hand in ?" was the retort. " Lucy was crying all the evening, George more crammed than ever, and I seldom saw Dick such a pickle. He was too much of a blackamoor even to torment."

I felt my ire rising, but checked it. To enter into a controversy with Fred before all the juvenile party would have been an undignified proceeding, and one involving a possible defeat. Fortunately a diversion was caused by the appearance of the letter-bag.

A few lines came from my mother, announcing their arrival as far as Liverpool, and Aunt Rachel got two lengthy epistles from maiden friends, which occupied her till the conclusion of the repast. Family prayers followed then, and Aunt Rachel, with spectacles on her nose, seated herself before the big Bible. The children were always orderly at such times, and

2 — 2

MY MOTHER'S DIAMONDS.

I had them in a steady row before me, when Fred suddenly broke the ranks.

Aunt was feeling about for her footstool, which seemed an indispensable adjunct, as giving her a more enthroned air, and I was glad to see him attentive in pushing it towards her.

But at the moment an awful yell broke forth. Aunt leaped from her seat, and Fred gained his in a bound. She had put her foot full upon Flossy. The pug had crept out of his basket to the soft cushion, and this was the support proffered so eagerly by Fred.

Commotion followed, and aunt's wrath was so terrible that I had finally to read the chapter myself. When it was ended I took Fred seriously to task. But his spirits were beyond depression by rebuke, and I had to give him up in despair.

This was the day for him to begin work with his tutor, and I could only hope that mental exercise might tame him in a measure. Mr. Locke, the gentleman with whom he was to read, had only recently settled in the neighbourhood. He was the new curate, and had taken a pretty cottage about half a mile distant from Crystal Lodge. His engagement to a young lady in his former parish was at once announced by our rather garrulous rector, and it was an understood thing that as soon as he had obtained pupils enough to add a proper increase to his income, his happiness need no further be deferred.

None of us but my father had seen him yet, and as Fred was to go to his house, it was not probable, at all events at present, that we should know much of him. Aunt Rachel did not approve of gentlemen on the whole, and though an engaged man carried an air of safety with him, still his bachelor's degree clung about him, and he might at any moment become a " Master of Arts."

Fred started punctually for the cottage, the novelty of the thing having attraction for him as yet; and once his perplexing presence was removed, I gathered the children around me gravely in the schoolroom. Dick was supposed to be " bright " — not in his person, it is superfluous to say, but in some inward nook of his mind which could not come in contact with external soil. Arithmetic was his strong point, and to this he begged to be set now, though I quailed a little at the prospect. I was weak in the line ; figures presented themselves to me more formidably than an array of artillery, and if he caught me tripping, I was prostrate at once. To shoot ahead of me in ciphering was fatal to my rule — in fact, to make a cipher of me. However, with the help of a " key " I might hold my own, and Dick was posed presently with an immense slate before him, and an excruciating cutter.