The Clever Woman of the Family

ould lon

g my whi

ion, on a

the comin

BARRETT

walk down with you to Mackarel Lane, and then I can form

ot intend to g

nues to brave me, and is

after church, and bring her in

my mind first. Poor Fanny is so easily led that w

ished you w

lease Mr. Touchett, but this is for a purpose;

e wont to hang out boards to attract lodgers of small means. At one of these Grace rang, and obtained admittance to a parlour with crazy French windows opening on a little strip of garden. In a lar

runette, a pleasant glow still; hair with threads of grey. I hope she does not affect youth; she can't be less than one or two and thirty! Many people set up for beauties with far less claim. What is the matter with her? It is not the countenance of deformity-accident, I should say. Yes, it is

had not seen you

business, and sitting in the g

but hardly of ch

derful variety," she answered, w

asked Rachel, beginn

e we came, and that provides us with infinite amusement. Besides the sea-gulls are often so good as to float high enough

o eyes apply the

prize, too, the

hild of seven, looking like a little faw

u show the sphynx

bright colour on his sides, and a horny spike on his tail, was feasting upon tamarisk leaves. Grace asked if she

ind a figure of it at Villars', but he had no book that

e, "but I know nothing about them

tory of our sphynx?" asked Miss

" said Rachel, "but I doubt it. I p

details the best way of ente

le received neither with a stare nor a laugh; and she gathere

ecture, but you can't have

all the petty work of flower bot

arsay order, at least to most people, unless their applica

ng tone, as if the notion, when presented to her in plain Eng

arch fun. "For instance, the great art of mud pie taught us th

one to impro

ings we remembered how our clay manufactures always b

are power of elucid

ad; but I could only per

the Edgeworth system of education in the 'Tr

, but I ha

think it excellent, an

that made Grace speculate whether she could have heard that agreement with the Invalid

ell of Miss Williams' conversation, deemed an examination rathe

his is her last day at Cliff Cottages, and sh

ome for the prese

e looking forward t

he other Miss Williams would educate on the principles of the Invalid; but full in the midst there was a sound of wheels and a ring at the bell. Miss Wi

he time, and Rachel had her eyes free for a range of the apartment. The foundation was the dull, third-rate lodging-house, the superstructure told of other scenes. One end of the room was almost filled by the frameless portrait of a dignified clergyman, who would have had far more justice done to him by greater distance; a beautifully-painted miniature of a lady with short waist and small crisp curls, was the centre of a system of photographs over the mantel-piece; a large crayon sketch showed three sisters between the ages of six and sixteen, sentimentalizing over a flower-basket; a pair of water-colour drawings represented a handsome church and comfortable parsonage; and the domestic gallery was completed by two prints-one of a

d Fanny, "and as she seems t

ws; Lady Temple softly murmured under her veil something about hopes and too much trouble; an appointment was made for the following morning, and Mrs. Curtis, with a general sensation of an oppressive multitude in a small room, took her leave, and the company depar

little Rose. "Aunt Ermine, h

ll pull out the rest for my feet, I will be quiet a

by the contraction and helplessness of the lower limbs, to which she had been so much accustomed all her life that it never even occurred to h

ng Violetta home from her play in the gard

ackarel Lane? Were you not one of its most considered inhabitants, scarce

one constant song of bliss, one dream of bright imaginings. Surely it was an equalization of blessings that rendered little lonely Rose, motherless and well nigh fatherless, poor, with no companion but a crippled aunt, a bird and a toad, with scarcely a toy, and never a party of pleasure, one of the most joyous beings under the sun

ioletta has been very good, and said all her lessons quite perfect, and she

ot be tired

up when she is called, till I pull all

ay be fre

is taking a very unfair advantage of my promise. You will make your

story pass aw

stories are always the best. A

n the arrival took place, and Rose darted fo

etta; what do you thi

n so prized. It was introduced to Violetta as the reward of virtue for having controlled her fretfulness, and the repair of its infirmity was the first consideration that occupied all the three. After all, Viol

world, Alison had a remarkable look of concentration and vigour, her upright bearing, clear decided speech, and glance of kindness won instant respect and reliance, but her face missed the radiant beamy brightness of her sister's; her face was sweet and winning, but it was not habitual with her, and there was about her

e, and take you down under the East cliff, and we'll invest a sh

ave a respectabl

y Julia will s

nt, flowery thing, that I saw Miss Curtis looking at as rather a disreputable article. There's preferment for you, Ailie! What do you think of

she

mes to be near her. You are to call for inspection at elev

iety. How many drives will the si

he looked to me too sweet a creature to have broken her son

Miss Curtis, I a

ed today, and I began to comprehend the reason of the shudder

did not ov

passage at arms with her if these were old times. But I hope she will not take the direction

with the preliminaries of the evening meal, after which she went

mething indescribably touching in her voice and eyes, so soft and wistful, especi

is you

ered, I could not have helped accepting hers, even i

ha

oo much, and offering too little. No, not her only fear, for there is some major in the distance to whose approval everything must be subject-uncle or guardian, I sup

l make it do, Ailie. It

and as to the boys, I fancy it is only taming they want. The danger is, as Miss Rachel told me, whe

eally is lucky you had to turn governess, Ailie,

th her presence, and she hardly knew the aspect of tumultuous idleness or insubordination to unenforced authority; for her eye and voice in them

d when Francis had been reduced to the much disliked process of spelling unknown words, he had muttered under his breath, "She was only a civilian." To which she had rejoined that "At least she knew thus much, that the first military duty was obedience," and Francis's instant submission proved that she had made a good shot. Of the Major she had heard much more. Everything was referred to him, both by mother and children, and Alison was the more

s proffered. The brow and eyes, the whole spirit of the face, betokened reflection and acuteness, and Rachel wanted to attain to her opinions; but beyond a certain depth there was no reaching. Her ways of thinking, her views of the childr

g ladies around. But it was hard that where Rachel really liked and met half-way, the intimate confidence should always be bestowed upon Grace, or even the mother. She had yet to learn that the way to draw out a snail is not to, grasp its horns, and that halfway meeting is not to launch one's self to the opposite starting point. Either her inquiries were too point blank to invite detailed replies, or her own communications absorbed her too much to leave room for a return. Thus she told Miss Williams the whole story of the thrush's nest, and all her own reflections upon the characteristics it betokened; and only afterwards, on thinking over the conversation, perceived that she had elicited nothing but that it

the service of the parish, as well as in her official character at the Homestead. It so chanced that one Sunday afternoon they

hoir master from Avoncester, and giving up an afternoon to p

of the little bits of bad management that were sure to happen wherever poor Mr. Touchett was concerned; and both ladies feeling it easy to overlook for themselves, were thankful that it had not befallen Rachel. Alison Willi

e; I always wish we could get more c

denying to spare y

o, and I see besides that it brings her fresh interests. She knows about all my class, and works for them, a

services are t

are put close together so that she can almost lie, and there is not room fo

nergetic," said Grace, using her favourite mo

her, or how she has found strength and coura

she suffe

w! That was in

not al

it deformity! Oh, no, n

struck with any one. There is something so strik

d only seen he

accid

said Alison, al

r dear! How dr

to me without knowing about it. It was an accident of course, but it was

een when you we

th us. We always used to go to stay at one of the canon's houses for it, a house where

there a

nd she thought it would not be right; because his father had objected

did not k

stand what was the matter with the house, or why Ermine was unlike herself, and papa restless and anxious about her. They thought me too young to be told, and the

scomfort and fret of being

days as usual, till this dreadful day, when I had worried her intolerably about going to this music meeting, and she found reasoning onl

eath, and Grace s

she had not an hour to live. There was no pain, and there she lay, all calmness, comforting us all, and making papa and Edward promise to forgive me-me, who only wished they would kill me! And the next day he ca

t became

sight of the Beauchamps. We saw the name in the Gazette as killed at Lucknow, but not the right Christian name nor the same rank; but then, though the regiment is come home, we have heard nothing of hi

o be dead,"

us of entrapping him, and that angered my father. For our family is quite good, and we were very well off then. My father had a good private fortune besides the Rectory at Beauchamp; and Lady Ali

quire's

aughters. I was too young; but as long as she lived we were all like one

illness? It must

ink my father only prayed that she might suffer less, and Julia stayed on and on, thinking each day would be the last, till Dr. Long could not spare her any longer; and then Lady Alison nursed her night after night and day after day, till she had worn herself into an illness, and when the doctors spoke of improvem

sider her sti

the actual injury, the contraction, can never be better than now. When we lived at Richmon

spirits. I suppose that was what c

always wanting something; she never is. Every enjoyment seems to be tenfold to her what it is to other p

nd of voices: "The strain upraise of joy and praise." It was the same that had met their ears at the school-door, but

d the little choir, consisting of herself, her aunt, and the small maid of the

oo much moved for ordinary conversation, slipped into the bedroom adjoinin

said Grace; "she has been te

on and the like, which were lying in the window till he had time to take them upstairs. We had all been so long threatened with being blown up by his experiments that we had grown callous and careless, and it served us right!" she added, stroking the child's face as it looked at her, earnest to glean fresh fragments of the terrible half-known tale of the past. "Yes, Rosie, when you go and keep house for papa on

er she is de

to be the chief dependence, and looking so piteously imploring whatever was tried, that it really helped me to go through with it. Poor Ailie," she added with an odd turn of playfulness, "I always fancied those frowns of anxiety made her eyebrows grow together. And ever since we came here, we know

. I am going to ask Miss Curtis not to let the story

think it right not to let people know what sor

riendliness that had so long subsisted between them. Nor indeed was the reserve regarding the cause of the present reduced circumstances of the sisters at all lessened; it was only known that their brother had ruined them by a fraudulent speculation, and had then fled to the Continent, leaving them burthened with the maintenance of his child, but that they refused to believe in his guilt, and had thus incurred the displeasure of other relatives and friends. Alison was utterly silent about him

the nervous ailments induced by the monotony of her life. They seemed to have a sort of natural desire to rub their minds one against the other, and Rachel could not rest without Miss Williams's opinion of all that interested her-paper, essay, book, or event; but often, when expecting to confer a favour by the loan, she found that what was new to her was already well known in that little parlour, and even the authorship no mystery. Ermine explained this by her correspondence with literary friends of her brother's, and country-bred Rachel, to whom literature was still an oracle unconnected with living agencies, listened, yes, absolutel

s of curacies, and by teaching at the school where his son was educated. Indignant at the hack estimation in which his father had been held, the son, far more justly viewing both the dignity and duty of his of

were Rachel's scholars. Her turn had always been for boys, and her class on Sunday mornings and two evenings in the week had long been in operation before the reign of Mr. Touchett. Then two lads, whose paternal fiddles had seceded to the Plymouth Brethren, were suspended from all advantages by the curate, and Rachel was with difficulty withheld from an explosion; but even this was less annoying than the summons at the class-room door every Sunday morning, that, in the midst of her l

did Rachel learn the new arrangement, and she could hardly credit the assertion that the curate was not aware that it was her day. In fact, it was the only one when the fisher lads were sure not to be at sea, and neither party would yield it. Mr. Touchett was determined not to truckle to dictation fro

ne deemed praise in its highest form the prime object of his ministry; the other found the performance indevotional, and raved that education should be sacrificed to wretched music. But that the dissension was sad and mischievous, it would have been very diverting; they were both so young in their incapacity of making allo

ers as to the abruptness of his foe, and her indifference to parish details had even its charm in a world of fussiness; he did not know himself how far a wish of hers would have led him, and she was the last person to guess. She viewed him, like all else outside her nursery, as something out of the focus of her eye; her instinct regarded her clergyman as necessarily good and worthy, and her ear heard Rachel railing at him; it sounded hard, but it was a pity Rachel s

could have done without them, for he had a wide middle-class popularity; his manners with the second-rate society, in which he had been bred, were just sufficiently superior and flattering to recommend all his best points, and he obtained plenty of subscriptions from visitors, and of co-operation from inhabitants. Many a young lady

mitive Methodist, and no severe distress had been so recent as to render the women tolerant of troublesome weekly inspections. The Curtis sisters were, however, regarded as an exception; they were viewed as real gentlefolks, not only by their own tenants, but by all who were conscious of their hereditary

lace, but had kept her at school to a later age than usual in the place. But the mother died, and the orphan was at once adopted by the aunt, with the resolve to act the truly kind part by her, and break her in to lacemaking. That determination was a great blow to the school visitors; the girls were in general so young, or so stupefied with their work, that an intelligent girl like Lovedy Kelland was no small treasure to them; there were designs of making her a pupil teacher in a few years, and offers and remonstrances rained in upon her aunt. But they had no effect; Mrs. Kelland was persuaded that the child had been spoilt by learning, and in truth poor Lovedy was a refractory scholar; she was too lively to bear the confinement patiently; her mind was too much awake not to rebel against the dulness, and her fingers had not been brought into training early enough. Her incessant tears spoilt her thread, and Mrs. Kelland decided that "she'd never get her bread till she was broke of her buke;" w

uty. Moreover, old feudal feeling made Rachel be unmolested when she came down twice a week, opened the door of the blackhole under the stairs, and read aloud something religious, something improving, and a bit of a story, following it up by mental arithmetic and a lesson on objects, which seemed

her to be in some degree independent of the middle-men, who absorbed so much of the profit from the workers. Grace and Rachel, sufficiently old inhabitants to remember the terrible wreck that had left her a struggling widow, felt this a hard, not to say a vindictive decision. They had long

we run counter to our cl

ut it won't do; men are fallible even when they preach in a surplice, and you may be thankful to

when Grace and Fanny were walking together on the esplanade, they met Mr. Touchett, and Grace said to him, "We have been thinking it over, and we thought, perhaps, you

Touchett, "but real

dare say she didn't mean it, and

t, and-and-it is a great pity about the child, but I never

ot object to her

it is not the same thing as clos

utors oppress the hard-working, and far more brightened by the sweet smile of requital, but all the time doubtful whether he had been weak. As to the

d her intention of consulting Ermine Williams under seal of secrecy. "I hav

her colour rising. "W

score. At my age, with a mother like mine, it is simp

to say I was

ng. You are a worthy antagonist, and enter into my views as

hink I can hel

judge of the composition. In fact, I re

esigned

atry is a

your

thought that would

the scholars woul

they just mad

y severe on hybrids be

one has an expressive term," said Rachel; "if i

into English? Might it not be hard to brand with

and hero worship, with a religious

n to balls after militiamen, now, if they run to schools and charities more

I knew you would not agree, at least bef

th being the author reading his own works. Ermine was thinking of him all the time. She was under none of the constraint of Phanor's auditors, though she carried a perpetual palace of truth about with her; she would not have had either fears or compunctions in criticising, if she could. The paper was in the essay style, between argument and sarcasm, something after the model of the Invalid's Letters; bu

ust use those lighter weapons

prove your object, I should tell

u belong to the age that was trying the experiment of the hierarchy modified: I to that wh

erstand you

om the printer's bands, you will see that it will tell. That bit about the we

I say first I think the whole is

ords, so I can't be mistaken, at least I collated twenty lines, and multiplied

question again, Is

mean to point the way to more consistent, more independent, better combined exertion. If I can make myself useful with my pen, it will compensate for the being debarred f

you would wish to use it for good; but, to speak plainly, I doub

I wished you to do, and I value your sincerity. Of course I did not expect praise, since the

, asking, "Aunt Ermine, why do you look so very funn

at a difficult language p

erstand one bit of her long story, e

rson who stands plain speaking from one like me has something very noble and gen

told Violetta and Augustus a

d how did t

time, and Augustus gave three

d it!" said