LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 792, 4 January 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

ANNE. (By Johnny Ludlow.) ( Concluded) ‘ She is so much better calculated to preside than I am,’ whispered meek Mrs Lake to me later in the evening. Happening to pass the kitchen door after dinner, 1 saw her in there, making the coffee. ‘What should I do without Dinah ! ’ But need you come out to make coffee, Mrs Lake ? ’ ‘ My dear, when I leave it to the servants, it is not drinkable. lam rather sorry Mrs Podd makes a point of having coffee in an evening. Our general rule is to give only tea.’ ‘ I’d not give in to Mrs Podd.’ ‘Well, dear, we like to be accommodating when we can. Being my cousin, she otders things more freely than other ladies usually do. Dinah calls her exacting ; but ’ ‘ Is Mrs Podd your cousin ’ I interrupted, in surprise. ‘My first cousin. Did you not know it ? Her mother and my mother were sisters.’ ‘ The girls don’t call you aunt.’ ‘ They do sometimes when we are alone. I suppose they think I am beneath them—keeping a boarding-house.’ I had not much liked the Podds at first, and as the days went on I liked them less. They were not sincere ; I was quite sure of it; Mrs Podd especially. But the manner in which she had taken Dr Lewis under her wing was marvellous. He began to think he could not move without her ; he was as one who has found a sheet-anchor. She took all trouble of all kinds from him ; her chief aim seemed to be to make his life pass pleasantly. She’d order a carriage and take him for a drive in it; she’d parade the High street on his arm ; she’d sit with him in the Green within the enclosure, though Miss Dinah told her one day she had not the right of entrance there; she’d walk him off to inspect the monuments in the cathedral, and talk with him in the cloisters of the old days when Cromwell stabled his horses there. After dinner they would play backgammon till bedtime. And with it all, she was so gay and sweet and gentle, that Dr Lewis thought she must be a very angel come out of heaven. ‘ Johnny, I don’t like her,’ said Anne to me one day. ‘ She seems to take papa completely out of my hands. She makes him feel quite independent of me.’ ‘ You like her as well as I do, Anne.’ ‘ This morning I found him in the draw-ing-room ; alone, for a wonder; he was gazing up in his abstracted way, as if wanting to discover what the pinnacles of the cathedral were made of, which look to be so close you know from the windows of that room. ‘ Papa, you are lonely,’ I said. ‘ Would you like to walk out; or what would you like to do?’ ‘My dear Mrs Podd will see to it all,’ he answered ; ‘ don’t trouble yourself; lam waiting for her.’ It is just as though he had no more need of me.’ Anne Lewis turned away to hide her wet eyelashes. For my part, I thought the sooner Mrs Captain Podd betook herself from Lake’s boarding-house, the better. It was too much of a good thing. That same afternoon I heard some conversation not meant for me. Behind the house was a square patch of ground called a garden, containing a few trees and some sweet herbs. I was sitting on the bench underneath the high, old-fashioned dining room windows, thinking how hot the sun was, wishing for something to do, and wondering when Dr Lewis meant to send me home. He and Mrs Podd were out together; Anne was in the kitchen, teaching Mrs Lake some French cookery. Miss Dinah sat in the dining room, in her spectacles, darning table cloths. ‘ Oh, have you come in !’ I suddenly heard her say, as the door opened. And it was Mrs Podd’s voice that answered. ‘ The sun is so very hot; poor dear Dr Lewis felt quite ill. He is gone up to his room for half an hour to sit quietly in the shade. Where are my girls ?’ ‘ I’m sure I don’t know, replied Miss Dinah; and it struck me that her tone of voice was rather,crusty. ‘ Mrs Podd, I must again ask you when you will let me have some money ?’ ‘As soon as I can,’ said Mrs Podd; who seemed by the sound, to have thrown herself upon a chair,;and to be fanning her face with a rustling newspaper. ‘ But you have said that for some weeks. When is the “ soon ” to be ?’ * You know I have been disappointed in my remittances. It is really too hot for talking.’ ‘ I know that you say so. But we cannot go on without some money. The expenses of this house are heavy ; how are they to be kept up if our guests don’t pay us ? Indeed you must let me have part of your account, if not all.’ ‘ My dear sweet creature, the house is not yours,’ returned Mrs Podd, in her most honeyed accents. ‘ I manage it,’ said Miss Dinah, ‘ and am responsible for the getting in of the accounts. You know that our custom is to be paid weekly.’

* Exactly, dear Miss Dinah. But lam sure that my cousin, Emma Lake, would not wish to inconvenience me. lam indebted to her, not to you ; and I will pay her as soon as I can. My good creature, how can you sit stewing over that plain sewing this sultry afternoon ? ’ ‘lt is my work,’ responded Miss Dinah. ‘ We have not money to spend on new linen: trouble enough it is I can assure you to keep the old decent. ’ ‘ 1 should get somebody to help me. That young woman, Miss Lewis, might do it : she seems to have been used to all kinds of work.’ ‘ I wish you’d shut that door : you’ve left it open,’ retorted Miss Dinah; ‘ I don’t like sitting in a draught, though it is hot. And I must beg of you to understand that we really cannot continue to keep you and your daughters here unless you can manage to give us a little money.’ By the shutting of the door and the silence that ensued, it was apparent that Mrs Podd had departed, leaving Miss Dinah to her table-cloths. But now this had surprised me. For, to hear Mrs Captain Podd and her daughters talk, and to see the way in which they dressed, one could not have supposed they were ever at a fault for ready cash. At the end of ten days I went home. Dr Lewis no longer wanted me : he had Mrs Podd. And I think it must have been about ten days after that, that we heard the doctor and Anne were returning. The paint smelt still, but not as badly as before. They did not come alone. Mrs Podd and her two daughters accompanied them to spend the day. Mrs Podd was in a ravishing new toilette: and I hoped that Lake’s boarding-house had been paid. Mrs Podd went into raptures over Maythorn Bank, paint and all. It was the sweetest little place she had ever been in, she said, and some trilling, judicious care would convert it into a paradise. I know who had the present care, and that was Anne, They got over about twelve o’clock : and as soon as she had seen the ladies’ things off, and they comfortably in« stalled in the best parlor, its glass doors standing open to the fragrant flower beds, she put on a big apron in the kitchen, and helped Sally to get the dinner. ‘Need you do it, Anne?’ I said, running in, having seen her crumbling bread as I passed the window. ‘Yes, I must, Johnny. Papa bade me have a nice dinner served to-day ; and Sally is inexperienced, you know. She can roast and boil, but she knows nothing about the little dishes he likes. To tell you the truth,’ added Anne, glancing meaningly into my eyes for a moment, ‘ I would rather be cooking here than talking with them there. ’ ‘ Are you sorry to leave Worcester ?’ ‘Yes and no,’ she answered, ‘Sorry to leave Mrs Lake and Miss Dinah, for I like them both ; glad to be at home again and to have papa to myself. I shall not cry if we never see Mrs Podd again. Perhaps I am mistaken; and I’m sure 1 did not think that the judging of others uncharitably was one of my faults ; but I cannot help thinking that she has tried to estrange papa from me. I suppose it is her way; she cannot have any real wish to do so. However, she goes back to-night, and then it will be all over. ’ ‘ Who is at Lake's now ?’ ‘ Nobody—except the Podds. lam sorry, for I fear they have some difficulty to make both ends meet. Chapter 111. Was it over ? Anne Lewis reckoned without her host. I was running in to Maythom Bank the next morning, when I saw the shimmer of Anne’s white garden-bonnet and her morning dress amidst the raspberry bushes, and turned aside to greet her. She bad a basin in her hand, picking the fruit, and the hot tears were running down her cheeks. Conceal her distress she could not; any attempt would have been worse than futile. ‘ Oh, Johnny, she is going to marry him ! ’ cried she, with a burst of sobs. ‘ G oing to marry him ?—who ? what ? ’ I asked, taking the basin from her hand; for I declare that the truth did not strike me. ‘ She is. Mrs Podd, She is going to marry papa.’ For a moment she held her face against the apple tree. The words confounded me. More real grief I had never seen. My heart ached for her. ‘ Don’t think me selfish,’ she said, turning presently, trying to subdue the sobs and wiping the tears away. ‘ I hope lam not that: or undutiful. It is not for myself that I grieve; indeed it is not; but for him.’ I knew that, ‘lf I could but think it would be for his happiness! But oh, I fear it will not be. Something seems to tell me that it will not. And if —he should be—uncomfortable afterwards—miserable afterwards ! —I think the distress would kill me.’ ‘ls it true, Anne ? How did you hear it?’ * True ! Too true, Johnny. At breakfast this morning papa said, ‘We shall be dull to-day without our friends, Anne.’ I told him 1 hoped not, and that I would go out with him, or read to him, or do anything else he liked; and I reminded him of his small stock of choice books that he used to be so fond of. ‘ Yes, yes, we shall be very dull, you and I alone in this strange house, ’ he resumed. ‘ I have been thinking for some time we should be, Anne, and so I have asked that dear, kind, lively womau to come to us for good,’ 1 did not understand him ; 1 did not indeed, Johnny; and papa went on to explain. ‘ You must know that I allude to Mrs Podd, Anne,’ he said. ‘ When I saw her so charmed with this house yesterday, and we were talking about my future loneliness in it—and she lamented it, even to tears —one word led to another, and I felt encouraged to venture to ask her to share it and be my wife. And so, my dear, it is all settled; and I trust it will be for the happiness of us all. She is a most delightful woman, and will make the sunshine of any home.’ 1 wish I could think so ! concluded Anne. : No, don’t take the basin,’ I said, as she went to do so. ‘ I’ll finish picking the raspberries. What are they for V ‘ A pudding. Papa said he should like one. ’ ‘ Why could not Sally pick them ? Country girls are used to the sun. ’ ‘ Sally is busy. Papa bade her clear out that room where our boxes were put; we shall want all the rooms now. Oh, Johnny. I wish we had not left Franco I Those happy days will never come again.

Was the doctor going into his dotage ? The question crossed my mind. It nngnt never have occurred to me ; but one day at Worcester Miss Dinah had asked it in my hearing. I felt very uncomfortable, could not 'think of anything soothing to say to Anne, and went on picking the raspberries- ‘ How many do you want ? Are these enough f ‘ Yes,’ she answered, looking at the lot. ‘ I must fill the basin up with currants. ’ We were bending over a currant bush, Anne holding up a branch and I stripping it, when footsteps on the path close by made us both look up hastily. There stood Sir Robert Tenby. He stared at the distress on Anne’s face, which was too palpable to be concealed, and asked without ceremony what was amiss. It was the last feather that broke the camel’s back. These words from a stranger, and his evident concern, put the finishing touch to Anne’s state. She burst into more bitter tears than she had yet shed, and for a minute sobbed piteously. ‘ Is it any trouble that I can help you out of ?’ asked Sir Robert, in the kindest tones, feeling no doubt, as sorry as he looked. ‘Oh, my dear young lady, don’t give way like this !’, Touched by his sympathy, her heart seemed to open to him: perhaps she had need of finding consolation somewhere. Drying her tears, Anne told her story simply: commenting on it as she had commented to me. * It is for my father’s sake that I grieve, sir; that I fear. I feel sure Mrs Podd will not make him really happy. ’ * Well, well, we must hope for the best,’ spoke Sir Robert, who looked a little asto nished at hearing the nature of the grievance, and perhaps thought Anne’s distress more exaggerated than it need have been. ‘Dr Lewis wrote to me last night about some alteration he wants to make in the garden ; 1 am come to speak to him of it.’ ‘ Alteration in the garden ! ’ mechanically repeated Anne. ‘I have heard nothing about it.’ He passed into the house to the doctor. We picked on at the currants, and then took them into the kitchen. Anne sat down on a chair to strip them from the stalks. Presently we saw Sir Robert and the doctor at one end of the garden, the latter drawing boundaries round a corner with his walking stick. ‘Oh, I know,’ exclaimed Anne. ‘Yesterday Mrs Podd suggested that a summerhouse in that spot would be a delightful irnimprovement. But I never could have supposed papa meant to act upon the suggestion. ’ Just so. Dr Lewis wished to erect a summer-house of wood and trellis-work, but had not liked to do it without first speaking to his landlord. As the days went on, Anne grew to feel somewhat reassured. She was very busy, for all kinds of preparations had to be made in the house, and the wedding was to take place at once. ‘ I think, perhaps, I took it up in a wrong light, Johnny,’ she said to me one day, when I went in and found her sewing at some new curtains. ‘I hope I did. It must have been the suddenness of the news, I suppose, and that 1 was so very unprepared for it.’ ‘ How do vou mean ? In what wrong light ?’ ‘ Nobody seems to think ill of it, or to foresee cause for apprehension. I am so glad. I don’t think I ever can much like her ; but if she makes papa happy, it is all I ask.’ ‘ Who has been talking about it ?’ ‘ Herbert Tanerton, for one. He saw Mrs Podd at Worcester last week, and thought her charming. The very womau, he said, to do papa good ; lively and full of resource. So it may all be for the best. I should as soon have expected an invitation to the moon as to the wedding. But I got it. Dr Lewis, left to himself, was feeling helpless again, and took me with him to Worcester, on the eve of the happy day. We put up at the Bell Hctel for the night; but Annie went direct to Lake’s boardinghouse. I ran down there in the evening. Whether an inkling of the coming wedding had got abroad, I can’t say; it was to be kept private, and had been, so far as anybody knew: but Lake’s house was full, not a room to be had in it for love nor money. Anne was put in a sleeping closet, two yards square. ‘ It is not our fault,’ spoke Miss Dinah, openly. ‘We were keeping a room for Miss Lewis ; but on Monday last when a stranger came, wanting to be taken in, Mrs Podd told us Miss Lewis was going to the hotel with her father.’

‘My dear love, I thought you were,’ chimed in Mrs Podd, as she patted Anne on the shoulder. ‘ I must have mis-read a passage in your dear papa’s letter, and so caught up the misapprehension. Never miud, you shall dress in my room if your own’s not large enough. And I am sure all you young ladies ought to be obliged to me, for the new inmate is a delightful man. My daughters find him charming.’ ‘ The room is quite large enough, thank you,’ replied Anne, meekly. ‘ Do you approve of the wedding, Miss Dinah ? ’ I asked her later, when we were alone in the dining-room; Do you like it ? ’ Miss Dinah, who was counting a heap of glasses on the sideboard that the maid had just washed and brought in, counted to the end, and then began upon the spoons. ‘ It is the only way we can keep our girls in check,’ observed she ; ‘ otherwise they’d break and lose all before them. I know how many glasses have been used at table, consequently how many go out to be washed, and the girl has to bring that same number in, or explain the reason why. As to the spoons, they get thrown away with the dish water, and sometimes into the fire. If they were silver it would be all the same.’ ‘ Do you like the match, Miss Dinah ? ’ ‘ Johnny Ludlow,’ she said, turning round to face me, ‘ we make a point in this house of not expressing our likes and dislikes. Our position is peculiar, you know. When people have come to years of discretion, and are of the age that Mrs Podd is, not to speak of Dr Lewis’s, we must suppose them to be capable of judging and acting for themselves. We have not helped on the match by so much as an approving word or look : on the other hand, it has not lain in our duty or in our power to retard it.’ Which was of course good sense. But for all her caution, I fancied she could have spoken against it, had she chosen. A trifling incident occurred to me in going back to the Bell. Bushing round the corner into Broad street, a tall well-dressed man, sauntering on before me, suddenly turned on

hia heel, and threw away his cigar sideways. It caught the front cf my shirt. I flung it off again ; hut not before it had burnt a small hole in the linen. ‘ Beg your pardon,’ said the smoker, in a courteous voice—and there was no mistaking him for anything but a gentleman. ‘ I am very sorry. It was frightfully careless of me.’ ‘ Oh, it is nothing; don’t think about it,’ I answered, making off at full speed, St M chael’s Church stood in a nook under the cathedral walls ; it is taken down now. It was there that the wedding took place. Dr Lewis arrived at it more like a baby than a bridegroom, helpless and nervons to a painful degree. But Mrs Podd made up for his deficiencies in her grand self-possession ; her white bonnet and nodding feather seemed to fill the church. Anne wore grey silk; Julia and Fanny Podd some shining pink stuff that their petticoats could be seen through. Poor Anne’s tears were dropping during the service ; she kept her head bent down to hide them. ‘ Look up, Anne,’ I said from my place close to her. * Take courage. ’ ‘ I can’t help it, indeed, Johnny,’ she whispered. ‘1 wish I could. I’m sure I’d not throw a damp on the general joy for the world.’ The wedding party was a very small one indeed ; just ourselves and a stern looking gentleman, who was said to be a lawyer-cousin of the Podds, and to come from Birmingham. All the people staying at Lake’s had flocked into the church to look on. * Pray take my arm. Allow me to lead you out. I see how deeply you are feeling this. ’ The ceremony seemed to be over almost as soon as it was begun—perhaps the parson, remembering the parties had both been married before, cut it short. And it was in the slight bustle consequent upon its termination that the above words, in a low, tender, and most considerate tone, broke upon my ear. Where had I heard the voice before ? Turning hastily round, I recognised the stringer of the night before. It was to Anne he had spoken, and he had already taken her upon his arm. Her head was bent still; the rebellious tears would hardly be kept back ; and a sweet compassion eat on every line of his handsome features as he gazed down at her. ‘ Who is he ? ’ I asked of Fanny Podd, as he walked off with Anne. ‘Mr Angerstyne —the most fascinating man I ever saw in my life. The Lakes could not have taken him in, but for mamma’s inventing that little fable of Anne’s going with old Lewis to the Bell. Trust her for not letting us two girls lose a chance,’ added free-speaking Fanny. ‘ I may take your arm, I suppose, Johnny Ludlow.’ And after a plain breakfast in private, which included only the wedding p irty, Dr and Mrs Lewis departed for Cheltenham. The rest has to come.