LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2443, 3 February 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE LEWTHWAITE GIRLS. Jl church decoration story. [From “London Society.”] * I don’t believe in town Christmases,’said •Minn Barbara L»wthwaite to her mother one day early in December. ‘ Having known them all my life, I pronounce them to be vulgar—decidedly vulgar.’ •Barbara I’the mother replied, partly in interrogation. ‘ They are bad style/ Barbara went on. 1 have read more Christmas stories than I can possibly remember at this moment, but I cannot recall a single good one that had its scene laid in Bayswater. All the thrilling events came off in the country, and you should know If you read the newspapers, as yon ought to do, mamma, that all aristocratic people go dowa to their baronial mansions at Christmas, and dispense hospitality to their dependents from ancestral balls. ’ 4 Bnt we have no country house,’ said Mrs Lewthwaite, with a shiver, ‘and glad I sm that I dp not own one of those horrible places, where the damp from the trees gives one rheumatism, and all the sand bags in the world would not exclude the draughts from the windows.’ * But cannot wo go to some nice warm house where there are ro draughts ? I should think that if the yule logs were horned as they ought to be universally, as out forefathers had them, there would not be a word heard of the draughts.’ _ ‘There Is no place like home,’ sighed Mrs Lewthwaite, who had great faith in the convincing efficacy of poetical quotations. ‘Yes, for some people,’ replied her daughter—‘people of ignoble aims, as the Poet Laureate would say.’ ‘ I do not know much abont aims, said Mrs Lewthwaite, * but I know Christmas is quite expensive enough without increasing the outlay by running off to Brighton _or some of those Insolvency promoting places, ’ ‘Brighton is not my ideal either,’ Barbara answered. ‘ Christmas Day in an hotel Is still worse style than having it here In Bayswatar. I have been talking it over with Jemima, and wo are agreed. We think consin Henry’s rectory would be the correct thing. They ought to be very glad to have ■os, for they do not scruple to coma here uninvited when there ara May meetings and xoee shows to be held. And yon would save by It, mamma, for you would escape all the Christmas boxes yon are expected to give in town.’ •Not a penny,’ Mrs Lewthwaite said sturdily, ‘not a sixpence.’ Prom the postman down to the newsboy they would all be down on os like harpies when we came back.’

‘ We do so long for a country Christmas, Jemima and I, ’ Miss Lewthwoite Bald, olaipIng her hands ecstatically—‘a real oldfashioned country Christmas, like what one reads of—and we shall never ba happy till we have had one. We long for an ivymantled tower, whether it has owls in it or not is quite immaterial so long as there is a peal of bells. “.t ing out, wild bells, across the snow,” we shall say in real earnest then. I like the thought of a grand wild stretch of country, with only an occasional poacher here an&there to be seen. ’ 4 Poachers !' cried Mrs Lewthwalte. 4 Well, men like poachers; it does not matter mnch either way, I suppose, but it is always a part of the stories. Then there would ba the trees bending beneath the weight of the snowy crystal*; the moon, "temporarily obscured, bursting out from behind the clouds—* 'You can have trees and a moon (n Kensington Gardens; and as to bells, they are wild enough In London In all conscience, for they don’t let one have a wink of sleep on Christmas Eve.’ ‘And the s'tarE,’ pursued Barbara; “‘I saw the g "eat Orion sloping slowly towards the west.” ’ from which unseasonable quotation it will be perceived that Barbara had not profited at school by having the Use of the Globes p»id for extra. *1 suppose.’ Mrs Lewthwalte pnt in sarcastically, the stars are pretty much the same set in the country that we have here at borne ?’ * Bat there is the ohnrcb, the genuine old country church, that is decorated by the parishioners, not by professionals, as in town, 1 have the whole scene in my mind’s eye, mamma; I know it all takes place. There is a manor house, which is always full of guests at Christmas—nice superior people, and generally one or two young Guardsmen, They all oome down and help to decorate the ohnrcb, young ladles as well as gentlemen, and have ladders and curates to reach Co the high-np places. They twine wrea' ha «f ivy and hotly round the pillars, and occasionally burst our ringing a Christmas carol, Then there are always one or two engagements about New Year’s Day, In conss--quence of having fallen in love with each ether at the decorations, and having had a good deal of mistletoe hang up at home.* Poor Mrs Lewthwalte! When her other daughter appeared on the scene, and joined Barbara in her demand for a real genuine country Christmas she ceased to argue, but merely prophesied her own illness and death as the next great family event. 4 Barbara is right,’ Miss Jemima said. ‘Town Christmases are deplorably vulgar. There are always people starving in attics, and immense excitement when benefactors and benefactresses rash breathless np the stairs at critical momenta with baskets of provisions, followed by men staggering under the weight of sacks of coals. Yea, that sort of thing used to be thought highly dramatic, bnt it is played out. Ido not like starving people myself, and of course in the country -Che squire gives the cottagers dinners of roast beef and plum pudding, which is so mnch better an arrangement for every one.*

Barbara and her sister carried their point, and the mother and daughters announced their intention of going down to cousin Henry’s rectory at Nefcley-in-the-Wold, to enjoy the pleasure of a family reunion at the festive season. It can scarcely be said that cousin Henry and his daughter Jane, who was mistress of the house, were overjoyed at the prospect afforded them. Bat if you do not hesitate to quarter yourself once or twice a year on your town relatives, yon must not take it amiss if they return the compliment exactly when you least expect or desire to have -them. The two girls were in great spirits by the time they and their luggage reached the Great Northern Bailway Terminus. Mrs Lewtnwaito was trying to be resigned, and now that they were all in motion began to repose upon the thought of two new and particularly stylish caps which her daughters had added to her wardrobe. ‘For,’ said Barbara, ‘ we are sure to have one or two parties at the manor house, and 1 should not like the squire’s people to think we are dowdy folk like cousin Jane, with her dreadful old turned silk dresses and seedy feathers.’ It was at the ticket window that Barbara’s heart gave its first mighty throb. Two most aristocratic young men, exactly like the fascinating gentlemen of the Christ- ' mas stories, were taking tickets also, and the words * Netley Junction ’ sent the blood up Into Barbara’s temples. How she rushed back to Jemima she never knew. ‘Two,’ she gasped, ‘one dark, one fair; luggage, gun-cases, first class to Netley Junction !' ‘Where? where?' cried Jemima. ‘ There, there,’ answered Barbara, pointing to the travellers, who were picking up newspapers at the bookstall. ‘ And we are going second,’ Jemima exclaimed ; 'what a terrible blander ! Cannot we get mamma to change the tickets? O dear, what a pity ! ’ ‘They are gone into ‘smoking,* ’ Barbara: reassured her a few minutes afterwards. *Wo should only have wasted the extra money, and made mamma disagreeable. At the same time, Jemima, I think smokingcarriages ought not to be allowed, they make young men unsociable. ’ Amid the difficulties of rescuing their luggage at the station for Netley, the Lowthwaite girls had still eyes and ears to watch for their heroes, and had the satisfaction of seeing them received by two young ladies,; who came in a wagonette which the driver! of the fly for the rectory told them was from: the manor house. Barbara was happy now. She could uotj help reminding her companions of her; first proposals to spend ’Christmas In the etountry. ' ' • I

* Depend upon it wo have done well,’ she! —aaid. 'And there is the decoration of the'

church to be done j 1 have taken care that we are in time for that.’ Conein Jane’s reception was scarcely as warm aa Christmas greetings are usually expected to be. She remarked _ that the train was late and dinner waiting, and harried them upstairs. There were fires m the bedrooms. It was true, but apparently they were only just lighted, and the smoko from fresh fir-branches that had been_ thrust in at the last moment made it impossible to close either doors or windows. . This was on Monday evening, and Christmas Day fell npon the Thursday following. Tuesday was cold, frosty and foggy- ®nd as cousin Jane was busy all day in domestic and parochial matters, the sisters were left to their own devices. They walked down to the village, about three-quarters of a mile frcm the home, and took a look at the church. It was not exactly Barbara’s ideal church, having been recently restored by a local architect, who had left his mark on the building by making it sa unlike itself originally aa possible. Still, as Barbara said, it would bear a good deal of decorating. She talked to the old sexton, and asked him h iw the details were carried out —who worked, when they commenced, when they left off, ■ and if the villagers took much interest in the decorations The sexton did not for some time perceive the drift of the questioning; then ho spoke out — , ‘ There’s me, and rector’s darter, anrt squire’s darter mebbe, and t’other one, and two Flibsbys.’ T , Barbara felt stiff in the dark ; but Jemima said to-morrow would clear It all np. Consin Jane seemed surprised to find so much enthusiasm npon the subject of church decoration. , . * I consider it is a great nuisance, she said, * when one has so many other things to attend to, being obliged to shiver all Christmas Eve in a cold damp church. We did very well here till Maude Cumberland came to live at the Manor House. She Is the old man’s niece, and an heiress, so everything has to give way to her. Old Robinson used to stick a bit of holly at every oandlesconco, and it did very well; but these girls are never happy unless they are turning the whole parish upside down. Papa cannot keep a curate twelve months, for bis head is sure to bo turned with flattery, and he makes our lives burdensome by starting schemes and clubs Invented by these girls, which they , expect me to carry on when they leave home.’ It was all exactly as Barbara wished. She begged consin Jane would depute Jemima' and her to take Jane’s place at the church, which the rector’s daughter was only too glad to do. She had borrowed one of Jemima’s dinner dresses, and was eager to copy it in order to wear a similar one at the manor house on St. Stephen’s Day. Breakfast was hastily swallowed on Christmas Eve. and in high spirits Barbara and her sister started for the church. There was no one there when they arrived ; but the door was open, a pile of evergreens lay on the floor in the centre of the nave, and balls of twine on the front of one of the pews. •Only think of people making their decorations in the church itself!’ exclaimed Jemima. ‘ I never heard of snch a thing In my life! Don’t you think we ought to carry our work into the schoolroom ?'

Bnt old Bobinson, on being bunted np, said that this was impossible. Madam was coming down from the manor honse to give out blankets, and they could not go there, so the sisters returned to the church. ‘Don’t touch the chancel,’ cousin Jane had said at parting, ‘for the Cumberland girls make it a part of their religion to oram it np and trick it out themselves. We want new door-mats, the rope from the belfry is at i!a last gasp; bnt the manor honse ladies never do what is useful. ’ 1 And quite right,’ Barbara eaid to her sister privately. 4 The parish ought to bny its own ropes and mats; I quite bold with the Onmberlands. If I lived in the same parish with consin Jane 1 should soon be driven into paganism, for she is one of the most unpleasant Christians I ever met.’ The girls began with the pnlpit. It was very cold work, and very dull, for no one came near Uiuu, not SO mnoU as a curate to give assistance. At one o’clock luncheon was sent down from the rectory—a plate of sandwiches and a jag of milk. Ooasia Jane sent a message with this feast to say she had sent them milk because it mast be a treat to people coming from London, where all the dairies were so dishonestly managed, and the milk fall of disease, Barbara was very hungry, having breakfasted lightly, and she made an elf >rt to partake of the luxuries. The milk was half frozen, and as the lumps of ice rattled against her chattering teeth, she felt as if she oonld never be warm again. For a cup of coffee she would have given the world at that moment. 4 I’d rather, ’ she said to her sister, as well as she conld speak, 4 take my chance of typhoid in the Paddington milk than swallow Icebergs in this dreadful place.’ It was not till three o’clock that any one joined them, and then came two elderly ladies, followed by a maid and a man bearing baskets. These were the Flibsbys, of whom mention has been made. The new arrivals walked up the centre aisle, and paused in front of tbe pnlpit. 4 Don’t yon think it looks well ?’ Barbara said with a glow of pride in her work, * I beg your pardon.’ one of the Flibsbys said sternly. 4 May I ash who yon are and by what authority yon are tampering with the parish church V 'Cousin Jane was engaged at home,’ said Barbara; 4 we have taken her place.’ 'What is she doing?’said the spinster lady sharply. 4 She has a little cold,’ said Jemima, who had been charged not to reveal the secret of the dressmaking. 4 She always has one when there is work to be done, ’ said Miss Flibsby. 4 What tempted you to tonoh the pnlpit, yonng woman ?’ ' It is the centrl feature of the building,’ promtply replied Barbara, ‘and it mast be worked from. The idea for the whole edifice oomes from it. ’ 4 Why have you not done the rest of yonr edifice ?’ asked the other sister Flibsby sarcastically. 4 All in good time,’ said Barbara, with a patronising manner. 4 1 wonder when that will be?’ Flibsby No. 1 retorted, walking np to the pulpit and beginning to strip it of its decorations. Barbara uttered a cry of Indignation, and sprang forward. ‘ Madam 1’ she protested. 4 You need not “madam” me,’said Miss Flibsby, ’for I happen to be at home in my own parish, which yon are not. The assurance of young ladies of tbe present day is beyond belief. Did not Jane Lewthwaite tell yon that we always do the pulpit ? If it waited for her it wonld never be done ; but it has always been a prerogative of onr family to deal with pulpits. Our father was a great theologian—l daresay yon have seen his volumes of sermons in tbe British Museum ; and so long as we both live we decline to be interfered with in respect to this and other pnlpits in the neighborhood, for which wo make ourselves responsible.’ Then, opening the baskets that the servants carried, Miss Phoebe and her sister took ont some festoons ready marie, and began to hang them over the pulpit, now quite stripped of all the decorations arranged by Barbara and Jemima, who stood looking on aghast with dismay. The Fiibsbya’ work occupied less than half an hour, and when it was done they retired from the scene, leaving the Lewthwalte sisters with both wiser and sadder ▼lews of ohnrcb decoration. 4 You had better light the church, and we will get on with our work, Bobinson,’ Barbara eaid wearily. * Light the ohnrcb !’ cried Bobinson, 4 on a week day I’ ‘ Why not ?’ Jemima asked. 'Yon can have a candle if yon like,’ said the old man, ‘ but the lamps are cleaned and filled for Sunday.’ 'Lamps filled !' cried Barbara. ‘So these wretched barbarians have no gas 1 How very dreadful 1* Tbe caudle was brought, and shed a light exceedingly dim, bnt with nothing in the least religions in it. ‘ And how are yon getting on, Jane ? have yon nearly finished ?’ The voice ont of the gloom came from Mil a Mande Cumberland, who, with her consin and tie two yonng men who had last been seen In the waggonette, entered the ohnrcb. ' Jane Is not here, she is at home with a cold,’Jemima said sulkily. ‘ And so will yon be to morrow, I should say,’ replied Miss Cumberland,' If yon have

spent the whole day in this vault. So like dear Jane ; the regulates her colds with such care —always makes them suit her convenience.’ ‘ What good girls you two must be ? must they not, George ?’. the other Mias Cumberland said, addressing the fair young man. ‘Awfully good,’ho assented. •It Is absolutely refreshing to see snch superhuman goodnesr. It comes home to a fellow after having been two days in your company, Maude. I have felt myself being demoralUsed hour after hour.’ ‘I don’t profess goodness,’ said Mias Cumberland ‘To live up to such a aha raoter would kill me in three months.’ ' Especially If It required you to spend a whole day getting your fingers and toes frost bitten in a dreadful hideous old church,’ the other Miss Cumberland added. • And after all,’said George, ‘the gardener could do it all in a oonple of hours ; and do it twice as well,’ ho added ruthlessly, looking at the Fllbsbys’ pulpit, ‘ That is the Fllbsbys’ work, I presume,’ said Maude, ‘lt is calculated to strike a stranger forcibly. I remember the shock I bad on seeing Netley eclecticism for the first time; I should like to recall it, for the sake of the sensation.’ * We have had such a glorious skate—wish you had been with us.’ The last sentence was not true, but Miss Cumberland was good natnred, and pitied the purple noses and dejected air of the Lewthwaite sisters. 1 A couple of hours of the Dutoh roll makes - you feel at peace with all mankind. Miss Lewthwaite,’ said George, ‘and that is so proper a feeling at this season.’ ‘ Are yon not going to decorate the chancel and the font. Miss Cumberland?' Barbara ashed. < Somebody will, I daresay ; the gardener and his assistants will probably come down later, and do their worst at high art decoration, If I were yon I should just leave the church as it is; let old Robinson and our men clean it np, and go home and toast before a good fire. Your cousin has imposed on you shamefully sending you here. Yon need not tell her I said It; bnt she Is snob a terrible sham, talking parish when she is from home, and doing nothing when she is hero. My mother went np to call on yonr mother to-day, Miss Lewthwaite, and we hope you’ll all come to ns on St, Stephen’s Day.’ ‘ If they survive to-day you should add,’ said Maude. ‘ You would have been muoh better with yonr skates on, and enjoying - yourselves aa we did. But then yon are evidently two exceedingly good girls, which my oonaia and I are not.’ Tired and benumbed the Lewthwaite sisters crept home. It seemed as if they would never feel warm again; and consin Jane ignored their Bufferings in the cause of the pariah, and only said she forgot to mention about the Flibsbys, Christmas Day was cold and foggy, and after an early dinner there was a terribly long dnll evening to be got through before bedtime. Rothing had come abont aa the girls had expected. Even the wild bells were nnable to ring oat across the enow, because the ropes were old and would not bear the strain. Severe oolds, caught in the damp ohnroh, settled down on both sisters, and they spent St. Stephen’s Day In bed, more dead than alive. Their mother, cousin Henry, and consin Jane had the glories and dissipation of the Manor House dinner all to themselves. Consin Jane assured the sisters afterwards that they had suffered no loss by being absent, for It was a very stupid affair from first to last. Mand Cumberland was a minx, and her betrothed, Mr George Wlnthrop, a young man whose manners would not be tolerated in any decent society. As soon as convalescence permitted, Mrs Lewthwaite removed her daughters to their own house in London, to poor much despised | Bayswater. Barbara has lost her belief in country ‘ Christmases and churches with ivy-mantled towers, Jemima and she are of opinion that the people who write alluring accounts of old English hospitality, with yule logs, mistletoe, and Bir Roger de Coverley, must ' have Invented the whole eyitam. Cousin Jane added insnlt to insnlt, for she wrote to a mutual friend a withering dennnoiation of the Lewthwaites’ tactics, which she said had never for one moment imposed npon her. After dragging the girls 1 round half the watering- places in England 1 in search of husbands, Mrs Lewthwaite had gone done to Netley to seize on poor dear Jane’s innocent father for one of her daughters, Bnt he had been merolfully delivered from the snare of the fowler, even from that great and andaciona one of those two girls pretending they liked parish work, and longed to decorate a country church. But one must be prepared to find depravity in the denizens of a city like London.