Miss Twitter's Conspiracy.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 298, 16 October 1873, Page 9

Miss Twitte r's Conspiracy.

Years ago I had a young person in my I service named Annabel Brown. The Brown was not, of course, surprising in d, parlor-maid, but the Annabel was,; and the more so when the cook made Hannibal of it, who, I need not remark, was a gentleman and a general. For my part, I would not encourage such a name at all in one in her position, - but called her plain " Annie," with which she was quite content* She was r,n orphan ; but I had known both her parents, and very honest, good folks they were, with plenty of common-sense too, so that it could not have been they, but her " godfather and godmothers in her baptism " as the Service says, who gave her such an outlandish name — for Christian I can't call it. She was a modest girl, who, if she had a fault in dress, was given to extreme simplicity ; indeed, some of my visitors used to say : " So you have got a Quakeress, I see ;" which was, of course, ridiculous ; for though one does not like one's servants to be chatter-boxes, one likes one's questions I answered by something more than " Yes" or "No," to which, I believe, the vocabulary of the Friends is limited. Moreover, though I am not a great lady, nor anything like it, it was not likely I | should permit my palour-maid to "tbou" and " thee " me, and far less my guests. However, what with the meakness of her manners and the simplicity of her attire, Annabel Brown might have sat for Mrs. Fry, supposing that good lady to have ever been eighteen and a beauty. Annie had brown hair, very silken and plentiful ; large brown eyes like those of a gazelle ; and a soft, rather alarmed expression of face, which, if it did not suggest modesty, was the most hypocritical mask that ever woman wore. Her movements were qnick, but noiseless ; and altogether she reminded one oi a mouse. Like a mouse, however, she was not as regards purloining, even so much, as a rind of cheese. I could have trusted her with untold gold ; and when T had a new honuet or oth^r piece of finery, T felt as certain that Annabel wonld never try them on even, to see how she looked in my cheval glass, as though I kept them under lock and key. Finally and above all, she had no Followers ; or, at all events, they followed at such a distance that they never came within view of my windows, and 1 have a pretty long sight for such gentry. I need not say that Annie was a constant church-goer, and as sure as Sunday ccme round, always went " to hear the Word" (that was her phrase, thoiioh she was by no means a canter) twice a flay whether it was wet or fine. In the evenings she never went out, not evpn on week-days, which itself spoke volumes in her praise. She had no fripnds in town, she said, in explanation of this phenomenon. She was the only maid I ever had who never asked leave to pass an evening with her "friends" or "cousins." Well, being such a pattern of propriety, you may imagine my astonishment on seeing here come home from church one day accompanied by a young man, who left her at the front d >or (my area gate is always locked on Sunday) with a bow that . would not have disgraced Lord Chesterfield. Though a fine moring, it had furred out wet, and I noticed, with no little distress of mind, that the umbrella which he was holding over her with much apparent solicitude was a handsome silk one ; the man himself, too, had an alarmingly genteel appearance. T made sure that Annie would explain this unprecedented circumstance without any inquiry on my part ; and vrhen some hours passai by without her <3oing so, the matter appeared to me all the graver. Accordingly, at night, when she was assisting me in my room, I broached the subject myself. "Annie," said I, "I was very much surprised to see you come home from church this morning accompanied by a stranger. How did that happen ? " "Well, ma'am, it was very wet, returned she (with a simplicity that wonld have quite disarmed me, even if I had entertained any indignation against her, which I did not ; I only felt angry with Ihe man); " and as I had no umbrella, the gentleman, who was at church, himself, kindly offered to see me home." "Annie," said I solemnly, "do not imagine that men — and especially gevtlemen — only go to church as you do, to say their prayers. I once heard a great preacher, Mr. Spurgeon, divide 'churchgoers ' into a number of classes, some of which were of a very unsatisfactory sort. , Among others, there was the ' umbrella Christian,' as he termed it : the man who goes into a church merely to save his hat, or get out of the rain." ! " But please, ma'am, this gentleman | ! had an umbrella," observed Annabel 1 Brown I thought it rather pert, and very unlike herself, that she should argue with me' on this matter ; but still, I was determined not to lose my temper. " In this particular case, that may have been *> so," said I ; " but he' might have gone to church ,with a .wrong motive, for all that. To toy eyes he l <3i<3 not look a suitable person for a young woman in your position to be walking with. He . left you at the front door, and he may have been mistaken as to your condition in life. Did you inform him of it ? "No, ma'am." Annabel Brown was certainly too Quakerish ; any other girl would have seen with half an eye that I was really ' solicitous (for her own sake) to know what the man had said to her; yet all that I could get out of- Annie was : " No, ma'am." It was not treating me, I thought, with the confidence that my conduct towards her had merited. Sjhe might have been more open — like that silk umbrella. Next Sunday waa a fine one, and yet! if you will believe me, Annie came .home again escorted by that very man ! I had gone to church myself, and returned/ as usual, some minutes after her ; but cook informed me — with rather a malicious grin, I thought — that such had really been the case. I had not put the question ; I had merely asked whether Annie had come in,- feeling pretty sure, however, that she had, and was gone up stairs to take off her things, which was the oase. " O yes, ma'am, she 'aye come in. I only wonder her friend didn't oome, in with her ; he seemed so ' very much attached."

'. - # " : What friend?" asked I, with assumed indifference. ,"O pray, ma'am, don't, as me ; Hannibal is snob, a pattern. Otherwise, I should have said as 'ow as he was* a follower." " And what sort of a man was he, cook?" " Oh, quite the gentleman to look at ; fine feathers makes fine birds to them as can see no further ; " and cook looked as if she could see a great deal further, and amongst other things the house robbed, '. and her mistress's throat cut, in no distant perspective. But I did not fear for anything, except upon Annie's account, and resolved at once to give her a good " talking to." " Now, my good girl," said I, having ' summoned her into the drawing-room, "this matter must be put a stop to at once. I will not have that man come to this house again. Don't say 'What man 1 ' because you know who I mean perfectly well I mean the umbrella man." " Please, ma'am, he had no umbrella to-day." She was so .simple, thai I felt quite ashamed of being angry with her. "Umbrella or not," Baid I, "he shall not come here. A man without a name — and with much too good an address -it is perfectly scandalous." "Please, ma'am, his name is Trevelyan." " Then, that is much too good for you," answered your own, and they have evidently deceived him ; and no good can - come of such a misunderstanding to either of you. Do you understand me V " Trevelyan knows, ma'am, that 1 am but a servant," observed Annabel gently, and with a little blush. " Then the more shame for him," said I I sharply. "Mind from this moment, you never walk with him again, or you leave my service." Annabel Brown lowered her head in respectful assent ; she would have, said : ' ' Yes, ma'am," if she could, but the tears were falling fast down her pretty cheeks. I was very sorry for her, but I felt sure that T was doing my duty by her, and did not relent. The next Sunday, she came home alone. She had been very depressed throughout the week, but going to church seemed to have done her good, for she looked much more cheerful. My impression was that she had seen him, and got rid of him ; and in doing so, had discovered the wisdom of such a proceeding. He had shewn his hand— with the false cards in it- -and she knew him for a cheat and a deceiver, and was glad to have escaped tolerably heart-whole. She was not so much to be pitied, however, after all, my gentleman reader, as you shall hear ; so please .to reserve your compassion for the person who really suffered. Mr. Trevelyan at once proceeded to transfer his attentions to me „ The very next morning, Annie, looking rather white, but quiet as usual, brought up a card into the drawing-room. " This gentleman wishes to see you for a few ! minutes, if you are disengaged, ma'am." '* Mr. Arthur Trevelyan !" exclaimed I, reading the printed name; "why, that's never your Mr. Travelyan V She was about to say : " Ye 3, ma'am," but putting on what was for her a bold face, answtred : "Well, I hope he will be mine, ma'am." The next moment, he was in the room, and Annie hiid shut the door, leaving me alone with this Don Giovanni. I am bound to say he was a very good-looking, gentlemanly person, and with anything but an impudent air. " I have ventured to ctxW npon you, madam, with relation to Annabel Brown, who is, I believe, at present your parlourmaid." " Well, sir," said I, very stiff and formal. " 1 thought it would be only courteous to let you know that she would be leaving you, probably before the month is up, in order to become my wife. Tf . as she says, i you forbid us to meet, I shall take her i even earlier, as I find it impossible to exist without her society— at all events on Sundays." • "Take her earlier— make her your wife !" reiterated I : " this is quite incomprehensible to me, sir ; why, you have not seen her half-a-dozen times !" " Nevertheless, madam, it is my intention to marry her, and that at once. She is of age, she tella me, and there is nothing to prevent it." "But there is surely a great difference of social position, Mr. Trevelyan. You have»the. air and manners of a gentleman ; while she" " Forgive me, madam, for interrupting you, but I am sure you are yourself too / mnch a gentlewoman to say anything I derogatory of the person I have selected for my bride." He quite took my breath away, he was at once so proud and so polite. ' ! "I am twenty-six years of age, madam," he went on, " and I know my own mind, and have an independent fortune. There is no sort of use in opposing our engagement, even if your kind heart would permit you to do bo. The chief object of my Calimsj upon you was indeed to request a personal favor of you in connection with our approaching nuptials. Annabel tells me that she has neither father nor mother, nor indeed any friend in London except yourself." " That certainly was my belief," said T, " until lately." Mr. -Trevelyan only smiled at this significant reply. ' " Well, madam, this being so, and you having' reason, I believe, to be satisfied with' Annabel as to her moral qualities, I come to ask you the great favor of your giving her away at the altar." ' '• I give Annie away ! and to you a perfect stranger ! Never !" "My dear madam, I honor your scruples," returned the young man with a low bow (and I imist say, for grace of manner I have seldom Been his equal) ; "but this is the address of my lawyers, and this of a parish clergyman in your vicinity, who will both vouch for my respectability and good family. Beyond these facts, and that I have sufficient means, independent of a profession, to support a wife, I don't feel called upon to speak." Mr. Trevelyan Beemed such a very nice young man, and I had such a true regard for Annabel, that, absurd -as the proposition of my giving- her away to him at first had seemed, I finally came into it, and, about three weeks afterwards, they

were married by special licence. She was not at all puffed up by her good fortune, and though he gave her a great srfrn for her trousseau, she expended it with her usual quiet good taste. Annabel Brown was adapted for any position in life into which she happened to be thrown, and that d,id not require energy or powers of conversation, in which she was certainly deficient ; and out of the fifty maidservants that I have had in my service from first to last, she was the only one of whom I could say as much. " But how," my readers may ask. '• did Annabel get on after she became Mrs. Trevelyan ?" That. I can't tell you, but I can tell you what happened to me in consequence, which is the terrible part of the whole story. A stately carriage drove one day up to my door, and my new maid (a very different one from dear Annie) came running up the stairs in a state of great excitement. "Ornum, please, mum, there's a lord's coach at the door, and her ladyship wishes to see yon." ''What's her name V* demanded I quietly ; for [ did not wish this grinning idiot to suppose that I waa never called upon by members of the aristocracy. " Here's her card, mum : the Lady Haliss Somethink or other." " ft is not your business to read visitors' cards," said I stiffly. " Shew Lady Alice Trevelyan up." The similarity of the name with that of Annabel's husband of course struck me at once ; yet I was totally unable to conjecture her business with poor insignificant me. I was not long, however, left in doubt. A tall, bony, stiff-backed woman of about sixty years of age presently sailed into the room. "Miss Twitter, I believe?" said she. " The same," replied I politely. " Will not your ladyship take a seat ?" "Certainly not," answered she snappishly. "I merely came to see the sort of person by whose nefarious assistance j my unfortunate nephew has been en- j trapped into matrimony. This is the house, is it," said she, looking round my little drawing- room in a very depreciatory way, "where this Conspiracy was hatched? In this vile hole you baited your trap, did you, for that innocent boy ?" " I am quito at a loss, madam, to know what you mean," said I (though I began to guess), "except that you intend to make yourself offensive." " You are right there, woman," she rejoined acidly, "if you should never again be right in your life. It is the only consolation left to me, after the ruin of our house, to tell you to your face what T think of you. You are a treacherous, designing creature ; you entered into a fraudulent conspiracy . Yes, I know it's actionable, if there's a witness ; but if you dare to come near that bell, I'M knock you dovm. I say, you conspired to sednce the affections of my nephew, the Honorable Arthur Trevelyan, heir presumptive to the Earl of Manilands. I don't say you did it yourself ; I wish you hady because then the probability is that the, disgrace would only have lasted for your lifetime : you employed a youth- j ful accomplice, who passed as your maidservant, it seems, and whose fatal charms overcame poor Arthur's scruples. It is my belief that you both ought to be hanged. Don't answer me ; don't venture to speak to me, lest the sound of your hated voice should provoke me beyond all bounds ! You were a witness to this atrocious marriage. I have read your foolish name in the register, you false, perjered, crafty, abominable woman. If I was not a lady born and bred, I don't know what I shouldn't call you !' What she would have called me had she not been a lady of hereditary title, it is impossible to conjecture ; she had an immense vocabulary of abuse even as it was, and she exhausted it. " I shall come again and let you know what my opinion of you really is ! " were her last words, which were perhaps the most terrible of all. She had nearly frightened me o*it of my wits as it was ; and the threat of that scene being re- j peated, lay heavy on my soul for many a day, until my lease waa out, and I took another house. Thank Heaven > I never saw her ladyship again. Once, however, I saw Lady Manilands herself (for her husband's uncle died after a few years) going to court in the very quietest dre«>s in which any lady ever did go there ; she gave me a bow and a smile out of the carriage window, and that was all. She never called on her old mistress. It is my impression that in heart she was not worthy of her husband, flow they goc on together, I never heard ; but what I have narrated is, I think, a lesson to mistresses against encouraging servant maids to wed above their position. I have heard it said by prudent persons : {l Never give anything away ; " but above all I would impress upon all spinster ladies : " Never give a parlor-maid away in marriage to the heir-presumptive of an earldom, especially if he has an aunt who i is touchy about the honor of the family." j