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Lyndon Orr - "Famous Affinities of History V1"

George Meredith - "Evan Harrington, v7"

William Osmer - "A Dissertation on Horses"

Will Irwin - "The City That Was"

THE CLEVER WOMAN OF THE FAMILY

C >> Charlotte M. Yonge >> THE CLEVER WOMAN OF THE FAMILY




He came when some morning visitors were at the Homestead, prosy
neighbours whose calls were always a penance to Rachel, and the
butler, either from the manner of the inquiry or not regarding him as
drawing-room company, put him into the dining-room and announced,
"Mr. Mauleverer to see Miss Rachel." Up jumped Miss Rachel, with
"You'll excuse me, it is on business;" and went off highly satisfied
that "the mother" was hindered by politeness from making any attempt
at chaperonage either personally or through Grace, so unnecessary at
her age, for since Colonel Keith's departure, Rachel's age had begun
to grow on her again. She held out her hand as if to atone for her
search, but she found at once that it had been remarked.

"You were doing me the honour to look for my name in the 'Clergy
List,' Miss Curtis," he said.

"Yes, one is apt--," faltered Rachel, decidedly out of countenance.

"I quite appreciate the motive. It is exactly in accord with Miss
Curtis's prudence and good sense. I should wish to be fully explicit
before any arrangements are made. I am unhappily not in orders, Miss
Curtis. I know your liberality will regard the cause with leniency."

"Indeed," said Rachel, sufficiently restored to recall one of her
premeditated reassurances. "I can fully appreciate any reluctance to
become stringently bound to dogmatic enunciations, before the full
powers of the intellect have examined into them."

"You have expressed it exactly, Miss Curtis. Without denying an iota
of them, I may be allowed to regret that our formularies are too
technical for a thoughtful mind in the present age."

"Many have found it so," returned Rachel, thoughtfully, "who only
needed patience to permit their convictions to ripen. Then I
understand you, it was a rejection on negative not positive grounds?"

"Precisely; I do not murmur, but it has been the blight of my life."

"And yet," said Rachel, consolingly, "it may enable you to work with
more freedom."

"Since you encourage me to believe so, Miss Curtis, I will hope it,
but I have met with much suspicion."

"I can well believe it," said Rachel; "even some of the most superior
persons refuse to lay their hands to any task unless they are
certified of the religious opinions of their coadjutors, which seems
to me like a mason's refusing to work at a wall with a man who liked
Greek architecture when he preferred Gothic!"

If Rachel had been talking to Ermine she might have been asked
whether the dissimilarity might not be in the foundations, or in the
tempering of the mortar, but Mr. Mauleverer only commended her
liberal spirit, and she thought it high time to turn from this
subject to the immediate one in hand. He had wished to discuss the
plan with her, he said, before drawing it up, and in effect she had
cogitated so much upon it that her ideas came forth with more than
her usual fluency and sententiousness. The scheme was that an asylum
should be opened under the superintendence of Mr. Mauleverer himself,
in which young girls might be placed to learn handicrafts that might
secure their livelihood, in especial, perhaps, wood engraving and
printing. It might even be possible, in time, to render the whole
self-supporting, suppose by the publication of a little illustrated
periodical, the materials for which might be supplied by those
interested in the institution.

If anything could add to Rachel's delight it was this last
proposition. In all truth and candour, the relief to the victims to
lace-making was her primary object, far before all besides, and the
longing desire of her heart for years seemed about to be fulfilled;
but a domestic magazine, an outlet to all the essays on Curatocult,
on Helplessness, on Female Folly, and Female Rights, was a
development of the plan beyond her wildest hopes! No dull editor to
hamper, reject or curtail! She should be as happy, and as well able
to expand as the Invalid herself.

Mr. Mauleverer had brought a large packet of letters with him, in all
manner of hands. There were some testimonials from a German
university, and letters from German professors in a compromise
between English and German hand, looking impossible to read, also the
neat writing and thin wavy water-marked paper of American professors
and philanthropists in high commendation of his ability and his
scheme, and a few others that he said were of too private a nature to
do more than show Miss Curtis in confidence, but on which she
recognised some distinguished names of persons interested in Social
Science. She would not wound his feelings by too close an inquiry,
but she felt armed at all points against cavillers. Really, she
began to think, it was a great pity Colonel Keith should cross her
path again, she had so much on her hands that it would be a public
misfortune if any one man's private domestic love should monopolize
her; and yet, such was this foolish world, the Honourable Mrs. Colin
Keith would be a more esteemed lady patroness than Miss Rachel
Curtis, though the Curtises had been lords of the soil for many
generations, and Colonel Keith was a mere soldier of fortune.

One disappointment Rachel had, namely, that Mr. Mauleverer announced
that he was about to return to St. Herbert's, the very large and
fashionable watering-place in the next indentation of the coast. He
had duties there, he said, and he had only come to Avonmouth for a
brief holiday, a holiday that was to result in such happy effects.
He lived in an exceedingly retired way, he said, being desirous of
saving his small private means for his great object, and he gave
Rachel his address at the chief printseller's of the place, where his
letters were left for him, while he made excursions from time to time
to study the picturesque, and to give lectures on behalf of
philanthropical subjects. He offered such a lecture at Avonmouth,
but Mr. Touchett would not lend either school-room, and space was
nowhere else available. In the meantime a prospectus was drawn up,
which Rachel undertook to get printed at Villars's, and to send about
to all her friends, since a subscription in hand was the first
desideratum.

Never since she had grown up to be a thinking woman had Rachel been
so happy as with this outlet to her activity and powers of managing,
"the good time coming at last." Eagerly she claimed sympathy, names
and subscriptions. Her own immediate circle was always easily under
her influence, and Lady Temple, and Mrs. Curtis supplied the dignity
of lady patronesses; Bessie Keith was immensely diverted at the
development of "that landscape painter," and took every opportunity
of impressing on Rachel that all was the result of her summons to the
rescue. Ermine wished Rachel had found out who was the bishop's
chaplain who rejected him, but allowed that it would have been an
awkward question to ask, and also she wondered if he were a
university man; but Mr. Touchett had been at a Hall, and never knew
anybody, besides being so firmly convinced that Mr. Mauleverer was a
pestiferous heretic, that no one, except Lady Temple, could have
obtained a patient answer from him on that head--and even with her he
went the length of a regret that she had given the sanction of her
name to an undertaking by a person of whose history and principles
nothing satisfactory was known. "Oh!" said Fanny, with her sweet
look of asking pardon, "I am so sorry you think so; Rachel wished it
so much, and it seems such a nice thing for the poor children."

"Indeed," said Mr. Touchett, well nigh disarmed by the look, "I am
quite sensible of the kindness of all you do, I only ventured to wish
there had been a little more delay, that we were more certain about
this person."

"When Colonel Keith comes back he will find out all about him, I am
sure," said Fanny, and Mr. Touchett, to whom seemed to have been
transferred Rachel's dislike to the constant quoting of Colonel
Keith, said no more.

The immediate neighbourhood did not very readily respond to the
appeal to it in behalf of the lace-makers. People who did not look
into the circumstances of their neighbours thought lace furnished a
good trade, and by no means wished to enhance its price; people who
did care for the poor had charities of their own, nor was Rachel
Curtis popular enough to obtain support for her own sake; a few five-
pound notes, and a scanty supply of guineas and half-guineas from
people who were ready at any cost to buy off her vehement eyes and
voice was all she could obtain, and with a subscription of twenty
pounds each from her mother, Lady Temple, and Grace, and all that she
could scrape together of her own, hardly seemed sufficient to meet
the first expenses, and how would the future be provided for? She
calculated how much she could spare out of her yearly income, and
actually, to the great horror of her mother and the coachman, sold
her horse.

Bessie Keith was the purchaser. It was an expense that she could
quite afford, for she and her brother had been left very well off by
their father--a prudent man, who, having been a widower during his
Indian service, had been able to live inexpensively, besides having
had a large amount of prize money. She had always had her own horse
at Littleworthy, and now when Rachel was one day lamenting to her the
difficulty of raising money for the Industrial Asylum, and declaring
that she would part with her horse if she was sure of its falling
into good hands, Bessie volunteered to buy it, it was exactly what
would suit her, and she should delight in it as a reminder of dear
Avonmouth. It was a pang, Rachel loved the pretty spirited creature,
and thought of her rides with the Colonel; but how weigh the pleasure
of riding against the welfare of one of those hard-worked, half-
stifled little girls, and besides, it might be best to have done with
Colonel Keith now that her mission had come to find her. So the
coachman set a purposely unreasonable value upon poor Meg, and Rachel
reduced the sum to what had been given for it three years before; but
Bessie begged her brother to look at the animal and give his opinion.

"Is that what you are after?" he exclaimed.

"Indeed, Alick, I thought it was the greatest kindness I could do
her; she is so very eager about this plan, and so anxious to find
poor Meg a good home."

"Purely to oblige her?"

"Of course, Alick, it was much more convenient to her than if she had
had to send about to horse-dealers or to advertise. I doubt if she
could have done it at all; and it is for her asylum, you know."

"Then give the coachman's sixty guineas at once."

"Ah, Alick, that's your infatuation!" and she put on a droll gesture
of pity. "But excuse me, where would be the fine edge of delicacy in
giving a manifestly fancy price? Come and look at her."

"I never meddle with horse-dealing."

"Stuff, as if you weren't the best-mounted man in the regiment.
I shall send a note to Captain Sykes if you won't; he knows how to
drive a bargain."

"And give a fancy price the other way. Well, Bessie, on one
condition I'll go, and that is, that Meg goes to Bishopsworthy the
day she is yours. I won't have her eating Lady Temple's corn, and
giving her servants trouble."

"As if I should think of such a thing."

Captain Keith's estimate of the value of the steed precisely agreed
with Rachel's demand of the original price. Bessie laughed, and said
there was collusion.

"Now seriously, Alick, do you think her worth so much? Isn't it a
pity, when you know what a humbug poor Rachel is going to give it
to?" and she looked half comical, half saucy.

"If she were going to throw it into the sea, I don't see what
difference that would make."

"Ah! you are far too much interested. Nothing belonging to her can
bear a vulgar price."

"Nothing belonging to me is to gain profit by her self-denial," said
Alick, gravely. "You cannot do less than give her what she gave for
it, if you enter on the transaction at all."

"You mean that it would look shabby. You see we womankind never
quite know the code of the world on such matters," she said,
candidly.

"There is something that makes codes unnecessary, Bessie," he said.

"Ah! I can make allowances. It is a cruel stroke. I don't wonder
you can't bear to see any one else on her palfrey; above all as a
sacrifice to the landscape painter."

"Then spare my feelings, and send the mare to Bishopsworthy," said
Alick, as usual too careless of the imputation to take the trouble to
rebut it or to be disconcerted.

Bessie was much tickled at his acceptance, and laughed heartily.

"To be sure," she said, "it is past concealment now. You must have
been very far gone, indeed, to have been taken in to suppose me to be
making capital of her 'charitable purposes.'"

"Your acting is too like life," he said, not yet induced to laugh,
and she rattled on with her droll, sham sentimental air. "Is it the
long words, Alick, or is it 'the great eyes, my dear;' or is it--oh,
yes, I know what is the great attraction--that the Homestead doesn't
possess a single spot where one could play at croquet!"

"Quite irresistible!" replied Alick, and Bessie retreated from the
colloquy still not laughing at but with him; that is, if the odd,
quaint, inward mirth which only visibly lengthened his sleepy eyes,
could be called a laugh.

Next time Captain Keith rode to Avonmouth he met the riding party on
the road, Bessie upon Rachel's mare, and it appeared that Lady Temple
had considered it so dreadful that Meg should not share her
hospitality, that it had been quite impossible to send her away.
"So, Alick, your feelings must endure the dreadful spectacle."

Meanwhile Rachel was hard at work with the subscribers to the
"Christian Knowledge Society." Beginning with the A's, and working
down a page a day, she sent every member a statement of the wrongs of
the lacemakers, and the plans of the industrial establishment, at a
vast expense of stamps; but then, as she calculated, one pound thus
gained paid for two hundred and forty fruitless letters.

"And pray," said Alick, who had ridden on to call at the Homestead,
"how do you reconcile yourself to the temptation to the postmen?"

"They don't see what my letters are about?"

"They must be dull postmen if they don't remark on the shower of
envelopes that pass through their hands--ominous money-letters, all
with the same address, and no detection remember. You don't know who
will answer and who will not."

"I never thought of that," said Rachel; "but risks must be run when
any great purpose is in hand."

"The corruption of one postman versus the rescue of--how many
children make a postman?" asked Captain Keith, with his grave,
considering look.

"The postman would be corrupt already," said Grace, as Rachel thought
the last speech too mocking to be worthy of reply, and went on
picking up her letters.

"There is another objection," added Captain Keith, as he watched her
busy fingers. "Have you considered how you are frightening people
out of the society? It is enough to make one only subscribe as
Michael Miserly or as Simon Skinflint, or something equally
uninviting to applications."

"I shall ask you to subscribe by both names!" said Rachel, readily.
"How much for Simon Skinflint?"

"Ten pounds. Stop--when Mr. Mauleverer gives him a reference."

"That's ungenerous. Will Michael Miserly make up for it?"

"Yes, when the first year's accounts have been audited."

"Ah! those who have no faith to make a venture can never effect any
good."

"You evidently build on a great amount of faith from the public.
How do you induce them to believe--do you write in your own name?"

"No, it makes mamma unhappy. I was going to put R. C., but Grace
said people would think it meant Roman Catholic. Your sister thought
I had better put the initials of Female Union for Lacemaker's
Employment."

"You don't mean that Bessie persuaded you to put that?" exclaimed
Alick Keith, more nearly starting up than Rachel had ever seen him.

"Yes. There is no objection, is there?"

"Oh, Rachel, Rachel, how could we have helped thinking of it?" cried
Grace, nearly in a state of suffocation.

Rachel held up her printed appeal, where subscriptions were invited
to the address of F. U. L. E., the Homestead, Avonmouth.

"Miss Curtis, though you are not Scottish, you ought to be well read
in Walter Scott."

"I have thought it waste of time to read incorrect pictures of
pseudo-chivalry since I have been grown up," said Rachel. "But that
has nothing to do with it."

"Ah, Rachel, if we had been more up in our Scotch, we should have
known what F. U. L. E. spells," sighed Grace.

A light broke in upon Rachel. "I am sure Bessie never could have
recollected it," was her first exclamation. "But there," she
continued, too earnest to see or stumble at straws, "never mind. It
cannot be helped, and I dare say not one person in ten will be struck
by it."

"Stay," said Grace, "let it be Englishwoman's Employment. See, I can
very easily alter the L into an E."

Rachel would hardly have consented, but was forced to yield to her
mother's entreaties. However, the diligent transformation at L's did
not last long, for three days after a parcel was left at the
Homestead containing five thousand printed copies of the appeal, with
the E rightly inserted. Bessie laughed, and did not disavow the half
reluctant thanks for this compensation for her inadvertence or
mischief, whichever it might be, laughing the more at Rachel's
somewhat ungrateful confession that she had rather the cost had gone
into a subscription for the F. U. E. E. As Bessie said to herself,
it was much better and more agreeable for all parties that it should
so stand, and she would consider herself in debt to Alick for the
amount. Indeed, she fully expected him to send her in the bill, but
in the meantime not one word was uttered between the brother and
sister on the subject. They understood one another too well to spend
useless words.

Contrary to most expectation, there was result enough from Rachel's
solicitations to serve as justification for the outlay in stamps.
The very number of such missives that fly about the world proves that
there must be a great amount of uninquiring benevolence to render the
speculation anything but desperate, and Rachel met with very
tolerable success. Mr. Mauleverer called about once a week to report
progress on his side, and, in his character of treasurer, to take
charge of the sums that began to accumulate. But Rachel had heard so
much on all sides of the need of caution in dealing with one so
entirely a stranger, that she resolved that no one should blame her
for imprudence, and therefore retained in her own name, in the
Avoncester Bank, all the sums that she received. Mr. Mauleverer
declared himself quite contented with this arrangement, and eagerly
anticipated the apologies that Rachel was ashamed even to make to
him.

Enough was collected to justify a beginning on a small scale. A
house was to be taken where Mr. Mauleverer and a matron would receive
the first pupils, teach them wood engraving, and prepare the earlier
numbers of the magazine. When a little more progress had been made,
the purchase of a printing-press might be afforded, and it might be
struck off by the girls themselves, but in the meantime they must be
dependent on the regular printer. On this account Mr. Mauleverer
thought it best to open the establishment, not at Avonmouth, but at
St. Herbert's, where he had acquaintance that would facilitate the
undertaking.

Rachel was much disappointed. To be in and out constantly, daily
teaching and watching the girls, and encouraging them by learning the
employment herself, had been an essential portion of her vision. She
had even in one of her most generous moods proposed to share the
delight with the Williamses, and asked Ermine if she would not, if
all things suited, become the resident matron. However, Mr.
Mauleverer said that there was an individual of humbler rank, the
widow of a National Schoolmaster, so anxious to devote herself to the
work, that he had promised she should share it whenever he was in a
condition to set the asylum on foot; and he assured Rachel that she
would find this person perfectly amenable to all her views, and ready
to work under her. He brought letters in high praise of the late
school master, and recommendations of his widow from the clergyman of
the parish where they had lived; and place and name being both in the
"Clergy List," even Ermine and Alison began to feel ashamed of their
incredulity, whilst as to Grace, she had surrendered herself
completely to the eager delight of finding a happy home for the
little children in whom she was interested. Grace might laugh a
little at Rachel, but in the main her trust in her sister's
superiority always led her judgment, and in the absence of Colonel
Keith, Fanny was equally willing to let Rachel think for her when her
own children were not concerned.

Rachel did not give up her hopes of fixing the asylum near her till
after a considerable effort to get a house for it at Avonmouth, but
this was far from easy. The Curtises' unwillingness to part with
land for building purposes enhanced the price of houses, and in
autumn and winter the place was at its fullest, so that she could not
even rent a house but at a ruinous price. It would be the best way
to build on Homestead land, but this would be impracticable until
spring, even if means were forthcoming, as Rachel resolved they
should be, and in the meantime she was obliged to acquiesce in Mr.
Mauleverer's assurance that a small house in an overbuilt portion of
St. Norbert's would be more eligible than one in some inland parish.
Anything was better than delay. Mr. Mauleverer was to superintend
from his lodgings.

Rachel went with Grace and her mother to St. Norbert's, and inspected
the house, an ordinary cheap one, built to supply lodgings for the
more economical class of visitors. It was not altogether what Rachel
wished, but must serve till she could build, and perhaps it would be
best to form her experience before her plans. Mr. Mauleverer's own
lodgings were near at hand, and he could inspect progress. The
furniture was determined upon--neat little iron beds for the
dormitories, and all that could serve for comfort and even pleasure,
for both Mr. Mauleverer and Rachel were strong against making the
place bare and workhouse-like, insulting poverty and dulling the
spirit.

Grace suggested communication with the clergyman of the parish; but
the North Hill turned out not to belong to St. Norbert's proper,
being a part of a great moorland parish, whose focus was twelve miles
off. A district was in course of formation, and a church was to be
built; but in the meantime the new houses were practically almost
pastorless, and the children and their matron must take their chance
on the free seats of one of the churches of St. Norbert's. The staff
of clergy there were so busy that no one liked to add extra parochial
work to their necessary duties, and there was not sufficient
acquaintance with them to judge how they would view Mr. Mauleverer's
peculiarities. Clerical interference was just what Rachel said she
did not want; it was an escape that she did not call it meddling.

One bit of patronage at least she could exercise; a married pair of
former Homestead servants had set up a fuel store at St. Norbert's,
receiving coal from the ships, and retailing it. They were to supply
the F. U. E. E. with wood, coal, and potatoes; and this was a great
ingredient in Mrs. Curtis's toleration. The mother liked anything
that brought custom to Rossitur and Susan.

The establishment was at present to consist of three children: the
funds were not sufficient for more. One was the child of the matron,
and the other two were Lovedy Kelland and the daughter of a widow in
ill health, whose family were looking very lean and ill cared for.
Mrs. Kelland was very unwilling to give Lovedy up, she had always
looked to receiving the apprentice fee from the Burnaby bargain for
her as soon as the child was fourteen, and she had a strong prejudice
against any possible disturbance to the lace trade; but winter would
soon come and her sale was uncertain; her best profit was so
dependent on Homestead agency that it was impolitic to offend Miss
Curtis; and, moreover, Lovedy was so excited by the idea of learning
to make pictures to books that she forgot all the lace dexterity she
had ever learnt, and spoilt more than she made, so that Mrs. Kelland
was reduced to accept the kind proposal that Lovedy should be Lady
Temple's nominee, and be maintained, by her at the F. U. E. E. at
seven shillings a week.

Fanny, however, asked the clergyman's consent first, telling him,
with her sweet, earnest smile, how sorry she was for the little girl,
and showing him the high testimonials to Mrs. Rawlins. He owned that
they were all that could be wished, and even said at her request that
he would talk to Mr. Mauleverer. What the talk amounted to they
never knew; but when Fanny said "she hoped he had found nothing
unsatisfactory, the poor man must be so glad to be of use;" Mr.
Touchett replied with, "Indeed, it is an unfortunate situation;" and
his opposition might therefore be considered as suspended.

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