THE CLEVER WOMAN OF THE FAMILY

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

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Still Ermine had to continue a widowed bride for full a fortnight,
whilst the funeral and subsequent arrangements necessitated Colin's
presence in Scotland. It was on a crisp, beautiful October evening
that Rose, her chestnut hair flying about her brow, stood, lighted up
by the sunbeams in the porch, with upraised face and outstretched
hands, and as the Colonel bent down to receive her joyous embrace,
said, "Aunt Ermine gave me leave to bring you to the door. Then I am
going to Myrtlewood till bed-time. And after that I shall always
have you."

The open door showed Ermine, too tremulous to trust to her crutch,
but leaning forward, her eyes liquid with tears of thankfulness. The
patient spirits had reached their home and haven, the earthly haven
of loving hearts, the likeness of the heavenly haven, and as her head
leant, at last, upon his shoulder, and his guardian arm encircled
her, there was such a sense of rest and calm that even the utterance
of their inward thanksgiving, or of a word of tenderness would have
jarred upon them. It was not till a knock and message at the door
interrupted them, that they could break the blessed stillness.

"And there you are, my Ermine!" said Colin, standing on the hearth-
rug, and surveying her with satisfied eyes. "You are a queenly
looking dame in your black draperies, and you look really well, much
better than Rachel led me to expect."

"Ah! when she was here I had no fixed day to look forward to. And
receiving our poor little orphan baby was not exactly like receiving
his uncle, though Rachel seemed to think it ought to make up for
anything."

"She was thoroughly softened by that child! It was a spirited thing
her bringing him down here on the Monday when we started for
Scotland, and then coming all the way alone with her maid. I did not
think Alick would have consented, but he said she would always be the
happier for having deposited her charge in your hands."

"It was a great wrench to her. I felt it like robbery when she put
the little fellow down on my lap and knelt over him, not able to get
herself away, but saying that she was not fit to have him; she could
not bear it if she made him hate her as Conrade did! I am glad she
has had his first smile, she deserves it."

"Is Tibbie in charity with him?"

"Oh, more than in charity! She did not take the first announcement
of his coming very amiably; but when I told her she was to reign in
the nursery, and take care the poor little chief know the sound of a
Scots' tongue, she began to thaw; and when he came into the house,
pity or loyalty, or both, flamed up hotly, and have quite relieved
me; for at first she made a baby of me, and was a perfect dragon of
jealousy at poor Ailie's doing anything for me. It was a rich scene
when Rachel began giving her directions out of 'Hints for the
Management of Infants,' just in the old voice, and Tibbie swept round
indignantly, 'His Lordship, Lord Keith of Gowanbrae, suld hae the
best tendance she could gie him. She did na lippen to thae English
buiks, as though she couldna rear a wean without bulk learning.'
Poor Rachel nearly cried, and was not half comforted by my promising
to study the book as much as she pleased."

"It will never do to interfere with Tibbie, and I own I am much of
her opinion, I had rather trust to her than to Rachel, or the book!"

"Well, the more Rachel talked book, the more amiable surprise passed
between her mother and Lady Temple that the poor little follow should
have lived at all, and I believe they were very angry with me for
thinking her views very sensible. Lady Temple is so happy with him.
She says it is so melancholy to have a house without a baby, that she
comes in twice or three times a day to console herself with this
one."

"Did you not tell me that she and the Curtises spent the evening with
you?"

"Yes, it was rather shocking to receive them without you, but it was
the only way of being altogether on Rachel's one evening here; and it
was very amusing, Mrs. Curtis so happy with her daughter looking well
and bright, and Rachel with so much to tell about Bishopsworthy, till
at last Grace, in her sly odd way, said she thought dear Alexander
had even taught Rachel curatolatry; whereupon Rachel fired up at such
an idea being named in connexion with Mr. Clare, then came suddenly,
and very prettily, down, and added, 'Living with Alick and Mr. Clare
has taught me what nonsense I talked in those days.'"

"Well done, Rachel! It proves what Alick always said, that her great
characteristic is candour!"

"I hope she was not knocked up by the long night journey all at one
stretch. Mrs. Curtis was very uneasy about it, but nothing would
move her; she owned that Alick did not expect her, for she had taken
care he should not object, by saying nothing of her intention, but
she was sure he would be ill on Wednesday morning, and then Mrs.
Curtis not only gave in directly, but all we married women turned
upon poor Grace for hinting that Alick might prefer a day's solitary
illness to her being over-tired."

"She was extremely welcome! Alick was quite done for by all he had
gone through; he was miserably ill, and I hardly knew what to do with
him, and he mended from the moment his face lightened up at the sight
of her."

"There's the use of strength of mind! How is Alick?"

"Getting better under M'Vicar and Edinburgh winds. It was hard on
him to have borne the brunt of all the nursing that terrible last
week, and in fact I never knew how much he was going through rather
than summon me. His sauntering manner always conceals how much he is
doing, and poor Keith was so fond of him, and liked his care so much
that almost the whole fell upon him at last. And I believe he said
more that was good for Keith, and brought in Mr. Clare more than
perhaps I should ever have been able to do. So though I must regret
having been away, it may have been the best thing."

"And it was by your brother's earnest wish," said Ermine; "it was not
as if you had stayed away for your own pleasure."

"No! Poor Keith repeatedly said he could not die in peace till he
had secured our having the sole charge of his son. It was a strong
instinct that conquered inveterate prejudice! Did I tell you about
the will?"

"You said I should hear particulars when you came."

"The personal guardianship is left to us first, then to Alick and
Rachel, with £300 a year for the expenses. Then we have Auchinvar.
The estate is charged with an equivalent settlement upon Mary, a
better plan, which I durst not propose, but with so long a minority
the estate will bear it. Alick has his sister's fortune back again,
and the Menteith children a few hundreds; but Menteith is rabid about
the guardianship, and would hardly speak to Alick."

"And you?"

"They always keep the peace with me. Isabel even made us a wedding
present--a pair of miniatures of my father and mother, that I am very
glad to rescue, though, as she politely told me, I was welcome to
them, for they were hideously dressed, and she wanted the frames for
two sweet photographs of Garibaldi and the Queen of Naples."

Then looking up as if to find a place for them--

"Why, Ermine, what have you done to the room? It is the old
parsonage drawing-room!"

"Did not you mean it, when you took the very proportions of the bay
window, and chose just such a carpet?"

"But what have you done to it?"

"Ailie and Rose, and Lady Temple and her boys, have done it. I have
sat looking on, and suggesting. Old things that we kept packed up
have seen the light, and your beautiful Indian curiosities have found
their corners."

"And the room has exactly the old geranium scent!"

"I think the Curtises must have brought half their greenhouse down.
Do you remember the old oak-leaf geranium that you used to gather a
leaf of whenever you passed our old conservatory?"

"I have been wondering where the fragrance came from that made the
likeness complete. I have smelt nothing like it since!"

"I said that I wished for one, and Grace got off without a word, and
searched everywhere at Avoncester till she found one in a corner of
the Dean's greenhouse. There, now you have a leaf in your fingers,
I think you do feel at home."

"Not quite, Ermine. It still has the dizziness of a dream. I have
so often conjured up all this as a vision, that now there is nothing
to take me away from it, I can hardly feel it a reality."

"Then I shall ring. Tibbie and the poor little Lord upstairs are
substantial witnesses to the cares and troubles of real life."

CHAPTER XXX.

WHO IS THE CLEVER WOMAN?

"Half-grown as yet, a child and vain,
She cannot fight the fight of death.
What is she cut from love and faith?
Knowledge and Wisdom, TENNYSON.

It was long before the two Mrs. Keiths met again. Mrs. Curtis and
Grace were persuaded to spend the spring and summer in Scotland, and
Alick's leave of absence was felt to be due to Mr. Clare, and thus it
was that the first real family gathering took place on occasion of
the opening of the institution that had grown out of the Burnaby
Bargain. This work had cost Colonel Keith and Mr. Mitchell an
infinity of labour and perseverance before even the preliminaries
could be arranged, but they contrived at length to carry it out, and
by the fourth spring after the downfall of the F. U. E. E. a house
had been erected for the convalescents, whose wants were to be
attended to by a matron, assisted by a dozen young girls in training
for service.

The male convalescents were under the discipline of Sergeant O'Brien
and the whole was to be superintended by Colonel and Mrs. Keith.
Ermine undertook to hear a class of the girls two or three times a
week, and lower rooms had been constructed with a special view to her
being wheeled into them, so as to visit the convalescents, and give
them her attention and sympathy. Mary Morris was head girl, most of
the others were from Avonmouth, but two pale Londoners came from Mr.
Touchett's district, and a little motherless lassie from the --th
Highlanders was brought down with the nursery establishment, on which
Mrs. Alexander Keith now practised the "Hints on the management of
Infants."

May was unusually propitious, and after an orthodox tea-drinking, the
new pupils and all the Sunday-schools were turned out to play on the
Homestead slopes, with all the world to look on at them. It was a
warm, brilliant day, of joyous blossom and lively green, and long
laughing streaks of sunlight on the sea, and no one enjoyed it more
than did Ermine, as she sat in her chair delighting in the fresh
sweetness of the old thorns, laughing at the freaks of the scampering
groups of children, gaily exchanging pleasant talk with one friend
after another, and most of all with Rachel, who seemed to gravitate
back to her whenever any summons had for a time interrupted their
affluence of conversation.

And all the time Ermine's footstool was serving as a table for the
various flowers that two children were constantly gathering in the
grass and presenting to her, to Rachel, or to each other, with a
constant stream of not very comprehensible prattle, full of pretty
gesticulation that seemed to make up for the want of distinctness.
The yellow-haired, slenderly-made, delicately-featured boy, whose
personal pronouns were just developing, and his consonants very
scanty, though the elder of the two, dutifully and admiringly obeyed
the more distinct, though less connected, utterances of the little
dark-eyed girl, eked out by pretty imperious gestures, that seemed
already to enchain the little white-frocked cavalier to her service.
All the time it was droll to see how the two ladies could pay full
attention to the children, while going on with their own unbroken
stream of talk.

"I am not overwhelming you," suddenly exclaimed Rachel, checking
herself in mid-career about the mothers' meetings for the soldiers'
wives.

"Far from it. Was I inattentive--?"

"Oh no--(Yes, Una dear, very pretty)--but I found myself talking in
the voice that always makes Alick shut his eyes."-

"I should not think he often had to do so," said Ermine, much amused
by this gentle remedy--("Mind, Keith, that is a nettle. It will
sting--")

"Less often than before," said Rachel--("Never mind the butterfly,
Una)--I don't think I have had more than one thorough fit of what he
calls leaping into the gulf. It was about the soldiers' wives
married without leave, who, poor things, are the most miserable
creatures in the world; and when I first found out about them I was
in the sort of mood I was in about the lace, and raved about the
system, and was resolved to employ one poor woman, and Alick looked
meeker and meeker, and assented to all I said, as if he was half
asleep, and at last he quietly took up a sheet of paper, and said he
must write and sell out, since I was bent on my gulf, and an
officer's wife must be bound by the regulations of the service.
I was nearly as bad as ever, I could have written an article on the
injustice of the army regulations, indeed I did begin, but what do
you think the end was? I got a letter from a good lady, who is
always looking after the poor, to thank Mrs. Alexander Keith for the
help that had been sent for this poor woman, to be given as if from
the general fund. After that I could not help listening to him, and
then I found it was so impossible to know about character, or to be
sure that one was not doing more harm than--What is it, boys?" as
three or four Temples rushed up.

"Aunt Rachel, Mr. Clare is going to teach us a new game, and he says
you know it. Pray come."

"Come, Una. What, Keith, will you come too? I'll take care of him,
Ermine."

And with a child in each hand, Rachel followed the deputation, and
had scarcely disappeared before the light gracious figure of Rose
glanced through the thorn trees. "Aunt Ermine, you must come nearer;
it is so wonderful to see Mr. Clare teaching this game."

"Don't push my chair, my dear; it is much too heavy for you uphill."

"As if I could not drive you anywhere, and here is Conrade coming."

Conrade was in search of the deserter, but he applied himself
heartily to the propulsion of aunt Ermine, informing Rose that Mr.
Clare was no end of a man, much better than if he could see, and aunt
Rachel was grown quite jolly.

"I think she has left off her long words," said Rose.

"She is not a civilian now," said Conrade, quite unconscious of
Ermine's amusement at his confidences as he pushed behind her.
"I did think it a most benighted thing to marry her, but that's what
it is. Military discipline has made her conformable." Having placed
the chair on a spot which commanded the scene, the boy and girl
rushed off to take their part in the sport, leaving Ermine looking
down a steep bank at the huge ring of performers, with linked hands,
advancing and receding to the measure of a chanted verse round a
figure in the centre, who made gesticulations, pursued and caught
different individuals in the ring, and put them through a formula
which provoked shouts of mirth. Ermine much enjoyed the sight, it
was pretty to watch the 'prononce' dresses of the parish children,
interspersed with the more graceful forms of the little gentry, and
here and there a taller lady. Then Ermine smiled to recognise Alison
as usual among her boys, and Lady Temple's soft greys and whites, and
gentle floating movements, as she advanced and receded with Stephana
in one hand, and a shy infant-school child in the other. But
Ermine's eye roamed anxiously, for though Rachel's animated,
characteristic gestures were fully discernible, and her little Una's
arch toss of the head marked her out, yet the companion whom she had
beguiled away, and who had become more to Ermine than any other of
the frisking little ones of the flock, was neither with her not with
his chief protector, Rose. In a second or two, however, the step
that to her had most "music in't" of all footfalls that ever were
trodden, was sounding on the path that led circuitously up the path,
and the Colonel appeared with the little runaway holding his hand.

"Why, baby, you are soon come away!"

"I did not like it,--sit on mamma's knee," said the little fellow,
scrambling to his place then as one who felt it his own nest and
throne.

"He was very soon frightened," said the Colonel; "it was only that
little witch Una who could have deluded him into such a crowd, and,
as soon as she saw a bigger boy to beguile, she instantly deserted
Keith, so I relieved Rachel of him."

"See Rachel now; Mr. Clare is interrogating her. How she is making
them laugh! I did not think she could ever have so entered into
fun."

"Alick must have made it a part of her education. When the Invalid
has time for another essay, Ermine, it should be on the Benefits of
Ridicule."

"Against Clever Womanhood? But then the subject must have Rachel's
perfect good humour."

"And the weapon must be in the most delicately skilful hands," added
the Colonel. "Properly wielded, it saves blunting the superior
weapon by over-frequent use. Here the success is complete."

"It has been irony rather than ridicule," said Ermine, "though, when
he taught her to laugh, he won half the battle. It is beautiful to
see her holding herself back, and most forbearing where she feels
most positive. I am glad to see him looking so much stronger and
more substantial. Where is he?"

"On the further bank, supposed by Mrs. Curtis to be asleep, but
watching uncle, wife, and child through his eyelashes. Did you ever
see any one so like his sister as that child?"

"Much more so than this one. I am glad he may one day see such a
shadow of his bright-faced mother."

"You are mother!" said the the little orphan, looking up into
Ermine's face with a startled, wistful look, as having caught more of
her meaning than she had intended, and she met his look with a kiss,
the time was not yet come for gainsaying the belief more than in the
words, "Yes, always a mother to you, my precious little man."

"Nor could you have had a bonnier face to look into," added the
Colonel. "There, the game breaks up. We should collect our flock,
and get them them back to Les Invalides, as Alick calls it."

"Take care no one else does so," said Ermine, laughing. "It has been
a most happy day, and chief of all the pleasures has been the sight
of Rachel just what I hoped, a thorough wife and mother, all the more
so for her being awake to larger interests, and doing common things
better for being the Clever Woman of the family. Where is she? I
don't see her now."

Where is she? was asked by more than one of the party, but the next
to see her was Alick, who found her standing at the window of her own
room, with her long-robed, two-months' old baby in her arms. "Tired?"
he asked.

"No; I only sent down nurse to drink tea with the other grandees.
What a delightful day it has been! I never hoped that such good
fruit would rise out of my unhappy blunders."

"The blunders that brought so much good to me."

"Ah! the old places bring them back again. I have been recollecting
how it used to seem to me the depth of my fall that you were marrying
me out of pure pity, without my having the spirit to resent or
prevent it, and now I just like to think how kind and noble it was in
you."

"I am glad to hear it! I thought I was so foolishly in love, that I
was very glad of any excuse for pressing it on."

"Are the people dispersing? Where is your uncle?"

"He went home with the Colonel and his wife; he has quite lost his
heart to Ermine."

"And Una--did you leave her with Grace?"

"No, she trotted down hand in hand with his little lordship:
promising to lead her uncle back."

"My dear Alick, you don't mean that you trust to that?"

"Why, hardly implicitly."

"Is that the way you say so? They may be both over the cliffs. If
you will just stay in the room with baby, I will go down and fetch
them up."

Alick very obediently held out his arms for his son, but when Rachel
proceeded to take up her hat, he added, "You have run miles enough
to-day. I am going down as soon as my uncle has had time to pay his
visit in peace, without being hunted."

"Does he know that?"

"The Colonel does, which comes to the same thing. Is not this boy
just of the age that little Keith was when you gave him up?"

"Yes; and is it not delightful to see how much larger and heavier he
is!"

"Hardly, considering your objections to fine children."

"Oh, that was only to coarse, over-grown ones. Una is really quite
as tall as little Keith, and much more active. You saw he could not
play at the game at all, and she was all life and enjoyment, with no
notion of shyness."

"It does not enter into her composition."

"And she speaks much plainer. I never miss a word she says, and I
don't understand Keith a bit, though he tells such long stories."

"How backward!"

"Then she knows all her letters by sight--almost all, and Ermine can
never get him to tell b from d; and you know how she can repeat so
many little verses, while he could not even say, 'Thank you, pretty
cow,' this morning, when I wanted to hear him."

"Vast interval!"

"It is only eight months; but then Una is such a bright, forward
child."

"Highly-developed precocity!"

"Now, Alick, what am I about? Why are you agreeing with me?"

"I am between the horns of a dilemma. Either our young chieftain
must be a dunce, or we are rearing the Clever Woman of the family."

"I hope not!" exclaimed Rachel.

"Indeed? I would not grudge her a superior implement, even if I had
sometimes cut my own fingers."

"But, Alick, I really do not think I ever was such a Clever Woman."

"I never thought you one," he quietly returned.

She smiled. This faculty had much changed her countenance. "I see,"
she said, thoughtfully, "I had a few intellectual tastes, and liked
to think and read, which was supposed to be cleverness; and my
wilfulness made me fancy myself superior in force of character, in a
way I could never have imagined if I had lived more in the world.
Contact with really clever people has shown me that I am slow and
unready."

"It was a rusty implement, and you tried weight instead of edge. Now
it is infinitely brighter."

"But, Alick," she said, leaving the thought of herself for that of
her child, "I believe you may be right about Una, for," she added in
low voice, "she is like the most practically clever person I ever
saw."

"True," he answered gravely, "I see it every day, in every saucy
gesture and coaxing smile, when she tries to turn away displeasure in
her naughty fits. I hardly knew how to look on at her airs with
Keith, it was so exactly like the little sister I first knew.
Rachel, such cleverness as that is a far more perilous gift to woman
than your plodding intellectuality could ever be. God grant," he
added, with one of the effusions which sometimes broke through his
phlegmatic temperament, "that this little fellow may be a kinder,
wiser brother than ever I was, and that we may bring her up to your
own truth and unselfishness. Then such power would be a happy
endowment."

"Yes," said Rachel, "may she never be out of your influence, or be
left to untrustworthy hands. I should have been much better if I had
had either father or brother to keep me in order. Poor child, she
has a wonderful charm, not all my fancy, Alick. And yet there is one
whose real working talent has been more than that of any of us, who
has made it effective for herself and others, and has let it do her
only good, not harm."

"You are right. If we are to show Una how intellect and brilliant
power can be no snares, but only blessings helping the spirits in
infirmity and trouble, serving as a real engine for independence and
usefulness, winning love and influence for good, genuine talents in
the highest sense of the word, then commend me to such a Clever Woman
of the family as Ermine Keith."

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