A Lady of England 19
MISS C. O I’m a match for you in all that, and I know Latin,
Greek, and American besides.
WRIG. And what tongue, Madam, do you prefer?
MISS C. O I’m not particular about those sort of things; but if
you want my opinion, why I think pickled tongues are excellent.
WRIG. [_Turning away laughing._] This is either too bad or too
good! [_Aloud._] And your other studies, Ma’am?
MISS C. As for Arithmetics, they’re at my fingers’-ends.
NELL. I have not yet got beyond the Rule of Three.
MISS C. You shall know the Rule of Four-and-twenty, before I
have done with you. We’ll skip the 4, 5, and 6.
NELL. And the Rule of Three inverse?
MISS C. In verse? Yes, you shall have it in all sorts of verse,
merry, tragical, and comical.
NELL. [_Aside._] I shall expire with laughter. [_Retires to the
window._]
WRIG. [_Aside._] I really cannot stand this any longer.
[_Follows her._]
SCULL (the artist). Pray, Madam, may I venture to ask if you
paint?
MISS C. You are a very impudent fellow, to ask a gentle--woman
if she paints. Do I look as if I painted?
SCULL. I beg a million pardons, Ma’am, but as I paint myself ...
MISS C. You paint precious badly then, for you’re as yellow as
a cowslip!
CRAMP. [_Aside._] Is the woman intoxicated or insane?
SCULL. I think--I imagine that there is a little
misapprehension, Ma’am, on your part. My vocation is that of an
artist.
NELL. O Miss Cob, you must see his sketches.
SCULL. You see, Ma’am, there is a new work to come out at
Christmas, which is to be entitled,--_The Mouse on the
Mantelpiece_. The letterpress is in very able hands,--a very
pretty little fairy-tale for grown-up children,--that’s
all the rage now, you know, in this enlightened age. But
the illustrations will be the great thing. A steel-plate
frontispiece, of course, in which will be introduced a number
of winged mice in a variety of positions,--a very clever thing,
I can assure you; and then wood-cuts,--I have the honour of
being intrusted with the designs for them. We are to have a
different illustration for the top of every column.
NELL. That will no doubt be _capital_.
SCULL. It will form a very elegant little volume
altogether,--the most remarkable publication of the day.
MISS C. Well, after my wet walk, I think I’d be the better for
something to warm me.
NELL. You shall have some tea directly, Ma’am.
MISS C. Tea! Wishy-washy stuff!
NELL. Would you prefer gruel?
MISS C. Gruel! I wish you joy of your fare!
NELL. [_Aside._] The fair Arithmetician looks as though she
would not have 3 _Scruples to a Dram_!
CRAMP. I dare say Miss Cob is fatigued after her long walk.
Nelly, show her the apartment. I hope everything is comfortable
there.
NELL. Certainly, Papa. [_Aside to WRIGGLE._] At any rate, I
will venture to say that her room is better than her company.
[_Exeunt NELLY and MISS COB._]
And so on,--the wind-up of the story being that Miss Cob is found to be a
burglar in woman’s disguise; while the artist is a harmless nobody. But
elderly Wriggles, the tutor, who has lived quietly in the house for a
month past, and of whom even Mr. Cramp has had no suspicions, turns out
to be the much dreaded nephew, and to him by right Grimhaggard Hall now
appertains. As, however, he has managed to fall deeply in love with the
punning heroine, all difficulties are solved by their marriage,--Nellie
being equally in love with him. Thus the nephew gains the old home, and
the uncle does not lose it.
CHAPTER VII
A.D. 1849-1853
THE FIRST GREAT SORROW, AND THE FIRST BOOK
It must have been at about this time that Charlotte became increasingly
anxious for more of definite outdoor work among the poor. Her wish was
to be allowed to visit in the Marylebone Workhouse; but difficulties for
a while barred her way. Mr. Tucker objected strongly, fearing the risk
of infectious diseases for his daughters; and no doubt the risk in those
days was far greater than in these, considering the then condition of
Workhouses generally.
So long as permission was refused, Charlotte seems to have contented
herself with the simple duties of home-life. She was not one who would
restlessly fight for and insist upon her own way at all costs, under
the plea of doing what was right. Rather, one may be sure, she counted
the prohibition as in itself sufficient indication of the Divine Will.
However, while submitting, she probably used from time to time some
little pressure to bring about another state of things; and somewhere
about the beginning of 1851 her parents’ ‘reluctant consent’ was, we are
told, at length given. From that time she and Fanny visited regularly in
the Workhouse.
In 1849 Charlotte’s eldest sister, Sibella, was married to the Rev.
Frederick Hamilton, for some time Curate to Mr. Garnier, the Vicar of
Holy Trinity Church, which they all regularly attended. Mr. Garnier and
his wife, Lady Caroline, were especial friends of Charlotte, through
many a long year. Thus the first break in the charmed circle of sisters
was made; and Fanny was now ‘Miss Tucker,’ Charlotte being the second
home-daughter.
Until the spring of 1850 Mr. Tucker kept his health and vigour to a
marvellous extent for a man eighty years old,--for one too who had worked
more or less hard through life from the age of fourteen or fifteen. He
still attended to his India House business, not seeming to find it too
much for his strength; and in the April of that year, after making a
speech in Court, he was congratulated by a brother-Director upon the
force and energy with which he had spoken. ‘Ah,’ he replied, ‘it is only
the last flicker of the taper before it goes out.’
No one had noticed aught to be wrong with him, but perhaps he had himself
been conscious of failing power. Soon afterwards a sharp attack of fever
and inflammation laid him low, and most serious fears for his life were
felt. It was a time of terrible suspense to his own family; not least so
to Charlotte, who had always loved him with an intense devotion. Probably
few fathers are quite so devotedly beloved as was old Mr. Tucker; but not
many men, and especially not many men of his years, can throw themselves
into the interests and amusements of their children, as he was able to do.
They had till then hardly realised how suddenly the call might come. As
his biographer says, he had been always ‘so full of life, there had been
so much activity of body, so much energy of mind, so much elasticity of
spirit, that they had never associated with all this vitality a thought
of the stillness of death.’ Now, without warning, the foe was at their
very door; and the shadow of his great danger weighed heavily upon them
all.
In answer to many prayers he was given back to them again, just for a
little while. But they could never quite forget how nearly he had been
taken from them, how unexpectedly the great separation might come.
Another event of 1850 was the marriage of Charlotte’s brother, William
Tucker, at Brussels. It came almost immediately upon Mr. Tucker’s rally
from his severe illness; and Charlotte had the pleasure of being taken
to Brussels for the wedding by her brother, St. George Tucker, then
home for a short time from India. It would be interesting to know her
first impressions of the Continent, but not many letters of this date
are available. The two which follow are among the last belonging to her
unshadowed younger life, before the true meaning of loss and sorrow had
dawned upon her. One black cloud had gathered and dispersed; but it was
soon to roll up again; and then the storm would break.
‘_Oct. 3, 1850._
‘DEAREST LAURA,--We have finished the volume of stories which
we were reading--which by the way resembled the pottles of
strawberries sold in the streets, capital at the beginning, but
as one gets further on, miserably inferior--and now Fanny has
gone to her dear Will-making, so I keep her pen in company by
writing to you. I soon knocked off my Will, and we have just
the same sum to dispose of, but her large sheets of paper are
not covered yet.
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