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 L I B R.ARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UN 1VER.SITY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 823
 
 Jj^j'
 
 ^^ /^ 
 
 
 THE 
 
 LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 J. ^ale 0f English Countri) gift. 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF "MARY POWELL." 
 
 Never her house or humble state torment her; 
 
 Less she would like, if less her God had sent her ; 
 
 And when she dies, green turf and grassy tomb content her." 
 
 Phineas Y-LwicviER.— The Purple Island. 
 
 ' Altrui vile negletta, a me si cara, 
 Che non bramo tesor, ne real verga." 
 
 Tasso.— Za Gemsalemme Liberata Canto Setthno. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. L 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, 
 NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 {All Rights reserved.)
 
 8S5 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 * I. MISS BEAUMORICE CASTS UP HER ACCOUNTS 
 
 II. MISS BEAUMORICE STILL SEEMS MORE AD 
 
 DICTED TO GIVING THAN SAVING . 
 
 III. MISS beaumorice's excuse for her APPA 
 
 RENTLY RECKLESS COURSE . 
 rV^ MISS BEAUMORICE UNDERTAKES WHAT SHE 
 
 DID NOT BARGAIN FOR . 
 V. MISS beaumorice's TWELFTH NIGHT . 
 
 VI. DIPECUNIOSTTY 
 
 VII. A BRIDE ELECT . . * . 
 VIII. TWO OLD LADIES .... 
 
 IX. TEA-TABLE TALK • . • 
 
 X. VISITS AND VISITORS. 
 XI. A DINNER AT THE RECTORY . 
 XII. BEHIND THE SCENES .... 
 
 XIII. HERE A LITTLE AND THERE A LITTLE 
 
 XIV. PETTY CONFIDENCES .... 
 
 1 
 11 
 
 3G 
 
 54 
 73 
 88 
 108 
 130 
 157 
 188 
 216 
 236 
 246 
 272
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MISS BEAUMORICE CASTS UP HER ACCOUNTS. 
 
 " If happy, then it is in this intent, 
 That having small, yet do I not complain 
 Of want, nor wish for more it to augment. 
 But make myself with what I have content." 
 
 Spexsek. Faery Queen, book iv., canto 9. 
 
 T was always Miss Beaumorice's 
 custom to wind up her accounts 
 on the last night of the year. 
 She was but a lady of hmited income, but 
 as her habits were regular, and her desires 
 moderate, she had always contrived to 
 make both ends meet, and keep a small 
 
 VOL. I. 1
 
 2 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 sum untouched in the county bank for a 
 rainy day. 
 
 So this annual winding up was rather a 
 luxury when it came round ; which it would 
 not and could not have been had she not been 
 methodical. She kept her accounts from 
 day to day, and from week to week ; first 
 entering every expense as it occurred in her 
 pocket-book, and then writing out each 
 week's expenses on the Saturday. And 
 another plan of hers was to pay for every- 
 thing in ready money, as far as practicable 
 — her butcher, baker, and grocer, every 
 week, her rent and wages every quarter, 
 to the day. So that if she had died sud- 
 denly at any time, nobody would have 
 been the worse, except for the loss of a 
 good tenant, a good mistress, a good cus- 
 tomer, and a good friend. 
 
 On the last evening of the year in ques- 
 tion, then. Miss Beaumorice, bemg alone 
 and at leisure, was seated at her pretty
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 3 
 
 davenport ^ith her account-book before 
 her. The first three quarters of the year 
 having been already summed up, there 
 only remained to add the last quarter to 
 them ; and lo ! when she had done so there 
 appeared a deficiency ! 
 
 I am not going to say how much it was, 
 because you might either pooh-pooh it, or 
 say, " What a shame ! She ought to have 
 minded what she was about." Her income 
 was probably smaller than yours, so you 
 may ^^ on what you would consider rather 
 an annoying deficiency in your own case, 
 and suppose hers to have been a Httle 
 under that amount. 
 
 It took her by surprise, and vexed her. 
 She was not insolvent, but she had gone 
 beyond the mark ; and the question was, 
 in what particular ? 
 
 " All phenomena,'' says the Times, " are 
 the results of an almost infinite variety of 
 causes ; but in no case can the causes be 
 
 1—2
 
 4 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME, 
 
 traced so far back as in the case of a de- 
 ficiency. The inquirer may attribute it to 
 almost any one of the events of the last 
 century." 
 
 " Ay, ay V say you. " How can that 
 be?" 
 
 Well, without concerning ourselves to 
 know how the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 ]ias sometimes made it out with respect to 
 the national budget, we may follow Miss 
 Beaumorice in her endeavours to trace her 
 much less important deficit. That she had 
 given freely had undoubtedly something to 
 do with it ; and any items exclusive of 
 charities, to that amount, which she might 
 have spared might be considered the items 
 she ought to have spared. 
 
 Say, for instance, her doctor's bill. If 
 she had not sent for the doctor she would 
 not have had the bill ; but without him 
 she might have died ; but yet she might 
 not. But if she had not been ill she need
 
 THE LADY OF LUIITED INCOME. 5 
 
 not have had him, and she would not have 
 been ill if she had not caught cold that 
 very wet day in London. How came she 
 to catch cold ? By denying herself a cab 
 and walking through the rain. Why did 
 she deny herself a cab ? Because she 
 thought the expense might be spared, and 
 hoped the rain would not hurt her. Why 
 did she go out at all that wet day ? Be- 
 cause she wanted her dividends. Why 
 did she want her dividend without delay ? 
 Because otherwise she must have drawn 
 money from the county bank. You see by 
 this time how one might trace back to one 
 thing after another. 
 
 While Miss Beaumorice was leaning back 
 in her chair, immersed in not altogether 
 pleasant cogitations, the tinkle of St. Thad- 
 deus's bell suddenly roused her from her 
 reverie, and reminded her that, for the first 
 time in that district, a Church service was 
 to close the old year and usher in the new
 
 6 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 one. She had heard and read of the 
 Methodists' watch-nights, and of the Mo- 
 ravians ushering in the new year with 
 sound of trum23ets, and she felt greatly 
 impelled to obey the call of this little bell 
 of St. Thaddeus. So she wrapped herself 
 up warmly, and, accompanied by one of 
 her maids, stepped out into the cold, clear 
 starlight, and proceeded briskly along the 
 white, hard-frozen road. 
 
 '' Are you going to church too '?" said a 
 cheerful • friend coming up to her. "I'm 
 so glad ! I hope it will be well attended. 
 How glorious Orion is to-night ! Look at 
 Charles's Wain." 
 
 Talking all the way to church the dis- 
 tance seemed but half its length. 
 
 How pretty St. Thaddeus looked, with 
 the light streaming through the lancet 
 windows ! There was not a full attend- 
 ance, for the novelty of the service induced 
 many to remain snugly toasting themselves
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME, 7 
 
 by their fires who might very well have 
 turned out ; but there were sundry cheer- 
 ful girls who had persuaded their brothers 
 to accompany them, sundry resolute ma- 
 trons who had exacted their husbands' 
 companionship ; so that what with young 
 men and maidens, old men, lone widows, 
 and school-children, the church was about 
 half full. It was well warmed, and a fine, 
 invisible web of Christian fellowship seemed 
 to connect them all together in bonds of 
 sympathy : the prayers were hearty, the 
 responses were hearty, the singing was 
 hearty. And then the incumbent, Mr. 
 Nuneham, gave a short stirring sermon 
 that went straight from his own heart to 
 the hearts of his hearers. 
 
 '' There are advantages," he said, " at- 
 tending the public worship of the church 
 which are peculiarly felt on an occasion 
 like this. Sobering thoughts, not untinged 
 with melancholy, are naturally called forth
 
 8 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 by the consciousness that another year is 
 just departing beyond recall, and a new 
 year is about to open on us, fraught with 
 we know not what startling or saddening 
 events. Who of us can read the history 
 of the coming year ? The happier it finds 
 us, the more we have to lose. Even if we 
 stood alone in the world, and wrapped the 
 cloak of selfishness around us, and re- 
 treated from the threatened miseries of 
 others into the narrow citadel of our own 
 bosoms, we should be unable to resist the 
 impulses of sadness; but as it is, sur- 
 rounded by the closest and dearest ties, it 
 is agony to feel that though at this moment 
 we may be free from any pressing trouble 
 on their account, the next may snatch our 
 happiness away, and we may be left lonely 
 and desolate. I confess for my own part, 
 my friends" (and he was a family man 
 who spoke), " that I should be absolutely 
 miserable when I reflect on this, but for
 
 THE LADY OF LULITED INCOME. 9 
 
 the practical support which religion gives 
 the soul ; and reasonable and reassuring is 
 it, therefore, for us thus to collect together, 
 thoughtfully to reconsider the difficulties 
 and dangers of the past year, from which no 
 foresight of our own could have spared us, 
 the mercies and blessings accorded which 
 no power of ours could have attained, and 
 thankfully to entrust our future to the 
 same loving Father who has led us thus 
 far on our journey ; honestly and faithfully 
 intending and promising to follow His 
 guidance. He deigning to continue our 
 helper." 
 
 This is enough for a sample. It need 
 only be added that the little handful of 
 people left the chiu'ch strengthened and 
 cheered onward, and that Miss Beaumorice 
 said within herself, — 
 
 " Lonely T may be, but wrapped in the 
 cloak of selfishness I will not be — God 
 being my helper."
 
 10 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 The joyous bells were still ringing out in 
 honour of the birthday of the new year, 
 as if it needs must bring better gifts and 
 fewer troubles than the last. Every 
 English tower and steeple joined in that 
 glad acclaim, and yet those thankful notes 
 were not heard from one to another, for 
 many of them were far apart, and seemed 
 to the ringers alone in their melody — just 
 as the prayers of the faithful seem to them- 
 selves solitary, when in fact they will go 
 up together like the morning and evening 
 incense of the old dispensation, " which is 
 the prayers of the saints."
 
 CHAPTEE 11. 
 
 MISS BEAUMORICE STILL SEEMS MOEE AD- 
 DICTED TO GIVING THAN SAVING. 
 
 " And what her charity impairs 
 She saves by prudence in affairs." 
 
 EW Year's day I Who can resist 
 keeping this day as the Jews 
 kept the fourteenth day of the 
 month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the 
 same — making them days of feasting and 
 joy, and of sending portions one to another, 
 and gifts to the poor? But how and if 
 you are poor yourself? Why, take your 
 gifts and be thankful. 
 
 "It is all very well,'' thought Miss
 
 12 TILE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 Beaumorice, on waking, " to talk about 
 the extravagance of Noureddin of Balsora, 
 and laugh at his catch- word — ' It is a gift!' 
 — but, after all, he was a much more agree- 
 able fellow than that greedy Baba Abdalla, 
 who never knew when he had enough ; 
 and for my part, I would a thousand times 
 rather have had Noureddin's misfortunes 
 than those of the blind beggar, who asked 
 Haroun Alraschid to give him a box on the 
 ears. Though extremes should be avoided, 
 of course." 
 
 And she smiled as she thought of the 
 agreeable surprise she had prepared for her 
 maids, of two bright new silver thimbles. 
 But what was her own surprise when she 
 saw they had been beforehand with her, 
 and placed on her toilet a pretty pin- 
 cushion of spotted muslin over pink, with 
 little flower tumbler in the centre, ticketed 
 " From Jessy and Alice, wishing dear Miss- 
 Beaumorice a happy new year.''
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME, 13 
 
 " The good girls !" exclaimed she, quite 
 audibly, though softly ; and a tear shot 
 into her eye, for in the night she had lain 
 awake, thinking over her affairs, and that 
 detested deficiency had taken advantage 
 of loneliness, darkness, and silence, to 
 rear itself up in ridiculously exaggerated 
 proportions, till she had felt quite cowed 
 by it. 
 
 " I can go into lodgings," thought she ; 
 '' I can limit myself to one servant. I had, 
 indeed, hoped to keep Jessy till she was 
 married, by which time Alice would be quite 
 equal to a single-handed place, but no suitor 
 seems to turn up, and perhaps Jessy is 
 destined, like her mistress, to a single life. 
 I never would stand in the way of a 
 servant's respectably settling herself, as all 
 my girls have known in their turn ; but 
 Jessy's turn has not come yet, and perhaps 
 may not, though I can't think where the 
 young men's eyes are, for there is not a
 
 14 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 prettier, pleasanter-looking girl in Lambs- 
 croft. Poor Jessy ! that would be a natural 
 way of parting with her, and I could keep 
 on with Alice without taking another. But 
 perhaps a different course is laid out for us. 
 Well, what must be must !" 
 
 And now here was this little offering, 
 which really, considering the circumstances 
 of the donors, was quite touching. Sweet 
 and serious thoughts took possession of her 
 mind, and as she dressed she repeated to 
 herself the New Year's hymn, beginning, — 
 
 " I come, my Lord, to offer up to Thee 
 
 A worthless but a willing offering : 
 A heart where only evil I can see, 
 
 Yet not, for that, refuse the gift I bring. 
 Oh deign to accept it — cast each evil out, 
 And make it i:)ure and new within, without. 
 
 " I come, my Lord, to offer up to Thee 
 
 The brief remainder of life's fleeting span ; 
 
 Whate'er I have or am Thine own shaU be ; 
 Without Thee I will form no wish or plan. 
 
 Time, talent, influence, actions, thoughts and words, 
 
 All— all be unreservedly my Lord's."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 15 
 
 Idle words ! — worse than idle, if uttered 
 without sincere intention of fulfilment. But 
 she did intend it, though in a vague, unde- 
 fined way. 
 
 On her breakfast-table, oh ! what a heap 
 of letters ! good wishes of the season. 
 Some from scattered members of her family, 
 some on engraved cards — invitations to 
 subscribe to charitable societies in want of 
 funds — to a volunteer corps in want of 
 colours — to a church in want of a steeple — 
 to help a decayed gentlewoman to support 
 a large family. 
 
 " How am I to do it, who am a decayed 
 gentlewoman barely able to support a 
 small one ? Why need a church have a 
 steeple ? Why need volunteers have 
 colours ? Ah, I should like to subscribe 
 to this orphan asylum. Two bills ? 
 when I don't owe a penny ! Why, now, 
 this is too bad of Marriott to send in 
 this account again, when I have his receipt
 
 16 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 on the file. This other, for a riding-whip 
 and walking-cane, is of course a mistake, or 
 a very si>upid joke. Who can this be 
 from ?" (opening another envelope). " Alured 
 Ward, I declare !" 
 
 This Alured Ward was the son of an 
 English physician in a foreign court; his 
 mother, who was dead, had been Miss Beau- 
 morice's early friend, she had therefore a 
 very tender feeling towards this youth, 
 whom she had never seen, nor as yet com- 
 municated with by letter, and she therefore 
 with lively interest read the following 
 lines : — 
 
 " Dec. 30, 186—. 
 
 "Dear Miss Beaumorice, — 
 
 Will you, in consideration of my 
 being my mother's son, forgive this imper- 
 tinent intrusion ? My father charged me 
 to make acquaintance with you, and if you
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 17 
 
 will give me leave, I will run down to you 
 from Saturday to Monday. I hope this 
 wiU not inconvenience you very much, but 
 there is time to write and tell me if it is so. 
 I have been cramming pretty hard lately 
 for my pass examination, and have rather 
 overdone it, but I am very anxious not to 
 get plucked, for my father's sake as well as 
 my own. Hoping soon to see you, (111 
 come by the five-thirty) and wishing you 
 the compliments of the season, I am, dear 
 Miss Beaumorice, faithfully yours, 
 
 " Arthur Alured Ward.'"' 
 
 It was not much of a note, but she was 
 exceedingly pleased with it. A smile stole 
 over her face. 
 
 " How very apropos^' thought she, " that 
 I have asked Mary to come down. If any- 
 thing comes of it it will not be my doing — 
 / have not brought them together. Things 
 
 VOL. I. 2
 
 18 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 must take their chance. Stay; here is a 
 line from Mary." 
 It ran thus : — 
 
 " My Dear Miss Beaumokice, — 
 
 " It will be of trivial moment to you, 
 but is an extreme disappointment to me, 
 that I cannot leave home at present. Let 
 me hope that you will kindly give me some 
 future opportunity of coming to you. Wish- 
 ing you many very happy years, believe me, 
 my dear Miss Beaumorice, your affectionate 
 young friend, 
 
 "Mary Beaufort." 
 
 '* No, Mary, I won't believe it ; you are 
 a very tiresome child. If there is anything 
 I hate, it is people disappointing me when 
 I ask them to come, and proposing to come 
 when I don t ask them." 
 
 So she wrote Mary rather a dry an- 
 swer, and then wrote Alured a very plea- 
 sant one, begging him to come and stay as
 
 THE LADY OF LUIITED INCOME. 19 
 
 long as he could. By tlie time she had 
 concluded this genial composition she was 
 disposed to forgive Mary for what, after all, 
 she could not help ; so she burnt her note 
 to her, and wrote a second fall of kindli- 
 ness. 
 
 All the while she was ]3enning these let- 
 ters she was worried by the music of a 
 hand-organ playing outside the house. 
 
 " What nuisances those organ-boys are !" 
 thought she ; "I make it a principle not to 
 encourage them, much as they are to be 
 pitied for being mere tools in the hands of 
 designing speculators." 
 
 Yet, shortly afterwards, as she was car- 
 rying her letters to the post, and saw, to 
 her surprise, that the organ-player was not 
 a boy, but a girl of twelve or thirteen, look- 
 ing very worn and wan, she was touched 
 with pity, and gave her a penny. The 
 little girl's large dark eyes instantly bright- 
 ened as she said, — 
 
 2—2 •
 
 20 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " Grazie, signora !" 
 
 " That organ is too heavy for you," said 
 Miss Beaumorice, stopping short. " Have 
 you been in England long T 
 
 With a very foreign accent the little girl 
 replied, — 
 
 " Two year, my lady." 
 
 " Where do you come from ?" 
 
 " Grenoa, my lady." 
 
 " Are you an orphan ?" 
 
 " My father dead, my lady." And she 
 looked sad. 
 
 The little girl was not exactly pretty, 
 her long straight nose was too large, and 
 her skin very pallid, and not over-clean ; 
 but she reminded Miss Beaumorice of a 
 very noble type of beauty, and, what was 
 of more importance in her estimation, had 
 a good, intelligent brow^, expressive eyes, 
 and a mouth betokening a sweet disposi- 
 tion. 
 
 ** Are you happy T said she.
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 21 
 
 *' Ah, no, not happy/' And the little 
 gu-Fs eyes filled with tears. 
 
 " Are you kindly treated T 
 
 " The lady will excuse me ; I have very 
 little Enghsh." 
 
 " I think you speak English very nicely. 
 What is your name T 
 
 " Rosina, my lady." 
 
 " E-osina is a very pretty name. Who 
 takes care of you ?" 
 
 " My mother, my lady." 
 
 '' Oh ! you have a mother, have you ? 
 Where is she T 
 
 '' In the town, my lady." 
 
 " Humph ! Well, Eosina, I wish I could 
 put you into a better way of life. Suppose 
 your mother comes to speak to me to-mor- 
 row morning. I live in that white house." 
 
 " Si, signora." 
 
 " And here is sixpence for you for having 
 taken up your time. I should like to talk 
 to you a Httle longer, but I am in a hurry
 
 22 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME, 
 
 just now. Be a good girl, Eosina, what- 
 ever jou do. You know what being good 
 is — be a good girl." 
 
 " Oh yes, my lady !" (and there were 
 tears in her eyes), " I %mll be good — I don't 
 do nothing bad." 
 
 As Miss Beaumorice pursued her way 
 she thought, " I am sure there is good in 
 that child — perhaps the making of a good 
 and noble character ; but how little I had 
 to say to her ! What's the use of being 
 able to read Tasso and Manzoni and Silvio 
 Pelhco, if the right words don't come at 
 the right moment ? A few Italian phrases 
 would have unlocked her heart. Happy 
 the people who can make their acquire- 
 ments available, and say just the right 
 thing at the right time." 
 
 Italy, its wrongs and its rights, its short- 
 comings and its aspirations, occupied Miss 
 Beaumorice's thoughts most of the way to 
 the post-office. Afterwards she looked in
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED IXCOME. 23 
 
 on Miss Partridge, who had accompanied 
 her to church the previous evening. Miss 
 Partridge was a governess of superior at- 
 tainments, who had overworked herself in a 
 too arduous situation, and was now availing 
 herself of the Christmas holidays to recruit 
 her health in country lodgings. Her attack 
 was chiefly on the nerves ; and though, in 
 a general way, quiet is the best panacea for 
 that complaint, yet, to a naturally active, 
 mind, quiet and cessation of employment 
 sometimes prove the worst of torments. 
 Miss Partridge could usually get through 
 the day pretty well if she were able 
 to have a Httle exercise in the open air ; 
 but she had taken cold overnight, and fan- 
 cied herself obliged in common prudence to 
 keep the house, where she unfortunately 
 was overtaken by a fit of low spirits. 
 Nothing could be more propitious for her, 
 then, than this visit from Miss Beaumorice, 
 who began by hearing of all her complaints.
 
 24 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 and ended by making her forget them. 
 She even persuaded her that it would not 
 hurt her to take an early cup of tea with 
 her ; and they had a quietly cheerful even- 
 ing together. 
 
 Rosina came next morning with red eyes 
 to say her mother was very ill and unable 
 to leave her bed. Miss Beaumorice imme- 
 diately thought that she might have weakly 
 yielded to sentiment in this case, and was 
 being imposed upon. To satisfy herself 
 whether it were so, she made the little girl 
 take her to the low lodging-house where her 
 mother was lying, and by the way made use 
 of such Italian as she could muster, to ask 
 her several searching questions. Du'ectly 
 Hosina found herself addressed m her own 
 language, her countenance cleared in a won- 
 derful manner, and she began to speak a 
 great deal too rapidly in Italian for Miss 
 Beaumorice to follow her ; but yet she ob- 
 tained a general idea of her story, a sad
 
 TRE LADY OF LIMIT ED INCOME. 25 
 
 one, and felt her kindly impressions re- 
 vive. 
 
 Tlie low lodging-house to which they 
 were going, in spite of having once been a 
 mansion of importance, was now a mere 
 nest of tramps. Outside, it was picturesque 
 with post and pillar work, and had mottos 
 and armorial devices ; inside, the wide, 
 shallow oaken staircase, with heavy carved 
 banisters like Horace Walpole's at Straw- 
 berry Hill, had great apertures ready to 
 trip up the unwary, with fowls perched on 
 the handrails that fluttered off with a 
 screeching cry as they passed. 
 
 It was so dark that Miss Beaumorice 
 groped and stumbled after her light-footed 
 guide, till she opened a creaking door at 
 the head of the stairs. The room was of 
 noble proportions, but the atmosphere was 
 so close as to be quite sickening, and it did 
 not seem to have known a scrubbing-brush 
 and pail of water since the days of its
 
 26 THE LADY OF LIMITED IJSCOME. 
 
 old glories. A group of shabby women, 
 gathered about the sick bed, looked round, 
 and some with instinctive respect curtseyed 
 to Miss Beaumorice as she entered, while 
 others regarded her with a hard stare. 
 
 " We can't understand a word she says," 
 said one of them. 
 
 '' Let me try," said Miss Beaumorice^ 
 gently ; and stooping over the poor woman, 
 she spoke a few words in Italian — perhaps 
 only " Come state ?""' but few as they were, 
 they fell like music on the poor creature's 
 ear. She was evidently very ill, nay, 
 dying, and she asked for a priest. Miss 
 Beaumorice told her there was not one 
 within reach, but then with a great effort 
 calling to mind the Italian version of the 
 Lord's Prayer, she slowly and reverently 
 repeated it, and the poor woman's face 
 became tranquillized. She murmured some- 
 thing about '' La mia figlia," and Miss Beau- 
 
 * How are you 1
 
 THE LADY OF LUHTEB IXCOME. 27 
 
 morice gathered that her chief anxiety was 
 about her child. She said, — 
 
 "Be at ease aloout her. I will do for 
 her what I can.'' 
 
 A look of joy lighted up the mother s 
 face : the next instant she was racked with 
 pain ; and the parish doctor s assistant 
 coming in, pronounced it a case of organic 
 disease, and said life could not be prolonged 
 many hours. In fact, the poor woman died 
 soon afterwards, much soothed by Miss 
 Beaumorice's ministrations ; her burial de- 
 volved on the parish, and was conducted 
 with almost as much celerity as it would 
 have been in her own land. The orphan 
 Rosina must either go to the workhouse, 
 trudge to London on foot with her organ 
 at her back, or receive temporary shelter 
 from Miss Beaumorice. She took her home 
 with her, and spoke thus to her maids : — 
 
 " Jessy and Alice, I never find you want- 
 ing in kindness. This poor little girl has
 
 28 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 lost her mother and is friendless. She will 
 not be here long, for I shall soon put her in 
 proper charge ; but meanwhile we will clean 
 her and dress her and be kind to her. You 
 know who said, ' I was a stranger, and ye 
 took me in.' '' 
 
 This was quite enough. The good girls 
 took Eosina away, to have due washing 
 and brushing, while Miss Beaumorice 
 from her stores of mended and ready-made 
 garments produced a complete suit of 
 clothes in which, at prayer-time, she made 
 her appearance neatly dressed. 
 
 Earlier in the evening Miss Beaumorice 
 wrote to the secretary of a London mis- 
 sionary society, begging him to put her in 
 communication with one of the missionaries 
 to the Italians in London. 
 
 This was on the Thursday ; on the Satur- 
 day she received not a letter but a visit 
 from Signer Emmanuele Bonomi, who in 
 his outward man was exactly her heait ideal
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 29 
 
 of il re galant^-uomo, only with a beard 
 instead of a moustache. 
 
 This excellent man had originally been 
 educated for the priesthood, but had been 
 withdrawn from the Romish faith by the 
 perusal of the Bible. To escape the In- 
 quisition he fled to England, where the 
 only method of support that immediately 
 presented itself was teaching his own 
 language. Means of usefulness, however, 
 occurred among his poorer countrymen in 
 London, and the object he constantly kept 
 in view was the welfare of his beloved 
 Italy. Finding himself one day beside the 
 dying bed of a poor artist, who was about 
 to leave his little girl destitute in a land of 
 strangers. Signer Bonomi soothed his last 
 moments by promising to adoj)t her, and 
 he took the httle girl home to his wife, in 
 faith that means would be aflbrded them 
 for her support. That very day he received 
 ^YQ shillings anonymously, as an earnest of
 
 30 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 a supply which ever after, from one quarter 
 or another, flowed in sufficient for his 
 exigencies. He had long desired to train 
 female teachers for Italy, in the belief that 
 her day of regeneration was at hand, and 
 he added one little orphan after another to 
 his home, till nineteen Italian girls were in 
 Protestant training, and fitted by their ac- 
 complishments for superior governesses and 
 schoolmistresses, just as the opening for 
 them occurred. 
 
 Such was the outline of the history of 
 the brisk, cheerful-looking man who now 
 called on Miss Beaumorice. She had just 
 prevailed on Miss Partridge, who had 
 looked in on her, to remain and partake of 
 her early dinner, for a friend had sent her a 
 hare and a brace of pheasants, and Miss 
 Beaumorice was strong in the consciousness 
 of having a better entertainment in store 
 than usual. Alured would not come till 
 the evening, but one of the pheasants
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME, 31 
 
 would not keep, and there was still another 
 in reserve for him, besides the hare ; so 
 what could be more fortunate for the lady 
 of limited income than her having it in her 
 power to invite friends on the spur of the 
 moment to a repast she might be modestly 
 proud of ? 
 
 But first she must hear what her dis- 
 tinguished-looking visitor had to say ; and 
 as she took a lively interest in the spiritual 
 and social progress of Italy, she was eager 
 to hear the latest news from an authentic 
 source. Soon her visitor, finding himself 
 with sympathizers, was giving animated 
 details ; but though he could tell of the 
 circulation of twenty thousand Bibles, in a 
 land hitherto closed against the Scriptures, 
 and of twenty three thousand pupils in the 
 elementary schools of the ex-kingdom of 
 Naples, where the people had hitherto been 
 systematically debarred from instruction, he 
 owned that not many rich, not many noble,
 
 32 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 were yet called from darkness into light. 
 It was chiefly among the artisan class, as 
 in the days of the apostles, that the word 
 of the Lord grew and prevailed. 
 
 He checked himself in the midst of this 
 interesting subject to inquire about the little 
 girl, concerning whom Miss Beaumorice had 
 written. She rang for Eosina, who came 
 in, looking very sad, but neat and clean. 
 She underwent a long examination from 
 him, and was then sent back to the kitchen. 
 Signer Bonomi observed that she seemed 
 so utterly without relations or natural 
 guardians that it would be a work of charity 
 to put her in the way of some respectable 
 livelihood, and at the same time of religious 
 instruction. He was already empowered 
 by his wife to state her concurrence in any 
 arrangement he should make for undertak- 
 ing her charge on the quarterly payment of 
 a very moderate sum ; and our lady of 
 limited income, on hearing it named, at
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 33 
 
 once decided to advance it, at whatever 
 cost of her own convenience. She would 
 not let such an opportunity be lost. 
 
 " It would not do," Signer Bonomi ob- 
 served, " to try to rescue all the little organ 
 boys and girls from their precarious life, 
 unless with an express vocation for such a 
 service ; but because one could not save all, 
 was no reason for not saving one." 
 
 And his eyes kindled as he told how 
 means had always flowed in to him from 
 one source or another, ever since he began 
 his life of faith. 
 
 " Life is not given us for mere elegant 
 and intellectual recreation, signora. On 
 every side of us how much work there is 
 to be done ! A true genius always finds 
 new subjects for his pen or pencil, and the 
 benevolent need never be long in search 
 for a new vocation." 
 
 . This was so completely Miss Beaumorice's 
 own opinion, that she gave it her cordial 
 
 VOL. I. 3
 
 34 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 npproval, and then it was that, Sign or 
 Bonomi rising to take leave just as the 
 clock struck one, she, strong in the con- 
 sciousness of being able to dispense ox-tail 
 soup and pheasant, pressed him to lunch at 
 her early dinner with such frank cordiality, 
 that he, being a hungry man, gladly com- 
 plied. 
 
 Then, it need hardJy be said, ensued the 
 feast of reason and the flow of soul, for 
 they had a most comfortable chat on Italian 
 literature, and he quoted some beautiful 
 verses which were new to them, by Giovanni 
 Prati, a modern poet, who has successfully 
 grafted the romantic ballad on the poetical 
 literature of his country. They were 
 "Lines written to the Order of King 
 Charles Albert, in 1843 ;" and after reciting 
 them con spirito^ he added with a smile, 
 " they have had the honour of being pro- 
 hibited." 
 
 " Dear me !" exclaimed Miss Beaumorice
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 35 
 
 when he had gone, taking Eosma with him, 
 '^ I feel as if I could work my fingers to 
 the hone to help such a man as that ; don't 
 you r 
 
 " Yes, I think I do/' said Miss Partridge. 
 
 '^Dont let us content ourselves with 
 mere feehngs then." 
 
 " But what can I do ? I have so little 
 money." 
 
 " But you have plenty of talent, and you 
 know he said some ladies were going to 
 hold a bazaar for the benefit of the mission. 
 Let us work for it." 
 
 Agreed. 
 
 3—2
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 MISS beaumorice's excuse for her ap- 
 parently RECKLESS COURSE. 
 
 " She finds in that fair deed a sacred joy, 
 That will not perish, and that cannot cloy." 
 
 Crabhe. 
 
 ITHERTO we have not seen any 
 symptoms of retrenchment on 
 Miss Beaumorice's part ; on the 
 contrary, she appears launching out into 
 expenses which, call them by what name 
 you will, she cannot afford. But let me 
 whisper a word in the candid reader s ear. 
 When Miss Beaumorice wrote to the 
 society's secretary, she knew perfectly well 
 that she was booking herself for a contribu-
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 tion of some sort towards Eosina's expenses. 
 She also knew that she had predestined a 
 certain sum to the purchase of a new dress 
 and bonnet ; but these she, at a word and 
 at the moment, gave up decisively, defini- 
 tively, not to hanker for them afterwards, 
 but having looked the sacrifice well in the 
 face and accepted it, to make it and 
 think no more of it. And this is self- 
 denial. 
 
 Well, Signer Bonomi and Rosina were 
 gone ; Miss Partridge was gone ; she had 
 sped the parting guests, and had now to 
 welcome the coming one. But the " five- 
 thirty " and the " six-thirty '' trains came 
 in, and the tiresome fellow did not arrive. 
 What? had she prepared custards, and 
 mince pies, and aired her best bed-linen, 
 and given out her best plate and table- 
 linen, and rummaged out a boot-jack and 
 hat-brush, and ordered beef and Bath chap 
 and anchovy paste and herrings for a
 
 38 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 youngster who was going to disappoint 
 her ? It was too bad of him. 
 
 One thing was clear, he could not come 
 now, if he came at all, till supper-time. 
 She must have tea without him ; and she 
 looked askance at the hot buttered cake 
 that she had ordered for his benefit. 
 
 " This reminds me," thought she as she 
 was about to sweeten her tea, " I forgot to 
 order sugar. I doubt if there is enough 
 to last till Monday. There is enough for 
 one, but not for two. Then why should 
 not he be the one? and why should I drink 
 sugar any more ? Excellent ! here is re- 
 trenchment the first." 
 
 The complacence occasioned by this reso- 
 lution actually sweetened her tea to that 
 degree, that no amount of saccharine 
 matter could have sweetened it better. 
 Pleased with herself, she concluded her 
 slight repast, took another survey of the 
 guest-chamber, and then sat down before a
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 39 
 
 good fire to enjoy a book. A book, to be 
 enjoyed, let me tell you, must not be cur- 
 sorily read. " Eeading without purpose," 
 says Lord Lytton, "is sauntering, not 
 exercise. More is got from one book on 
 which the thought settles for a definite 
 end in knowledge, than from libraries 
 skimmed over by a wandering eye. A 
 cottage flower gives honey to the bee, a 
 king's garden none to the butterfly." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice's book may have been 
 " Caxtoniana," or it may have been "Friends 
 in Council/' or it may have been something 
 else ; but, whatever it was, she came pre- 
 sently to the following sentence in it : — 
 
 " Count St. Florentin, minister of Louis 
 the Fifteenth, remarked that a geometrical 
 balance in taxes diminishes their weight." 
 
 " Dear me !" thought she, " what is a 
 geometrical balance ? Could I apply it to 
 my accounts ? Would it really diminish 
 their weight ? Their apparent weight, I
 
 40 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 suppose he meant. I must get some geo- 
 metrician to explain it to me. I wonder 
 whether Alured studies geometry ? He is 
 cramming, I know, but I have not the 
 least idea in what way. I wonder whether 
 he is clever or stupid — spoilt or unspoilt — 
 pleasant or not, like his father or like his 
 mother ? I shall soon know ; that is, if he 
 comes, but perhaps he won't. Young- 
 people have no notion how they annoy 
 elder people by unpunctuality and non- 
 performance of engagements. They con- 
 tract these faults quite unconcernedly ; 
 but they would not if they viewed things 
 and persons in their just proportions." 
 
 Between reading and musing the time 
 sped away, till Miss Beaumorice was lite- 
 rally startled by a loud peal of the house- 
 bell, followed by a stir in the hall, a quick, 
 firm, masculine step, and the sound of a 
 masculine voice. Miss Beaumorice has- 
 tened to welcome the newly arrived, and as
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 41 
 
 she opened the door the light fell full on 
 the bright face of a very tall lath of a 
 young man, who extended his hand to 
 meet hers as he gaily said, — 
 
 " I haven't kept you waiting, I hope ?" 
 Oh the wretch ! — 
 
 " If to his share some human errors fall, 
 Look in his face, and you'll forget them all." 
 
 Louisa s face ! — his mother s dark blue 
 eyes, slightly aquiline nose, and dimple in 
 the left cheek. Miss Beaumorice's heart 
 was his at first sight — he was the child of 
 her early friend ! 
 
 And what a good-natured, sweet-tem- 
 pered fellow ! what a breath of youth and 
 life and hopefulness accompanied him into 
 the room and hung about him like a halo ! 
 Oh, there was no mistake about Alured ; 
 no guile in his composition : he might not 
 be very deep ; he was unmistakably very 
 pleasant ; frank, droll, artless, — -just the
 
 42 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 youth one would like for a nephew or a 
 younger brother. 
 
 And what a talker ! Miss Beaumorice 
 need not have troubled herself to think 
 how she should entertain him. He enter- 
 tained her, and brought his own entertain- 
 ment with him. A sympathetic auditor or 
 two, — that was all Alured wanted. If 
 young and pretty, all the better, — if not, 
 never mind. 
 
 "And how old are you, Alured? I 
 suppose I may call you so." 
 
 " Yes, ma'am, by all means. I shall 
 be of age in ten months." 
 
 " In other words, you have just turned 
 twenty." 
 
 " If you prefer those other words." 
 
 "And so you are going into the 
 army." 
 
 " If I pass." 
 
 " Oh, surely there 's no doubt of 
 
 that r
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 43 
 
 *' Well, they do ask a fellow such a lot 
 of hard questions." 
 
 " Oh, but that is all for your good, and 
 the advantage of your profession." 
 
 '* What can it signify to a man in actual 
 service whether he knows how many square 
 miles there are in Poland ?" 
 
 " Oh,- but that's easily learnt." 
 
 " Perhaps when youVe learnt it they 
 don't ask you about it, but ask what's the 
 extent of the French Empire." 
 
 '' That's according !" 
 
 " Ah, but that wouldn't do. I should 
 like to try it on, though ! That's accord- 
 ing to the Emperor's mind. Shouldn't I 
 get a black look !" 
 
 "Do you study geometry ?" 
 
 " Oh, well, not much." 
 
 " Can you tell me how a geometrical 
 balance in taxes diminishes their weight ?" 
 
 "Why, you're worse than the exami- 
 ners," said he, bursting out laughing.
 
 44 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " No, to be sure I can't. Why, what a 
 question to floor a poor fellow ! Why, are 
 you a geometrician T 
 
 "No indeed," said she, laughing. ''I 
 only picked up the phrase just now in a 
 book, and wanted to understand it." 
 
 " Ah, well, you must ask somebody with 
 a longer head than mine. I can't go into 
 those things. Somehow, when I get my 
 tutor to explain them, his explanations are 
 no explanations at all. I want things 
 made clearer to me. I don't believe I'm 
 very deep. Sometimes I think I shan't 
 pass." 
 
 And here he gave a great sigh. 
 
 " When is the examination to come 
 on?" 
 
 " In March." 
 
 " Oh, that is a good way off. You have 
 plenty of time before you, if you do but 
 make use of it." 
 
 " I'm afraid I shan't make use of it.
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 45 
 
 Not to good purpose, you know. I'm sure 
 I sit for hours over my books, and only get 
 into a muddle. There are fellows up in 
 that sort of thing, who tie wet towels 
 round their heads." 
 
 "Yes, but I advise you not to follow 
 that plan/' 
 
 " Those wet towel men come to grief 
 sometimes, I know." 
 
 '^ Indeed they do, and sometimes bring 
 on palsy of the brain. There is a point, 
 beyond which it is of no good to force the 
 intellect — the mind becomes exhausted, 
 and the student's end is defeated. Regular 
 study at stated hours, and not unduly pro- 
 longed, will produce greater results than 
 unremitting labour. The human machine 
 cannot bear it." 
 
 "Indeed, Miss Beaumorice, I am sure 
 you are right ; I wonder you should know 
 so much about it." 
 
 " Oh, I read, and I see."
 
 46 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " You might add, ' And I think/ " 
 
 After this he told her of the training he 
 was undergoing. 
 
 " Don't be alarmed if you hear some un- 
 accountable noises in my room when I'm at 
 my exercises." 
 
 ''What, on Sunday mornings ?" 
 
 "Well, no, not to-morrow morning. 
 But on Monday you may think I'm going 
 to bring the house down." 
 
 " If you do, I shall expect you to set it 
 up again. Are you sure that such violent 
 exercise is good for you ? You don't look 
 very strong." 
 
 " Oh yes, I am — only I've shot up rather 
 fast. I could lift you up to the ceiling 
 with ease on my locked hands. Shall I ?" 
 
 " No, thank you, I think we might be 
 better employed." 
 
 " I'm stronger than I look, though ; and 
 pretty good at running and hopping. I 
 suppose you haven't a shower-bath ?"
 
 THE LADY OF LUHTED INCOME. 47 
 
 " Why, yes, I have ; but it is in my 
 room, not yours." 
 
 Chatting in this desultory fashion during 
 supper and after it, they did not part till 
 the old clock on the stall's struck eleven. 
 Miss Beaumorice mused a good deal as she 
 undressed, and after she was in bed. 
 What early memories he recalled ! Many 
 of his httle ways were exactly Louisa's \ 
 and the inflections of his voice sometimes 
 were the echoes of hers. Miss Beaumorice 
 was sorry to think he looked consumptive. 
 His eyes were unnaturally bright, his 
 cheeks thin, though briUiantly coloured; 
 the blue veins were traceable on his trans- 
 parent forehead. 
 
 " Poor fellow !" thought she, " he seems 
 so full of heart and hope ! It will be 
 sad indeed if he should be early cut 
 off." 
 
 After what he had said, with a little 
 brag, of his early rising, she was rather
 
 48 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 surprised next morning at his being late 
 for breakfast. 
 
 " Well/' said Alured, by way of excuse, 
 *' you know you prohibited my exercising, 
 so I thought I might as well indulge a 
 little ; and as there was a bookshelf in my 
 room, I took a book and had a nice spell of 
 it in bed." 
 
 '' Pray, what was the book ?" 
 
 He looked rather ashamed, and said, 
 '' Oh, that is too bad !" 
 
 '^ Nay, I did not mean to embarrass you. 
 I know there are no objectionable books in 
 the room, and only was interested in 
 knowing what had interested you'* 
 
 He would not say, however ; and she 
 then accused him of having selected a 
 novel. 
 
 '' I really forget the name of it/' said he, 
 " and what it was about. I do indeed." 
 
 " Oh, then, in fact, you took a book and 
 fell asleep again instead of reading it."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 49 
 
 " It may have been so — I believe it was. 
 I think it was a cookery book, with plates 
 of joints and directions how to carve them, 
 — ' Fix your fork in the centre of the 
 breast ; sHce it down in the hnes a 6/ and 
 so on. And so I thouo-ht how I should 
 like a shoe from a to 6." 
 
 " Well, I think you were as well sleep- 
 ing as reading such stuff as that. Will 
 you help yourself to some Bath chap ?" 
 
 " Will you let me help you from a to h V 
 
 After breakfast he turned over in a 
 cursory way the vaiious Sunday books 
 which Miss Beaumorice had dispersed about 
 with considerable art, on the principle of 
 cobwebs to catch flies, all of them being 
 more or less alluring. He seemed much 
 more inclined, however, to talk than to 
 read, and presently asked her if she had 
 read " The Pentateuch Exposed." 
 
 *' No," said she, *' I should think it waste 
 of time." 
 
 VOL. I. 4
 
 60 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 '^Should you?" said Alured. "Well, 
 now, I should like to see what the writer 
 has to say for himself." 
 
 " When I have read all the good books, 
 it will be time enough to begin the bad 
 ones." 
 
 Alured laughed, and seemed to think 
 this a good idea. 
 
 *' That's just such an answer," said he, 
 " as I should like to be able to make to 
 fellows sometimes, when they propose 
 something they know I shan't like." 
 
 "You should cultivate readiness. A 
 smart answer sometimes stands us in better 
 stead than a wise one." 
 
 "Yes, only I'm never ready. I'm like 
 Athelstan the Unready." 
 
 " Readiness may be cultivated." 
 
 " Why should you call the * Exposition ' 
 a bad book T 
 
 " Oh, I don't think it would interest you 
 if I were to go fully into it."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 51 
 
 " Isn't it a good thing, then/' said he 
 quickly, "for a fellow to know what to say 
 when he hears another praising it ?" 
 
 "Indeed it is, Alured. Tell me now, 
 you who are young, — so many years younger 
 than I am, have not you some strong ideas 
 on the subject of friendship ?" 
 
 " Well, I beheve I have : I suppose 
 every one has." , 
 
 " I have, for one, I assure you. I love 
 my friends very strongly, and cannot bear 
 to hear them attacked or depreciated ; can 
 you r 
 
 " No, certainly not." 
 
 "I suppose we may readily admit our 
 Saviour to be the best and greatest of 
 friends to us, whatever we may be to 
 Him." 
 
 " Yes, certainly," said Alured, gravely. 
 
 " Now, as it would undoubtedly repel 
 me to hear any one misrepresenting and 
 detracting from an earthly friend, it does 
 
 4—2 
 
 UNIVERSITY Of 
 laiNOIS UBRAf
 
 52 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 po in a mucli greater degree to hear him do 
 so with regard to our Lord. Jesus spoke 
 truth. He called Himself the truth ; we 
 believe and are sure that falsehood never 
 passed His lips. He tells us the Scripture 
 cannot be broken. The author of ' The 
 Pentateuch Exposed' thinks that it can. 
 He affects to distinguish between what is 
 and what is not inspired. "We read that 
 all Scripture is given by inspiration. And 
 by the term Scripture used by our Lord 
 and His apostles is meant the Old Testa- 
 ment, beginning with the f\.Ye books of 
 Moses ; our Lord constantly quoted and 
 appealed to them. He ascribes to them 
 the authority of a law. He made belief in 
 Moses a test of belief or unbelief. 'For 
 had ye believed Moses, ye would have be- 
 lieved Me.' ' If they hear not Moses and 
 the prophets, neither will they be persuaded 
 though one rose from the dead.' " 
 " I see "
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 53 
 
 The bells began to ring for cburch. 
 
 *' What a nice talk we have had !" said 
 Alured. "I like gouig into things this 
 way.".
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MISS BEAUMORICE UNDERTAKES WHAT SHE 
 DID NOT BARGAIN FOR. 
 
 " When pain and sickness wring the brow, 
 A ministering angel thou !" 
 
 SW Walter Scott. 
 
 IGHT closed on a peaceful, cheer- 
 ful, profitable Sabbath. Miss 
 Beaumorice had had a great deal 
 less reading than usual, but an immense 
 amount of talking ; and though it had been 
 very desultory, and sometimes lightened 
 by pleasantries, many a forcible truth had 
 been spoken, many an old fact shown in a 
 new and striking light. She thankfully
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 55 
 
 laid her head on her pillow and yielded to 
 dreamless sleep. 
 
 How long she had slept she knew not, 
 but she was awakened while it was yet 
 dark, except for the faint light of her night- 
 mortar, by an extraordinary pulsation or 
 thrilling of her bed. 
 
 " An earthquake I" thought she ; '^ how 
 singular ! how awful ! And yet I don't 
 feel in the least afraid." It ceased, and 
 then recurred. This time she ivas alarmed, 
 whatever she might tell herself to the con- 
 trary. " We may as well all be together," 
 thought she, ringing the night-bell smartly 
 for her maids. Down came Jessy, with 
 her gown slipped over her night dress, and 
 her bare feet shpped into her shoes. 
 
 '* Did you ring, ma'am ?" said she, " I'm 
 afraid you are ill." 
 
 " No, I am not, but a most extra- 
 ordinary There it is again !" said 
 
 she, excitedly, and springing from her bed.
 
 56 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " Whatever is Mr. Ward a doing of in 
 his room ?" said Jessy, as the china and 
 glass rattled. 
 
 '' Mr. Ward ! It can't be him in the 
 middle of the night ?" 
 
 " It's close upon ^yq, ma'am, the clock's 
 warning now. I can hear him stamping." 
 
 '* Tiresome fellow ! at his exercises, I 
 suppose," muttered Miss Beaumorice, dis- 
 gusted at her unnecessary fright. " You 
 may go to bed for another hour, Jessy." 
 
 At breakfast time, she said to her visi- 
 tor, — 
 
 " What were you doing between four and 
 five o'clock this morning T 
 
 " Oh, you heard me, did you ?" said 
 Alured, rather consciously. 
 
 " Heard you ? yes, and felt you too ! I 
 reaUy thought it was an earthquake. Do 
 tell me what you were about." 
 
 "Why, first I was slapping my left 
 shoulder with my right hand, and then my
 
 THE LADY OF LI 211 TED INCOME. 57 
 
 right shoulder with my left hand. After 
 that, I had forty hops. Perhaps that was 
 the earthquake. Then I put sixpence on the 
 floor and sat do^^^l with my back to it, and 
 leant backwards to pick up the sixpence in 
 any mouth ; only the chair fell over and so 
 did I." 
 
 '' But, in the dark T 
 
 " Oh no, I had matches." 
 
 " Wliat could make you do such things 
 at such an unaccountable time ?" 
 
 '' (3h, I thought.as I was late yesterday, 
 I'd be early to-day." 
 
 '' But you were not in time for break- 
 fast." 
 
 " No, I turned in again after half an 
 hour's dumb-belling." 
 
 " I'm afraid these exercises must be too 
 violent for you." 
 
 " Not at all. Oh no. You don't know 
 what strength there is in me." 
 
 " At what time must I lose you to-day ?"
 
 58 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 "Well/' said he, hesitatingly, ''do you 
 want me to go T 
 
 *' I ? certainly not, if you can stay !" 
 
 " I can stay till to-morrow — that is,, 
 if you don't mind my exercising ; but 
 even the loss of one day, in training, is 
 felt." 
 
 "Oh, you are welcome to exercise, as 
 long as you don't hurt yourself. I am 
 only afraid of your overdoing it." 
 
 " Never fear ; there's no danger. I have 
 been so long debarred from female society, 
 that you can't think how acceptable a little 
 of it is." 
 
 " A lady of my age cannot hope to make 
 her society very agreeable to a young 
 man " 
 
 " Oh yes, indeed ! I like it of all 
 things " 
 
 "I wish I could give you a little 
 variety." 
 
 " What sort of variety ?"
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 59 
 
 "A few young people, for instance, to 
 come in in the evening." 
 
 *''That would be famous. If I might 
 suggest those pretty girls in the pork-pie 
 hats " 
 
 " Pretty girls ? I am at a loss to think 
 who you can mean." 
 
 " You nodded to them yesterday. The 
 young ladies in pilot-coats and cravats " 
 
 " Oh, the Miss Gamblers ? They are no 
 favourites of mine " 
 
 " Why not ?" said he with interest. 
 
 " They are hardly lady-like, hardly femi- 
 nine ; their dress, for instance, is ' the very 
 bush or sign hanging out, which tells that 
 a vain mind lodges within ' " 
 
 " Well, it is rather loud, perhaps " 
 
 " No, if I invite some young people, it 
 will not be the Miss Gamblers, though I do 
 not wish to be hard upon them, for they 
 have not had many advantages. We will 
 call upon some model young ladies by and
 
 60 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 by. Meanwhile I must attend for a little 
 while to my house affairs." 
 
 " And I to my exercising." 
 
 For this purpose he betook himself into 
 the leafless garden, where a young lad 
 named Hodge w^as piling faggots ; and 
 presently Alured was to be seen playing 
 leap-frog with him and flying over his head. 
 After this they contrived a leaping bar, 
 which Hodge put higher and higher, and 
 Miss Beaumorice, viewing the proceedings 
 through the store closet window, thought 
 of the bystanders in " The Grasshopper and 
 the Cricket," who 
 
 " Admired the monstrous leaps he made, 
 And one and all pronounced him mad." 
 
 She was blanching almonds, a pretty piece 
 of female housewifery which the most deli- 
 cate fingers may perform unharmed. 
 
 " He's a nice creature," thought she, 
 ''but how sadly behind - hand ! I'm 
 afraid he won't pass. To think of his
 
 TEE LADY OF LUIITED IXC02IE. 61 
 
 knowing nothing about the Congress of 
 Vienna, or the battle of Borodino. If his 
 mother had lived to bring him up, it would 
 have been very different. His heart is cer- 
 tainly in the right place ; how affectionately 
 he spoke of her, though he was quite a 
 child when she died ; and with what in- 
 terest he listened to my recollections of her. 
 There he goes again ! now he stands still to 
 cough. I wish he would not cough so vio- 
 lently ; he has a nasty little hacking cough, 
 I observe, at all times, and now this pierc- 
 ing easterly wind has irritated his throat." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice having blanched her 
 almonds proceeded to split them, and then 
 stick them all over the surface of a sponge 
 cake, soaked in wine, like the quills of a 
 hedge-hog. 
 
 " There !" she thought, " when the cus- 
 tard is poured in, that will make a pretty 
 Httle centre-dish ; I will have some Nor- 
 mandy pippins, and a mould of Oswego at
 
 €2 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 the sides, and a few sandwiches. There 
 will be eight of us — quite as many as T 
 shall like to have." 
 
 Then it suddenly occurred to her that it 
 was Twelfth-night, and that she would have 
 a Twelfth-cake of modest dimensions on the 
 tea-table. 
 
 " Because I cannot afford a large one," 
 thought she, " is no reason why I should not 
 have a small one. I like keeping up old 
 customs, and very likely we shall be as merry 
 as many a party with a five-guinea cake." 
 
 And she thought with pleasure of the 
 Twelfth-night parties of her childhood and 
 youth. Leaving the store-room she gave a 
 parting glance through the window, and 
 observed Hodge standing idly leaning 
 against the leaping pole (which was a 
 clothes prop), in a pensive attitude, as a 
 knight might lean on his lance ; but Alured 
 had disappeared. She remembered hearing 
 the garden door slam, and concluded he had
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 63 
 
 come in. Going into the parlour she saw 
 him lying on the sofa. 
 
 " IVe done it once too often," said he, 
 piteously, as he looked at her without 
 rising. " Look here," and he held towards 
 her his handkerchief. 
 
 " Oh, my dear Alured, have you broken 
 ^ blood vessel ? I must send at once for 
 Mr. Finch " 
 
 " Yes, I tliink you'd better ; but don't 
 frighten yourself," said he, in a subdued 
 voice, as she darted out of the room. He 
 himself looked frightened enough ; and 
 every minute of her absence seemed Hke ten. 
 
 *' Eat this," said she, coming back almost 
 directly to him, with a sliced lemon, sHghtly 
 sweetened with sifted sugar. 
 
 " Oh, I can t touch anything." 
 
 " But indeed this will do you good ; it is 
 a styptic, and I have no other in the house. 
 
 Do take it, my dear Alured " and she 
 
 put her hand on his shoulder.
 
 64 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 He did so reluctantly. 
 
 " This is a bad job," said he, making an 
 effort to smile. '^ I can't think how I could 
 be so foolish. I had done the same thing 
 hundreds of times without hurting my- 
 self." 
 
 " I think you had better not talk much 
 till Mr. Finch sees you. He will soon be 
 here — Jessy ran off directly." 
 
 They sat a few minutes in perfect silence. 
 
 " If anything should happen," said he, 
 presently, " you'll tell my father " 
 
 " Oh yes, of course ; but you need not 
 think over all the most dismal things in the 
 world. You will get over this in a little 
 while, I dare say, only you will have to be 
 prudent, and not do those violent exercises, 
 or go out in cold winds " 
 
 " I may as well shut up shop, then, at 
 
 once " He tried to say it jocularly, but 
 
 his eyes filled with tears. So did hers, 
 though she put a brave face on it.
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 65 
 
 " Pooh, pooh," said she, " you will never 
 do for a soldier if you lose heart " 
 
 " Lose heart. Miss Beaumorice ? Why, 
 very likely the doctors won t pass me !" 
 
 And his tears ivould burst forth — his 
 frame shook with suppressed sobs. 
 
 " Alured, Alured ; you really must not ! 
 You will bring on your cough again, my 
 dear boy ; and then who can tell the con- 
 sequence V 
 
 She was right ; he did bring on his 
 cough again, and she stood by him trem- 
 bling, and offering him water. 
 
 " There, there, now lie down and keep 
 quite quiet till Mr. Finch comes. Keep 
 your mind easy, think of something else, 
 if you can ; think of something plea- 
 sant." 
 
 Knowing it next to impossible he could 
 follow her advice, and nearly at her wit's 
 end, she sat down beside him, held one of 
 his cold hands in both hers, looked at him 
 
 VOL. I. 5
 
 66 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 wich the utmost compassion, and presently 
 in the gentlest manner, repeated, — 
 
 Let not thy heart despond and say, 
 ' How shall I meet the trying day V 
 He hath ordained by sure decree 
 That as thy day thy strength shall be. 
 
 " Oh that it may be so 1" exclaimed he, 
 squeezing her hand, but without opening 
 his eyes. 
 
 At this unpropitious moment the visitor's 
 bell rang, and Miss Beaumorice, hearing a 
 female voice instead of Mr. Finch's, released 
 Alured's hand, saying, — 
 
 "Never mind — nobody shall come in 
 here " 
 
 And went out into the little hall, closing 
 the door after her. The visitor was Miss 
 Partridge, who came to return the 
 Aihenceum; and Miss Beaumorice draw- 
 ing her into the other sitting-room, told 
 her what had happened, adding that she
 
 THE LAJDT OF LIMITED INCOME. 67 
 
 had sent for Mr. Finch, and was moment- 
 arily expecting him. 
 
 " Mr. Finch I why, he is gone on his 
 morning round ! I saw him go by half an 
 hour ago," said Miss Partridge. " He will 
 probably not return till one o'clock." Then, 
 noticing IVIiss Beaumorice's distressed look, 
 " The best thing Mr. Ward can take," said 
 she, " is twenty drops of diluted sulphuiic 
 acid in a wine-glassful of water, and, if you 
 will allow me, I will go and get it for him. 
 I have often given it to my mother." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice gratefully accepted the 
 offer, and Miss Partridge hastened away, 
 full of real interest for the patient, and 
 pleased to be of service. i\Iiss Beaumorice 
 meanwhile returned to him. 
 
 " The visitor was a very kind lady," said 
 she, " who told me she had seen Mr. Finch 
 start on his morning round, so that he is 
 not likely to be here just yet ; but she has 
 suggested a very efficacious, and not at all 
 
 5—2
 
 68 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 disagreeable remedy, and has gone to fetch 
 it ; so I hope you will not hurt her by 
 objecting to try it. It only tastes like 
 lemonade." 
 
 "Oh, then it can't be very bad," said 
 Alured; adding, with emphasis, "Women 
 are capital creatures. You never fail us at 
 a pinch." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice's heart swelled. She 
 again pressed his hand, and then a pause 
 ensued, till Miss Partridge came back with 
 the sulphuric acid, ready dropped into 
 water. She administered it to him her- 
 self, and spoke so calmly and cheeringly, 
 that Miss Beaumorice felt she had a great 
 ally in her. 
 
 " I shall not stay now," said Miss Part- 
 ridge, after remaining a few minutes, " but 
 I will call by-and-by to hear Mr. Finch's 
 report ; and if there is any way in which 
 I can be serviceable, by sitting with you, 
 reading to you, or, in short, any way of being
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 69 
 
 useful, you may command me. Don't say 
 a word, pray — there's no need. We all 
 understand one another." 
 
 What a pleasant feeling exists, even in 
 oiu- heaviest hours, when that is the case ! 
 Alured, suddenly laid low in the midst of 
 his superabundant activity, and with his 
 dearest hopes at stake, was sensible of a 
 sweetness in the consoling words and good 
 offices of these kind-hearted women, whom 
 he had never even seen two days ago, 
 that his gay unthinking hours had never 
 known. 
 
 '' It will not be so very bad, after all, to 
 be laid up in dry dock this cold weather," 
 said he, '' if it does not put you to great in- 
 convenience." 
 
 '' Do not think of it. I shall be most 
 glad to do anything I can for you. As you 
 say, a short confinement will be no such 
 very great grievance, and I dare say you 
 will soon be about again."
 
 70 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME, 
 
 " Ah, but suppose I should not ! — " and 
 he looked at her wistfully. 
 
 " It is all in God's hands/' she replied, 
 "and you would not wish it otherwise, 
 would you ?" 
 
 " N— o— " 
 
 " He can lay us low ; and He can raise 
 us up again. He knows what is best for 
 us ; what little checks — sometimes great 
 ones — we occasionally need. If we take 
 the little checks sweetly, it may be that 
 He will remit greater ones ; because He 
 sees that the lesser have sufficed to work 
 the very good He designed." 
 
 " Then, if I bear this little casualty 
 rightly," said Alured, anxiously, " perhaps 
 I may get well and pass, after all." 
 
 " You may," said she, gravely. "We won't 
 call it a casualty. It has been the result of 
 the too violent exercise you used, being un- 
 aware of the danger you ran. And God 
 may permit it to lead to some good end."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 71 
 
 He lay quietly thinking, till Mr. Finch 
 arrived, sooner than Miss Beaumorice had 
 expected. Mr. Finch quite approved of 
 Miss Partridge's practice : after due in- 
 vestigations and inquiries, he thought the 
 case sufficiently serious for Mr. Ward to 
 remain recumbent for the present, subject 
 to medical treatment, and restricted to 
 almost silence and very low diet. 
 
 So here was Miss Beaumorice booked for 
 an indoor patient for an indefinite time to 
 come ! She was unfeignedly grieved that 
 the accident had occurred in consequence of 
 Alured's visit to her ; but, since he was to 
 be ill, she rejoiced that it should be under 
 the eye of his mother's friend, rather than 
 that the poor lad should be lying, lonely 
 and uncheered, in solitary lodgings. 
 
 As for Alured himself, Mr. Finch had 
 made him clearly comprehend the necessity 
 of his implicit submission to treatment. 
 He accepted his painful position ; and,
 
 72 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 directly he had done so, began to reap his 
 reward in the peace of mind that ensued. 
 Thenceforth there could not be a better 
 patient ; he lay hour after hour on the sofa 
 without complaining of tedium, or crept 
 from one room to another with the dehbera- 
 tion of an old man ; never voluntarily 
 giving the least trouble, and winning the 
 affection of every one who came near him 
 by his patience and sweet temper.
 
 CHAPTEE y. 
 
 MISS BEAUMORICES TWELFTH NIGHT. 
 
 " In the stilly night, 
 Ere slumber's chain hath bound me, 
 Eond memory brings the light 
 Of other days around me." 
 
 ISS PAETEIDGE came to tea, 
 and played chess with Alured 
 all the evening, sitting on a low 
 stool, and placing the chess-board between 
 them on a music-stool ; and thus quietly- 
 passed Twelfth Night, which was to have 
 witnessed such festivity. There was no- 
 body to taste the hedgehog-cake but Miss 
 Beaumorice and Miss Partridge, for Alured 
 was restricted to lemonade and a biscuit ;
 
 74 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 but he bore it very well, and thanked them 
 for contriving him a happy evening. He 
 had only spoken monosyllables, and in 
 whispers, for he was thoroughly frightened 
 at his condition, and had substantial rea- 
 sons for wishing not to retard his recovery ; 
 but Miss Partridge from time to time had 
 quietly told little anecdotes about her 
 father, who had served in India and died in 
 the Crimea, and some of them were humor- 
 ous, and others interesting, in a professional 
 way, to one who desired to be a soldier. 
 
 As for Miss Partridge herself, her age 
 was thirty-four ; and as her hair, of a sandy 
 tint, was rather thin, and she had light 
 eyes and eyelashes, she could not be called 
 pretty, though she had pretty hands. But 
 her voice was in some degree a compensa- 
 tion for her looks, for it was unusually 
 sweet and expressive, both in speaking, 
 reading, and singiDg. She was not only 
 an accomplished musician, but well up in
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED IXC ME. 75 
 
 Mstory and all the ologies ; versed in 
 modem languages, and farther advanced 
 than Alured in Euclid. Happily he only 
 ■discovered her attainments by degrees, or 
 he would have been quite afraid of 
 her. 
 
 Miss Beaumorice was thirteen years older 
 than Miss Partridge, and very nice-looking ; 
 rather under the middle height, plump, 
 clear brown, with a good colour, hazel eyes, 
 and black hair ; and pretty httle, fat, dim- 
 pled, white hands. Counting her, as of 
 course he did, for an old lady, Alured 
 thought her much favoured by nature. 
 
 '' I suppose," said Alured, while waiting 
 for Miss Partridge's next move, " I must 
 write and tell my governor about this ?" 
 
 " Let us wait a day or two," suggested 
 Miss Beaumorice. 
 
 " Yes, — so best," said he, with a relieved 
 air. " He'll be having me over there if he 
 thinks I'm shelved."
 
 76 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " Does your father live abroad ?" inquired 
 Miss Partridge. 
 
 *' Yes ; in a worm-eaten old castle, witli 
 thirty-six bedrooms." 
 
 " O dear f exclaimed Miss Partridge. 
 
 " You must not talk, Alured," said Miss 
 Beaumorice, gently. 
 
 " No, I know I mustn't. Can t you read 
 us something '" 
 
 " What, while you are playing chess ?" 
 
 " IVe mated Miss Partridge again, and I 
 would not be so rude a third time." 
 
 '^Oh, do read. Miss Beaumorice," said 
 Miss Partridge, taking out her crochet. 
 
 '' Well, what shall it be T 
 
 " Shakspeare's Twelfth Night, since this 
 is Twelfth Night," said Alured. 
 
 " Well, I will just read a little bit, here 
 and there." 
 
 So she began with, " Save thee, friend, 
 and thy music. Dost thou live by thy 
 tabor ?" " No, sir, I live by the church :"
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 77 
 
 but then turned back to the famous dialogue 
 between the duke and Viola, and therewith 
 ended her reading. 
 
 When she thought over the day's events 
 on her pillow, she could not help marvelling, 
 or admiring, as the old phrase goes, at the 
 varied human interests already intertwined 
 with hers, thus early in the year, that 
 threatened to be so lifeless and dull. She 
 thought of her early life, and of Alured's 
 father, Waldegrave Ward, as he used to be 
 oalled. Waldegrave Ward had been a 
 frequent guest at her father's table when 
 Dr. Beaumorice was a thriving physician in 
 full practice, and Waldegrave had hardly 
 any. Waldegrave Ward had been a fine, 
 personable young man, not thinking too 
 little of himself, and thought a good deal 
 of by some others — Miss Beaumorice among 
 the rest. He detected and fostered her 
 liking till it grew into love ; and was on the 
 brink of proposing to her, when, very for-
 
 78 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 tunately, as he would have told you, Louisa 
 Davison with £10,000 to her tocher, ap- 
 peared on the scene, and his feelings ex- 
 perienced a revulsion, and he was very glad 
 that he had not committed himself, or 
 troubled Miss Beaumorice's peace. He licid 
 troubled it, but she did not show it, and 
 had at least the consolation, a great one, of 
 believing her secret unknown. And she 
 thoroughly approved his choice, though she 
 did not, in her heart, find him guiltless of 
 going too far with her, in all seriousness, 
 before his affections changed their object. 
 
 Louisa was a very sweet creature, 
 worthy of love, and destined to an early 
 grave. But long before her untimely death 
 took place. Miss Beaumorice's heart had 
 been taught its lesson ; nor did it ever 
 throb at the chance of being once more 
 wooed, and perhaps won. That pleasant 
 dream had gone by ; the painful lesson had 
 been learnt, and learnt so well that it had
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 79 
 
 ceased to be painful. In process of time 
 she could look back on it almost as on the 
 experience of another person ; but with 
 distinct remembrance of the old heart- 
 swellings and fruitless tears. Yet no, not 
 fruitless ; such experiences we may suppose 
 are never wasted on the soil of an honest 
 and good heart. And now she had been 
 reading to Waldegrave's son those words 
 that can never cease to be beautiful and 
 touching, — 
 
 " Viola. Aye, but I know, 
 
 Duke. YTkdit dost thou know ? 
 
 Viola. Too well what love women to men may owe. 
 My father had a daughter loved a man 
 As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman, 
 I should your lordship. 
 
 Duke. And what's her history ? 
 
 Viola. A blank, my lord." 
 
 But instead of sitting like patience on a 
 monument, how much more wisely had 
 Miss Beaumorice bestirred herself till she 
 could be a genial, profitable woman, really
 
 80 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 able to smile at grief, except in the case of 
 others, or coming to her in the guise of 
 domestic bereavements. 
 
 As for Dr. Waldegrave Ward, who did 
 not make that way in his profession which 
 fond friends had augured, he took occasion 
 on his wife's death to go to a German 
 watering - place to recover his spirits ; 
 where, by good fortune, he was instru- 
 mental in saving the very indifferently 
 spent life of a petty sovereign prince — a 
 duke, or elector of Hohen Bogen — or some 
 such name — who, prizing it at his own 
 value, thought he could not reward his 
 preserver too highly, or do better for his 
 own safety than by securing him perma- 
 nently as his physician extraordinary. 
 Thenceforth Dr. Waldegrave Ward basked 
 in the sunshine of court favour, and by no 
 means ill-deserved it. 
 
 Had Miss Beaumorice indulged any fond 
 hopes of his endeavouring to renew his old
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 81 
 
 ascendancy over her, those hopes would 
 have been disappointed; for about eighteen 
 months after Louisa's death, he married a 
 German countess of considerable landed 
 property, and possessor of the old castle, 
 with thirty-six bedrooms, of which Alured 
 had spoken. The countess became the 
 mother of half-a-dozen children, much 
 younger, of course, than Alured, and 
 viewed by him with no favourable eye. 
 According to his report of them, Hermann, 
 Ernst, Adolf, Gertrude, Lenore, and Con- 
 rad, were — 
 
 " Children rude as bears, 
 Always tumbling down the stairs," 
 
 or falling out of windows. He wished his 
 father would have a governess for them. 
 
 He himself had fortunately been sent to 
 a good English school, and spent his holi- 
 days alternately in Germany, and with his 
 maternal relations. It seemed curious 
 
 VOL. I. 6
 
 82 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 that he should not be with them now — 
 that his father, after so many years of 
 seeming oblivion, should have sent him to 
 Miss Beaumorice. She was touched and 
 pleased at the tardy remembrance. 
 
 When Mr. Finch came the next morn- 
 ing, he brought his stethoscope. The 
 result of his examination was satisfactory ; 
 he did not think Alured's lungs seriously 
 affected, and believed that with care he 
 might recover, and be as well as ever. 
 
 " But mind I say, ' with care,' " repeated 
 he. *' If you don't take care, but, neglect- 
 ing this cough, go standing about in this 
 piercing east wind, or trying your chest 
 with all manner of unfair exercises — it 
 may be wonderful training, but you'll soon 
 be in your coflSn !" 
 
 " Where I've no wish to be, sir, thank 
 you," said Alured, " so I'll take your good 
 advice. You think, then, I'd better not 
 return immediately to my quarters ?"
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 83 
 
 '^ Certainly not at present." 
 
 " Then I must write to my old tutor and 
 tell him not to expect me." 
 
 " There's no harm, you know, in your 
 carrying on your studies here, on the sofa. 
 They will help to amuse you." 
 
 Alured made a face. 
 
 " You have robbed my captivity of its 
 greatest solace — idhng, and being petted 
 by the ladies !" 
 
 " Why, I thought you were preparing for 
 a pass examination ?" 
 
 " So I am, sir." 
 
 " Why, then I should say the best thing 
 is to prepao^e." 
 
 Afterwards, when Miss Partridge called 
 and heard his dismal account of things, she 
 laughed, and said, — 
 
 " I dare say I could simplify matters for 
 you. Tell me what you have to prepare." 
 
 When he had told her, she made Hght of 
 it, and said, — 
 
 6—2
 
 84 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 '' Why, I could stand such an examina- 
 tion as that. In fact, I prepared my 
 younger brother for his, and, if you like, 
 ril do as much for you." 
 
 " Oh do, for goodness' sake !" exclaimed 
 he, brightening. 
 
 So, to it they went ; for she declared 
 this amateur governessing was no fatigue 
 to her at all ; it was far greater relaxation 
 and amusement than inaction. And, what- 
 ever her secret might be, her success was 
 extraordinary ; she got Alured through his 
 difficulties at railroad pace. And the best 
 of it was, she made him really like work, 
 now that he saw his way through it, and 
 made him ashamed of aiming to shirk any 
 of it — " so unworthy the spirit of an En- 
 glishman," she said. Half she taught him 
 was viva voce — she talked to him, made 
 him explain himself, shewed him how shal- 
 low his reasonings were, pointed out his in- 
 accuracies and in elegancies with such drol-
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 85 
 
 lery that she made him laugh at himself. 
 Also she read to him a good deal ; and Miss 
 Beaumorice enjoyed it too, without binding 
 herself to hear all of it. 
 
 "I think," said Miss Partridge, 'Hhis 
 is very pleasant mental exercise, by way 
 of change. I shall be sorry to go back to 
 Lady Fanny and Lady Mary." 
 
 " I'm sure I shall be sorry when you do," 
 said Alured. '* Don't you remember," con- 
 tinued he, gratefully addressing Miss Beau- 
 morice, '' your saying to me, that day, when 
 I was in such a horrid fright about the 
 doctors not passing me, that perhaps some 
 good would come out of it that we did not 
 see ? Well, some good has come out of it : 
 good that I consider well purchased at the 
 price of this illness." 
 
 The price of this illness — who was going 
 to pay the doctor's bill? The lady of 
 Limited Income ? Probably he would send 
 it in, immediately after his farewell visit ;
 
 86 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 but if he did not — Well, it could not be a 
 very heavy one. 
 
 This state of things lasted nearly three 
 weeks. Miss Partridge's holiday had then 
 expired, and she returned to London. 
 Alured was now pronounced convalescent, 
 and Mr. Finch took leave of him, giving 
 sundry monitions to which Alured promised 
 to attend. Soon afterwards a little note 
 was brought to him. 
 
 " Oh, his account,'' said Alured, after 
 opening it. "What a good thing he 
 thought of it, for / didn't ! A jolly good 
 figure, too." 
 
 " Well now," said Miss Beaumorice, to 
 whom he held it out, '' I call it moderate. 
 We are very glad to have doctors when we 
 are in pain or in danger ; we should not be 
 ungrateful to them directly we get well." 
 
 " No, but — do you know. Miss Beaumo- 
 rice, I have not quite so much money as 
 this down here, and I must have a little to
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 87 
 
 carry me home. Shall I write to my tutor 
 about it, or will you lend it to me ? I'U 
 tell him when I get back." 
 
 '' I'll lend it you, and you can remit it to 
 me in half notes, in two following posts." 
 
 " Thank you ! I will, then. I'll be sure 
 not to forget. Out of debt, out of danger ; 
 and now that I'm out of danger, I don't 
 want to go away in Mr. Doctor's debt. I'll 
 be sure to remember my debt to youJ^ 
 That's as hereafter may happen.
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 IMPECUNIOSITY. 
 
 " When will you pay me 1 
 Said the bells of the Old Bailey." 
 
 ISS BEAUMOEICE indulged 
 Alured with a little party before 
 lie went away, and even invited 
 the young ladies who wore the pork-pie 
 hats. She hoped he would prefer the 
 milder attractions of the Miss Nunehams, 
 but he declared he liked the Miss Gamblers 
 very much. 
 
 When he was gone, how empty the house 
 seemed ! She had begged him to write to 
 her from time to time, and he did so di-
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 89 
 
 rectly he reached Woolwich, but only to 
 tell her of his safe arrival, and to thank her 
 warmly for her kindness. No money en- 
 closed ; she thought it w^ould come the 
 next day. But it did not, nor for many a 
 day after that. She thought it a pity 
 young people should be so negligent of 
 petty duties ; and remembered a saying of 
 Miss Edgeworth's, that relations would 
 oftener continue friends, if in matters of 
 business they were as methodical as stran- 
 gers. 
 
 Now then, must begin that rigid system 
 of economy on geometrical principles which 
 was to cover that horrid deficiency. Not a 
 step had yet been taken towards it, except 
 leaving off sugar ; should she leave off pud- 
 dings ? Reckon a little pudding at eight- 
 pence or ninepence, it hardly seemed worth 
 while to strike it off the domestic bill of 
 fare, and then more meat would be eaten. 
 Would more meat be eaten? Does any-
 
 90 TEE LABY OF LIMITED INCOME, 
 
 body eat less meat because he intends ta 
 have pudding? These sordid questions 
 were considered once and again. 
 
 Coals. She could discontinue her bed- 
 room fire, now that the cold was not quite 
 so severe ; only, if she caught cold thereby, 
 she might lay herself up, and be obliged to 
 have Mr. Finch. There were little bills 
 coming in too, as little bills will come in 
 after Christmas, even in the best regulated 
 families. Her stock of wine and ale was 
 getting low, but as she seldom tasted 
 either herself, and was not in immediate 
 expectation of visitors, that could stand 
 over. 
 
 Enter Jessy. "Please, ma'am, do you 
 want the piano tuned ?" 
 
 " No," said Miss Beaumorice with deci- 
 sion, though she knew it was too flat ; so 
 the old tuner lost his five shillings. 
 
 "That tiresome boy has not brought the 
 Times yet."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 91 
 
 This was a continual grievance, and Miss 
 Beaumorice had more than once told him 
 that if he persisted in bringing it too late 
 to suit her convenience, she would discon- 
 tinue taking it in. So here was a good 
 opportunity of putting her threat in execu- 
 tion. It was true she desked to see the 
 daily list of " hatches, matches, and des- 
 patches," and the foreign intelligence, and 
 the state of the nation, and what the 
 Queen was doing, and what new books 
 were coming out, and a good many things 
 besides ; but it consumed a great deal of 
 time, and, on the whole, her time might 
 perhaps be better employed. So she 
 would tell the boy not to bring the paper 
 any more, and if she found she missed it 
 very much, she would borrow it of some 
 friend. 
 
 Again the post came in without a letter 
 from Alured. She began to fear he had 
 had a relapse, and was too ill to write ;
 
 92 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 and under this impression, she wrote him a 
 few lines of kind inquiry. 
 
 Her maiden meditations were not fancy- 
 free this evening, by reason of a tall, lathy 
 young gentleman continually figuring in 
 them. She speculated much on his future ; 
 doubted if it would be a brilliant one ; at 
 length, took up a book — not a story-book 
 (which, however, is sometimes a panacea 
 for worry), but one of those that counsel 
 and comfort, from which one can take, as it 
 were, a lozenge to suck, and then shut it 
 up again. She opened on this homely 
 passage, — 
 
 " There are few things for which I have 
 more reason to thank my Saviour, than for 
 the power He has given me of combining 
 high thoughts with humble doings. This 
 power to unite noble and devotional con- 
 templations with constant attention to the 
 numerous cares and toils and trifles and 
 nursings of my little family, is a great de-
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 93 
 
 light to me. It unites into harmony the 
 extremes of existence — the intellectual and 
 the sensible, the lofty and the mean, the 
 cares of the present and the prospects of 
 the eternal. The things themselves are 
 very remote ; strong exercises of the intel- 
 lect and the habitual contemplation of 
 heaven, and a minute regard to bread and 
 tea, firing and candles. Yet no reason can 
 be given why a person should not try to be 
 a tender and diligent nurse, a prudent and 
 frugal housekeeper, and all the time an in- 
 tellectual and elevated Christian." 
 
 This was Miss Beaumorice's mental 
 lozenge, and it quite allayed the httle 
 irritation. 
 
 Happening to say, next day, to her 
 neighbour Mrs. Hyde, '^How dear coals 
 are now !" Mrs. Hyde replied, " Do you 
 burn Inland or Wallsend ?" 
 
 "Oh, Wallsend," said Miss Beaumorice 
 with decision. " I always find the best
 
 94 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 tilings answer best. Wallsend, at twenty- 
 nine shillings, now, a ton." 
 
 " Well, I got dissatisfied with my Walls- 
 end coals," said Mrs. Hyde. " Actually 
 with the coals, not the price ; so I went 
 and complained of them to Blackstone, and 
 asked if he had no other sort. He raised 
 his eyebrows, and said in a slighting sort 
 of way, 'Oh, we've the Inland, of course.' 
 'Very well,' I said, '111 try the Inland.' 
 And I find they burn better, and are four 
 shillings a ton cheaper." 
 
 " That is a valuable piece of informa- 
 tion," said Miss Beaumorice. " Do they 
 burn bright ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Perhaps they burn faster ?" 
 
 '' No." 
 
 " Well, I will try them at any rate." 
 
 Which she did ; and liked them well 
 enough to continue them. 
 
 Meanwhile, the morning post brought
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 95 
 
 two letters. The first, in a dainty little 
 tight-packed envelope, directed by Mary 
 Beaufort. " That will keep," thought she, 
 as her eye caught Alured's rather scrawly 
 superscription on the larger letter. She 
 hastily opened it, and read as follows : 
 
 " Woolwich, February 17. 
 
 "My dear Miss Beaijmorice, — 
 
 '^ You will have seen the poor coun- 
 tess's death in the Times. (No, I have 
 not ! — that comes from discontinuing it !) 
 It was not inserted till I came back, so it 
 only appeared yesterday ; you must have 
 thought it strange I did not send you the 
 note which I now enclose, but you know I 
 have not the best of heads, and the day 
 after my first letter to you, my ideas were 
 completely scattered by a hasty summons 
 to Schloss Glitenfeld on account of my 
 step-mother's death. Id alia wrote the 
 note — by-the-bye, you don't know who the
 
 96 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 Countess Idalia is ; she is a very nice girl^ 
 orphan niece of my step-mother, Countess- 
 Verena, and brought up at the castle. 
 Countess Yerena was her guardian, but 
 papa — my father, is so now. She (Idaha 
 I mean) got papa's consent for her to write 
 to me since he would not, because he had 
 nobody to be with him and comfort him, 
 and she did not know how to ; so of course 
 I bundled my traps together, told my 
 tutor how the case stood, and started 
 off. There had been lying in state and so 
 forth, but the funeral was over before I got 
 there, which I was glad of — on my own 
 account, you know, but of course I was 
 sorry not to be there to support my father. 
 It's a sad loss. She had been as well as 
 could be, up to that very day, and at sup- 
 per-time got the core of an apple into her 
 wind-pipe, and choked in spite of all they 
 could do to save her. Was not it shock- 
 ing ? It was the least little mite of core
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 97 
 
 you can conceive, my father showed it me ; 
 he got it out afterwards, but it was then 
 too late ; Hfe quite extinct. He felt it 
 very much, of course, and I really did not 
 know what in the world to do. I had not 
 a word to say ; could not think of a conso- 
 lation to offer ; we sat and smoked and said 
 very little. Had you or Miss Partridge' 
 been there, you would have known exactly 
 what was proper. I think he liked hear- 
 ing me tell about my visit to you as much 
 as anything. He told me to write to you 
 the first thing when I got back (which I 
 am doing) and enclose you the money. I 
 can't think how he'll get along without the 
 countess ; she was a very managing wo- 
 man. And yet, somehow, she never man- 
 aged the children ; I am sure she could 
 have done so if she would (being such a 
 manager you know), but now they'll be 
 worse than ever. Idalia and I used to talk 
 VOL. I. 7
 
 98 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 about it as we sat on the battlements, look- 
 ing over tlie Rhine. I advised her to try 
 her hand at it, but she would not. She 
 said she should not have time for one 
 thing ; for she did not suppose she would 
 remain at the Schloss now. She's too old, 
 rather, for school ; and my father wishes 
 she were a Catholic, because then he would 
 put her in a convent ; but she is a Luthe- 
 ran, which I am glad of Papa says the 
 Romish religion is a comfortable one for 
 some things ; you can have masses for the 
 dead, and so forth ; only, if the dead are 
 none the better for them, where's the 
 good ? only money wasted, / think. You 
 must not think my father likely to be a 
 pervert ; he only dropped the idea. We 
 talked it over in a quiet way, that really 
 we need not distress ourselves about the 
 poor countess, for she had done nothing 
 very wrong that we ever heard of, only
 
 THE LADY OF LUIITEB INCOME. 99 
 
 was rather imperative sometimes ; and she 
 might have been more so with advantage 
 as far as the children were concerned. 
 Only think, on the very day of the funeral, 
 Adolf must go and pitch himself headlong 
 down the lower dungeon stairs ! He'll 
 make away with himself some day dowTi 
 the oubliette, I expect, a sheer fall of a 
 hundred and fifty feet into the Rhine. I 
 advised my father to send them all to a 
 good boarding school, but he says he is too 
 fond of them ; he must have time to think 
 about it. Poor man, I did not at all like 
 leaving him ; the Schloss is so dismal now. 
 Idalia said it would be dreadful when I 
 was gone. I must now make up for lost 
 time and get into training again. Oh, by- 
 the-bye, I nearly forgot to inclose you a 
 few lines from papa. He is very grateful 
 to you for your kindness to me, and I'm 
 sure so am I ; and to MLss Partridge 
 
 7—2
 
 100 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 too. Please remember me to her very 
 kindly. 
 
 " Believe me, 
 
 " My dear Miss Beaumorice, 
 *' Very faithfully and 
 
 " Affectionately yours, 
 ''Arthur Alured Ward." 
 
 A note to her from Waldegrave Ward ? 
 Miss Beaumorice's hands trembled a little 
 as she opened it, with a strange rush of old 
 remembrances. His handwriting was a 
 good deal altered; it was now somewhat 
 foreign and flourishing. He said — 
 
 " My dear Miss Beaumorice, — 
 
 "It is under painful circumstances 
 that I write. You will have learnt from 
 Alured and the papers my sad loss. I am 
 completely unhinged at present, but cannot 
 let my boy return to good old England 
 without a line of heartfelt thanks to you,
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 101 
 
 my early and valued friend, for your 
 motherly care of him during his late stay 
 with you. Entre nous, the less said cf his 
 little accident to others the better. His 
 lungs are quite sound, and I believe it to 
 have been merely a little effusion from the 
 head. I have told him to make no allu- 
 sion to it at Woolwich ; and as he may be 
 a little contrary on this point, having some 
 very young ideas, I shall be obliged by 
 your adding your powerful mfluence to 
 mine. And now adieu ; have you ever 
 thought, do you ever think of your old 
 friend on the banks of the Rhine ? Our 
 paths have been allotted to us in very 
 different directions. Homme propose, del 
 dispose ! Tis all for the best. Once more 
 adieu. 
 
 " Faithfully and gratefully yours, 
 
 "Edgar Waldegrave Ward." 
 
 Faithfully hers ? That was just what he
 
 102 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 had not been ! Homme propose ? If the 
 man had proposed, their paths would not 
 have taken such different directions. As 
 Miss Beaumorice ended the letter, and sat 
 idly looking at it, she was conscious of a 
 great chill at her heart. Here were kind, 
 friendly expressions, too ; but somehow she 
 felt that Dr. Waldegrave Ward had either 
 never been what she thought him, or had 
 very much gone off. Altogether this letter 
 was a poor affair ; there was no real heart 
 in it. Either he did not feel much, or he 
 was a bad hand at expressing feeling. Per- 
 haps he did not mean to express any ; per- 
 haps he thought it unsuitable to express 
 any to her. It might justly be so ; but 
 she was rather sorry he had written at all. 
 She did not want thanks ; and she was 
 hurt at the dissimulation he proposed for 
 Alured, and wished her to enforce. She 
 would do no such thing ; if she influenced 
 him at all, it would be the other way.
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 103 
 
 And fired with the idea that it was her 
 duty to keep the lad true and honest, she 
 at once wrote him an affectionate, sympa- 
 thetic note, inquiring about his health, cau- 
 tioning him anew against violent training, 
 and telHng him how even prize-fighters in- 
 jured their general health by it, while 
 strengthening their muscular system. She 
 added, " I am sure I hope with all my 
 heart that you may pass ; but of course you 
 will not conceal from the medical examiners 
 what happened here ; it would be incon- 
 sistent with your probity to do so." 
 
 It was not till she had finished this note, 
 that Miss Beaumorice gave herself time to 
 read the second letter. 
 
 "A pennyworth of chat and plenty for 
 the money," thought she, carelessly, as she 
 opened it. She knew pretty well that Mary's 
 pennyworths of chat were usually amusing 
 enough, but not of that absorbing interest 
 to interfere with real business ; and just
 
 104 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 now, when her head was full of that old 
 castle on the Khine, with the solitary 
 widower pacing its innumerable rooms, and 
 the young man and beautiful girl hanging 
 over the battlements, Enghsh chat seemed 
 rather tame in comparison. 
 
 However, Mary's letter proved to have 
 something more serious in it than usual. 
 She wrote : — 
 
 " You have little suspected, dearest Miss 
 Beaumorice, that the long silence of your 
 young friend has been occasioned by an 
 event, or chain of events, that will affect 
 her whole life. I am engaged to be mar- 
 ried ! I give you ten, I give you twelve 
 guesses, but you will never guess aright ! 
 What do you think of my becoming a 
 neighbour of yours ? Longfield and Lambs- 
 croft are not so far apart as to forbid my 
 being in that relation to you, are they ? 
 Oh, I am very happy ! I always said I
 
 TEE LADY OF. LIMITED IXCOME. 105 
 
 should like to be a clergyman's wife, and 
 now my wish will be accomplished, for Mr. 
 Brooke is appointed to the curacy of Long- 
 field ; and I do hope, dear friend, that 
 during the pleasant summer evenings you 
 will often come over to us. Mamma says it 
 will be so nice for me, your being so near 
 us ; she knows that in my little difficulties 
 you will let me apply to you. 
 
 " What a strange change it seems ! 
 A completely different hue is thrown over 
 everything. I had not the least idea he 
 cared so much for me till a very Httle while 
 ago. It has been all since Christmas. 
 Have you ever seen him, or heard anything 
 of him, in your part of the world ? I think 
 you will say he is nice-looking, and very 
 gentlemanlike ; his tastes are very refined. 
 I hope his preaching will be hked ; his 
 views will quite suit you, I think. We 
 have not had leisure to enter much on these 
 subjects, yet, of course. You will think I
 
 106 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 can only write on one theme at present, but 
 I hardly know how to change it. You will 
 see me before the horse-chestnuts are out of 
 bloom, for it is to come off very soon. The 
 curacy is not much, but we think there's no 
 good waiting. I am of age, you know ; so 
 papa has consented. I have worlds of 
 things to attend to ; so excuse my adding 
 more now, dear Miss Beaumorice, than 
 mamma's and Margaret's love. Your ever 
 affectionate 
 
 ''Mary Beaufort." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice, though surprised, was 
 much pleased to hear of the engagement. 
 Mary was the only child of Mr. Beaufort's 
 first wife, who had been her early friend ; 
 she had never been very intimate with his 
 second. Marriage had always been the 
 goal to which Mary's views had been 
 directed since she left school. Had she 
 missed it, her family would have been dis- 
 appointed, and she herself perhaps soured.
 
 TEE LADY OF LUHTEB INC02IE. 107 
 
 She hardly seemed much wanted at home, 
 where a second family had sprung up to fill 
 the first place in Mrs. Beaufort's afiection. 
 It was well for her, then, that she should 
 have the prospect of a union with a right- 
 minded young clergyman ; for such Miss 
 Beaumorice assumed him to be, though he 
 was unknown to her even by report. She 
 wrote warmly to Mary, who soon foimd 
 time to write to her again, expressing a 
 hope to see her soon in London. She pro- 
 ceeded to say, — 
 
 ** John has secured a house at Longfield, 
 the same that the last curate had, with all 
 the planned furniture, which will save us 
 much trouble. So now the prime object is to 
 secure two nice servants ; and I want you, 
 dear Miss Beaumorice, to find me a couple 
 of promising ones that don't require teach- 
 ing. Let them be nice-looking, please, and 
 girls that know their place and know their 
 work."
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 A BRIDE ELECT. 
 
 " How is it that masters, and science and art, 
 One grain of intelligence fail to impart, 
 Unless in that magical compound combined 
 Philosophers join in defining as mind ?" 
 
 Jane Taylor. 
 
 HEN Miss Beaumorice went up 
 to receive her dividends, she 
 called on an old uncle in the 
 City, who was generally too busy to see her 
 more than for a few minutes ; and then pro- 
 ceeded north-westwards to call upon Mary, 
 whom she had forewarned to expect her. 
 Mary was out, however, but had left word 
 that she would soon return, and that she
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 101> 
 
 hoped Miss Beaumorice would rest in 
 her boudoir, and amuse herself with a 
 book. 
 
 The boudoir was of tiny dimensions, ad- 
 joining Mary's bedroom ; and both of them 
 were littered with finery and nicknacks. 
 Even money lay loose on the table, as well 
 as opened notes. 
 
 " How can Mar}' put such temptations 
 in the way of servants V thought Miss 
 Beaumorice, "unless, indeed, hers are as 
 honest and honourable as mine. My girls 
 would no more think of readino' a letter 
 that did not belong to them than of 
 taking money that was not theirs ; but 
 London servants are not always as reli- 
 able." 
 
 She looked around for a book, and took 
 up one after another, but found them 
 wholly unreadable. She put down volume 
 after volume with distaste, then took up 
 some of them again to see what food for
 
 no THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 the mind Mary liked, but closed them with 
 strong aversion after a few dips here and 
 there. 
 
 " Are these the books young people read 
 now T thought she. '' What false pictures 
 of life are here ! — what bad taste and care- 
 less writing ! But I suppose readers have 
 become indifferent to these faults as long as 
 they secure plenty of sensation. "Well, I 
 hope Mary will soon return." 
 
 Punctuality was not one of Mary's vir- 
 tues, and she unconcernedly left her old 
 friend to wait for her while she let a shop- 
 man show her one pretty thing after 
 another that she had no intention of buy- 
 ing. When at length she returned home 
 and found Miss Beaumorice, her pretty face 
 smiled joyous welcome, and she kissed her 
 most affectionately. Her younger sister, 
 Margaret, accompanied her ; an honest- 
 looking, pleasant girl of sixteen, whom Miss 
 Beaumorice had not seen for some time,
 
 THE LADY OF LUIITED INC021E. ill 
 
 and who in the interim had grown almost 
 out of knowledge. 
 
 Directly Mary had divested herself of her 
 walking dress, she launched into the full 
 tide of talk, and began showing Miss Beau- 
 morice the pretty things that lay about the 
 room. 
 
 '' How do you like this ? What do 
 you think of this ? Is it not pretty ? 
 Mamma chose this ; it is something quite 
 new." 
 
 " And how do you like this ?" said Mar- 
 garet, laughing and putting on a smart 
 bonnet. 
 
 '' Margaret, you must not touch that," 
 said Mary, taking it from her without cere- 
 mony. 
 
 " But how do you like this ?" pursued 
 Margaret, more seriously, taking up a large 
 coarse straw hat with a simple blue ribbon, 
 which lay on the bed, curiously contrasting 
 with the gay millinery around it : " this is
 
 112 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 what Mary is to use when she visits the 
 poor." 
 
 And she placed it on Mary's head, while 
 Mary looked quite aware of being very 
 pretty in it. Then putting it aside, she 
 took up a new dress, saying, ^^ The new 
 colour, you know. Do you think it suits 
 me ? I shall wear it to go away in — John 
 likes it. These handkerchiefs were ruinous, 
 but they are beautifully worked. Papa 
 said I ought not to have worked handker- 
 chiefs, but that was nonsense. I said, 
 ' Papa dear, you had better give mamma a 
 good round sum, and let her and me arrange 
 how to lay it out.' Of course, a man could 
 know nothing, you know. Margaret, you 
 had better go away now — we shall soon 
 come down to lunch. This was sent by 
 aunt Jay. Frightful, is not it ? People 
 should take care not to be behind the age 
 when they give wedding presents. And I 
 shall have to thank her just as much as if
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 113 
 
 I liked it. This cKurch service, bound in 
 ivory, is from John's sister, Alicia Brooke. 
 Yery nice, though I have quite a new one 
 already." 
 
 Mary's head seemed fuller of her trous- 
 seau than of her lover. 
 
 " Well," said she, sitting down beside 
 Miss Beaumorice, " what about the maids ? 
 Have you found me two pieces of perfec- 
 tion T 
 
 " No, not even one. Two have offered, 
 but I doubt if they will suit you. One has 
 lived with an old lady named Cole, who is 
 always changing. The other with old Mrs. 
 Caryl." 
 
 " Both old," said Mary. " Their ways 
 very different, of course, from those of 
 young persons. Consequently their maids 
 can hardly have had the right sort of train- 
 ing. And training is precisely what I 
 don't mean to undertake. I couldn't if I 
 would, and I wouldn't if I could. Why 
 VOL. I. S
 
 114 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 should I, when trained servants are to be 
 
 had r 
 
 " Just so ; only none happen to be dis- 
 engaged in my neighbourhood at pre- 
 sent." 
 
 " Oh, but how disappointing ! I so 
 entirely depended on you. Perhaps these 
 girls might do after all. Have you taken 
 their characters ?" 
 
 "No, I thought I would consult you 
 first." 
 
 " Oh, take their characters by all meaus, 
 please — perhaps they may do. Are they 
 pretty, not too pretty ?" 
 
 " They are neat and passably good-look- 
 ing." 
 
 " That sounds promising — so please just 
 ask if they know their work and know 
 their place." 
 
 " You mean " 
 
 ** I mean, keep in their proper place — 
 keep their distance, show proper respect —
 
 THE LADT OF LIMITED IXCOME. 115 
 
 don't answer again, and so on," said Mar^', 
 hastily. 
 
 The visitors' bell rang at this mo- 
 ment. 
 
 '' That's John's ring," said Mary ; " but 
 we won't go down yet. Mamma has 
 dressed by this time, and Margaret is 
 down if she is not. I want to show you 
 everything before lunch. I'll just put this 
 on : tell me how you like the effect. Do 
 you think it suits my style ?" 
 
 " Quite so ; but Longfield is not at all a 
 dressy place. My dear Mary, let us go 
 down ; my stay will be short, yon know ; 
 and Mr. Brooke will not like your keeping 
 him waiting." 
 
 " Oh, he's used to that," said Mary, 
 gaily. " I keep him in good order, I 
 assure you. I want to have quite a confi- 
 dential talk with you, now we are by our- 
 selves. Here we are, my dear friend, 
 about to try the problem of ' how to live 
 
 8—2
 
 116 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 on three hundred a year/ How should 
 you solve it ?" 
 
 " A good many curates have to live on a 
 third of that sum." 
 
 ''Oh, but I don't mean in that style, 
 you know. I don't mean to live like a 
 beggar ; and I m sure John does not." 
 
 '' I dare say you have heard the reply of 
 a young lady to whom the question was 
 proposed by her lover, — ' Oh, that will be 
 very easy, dear. There will be a hundred 
 for you, and a hundred for me, and of 
 course the housekeeping can't cost a hun- 
 dred.'" 
 
 Mary laughed slightly, and said, — 
 
 '' Of course that was nonsense. But 
 now I want to talk sense ; and I thought 
 you would be able to give me a hint or 
 two. It's a pity, one must confess, that 
 we shall not have four hundred a year 
 instead of three, because that would be 
 lust a hundred a quarter."
 
 THE LADY OF LUIITED INCOME. 117 
 
 " A good many would prefer four to 
 three," said Miss Beamnorice, smiling. 
 
 "Yes; but seriously speaking, would 
 not it be much more comfortable ? One 
 could settle one's accounts so much better." 
 
 " Much better." 
 
 " Now how much, as a practical person, 
 do you really think I might make do for 
 housekeeping ?" 
 
 " Oh, that must depend on the modera- 
 tion of yoiu^ desires, and on your manage- 
 ment." 
 
 " Of course ; but how much ? just say." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice still held back. 
 
 "The house-rent is not my affair, but 
 everything else. Shall we say fifty T 
 
 " Oh, my dear Mary 1" 
 
 " Too httle, you think," said Mary, with 
 chagrin. "1 had thought I might keep 
 within it." 
 
 " I would not advise you to expect 
 
 it.
 
 118 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 "But what shall I do if I have no 
 more V said Mary, quickly. " Well, then, 
 suppose by way of argument I double it. 
 Say a hundred, or rather a hundred and 
 four pounds. That will be two pounds a 
 week. What say you now T 
 
 " I think," said Miss Beaumorice, hesi- 
 tating, "that you must be a good manager, 
 and study economy, and not mind little 
 privations." 
 
 " John will never like privations," said 
 Mary. "Not bread-and-cheese dinners, 
 nor even cold meat." 
 
 "You need not have cold meat unless 
 you like it. But the fact is, you will per- 
 haps spend less than two pounds one week, 
 and a good deal more the next." 
 
 " I mean to spend just the same every 
 week," said Mary; "and if there is any- 
 thing I cannot afford one week, I'll wait 
 for it till the next." 
 
 " Or till you can afford it — that will be
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 119 
 
 excellent/' said Miss Beaumorice. "I 
 only hope " 
 
 Here a bell down-stairs was rung 
 smartly. 
 
 " John is rather impatient/' said Mary. 
 
 *' Oh, do let us go down, my dear. I m 
 getting hungry." 
 
 " But that's not the luncheon bell. It 
 will ring presently." 
 
 "But I want to be introduced to Mr. 
 Brooke." 
 
 " Yes, yes, you shall ; but just look at 
 this pretty chain he gave me yesterday." 
 
 " What an ungrateful little puss you 
 are, to be trifling with him in this way ! 
 Come, I really want to go down." 
 
 " We will, then," said Mary, — lingering, 
 however, to put her chain in a little case 
 which would not shut. At this instant 
 the house-door was noisily slammed, as if 
 to give general notice that somebody was 
 gone out.
 
 120 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " I do believe that's John !" cried Mary, 
 changing colour and running to the window. 
 " Yes, there he is, just turning the corner. 
 That's too bad." 
 
 *'You really have tried his patience," 
 said Miss Beaumorice, who, however, was 
 rather dismayed at this way of '' showing 
 her he was the stronger." 
 
 " What right had he to be impatient ?" 
 said Mary, ready to cry. ^' I've no notion 
 of such airs. I shall scold him pretty 
 sharply when we next meet, I can tell 
 him." 
 
 " Oh no ! do not ! He had really some 
 reason to complain. It is a great pity. 
 Let us go down now." 
 
 '' Yes, we will," said Mary, who, in 
 spite of taking such a high tone, had been 
 a little frightened. The luncheon bell 
 rang loudly, and one of her schoolboy 
 brothers rattled at the door, crying, — 
 
 " You're to come down directly, Mary."
 
 TEE LABY OF LIMITED I^COJIE. 121 
 
 " Coming, Mr. Saucebox/' said Mary, 
 linking her arm in Miss Beaumorice's, and 
 taking her down-stairs. 
 
 '' I am surprised," said Miss Beaumorice, 
 "that Mrs. Beaufort does not give you 
 some advice which would supersede the 
 necessity of mine." 
 
 " Oh, mamma is dreadfully unhelpful 
 and unsympathetic," said Mary. " She 
 says she Jaiows I shall get into trouble, 
 and that the scale on which we must keep 
 house will be so different from what she 
 had always been accustomed to, that she 
 has no advice to give that would be of the 
 least use. If I do get into trouble," added 
 she, almost crying, '* whose fault is it ? 
 Who has taught me V 
 
 As they entered the dining-room her 
 face underwent a sudden and really ludi- 
 crous change of expression, for there, with 
 the rest of the party, sat Mr. Brooke, a 
 good-looking young clergyman, in faultless
 
 122 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 attire of the latest clerical cut. She re- 
 covered from her surprise more immediately 
 than Miss Beauraorice could have thought 
 possible, giving him her hand with a smile 
 of welcome, though her heart was beating 
 fast. 
 
 " You did not expect to see me perhaps," 
 said he, smiling. 
 
 '^ "Where have you been T said Mary. 
 
 " To post a letter for Mrs. Beaufort. I 
 knew I could save the post." 
 
 " Oh !" 
 
 ''You are late, Mary," said Mrs. Beau- 
 fort. 
 
 " Oh, I was having such a nice chat 
 with Miss Beaumorice, mamma. We had 
 such an immensity to say to one an- 
 other." 
 
 " Not about any of the present company, 
 I suppose," said Mr. Brooke, laughing. 
 
 "About things of infinitely more mo- 
 ment."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 123 
 
 '*Just as if that were possible/' said 
 Margaret, merrily. 
 
 *' Quite possible. We were not talking 
 of persons, but things." 
 
 " Excellent," said Mr. Brooke. '' I only 
 wish ladies would oftener do so." 
 
 '' And gentlemen too, I wish," said 
 Mary ; " do they never deal in personali- 
 ties r 
 
 '' Not as often as women ; and generally 
 about more important things." 
 
 *' That depends ; does it not, Miss Beau- 
 morice ? At any rate, we -were not deal- 
 ing in personalities — not talking of you, 
 sir." 
 
 " Oh, of course not. Well, Miss Beau- 
 morice, we are going to be rather near 
 neighbours of yours." 
 
 '' I Avish it would be more than rather 
 near," said Miss Beaumorice. '^ I find it a 
 long walk to Longfield, but I hope practice 
 will make it seem shorter."
 
 124 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " Oh, jes, indeed it must. Do you 
 know much of Longfield ?" 
 
 " Very little. I know Mrs. Garrow. 
 She is a very nice person." 
 
 *' Ah, we must make you like it. I like 
 it very much." 
 
 " Completely out of the world," said 
 Mrs. Beaufort. 
 
 '' Why, that is what newly married 
 people always like, mamma," said Mar- 
 garet. " They think it so romantic." 
 
 " The whole affair is romantic, I think," 
 said Mrs. Beaufort. '^ People come by 
 experience to know the difference between 
 romance and reality." 
 
 " Ours is to be a life's romance, mamma," 
 said Mary. 
 
 " Oh, well, it is to be something dif- 
 ferent from everything else, I suppose. 
 Have a little fricasseed chicken. Miss 
 Beaumorice." 
 
 " I should like one of those apples.
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 125 
 
 please," said Mary. Slie took one, and 
 began eating it like a schoolgirl, cm naturel. 
 Mr. Brooke winced. 
 
 " Have one too, John." 
 
 '' No, thank you," said he, rather 
 gravely. 
 
 '' You look as if my eating one were too 
 much for you. Does it set your teeth on 
 edge r 
 
 '' Almost." 
 
 " Nonsense ! What are you thinking 
 of?" 
 
 '' Oh, of a question in an old book, — 
 *Why did Eve eat the apple without 
 paring it V " 
 
 " Don Quixote," said Mary. 
 
 " You don't read Don Quixote, I 
 
 hope r 
 
 "Yes, I do," said Mary, hardily. " Not 
 the great edition, but a nice little Ameri- 
 can one." 
 
 '^ Oh/' — looking relieved.
 
 126 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 Miss Beaumorice saw that he was sensitive 
 on more points than one, and hoped Mary 
 would not continually be heedlessly aggriev- 
 ing him. To hint so to her would not be 
 of the least use. 
 
 When she left her friends, she fell into 
 a train of thought that was by no means 
 cheerful. 
 
 " They all seem very willing to lose 
 Mary," thought she ; " and she seems 
 equally willing to leave them. How comes 
 it to pass, I wonder? She has hardly 
 known Mr. Brooke Ions: enous^h to feel 
 she is turning her twenty shillings into a 
 sovereign. Nor will she very readily sub- 
 mit, I fear, to a sovereign will not her own. 
 Ah, well, all will be for the best, I hope. 
 The attachment may be deeper than I can 
 imderstand." 
 
 Then she began rather wistfully to con- 
 sider what her wedding present to Mary 
 should be. She had received so many
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 127 
 
 pretty and even elegant gifts already, that 
 it wo-old be difficult to avoid choosing a 
 duplicate ; and many presents that she 
 treated very sHghtly, as hardly deserving 
 thanks, must yet have cost much more than 
 Miss Beaumorice could afford. 
 
 " It is of no good to compete with the rich 
 in money-worth," thought she. " What I 
 shall give will be merely in token of affec- 
 tion ; but yet I should wish it to be some- 
 thing she wants and would like to use. 
 Some of her presents are quite out of 
 character with the position in which she is 
 going to live ; but she did not seem to like 
 them the less for that. I fear I may be 
 getting a little behindhand in my ideas of 
 what is right and fitting, and that they 
 need brushing up. Perhaps the Baker 
 Street bazaar may enlighten me a little, and 
 supply me with some pretty and elegant 
 novelty within my means." 
 
 So she went there, and at first thought
 
 128 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 tlie only difficulty would be to choose ; but 
 a great deal of cogitation ensued, and what 
 she most hovered over was a beautifully 
 painted French china inkstand, equally 
 suitable for drawing-room and dressing- 
 room. On this she finally decided ; and, 
 to diminish the. chances of breakage, ordered 
 it to be carefully packed and sent to Mary 
 on the spot, with a card bearing a few 
 pencilled lines. If her purse was thereby 
 considerably lightened, so was her mind ; 
 she did not at all object to abridging 
 her own little may -wants, and even must- 
 wants, as long as she was thereby enabled 
 to fulfil her obligations to those she 
 loved, and who might reasonably take um- 
 brage at seeming to be neglected or for- 
 gotten. 
 
 After this she called on two or three old 
 friends, and then made her way to the 
 railway station, and took her place in a 
 railway carriage that speedily conveyed her
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 129 
 
 within an easy distance of her country 
 home, the air feeling lighter and fresher 
 and sweeter every minute as she approached 
 it. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 TWO OLD LADIES. 
 
 Look upon this presentiment, and on tliis." 
 
 Hamlet. 
 
 OST lovers of Crabbe will re- 
 member his description of the 
 " ancient maiden lady," not too 
 flatteringly portrayed, and the finished 
 Dutch painting of her surroundhigs : — 
 
 ' Down by the churchway walk, and where the brook 
 Winds round the chancel like a shepherd's crook, 
 In that small house, with those green pales before, 
 Where jasmine trails on either side the door, 
 Where those dark shrubs, that now grow wild at will, 
 Were clipped in form and tantalized with skill. 
 Where cockles blanched, and pebbles neatly spread, 
 Formed shining borders for the larkspur's bed,
 
 TEE LADY OF LI 211 TED INCOME. 131 
 
 There lived a lady, wise, austere, and nice, 
 Who by her virtue showed her scorn of vice." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice had sometimes idly won- 
 dered whether the prim mistress of the 
 abode answering to this description on the 
 outskirts of her village were wise, austere, 
 and nice — or only fidgety, punctilious, and 
 hard to please. She had seen her in the 
 little front garden, intently supervising 
 the gardener while he trimmed her pinks. 
 She had heard her rather sharp voice in- 
 doors rating her servant : she rather dis- 
 trusted appearances. However, for Mary's 
 sake, she was about to invade her dominions, 
 having previously sent a polite inquiry when 
 she might wait on Mrs. Cole. 
 
 The church clock struck the appointed 
 hour when Miss Beaumorice raised the 
 latch of the little gate and trod the neat 
 pebbled walk. The door was opened 
 almost the instant she rang the bell by a 
 servant girl with very red eyes. Mrs. Cole 
 
 9—2
 
 132 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 stood on the very threshold of the parlour 
 door, so that Miss Beaumorice found herself 
 ushered in the next instant. The girl was 
 hastily stepping forward to place a chair, 
 but a look seemed to warn her off with 
 some precipitation; and Mrs. Cole then 
 invited her visitor to sit on a small couch 
 beside the fireplace, and in the farthest 
 corner from the door. She then seated her- 
 self very near her, and looked at her in- 
 quiringly. 
 
 " I have called," began Miss Beaumorice, 
 " to inquire into the — " 
 
 Here Mrs. Cole, with a telegraphic move- 
 ment more easDy imagined than described, 
 hastened noiselessly to the door, made sure 
 that no one was outside, closed it with 
 dexterity, and returned as if " shod with 
 felt." 
 
 " You ve no idea/' said she, in an excited 
 whisper ; " only the most constant vigilance 
 — you know the old saying, ' Walls have
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 133 
 
 ears/ especially where there is a key- 
 hole." 
 
 " Oh, but I should hope the keyholes are 
 seldom so used," said Miss Beaumorice, 
 trying to take lightly such an uncomfortable 
 beginning. 
 
 " Constantly, constantly," rephed Mrs. 
 Cole, still under her breath. " Never 
 know when I'm alone." 
 
 " That argues rather too much leisure, I 
 think," said Miss Beaumorice. ^'A well- 
 employed girl would hardly find time or 
 disposition for so idle a habit. There is 
 something so lowering in it, that I should 
 think none but a very trumpery girl would 
 ever be guilty of it." 
 
 " May I beg you to lower your voice ? 
 The party in question, ma'am, is truly a 
 very trumpery girl, but if I were to charge 
 her with the offence she would have me 
 up to the town hall for taking away her 
 character."
 
 134 THE LADY OF LIMITED IXCOME. 
 
 " From what you say, it appears very 
 unlikely she would suit the friend for 
 whom I am inquiring ; and therefore it 
 will be unnecessary, I think, to trouble you 
 further. " 
 
 '' Oh, as to trouble, pray don't mention it. 
 I am happy to oblige you, but I do assure 
 you I think you may do better for your 
 friend." 
 
 " The young woman has not been long 
 with you, perhaps ?" said Miss Beaumorice, 
 unwilling to be so soon discomfited. 
 
 '■ Ten months — just ten months, — I really 
 cannot put up with her any longer." 
 
 '' Has she become better or worse, do you 
 
 think r 
 
 " Oh, ever so much worse. At first she 
 did try to please — and she did not take 
 nearly as many liberties ; but now I really 
 never have a moment's peace — obliged to 
 lock up everything." 
 
 " Ah," said Miss Beaumorice, " I think
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED lyCOME. 135 
 
 I never could contend with a dishonest per- 
 son/' 
 
 " Oblige me by not naming the word," 
 said Mrs. Cole, hastily. " Walls, as I said 
 just now, have ears ; only when things dis- 
 appear, you know, or diminish, we know 
 what it looks like." 
 
 "Certainly," said Miss Beaumorice. 
 " Well, it really makes one in trouble for 
 the unhappy girl's future." 
 
 " Oh, sixes not unhappy, I can tell you ! 
 Sings at the top of her voice when she's at 
 her work (unless when she's in one of her 
 humours), and laughs and talks with any 
 one that comes in her way." 
 
 '' Well, I hope she will see it is to her 
 own interest, before long, to change her 
 ways." 
 
 '' She'll never mend, ma'am, never !" said 
 Mrs. Cole, with emphasis. " If she wasn't 
 an orphan and friendless she'd never have 
 been here so long, for she's dying for a
 
 136 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 change, only she can't afford to throw her- 
 self out of house and home." 
 
 '' Of course not. Poor thing, one can't 
 help pitying her a little." 
 
 "I don't pity her a bit!" interposed Mrs. 
 Cole ; "it's I that am to be pitied." 
 
 " Yes, indeed. Well, I am sure, I wish 
 there were a greater hope of your reforming 
 her." 
 
 " Oh, there's no hope at all, ma'am." 
 
 " Because, you see, after all, a familiar 
 face is more pleasant to us than a strange 
 one or a succession of strange ones ; and 
 her face is rather a nice one, and she's very 
 neat." 
 
 " She dressed for you. And she dresses 
 for the tradespeople — for every one but 
 me." 
 
 " Girls naturally love dress. And in the 
 rare cases where they do not they generally 
 are slovens, untidy in their work no less 
 than in their persons."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INC02IE. 137 
 
 " Yes, indeed, ma'am — oli, I can't bear a 
 sloven." 
 
 "And when tliey are fond of making 
 little improvements in their own dress they 
 often acquire a lightness of hand and 
 dexterity that they turn to very good ac- 
 count in fine works for their mistresses." 
 
 "That's true, too," said Mrs. Cole. 
 " There was a girl, now, called Lucy, who 
 would toss me up a cap as lightly as a pan- 
 cake, only she was such a story-teller." 
 
 " I always make as great a point of truth 
 as of honesty," said Miss Beaumorice. 
 
 " Then I wonder you get any servants at 
 all," said Mrs. Cole. "I always give them 
 a good rating when I catch them at it, but 
 I'm obliged to wink at a good deal." 
 
 " I find it answers best in a general 
 way," said Miss Beaumorice, "to rely 
 more on general principles than on particu- 
 lars." 
 
 "As how?" said Mrs. Cole.
 
 138 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 *' By pointing out to them in the first 
 place, if there seems any need for it, the 
 duty and excellence of truth, and the self- 
 respect and respect of others it always com- 
 mands in the long run, but especially its 
 being what God exacts of us all, and will 
 undoubtedly punish us for transgressing 
 in/' 
 
 ''That's beyond me, — too high-flown," 
 said Mrs. Cole. " When I find them out, 
 I ask them what they expect will become 
 of them and promise to show them up ; 
 but, dear me, they no more mind it " 
 
 " I believe there are some such poor ill- 
 conducted girls ; happily I have had no ex- 
 perience of them," said Miss Beaumorice. 
 
 '' Then, ma'am, you Ve been very fortu- 
 nate." 
 
 " They must doubtless have had very 
 bad or misjudging, neglectful mothers. 
 When I am speaking about a young girl 
 with a view to engaging her, I always
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 139 
 
 inquire whether she has been brought up 
 by a good mother." 
 
 " And how seldom you find it the case, I 
 should think !" said Mrs. Cole. " Nineteen 
 mothers out of twenty give their girls no 
 bringing up at all — don't teach them to set 
 or stitch, give them no notion of mending 
 or cutting out — scarcely teach them to cook 
 a potato." 
 
 " I never incline to try girls of that sort," 
 said Miss Beaumorice. '' Somebody with 
 more energy and vocation for the work 
 must undertake them. Very high work it 
 is, too — noble work, indeed ; work that 
 lies within almost every lady's reach, if she 
 really wants a mission, w^hich is what so 
 many are now crying out for. I admire 
 those who throw themselves into it, even if 
 they make a few mistakes at first. For my 
 own part, I am hardly equal to more than 
 training girls for my own particular use, 
 which generally leads to their passing on
 
 140 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 to better places, or being respectably mar- 
 ried." 
 
 " I should think your place was at a pre- 
 mium, ma'am," said Mrs. Cole. 
 
 " Well, I have been very fortunate on 
 the whole, certainly," said Miss Beau- 
 morice. 
 
 " I should say the girls were fortunate,"" 
 said Mrs. Cole. " They'd do anything for 
 you with the chance of a husband." 
 
 " Oh, but that is an accidental circum- 
 stance not kept in view." 
 
 " Don't believe it, ma am ! And then I 
 daresay you give high wages." 
 
 *^ No, indeed ; my wages are rather low. 
 I always begin low, but then I raise them 
 every year, which I consider a fair arrange- 
 ment, because every year their services be- 
 come more valuable." 
 
 " Do you mean that if a servant lived 
 with you thirty years you would go on 
 raising her wages annually ?"
 
 TRE LADY OF LUIITED INCOME. 141 
 
 Miss Beaumorice laughed, and said that 
 eventuaUty had never occurred to her. 
 Her young women generally lived with her 
 four or five years, and then settled near her 
 in homes of their own, — she had quite a 
 little circle of them round her. 
 
 Mrs. Cole did not know how to take this. 
 She said, '' I should think your kitchen was 
 never clear of them when your back was 
 turned." 
 
 '' Oh, they have duties and interests of 
 their own to keep them at home," said Miss 
 Beaumorice ; " but they know that when 
 they do come they are always welcome. In 
 fact, it is one of the pleasures of my not 
 very eventful life to take interest in the 
 welfare of these humble friends, and help 
 them in their Httle difficulties." 
 
 Mrs. Cole said, *' Humph 1" and seemed 
 weighing in her mind how much of this to 
 believe. Presently she said abruptly, — 
 
 " I suppose, now, you have not one of
 
 142 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 these pattern maids on hand that you 
 could help me to T 
 
 " It is because I have not," said Miss 
 Beaumorice, smiling, " that I am troubling 
 you now with inquiries about your servant. 
 A young friend has commissioned me to 
 look out for her." 
 
 " Then, since your friend is young, I 
 should say she had better not try Jane." 
 
 " I am afraid she had better not. May 
 I spea,k to her before I go, and tell her I 
 decline her services ?" 
 
 " Please be careful what you say," said 
 Mrs. Cole, with her hand on the bell, but 
 not ringing it. " Eemember, pray, I did 
 not say she was not sober, or civil, or ho- 
 nest." 
 
 '' Certainly." 
 
 The bell was rung, and Jane entered with 
 an anxious, worried look. 
 
 '^ I am going," began Miss Beaumorice, 
 *' to decline troubling you any further, be-
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME, 143 
 
 cause I do not think you would suit my 
 friend/' on which Jane darted a look of hot 
 anger at her mistress. 
 
 " She is young/' pursued Miss Beaumo- 
 rice, gently, " and anxious not to be trou- 
 bled by training, which is what, I think, 
 you probably require. It would be little 
 to the advantage of either, therefore, if I 
 were to engage you for her. It will be a 
 better thing for you if you can find a mis- 
 tress who will be kind enough to give you 
 the training you need. It may not be plea- 
 sant at first — no training is ; but if you 
 submit yourself to it good-humour edly and 
 heartily it will be a good thing for you all 
 your life, even when you come to have a 
 home of your own." 
 
 Jane's face instantly cleared. " I will, 
 ma am," said she, heartily. " I only wish I 
 knew where to find such a mistress." 
 
 " Sometimes," said Miss Beaumorice, after 
 a short pause, " we go about seeking for
 
 144 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 something tliat all the while is at our elbow. 
 Perhaps this good mistress is very near to 
 you now" (a look of utter disbelief crossed 
 Jane's face). " It is quite worth your while 
 to try if it may not be so, even if you are 
 looking out for the other mistress who may 
 not immediately appear. But I think you 
 would be more likely to find this the case 
 if you made trial of it heartily, without 
 troubling yourself, for the time, to look out 
 for the other mistress at all. There are 
 two parties who must consent to this." 
 
 " Yes indeed," said Mrs. Cole, abruptly. 
 
 Jane's face again clouded. 
 
 " At any rate," pursued Miss Beaumo- 
 rice, '' you have not another place secured 
 at present, and have to remain here till 
 your time is up, unless at great disadvan- 
 tage to yourself. Surely it will be to your 
 interest to improve that time as much as 
 possible by obliging your mistress, as you, 
 doubtlefc^s, must know how to do after living
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INC021E. 145 
 
 with lier ten monttis ; so that her last im- 
 pression of you may be a favourable one. 
 She mil then, of course, be able to speak 
 of you much more highly than at present 
 she could conscientiously do, however much 
 her kindness might dispose her to it on ac- 
 count of your friendless position. She 
 would not only be able, but I am sure she 
 would be disposed to do so if she saw a 
 hearty disposition on your part to please 
 her. You loill try, will you not ? I am 
 sure of it." 
 
 Jane said softly, " Yes, ma'am." 
 '' You may go now," said Mrs. Cole 
 shortly, as she saw Miss Beaumorice rise, 
 " I can let the lady out." 
 Jane curtseyed and retired. 
 *' You got quite the whip hand of her, 
 ma'am, for the time," said Mrs. Cole, in an 
 emphatic undertone, '^ but only for a time, 
 I'm sure." 
 
 " Oh, I hope better things. Sometimes 
 VOL. I. 10
 
 146 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 a young person only wants an excuse to 
 submit. Very often." 
 
 '' Well, I hope it may be so, though I 
 don't expect it." 
 
 " Give her a fair trial — for her own sake, 
 you know, — and I hope it will be for yours 
 too. I shall take interest in your success. 
 Good morning." 
 
 " Good morning ;" and the interview 
 concluded. 
 
 " I hope my next visit will be pleasanter 
 and more successful," thought Miss Beau- 
 morice, as she pursued her way. " Surely 
 Mrs. Cole, if she had had the mind, might 
 in ten months have won the confidence and 
 affection of this girl, and trained her into 
 usefulness and obedience. Instead of which 
 she has apparently deteriorated. I much 
 doubt her success with her now. She 
 seems to act on a wrong principle or to 
 have no principle to act on." 
 
 Reflecting deeply on the subject, the
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED IXCOME. 147 
 
 lyalk did not seem long to Mrs. Caryl's 
 gate. There was something very sug- 
 gestive of small-scale comfort and refine- 
 ment in the little cottage-villa within it. 
 One door and two windows were all that 
 appeared in front, among mantling creepers : 
 but the door was not narrow and pinched 
 like Mrs. Cole's, and had a pretty stone 
 porch to screen it from sun, wind, and rain, 
 and cast a pretty shadow : the windows, 
 one above and one below, admitted plenty 
 of light, were glazed with crown glass as 
 bright as a diamond, and shaded with snow- 
 white netting and fringe. As for the gar- 
 den ground in front, it was amusing to see 
 that something like landscape gardening 
 had been not merely attempted but achieved, 
 by means of a slightly winding walk, not 
 too narrow, from the gate to the door, a 
 tiny lawn of velvet turf, with a rustic basket 
 on three unbarked supports in the centre, 
 filled with creepers and geraniums, and 
 
 10—2
 
 148 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 actually a little plantation of trees that had 
 not yet overgrown their place, which made 
 the garden at once pretty and retired. The 
 chief secret was that too much had not been 
 attempted. And nothing had been done 
 without judicious consideration of the effect. 
 In the spirit of Miss Edgewortli's French 
 waiting-maid, not a pin but had its mission. 
 And so little trouble too ! A gardener 
 might do everything wanted in a quarter 
 of a day. Almost no mowing, or rolling, 
 or brushing, very little pruning, and pro- 
 bably a good deal of it done by the lady 
 herself, for the plants and flowers looked 
 as if they were being continually touched 
 up. 
 
 Thought Miss Beaumorice as she rang the 
 bell, " I should like just such a little house : 
 there is nothing poverty-stricken ; nothing 
 superfluous ; one might live here comfort- 
 ably with one maid ; in fact, there cannot 
 be work for two ; and the kitchen must be
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 149 
 
 SO near the parlour that neither of the in- 
 mates can be lonely." 
 
 Within all was equally to her mind. 
 The door was opened by a plain but highly 
 respectable -looking middle-aged woman, 
 who showed her into the parlour. Mrs. 
 Caryl, a quiet old lady in black, was seated 
 at her netting, but there were writing ma- 
 terials on the table. She rose with a plea- 
 sant smile to receive her visitor. 
 
 " Susan told me to expect this call from 
 you," said she when they were seated, " but 
 1 was not sure that the shower might not 
 deter you from coming out." 
 
 " Oh, it has been nothing," said Miss 
 Beaumorice, " and I was under shelter when 
 it occurred. It has made everything plea- 
 santly fresh. The grass in your garden 
 sparkles with bright drops." 
 
 " They look so pretty," said Mrs. Caryl. 
 " You are compHmentary to call it a garden, 
 but it is just enough for me, and for an old
 
 150 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 man whom nobody else will employ. They 
 say he is past work, but he can do just 
 enough to excuse me for paying him a few 
 shillings, though he requires constant watch- 
 ing, being rather fond of his own ways, 
 which are not alway-s mine. You come for 
 Susan's character. She is a very nice girl 
 indeed, and I was very sorry when I found 
 she wished for a change ; but I could not 
 be much surprised after her living three 
 years in so quiet a place. I am an old com- 
 panion, you see, for a young girl, and she 
 is too well-principled to go astray after 
 younger ones. So, after some talk, I agreed 
 to her looking out, only begging her to re- 
 main here till she found quite a safe place. 
 She has been longer doing this than she 
 expected. Meanwhile I have found a ser- 
 vant to supply her place, whom I have 
 taken into the house at once, that she might 
 not be in lodgings." 
 
 After this a frank conversation ensued^
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 151 
 
 which tended to give Miss Beaumorice a 
 very favourable opinion both of mistress 
 and servant. Mrs. Caryl did not launch 
 into excessive encomiums, but spoke heartily 
 and with every appearance of sincerity of 
 her young maid, who, in all material points, 
 such as truth, faithfulness, obedience, clean- 
 liness, disposition to please and to be con- 
 tented, &c., seemed unimpeachable. The 
 question whether she would be equal to 
 the work required of her was one that 
 could only be answered by trial. Miss 
 Beaumorice thought the experiment quite 
 worth making, and engaged to write to 
 Miss Beaufort to say so. At this point 
 Susan came in, neat and smiling, with a 
 heap of letters and book parcels from the 
 post ; and Miss Beaumorice, after exchang- 
 ing a few words with her, and promising to 
 let her know the result of her letter, rose 
 to go. 
 
 " Pray do not hurry," said Mrs. Gary],
 
 152 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 pleasantly. " I quite enjoy your visit. I 
 cannot say that in general I can profess as 
 much." 
 
 " It would only be intrusion to remain 
 longer, when you have such a heap of cor- 
 respondence awaiting your leisure." 
 
 " Oh, these are chiefly proofs ; I know 
 their contents pretty well. There Avill be 
 plenty of time for them by and by, when 
 I cannot have the pleasure of your com- 
 pany." 
 
 "You are very enviable, I think," said 
 Miss Beaumorice, " if you have such a re- 
 source as — authorship." 
 
 " Yes, it is a resource that I am thank- 
 ful for on more accounts than one," said 
 Mrs. Caryl, cheerfully. *' For one thing, 
 it is a privilege for a woman at my time of 
 life to have the means of securing her inde- 
 pendence by what is, after all, as much an 
 amusement as a labour. Then it gives one 
 many little opportunities of being helpful
 
 TEE LAD Y OF LIGHTED INCOME. 153 
 
 to others — gives purpose to one's reading — 
 gives continual subjects to hunt up and 
 think about, quite apart from petty scan- 
 dals and local gossips. And the actual 
 craft itself is very dear to me ; so that 
 it really helps to make me a happy old 
 lady." 
 
 And her face shone with smiles as she 
 said so. 
 
 ''I am sure it must," said Miss Beau- 
 morice, energetically. "In a harmless 
 sense I may say I envy you." 
 
 " You need never do that ; for there is 
 nothing to hinder your doing the same 
 thing." 
 
 " Except the ability," said Miss Beau- 
 morice, laughing. " I should not have 
 your success, and that would make all the 
 difference." 
 
 '^ How do you know till you try ? I 
 would not say so to every one, but I do so 
 confidently to you."
 
 154 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME, 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Caryl ! How can you do- 
 that r 
 
 '^ Why, by a sort of intuition, I suppose ; 
 of course, I don't pretend to be infallible, 
 but ' set a thief to catch a thief,' — set an 
 author to detect in another an aptitude for 
 authorship." 
 
 " I wish you were right ; but I assure 
 you I have not the least persuasion that 
 you are so." 
 
 " Well, wait till the next dull day, or 
 long, lonely, evening," said Mrs. Caryl, 
 **wait till some subject presents itself to 
 you — •! do not bid you hunt about for one, 
 but when it comes of itself, be grateful, 
 and do your best for it." 
 
 *' Comes of itself! But that would be 
 inspiration." 
 
 " Call it by that fine name if you like, 
 though I don't ; but I always find I do 
 best what comes to me in this unsought, 
 unpremeditated way. It may have been
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 155 
 
 the result of much foregone thought — of 
 many thoughts, and feehngs, and experi- 
 ences, and vexations, and mortifications, 
 and scraps of other people's sayings, and 
 bits of sermons and passages in books, and 
 glimpses of scenery and of cottage life, and 
 — or a hundred things besides, that with- 
 out any particular trouble of mine have 
 rolled themselves up till — till they offer 
 themselves to my pen almost irresistibly, 
 so that I should be graceless indeed not to 
 write them down." 
 
 "Truly I think so!" said Miss Beau- 
 morice, warmly. "Well, I hope such a 
 conglomeration of happy thoughts may 
 suggest themselves some time or other to 
 me ; but our minds are so different." 
 
 " That need not hinder," said Mrs. 
 Caryl. "You must have some mind, of 
 course, in order to turn it to account ; but 
 when you have the raw article, it is sur- 
 prising how much can be done with it by
 
 156 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 j)ractice and by training. If you really 
 have the desire, and the need, only try ; I 
 a.m not afraid of the result. Good-bye ; 
 but don't let this be our last as well as 
 first meeting. I am no visitor, you per- 
 haps know ; but drop in on me now and 
 then when you feel inclined, if you ever 
 feel inclined." 
 
 " I am sure I shall. Thank you ; thank 
 you very much." 
 
 They shook hands warmly as they 
 parted.
 
 CHAPTER IX, 
 
 TEA-TABLE TALK. 
 
 *' We took our work, and went, you see, 
 To have an early cup of tea." 
 
 Jaxe Tayloe, 
 
 'JgS Miss Beaumorice took her way 
 homeward along the devious 
 country road, mth broad turf 
 margins and budding hedges, her sense of 
 f^itigue was beguiled by amusing fancies of 
 what she might write about, if she were 
 minded to follow Mrs. Caryl's suggestion. 
 Many a pretty thought occurred to her 
 which seemed as if it would be the easiest 
 thing in the world to write down when at 
 home ; but on her actual arrival there, all
 
 158 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 these pleasant day-dreams were scattered, 
 like sparrows from corn, by tlie sight of a 
 letter awaiting her, which she saw at once 
 was from Alured. 
 
 He wrote in high spirits. He had 
 passed ; and ov/ing to what happy train of 
 circumstancees he did not fail to particu- 
 larize. He gratefully spoke of his obliga- 
 tions to her and to Miss Partridge, who had 
 given him a higher motive-power in working 
 at what had previously seemed to him 
 very unnecessary as well as very tiresome 
 studies. 
 
 *^ For instance," he said, "it at first ap- 
 peared absurd to me to pore over algebra 
 and Euclid, w^hen the chief duties I should 
 be called on to fulfil would be of a strictly 
 practical nature. I did not see why I 
 should be forced through a routine that 
 Wellington was never subjected to, and 
 probably would not have mastered. You 
 and Miss Partridge made me see that the
 
 THE LADY OF LUHIED IB GOME, 159 
 
 mere knowledge a candidate acquires in 
 preparing for competitive examination, is 
 only part of the benefit he receives ; — that 
 still more valuable are the habits he acquires 
 of appHcation and industry. Dr. G. says 
 I have much improved in thoroughness and 
 industry lately, which I don't say boast- 
 ingly, but because I know it will give you 
 pleasure. I certainly was a good deal sur- 
 prised at my own luck, 1 was going to call 
 it, but I do not think you like the word. 
 I thought Headley a great deal more likely 
 to pass than I was, yet he has not. He 
 overstrained his mind at first ; and then, 
 instead of relaxing it with cricket and foot- 
 ball, took to smoking and drinking. This 
 is the case with too many crammers ; they 
 lose the energy required to play heartily. 
 
 '' In fact, though I don't cram, and have 
 not the head for it, I feel very listless some- 
 times after brain-work, from half past six 
 till one, and would rather smoke with
 
 160 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 Headley than take a brisk walk. But I 
 knew it would not do ; and, on the con- 
 trary, have done my best to get him to join 
 me in long walks and athletic exercises. 
 We had planned a walking tour together 
 at Easter, if he passed, and proposed — don't 
 be shocked — to look in on you ; but since 
 he has not, he has become desponding and 
 recluse, and will not go anywhere." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice grieved over the falling 
 off of one of Alured's familiar friends, though 
 she did not feel very anxious to make his 
 acquaintance. She sent Alured her warm 
 congratulations, and encouraged him to 
 steady persistence in well doing ; adding 
 that she hoped she should not lose his 
 Easter visit because he could not get a 
 companion. 
 
 Then she wrote to Mary about the cha- 
 racters of the two servants ; and then the 
 thought recurred to her that had floated in 
 her mind coming home. She tried to com-
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 161 
 
 mit them to paper ; and even gave a long 
 hour to the effort. But no : — 
 
 " As pebbles on the beach appear, 
 Beneath the waters, bright and clear ; 
 But, taken thence and dried, they lose 
 Their polished and transparent hues," 
 
 SO the polished and transparent thoughts 
 that had pleased her so much under the 
 influence of fresh air and brisk exercise, 
 now " taken thence and dried," appeared 
 trite and inane to the last degree ! Im- 
 possible to please others, since they did not 
 even please herself In a kind of indigna- 
 tion at herself, she thought, " I knew my 
 own want of aptitude better than Mrs. 
 Caryl could possibly do. She has her line ; 
 I mine, though a humble one." 
 
 A loud ring at the house-beU. What 
 can it be? A railway parcel from Miss 
 Partridge — a light deal box full of all man- 
 ner of pretty things for Signer Bonomi's 
 bazaar. It was Miss Beaumorice who had 
 
 VOL. I. 11
 
 162 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 suggested the idea to her and asked her 
 aid ; and yet she had done almost nothing 
 herself; had lately nearly forgotten the 
 whole affair ; and yet the bazaar was to be 
 in May, and here she was in March ! She 
 took shame to herself for it, and inspired 
 with renewed zeal began to hunt up her 
 stores, plan work for herself and her 
 maids, aye, and for her young friends too. 
 Those Nuneham girls always loved bene- 
 volent usefulness ; they were clever at 
 fancy works, they had ready invention. 
 She would ask them to co-operate ; she 
 was sure it would not be in vain. 
 
 No sooner said than done. Three cordial 
 lines of invitation brought three smiling 
 faces to enliven her tea-table ; and three 
 pairs of hands to be of service. 
 
 "And what is it to be for, dear Miss 
 Beaumorice ? what is the object of the 
 bazaar ?" inquired Grace. " Italian Pro- 
 testantism ? Oh, delightful ; Papa knows
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 163 
 
 that interesting Dr. De Sanctis ; and sym- 
 pathizes very much with the Madiai." 
 
 *' Do tell me, Miss Beaumorice," cried 
 Julia, eagerly, " is Garibaldi a Catholic or 
 a Protestant ? I so want to know." 
 
 " Perhaps he hardly knows himself," said 
 Miss Beaumorice. " A Father somebody, 
 you know, is called his chaplain ; but I 
 never heard of a chapel in Caprera. And 
 he reads the Bible. One thing I feel 
 assured of, that he is a Christian, though 
 a singular one." 
 
 " Oh, I am so glad to hear you say so. 
 Only they report such strange sayings of 
 his sometimes." 
 
 '' Ah, Cassius was not the only one who 
 might well complain of having his uncon- 
 sidered words — 
 
 " * Set in a note-book, conned, and learnt by rote.' 
 
 *' Many of Garibaldi's mots, probably, are 
 utter inventions, at a penny-a-Hne ; others, 
 
 11—2
 
 164 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 mere jests, that he never meant to be 
 taken in earnest. He feels things so 
 strongly, however, that sometimes he ex- 
 presses them too strongly — for popular 
 approval at any rate. Then he is taken 
 to task for it." 
 
 " See, I have made a penwiper like a 
 little union Jack," said Agnes, '' out of 
 the scraps you were going to throw 
 away." 
 
 " Throw away nothing, please," said 
 Julia, " they will make pincushions and 
 patches." 
 
 "Grandmamma knows an old lady," 
 said Grace, "who at eighty-four made a 
 patchwork quilt for a hospital. It was 
 laid on the bed of a young man who had 
 been a great grief to his family, and had 
 at length reduced himself to want. He 
 noticed among the patches a print resem- 
 bling a gown of his mother s, which he had 
 greatly admh^ed when a child. Perhaps
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 165 
 
 like Cowper's mother, she had taught him 
 to amuse himself by copying the flowers 
 with pricks of a pin. At any rate, it 
 brought such touching memories of her to 
 his mind, that his heart softened, and one 
 thing and another strengthened the good 
 impression till he became a reformed young 
 man. When my grandmother heard this 
 she was struck by it, and said, ' If one old 
 lady upwards of eighty-four can make a 
 patchwork quilt, another can.' So she has 
 actually one in progress, which when finished 
 is to be sent to a hospital. She begs 
 patches of her friends ; and one peculiarity 
 of her quilt is, that the figures — constella- 
 tions you may almost call them, — have 
 every one a white centre of calico ; on 
 which grandmamma prints a text in large 
 letters with marking ink." 
 
 " What an original idea," said Miss 
 Beaumorice. '^ I will look her out some 
 pieces."
 
 166 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " Grace ! don't you think we might make 
 such a counterpane for Signor Bonomi's 
 bazaar T cried Julia. 
 
 " Yes, that would be quite a unique con- 
 tribution," said Grace. " If there were 
 but time." 
 
 " Oh, we could make time," said Julia, 
 eagerly, " and the quilt might be smaller 
 than grandmamma's." 
 
 " Yes, that would be capital," said Miss 
 Beaumorice. *' And my maids shall help 
 you if you like. They will enjoy it." 
 
 " Oh yes, by all means ! Many hands 
 make light work." 
 
 *^ Julia is always striking out new ideas," 
 said Grace, laughing. 
 
 " This hardly deserves to be called one," 
 said Julia ; "it is only an adaptation of 
 grandmamma's idea." 
 
 " I love invention and originality," said 
 Miss Beaumorice, "though I have very
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 167 
 
 little of my own. If you will furnish the 
 new ideas, I will do my best to assist in 
 the workmanship." 
 
 "Tell me of some good mottos," said 
 Agnes, " for book-markers. I don't mean 
 texts." 
 
 " Hope always." 
 
 " Thank you. That will do for one. It 
 is nice and short." 
 
 " Ora et kchora. But that's Latin." 
 
 That will do thouorh. I will book 
 
 it/ 
 
 " Aspettare e non venire, 
 Star in letto e non dormire, 
 Servire e non gradire, 
 Son' tre cose a far morire." 
 
 " Too long, Grace," said Julia, " Now, 
 Alice." 
 
 " Chiudete la porta,'' said Alice, merrily, 
 which made them all laugh. "I'm sure 
 that's a favourite motto of papa's,"
 
 168 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " And ' sta in letto ' of jours, Miss Lazy- 
 bones/' 
 
 " Harry has a nice set of dried ferns," 
 said Alice. " I wonder if they would fetch 
 anything/' 
 
 " Yes, I should think so, if they are nicely 
 arranged." 
 
 "He has also a collection of people's 
 crests and monograms, which papa called 
 great nonsense ; but they are so beautifully 
 arranged and connected with coloured 
 borders, that they are really very pretty. 
 He is out of conceit with them now, though, 
 and would be glad, very likely, to turn 
 them to good use." 
 
 '* That would be very nice." 
 
 " He collected the postage stamps of all 
 nations," said Alice ; and the flags of all 
 nations." 
 
 " Ah that has so often been done now." 
 
 " Not arranged like Harry's, though. 
 The flags have poetical mottos — from
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 169 
 
 Shakspere and others — and political ones, 
 some of them in the style of Punch." 
 
 " Shakspere and Pimch hand in hand !" 
 said Miss Beaumorice, laughing. '' Every 
 taste must surely be pleased.'^ 
 
 " I wonder," said Grace, " whether nice 
 little collections of garden-seeds would 
 have any value. To children they might, 
 — httle packets, you know, of annuals — 
 we might supply them in almost any quan- 
 tity, at no expense at all, in sixpenny 
 packets, and give good measure too. Sow- 
 ing time is coming on." 
 
 " I call that an excellent idea," said 
 Miss Beaumorice. " I shall book these 
 suggestions as they occur, that we may not 
 forget them." 
 
 " I heard," said Grace, " that the Miss 
 Gamblers were very active at a fancy -fair 
 at Gravesend some time ago, and cleared I 
 forget how much in sixpences and shillings 
 by little sealed notes inscribed ' advice to
 
 170 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 gentlemen/ and 'advice to ladies/ The 
 buyers were upon honour not to betray 
 what was inside. It was ' don't be sharp ' 
 — 'dont be flat.' There were shouts of 
 laughter." 
 
 "Just like one of the Miss Gamblers' 
 jokes/' said Miss Beaumorice. '' I do not 
 think it particularly witty. But success 
 often depends on the thing being well- 
 timed." 
 
 '' I wonder how a little book would sell/' 
 said Alice, " called ' How to Live a Little 
 Longer.' " 
 
 " That would be a taking title certainly, 
 but how would you make it out ?" asked 
 Grace. 
 
 Alice paused; but Miss Beaumorice said, 
 " Oh, I think some good recipes might be 
 given. 'Don't turn night into day. Don't 
 overload the brain. Don't smoke. Don't 
 fret. Avoid alcohol. Avoid medicine. 
 Use fresh water freely. Take plenty of
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 171 
 
 exercise. Don't be envious. Don't be 
 cross.' " 
 
 " Nine good rules," said Alice. " We 
 may easily make them twelve ; one to a 
 page, you know, with vignettes." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice laughed and booked 
 it. 
 
 " What say you," said she, as she wrote, 
 to a young lady's pictorial account-book ? 
 *' An ordinary account-book, you know, 
 interleaved with original designs." 
 
 " Really we are cutting ourselves out 
 plenty of work," said Grace, with anima- 
 tion. " That would just suit Caroline — 
 she draws so nicely. What should the 
 subjects be ?" 
 
 '' Ah, I have no invention — you must 
 find them," said Miss Beaumorice. " Only 
 I think the title-page might have a group 
 of justice, with her sword and scales, sup- 
 ported by economy and liberality." 
 
 " Oh, Miss Beaumorice ! how can you
 
 172 THE LAB Y OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 say you have no invention ? I am sure 
 Caroline could work out sucli a hint as 
 that — how should economy be repre- 
 sented r 
 
 " Ah, I cannot say — unless sitting at 
 the feet of justice, and pointing up to her 
 with one hand, and holding her account- 
 book in the other." 
 
 " That would do ! — as much as to say, 
 ' No, I really can't afford that. You see 
 how my sister Liberality is scattering her 
 money on the other side.' Would they be 
 sisters ? or rivals V 
 
 "Sisters, certainly," said Miss Beau- 
 morice, '' playing into each other's hands, 
 though each having her separate depart- 
 ment." 
 
 '' That idea would quite suit papa. 
 Then as to the other designs. Let us 
 settle them, and then Caroline will have 
 nothing to do but to sketch them." 
 
 " There should be at least two."
 
 THE LABT OF LIMITED INCOME. 173 
 
 " Two ? A dozen, please," interposed 
 Alice ; " one for every month." 
 
 " Jf you can find as many. Suppose we 
 begin with extravagance spending nearly 
 the whole of her first quarter's allowance 
 at Lewis and Allonby's — thereby crippling 
 herself for the rest of the three months. 
 That will be an impressive warning, highly 
 approved by parents and guardians." 
 
 " Oh, yes ; and let the next be self- 
 denial, eating a plain bun instead of a 
 plum one." 
 
 " She would be more self-denying to go 
 without, I think," said Grace. "Then, 
 selfishness might be turning a deaf ear 
 and a blind eye to a little barefooted 
 boy, wistfully looking through the pastry- 
 cook's window." 
 
 " And improvidence, in thin boots, with 
 no umbrella, picking her way through the 
 rain, unable to pay for omnibus or cab." 
 
 *^ Ideas flow apace," said Miss Beau-
 
 174 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 morice. And as if that little gratulation 
 broke the spell, the flow was instantly 
 checked. 
 
 '' Well, we seem to have nothing more 
 to say," observed Grace, presently. " Miss 
 Beaumorice, that was an unfortunate re- 
 mark of yours." 
 
 " It was." 
 
 " How often it is so !" said Alice. 
 
 " Alice ! you extraordinary child ! what 
 can you be thinking of? Do you mean 
 that Miss Beaumorice's sayings are often 
 unfortunate ?" 
 
 " No, but that when we congratulate 
 ourselves on getting on famously, we often 
 suddenly stop short." 
 
 "Yes, I have foimd it so sometimes," 
 said Miss Beaumorice. 
 
 " Oh, so have I," said Julia. " Boasting 
 is unlucky." 
 
 ** Julia, papa would not like that. Be- 
 sides, Miss Beaumorice was not boasting."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 175 
 
 " I am afraid it was akiii to it," said 
 Miss Beaiimorice. Then, after a pause, 
 " How easily we find subjects to talk 
 about, quite distinct from gossip about our 
 neighboiu^." 
 
 This remark had the same consequence 
 as the former one; for she herself presently 
 set the example of talking about neigh- 
 bours. 
 
 ** Do you know anythicg of Mrs. 
 Caryl?" 
 
 " Oh ! such a nice old lady I I wish 
 she were in our parish, for you know, 
 Longfield is rather too far off for us to 
 see much of her, even if she were not 
 lame." 
 
 *' Dear me, is she lame ? I did not 
 notice." 
 
 *' Oh, then you could not have seen her 
 go about much." 
 
 " No, I only saw her once, by her own 
 fireside."
 
 176 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " She is very lame indeed, sometimes. 
 Her ancle gives way suddenly, and down 
 she comes. It prevents her going out 
 much." 
 
 " Poor Mrs. Caryl ! it must be a trial to 
 her. Nobody would think she had one, 
 she is so cheerfal." 
 
 " Papa says her writing is a compensa- 
 tion to her. It must be, I am sure. She 
 writes such pretty books." 
 
 '' I do not remember to have seen any of 
 them.'' 
 
 ** Her nom de plume is Allegra. I dare 
 say you would not think so much of them 
 as we do, for they are hardly intended for 
 grown-up people, though papa reads them 
 always. He says there are so many un- 
 obtrusive morals in them. And they are 
 very amusing ; grandmamma always reads 
 them." 
 
 " I always read them over and over
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 177 
 
 aojain/' said Alice. " Seven or eic^ht 
 times." 
 
 " Well, I think Mrs. Caryl may be satis- 
 fied with her fame," said Miss Beau- 
 morice. 
 
 " Oh, Miss Beaumorice ! But certainly 
 she has a very fair share of it — of popu- 
 larity and success that is ; for I suppose it 
 is not so grand as fame. In fact, the 
 reviewers take very little notice of her, 
 and when they do, are not always very 
 compHmentary ; but she says cheerfully, 
 that does not signify much as long as 
 she pleases her paymasters and her 
 readers." 
 
 " Truly, I think so !" said Mlss Beau- 
 morice, with energy. '^ I wish I could do 
 as much and say as much." 
 
 " She would tell you how, if you asked 
 her," said Grace. '' She hates mysteries 
 and secrets. She says the chief things are 
 
 VOL. I. 12
 
 178 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 to like your work, to know your work, and 
 to stick to your work.'' 
 
 "That sounds very easy, without per- 
 haps being so," said Miss Beaumorice. 
 
 '* Yes,'' said Grace, '' She took Caro- 
 line in training for a time, because there 
 are so many of us, and papa's means are so 
 limited, that it seemed it would be a good 
 thing for one at least of us to be able to 
 make money. Caroline did not want 
 patience or energy ; she never does in any- 
 thing. But though she writes a beautiful 
 hand, it proved that she only made herself 
 nervous and feverish, without being able 
 to write a good book ; so papa then put a 
 stop to it, and said she was first-rate as 
 the manager of his motherless family, and 
 his dear companion, and she had better be 
 content with that, and with being his 
 district visitor and almost curate, without 
 trying to be what she was never intended 
 to be."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 179 
 
 "By the way/' said Miss Beaumorice, 
 after a pause, *' there is going to be a new 
 curate at Longfield. Does your papa know 
 him at all ?" 
 
 " Mr. Brooke ? Yes, he has dined with 
 him at Dr. Garrow's. He thought him 
 a nice young man ; perhaps rather 
 vie\vy." 
 
 " What do you mean by viewy ?" 
 
 " Having crotchets of his own that he 
 is bent on working out, whether adapted 
 to people and circumstances or not. At 
 least that is what I think papa meant. 
 He did not think he had had much ex- 
 perience of village character, or took ex- 
 pediency and suitability sufficiently into 
 consideration. Papa called him 'rather 
 young,' but he is five-and-twenty. Papa 
 thought he would become more practical 
 when he married." 
 
 "Yes," said Miss Beaumorice, thought- 
 fully. " And he is going to marry a young 
 
 12—2
 
 180 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 friend of mine — Miss Beaufort, whom you 
 have seen.'' 
 
 *'Ah, the Miss Gambiers were right, 
 then. They said he was engaged, and 
 ever since that, they have taken no interest 
 in him." 
 
 " Julia," said Grace, reprovingly. 
 
 " I am sure it is true. Just as if it 
 could make a bit of difference in him." 
 
 " Your papa thinks it ivill make a differ- 
 ence in him, for the better," said Miss 
 Beaumorice. 
 
 " Oh yes ; only his being an amiable, 
 pleasant man, remains the same. I re- 
 member Miss Beaufort. She stayed with 
 you last spring, I think. She seemed a 
 very nice, lively girl ; and to know all 
 about everything." 
 
 '* That is saying a great deal." 
 
 " A great deal more than country per- 
 sons do, or are supposed to do, at any 
 rate ; or to think she did. She did know
 
 TEE LABY OF LIMITED IXCOME. 181 
 
 a great deal more than I did — than we do 
 — about London affairs." 
 
 " Of course, just as you would know 
 more of country affairs than she did." 
 
 " There is little enough to know about 
 them, I think ! They are so easy." 
 
 " I hope Mary will find them so. I am 
 rather in anxiety on the subject." 
 
 "Dear me, what can there be so diffi- 
 cult ?" 
 
 " Housekeeping will be new to her." 
 
 " She will only have to keep house for 
 two." 
 
 " And two servants." 
 
 " Will she hegin with two ^ I should 
 have thought one enough." 
 
 " She has been used to many more, you 
 see ; so that at first, two will seem to her a 
 small establishment." 
 
 " Of course, two will cost twice as much 
 as one," said Ahce. 
 
 " No," said Grace, " that does not follow,
 
 182 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 unless tliey lead one another to be extrava- 
 gant." 
 
 " I dare say Miss Beaufort — Mrs. Brooke 
 — will find the butcher very tiresome. We 
 find ours so." 
 
 " Yes ; London tradespeople are more 
 reliable, because there is so much competi- 
 tion, that if they do not please you, you 
 can easily suit yourself elsewhere." 
 
 " That's papa's ring !" cried Julia, as the 
 house-bell rang. 
 
 Mr. Nuneham came to take care of his- 
 daughters home, though it was still early. 
 He came in time to secure a good chat with 
 Miss Beaumorice first. 
 
 " You seem all very busy," said he, 
 cheerfully, as he looked round. 
 
 " Oh, papa ! Miss Beaumorice is letting 
 us help her work for a fancy fair." 
 
 " Very kind of Miss Beaumorice." 
 
 " Very kind of your daughters," she in- 
 terposed. " They have not only supplied
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 183 
 
 me with their ready, dexterous fingers, but 
 with abundance of ideas." 
 
 " I hope these ideas may represent 
 money's worth, since they have no money. 
 What is the object? — a good one I am 
 sure." 
 
 " An Itahan Protestant orphanage." 
 
 " Excellent ! I am sure some of the 
 spare time you ladies generally have so 
 much of may well be directed in so good a 
 cause, to what Henry Yaughan of Crick- 
 howel called ^ the pious accomplishments of 
 sacred industry/ by which even leisure is 
 made to cast its tribute into the treasury." 
 
 "I am not so sure that ladies have 
 always quite as much leisure as you sup- 
 pose, though, papa," said Grace. 
 
 " Always ? I said generally, and I think 
 you three lasses may be included in that 
 word. Caroline perhaps might not." 
 
 '^ And yet they are reckoning on her," 
 said Miss Beaumorice, "to draw extra va-
 
 184 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 gance, emptying her purse at Lewis and 
 AUonby's, and self-denial eating a plain 
 bun." 
 
 " Ah, that's a rich idea. Let me see if I 
 cannot cut Caroline out." 
 
 " Oh ! do, papa, do !" cried Alice, giving 
 him paper and a pencil. '^ You draw such 
 capital caricatures !'' 
 
 *' If I draw a capital one now, it will be 
 because such a capital idea is supphed me. 
 Let me see, how am I to dress a fashionable 
 young lady ? Julia, put yourself in a good 
 jposeJ' 
 
 '' Fm a fashionable young lady, am I ?" 
 said Julia, merrily. " I'm so glad you take 
 up the fancy-fair, papa. I was not quite 
 sure you would." 
 
 " Oh, I was sure he would," said 
 Alice. 
 
 " Which knew me best, I wonder ?" said 
 Mr. Nuneham. '' There is a great deal of 
 nonsense mixed up with fancy-fairs, I be-
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 185 
 
 lieve ; but since you are not going to hold 
 fltaUs " 
 
 "What fun it would be, though," said 
 Alice, softly. 
 
 " No, that I protest against ; and Miss 
 Beaumorice will get into my black books if 
 she puts such a thing in your head.'' 
 
 " I certainly will not," said Miss Beau- 
 morice. 
 
 " No, no ; I am sure you will not. You 
 know where discretion begins and ends." 
 
 '' What a pleasant evening it has been," 
 thought Miss Beaumorice, when it was 
 over. " And all without the least fass, 
 fatigue, or excitement. People who are 
 sociable may have plenty of society without 
 expense, if they know how to set about it." 
 
 She was not sleepy, and after clearing 
 away the debris of the fancy-work, she 
 opened her writing-case, and read again her 
 discarded attempt at a magazine essay. It 
 seemed better on re-perusal. Why was
 
 186 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME, 
 
 this ? It remained the same as at first, but 
 she read it with fresh eyes, and in a dif- 
 ferent frame of mind. On the spur of the 
 moment she set to work and finished it ; 
 was pleased with the achievement, thought 
 '' nothing venture, nothing have,'' made it 
 up into a little book-post parcel, then, with 
 more deliberation, selected the publisher to 
 whom to submit it, and finally addressed 
 a few polite lines to him, requesting 
 the favour of his attention to her manu- 
 script. Next day she posted letter and 
 parcel, and then turned her thoughts to 
 other things, awaiting her fate. 
 
 Easter was now drawing near. Mean- 
 while, Mr. Nuneham was benefitting his 
 flock by a course of Lent Lectures, on Se- 
 paration from the World, which he main- 
 tained might be shown in refraining from 
 what, even if lawful, we feel to be inexpe- 
 dient — in refusing what is unlawful, even 
 at the risk of the world's laugh — and in
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 187 
 
 going on steadily in the right path, even 
 while the world not only ridicules us, but 
 tells us we are neglecting our duty. 
 
 " One of the tests," he observed, " by 
 which we may try ourselves, whether we 
 are of the world or not, is ' do we desire to 
 do more than we can V Worldly people, 
 little as they do, desire to do still less."
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 VISITS AND VISITORS. 
 
 " Yet in her plenty, in her welcome free, 
 There was her guiding, nice frugality 
 That, in the festal as the frugal day 
 Had, in a different mode, an equal way." 
 
 Crabbe. 
 
 *ARY wrote to thank Miss Beau- 
 morice for her trouble, and to 
 beg her to engage Susan, add- 
 ing that the disappointment in the other 
 quarter was of no consequence, as a friend 
 had helped her to a first-rate cook, whose 
 only drawback was that her wages were to 
 be rather too high. This seemed a bad 
 beginning, Miss Beaumorice thought; and
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. \m 
 
 she wondered whether by " first-rate " Mary 
 meant first-rate good qualities, or that the 
 cook had had a first-rate place. 
 
 Mary proceeded to say that she knew it 
 would only be a compliment, and therefore 
 no compliment at all, to ask dear Miss 
 Beaumorice to come to her wedding, or 
 else it would have given her such pleasure, 
 &c., &c. 
 
 This took Miss Beaumorice aback. She 
 had been thinking that Mary certainly 
 would ask her, and contemplating, not 
 exactly with chagrin, but with perplexity, 
 the sacrifice of her bonnet and dress to 
 the necessities of Bosina, and wondering 
 whether she must buy them after all. 
 Here was the expense saved ! — but at 
 another expense which she did not much 
 relish — the expense of wounded feeling at 
 an undeniable slight. Here had she been 
 taking trouble for Mary, and laying out 
 fully as much as she could afibrd in a pre-
 
 190 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 sent for her, and here was her return ! 
 ''Well, it is no great matter," she thought 
 presently. " Young people will be young 
 people, and have their little preferences. 
 Perhaps I'm too old, or not fashionable 
 enough, or there may not be a corner for 
 me at the breakfast-table, or — it does not 
 signify — and the expense is saved." Still 
 the bloom had been a little brushed off the 
 wedding. She thought it might now take 
 its course without any unsolicited inter- 
 vention, which might be construed into 
 officiousness. She would pursue the even 
 tenor of her wav as if there were no such 
 thing as a wedding in the world ; and when 
 Mary came into the neighbourhood, be just 
 as social or as independent of her as she 
 seemed to wish. 
 
 "Though I am never very strong," 
 thought she, " I have enjoyed such good 
 health lately as perhaps to forget how old 
 I am growing, — really verging towards the
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 191 
 
 completion of half a century ! too old for 
 wedding breakfasts and sucL. nonsenses, 
 except when relationships and old friend- 
 ships are concerned." 
 
 But this had been an old friendship, so 
 the best way was not to think about it ; 
 only it ivas strange that Mary had never 
 acknowledged her present. Perhaps she 
 did not value it, any more than Mrs. 
 Jay's. 
 
 The mystery was cleared up. The ink- 
 stand had unfortunately been broken in 
 packing, and the tradesman did not ac- 
 quaint Miss Beaumorice with the fact till 
 he could tell her at the same time that he 
 had procured a counterpart of it from Paris, 
 and despatched it to its destination. By 
 the same post came a letter from Mary, 
 warmly thanking her for her pretty present, 
 which she assured her she should take into 
 constant use, and pleading with her to 
 make an exception in her favour with -re-
 
 192 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 gard to tlie breakfast, it would give her 
 sucli pleasure. 
 
 But Miss Beaumorice said no with less 
 effort this time ; her mind was decidedly 
 made up that she did not want to go, and 
 she wrote Mary an amusing, affectionate 
 letter on the subject, which Mary perhaps 
 was well pleased to receive. For she de- 
 cidedly thought Miss Beaumorice old, and, 
 as she said to Mrs. Beaufort, they had a 
 sufficient number of old, and too old guests 
 already, who would be affronted if left out, 
 but who excluded many who were young, 
 attractive, and entertaining. 
 
 The next notice, then, of the event, was 
 the arrival of a little triangular box con- 
 taining a good old-fashioned slice of wed- 
 ding cake, and cards tied with silver 
 twist ; both too grand, perhaps, for a young 
 curate's wife ; but Mary had said, as much 
 in earnest as in jest, she would as soon die 
 as not be in style.
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 193 
 
 This was at Easter, and when Miss Par- 
 tridge was spending a few days with Miss 
 Beaumorice. The joint contributions for 
 the fancy fair had been duly despatched, 
 and a grateful letter of thanks received from 
 Signora Bonomi, and Miss Partridge, who 
 was going to rejoin her pupils in Cavendish 
 Square, meant to chaperon them to the fair 
 itself in the Hanover Square Booms. 
 
 The three youngest Nunehams had again 
 been asked to tea, and the female party 
 were getting on so entirely to their satis- 
 faction as to remind Miss Beaumorice of the 
 name of a farce called, " Gentlemen, we can 
 do without you," — when two gentlemen, 
 blithe but dusty, walked in, who certainly 
 did not find themselves unwelcome. These 
 were Alured Ward and a friend — not the 
 young man who had been plucked, but a 
 steadier and more successful one, Ainshe 
 by name — who were on a walking-tour 
 together. They had bespoken beds at the 
 
 VOL. I. 13
 
 194 THE LADY OF LIMITEl) INCOME. 
 
 inn, but meantime were desirous to be- 
 stow their evening on Miss Beaumorice. 
 
 She was delighted to see them ; so was 
 Miss Partridge, with whom Alured in- 
 stantly renewed friendly relations, so that 
 Mr. Ainslie had a double share of the cheer- 
 ful hostess's attention ; and the Miss Nune- 
 hams were soon taking their full portion of 
 pleasant, unconstrained talk, withoLit either 
 forwardness or shyness. Mr. Ainslie, who 
 was good-looking and gentlemanlike, had a 
 frankness and honhommie that bespoke the 
 good opinion of strangers, which was not 
 usually withdrawn on better acquaintance. 
 Without difficulty Miss Beaumorice soon 
 placed these young people en rapioort, 
 having done which, she turned to see how 
 Alured and Miss Partridge were getting on 
 together. Miss Partridge was naturally 
 imaginative ; and the matter-of-fact routine 
 of her daily life made her the more gladly 
 seize on any outlet from prosaic duties into
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 195 
 
 the realms of fancy. She was now ques- 
 tioning Alured about his father s old castle, 
 which she said she had often tried to 
 picture, and she begged him to give 
 her some definite idea of it. Had it 
 not once belonged to the Archbishop of 
 Cologne ? 
 
 '' Oh, no, — that is to say, he tried to get 
 it attached to the electoral fief, but his claim 
 was not allowed by the imperial diet, and 
 so it was adjudged to a Baron somebody, 
 whose descendant eventually parted with 
 it to an ancestor of my step-mother s for 
 the ignoble consideration of thirty thousand 
 florins." 
 
 " How one would like to live in such a 
 fine old castle !" 
 
 '' Well, it's very good fun ; only one gets 
 rather tired of it, especially when all the 
 low grounds are under water, and one gets 
 no books, newspapers, or cigars." 
 
 " I should not miss the last," said Miss
 
 196 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 Partridge, laughing. " I fear you don't 
 appreciate your advantages." 
 
 "Perhaps not. On the whole I think 
 more highly of Pegent Street in the height 
 of the London season." 
 
 " That will soon be here, and I shall not 
 be far from Pegent Street, but I would ex- 
 change it for your old castle." 
 
 " Well, if it were mine I should pull five- 
 sixths of it down, and only keep a nice 
 little hunting-box. What is a bachelor- 
 fellow to do with thirty-six bedrooms ?" 
 
 '^Oh, but you wont be a bachelor al- 
 ways." 
 
 " Think what a lot of servants it would 
 take to keep it up. My father doesn't at- 
 tempt it, I assure you. In ' the annulled 
 rooms ' the dust lies an inch thick. If the 
 servants are told to clean them, they only 
 give the floors a lick with a promise." 
 
 " A promise of what ?" 
 
 " A better cleaning some time or other."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 197 
 
 "Ah, they want a lady to look after 
 them," said Miss Partridge, regretfully. 
 " Your father is certainly to be pitied." 
 
 " Oh, he doesn't care for the dust. He 
 does care, though, for the loss of the poor 
 countess, for she was very companionable, 
 and he is veiy sociable." 
 
 *' Poor man." 
 
 "Alured," said Miss Beaumorice sud- 
 denly, "what has become of Countess 
 Idalia r 
 
 " Oh, poor Idaha 1 My father was so 
 sorry she wasn't a Cathohc, because then, 
 you know he could have put her into a con- 
 vent ; but being as she is, he has placed 
 her at a Moravian school in the Black 
 Forest for the present, though she is rather 
 too old." 
 
 " What a change ! Does she like it ?" 
 
 " Oh, yes. The music is first-rate, they 
 are as kind as can be, and — there are no 
 end of games."
 
 198 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " What do you mean T said Miss Par- 
 tridge, laughing. 
 
 " Oh, little pleasure-excursions for tv/o or 
 three days sometimes, under the direction 
 of Herr Inspector, little fetes in the forest, 
 potato feasts, strawberry feasts, bilberry 
 feasts, and all sorts/' 
 
 "Hum — very attractive to children, 
 doubtless ; only " 
 
 " Oh, there's plenty of teaching, besides, 
 — examinations and so forth. Oh, they're 
 not behind-hand." 
 
 " Only you say she's rather old " 
 
 " Well, she's eighteen." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice laughed at Alured's 
 standard of age, and then turned to the 
 Nuneham party. They were discussing with 
 interest the intended progress of the walk- 
 ing tour, which Mr. Ainslie much wished 
 should, even at the expense of a longish 
 cut across country, include a visit to Pens- 
 hurst.
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 199 
 
 " I want to see that famous old place," 
 said he, *^and make acquaintance with 
 Saccharissa's Walk, and Sidney's Oak, and 
 Ben Jonson's Mount." 
 
 '' There is a good account of it in Howitt's 
 ' Eemarkable Places,' " said Grace. " I 
 suppose you have read it." 
 
 " No, but I remember seeing an account 
 in one of the old Penmj Magazines a good 
 while ago." 
 
 " I can supply you with that if you like 
 to run over it," said Miss Beaumorice. 
 
 " Oh, do, please ! I shall be so much 
 obliged." 
 
 *' It is among the ' Rambles from Eail- 
 ways,'" said Julia to Miss Beaumorice. 
 '' Shall I help you to find it T 
 
 " Here it is, — in the volume for 1843." 
 
 " I want to see with my own eyes," said 
 Mr. Ainslie. " The old banquet hall with 
 its music-galleiy and dais, and its fireplace 
 in the centre of the hall, with no chimney,
 
 200 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 of course, — how was it they were not all in 
 a smother of smoke ?" 
 
 •* People were not so nice in those days 
 as to mind a few smuts ; and there was 
 plenty of draught to carry the smoke off, — 
 it escaped through the timber- arched roof, 
 in which there was a ' lantern.' " 
 
 "People's eyes must have watered, 
 though. But Ben Jonson did not mind it 
 as long as nobody counted what he ate and 
 drank, and while he had the same beef, 
 bread, and wine that were served to Sir 
 Henry Sidney." 
 
 " Here it all is," said Julia, quickly turn- 
 ing to the passage : — 
 
 " Here comes no guest but is allowed to eat 
 Without liis fear, and of my lord's own meat, 
 Where the same beer and bread, and self-same wine 
 That is his lordship's also shall be mine." 
 
 " Yes, I should like to see the nice old 
 place ; not so much for that, though, as for 
 a good many other things."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 201 
 
 " What would be your prime object, Miss 
 Nuneham ?" 
 
 '' Well, first the oak, then the walk ; and 
 the bell, and the picture-gallery, and Sir 
 Philip Sidney's sword." 
 
 "Don't forget the church," said JVIiss 
 Beaumorice ; "be sure you visit the church, 
 Mr. Ainslie, where Dr. Hammond used to 
 preach, and the parsonage where Dr. Ham- 
 mond lived." 
 
 " I am ashamed to say, Miss Beaumorice, 
 that to me Hammond is only a name, 
 though an honoured one, of course." 
 
 " O fie 1" 
 
 '^ I don't remember a single line he wrote, 
 or a single thing he said. Do you ?" 
 
 '' Papa has his works," said Julia. 
 
 " That's begging the question, Miss Julia; 
 have you read them ?" 
 
 " No, — but Southey said if he were shut 
 up in prison for life, with hberty to choose 
 the works of twelve authors for his re-
 
 202 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. > 
 
 creation, one of them should be Ham- 
 mond/' 
 
 " Still begging the question, Miss Julia. 
 We have not Southey here to put to cross- 
 examination whether he ever read Ham- 
 mond's works, or only praised them." 
 
 " Why should he not V 
 
 "Why, indeed? except that so many 
 people praise books they have never 
 read." 
 
 " Oh, not many, surely !" 
 
 *'You have great faith, I see, — some 
 people would say credulity." 
 
 " I don't know why they should. If you 
 extend your circuit a very little you might 
 see Hever Castle as well as Penshurst." 
 
 '' Ah, I should like that. Anne Boleyn 
 is one of my heroines." 
 
 '' She is not one of mine," said Julia. 
 
 " Why not r 
 
 ''Oh, for contributing to the death of 
 Sir Thomas More, for one thing."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 2oa 
 
 "People were so iini-elenting in those 
 
 days/' 
 
 " And she was giddy and frivolous." 
 
 " Could a frivolous woman have written 
 
 such verses V 
 
 " ' Deeds, not words/ are what we should 
 
 judge by." 
 
 While this point and similar ones con- 
 tinued in debate, Miss Beaumorice heard 
 from the other side snatches of such phrases 
 as " direct commissions in the line," " pass 
 examinations," " ordinary intelligence," 
 " bitter consequences of idling," " thorough- 
 ness," " smattering," " no good doing things 
 by halves," " first-rate training," " nothing 
 worse than aimlessness." Then, agam, 
 " Chiddingstone— Knowle Park. How far ? 
 —Oh, too far. Another time." Then 
 back again to " musketry instruction, posi- 
 tion drill, platoon exercise, awfully dull old 
 drill-book, coloners lecture, frightful bother, 
 you never knew such a row in your life."
 
 204 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 In tlie midst of the talk, in came Mr. 
 Nuneham, who looked a little surprised at 
 first, but immediately found his place, and 
 was soon as animated as anybody. And 
 the best of it was, that, in his hands, 
 pointless talk became pointed, disjointed 
 remarks became significant, one illustra- 
 tion capped another, well-timed questions 
 brought out interesting answers, and, 
 in fact, the talk became good conversa- 
 tion. No wonder that all seemed sorry 
 when the evening could no longer be ex- 
 tended. 
 
 This was not one of the sociable gather- 
 ings that leave no mark. It was remem- 
 bered with pleasure by all, and created in- 
 terest thenceforth in each other's doings. 
 Miss Partridge returned to her London 
 duties all the brighter for her short holiday, 
 and her pupils reaped the benefit of it in 
 her sprightliness and good humour. They 
 failed not to attend the fancy fau', and to
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 205 
 
 make many purchases, some of which found 
 their way to Miss Beaumorice. 
 
 Readily would Miss Beaumorice have 
 made herself useful in any way to Mary by 
 preparing her new home for her return. 
 But Mary had her own notions, and felt no 
 wish that any preparation of the kind 
 should be made for her. " The servants 
 must be equal to their work, or they would 
 not long keep then- places." Instead of 
 Miss Beaumorice preparing for her, she 
 meant to prepare for and astonish Miss 
 Beaumorice, by the elegance of her sur- 
 roundings when the first call was made. 
 
 So when the important day arrived Miss 
 Beaumorice did indeed find Mary dressed 
 to perfection in delicate lilac silk and fine 
 lace, her hair even more beautifully dressed 
 than usual, " with everything that pretty 
 is," in her miniature drawing-room. Mar- 
 garet was sitting up with her to receive 
 visitors, and looked full of pleasure and
 
 206 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 importance. No one else had as yet called, 
 so that there was ample leisure for Mary 
 to do the honours of her new home, 
 show all her pretty presents in detail, and 
 expatiate on the delights of the tour in the 
 Isle of Wight. Margaret seemed to hang 
 on every word till the glimpse of a passing 
 figure made her exclaim, in an energetic 
 undertone, " Mary ! Mrs. Garrow !" and 
 Mary was instantly all manner and smiling 
 self-possession as the Rector's wife was 
 announced. Mrs. Garrow was a comely, 
 good-humoured-looking old lady : she took 
 up a good deal of room in the little draw- 
 ing-room, which soon, by the entrance of 
 the two eldest Miss Nunehams, became 
 almost too full ; and when Mrs. Finch 
 added to the visitors it was scarcely to be 
 wondered at, though much to be deplored, 
 that Mrs. Garrow, in backing her chair to 
 make a little more space, caught the edge 
 of an ivory pagoda in her lace shawl and
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 207 
 
 nearly pulled it to the ground. Only an 
 agile spring of Margaret's saved it, and the 
 lace was a little torn, and a fragment of 
 ivory broken off, to the secret discomfiture 
 of Mary, who affected to deplore her lace 
 more than the pagoda, while Mrs. Garrow 
 provoked her by the placidity with which 
 she said, — 
 
 " Ah, yes, it's a pity ; but it might have 
 been worse. The pagoda should have been 
 on a larger console, you know.'' 
 
 Just as if, Mary afterwards said, every- 
 body would not have everything larger and 
 better if they could. 
 
 But the accident was soon waived aside, 
 and even the yap-yapping of Mrs. Finch's 
 little lapdog, which Mary thought her very 
 ill-bred to bring, was ignored, though she 
 did not accept the offer of a puppy of the 
 same breed, but said, with a sweet smile, 
 she had an unfortunate antipathy to dogs. 
 Cake and wine were introduced, the chit-
 
 208 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 chat of the day just touched on, and an- 
 other ring at the visitors' bell warned Miss 
 Beaumorice to vacate her chair in favour of 
 the new comer. Mary gave her an expres- 
 sive look, and most tender pressure of the 
 hand, and Margaret with alacrity accom- 
 panied her out, and said, '' You have made 
 such a short call. Miss Beaumorice ! I do 
 hope you will soon call again, when we 
 have not quite so many " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! and I hope you will come 
 and see me very soon, and very often." 
 
 "Do you mean me myself ? I shall like 
 it so much ! I have always wanted to 
 know more of you." 
 
 " Come whenever you like and can be 
 spared, either with Mary or when she can- 
 not make it convenient to come so far." 
 
 " Thank you, thank you ! I shall not 
 mind the distance at all. I enjoy the 
 country so much ! I seem never to have 
 known real country before. What nice
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 209 
 
 girls those Miss Nunehams look ! I hope 
 — Must you go ? Good-hje 1" 
 
 When Mary and Margaret returned the 
 visit, Miss Beaumorice was dividing hearts- 
 ease roots in her front garden. She hastily 
 pulled off her gardening glove to shake 
 hands with Mary, who was in blue and 
 white striped book-muslin, with delicate 
 pale blue gloves, and looking blue too. 
 She said, — 
 
 *' Dear Mary ! you are cold as ice ! 
 This east wind has chilled you ! Do 
 come in. You are too thinly clad for the 
 season." 
 
 " Oh, it is the first of April, you know !" 
 said Mary, smiling, but shivering. 
 
 " Yes, but though the month is spring, 
 the weather is winter — 'blackthorn winter,' 
 people call it. Come in and sit by the 
 fire." 
 
 " That sounds very inviting." 
 
 " Pride never feels pain," said Margaret, 
 
 VOL. I. 14
 
 210 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 merrily. " Mary would as soon be out of 
 the world as out of the fashion." 
 
 *' Her friends would not participate in 
 the feeling for her," said Miss Beaumorice. 
 ''And it is always colder in the country 
 than in London. You are not acclimatized 
 yet." 
 
 " You looked so comfortable, sitting on 
 your heels and gardening, when we came 
 in,'' said Margaret. " You did not look 
 cold." 
 
 " See how I am wrapped up, my dear. 
 I was dividing heartseases, and have plenty 
 for you if you would like some." 
 
 " Yes, I should very much," said Mary, 
 
 *'' only " glancing at her delicate French 
 
 gloves. 
 
 ''Til carry them home for you, Mary," 
 said Margaret, *' and plant them out for my 
 pains." 
 
 " Yes, do, there's a good child. The re- 
 ward will be in harmony with the trouble.
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 211 
 
 What shall you do with them, though, 
 when we get to Mrs. Garrow's ?" 
 
 '' Oh, I'll put them under the hedge." 
 
 " Somebody may carry them off." 
 
 '' I'll carry them up to the house, and 
 leave them by the scraper," 
 
 " Somebody will see you — Mrs. Garrow 
 herself very likely." 
 
 " Mrs. Garrow will not think the worse 
 of her," said Miss Beaumorice, " for she is 
 a gardener herself She sympathizes with 
 other gardeners." 
 
 '' Does she ? That will not secure me 
 her sympathy, though, for I know nothing 
 of gardening." 
 
 " You have had no opportunity of learn- 
 ing ; but now you will find it a nice re- 
 source." 
 
 "And you have a gardening apron and 
 scissors," suggested Margaret, '' and a rake 
 and watering-pot." 
 
 " Yes, I shall use them all soon, I dare 
 
 14— i:
 
 2J2 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 say, when I have a Httle time. At pre- 
 sent, I never have a moment. And I 
 shall have to begin with the very alpha- 
 bet." 
 
 " That is just what I should like to do," 
 said Margaret, with animation. '^I know 
 nothing, and should like to learn some- 
 thing every day, if ever so little.'' 
 
 " That is the way to succeed, Margaret," 
 said Miss Beaumorice, '' in other things as 
 well as gardening. And it is a nice time 
 to begin — the beginning of the season." 
 
 "Miss Beaumorice, what should I do 
 
 first r 
 
 " Well, there are so many things. Gar- 
 deners will tell you it is the month for 
 planting, pruning, grafting, preparing the 
 ground in all sorts of ways ; but it is too 
 early for tender annuals or bedding plants, 
 which would be more in your way, — hardy 
 annuals you may sow if you like." 
 
 " Yes, I should like to sow some seeds
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 213 
 
 very much, if I thought they would come 
 up." 
 
 '' What is to hinder them ?" said Mary. 
 ''But there is no privacy in our garden. 
 It is dreadfully overlooked.'' 
 
 " If there were anybody to overlook," 
 said Margaret, " but who is there ?" 
 
 " When the leaves come fully out/' said 
 Miss Beaumorice, " you will find they make 
 quite sufficient screen. Indeed, I have 
 sometimes thought the house too much 
 overshadowed." 
 
 " Oh, I love seclusion," said Mary. " A 
 boundless contiguity of shade." 
 
 " There is nothing amounting to that, 
 with a high-road just outside the gate." 
 
 " No, certainly. But I should like to 
 be, — 
 
 " ' The world forgetting, by the world forgot' " 
 
 " Oh, Mary !" said Margaret, laughing. 
 *' At present I cannot open the piano
 
 214 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 without people looking in at me. When I 
 have a leafy screen, it won't signify." 
 
 " People will hear you play and sing, all 
 the same." 
 
 " Yes, but I shall not mind it, when I 
 don't know it." 
 
 " Oh, what a pretty house !" said Mar- 
 garet, looking about her as she entered. 
 " Mary, I wish your hall and drawing-room 
 were just this size." 
 
 '' Of course ; but it's no use wishing," 
 said Mary, shortly ; for she was not fond 
 of her sister's prosaic way of viewing 
 things. Conversation soon flowed in a 
 channel more to her liking. She spoke of 
 the rector and his wife de limit en has, as 
 " the Garrows," and said she did not think 
 the old lady very refined. Mrs. Finch did 
 not seem to have two ideas beyond her 
 children. Luckily she and Mr. Brooke 
 were sufficient for each other ; for it 
 seemed they should have no society, ex-
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 215 
 
 oept Miss Beaumorice and the Nuneliams, 
 who were sweet girls ! so unsophisticated ! 
 Lastly, and to conclude, Miss Beaumorice 
 undertook to send the heartseases.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 A DINNER AT THE RECTORY. 
 
 'Tis sweet, 'mid noise of plates and dishes, 
 To tell one's sentiments and wishes." 
 
 Boyle Farm. 
 
 HEN Miss Beaumorice next called 
 on Mary, she found Margaret 
 prostrated in a very devotee-like 
 posture on the carpet, with ink-bottle in 
 one hand and camel's hair pencil in the 
 other. She started up, rather red in the 
 face, and said, — 
 
 " Oh, dear, Miss Beaumorice ! I dare 
 say you wonder what I am about. This 
 pretty green carpet is only a tapestry 
 carpet, and is wearing white, you see, at
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 217 
 
 the seams ; so I asked Mary if I should 
 ink them over a little ; and she said I 
 might, if I took care not to be caught. 
 You have caught me, but you must not 
 tell tales." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice laughed, and said she 
 was upon honour. 
 
 " Some more cuttings and slips — Oh, 
 how kind ! I shall so like putting them 
 in. Mary," (to her sister who now came in) 
 " see ! Miss Beaumorice has brought these 
 nice slips." 
 
 " Oh, how kind !" And Mary gave her 
 an affectionate kiss. 
 
 " May I put them in T 
 
 "Yes, by all means." And Margaret 
 went off in great glee. 
 
 " Miss Beaumorice, we are going to dine 
 at the rectory to-morrow," said Mary. 
 " Not a long invitation, so I suppose it is 
 not to be a formal affair. Mrs. Garrow 
 sent me some diamond cement for the
 
 218 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 pagoda. She seems quite a good soul ; 
 what some people call ' a good body/ No 
 need to dress much, I should think ; only 
 one should show self-respect/' 
 
 '* Every one respects Mrs. Garrow," said 
 Miss Beaumorice. "She is thoroughly 
 unaffected and sensible ; well informed and 
 right-judging in practical things ; well-con- 
 nected, too, of a good old county family." 
 
 "Yes, yes, I know the style of person 
 you mean," said Mary. " Good family and 
 sterling qualities make up for a certain 
 want of manner." 
 
 " Yet I don't call her wanting in man- 
 ner," said Miss Beaumorice. " She has no 
 fine airs, I grant." 
 
 " And would never be taken for a fine 
 lady. Oh, we mean the same thing. Such 
 a Lady Bountiful must be a treasure in a 
 parish, especially when she is the rector's 
 wife. Dr. Garrow, too, has a frank, fatherly 
 way with him. John says some of his
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 219 
 
 church notions are dreadfully out of date — 
 quite fossil remains — but he does not 
 trouble me with them, you know. He 
 said all manner of pretty and kind things 
 to me, and really was quite gossippy with 
 Margaret, so that I was afraid she would 
 go too far." 
 
 " Oh, there was no fear. He loves young 
 people.'' 
 
 " Yes, only she did run on so. The fact 
 is, she is overjoyed at being here with us, 
 and it has almost the effect of laughing gas 
 on her." 
 
 '« Very delightful to see and to be the 
 cause of," said Miss Beaumorice. 
 
 " Oh, yes. We are own sisters, you 
 know ; it makes such a difference. I am 
 excessivelv fond of Maro;aret. John wanted 
 my first visitor to be Ms sister, but I could 
 not hear of that, especially as I don't think 
 I shall much like her, so T was very firm 
 about it. Margaret is a darling girl, if she 
 would but "
 
 220 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 Here Mary rather suddenly stopped short, 
 for Margaret came in. 
 
 "I've just laid them on the borders," 
 said she, " for you to tell me whether they 
 are in good places. Will you come and 
 see?" 
 
 " By all means," said Miss Beaumo- 
 rice, rising ; therefore Mary, who was 
 going to say " not just now," went 
 too. 
 
 *' How sweet the open air is !" said she, 
 as soon as they entered the garden. " We 
 have a double cherry, you see ; and a good 
 many lilacs." 
 
 " And flags and 'peonies. I am fond of 
 large flowers," said Margaret. 
 
 " You vulgar child !" 
 
 '' No, Mary ; they look so well against a 
 background of dark green leaves." 
 
 " I am sorry to see you have stag- 
 nant water near you," said Miss Beau- 
 morice.
 
 THE LABY OF LIMITED INCOME. 221 
 
 " Dear, I rather like all that bright green 
 stuff on it," said Margaret. 
 
 "So do ducks. But it is not very whole- 
 some." 
 
 After a good deal of desultory chat. Miss 
 Beaumorice concluded her visit, saying she 
 should expect an account of the dinner- 
 party from them soon. 
 
 " You may rely upon that, if you are not 
 of the party.'' 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. G arrow knows I never dine 
 out." 
 
 " I hope you will make an exception in 
 favour of me." 
 
 " And then Mrs. Garrow would ask me 
 to make an exception in favour of her. It 
 is best to adhere to good rules, unless for 
 some important reason. I dine early, as 
 many people in the country do — especially 
 mothers of families." 
 
 " Those are privileged persons," said 
 Mary, laughing ; " but as you are without
 
 222 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 incumbrance I shall still hope we shall over- 
 come your objections some day. At any 
 rate, you must come in sometimes, and dine 
 at our luncheon." 
 
 " Yes, perhaps I may." 
 
 The day after Mrs. Garrow's dinner, 
 Mary and Margaret, true to their promise, 
 called on Miss Beaumorice. They looked 
 bright and brimful of intelligence. 
 
 " Here we are. Miss Beaumorice." 
 
 '' Ah, I felt so sure of you, that I ordered 
 the cloth to be laid for three, that you 
 might lunch at my dinner." 
 
 " Did you really ? There must have 
 been some mysterious sympathy between 
 us, for I told John to look out for a bache- 
 lor's lunch in case we did not return." 
 
 " Had I known you would have thus 
 met me half-way, I would have ordered 
 * covers for four/ " 
 
 "Jacintha! put down three partridges 
 for supper !" said Margaret, laughing.
 
 TBE LADY OF LIMIT ED INCOME. 223 
 
 " Margaret, what do you mean V 
 
 '^ Oh, only a bit of an old story about the 
 Dean of Badajos." 
 
 "Well, I want to hear somethmg fresher 
 than that," said Miss Beaumorice. 
 
 " Oh, yes, you want to hear about the 
 dinner," said Mary, taking possession of 
 the subject with celerity. " It went off 
 very nicely indeed — quite a family dinner, 
 you know, that would have been thought 
 nothing of in London — but still very nice. 
 There actually was no fish, which I own I 
 was surprised at. I should have thought 
 Mrs. Garrow would have known it was 
 de regie J' 
 
 "Depend upon it she did, only she 
 thought it not requisite for a plain dinner." 
 
 *' Not requisite for a curate and a curate's 
 wife ? Was that in good taste ? Don't 
 you remember Dr. Johnson was hurt at a 
 friend's asking him to dinner, and then set- 
 ting him down to a leg of veal ? He said.
 
 224 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 ' Sir, it was a good dinner enough, but not 
 a dinner to invite a man to.' " 
 
 " Well, lie was rather touchy sometimes, 
 especially when not quite well. I under- 
 stand his feeling, however. He was a great 
 diner out, and fond of good eating. But 
 surely Mrs. Garrow did not set you down 
 to a leg of veal ?" 
 
 " No, no !" said Margaret, laughing ; " it 
 was a very nice dinner." 
 
 '' And everything cooked and served to 
 perfection," said Mary. "I own I envied 
 her there." 
 
 " So will your dinners be, I daresay, 
 when Mr. Brooke is a church dignitary." 
 
 " Oh, long before that, I hope. There 
 was most excellent white soup, quite sup- 
 porting, for I was very hungry ; and hashed 
 calf's head, and fore-quarter of lamb, stewed 
 pigeons, boiled fowls, a small ham, and 
 such excellent vegetables! Mrs. Garrow 
 always has her spinach boiled in three
 
 TEE LADY OF LUIITED INC021E. 225 
 
 waters, and lastly in milk, so that it is not 
 the least strong. She said that was the 
 way the French ex-royal family have it." 
 
 " And then the sweets were very nice," 
 chimed in Margaret. " Compote of apples, 
 delicious, Miss Beaumorice ! I wish I had 
 the recipe for mamma. I think I'll ask 
 Mrs. " 
 
 " Margaret ! pray don't !" 
 
 " Well, Doctor Garrow, then ! I'm sure 
 he wouldn't mind." 
 
 "You really must not. I shall be afraid 
 of taking you out again if you do such 
 things. He would think you had never 
 eaten a stewed apple before in your life." 
 
 " Ah, this wasn't a common stew," said 
 Margaret, softly. 
 
 Miss Beaumorice was amused, and re- 
 peated with mock sentiment — 
 
 " ' There was a star — 'twas not a common star, 
 For it was red — and shed a purple ray- 
 That looked Kke — amber.' " 
 
 VOL. I. 15
 
 226 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " Who made those nonsense-verses ?" said 
 Mary, laughing. 
 
 " That is more than I can tell you — 
 perhaps the gentleman who repeated them 
 to me. Well, but you have not told 
 me 
 
 " The rest of the sweets/' pursued Mar- 
 garet. "There was a curd star, wdth a 
 whip " 
 
 " First, a ratafia pudding," said Mary, 
 without attending to her ; "a spring tart, 
 almond cheesecakes, ramakins '' 
 
 "And the star." 
 
 " And the star." 
 
 "Well, and a very nice dinner," said 
 Miss Beaumorice; "but now I want to 
 know who was there to eat it." 
 
 " We sat down ten. Dr. and Mrs. Gar- 
 row, and ourselves, ^Ye ; their married 
 daughter, Mrs. Bligh, and her husband, 
 seven; a Mr. and Mrs. Thorne, and a 
 nephew of Dr. Garrow's."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 227 
 
 "Ah, he has been very kind to that 
 nephew, and sent him to college. Mr. 
 Thorne is an old Cambridge chum of the 
 doctor s, Mr. Bligh is a chaplain to one of 
 our great charities." 
 
 " They all seemed of the same clique. 
 John was hardly au courant among them 
 at first, they had so many subjects in com- 
 mon, so many jokes and allusions famihar 
 to one another ; but Dr. Garrow tried to 
 draw him in among them, too, and young 
 Garrow fraternized with him pleasantly 
 enough, only one was Oxford and the other 
 Cambridge, you know. Dr. Garrow took 
 me in, of course, and was very chatty and 
 pleasant.'' 
 
 " And who took you in, Margaret ?" 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Garrow ; and he was very nice, 
 too, only I could not always be quite sure 
 he was not making fun of me. He asked 
 me the names of the books I had read, and 
 asked me if I had read a great many that 
 
 15—2
 
 228 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME, 
 
 I had not. He said he liked novels im- 
 mensely." 
 
 "I don't like Mrs. Bligh/' said Mary. 
 '' Do you r 
 
 " I have never seen her." 
 
 " She is large and not exactly good- 
 looking, with very sharp eyes, and a sharp 
 nose, and a sharp voice. I don't like sharp 
 people. She listens to what you say as if 
 she were ridiculing you." 
 
 " That is not at all like her mother." 
 
 '* Oh, no ; Mrs. Garrow seems as if she 
 really took interest in me, and wished me 
 to be fond of Longfield ; and she talked to 
 me a great deal about the parish, as if she 
 supposed I should like to be useful in it. 
 We had music in the evening. They asked 
 me to sing, so I did, of course ; and then 
 Mrs. Tliorne did, but she broke down. 
 Mr3. Bligh played, but did not sing. Dr. 
 Garrow asked me for sacred music, which, 
 you know, is not my style ; however, Mar-
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 229 
 
 garet and I sang ' Qual anelante/ And 
 then he asked for something English, and 
 I sang, ^ Peace be around thee/ which is 
 next to sacred, I think. And then John 
 sang ' Three Fishers.' " 
 
 " Well, I think you had a nice little 
 concert. It must have been a pleasant 
 evening.'' 
 
 "Yes, very. And now I shall begin to 
 plan a little dinner in return." 
 
 " Oh, they will not expect it." 
 
 " Oh, but I shall have one whether they 
 expect it or not. I shall have jish. Of 
 course not white soup. I suppose I can- 
 not have green peas. I must have gravy 
 soup." 
 
 " How many will your room dine ? Not 
 ten surely ?" 
 
 *' No, only eight, I'm afraid ; and even 
 that wiU be a squeeze." 
 
 " Oh, surely fish will be enough without 
 soup."
 
 230 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " Well, we shall see. And then — it is a 
 pity Mrs. Garrow has forestalled me in 
 many things, because I cannot have them 
 asrain — it would seem like imitation. A 
 haunch of mutton, suppose ? and boiled 
 fowls ?" 
 
 '' Yes, that would do nicely." 
 
 " And a tongue and curried rabbit. New 
 potatoes, broccoli, and sea-kale. What a 
 stupid place Longfield is, to have no shop 
 like Crosse and Blackwell's, where one can 
 get bottled and preserved fruits of all sorts, 
 and vanille and Presburg biscuits, and " 
 
 " Plover's eggs, and roes eggs,^ said Mar- 
 garet, laughing. 
 
 " Don't be childish when I am talking 
 seriously." 
 
 " I wonder when I shall be considered a 
 woman grown," said Margaret, in an under 
 tone. " I've done growing a long while." 
 
 " When you have a woman's sense of 
 your own deficiencies."
 
 THE LADY OF LUIITED ISCOME. 231 
 "Are women always sensible of 
 
 item T 
 
 " Yes, to be sure. What think you of 
 an orange pudding, Miss Beaumorice 1 and 
 a rhubarb tart 1" 
 
 " You mtist not have acids and sub-acids 
 exclusively, for poor Dr. Gai-row." 
 
 " Oh, I suppose I must have a nursery 
 pudding for him. Sweet maccaroni, suppose ; 
 orange°sponge in one glass dish, blanc- 
 mange in another, or else custard.^ That 
 will be a nice little dinner, I think." 
 
 " You must mind to have it on a fish day, 
 if you are to have fish. We only are sup- 
 plied twice a week." 
 
 "So I find. What a stupid place! 
 And perhaps that was why Mrs. Garrow 
 had none. No doubt it was. I shall tell 
 mamma to send me down some. That wiU 
 be the best way." 
 
 " If you don't mind the expense." 
 
 " Oh, one must not mind that for one's
 
 232 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 first party. If I did, it would always be 
 remembered against me." 
 
 " Not against you, I think.'' 
 
 " Oh yes, it would. John would always 
 remember it. And the Garrows would, 
 and I should. I shall ask mamma ; and I 
 dare say she will pay the carriage." 
 
 ".Yes, I dare say she will, and she can 
 send some of the other things too, you 
 know, Mary," said Margaret. " The tongue 
 and the fowls." 
 
 " Yes, that would not be a bad plan, I 
 think," said Mary, with less confidence, 
 however, than Margaret. " A tin of con- 
 centrated soup, perhaps, that would only 
 require warming, though Hannah is a pro- 
 fessed cook. John is fond of talking 
 about 
 
 * Herbs and such like country messes, 
 Wliich.neat-lianded Phyllis dresses,' 
 
 but he likes good cookery for all that.''
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 23;$ 
 
 "Who does not?" said Miss Beau- 
 morice. 
 
 " And, dear Miss Beaumorice, you must 
 come to tMs party, please." 
 
 " No, thank you. I have cogent reason 
 for never going to parties. I shall prefer 
 coming to you when you are alone.'' 
 
 " What an obstinate person you are 1 
 Well then, who shall we have ? Dr. and 
 Mrs. Garrow, two ; Mr. and Miss Nuneham, 
 four ; ourselves, seven — the eighth ought 
 to be a gTeat card." 
 
 *' Perhaps there is some one John would 
 like to ask," suggested Margaret. 
 
 '' Well, — yes. 1 will tell him he must 
 find somebody very bright and entertain- 
 ing." 
 
 " Mr. Cramp ton, perhaps — " 
 
 " Oh, he would never do us the honour." 
 
 " Mr. Neate— " 
 
 " He would not come so far. Besides, 
 he talks for effect so. He requires his ac-
 
 234 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 customed listeners. And perhaps Dr. Gar- 
 row might not like him." 
 
 " No ; perhaps not." 
 
 '' We must leave it to John — reserving 
 the privilege of objecting." 
 
 " It will be great fun — only a tremen- 
 dous responsibility. I'm glad it devolves 
 on you, Mary," said Margaret. 
 
 " Yes, I dare say you are. I shall have 
 all the trouble, and you will have all the 
 treat.'' 
 
 " Oh, not all. And it is what you used 
 to have before you married." 
 
 " I beg your pardon. I always took a 
 great deal off mamma's shoulders." 
 
 Thus they rambled on, till it was time to 
 ramble home. Miss Beaumorice walked 
 with them part of the way, taking them a 
 short cut through some pretty fields. Just 
 as they re-entered the high road, they en- 
 countered Mr. Brooke, who was coming 
 to join them, and they were all very
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 235 
 
 glad they had not missed one another 
 owing to their diverging into "Byepath 
 Meadow."
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 BEHIND THE SCENES. 
 
 ■ How few think justly of tlie thinking few ! 
 How many never think who think they do !" 
 
 Jane Tayloe- 
 
 ;K. GAEEOW'S carriage stood be- 
 fore the tall iron gate, and Mrs. 
 Bligh in the drawing - room, 
 ready dressed to step into it, was dipping 
 into a book when she was joined by her 
 mother. 
 
 "My dear Jane," said Mrs. Garrow, who 
 held a note in her hand, " here is a bit of* a 
 surprise. Mrs. Brooke has invited your 
 father and me to dinner."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 237 
 
 '' What ! in that little room T cried Mrs. 
 Bligh. 
 
 " She cannot help that. It will only be 
 ■ourselves, of course." 
 
 " Does she say so, mamma ?" 
 
 " Well, no ; but she is limited for space, 
 you know." 
 
 '' I should think so/' said Mrs. Bligh, 
 smiling a little, " but perhaps she does 
 not." 
 
 '' Oh, she must, my dear." 
 
 '^ Depend on it, mamma, she is going to 
 have a party." 
 
 " How can she ? It would be quite im- 
 possible — and unreasonable, at any rate." 
 
 *' Rely on it, she does not think it so. 
 She is just the kind of person." 
 
 " Well, I give her credit for more sense. 
 Where's your papa ?" 
 
 " Here I am," said Dr. Garrow, coming 
 in, drawing on his gloves. *^ My dear, we 
 must start, or Jane will lose her train."
 
 238 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " I am quite ready, luy dear," said 
 Mrs. Garrow, '^and we can talk by the 
 way." 
 
 " Is there anything particular to talk 
 about T 
 
 " Yes ; Mrs. Brooke has asked us to 
 dinner." 
 
 " Well, I shall be very happy to go, if I 
 am disengaged. I can't go to-morrow." 
 
 *' Oh, no ! it is for next Tuesday." 
 
 " Quite a long invitation," said he, laugh- 
 ing, as he put his wife and daughter into 
 the carriage and then followed them. 
 
 " Yes, and that makes it clear, papa, 
 she is going to give a party," said Mrs. 
 Bligh. 
 
 "Oh, that is hardly likely, I should 
 think. Curates' wives don't usually think 
 it necessary." 
 
 " Nor seemly." 
 
 " The necessity of the case generally 
 settles the question. I dare say she has
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 2:-J!> 
 
 been accustomed to liberal housekeeping 
 and tbinks sbe is only doing what is ex- 
 pected of her/' said Mrs. Garrow. 
 
 " And you set her the example, remem- 
 ber/' said Dr. Garrow. 
 
 " My dear, mine was only common 
 friendliness — common hospitality. Only a 
 family dinner ; not even fish." 
 
 " Ah ! you will have fish on Tuesday, 
 depend on it," said Mrs. BHgh, merrily. 
 
 " My dear, I hope not. If I thought so, 
 I would drop in on the young creature and 
 tell her that if we came she must make no 
 difference." 
 
 " You would affront her outright. I 
 don't believe she is so young as you 
 think." 
 
 " Oh, she's not more than twenty or 
 twenty one," said Dr. Garrow, '^ I believe 
 she's of age. Brought up in a large family. 
 My dear, you had better not tell her 
 that ; no doubt she knows what is proper.
 
 240 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 She means to reciprocate a friendly atten- 
 tion, that's all : I'm pleased with it. I 
 shall like to see that nice girl again." 
 
 " Yes, yes, I dare say she knows what 
 is right," said Mrs. Garrow. " She has a 
 mother, you know. Only a step-mother, 
 though, I believe." 
 
 " Which makes a good deal of difference 
 sometimes, mamma." 
 
 " Not always, though. Very likely we 
 shall meet her father and mother, and that 
 will be all, unless Miss Beaumorice. Yes, 
 yes, that will be it." 
 
 " I shall rely on your sending me full 
 particulars of the carte, and the company, 
 mamma. Depend on it, there will be a 
 squeeze." 
 
 " Nonsense ; there will be no such thing. 
 I've a better opinion of her. You are a 
 little hard on her. A little inexperience 
 she may very likely have — we can make 
 allowance for that."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 241 
 
 '' And a few painful experiences will do 
 her good ; I'm sure they will." 
 
 " Ah, well, Jane, you were inexperienced 
 enough yourself, when you married, about 
 some things. I remember " 
 
 " Oh, for pity's sake," said Mrs. Bligh, 
 holding up her hands in laughing protest, 
 " don^t enumerate all my old short-comings 
 and delinquencies.'' 
 
 "Yes, I shall, if you are unmerciful to 
 poor, little, pretty Mrs. Brooke. I shall 
 think you belong to the tribe of Sanballat 
 the Horonite, if you mock her so. For my 
 part, I always pity yoimg things in difficul- 
 ties, and if I see her in any I shall do my 
 best to set her straight — as I set you, my 
 dear, in your time." 
 
 " That you did, mamma," said Mrs. 
 Bligh, kissing her heartily as she stepped 
 out of the carriage. The train had just 
 come up, so there was no time to lose ; but 
 
 VOL. I. 16
 
 242 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 she added, in an under-tone, " mind you 
 send me full particulars." 
 
 From this time everything had reference, 
 direct or indirect, to the dinner party. 
 Everybody accepted, with exception of Mr. 
 Brooke's " man," who neither said yes nor 
 no. M8.ry and Margaret were constantly 
 on the qui vive, preparing or bespeaking 
 one thing or another : and so many appeals 
 were made by letter to Mrs. Beaufort, that 
 she lost patience and said to her husband 
 it would be a. bad precedent if Mary 
 looked to them for everything, every time 
 she gave a little dinner. Mr. Beaufort 
 took it more easily, and bade her not dis- 
 turb herself — he would send fish and any 
 little thing that Mary wanted for her first 
 party. 
 
 So the fish was duly sent — a fine turbot, 
 much larger than Mary had bespoken ; 
 because it happened to be a cheap fish day ; 
 and Mr. Beaufort took credit to himself for
 
 THE LADY OF LUilTED IXCOME. 243 
 
 sending her so handsome a turbot, and a 
 fine lobster included ; crowning his kind- 
 ness by making the fish a present. 
 
 Over to Miss Beaumorice came Margaret 
 with a mixture of pleasure and perplexity 
 in her face, to ask her if she could lend 
 Mary a large fish kettle. '^ For papa has 
 sent her such a splendid turbot that her 
 kettle won't hold it ; and I've brought a 
 piece of string, the exact length of hers, to 
 see if yours is any longer ; and the length 
 of the turbot too." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice's kettle would just hold 
 the turbot : and she eno-ao^ed to send it 
 over in the baker's cart. 
 
 " And oh. Miss Beaumorice, you were 
 good enough to say something about rasp- 
 berry jam. Would you be so very good as 
 to give Mary a pot ? The orange sponge 
 has proved a failure ; and she thinks if she 
 whips up some cream with raspberry jam, 
 it will do for the other glass dish. How 
 
 16—2
 
 244 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 glad I shall be when it is all over ! At first 
 I thought it would be all pleasure ; but 
 there are so many little anxieties ! And 
 cook is out of temper to-day, so that we 
 are afraid of upsetting her by the least 
 word. Mary says it is very trying for two 
 mistresses to be in one house, and she is 
 determined cook shall not be her mistress, 
 when once this dinner is over. On the 
 whole, I think people who live in little 
 houses should limit their guests to two or 
 three. Mary says she thinks she shall after 
 this time. I'm sure I can't think what the 
 dinner will cost — it will swell her bills 
 dreadfully. Mary is going to wear her 
 stone-colour dress : she says that is 
 quite dress enough for home. And I am 
 to be in white, with a blue waist-band. 
 If the rooms do not get too hot, I fancy 
 it will be rather pleasant. I do wish 
 you were coming, then I hioiv it would 
 be."
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED IXC 021 E. 245 
 
 " You must come and tell me all about 
 it afterwards." 
 
 " Oil, I certainly will. Even if one plans 
 a little entertainment ever so carefully, how 
 difficult it is to provide against little unfore- 
 seen misfortunes ; and how difficult not to 
 be too much vexed at them !"
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HERE A LITTLE, AND THERE A LITTLE. 
 
 " To know 
 That which before us lies in daily life 
 Is the prime wisdom." 
 
 Milton. Paradise Lost. 
 
 ^^^HE day after the party, Margaret 
 ^71 ^^ failed not to make her appear- 
 ^^^srs^ ance. Miss Beaumorice saw at 
 once by her face that all had not gone on 
 well. 
 
 *' Maiy is so sorry she cannot corae, Miss 
 Beaumorice I" she began. " She is very 
 poorly indeed to-day, so that she really is 
 not equal to it." 
 
 " How sorry I am ! Has she caught cold V^
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 247 
 
 '' I think she has, but she also has had a 
 great deal of ^vony. Oh, Miss Beaumorice ! 
 that unfortunate turbot ! Papa meant it so 
 kindly, but it was such a pity he sent it. 
 Cook spoilt it completely, and then laid the 
 fault on the fish-kettle, and the fire, and on 
 everything but her own carelessness ; and, 
 when Mary spoke to her about it, (after 
 everybody was gone, you know) she was 
 dreadfully abusive, quite insulting, and 
 said she never knew such a house, it was 
 impossible to serve up a good dinner in it, 
 for every requisite was wanting that a good 
 cook was used to. And so she went on 
 from one thing to another till Mary was 
 quite angry ; and John was angry too, and 
 desired cook to leave the room. She said 
 she would leave the house too, if he liked, 
 and so he said he thought she had better ; 
 and she has gone away this morning, abu- 
 sive to the last ; so that poor Mary has 
 been quite upset, and could not help crying
 
 248 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 a little. And John is vexed too ; but he 
 went out, directly after he had paid cook's 
 wages, and seen her leave the house. You 
 may conceive what a state we are in." 
 
 " Well, Margaret, I am very sorry indeed 
 for it, but very likely things will now take 
 a turn for the better, and you will find 
 yourselves much more comfortable than 
 you have been yet." 
 
 " Do you really think so ?" said Mar- 
 garet, anxiously. " Oh, I shall be so very 
 glad if it proves so ! — for all our sakes. It 
 was such a sad thing, you know, for poor 
 Mary and John to be in such a strait when 
 they are scarcely out of their honeymoon. 
 As Mary says, it rubs off all the romance so 
 completely." 
 
 " I rather hope the romance is now to 
 begin. You cannot say, my dear girl, there 
 has been any real romance yet. I thought 
 there was going to be some attempt at it
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 249 
 
 when I was shown the straw bonnet and 
 the visiting basket and the gardening 
 apron ; but you know, all the characteristic 
 pleasures and duties of a young clergyman's 
 wife have been set aside for dinner-parties, 
 and mornino^ visits, and so forth, which 
 really have not an atom of romance in 
 them." 
 
 " Why, no," said Margaret, slowly ; 
 " only people must do what other people 
 do." 
 
 " But, supposing that to be the rule, 
 people do not give expensive dinners in 
 ihis place. They cannot afford it ; they 
 are not used to it ; and they do not desire 
 it. Knowing them as well as I do, I think 
 I have ground for saying that if Mary gets 
 into the way of givbag expensive little 
 dinners, they will esteem her less, rather 
 than more for it." 
 
 " Oh ! do you ? Mary had a notion
 
 250 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 that, if she had but money for it, no- 
 thing would be more certain to make her 
 popular than giving charming little din- 
 ners." 
 
 " No, that is not the road to popularity 
 in a little place like this. Consider 
 whether Mary would be more popular 
 with Mrs. Finch, for instance, by having 
 turbot v/hen Mrs. Finch could only have 
 soles. People are not fond of being out- 
 done or outshone ; it requires a little mag- 
 nanimity even to bear being so. People 
 here, generally speaking, have no wealth ; 
 those who possess it make no show ; they 
 prefer living on equal terms with their 
 neighbours ; and spending their surplus on 
 nobler things than recherche dinners. They 
 give generously, but unostentatiously, to 
 the poor, to public charities, and to poor 
 relations. In time of some great public 
 distress — a potato famine, a cotton famine, 
 a terrible fire, or shipwreck for instance.
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 251 
 
 people who make no show come down 
 with much larger sums than you would 
 think." 
 
 " That is very nice," said Margaret, her 
 brown eyes kindling ; " it is really noble. 
 I should like that sort of thing myself if I 
 were rich enough/' 
 
 " Which nobody would be if they spent 
 up to the extent of their means on their 
 tables,'' said Miss Beaumorice. 
 
 " Dr. Garrow " 
 
 *' Dr. Grarrow lives in liberal style, it is 
 true, but not nearly up to his income. He 
 not only has a good living, but a good for- 
 tune of his own ; he has his greenhouse 
 and forcing-house ; his carriage and fine 
 horses ; but he spends at least as much 
 again, I should say, on the poor and needy. 
 Mrs. Garrow has her dairy, her aviary, but 
 she makes nourishing dishes for the old 
 and the sickly, superintends the schools, 
 regularly visits the infirmary, trains young
 
 252 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME, 
 
 girls in her kitchen, sends large bales of 
 cast-off clothing to the Free Hospital ; and 
 doubtless does many things of the same 
 kind that her neighbours do not so much 
 as guess at." 
 
 " That is just what I should like to do 
 when I grow old/' said Margaret, thought- 
 fully. 
 
 "To do it when you are old, you must 
 begin when you are young ; Mrs. Garrow 
 did, I can assure you. She was one of a 
 numerous family ; her mother was a stir- 
 ring woman, who made her and her sisters 
 cut out and place all the family linen, and 
 do a good deal of the sewing and stitching 
 too. She used to make soups and jellies 
 and nursery puddings with her own hands, 
 and carry them herself, at her mother's 
 desire, to the sick. She used to read the 
 Bible to them in their cottages, long before 
 home missionaries and Scripture readers 
 were invented."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED IS COME. 253 
 
 *' Perhaps she rather despised Mary's 
 dinner, after all/' said Margaret. 
 
 "It is not her habit to despise ; but I 
 think she would have liked the dinner 
 quite as well, perhaps better, if it had not 
 given anything like as much expense and 
 trouble. But we must all buy our experi- 
 ence, Margaret. That which has given us 
 most pain is sometimes the cause of most 
 good." 
 
 " I think I shall try to become as good a 
 housekeeper as ever I can," said Margaret. 
 " At home, I have not many — I may say 
 ani) opportunities — for mamma does not 
 like us to go into the kitchen. But while 
 I am with Mary, I shall like to help her in 
 everything she will let me." 
 
 " That will be an excellent plan. Be 
 careful not to be officious." 
 
 '' Oh, she would not like that ! I must 
 only be at her orders. Only, if I get into 
 the way of doing things very well, she will
 
 254 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 perhaps like it, because it will save her 
 trouble. I think I must go now, for she 
 told me not to stay long ; but she wanted 
 you to know why she could not come out 
 this morning, and she thought perhaps you 
 would find her another servant." 
 
 " I will bear her wish in mind," said 
 Miss Beaumorice. '*' In the meanwhile I 
 think you will find Susan a handy girl. 
 She was general servant to Mrs. Caryl, 
 who is a very good mistress, and I was 
 told she could cook very nicely." 
 
 " She says herself that she does not 
 mind cooking, if Mary will but be satisfied 
 with her," said Margaret. 
 
 " Then why should not Mary be satisfied 
 with her ?" 
 
 " Oh ! she does not much like having 
 only one servant." 
 
 " She might have Susan's younger bro- 
 ther, a very nice lad, to go of errands and 
 clean knives and shoes."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 255 
 
 " That would be a very good plan, I 
 think," said Margaret, '' if Mary did but 
 think so too. We have a page at home, 
 only he's always in mischief." 
 
 '•' Ah ! boys will be boys ; but boys are 
 not all alike. James is a very good boy, 
 and Susan is very fond of him. She will 
 work twice as zealously for the pleasure of 
 his company. And now, since you must 
 go, I will walk with you and see how poor 
 Mary is." 
 
 Mary proved to be " as well as could be 
 expected," that is to say, after ha^dng got 
 over her worry and got rid of her cook, and 
 found an amusing magazine to read, she 
 cast household cares to the wind, told 
 Susan she had now a fine opportunity of 
 showing how nice a dinner she could pro- 
 vide all by herself; and then settled her- 
 self on the little couch to enjoy her maga- 
 zine. So that a pretty little pink and 
 white shawl-handkerchief of Shetland wool
 
 256 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 flung over her slioulders, and the back 
 of her head, was the only sign or signal 
 of her having anything the matter with 
 her. 
 
 " Dear Miss Beaumorice, how kind !" 
 she cried, starting up. " Of all persons 
 in the world, I would soonest see you 
 at this moment — indeed I told Susan to 
 deny me to visitors — Margaret, I think 
 Susan may want you in the kitchen — ^go 
 to her, there's a good girl, as soon as you 
 can, and see if you can do anything." 
 
 Margaret nodded, and ran off. 
 
 "And now," said Mary, drawing Miss 
 Beaumorice to her side on the couch, " we 
 shall have a nice talk. I suppose Mar- 
 garet told you how miserably the dinner 
 went off?" 
 
 " She gave me very few details, except 
 that the fish was spoilt." 
 
 " Oh, all the better 1" — with a relieved 
 look. " IVe done the handsome thing
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 257 
 
 now, and don't think I shall take the trou- 
 ble again for a good while. It was expen- 
 sive, too, of course, for the fowls cost more 
 than I expected. The soup was burnt. 
 That was cook's fault, of course — I should 
 not have minded if the smell had not be- 
 trayed itself directly. John sent it away 
 immediately. The fish was a dreadful 
 blow to me ; but I think I could have 
 carried if off better if everybody had made 
 believe not to see it (as well-bred people 
 surely would have done). Instead of 
 which, the Garrows expressed their pity 
 for me just as if I had been a daughter of 
 their own, and Mrs. Grarrow said ' my dear, 
 why should you have had fish for us ? I 
 had none when you came to me, and I 
 thought you would have followed the lead, 
 especially as there is so little fish to be had 
 here.' So I said, 'oh, papa sent it from 
 town ;' but I had not meant to name that, 
 you know/' 
 
 VOL. I. 17
 
 258 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 Mary heaved a profound sigh, and then 
 went on. 
 
 " Mr. Neate never came, and it was a 
 good thing he did not, for he is dreadfully 
 particular. To fill his vacant place, John 
 asked Mr. Finch just at last, whom there 
 was no occasion to ask at all, for he does 
 not attend us. However, he and Mr. 
 Nuneham got on together, and Mr. Nune- 
 ham was very pleasant. After dinner, I 
 was quite thankful to get into the draw- 
 ing-room, for the dining-room was dread- 
 fully close, and too small for so many 
 talkers. Then Mrs. Garrow settled down 
 into what mamma would have called a 
 regular confab, and kept my-dearing me, 
 as if I were just out of the nursery. She 
 seemed quite in her element, telling me 
 what to do and what not to do ; the sum 
 total of which seemed to be, to spend as 
 little as possible on my dinners, and to 
 make soup for the poor. Had I foreseen
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 259 
 
 cook would give warning an hour after, she 
 might have been really of use to me, by 
 telling me of a good servant to supply her 
 place." 
 
 " I am sure she would ; but do you 
 know, my dear Mary, I have thought of a 
 little plan, which if you approve it, may 
 conduce much to vour comfort." 
 
 " Oh, do, please ! I am quite at sea." 
 
 " If you are not bent on a professed 
 cook " 
 
 " Not at all ; I can't bear one. The 
 woman who has just left me was a cheat, I 
 am persuaded ; at any rate a humbug." 
 
 " If you give Susan fair play, you will 
 very likely find she suits you much bet- 
 ter." 
 
 " Yes ; but then, it is so awkward to 
 have only one servant in the house." 
 
 " Susan has a nice young brother — a 
 well-grown lad about eleven — who keeps 
 his hands clean, and tells the truth, and is 
 
 17—2
 
 260 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 quick in going of errands, and always civil, 
 and who would be a nice little page." 
 
 " Well, that seems a good idea," said 
 Mary, brightening, " if he and Susan would 
 agree, and if Susan would do all that he 
 could not." 
 
 " She certainly would ; because she 
 would even fill a single-handed place, and 
 they are too fond of one another to dis- 
 agree, and thoroughly respectable." 
 
 " I've heard it is a bad plan to take two 
 out of one family." 
 
 " Oh, no, not if you choose them well. 
 I have done so again and again, and it has 
 always answered." 
 
 " Then I think I certainly will try it 
 now," said Mary, brightly. " John " (to 
 her husband, who looked in inquiringly to 
 see if he might be admitted), " I'm going 
 to turn over a new leaf Miss Beau- 
 morice has thought of a charming plan 
 for us."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 2CL 
 
 " I'm most Kappy to hear it," said Mr. 
 Brooke, coming in and shaking hands with 
 her heartily. 
 
 " Miss Beaumorice thinks that instead 
 of taking another professed cook, we 
 might have a nice little page." 
 
 *^ Professed cooks are professed nui- 
 sances, I think," said he ; '' but are not boys 
 almost as bad ? Do they not break things, 
 and forget things, and eat enormously ? 
 The only one I ever had experience of used 
 continually to say, ' Please sir, my boots is 
 quite wore out.' " 
 
 ^^ Oh, we must hope for better luck this 
 time," said Miss Beaumorice. 
 
 " And even boots," said Mary, " are no 
 worse than the quantities of things cook 
 used always to be asking for, — butter for 
 this, and wine for that, and half a 
 pound of beef for every httle drop of 
 gravy." 
 
 " Well, we can but try," said Mr.
 
 262 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 Brooke. " I'm quite agreeable if you are. 
 Anything for a quiet life — even a whist- 
 ling boy." 
 
 " Oh, if he whistles he must be told to 
 leave off. And Miss Beaumorice thinks 
 she knows of a boy that will just do." 
 
 " What wages is he to have ?" 
 
 "I have no idea/' said Miss Beaumorice; 
 *' two shillings a week, perhaps." 
 
 " That seems very little," said Mary. 
 "I think he might have ^yq pounds a 
 year." 
 
 " That would be one and elevenpence a 
 week," said Miss Beaumorice, whereat 
 they all laughed. Seeing Mary now in 
 such excellent spirits, she said, — 
 
 ''We must not reckon our chickens 
 before they are hatched. I will go and 
 ask Mrs. Caryl what she thinks of the boy 
 before Susan's expectations are raised, or 
 she might be disappointed." 
 
 "Yes, do," said Mary; ''it is very hard
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 263 
 
 on you, though, after such a long walk ; 
 but I feel quite done up to-day." 
 
 *' Oh, I don't mmd it." And soon she 
 Avas cheerfully on her way, Mr. Brooke 
 accompanying her to the gate. 
 
 " You have done Mary a world of good," 
 said he, heartily. " I was really taken 
 quite aback this rooming to see her cut up 
 so." 
 
 '' Oh, she will soon get on famously, I 
 dare say. Everything is troublesome at 
 first." 
 
 Arrived at Mrs. Caryl's, Miss Beau- 
 morice immediately saw it was not a good 
 day with the poor lady. She was sitting 
 over the fire in a shawl, looking worn and 
 harrassed. Her ancle had given way that 
 morning and she had had a severe fall, and 
 instead of any compassionate person step- 
 ping forward to help her up and comfoi-t 
 her, no one was in sight but a brutal carter 
 driving a dray, who burst out laughing at
 
 264 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 her. She was wounded at the indignity, 
 and limped home as well as she could, 
 leaving some errands unfulfilled which she 
 wanted to execute ; and on reaching home 
 and doing her best to solace herself with a 
 cup of beef-tea and the newspaper, her 
 enjoyment of the first was spoiled by the 
 last, wherein was a critique on one of her 
 little books, which was called slip-slop, 
 and not even faithful in its historical 
 details, as every child who had read 
 a common history of England might 
 know. 
 
 " It is altogether a false aspersion," said 
 she, indignantly, after she had narrated her 
 woes to Miss Beaumorice. " I can give 
 chapter and verse for every one of my de- 
 tails — not out of a common child's history, 
 certainly — but Sharon Turner's." 
 
 " Which the reviewer probably did not 
 refer to," said Miss Beaumorice. '' Do 
 show the passage to me, if not troubling
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 265 
 
 you too much. I should like to see 
 it." 
 
 " Oh, it's no trouble," said Mrs. Caryl, 
 brightening a little, and bestirring herself, 
 though rather painfully, for the book. " I 
 always take such pains to be correct, and 
 then to be accused of incorrectness I I've 
 a good mind to wiite to the editor about 
 it." 
 
 " But possibly he will not take it up," 
 said Miss Beaumorice. " People are never 
 very fond of being obhged to confess they 
 made a false allegation. Yes," said she, 
 decidedly, after carefully collating the his- 
 tory with the little story in question, '* it 
 is clearly a false accusation, and though I 
 think it by no means worth your taking 
 up, yet, if you will allow me, I will 
 write with great pleasure to the editor, 
 and place the matter temperately before 
 him." 
 
 " Will you ? That is very kind I" said
 
 266 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 Mrs. Caryl gladly. " I have done as much 
 for a friend, myself; but never had a 
 friend who offered to do so for me." 
 
 " I will write at once," said Miss Beau- 
 morice, '^ under your own eye, and mth the 
 books to refer to ; then I need not take 
 them home." 
 
 And soon her goodnatured pen was about 
 to fly over the paper, when Mrs. Caryl ar- 
 rested it, saying, " After all, nothing is so 
 unpleasing as self-assertion, to say nothing 
 of its generally being useless. So, with 
 your leave, my dear, kind friend, we will 
 trouble ourselves no more about it. Your 
 sympathy has done me a world of good, 
 and made me see the thing in less exagge- 
 rated proportions. Who will care about 
 it one way or the other ? I must have a 
 very poor position and character if I cannot 
 live it down." 
 
 " But now, about your fall, — have you 
 seriously sprained yourself ?"
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED IXC02IE. 267 
 
 " No, I hope not ; only I'm a good deal 
 shaken. It was the brutal laugh of that 
 carman that chiefly upset me. In fact I 
 have been nervous lately from having rather 
 overwritten myself; but it was to fulfil an 
 engagement, to keep a promise, so that it 
 was a matter of conscience. I have com- 
 pleted the task, I am happy to say, it 
 is in the Row by this time ; and now 
 ' I may walk or I may run,' like Ariel, 
 if I will ; only you see I cannot run very 
 far." 
 
 And she laughed cheerfully. 
 
 " I want to ask you about a little boy," 
 said Miss Beaumorice. " Has not Susan 
 Williams a nice little brother ?" 
 
 " Yes, a very good Httle fellow, in whom 
 I am much interested. I wish I knew what 
 to do with him." 
 
 "Do you think he would suit Mrs. 
 Brooke as a handy boy to be in the house, 
 answer the door, clean knives and boots,
 
 268 THE LADY OF LIMITED I 2s COME. 
 
 work in the garden, go on errands, wait at 
 table, and be generally useful under his 
 sister T 
 
 " The very thing for him !" said Mrs. 
 Caryl with animation. *'Just such a 
 place as he is fit for ! If he is placed 
 under Susan she will train him thoroughly. 
 How could you think of such a nice 
 place for him ? I am so much obliged to 
 you !" 
 
 '' You think him thoroughly trustworthy, 
 then?" 
 
 ' ' Thoroughly — thoroughly. " 
 
 " Would ^NQ pounds a year and his board 
 and livery be enough T 
 
 '^ Oh, ample, ample to begin with. He 
 is very decently clothed already ; and if he 
 wants a few more handkerchiefs and socks 
 I will thankfully supply them. How 
 pleased his poor mother would have been 
 to know there was a chance of his being in
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 269 
 
 service in the same family with his sister, 
 who has always been like a second mother 
 to him !" 
 
 Talking of this good, humble family, and 
 dwelling in the prospect now opening on 
 them had a wonderful effect in dispelling 
 poor Mrs. Caryl's nervous depression. It 
 exemplified what Florence Nightingale says 
 in her "Notes on Nursing," — that '' a sick 
 person does so enjoy hearing good news. 
 .... A sick person also intensely enjoys 
 hearing of any material good ; any positive 
 
 or practical success of the right 
 
 Tell him of one benevolent act which has 
 really succeeded practically ; it is like a 
 day's health to him." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice had not indeed posi- 
 tively succeeded in securing James the 
 place, but she was getting everything in 
 train, and actually did succeed in it before 
 the day was out, thereby contriving quite
 
 270 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 a bright finale to her day's work. Having 
 reported his character to Mary, she received 
 authority to engage him as soon as she 
 could. At that moment he was doing 
 rough work for a small tradesman in Lambs- 
 croft. Susan was delighted when she 
 learnt that Jem was to be under her train- 
 ing, and to sleep in the loft. She promised 
 to do her best to make him a very useful, 
 well-behaved boy, and evidently thought 
 him a first-rate exchange for the professed 
 cook, who had always been depreciating 
 country service. 
 
 When Miss Beaumorice reached home, 
 she lost no time in sending Jessy for Jem, 
 who came at a w^ord, and beamed with 
 smiles on hearing of the promotion in store 
 for him. Miss Beaumorice did not lecture 
 him on his duties, but she clearly explained 
 to him what they were, and told him how 
 pleased Susan was at the thought of having
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED 11^' COME. 271 
 
 him for her daily companion. He went 
 ^way holding his head an inch higher than 
 usual, with a smile nearly extending from 
 ear to ear, and an impressive sense of the 
 briUiant career opening before him.
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 PETTY CONFIDENCES. 
 
 ■ When sanguine youth the plan of life surveys, 
 It does not calculate on rainy clays." 
 
 FEW days afterwards Margaret 
 called rather early, saying wist- 
 fully as she entered, 
 '* I hope I don't intrude T 
 " How can such a thing possibly enter 
 your head ?" said Miss Beaumorice. " You 
 never intrude. T am always glad to see 
 you, come when you will." 
 
 " That's so nice," said Margaret, gladly, 
 " I found myself rather de trop at home 
 this morning, and that made me fear I 
 might be so here."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 273 
 
 " I'm not a young married couple," said 
 Miss Beaumorice, laughing, " only a single 
 lady, with plenty of leisure. Mary and Mr. 
 Brooke may have many things to talk over 
 together now and then, which they can do 
 best without a third person." 
 
 '' Yes, that's just it," said Margaret, 
 " Only it never occurred to me at first. 
 But lately Mary has two or three times 
 given me little hints that my room would 
 be preferable to my company, which I fear 
 I was too stupid to take as quickly as I 
 might. It was a pity, wasn't it ? It is so 
 disagreeable to be in the way :" 
 
 " Yery ; but my dear girl, I don't sup- 
 pose you were much so ; and whenever 
 you even fancy you are, you have only to 
 come over here — you will always be wel- 
 come." 
 
 *' Thank you, thank you, dear Miss 
 Beaumorice ; I certainly will, since you are 
 so kind. Somehow I always reckon on 
 
 VOL. I. 18
 
 274 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 your kindness as if it were part of yourself, 
 and never fear being in your way, though 
 that is rather presuming, is it not ?" 
 
 " Not at all ; you know I am an old 
 friend, and that I love you. Well, how 
 does Jem get on ?" 
 
 '^ Oh, capitally. What a nice boy he is ! 
 He makes us laugh so sometimes. He and 
 Susan go on in such a funny way together. 
 Susan keeps quite the upper hand, but he 
 minds her very well. John has had him 
 fitted with a suit that he will soon grow 
 out of, but at present he is very spruce in 
 it. Susan gets through the work so well 
 that Mary finds she need hardly look after 
 her at all ; or if she wants a little help, I 
 am sent to afford it, so that Mary says 
 just what you said to me the other day, 
 that the romance of her life is now begin- 
 ning. For she goes out with John to take 
 long walks to distant cottages, and comes 
 back quite fresh."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 275 
 
 " I am glad of that. And what do you 
 do meanwhile ?" 
 
 " Oh, sometunes I read a novel, and some- 
 times I go into the kitchen and get Susan 
 to teach me how to cook. The first day 
 she let me make an Oswego pudding all by 
 myself, only standing by and telling me 
 what to do ; and when Mary said ' This is 
 the nicest j)^^dding we have had yet/ it 
 was such fun to say, ' I made it !' At first 
 she really would not believe it. And ever 
 since that John says, ' Well, Margaret, is 
 this another of your wonderful puddings V 
 and sometimes I say ' Yes,' sometimes ' No,' 
 and sometimes I will not tell him whether 
 or no." 
 
 '^ Well, you have found a new source of 
 happiness and usefulness. I shall be quite 
 interested in the history of your pud- 
 dings.'' 
 
 " I shall not have time to make many 
 more, for my month is nearly up. I do 
 
 18—2
 
 276 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 wish Mary would ask me to stay a little 
 longer. I would take great care not to be 
 de trop^ 
 
 " Perhaps she will." 
 • '• I don't think it, because she has named 
 several little things that she means to do 
 after I am gone. She will have another 
 visitor, I think John's sister ; but she does 
 not seem to want her much. If she would 
 have me a little longer that would keep 
 Miss Brooke away." 
 
 '' But perhaps Mr. Brooke is as fond of 
 his sister as Mary is of you. It will not 
 do, you know, for her to be selfish, now 
 that she has his happiness to consider as 
 well as her own." 
 
 " No, to be sure — I did not think of that ; 
 only I can't help wishing." 
 
 " I dare say Maiy will have you with 
 her again in the course of the summer, 
 especially as you are so useful." 
 
 " I do hope she will ! I like being here
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED ISCOME. 277 
 
 SO much ! Country life is much the hap- 
 piest, I think. It is easiest to be good 
 here. People seem to have so many 
 pleasant little duties here that they never 
 think of in town. Mrs. Garrow wishes 
 Mary to visit the poor, and the schools, 
 and to have a Sunday school class. Mary. 
 has promised, bat I don't think she much 
 likes it. Mrs. Garrow is going to take 
 her round to the cottasfes with her some 
 morning, and let her see how she gets on 
 vdth the poor people.'' 
 
 "That is very kind of her." 
 
 " Yes, very. Miss Nuneham has a class, 
 has she not ? and is a district visitor. She 
 finds time for it, and yet she has a gi-eat 
 deal more to do at home than Mary has, so 
 I think Mary might manage it." 
 
 " Perhaps she will in time. People can't 
 do everything at once." 
 
 " No, and Mary has never been used to 
 this sort of thing. Nor have I, but I
 
 £78 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 think I should take to it more than she 
 will." 
 
 " We shall see. I was going to call on 
 the Misses Nuneham this morning. Will 
 you like to go with me V 
 
 " Oh, so much ! How pleasant it must 
 be for you to call on people just when you 
 like, and to see just as much or as little of 
 them as you like !" 
 
 "I cannot quite do that." 
 
 " But you can go out or stay at home 
 when you like, get up and go to bed when 
 you like, dress as you like, dine when you 
 like, and order just what you like." 
 
 " Yes, I can do pretty nearly all that," 
 said Miss Beaumorice, laughing, '' though 
 it does not go a great way towards making 
 up my sum of happiness." 
 
 " Oh, I think it must ! If you could not 
 do what you liked in any one of those 
 things, I think it would make a great 
 difference to you."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 279 
 
 "Yes, I suppose it would. You show 
 me that I ought to be more thankful for 
 small blessings. I am thankful for them 
 already, but not enough. Perhaps I am in 
 the habit of considering some of them 
 smaller than they are." 
 
 "Don't you feel dull sometimes in the 
 evenings ?" 
 
 "No," said Miss Beaumorice, laughing, 
 " I cannot say that I do." 
 
 "How nice ! I am afraid I should. 
 How is it that you do not ?" 
 
 " 0," said she, still laughing, " I suppose 
 it is because I have so many resources. I 
 am very fond of reading, and I am fond of 
 writing, and I am fond of working, for 
 other people as well as myself There is 
 always something to be done, so that I 
 really have not leisure to think of being 
 dull." 
 
 " I think your life must be very happy !" 
 
 " Well, it is ; though I have my little
 
 280 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 rubs, of course, occasionally. Now I will 
 get ready to call on Miss Nuneham." 
 
 As they walked to the vicarage Mar- 
 garet said, '' I am very fond of reading, — 
 almost as fond, 1 think, as you can be, — if 
 the book is entertaining. But John says I 
 read too many story-books, and, indeed, he 
 thinks Mary does too. She does not mind 
 him a bit, but goes on ordering down boxes 
 of novels ; but I am a little ashamed of 
 doing what he does not like. Besides, I 
 dare say he is right on the whole ; but 
 what am I to do ? He says I had better 
 have a course of reading. Now, what is a 
 course of reading ?" 
 
 "There are may courses, among which 
 you might take your choice. Suppose you 
 were very much interested in some one in 
 India, you might read all the books you 
 could get about India, and from the diffe- 
 rent accounts try to form a general view of 
 the whole. This would be made more easy
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 281 
 
 and pleasant by taking short notes as you 
 went along of what struck you, or what 
 you feared to forget. The same with any 
 other subject." 
 
 "That gives me a distinct idea," said 
 Margaret, " which nobody else gave me be- 
 fore. I thhik I will try it, though I don t 
 particularly care for India." 
 
 *' Oh, I only named India for example. 
 At one time I was very fond of reading 
 about the religious wars of France, and 
 read all the books I could about them." 
 
 *' Was that an interesting subject ?" 
 
 " Very ; there were such interesting 
 characters. I don't care for mere annals, 
 if they do not concern good and grand 
 characters. But there were many in those 
 wars. Jeanne d'Albret and her good 
 mother, and her brave though faulty son ; 
 SuUy, Coligni, Montmorenci, Conde, and a 
 great many others.'' 
 
 *' My ideas of them are rather misty.
 
 282 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 Suppose I were to read about them, -what 
 book should I begin with T 
 
 " Well, I think Smedley's ' History of 
 the Eeformed Eeligion in France ' would 
 be as good as any. It is in three little 
 volumes." 
 
 " That would suit me exactly, I think. 
 I will put down the name." 
 
 '' I will lend you the book when you go 
 home, if you will engage to return it in a 
 reasonable time. I do not like to lose sight 
 of my books." 
 
 " Oh, I will promise faithfully " 
 
 "And perform faithfully, I hope, which 
 will be more to the purpose." 
 
 Margaret laughed and said she would. 
 '' Though we are rather a bad family for re- 
 turning books," she added, "mamma has 
 had to make good one or two sets that 
 were lost. But I had nothing to do with 
 it. Thank you. Miss Beaumorice, for 
 giving me something to do when I go home.
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 283 
 
 Now that I have left school, I hardly know 
 how to fill up my mornings ; an hour or 
 two of improving reading will give me self- 
 respect, besides pleasing John." 
 
 " It will be very good indeed for you ; 
 and I hope you will now and then write to 
 me of what particularly interests you." 
 
 '^That I gladly will. I rather dislike 
 letter-writing in general, because I have so 
 little to say. What a pretty Httle blue 
 flower this ! Is it not foro^et-me-not ?" 
 
 " Yes, that is one of its 'names. It is 
 germander speedwell. Suppose we try how 
 many different specimens of wild flowers we 
 can collect before we reach the vicarage." 
 
 They found twenty-eight ; and Margaret 
 declared she would write down all their 
 names as soon as she returned. The fear 
 of forgetting them, and of the specimens 
 withering before she could put them in 
 water, made her impatient to reach home. 
 
 " When you have finished Smedley,"
 
 284 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 said Miss Beaumorice, " I will lend you 
 Lacretelle's ' Histoire de France pendant les 
 Guerres de Religion.' There are four 
 volumes, in very easy and pretty French/' 
 
 "Thank you, — that will be beginning 
 ' the course/ " 
 
 "You may have Davila, too, when you 
 have returned the others ; but perhaps you 
 would hardly care to have it, though the 
 Italian is very pure and good, and he is 
 considered, on the whole, a fair writer/' • 
 
 " We shall see when the time comes," 
 said Margaret. " At present it seems to 
 me as if it would be quite grand to read 
 books in English, French, and Italian, all 
 on the same subject. But I won't answer 
 for my perseverance," added she, laughing. 
 " And I know scarcely anything of ItaHan." 
 
 " Set to work with a dictionary, and find 
 out every word you don't know ; you will 
 soon find you require its aid very little." 
 
 " WeU, I can but try/'
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 285 
 
 Miss Beaumorice had the pleasure of 
 thinkmg that she started Margaret off with 
 plenty of good purjDoses, whether they 
 eventually bore fruit or not. 
 
 A few days afterwards Mary called on 
 her. 
 
 " I know this is too early for visiting," 
 said she, '' but can you spare time for a little 
 talk with me, as you did for Margaret ? I 
 had a few such pleasant mornings, but I 
 fear I shall have no more." 
 
 " Why so r 
 
 " Oh, so many things prevent. Mrs. 
 Garrow bores me so much with her plans of 
 usefulness. Surely I did not marry John 
 in order to be converted into a district- 
 visiting machine ? Is it fair, do you think ? 
 All the bloom of my life is being rubbed 
 off." 
 
 " I do not think Mrs. Garrow can intend 
 that." 
 
 " But she is doing it, though, very effec-
 
 286 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 tually/' said Mary peevishly. " And I 
 don't think I am cut out for that style of 
 thing at all. My genius does not lie that 
 way ; and I am sure my taste does not. I 
 am not fond of talking with low people ; 
 mamma expressly objected to it when I 
 was a girl, so of course I cannot be ex- 
 pected to like it now. If John had told 
 me I must submit to that kind of drudgery, 
 I think I should have told him decidedly I 
 could not yield to such conditions, — I 
 really think I should !" 
 
 And Mary looked thoroughly out of tem- 
 per, as well as out of heart about it. "I 
 already go to cottages with him," said she, 
 " though I do not always go in. Do tell 
 me, Miss Beaumorice, w^hat I am to do." 
 
 " I hardly know how to advise, because 
 I do not know what you have been asked 
 to do already." 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Garrow has been so tiresome. 
 She said in that ' good-body ' way of hers.
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 287 
 
 ' My dear, I'll take you round on Monday 
 to the cottages/ — just as if she was doing 
 me the greatest favour. I hate her ' my 
 dearing ' me as she does, — it so completely 
 removes me from my own level. I'm sure 
 I heartily hoped it would rain on Monday, 
 but it did not ; and Margaret, you know, 
 came over here, leaving me quite at Mrs. 
 Garrow's mercy. I thought it was a good 
 opportunity of wearing my straw hat, at 
 any rate, and she came for me early, and 
 was very pleased to find me ready. The 
 first cottage we went to was to see an old 
 woman actually dying, — there is not a 
 chance of her recovery. Her skin is the 
 colour of old wash-leather, and her bones 
 nearly come through it. Fancy how un- 
 pleasant ! The room, too, was rather close, 
 though the window was open a httle. 
 Well, she seemed to be a special pet of 
 Mrs. Garrow's. I thought she never would 
 come away. She kept talking about the
 
 288 IHE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 old woman's soul, and the comfort of having 
 made her peace, and her interest in the 
 promises, and actually asked to be remem- 
 bered in her prayers ! After that she read 
 her a short psalm, and the old woman made 
 quite a long speech, as well as her cough 
 would let her ; and when we came away, 
 Mrs. Garrow's face actually beamed as she 
 said to me, ' What a privilege to visit such 
 an old saint, my dear !' T thought it a 
 privilege to come away. 
 
 " The next cottage," resumed Mary, pre- 
 sently, " belonged to a woman who sup- 
 ported herself by ironing, and who had a 
 drunken husband. Mrs. Garrow wanted 
 to know how he was goins: on, and the 
 woman had a long story to tell. I didn't 
 see why Protestants need confess these 
 things, as if they were Catholics. The 
 woman seemed to find it a relief; for you 
 see she was telHng her husband's sins, not 
 her own, which seemed to me a good deal
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 289 
 
 like tale- bearing. However, Mrs. Garrow 
 spoke to her very plainly and sensibly, I 
 must say, though I wondered how she 
 could do it : and the woman did not seem 
 much to like it, but owned at length that 
 Mrs. Garrow was right ; perhaps expecting 
 to be the better for it. When we came 
 away, Mrs. Garrow said, ' My dear, I was 
 obliged to speak very faithfully to her.' I 
 did not think the woman at all a nice per- 
 son. 
 
 " Next we went to a young married wo- 
 man with several children, — a slatternly 
 dawdle, who is quite irreclaimable, I think. 
 Mrs. Garrow spoke very warmly to her, 
 and she stood folding her hands, with her 
 head on one side, like a ninny. One of the 
 children had scalded itself, and Mrs. Garrow 
 told her it was all her fault, and gave her a 
 good scolding. She dressed the child's 
 scald herself, and got me to assist ; it 
 almost turned me sick. Another child had 
 
 VOL. I. 19
 
 290 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 an eruption on its face — 'humour/ Mrs. 
 Garrow called it — and it made me quite 
 uncomfortable ; but she said it was nothing 
 infectious, — only the result of poor living 
 and want of proper cleanliness. That 
 might not prevent its being infectious, you 
 know. 
 
 *' Lastly, we went to see an old man and 
 woman, quite past work, but the pictures 
 of cleanliness, content, and comfort. They 
 put me in mind of ' John Anderson, my joe.' 
 Mrs. Garrow approved them so much that 
 she seemed unable to tear herself away 
 from them. I don't think I ever saw her 
 enjoy anything so much ! And they seemed 
 equally fond of her. The old man laid his 
 shaking hand on her arm quite familiarly 
 (though not disrespectfully), and his face 
 beamed as he said, ' What / say, ma'am, is, 
 people don't test the Lord enough. If you 
 ax them, do they believe His promises ? 
 they say they do ; but they don't test 'em.
 
 TEE LADY GF LIMITED IXC ME. 291 
 
 They go on a grumbling and a gi'umbling, 
 and a complaining and a complaining to 
 anybody as will hear 'em, and they don t 
 go to Him as has said, ' Come unto MeT " 
 
 " That was very good," said Miss Beau- 
 morice. 
 
 " Yes, but it was only a truism, you 
 know, and to hear him say it, and to see 
 Mrs. Garrow listen to it, noddinof her head 
 and looking so edified, you would have 
 thought it a new discovery. When we 
 came away, she looked full at me, in a rap- 
 ture, and said, ' My dear, that old man is 
 quite a lesson to me.' 
 
 " In short," pursued Mary, " I never was 
 more glad than when I reached my own 
 o^ate, and she would not come in. She 
 only squeezed my hand with immense fer- 
 vour, and said, 'You see, my dear, how 
 easy it is to get at the hearts of these poor 
 people, if you do but go the right way to 
 work. I always feel it does me good ; which 
 
 19—2
 
 292 THE LADY OF LIMITEB INCOME.. 
 
 I could not echo in sincerity. In short," 
 said Mary, with an impatient sigh, " I 
 feel it does not suit me at all, and it is no 
 good being hypocritical. Besides, I don't 
 like going into infectious cottages, or cot- 
 tages that may be infected. I owe it to 
 John not to catch anything, and I'm very 
 susceptible." 
 
 Miss Beaumorice here offered her cake 
 and wine, which she accepted very readily. 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Garrow," said Miss Beau- 
 morice, smiling as she cut the cake, "you 
 have quite interested me in her, you de- 
 scribe her so capitally. I could see her 
 and hear her exactly." 
 
 " Well, of course she is a very good 
 woman," said Mary, doubtfully, '' but there 
 is such a difference in our age and in the 
 way we have been brought up. What is 
 very well for an old lady at the fag end of 
 life is hardly suitable for a girl in her 
 honeymoon."
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 293 
 
 " No doubt her principle is, ' Train up a 
 young wife in the way she should go.' I 
 know she did so with her own daughter." 
 
 " Yes, I dare say ; but do you know 
 that daughter is a perfect horror to me? 
 There is no one I should so dislike to take 
 after. So that does not strengthen your 
 case," said Mary, laughing. "John cant 
 bear her any more than T can. He says 
 she is such a contrast to his sister. And, 
 by-the-bye. Miss Beaumorice, I'm half afraid 
 this piece of perfection will be another hor- 
 ror to me in a different style. I hope she 
 may not be, for I must have her to stay as 
 soon as Margaret leaves, and I don't know 
 when she will go.'' 
 
 " When I came to live here," said Miss 
 Beaumorice, " my means being small, I was 
 anxious to keep well within bounds; but 
 as I was a stranger, it was a great treat to 
 me to have an old friend to stay with me 
 occasionally. This, of course, made a little
 
 294 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 difference, though not much, in my house- 
 keeping bills ; and I found it a good plan 
 to have a visitor, say for ten days or a fort- 
 night, and then be a week or ten days 
 by myself before I invited another. This 
 enabled my housekeeping to recover itself, 
 and I think it was a good thing for my own 
 mind too, and prevented my becoming too 
 dependent on others." 
 
 " That was excellent,'' said Mary, " and 
 I should like it very much." 
 
 "Why not try it, then?" 
 
 " I am afraid I cannot. John will expect 
 Alicia to come directly Margaret goes, and 
 I fear she will expect it too. A week will 
 be the very outside of what I shall be able 
 to manage." 
 
 " That will be something." 
 
 " Yes, and I can put it on prudential 
 ground ; for really, since we are on the 
 subject, it is almost necessary. In fact, it 
 was one of the subjects I came over to
 
 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 295 
 
 speak about. I have exceeded the mark, 
 and the month's bills look rather fright- 
 ful." 
 
 '^If you paid by the week, you would 
 find them less formidable." 
 
 " Oh, but how troublesome !" 
 
 " I say nothing about that, though the 
 trouble is very httle, — very much less than 
 trouble of mind at being out of pocket. 
 That would be ' a geometrical distribution 
 of expenses which would diminish their 
 weight.' " 
 
 " I beHeve you may be right there," said 
 Mary, sighing, " but if I begin to-morrow, 
 there are still this month's bills that must 
 be paid ; and it will be very ignoble to be 
 obliged to tell John I have been unable to 
 keep within my allowance." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 *^ And I cannot ask the tradesmen to 
 wait a Httle ?" 
 
 " Certainly not. That would be a very
 
 296 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 bad Way to get into, and would only post- 
 pone your troubles." 
 
 " Then what am I to do T 
 
 " I think you must ask Mr. Brooke to 
 help you this time, and determine not to 
 exceed bounds again." 
 
 " But how can I keep the tradesmen in 
 check ? When I order a joint weighing 
 eight or nine pounds, the butcher sends me 
 twelve or thirteen." 
 
 " Ah, they were very tiresome about that, 
 I know. The only way I can sometimes 
 find is to vary the surplus meat by new 
 ways of serving it up." 
 
 *' I do that ; and Susan is really very 
 helpful in expedients. That boy has such 
 an appetite !" 
 
 "You don't suppose his chubby cheeks 
 are kept on nothing, do you ?" 
 
 " No," said Mary, laughing, " and he is 
 a great deal cheaper than cook. He goes 
 out sometimes before any of us are up, and
 
 TEE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 297 
 
 brings in ever so many mushrooms to stew 
 with any bones or scraps he can get Susan 
 to give him. His stews smell so tempting, 
 that I told him he might as well bring me 
 a few mushrooms, but he has not been able 
 to find any more. I think he can imitate 
 the note of every bird in the country ; he 
 says he ' knows every man Jack of them ;' 
 and sometimes you would really think we 
 had a blackbird and nightingale in the 
 house." 
 
 '' Well," resumed she, after a short pause, 
 " I think the best way will be to make a 
 little sacrifice. The sum that hampers me 
 so can be covered by four or five pounds ; 
 and on my wedding-day papa put a little 
 purse into my hand with ten new sovereigns 
 in it. I can clear it off out of that, only 
 certainly that is not the way I meant to 
 spend it ! I had thought of so many pretty 
 things !" 
 
 VOL. I. 20
 
 298 THE LADY OF LIMITED INCOME. 
 
 " Depend on it they would not give you 
 haLf the relief that this will." 
 
 " Perhaps not ; and then I need not 
 trouble John. It is very tiresome, though. 
 Thank you for helping me out of my diffi- 
 culty." 
 
 "You are going to help yourself out of 
 it, I think," said Miss Beaumorice, 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 BILUNO, PRINTER, GITILDFOKD, SUBRET.
 
 1 '-^ 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIt-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 049781112 
 
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