bARAH: 
 
 :f:;;l'V''^*>f''' 
 
 A SURVIVAL 
 
 i*j 
 
 
 
 Sydney Christian
 
 L I E) RA FtY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVER^SITY 
 
 or ILLINOIS 
 
 L884-S 
 
 V.I
 
 
 SARAH: A SURVIVAL.
 
 SARAH: A SURVIVAL 
 
 SYDNEY CHRISTIAN, 
 
 AUTllOK OF "LYDM." 
 
 JN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON c^- COMPANY, 
 
 LfM/TJ'.n, 
 
 Fkttek Lank, Fi.kkt Sirket, E.G. 
 J 894. 
 
 lA////t;/i/s rrsi-rTu;/.,
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
 
 8Si 
 
 
 
 TO 
 
 EMILY, 
 
 THE STEADFAST STRENGTH OF WHOSE LFFI". 
 IS MV lll-.ST IXSIMRAI'ION'.
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2009 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/sarahsurvival01chri
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. 1 
 
 PART I. 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 The Thornhoroughs of Meads ... i 
 
 PART II. 
 The Hays of Byron Villa ... ... 117 
 
 PART III. 
 In the Basque Country ... ... ... 179
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE THORNBOROVGHS OF MEADS. 
 
 " I am not yet come to that degree of wifdom to 
 think light of the fex of whom I have my life, fince, if I 
 be anything, I was to come to it, born of a woman, and 
 nurfed of a woman. . . . 
 
 " And truly we men, and praifers of men, fhould re- 
 member, that if we have fuch excellencies, it is reafon 
 to think them excellent creatures of whom we are ; fince 
 a kite never brought forth a good flying hawk." 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 is^^
 
 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 *' Children are a great responsibility, Dan.' 
 
 " They are, Rachel." 
 
 " Especially girls." 
 
 '* Especially boys, Rachel." 
 
 "I fear they may be in mischief or danger 
 even now." 
 
 " It is very likely." 
 
 " Shall we go and seek for them, Dan ? " 
 
 " I think it might be wise ; there is much 
 water in the pond, owing to these recent 
 rains. I trust they may not have wandered 
 into the top field." 
 
 ** Little Sarah is often disobedient, Dan." 
 
 " And Gideon over- venturesome for his
 
 4 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 years. Come, Rachel, we will go up through 
 the kitchen garden." 
 
 The speakers were a Httle elderly lady 
 and a tall elderly gentleman ; a glance told 
 that they were brother and sister. They had 
 the same amount of silver in their curls, the 
 same keen eyes and straight noses, the same 
 benevolent expression and finely curved lips. 
 But there was a twinkle of humour in the 
 eyes of the brother, and there were lines 
 of thoughtfulness on his brow which were 
 absent in the equally vigorous, but less 
 clever face of the sister. All his movements, 
 and the tones of his voice, were full of a 
 leisurely indulgence, while hers were quick 
 and decisive, as of one who rarely sees the 
 need for changing their mind. 
 
 The Thornboroughs had for generations 
 lived at Meads. They had been in the Church 
 and in the Army and in the Navy. There had 
 been among them eminent Divines, Generals, 
 and Admirals, also many worthy country 
 gentlemen, who had taken wives from wealthy 
 county families and lived useful and comfort- 
 able country lives at Meads.
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 5 
 
 Theirs was a Puritan family. Many a 
 Mercy, Sarah, or Rebekah figured in the 
 family tree, many a Matthew and Jonathan 
 and Samuel. Their men had been for the 
 most part reliable, unbending, unimaginative, 
 their women strong, domestic, well-favoured. 
 Here and there had been a departure, as in 
 the case of wild Will Thornborough, who 
 generally drunk as a lord, married the lovely 
 daughter of a travelling tinker, rode with 
 her on Black Angel to the gates of Meads, 
 which his father shut in his face, rode away 
 cursing through Thornborough woods, and 
 there shot his bride and himself. People did 
 say it was all because Dorothy Howard 
 had refused him, scared at his drinking 
 habits, but, after three centuries, who shall 
 say ? Also there had been a Jasper Thorn- 
 borough, a courteous gentleman of the 
 road, and a lovely Diana Thornborough, 
 who had left her stern husband to follow 
 the fortunes of a gay young squire. Valiant 
 and proud and impatient of restraint were 
 all the Thornboroughs, '' There has not 
 been a tame man among us, nor an ugly
 
 6 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 woman," Dan Thornborough was often heard 
 to say. 
 
 Dan, Jasper, Rachel, and Jael were the 
 four children of the last owner of Meads. 
 Dan, the eldest, had, on the early death of 
 his father, taken the management of the 
 estate. Jasper entered the Army, married 
 the penniless daughter of a brother officer, 
 went to India, and, after some years, died 
 there a widower. He had sent Mabel, the 
 elder of his two children, to his wife's family, 
 and the younger, Sarah, to the old home to 
 the charge of his brother and his unmarried 
 sister Rachel. Jael Thornborough had been 
 the beauty of the county. A fascinating, 
 bewildering beauty, with wonderful dark 
 eyes, straight brows, a figure like a tall, 
 strong pine, and brilliant lips and cheeks. 
 Dan and Rachel had a tolerably lively time 
 of it so long as Jael remained at home, for 
 her love-affairs were many, often tragic and 
 always interesting, and the brothers and 
 sisters had no secrets. Beautiful, bewilder- 
 ing Jael was finally wooed and won by Sir 
 Godolphin Leigh, of Leigh Court, in the next
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 7 
 
 county. They had three children who were 
 all carried off by a malignant fever ; then a 
 boy was born who was christened '* Gideon 
 Godolphin," after Jael's father and her 
 husband, and when the boy was five years 
 old his beautiful mother died. It was not 
 long before Sir Godolphin Leigh married 
 as^ain, and Meads became as much Gideon's 
 home as Leigh Court, for a new family 
 began to spring up there, and his young 
 step-mother recognized the claims the 
 Thornboroughs had on the boy, and spared 
 him and welcomed him with equal fervour. 
 Thus it happened that the two little cousins, 
 Gideon Leigh and Sarah Thornborough, 
 were brought up together at Meads by their 
 childless uncle and aunt. 
 
 Meads had been a much larger property 
 than it was when Dan Thornborough's 
 father inherited it. The old Thornborough 
 woods with their fine timber had been, two 
 generations back, much curtailed, and small 
 farms had been sold. It now consisted of 
 some seven thousand acres, and there was 
 not an operation carried on on any portion
 
 8 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 of them which Dan Thornborough did not 
 thoroughly understand himself, and over 
 which he had not consulted with Jacob 
 Frant. 
 
 The Frants had served the Thornboroughs 
 for generations^ there had always been a 
 Frant at the head of the stables, the garden, 
 the kitchen, and many younger Frants as 
 garden boys and house-servants. Mrs. Frant 
 was at this time head in the kitchen ; her son, 
 *' Old George " (though he was still in the 
 forties), was head in the stables ; *' Young 
 George,'* his son, watched with zealous care 
 over the children's ponies ; and Susan his 
 daughter was little Sarah's nurse. But it 
 was '' Mr. Frant," Mrs. Frant's brother, the 
 head of the Frant family, as Dan was head 
 of the Thornboroughs, to whom the whole 
 of the serving establishment of Meads 
 looked up with reverence. Everybody 
 called him '* Mr. Frant;" only his master 
 and mistress were allowed the familiarity of 
 using his Christian name *' Jacob." Jacob 
 Frant was bailiff, as his father had been 
 before him, and had been in his youth
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 9 
 
 publicly horsewhipped by old Jonathan 
 Thornborough, Dan's grandfather. It was 
 at the annual fair, and young Jacob had 
 been spied, by the eagle eye of old Jonathan, 
 gambling and drinking in a booth. The 
 master had just driven on to the field with 
 his family, and the Leighs and the Howards. 
 His jovial, handsome face was lighted with 
 a smile, but it clouded over as his glance 
 recognized young Jacob Frant, and jumping 
 from his seat, whip in hand, he strode into 
 the booth, seized the lad by the collar, and 
 then and there thrashed him. '' You are the 
 first Frant that has diso^raced his father's 
 name," he shouted ; '' what do you mean 
 by it ? " For a Thornborough to execute 
 justice on a Frant was quite the natural 
 order of things, and young Jacob, as he slunk 
 home, away from the enticing hilarities of the 
 fair, cherished no feelings of rebellion against 
 his master. The only thing that stung him 
 as he trudged along the hot road, was that 
 Miss Rachel and Miss Jael should have 
 witnessed his disgrace. He betook himself 
 to the hayloft and wept there. But towards
 
 lO SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 nightfall, when the family had returned, two 
 childish voices at the foot of the ladder 
 cried, "Jacob, come down ; we know you are 
 up there ; " and Jacob Frant stared down 
 through the trap-door to see his two little 
 mistresses in their white muslin frocks 
 eagerly looking up at him. 
 
 "Grandpa has forgiven you now, Jacob. 
 What a dirty place you were in ! Oh, we 
 were so sorry, weren't we, Jael ? " 
 
 The great boy slid down the ladder, and 
 the two little girls lifted their clean sweet 
 faces and kissed him with their red lips. 
 Thus began and ended Jacob Frant's gam- 
 bling days ; he grew up and settled down 
 and followed In his father's shoes as bailiff, 
 as was right and meet for a Frant to do. 
 
 Sunday at Meads was kept by the present 
 family exactly as their predecessors had kept 
 it. The church was five miles away, and It 
 was necessary to start betimes. The rule of 
 the house was that the entire household at- 
 tended Morning Service ; the tradition being 
 that no harm could come to a house while 
 Its owners were doing their duty. The old
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. II 
 
 coach, only used on Sundays, came round 
 punctually at ten o'clock ; on to its roof 
 scrambled, or decorously mounted, as many 
 of the family and servants as there was room 
 for, the rest packed inside. The reigning 
 Thornborough always drove, the reigning 
 Frant always brought away the key of the 
 back premises. As they passed the lodge, 
 the coach stopped to allow as many of its 
 inmates as could be spared to mount also, 
 and then the horses were whipped up and 
 away at a rattling pace, to the old church 
 with its galleries and three-decker. 
 
 The only exceptions to this rule were 
 when there were Thornboroughs In the 
 cradle, too young to go, or Thornboroughs 
 in the great dining-room armchair, too old 
 to go. Then a Frant stayed at home with 
 them, rocked the former, or read aloud the 
 Morning Service to the latter. 
 
 The Thornborough pew was square and 
 large and private ; when the red moreen 
 curtains were drawn close along their brass 
 rods nobody could see either In or out, unless 
 a man of six feet four or ^m^, as Jonathan
 
 12 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 Thornborough had been, happened to be 
 there. 
 
 There was a fireplace In the pew, at which 
 long-departed Thornboroughs had dried their 
 wet shoes and coats and pelisses, when in 
 bygone days it had been considered a sin to 
 make use on a Sabbath day of anything but 
 their own stardy legs, and both the men and 
 the women had battled the whole five miles 
 to service through rain, or wind, or snow. 
 On hot days those curtains were very con- 
 venient ; many a Thornborough, both young 
 and old, had slumbered peacefully behind 
 them during the sermon, with their feet 
 comfortably stretched out on the great red 
 hassocks. 
 
 Piled up in the corner were large clasped 
 Bibles and Prayer and Hymn books, many 
 of them containing woodcuts and maps, 
 and dedications, and illuminated tail-pieces. 
 There were books also which were not 
 used in the service ; books brought there by 
 the Thornboroughs whose names figured on 
 the tablets on the wall above, or on the flat 
 floor stones up the aisles, to wile away the
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 1 3 
 
 hours between morning and afternoon ser- 
 vice. There was Quarles's " Emblems," 
 '' The Saint's Rest," "• Meditations among 
 the Tombs," Drelincourt on " Death," and 
 on the shelf in the corner lay the old Dutch 
 Bible, bound in faded calf, with its two 
 great clasps of curious brasswork, its broad 
 marker of frayed crimson ribbon, and its 
 wonderful woodcuts. Its thin leaves, so thin 
 that the letters on the reverse side seemed 
 nearly printed through, and hindered the 
 reading of the open page, were always 
 placed open, by the Clerk, at the first 
 morning lesson, the red marker he put at 
 the second. The Clerk would as soon 
 have omitted to do this as to have omitted 
 doing the same by the Bible on the reading- 
 desk. 
 
 The Thornborough pew was built against 
 the reading-desk ; above it sat the Clerk, in 
 his walled-in box ; over his head the Curate 
 read the Prayers ; and over him again, in 
 the third story, the Rector preached his fifty- 
 minutes sermon in black gown and bands. 
 Over the Rector's head was a canopy of oak,
 
 14 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 carved with pomegranates, and ornamented 
 with oak cherubs, who blew brazen trumpets 
 to the four corners of the church. 
 
 The collections were made in a copper 
 bowl fastened to the end of a long rod, 
 which saved the congregation all trouble 
 except that of dropping their money in. To 
 see this rod thrust into their pew through 
 the red curtains was one of the Sunday 
 excitements to Gideon Leigh and Sarah 
 Thornborough. Another excitement which 
 Gideon could remember seeing once or 
 twice was the Leigh Court equipage driving 
 up to the church. Old Madam Leigh was 
 Sir Godolphin's grandmother, a tiny figure, 
 well on in the eighties, her shrewd face 
 peeping out of her lavender silk bonnet, 
 overshadowed by its costly Brussels lace 
 veil, and her feet - encased in black satin 
 shoes, which stepped daintily forth from 
 under her lavender silk gown. Her great 
 carriage was upholstered throughout with 
 faded grey damask ; her old coachman sat on 
 his grey-fringed hammercloth, his ancient 
 head carefully powdered, his solemn eyes
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 1 5 
 
 fixed on his sleek grey horses ; her two 
 men-servants stood behind, holding on to the 
 straps, their powdered hair and silken calves 
 the envy of all the villagers. Madam Leigh 
 had driven all her life in this pomp to her 
 own church, and deserted it for the town 
 only when the new Rector had begun to 
 preach in his surplice, which *' Popish 
 performance," a Leigh could by no means 
 tolerate. 
 
 It was once when driving thus in state, 
 accompanied by her grandson, that she had 
 encountered the Thornborough coach tearing 
 down the road, and driven, not by Jonathan 
 Thornborough, as she was accustomed to 
 see, but by his daring, brilliant grand- 
 daughter Jael, whose dark curls and plumed 
 hat were waving in the rush of wind as she 
 urged the horses on with wild speed. The 
 loaded coach swayed in its headlong course, 
 the steady old Leigh Court chariot rumbled 
 aside, as Jael's laughing eyes flashed into 
 Godolphin's Leigh's, and his heart bounded 
 to meet her, while the two staid men-servants, 
 standing up behind, privately grinned their
 
 1 6 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 admiration of the coach and its dazzling 
 driver. 
 
 All this was over now. Madam Lel^h 
 and her old coachman had both gone to 
 their fathers, the damask-lined chariot was 
 kept in state as a thing of the past, Sir 
 Godolphin Leigh walked soberly the few 
 yards into his own church, and the Thorn- 
 borough coach was as soberly driven by 
 Dan Thornborough, with only his sister 
 Rachel beside him, and comparatively few 
 Frants behind and inside. 
 
 But now children had come once more to 
 clamber up on to its roof, and to enliven the 
 too quiet drive with their dangerous pranks 
 and incessant talk. For Gideon and Sarah 
 bid fair to revive once more the exciting 
 days of Jael and old Jonathan. 
 
 Gideon Leigh was acquainted with the 
 top of the coach long before his cousin 
 Sarah Thornborough came to share its joys 
 with him. Many a long Sunday morning 
 had the boy sat In the corner of the great 
 pew and amused himself by turning over 
 the books, while his aunt Rachel sat bolt
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. I J 
 
 upright gazing at the preacher, and his 
 uncle Dan dozed, or made notes with a 
 view to controverting uncertain points in 
 the sermon the next time he and the Rector 
 met. 
 
 It was in the summer that Uncle Dan 
 dozed, and in the winter that he made notes, 
 but in any case he never interfered with the 
 little boy sitting so still on the red hassock 
 beside him, and apparently deep in '' Olney 
 Hymns," or ''The Compleat Angler." Uncle 
 Dan chuckled to himself. Did he not know 
 those books well ? Had they not served 
 to break the monotony of the long service 
 in his own boyhood, when his father had 
 punished even a stifled yawn or a momentary 
 closed eye ? 
 
 And now his shrewd eyes twinkled with 
 delight whenever they rested on Gideon 
 Leigh, his nephew, also poring over them. 
 
 '* The Compleat Angler s " binding was 
 worn and scratched, there were flies pressed 
 between its leaves, and on its stained first 
 page was written in faded ink : '' This is my 
 book, Jasper Thornborough, 171 5." Dan's 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 l8 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 brother had been named after this Jasper. 
 How had it got to church ? The sober 
 binding was very like all the other devo- 
 tional books. Had it arrived by accident 
 in the pew, or had it been brought by 
 that great angler Jasper Thornborough, who 
 could not resist reading even in church that, 
 '' 'Tis noted that the Tench and Eel love 
 mud, and the Carp loves gravelly ground, 
 and in the hot months to feed on grass " ? 
 
 At any rate there it had lain for the past 
 hundred years, and with it lay now, '* Olney 
 Hymns, in Three Books," 1812. Eagerly 
 little Gideon would turn to the end of this 
 last, where *' The Kite ; or. Pride must have 
 a Fall," '' The Spider and Toad," offered 
 their fascinations. The child knew them all 
 by heart. The words — 
 
 " See how yon crowds of gazing people 
 Admire my flight above the steeple," 
 
 always got mixed up in his mind with the 
 hymns when they were given out, except on 
 the rare and delightful occasions when the 
 hymn about *' Gideon " was sung — Gideon, 
 who was the hero of his young mind.
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 1 9 
 
 " Who ordered Gideon forth 
 To storm the invaders' camp 
 With arms of little worth, 
 A pitcher and a lamp. 
 The trumpets made his coming known, 
 And all the host was overthrown." 
 
 Gideon Leigh meant to be a soldier when 
 he grew up. He told his uncle so one hot 
 Sunday afternoon, when he was trotting 
 beside him on the quiet stroll to visit the 
 pigs and the chickens and the young 
 turkeys, and Uncle Dan remembered that 
 the *' Gideon hymn," as his nephew called 
 it, had been sung at Morning Service. For 
 the most part the solitary child kept his 
 ideas to himself, he and Uncle Dan under- 
 stood each other without many words, but 
 when he heard that his little cousin was 
 coming to live at Meads, one of his first 
 thoughts was, " I shall tell Sarah I am going 
 to be a soldier like Uncle Jasper, her father, 
 was." 
 
 What an excitement prevailed In the 
 household when the week after the child's 
 arrival Miss Thornborough decided that her 
 niece was to eo to church ! Little Sarah
 
 20 SARAH : A SURVIVAL, 
 
 had not shown such signs of docility as to 
 allow the decision to be heard by the house- 
 hold with entire satisfaction. She was a 
 fearless, merry child, and had already burst 
 into silvery laughter in the middle of morn- 
 ing prayers, trotted about the room when 
 there were visitors and made friends with 
 them all, torn off the black ribbon with 
 which Susan Frant had tied her hair, and 
 demanded '' a nice red one, like papa let me 
 wear." 
 
 On this Sabbath, owing to Gideon's 
 exertions to amuse her all the way to 
 church, she behaved rationally till the red- 
 shrouded pew was reached, when she pro- 
 ceeded to draw a dilapidated negro doll from 
 her small pocket, and announced to Gideon, 
 ''Now we can play dolls in this nice dolls' 
 house." 
 
 In vain Aunt Rachel exhibited the attrac- 
 tions of a new gilt-edged Prayer-book, in 
 vain Uncle Dan lifted her up on to the seat 
 beside him, and let her look out between 
 the moreen curtains at the assembling con- 
 gregation. She was quiet for a time, but at
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 21 
 
 last slid down, clutching Uncle Dan's legs, 
 clothed in dazzling duck, reached a high red 
 hassock, and cried fervently, " Oh, Gideon, 
 help me to put Queen Victoria to bed ! " 
 
 The boy looked askance at his uncle and 
 aunt : the Rector's voice was just beginning, 
 '* When the wicked man," the congregation 
 had risen, it was an awful moment ; suppose 
 that child's clear voice should suddenly 
 make further revelations about '' Queen 
 Victoria." Uncle Dan's lips were twitching. 
 Aunt Rachel looked in despair. Sarah, all 
 unconscious, began crooning a lullaby to 
 herself, rocking vehemently the extremely 
 small doll, and showing all her pearly teeth 
 as she cheerfully smiled up in Uncle Dan's 
 face. The crooning lullaby grew louder, the 
 Clerk stared severely down into the pew. 
 Gideon waited no longer, but, dragging his 
 hassock up to his cousin, he reached out a 
 hand for ^' Olney Hymns" and the " Com- 
 pleat Angler," and soon the two small heads 
 were close together ; the low murmuring 
 which followed might easily be mistaken for 
 devout praying, and Aunt Rachel breathed
 
 22 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 again. She knew nothing about those two 
 books, she had never doubted that they 
 were Prayer or Hymn books, and knelt 
 rejoicing In the power of the Spirit that 
 could so work on infant minds as to endow 
 the long prayers with interest, even for a 
 baby like Sarah. 
 
 Never had Gideon spent such a frivolous 
 Sunday morning. 
 
 The boy had managed to make Sarah 
 understand that no talking, or, at any rate, 
 only whispers, was the order of the day, and 
 that out of that *' dolls' house" they could 
 not go till Uncle Dan might choose to turn 
 the brass button on its drab painted door 
 and march out himself. 
 
 Up and down she trotted, the hassocks 
 now here, now there. " Queen Victoria," 
 wrapped tight in her own tiny pocket-hand- 
 kerchief, was put to sleep alternately inside 
 the crown of Uncle Dan's hat and on the silk 
 train of Aunt Rachel's dress, where it rested 
 on the floor. Then she climbed up on the 
 seat again, and was quiet so long during the 
 First Lesson that Gideon got up beside her
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 23 
 
 to see what she was looklnof at between the 
 curtains. 
 
 *' Look," she whispered anxiously. " He's 
 asleep, and his head is shining, and there's a 
 large wasp." 
 
 Gideon dragged her down from the con- 
 templation of the bald-headed gentleman, and 
 closed the curtains. Looking round in search 
 of fresh distraction she caught sight of Uncle 
 Dan's seals, which hung at his old-fashioned 
 watch-chain. 
 
 Without more ado she clambered on to his 
 knee, and he was guilty of pushing aside the 
 old Dutch Bible and amusing his niece till 
 the reading of the Lesson was over. Tired 
 out at last, she lay down on the floor, and, 
 leaning her head against Gideon as he sat 
 sleepily on a hassock, she went fast asleep. 
 Seeing his nephew presently begin to nod, 
 Uncle Dan cautiously drew the hassock near 
 enough for the boy to lean against him, and 
 the children slept tranquilly through the rest 
 of the service. But Uncle Dan presented 
 the remarkable spectacle of sitting down all 
 through the hymns and the final blessing
 
 24 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 for the first time in his life, in spite of a 
 severe whisper from his sister that, ** It will 
 not do to begin by letting that child rule us ; 
 better wake them up. Gideon has never 
 gone to sleep in church before." 
 
 Her brother waved his hand deprecatingly, 
 and whispered back again, "Accept the omen ; 
 the boy has found his fate, and the child will 
 rule us all." 
 
 He was right. Aunt, uncle, cousin, and the 
 entire Frant clan fell under her baby fascina- 
 tions, and the sway of Sarah Thornborough 
 lasted on at Meads for many a long year 
 after its beginning in the old red-curtained 
 pew. 
 
 After that, two years glided peacefully by. 
 The useful monotonous days were only 
 broken by Sarah's vagaries, or by Gideon's 
 visits to Leigh Court, whence he always 
 returned with more and more passionate 
 fondness for Meads. 
 
 It was on a spring Sunday afternoon, 
 Gideon's tenth birthday, little Sarah being 
 seven, that their uncle and aunt held the 
 conversation about them with which these
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 25 
 
 pages open. Terrible experiences they had 
 lately had, Gideon had nearly cut his leg off 
 with a scythe, and Sarah had been hardly 
 rescued from an open cistern. Never were 
 two more daring children. The lives of the 
 Frants were a burden to them by reason of 
 the ceaseless and unlooked-for perils into 
 which the two combined to place themselves. 
 So it was with an anxious sigh that Aunt 
 Rachel followed her brother in search of 
 them, up through the kitchen garden and 
 into the top field where the great barn 
 stood. 
 
 Sunday afternoon calm reigned around 
 them ; across the orchard Jacob Frant was 
 leisurely strolling with his pipe and his dogs ; 
 leaning over the pig-sty wall Young George 
 was discernible, gossiping In company with 
 another youth ; to the right, In the meadow, 
 ruminating peacefully, were Dan Thorn- 
 borough's choice Alderneys ; further on the 
 long grass swayed gently In the breeze 
 abiding the haying time. But there was no 
 sound of child's laughter to be heard, no 
 sturdy children's figures to be seen.
 
 26 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 " They have done wrong to stray away," 
 remarked Aunt Rachel. '' I set Gideon the 
 seventy-fifth Psalm to learn before tea, and 
 he was to teach little Sarah — 
 
 " ' Quiet, Lord, my fro ward heart, 
 Make me teachable and mild.' 
 
 I fear he has forgotten to do so, for they 
 were not in the schoolroom as I passed." 
 
 '* Is the seventy-fifth Psalm a very long 
 one ? " asked her brother. 
 
 *' It is but ten verses — as many as his 
 years. He has been boastful of late before 
 Young George, therefore I laid special stress 
 upon the words ' Speak not with a stiff neck. 
 God is the Judge : He putteth down one, 
 and setteth up another.' " 
 
 " I wonder if little Sarah understands 
 that hymn ? I remember learning it when 
 I was a lad, ' Make me teachable and mild.' 
 Bless me, I'm neither one nor the other, 
 even after all these years." 
 ^ '' I am sure, Dan, you never had a 
 froward heart," his sister indignantly replied. 
 " That child is very wayward ; the discipline
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 27 
 
 of learning is good for her, though, to be 
 sure, it is little discipline, for she learns 
 without any trouble, and Gideon has a rare 
 gift for teaching." 
 
 Her brother did not answer, his eyes were 
 fixed upon a small black object on the loose 
 hay at the foot of one of the stacks they were 
 approaching. His sister s eyes followed his. 
 
 " It is JaeFs old school Bible," she cried. 
 *' I gave it to Gideon to learn out of; they 
 cannot be far off." 
 
 Dan Thornborough stood still and shouted. 
 There was no answer. His sister picked 
 up the little worn Bible. A folded piece of 
 paper kept the place of the seventy-fifth 
 Psalm; on it was inscribed, in Gideon's large 
 childish hand, the verse of the hymn he had 
 been set to teach Sarah. 
 
 " Good boy, he has not then been dis- 
 obedient, I trust," remarked his aunt with 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Uncle Dan shouted again. 
 
 "We had better return to the house," he 
 said finally. 
 
 They did so, approaching it from the
 
 28 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 opposite side they had started from. They 
 were too anxious to exchange any remarks, 
 only, as they passed the pig-sty, Young 
 George was ordered to come and help look 
 for the children. On the way they were 
 joined by Jacob Frant and a garden-boy. 
 The procession came round to the ivy- 
 covered side of the house. 
 
 '' Who has left that ladder there ? " 
 demanded Dan Thornborough, sharply, as he 
 hurried on ahead ; but none of the party 
 knew. 
 
 High up on the topmost rung of the 
 ladder, where it ended in the ivy-covered 
 gables, Gideon Leigh was discernible, hold- 
 ing on with one hand, while the other was 
 stretched out towards something he was try- 
 ing to reach. On the next rung below him 
 stood Sarah, clutching with both fat hands 
 the sides of the ladder, while the breeze 
 blew her white pinafore and her yellow curls 
 out behind her into space. Aunt Rachel 
 uttered an exclamation of horror, and cried — 
 
 *' Birds'-nesting on the Sabbath, naughty 
 children ! "
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 29 
 
 Uncle Dan put his hand on her arm. 
 
 ''Hush!" he said, *'do not speak or we 
 shall startle them and they may lose their 
 balance." 
 
 Aunt Rachel grew white, but she repressed 
 her inclination to call out. Jacob Frant's 
 face wore a grim smile as he turned to Young 
 George and remarked — 
 
 "That boy is his mother all over again, 
 and the little one won't be behind him ; the 
 old Thornborough blood, it does one good to 
 see it." 
 
 ''Got any more, Gideon?" they heard 
 Sarah's clear little voice ask. 
 
 " Lots and lots. Hold on tight, Sarah, 
 with one hand, and hold out your pinafore to 
 me, and I'll lay them in." 
 
 Uncle and aunt closed their eyes. " Lord 
 bring these dear little ones down in safety," 
 Aunt Rachel was heard to murmur. Cau- 
 tiously the boy stooped backwards and put 
 something into the pinafore. Several times 
 he repeated the action, then the anxious 
 watchers below heard him say — 
 
 " Now go down three steps slowly, and
 
 30 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 don't joggle your pinafore or you'll break 
 them. I see another nest just below you." 
 
 Slowly the fat bare legs descended. Aunt 
 Rachel gasped — 
 
 " She has got on her new strap shoes, and 
 they are specially slippery." 
 
 ''Hush!" whispered Uncle Dan again, 
 but his own face was stern with anxiety. 
 
 '' I see three more. Are you tired, Sarah ?" 
 
 '' No, I aren't tired ezackly, but the eggs 
 is all running into each other." 
 
 "We'll go down and empty your pinny 
 and come up again ; go slowly, Sarah. I'll 
 just stop and look in this last one." 
 
 Aunt Rachel watched the slow descent in 
 an agony of impatience. 
 
 Neither of the children had perceived 
 that they were being observed. As Sarah 
 neared the earth they heard her saying to 
 herself — 
 
 " Little blue eggs, Gideon will blow them ; 
 I shall have a necklace for me, and one for 
 Queen Victoria. Little blue eggs all for me 
 and Gideon." 
 
 The men were smilinof at the child's
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 3 1 
 
 unconscious face as she kept stopping now to 
 peep into her pinafore, now to look up at 
 Gideon, who was beginning his own descent. 
 As soon as she came within reach, Aunt 
 Rachel darted foward, lifted her off the 
 ladder, set her down sharply on the ground, 
 and relieved her agony of apprehension by 
 dealing a smart smack on her niece's bare 
 neck. The startled child let fall the end of 
 her pinafore, and the treasured blue eggs fell 
 into a smashed heap on the ground. Gideon 
 jumped to earth and faced his aunt. 
 
 "- What do you slap her for ? " he cried. 
 
 Sarah slipped her hand into his, but made 
 no sign of anger or pain. Uncle Dan inter- 
 posed. 
 
 *' Children, you have broken the Sabbath 
 day, frightened us very much, and robbed 
 the happy birds of their eggs,*' he said 
 gravely. 
 
 ** Oh no, please," the boy answered eagerly. 
 " We leave one in every nest, so as the 
 mother bird won't mind. And I don't see 
 why you were frightened, we weren't. And 
 you ought to slap me too. Aunt Rachel."
 
 32 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 '* You might have both been killed," she 
 remonstrated severely. 
 
 ** Being killed would be 77t2ick better than 
 breaking the little blue eggs," bewailed 
 Sarah. 
 
 Finding the terrors of death of no avail. 
 Aunt Rachel urged — 
 
 *' But what would Uncle Dan and I do 
 without you children ? Do not ever do it 
 aeain. Promise." 
 
 But the culprits stood stubbornly hand in 
 hand, and promised nothing. 
 
 Uncle Dan surveyed them. He was very 
 susceptible to beauty in any form. It was 
 an ever-increasing delight to him to see 
 what fine and beautiful children these last 
 Thornboroughs were. His sister would 
 only allow that they were "■ well enough, 
 beauty was but skin deep." But now it 
 seemed to him that Jasper and Jael stood 
 before him once more, and the years rolled 
 back, and he himself was one of the daring 
 trio who had crawled out through an attic 
 window and all round the roof of Meads 
 one moonlit night. How well he recalled
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 33 
 
 the thrashing their father had given him and 
 Jasper, and Jael's wailing over the page of 
 Romaine on " Faith," which to learn had 
 been her share of punishment ! And here 
 stood their children before him, culprits 
 awaiting doom, and looking upon him, 
 perchance, as he remembered he and Jasper 
 had looked upon their father — a tiresome 
 old man not to understand the fun of an 
 adventure, and a cruel man to thrash them 
 for a mere joke. Uncle Dan sighed and 
 blew his nose violently. Then he held out 
 a hand to each. " Let us go in to tea," he 
 said gravely. They loosed each other's 
 hands and came to him. 
 
 '' Have that ladder removed at once, 
 Jacob ; do not wait till to-morrow." 
 
 ''Ay," returned Jacob Frant, as he 
 watched his master and the children along 
 the carriage-drive. 
 
 Miss Thornborough lingered a moment. 
 
 " Your master is too good for this world, 
 Jacob. They ought to have been punished." 
 
 Jacob Frant looked at the still youthful 
 face of his mistress. 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " Do you mind the fair, forty-five years 
 ago ? You and Miss Jael wore white frocks 
 then, like Sarah. You came and fetched me 
 out of the hayloft." 
 
 His sunburnt face was covered with a broad 
 smile. Miss Thornborough smiled also. 
 
 '' ' Spare the rod and spoil the child.' You 
 had had your punishment, remember, Jacob. 
 The tree cannot be bent when it is old. I 
 trust that my blow may be blessed to little 
 Sarah ? " 
 
 " Maybe," he replied. '' I, like you, am 
 over-ready with my hand in my own house- 
 hold, but ' he that is soon angry dealeth 
 foolishly.^ " 
 
 "And 'he that hateth reproof shall die,' 
 Jacob. No, Gideon has his mother's sweet 
 nature, though he be headstrong; but little 
 Sarah has, I fear, much to learn yet — she has 
 a stubborn will." 
 
 Meanwhile uncle, nephew, and niece pur- 
 sued their way indoors, through the cool 
 stone hall, where the antlers and horns hung, 
 and the great white owl and the spoonbill 
 and the wood-pigeon looked stupidly down
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 35 
 
 from their cases. They entered the library, 
 where, sinking into his armchair, Dan 
 Thornborough asked — 
 
 ** Which of you two children intend to 
 speak first ? " 
 
 Then, to his surprise, his niece flung her- 
 self into his arms in torrents of tears, wailing 
 out — 
 
 *' Oh, it was so nice up there, and I hate 
 her for slapping me. I wish she was dead. 
 I wish they was all dead except you and 
 Gideon and me." 
 
 Uncle Dan had no arguments ; he had not 
 the least idea what to do. Gideon stood 
 staring, with his hands behind him. 
 
 " She's quite right — it was nice up there. 
 Couldn't you punish me, uncle, without 
 making me promise ? Then we might go up 
 again. I think you would like it too, if you 
 could get so high." 
 
 Uncle Dan wiped his niece's sniffing little 
 nose, and his own rumpled shirt-front, and 
 while her sobs grew fewer, he remarked, as 
 he smoothed her yellow hair — 
 
 " Get so high '^ Bless me, my boy, do
 
 36 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 you suppose there is a brick or a slate on 
 the whole of the Meads estate that I don't 
 know ? One would suppose that Meads 
 was built for you and Sarah. Sarah's father 
 and I — ay, and your mother too — have 
 scrambled over the roof many a time. But 
 do not go on the Sabbath, and do not take 
 Sarah with you till she is bigger." 
 
 " Then I may go when I like ? " cried the 
 boy, eagerly. 
 
 "Yes; I went when I liked." 
 
 " I expect you were an awful swell at 
 climbing, Uncle Dan ; Jacob says you were. 
 I should like to grow up like you, I think," 
 remarked Gideon, admiringly. 
 
 *' I'm only seven. Oh, when may I go with 
 Gideon ? " besought Sarah, with her arm 
 round her uncle's neck. 
 
 *' Sarah, do you know why your aunt 
 slapped you '^ " he began gravely. " She was 
 afraid you might fall right down off that 
 ladder, and then she would have lost her little 
 niece. She slapped you because you fright- 
 ened her so. You should be sorry, not hate 
 her."
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 37 
 
 '' Well, I'll say my hymn to her at tea. 
 Will that do ? " asked Sarah, reluctantly. 
 
 ^'Yes, that will do." 
 
 " Oh, I hope she won't ask me to say 
 *The good girl.' " 
 
 ''What is that.'^" said bewildered Uncle 
 Dan. 
 
 ** You tell him; I forget," commanded the 
 child, pushing Gideon's arm. 
 
 '' It's Miss Lydia Banks," explained 
 Gideon. " Sarah doesn't like it, no more 
 do I. The hymns are much nicer. I hate 
 Miss Lydia Banks. She was a nasty little 
 thing. I'm glad Sarah isn't like her." 
 
 ''Well, tell me about it. Let me hear," 
 said his uncle. 
 
 Then Gideon repeated, in a singsong voice, 
 which made his uncle chuckle — 
 
 " ' Miss Lydia Banks, though very young, 
 Will never do what's rude or wrong ; 
 When spoken to she always tries 
 To give the most polite replies. 
 
 " * Observing what at school she's taught, 
 She turns her toes as children ought ; 
 And when returned at night from school, 
 She never lolls on chair or stool.
 
 ^S SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " * Some children, when they write, we know, 
 Their ink about them heedless throw ; 
 But she, though young, has learn'd to think 
 That clothes look spoil'd with spots of ink. 
 
 " ' Perhaps some little girl may ask, 
 If Lydia always learns her task ; 
 With pleasure I can answer this, 
 Because with truth I answer "yes."' 
 
 There, aren't hymns muck better ? " de- 
 manded Gideon, triumphantly. 
 
 ''Yes," said Uncle Dan, with his whimsical 
 smile. '' Yes ; I can't say I admire the poem 
 much." 
 
 "There's Miss Lucy," said Sarah, sniffing 
 
 between each line. '' Listen — 
 
 " ' Miss Lucy was a charming child, 
 She never said " I won't ! " 
 If Httle Dick her playthings spoil'd, 
 She said " Pray, Dicky, don't." ' " 
 
 Gideon began eagerly to enlighten his 
 uncle with more information — 
 
 '' Of course he wasn't likely to stop spoil- 
 ing them for that, was he. Uncle Dan ? 
 Then there's Sammy Smith — 
 
 " * Sammy Smith would drink and eat 
 From morning unto night ; 
 He fill'd his mouth so full of meat. 
 It was a shameful sight.'
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 39 
 
 Aunt Rachel would have sent him to bed. I 
 wonder where he got the food ? Mrs. Frant 
 wouldn't have given it to him, horrid pig ! " 
 
 By this time Sarah's tears were dried, and 
 she clamoured for '' a Sunday story." 
 
 *' This is my birthday," cried Gideon, 
 suddenly. " Tell us who was Gideon besides 
 grandpapa. I've forgotten." 
 
 So Dan Thornborough proceeded to re- 
 late the history of that other Gideon who 
 was not ** grandpapa," partly in his own 
 words, partly in the Bible words, while 
 his listeners stared in his face with rapt 
 attention. 
 
 *' Stop a minute, say that again, uncle," 
 interrupted his nephew. 
 
 " * The Lord be with thee, thou mighty man 
 of valour,' " repeated Uncle Dan, patiently 
 and impressively. 
 
 ^* Then he was going to be a soldier ? I 
 thought he was. Go on, uncle." 
 
 But when Dan Thornborough came to 
 the words, '' As thou art, so were they, each 
 one resembled the children of a king," he 
 paused.
 
 40 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 Gideon had got up from the floor where 
 he had been sprawHng on his face, his chin 
 supported in his two hands, and now stood 
 erect before his uncle, his dark eyes flashing, 
 his brown curls tossed over his forehead, his 
 scarlet lips apart ; one sunburnt little fist 
 grasped the pillar of a carved whatnot, with 
 the other he wielded his uncle's long ruler ; 
 his upright figure was full of command and 
 enthusiasm. '' Each one resembled the 
 children of a king," thought Dan Thorn- 
 borough, proudly. But then it suddenly 
 flashed across him, " The lad must not be a 
 soldier, or who will rule Meads when I am 
 gone : 
 
 " Go on, uncle dear," insisted Sarah, pull- 
 ing at his coat. 
 
 ** ' And the country was in quietness forty 
 years all the days of Gideon.' And that 
 was quite the nicest time they had," finished 
 up Uncle Dan, quickly. 
 
 *' Ah ! " cried his nephew, bringing down 
 the ruler with a bang upon the leather seat 
 of the chair near him. *' Ah, I dare say it 
 was, after the fighting."
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 4I 
 
 " My lad, you will have to manage Meads 
 when I am gone, you know." 
 
 " Where are you going ? " cried the boy. 
 
 ''When I am dead and orone, lad." 
 
 '* What's that ? " demanded Sarah. 
 
 " I'm going to be a soldier," persisted 
 Gideon. '' You know I am, uncle." 
 
 " I can take care of Meads, Uncle Dan," 
 announced Sarah. 
 
 " Ah, my pink and white sugar-plum, if 
 you take care of Meads, who is going to take 
 care of you ? " 
 
 " I myself, my own self, I can do it all," 
 insisted the child, 'wriggling off her uncle's 
 knees, and again pulling his coat gently. 
 "Say I can. Say I may." 
 
 **Yes, and then when I come back I can 
 help her, like the forty years' rest," cried 
 Gideon. 
 
 *' Here comes Susan to brush your hair 
 for tea," answered Uncle Dan, with a sense 
 of relief. 
 
 And Sarah was borne off, confidentially 
 assuring Susan that she would take care 
 of them all when Uncle Dan and Aunt
 
 42 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 Rachel were gone away, and Gideon was 
 fighting with lamps and pitchers. 
 
 That Sabbath evening, when his household 
 was assembled for evening prayer, and Dan 
 Thornborough, as was his custom, read 
 instead of a sermon, passages from the 
 writings of some divine, he chose " The 
 Saint's Everlasting Rest," by Richard 
 Baxter. He sat at one end of the long 
 dining-table, his books before him, Aunt 
 Rachel in the red leather armchair behind. 
 Gideon and Sarah, on two small chairs on 
 either side of their uncle, stared with the 
 solemn, unbashed stare of childhood at the 
 long row of servants seated opposite to them 
 on the green baize-covered forms which the 
 men brought in for the maids and for them- 
 selves. 
 
 Aunt Rachel had helped the children to 
 such a plentiful supply of cake and cream 
 at teatime that their small minds felt quite 
 relieved from their feeling of disgrace, and a 
 pleasant sense of forgiveness of sins pervaded 
 them, and made them resolve to reward her 
 by keeping awake all through prayers, instead
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 43 
 
 of dropping asleep as they often did. 
 Perhaps this was the reason why, afterwards, 
 Gideon Leigh often recollected with such 
 a sense of peace that particular Sabbath 
 evening, and why Sarah Thornborough, long 
 years after, when her splendid youth, with its 
 disdain of all control, was over, could never see 
 '' The Saint's Rest " without tears in her eyes. 
 
 There was only just light enough for Dan 
 Thornborough to read by. The sky glowed 
 golden behind the dark trees, a bat flapped 
 in and out the ivy on the house. The gentle 
 splash of the water falling from the basins of 
 the fountain and the warbling of a benighted 
 thrush, mingled with the finely modulated 
 tones of Dan Thornborough's voice as he 
 read — 
 
 '' ' Thou camest to spy out the land of 
 promise ; go not back without one cluster 
 of grapes, to show thy brethren for their 
 encouragement. Let them see that thou 
 hast tasted of the wine, by the gladness of 
 thy heart — that thou hast fed of the milk and 
 honey, by the mildness of thy disposition and 
 the sweetness of thy conversation.' "
 
 44 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 And " the land of promise " brought 
 a vision of happiness to each, though it 
 meant something different to each of his 
 Hsteners. To Gideon and Sarah the " land 
 of promise " was the top field, where they 
 had every intention of trying barebacked 
 the new pony on the morrow, when Young 
 George should be out of the way. Aunt 
 Rachel's thoughts travelled back to the 
 early grave of a certain Leigh, whose wife 
 she might otherwise have been ; and Susan 
 Frant's thoughts travelled forward to one 
 of the gardeners who had '' spoken " to 
 her that afternoon. None of them would 
 ever willingly have missed those Sabbath 
 evening services, for, as Mrs. Frant fre- 
 quently declared, as she presided over the 
 servants' supper-table, '* It's like going into 
 the promised land to hear the master read, 
 and to see his face." 
 
 '' Ay," Jacob Frant would reply. '* He 
 is not one to ' spare at the spigot and let 
 out at the bung-hole.' He is diligent to 
 know the state of his flocks, he looks well 
 to his herds. ' He that watereth shall be
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 45 
 
 watered also himself.' But there will be 
 none to come after him, except Sarah. 'Tis 
 a pity she is a lass ; a man-child would 
 have been better. ' Unlucky is the house 
 where the hen crows.' "
 
 46 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 When Gideon Leigh was fifteen, his father 
 and his uncle sent him to school. It came 
 about on this wise. 
 
 Sir Godolphin Leigh, or '' Uncle Dol," 
 as his nephews and nieces always called 
 him, rode over one winter day to have lunch 
 with his brother-in-law, and to discuss the 
 propriety of selling a house in the town, 
 a small windfall left by a lately deceased 
 relative to Gideon. 
 
 Uncle Dol was stout, and his laugh was 
 loud and jolly. He had a habit, when think- 
 ing, of walking up and down, with his thumbs 
 in the armholes of his waistcoat, and of 
 saying *' Eh ? " very sharply, if he were in- 
 terrupted. He had a great belief in his 
 brother-in-law, though the two men were
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 47 
 
 SO different. Dan Thornborough was a 
 Tory, and was a man of few words ; Sir 
 Godolphin Leigh was a Whig, and voluble. 
 Dan had kept up the excellent Thornborough 
 library, was something of a classical scholar 
 himself — knew the notes of many a singing 
 bird, the history of the caddis-worms in 
 the brook, and the haunts of the owl and 
 the woodpecker. Sir Godolphin knew 
 nothing about the few books at Leigh Court, 
 and never bought one, was too impatient 
 to watch either bird or animal, and prided 
 himself upon knowing no language but his 
 own. His horses and his dogs were his 
 hobby, and even now, as he paced the hard 
 gravel path, he was followed by an Ayrdale 
 and a couple of Basset hounds. Both men 
 wore gaiters and rough overcoats, but Dan 
 Thornborough adhered to a stick-up collar 
 and black silk scarf, tied in a bow in front, 
 as in his fathers day, while Sir Godolphin 
 wore a modern stock and pin. Dan Thorn- 
 borough's face was guiltless of all hair, save 
 a small white whisker ; Sir Godolphin wore 
 a reddish beard, now turning grey, so his
 
 48 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 rather clumsy mouth and jaw were hidden ; 
 while his brother-in-law's fine, sensitive lips 
 and strong chin were exposed. 
 
 Now, while they stopped for a moment at 
 the iron gate leading out on to the frozen 
 cart track. Uncle Dan's keen eyes fell upon 
 the figures of a tall boy and a girl, slowly 
 wending their way along it towards the iron 
 gate. Uncle Dol's less long sight did not 
 distinguish who they were. 
 
 " Well, that's settled. Now for some lunch 
 before my ride back ! " he cried jovially. 
 
 '* Stop a bit, Dol," said Uncle Dan, in a 
 puzzled voice ; " here come the children, and 
 there seems to me to be something the 
 matter." 
 
 Much the matter, apparently, for a more 
 battered and deplorable boy and girl the two 
 gentlemen had surely never beheld. 
 
 They came wearily forward. Gideon's face 
 was covered with blood, one eye was shut up, 
 his thick hair hung over his white face ; he 
 was in his shirt-sleeves, which hung on him 
 in ribbons, one arm hung listlessly at his 
 side, the other was laid round his cousin's
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 49 
 
 neck ; upon her his whole weight seemed to 
 rest as she dragged him onward. Sarah's 
 clothes were covered with dust, her hair hune 
 over her face in straw-coloured, tangled curls ; 
 she carried Gideon's jacket over her arm, and 
 under it a crushed mass which seemed to be 
 their two dusty, torn hats. Great scratches, 
 as from angry fingers adorned her cheeks, 
 but her eyes were flashing, her small nostrils 
 quivering, as her eager voice made itself 
 heard in hurried gasps — 
 
 '' Oh, Uncle Dan ! Gideon's fought ever 
 such a big man. And the girl scratched me, 
 because I wouldn't let her go at Gideon. 
 Oh, he was making the girl carry a sack of 
 coals, and she was crying, and so Gideon 
 fought him, and when she saw him go down 
 she was ever so angry." 
 
 '' God bless my soul ! " shouted Uncle Dol, 
 roaring with laughter. 
 
 Uncle Dan opened the Iron gate for the 
 draggled pair. 
 
 *' He went down such a whack," observed 
 Gideon, faintly, as they slowly came through it. 
 
 " Bravo, my boy," cried his father, slapping 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 him on the back; ''and well done, Sally, to 
 stand by and see fair play : it wasn't easy, 
 judging by your face." 
 
 " She said I was a devil, and then she 
 scratched me," announced his niece calmly. 
 '' I didn't care so long as I could keep her off 
 Gideon. Oh, he was twice as big as us, 
 Uncle Dan. Are you angry with us ? " 
 added the child, observing her uncle's face. 
 
 ** No. But go in by the back door, you are 
 enough to frighten your aunt, and get Mrs. 
 Frant to doctor Gideon at once." 
 
 They began to obey, but before they had 
 gone many yards, Gideon swayed and fell to 
 the ground, dragging Sarah with him. 
 
 '' Eh, what, is the boy down } " cried his 
 father, as Dan Thornborough went after them 
 and lifted Gideon up. 
 
 " Here, Dol, lend a hand ; the lad is played 
 out, we must carry him in." 
 
 "■ Down, you brutes ! " cried Sir Godolphin, 
 jovially, as his dogs leaped around, adding to 
 the excitement. " Here, Sally, carry our 
 sticks, and run on and tell them we are 
 coming."
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 5 1 
 
 Later on, during lunch, when Sarah had 
 been sent to carry oranges to her hero, Dan 
 Thornborough, who had spoken little during 
 the meal, said suddenly — 
 
 " Dol, we must send Gideon to school." 
 
 " My dear Dan, what should we do without 
 him ? " cried Aunt Rachel, setting down her 
 wineglass in astonishment, without drinking. 
 
 '' Eh ? What, Dan ? Send the boy to 
 school ? Why, God bless me, I thought you 
 had taught him all you know by this time. 
 And as for pluck, he has got pluck enough, 
 surely ? " 
 
 Dan Thornborough smiled, and cracked a 
 walnut. 
 
 " Yes, he is plucky enough. Rather an 
 inglorious war, though. That is the sixth 
 row he has been in since midsummer. I 
 begin to think he is aggressive." 
 
 " You mean a Leigh is a Leigh, and a 
 Thornborough a Thornborough, all about 
 here. No one of his own standing to give 
 him a thrashing, eh ? " 
 
 " Something of the sort," assented the 
 other, peeling his walnut thoughtfully.
 
 52 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 "• Well, I am sure," observed Aunt Rachel, 
 '' it was very nice and brave of Gideon to 
 take the part of that poor girl, but I confess 
 I do not think it is good for Sarah to hear 
 such bad language." 
 
 Uncle Dol burst out laughing. " What a 
 little dare-devil she looked ! Nothing will 
 tame Sally. I've called Moll's" (Mary was 
 the name of his second wife) "• new chestnut 
 after her, 'Sally the Dare-devil.'" 
 
 "Oh, Dol, I hope you will not talk so 
 before the child. Sarah is over-difficult of 
 control already." 
 
 " The child is only brave and strong," said 
 Uncle Dan, quietly. 
 
 '* Well, about this school business. What 
 do I know about such things ? Come in, 
 Sally, and shut the door. Now stand straight 
 here before me and tell me if you think 
 Gideon ought to go to school.'* 
 
 " No," said the child, promptly ; " we can't 
 spare him." 
 
 " But he is growing up an ignorant lout, 
 you see, Sally." 
 
 '* Could I go with him, please ? "
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 53 
 
 '' No, you can't ; you must stay at home 
 here, and Aunt Rachel will show you how to 
 darn stockings," answered Uncle Dol, teas- 
 ingly. 
 
 *' I know how already," said Sarah, with 
 scorn. '' What is a lout, please. Uncle 
 Dan ? " 
 
 Dan Thornborough surveyed his niece, 
 and handed her half his peeled walnut. 
 
 " The catechism is your uncle's, Sarah. 
 Go on answering him." 
 
 Instantly she turned again to Sir 
 Godolphin. 
 
 " Well, go on asking, then," she ordered. 
 
 *' What are Gideon's accomplishments .^ " 
 began Uncle Dol, leaning one arm over the 
 back of his chair and holding with his other 
 hand the great silver mug which contained 
 the remainder of his ale. 
 
 Rapidly his niece summed up her cousin's 
 performances. 
 
 " Oh, he can nearly shear a sheep, and he 
 can ride Uncle Dan's biggest horse, and on 
 Sunday he drove them to church. Uncle Dan 
 let him. And he mended our schoolroom
 
 54 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 table, and Jacob says he can milk the cows 
 quite well, and he took four swarms of bees 
 his very own self this year, and never got 
 stung, and I think that's all." 
 
 "And I suppose he can't read or write. 
 Pray how do you suppose he is to get a 
 living, if a great fire came and burnt up 
 Meads and Leigh Court, and there were no 
 more cows to milk, or bees to swarm, or 
 coaches to drive ? Eh, child } " 
 
 '' Fires don't burn like that,'' declared 
 Sarah, with the disdain of one who feels that 
 their age unfortunately enables other people 
 to treat them as idiots. ** Besides, you know 
 he can read and write, and do Jacob's 
 accounts, and my French exercises ; and we 
 both know ' Lycidas ' by heart, and all the 
 meanings too. And he knows ever so much 
 Latin. All about — 
 
 " ' Meanwhile ^neas steadfastly held in a middle course 
 
 with his fleet. 
 And cut the black waves with the north wind, 
 Looking back on the ramparts lighted up by the 
 
 flames of unhappy Elissa.' 
 
 That was Dido, you know ; she was the
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 55 
 
 queen. I can't remember any more without 
 the book. Uncle Dan said it wasn't a bad 
 translation of ours to begin with. What do 
 you think ? " 
 
 " I don't think anything, and I don't know 
 who Lycidas was, either," said Sir Godolphin, 
 chuckling. 
 
 " Oh yes, of course you do," said Sarah, 
 patronizingly. "He was Milton's friend. 
 You know how it goes — 
 
 " ' Where were ye Nymphs, when the remorseless deep 
 Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas ? 
 Ay me ! I fondly dream 
 Had ye been there ' 
 
 Oh, there's a lot more. Then of course 
 Gideon knows all about Buffon's ' Natural 
 History ' and all the different classes. I am 
 just learning about the Annelida, the nice 
 leeches, you know ; their teeth are like saws, 
 and they have a sucking disc which fixes 
 itself on to you. They are very curious and 
 interesting. Do you like leeches. Uncle 
 Dol?" 
 
 Sir Godolphin roared with laughter. 
 
 *' Now then, Dan, how dare you tell me
 
 56 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 Gideon ought to go to school ? I ought to 
 send him to a desert island instead, so as to 
 forget a little. To think I should live to be 
 asked by a minx in a pinafore if I like 
 leeches ? " And Uncle Dol lauo^hed till he 
 had to wipe his eyes. 
 
 Sarah stood her ground. She shifted 
 first on to one long leg and then on to the 
 other, staring at her uncle with a kind of 
 friendly wonder, not unmixed with con- 
 tempt. She had dragged one of her long 
 curls over her shoulder forward, and held 
 the end in her mouth, munching it im- 
 patiently. 
 
 ** Leave off wriggling, my dear, and put 
 your hair back," admonished Aunt Rachel. 
 
 The child took no notice. 
 
 *' Sarah /" said Uncle Dan, with emphasis. 
 
 His niece turned to him. 
 
 ** What } " she said naughtily. 
 
 ** Aunt Rachel made a remark to you just 
 now. Oblige me by attending to it." 
 
 '' Oh, sucking my hair. I always forget. 
 There ! " and she stood square before Sir 
 Godolphin, clasping her hands behind her,
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 57 
 
 and looking straight at him, with her azure 
 eyes. 
 
 Her very fair face, with its clean clear 
 colouring and yellow hair, looked even fairer 
 and cleaner than the long expanse of white 
 pinafore which covered her. She was 
 certainly the last child in all the country 
 round to wear low frocks and short sleeves, 
 and a less robust creature would have suffered 
 from doing so, in such bitter weather. Her 
 round firm arms looked mottled. Uncle Dol 
 noticed it, and remarked — 
 
 " Why, child, my little maid hasn't bare 
 arms in this weather. Why don't you cover 
 her up, Rachel } " 
 
 '' Don't want covering up," cried Sarah, 
 wrapping her arms in her pinafore. "If 
 Gideon is to go to school I'd rather go back 
 to him now, please, Uncle Dol. We shall 
 have such a lot to settle first. Can I 00 to a 
 school too, till he comes back. Uncle Dan .^ " 
 
 •' Why, Sarah ? " 
 
 " Because I can't stop here without him." 
 
 '' I shall have to stop here without him," 
 answered Uncle Dan.
 
 58 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " Don't be childish, Sarah. Run away 
 now and read to Gideon," said Aunt Rachel. 
 
 But Sarah was looking at Uncle Dan's face, 
 and wondering at his smile, as his eyes con- 
 tinued to regard her. She came and stood 
 beside his knee, and scanned his face eagerly. 
 
 " You are sorry too, I do believe. Why 
 do you send him away ? " 
 
 " To help him to grow up into a strong 
 and wise man." 
 
 " Shall you miss him as much as I shall 1 " 
 she demanded. 
 
 " More, dear ; much more." 
 
 '' Then I will stay with you and take care 
 of you ; " and she put her arm round his 
 shoulder and leaned her head on his neck. 
 
 The long yellow curls touched Uncle Dan's 
 silver ones, and lay on his coat ; the blue eyes 
 stared across at Uncle Dol, who watched 
 her curiously ; the child's fair hand lovingly 
 stroked Uncle Dan's tanned cheeks. 
 
 '* I didn't know before that you had quite 
 such a compensation," remarked Sir Godol- 
 phin, as, having drained the silver mug, he 
 set it down with a bang on the table.
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 59 
 
 His brother-in-law smiled, and kissed the 
 small hand which Inadvertently Sarah passed 
 across his lips, during her scanning of Uncle 
 Dol. 
 
 ''You can send him away when you like," 
 she announced royally. " I shall take care of 
 Uncle Dan till he comes back." Then she 
 choked down a sob and rushed from the room. 
 
 Miss Thornborough had produced her 
 knittino^. She was accustomed to somewhat 
 lengthy discussions whenever her brother- 
 in-law came, and knew his habit of carrying 
 them on over the luncheon-table. Her 
 brother pushed his chair round, and sat 
 staring into the fire. 
 
 Sir Godolphin got up and began striding 
 about the room, his thumbs in his waistcoat 
 armholes. He stopped opposite first one 
 family portrait, then another ; now examining 
 old Jonathan Thornborough in scarlet coat 
 and breeches, now that of the lovely but 
 frail Diana, standing in a white satin dress 
 on the terrace of Meads, her lace-rufiied 
 hand on the head of her greyhound. He 
 stopped long before the picture of his first
 
 6o SARAH : A SURVIVAL, 
 
 wife, whose dark eyes laughed as merrily 
 into his as they had done from the top of 
 the Thornborough coach in years gone by. 
 He sighed. 
 
 '' God bless my soul, Dan, of course we 
 must do our best for Jael's boy," he said at 
 last, resuming his walk. '' He is a Thorn- 
 borough to the backbone ; there is no Leigh 
 blood in him." 
 
 Dan Thornborough looked amused. His 
 lonor nervous hands rested on the arms of 
 his chair ; he turned his head leisurely, and 
 surveyed his stout, choleric, jovial brother- 
 in-law. 
 
 "Gideon cares little for books," he re- 
 marked. 
 
 " Eh ? What .^ No ; he's a Leigh there, 
 that's true enough. Well, Rachel, what do 
 you say to losing the lad ? " 
 
 "■ Whatever you and Dan decide will be 
 the best, I have no doubt. With Sarah, 
 now, it would be different. Of course the 
 deciding of her future will be my duty — a 
 duty with which you and Dan will have but 
 little to do."
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 6 1 
 
 " Heyday, Rachel, I expect you will find 
 Dan has a great deal to do with it, when it 
 comes to deciding anything for Sally." 
 
 " Oh, Dol, of course. Why, you know I 
 consult Dan upon every point. I only mean 
 that the responsibility will rest with me 
 instead of with Dan, Sarah being a girl, you 
 see. 
 
 '' No, I confess I don't see ; but it's all 
 right if you do. Besides, the little maid's 
 duty is clear enough — the boys to the horse, 
 the girls to the spindle, is my maxim. By- 
 the-by, Dan, what's all this ^about that other 
 girl of poor Jasper's ? " 
 
 *' Mabel, you mean ? Oh, she is going to 
 be married, that is all." 
 
 " Who is the fellow ? " 
 
 Miss Thornborough answered him. 
 
 "Oh, I can tell you all about it, Dol. It 
 is to a gentleman of the name of Meakin. 
 Percy Meakin is his name." 
 
 " Humph ! and a mighty poor name it is. 
 Is he a decent sort of fellow ? Seen him ? " 
 
 " Yes ; he came here last week, and stayed 
 the night, the day Gideon and Sarah were
 
 62 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 over with you for the children's party, and 
 Sarah tore her new frock, and Gideon put his 
 little brothers up in the apple-tree, and " 
 
 '' There, there ! Let the chicks alone, 
 and go on about Meakin," interrupted Sir 
 Godolphin, impatiently. 
 
 " Oh, he was very well dressed, and 
 gentlemanly, and very polite to me. He is 
 in the Civil Service, I believe." 
 
 "Any money, Dan ?" 
 
 " His salary, and two or three hundred a 
 year." 
 
 " Rides ? " 
 
 - Yes." 
 
 *Xome, that's hopeful. But stabling is 
 expensive in town, for a man on short 
 commons." 
 
 '' My dear Dan, he never mentioned a 
 horse, except when he said he could not ride," 
 cried his sister, rubbing the side of her nose 
 with her knitting-needle, with a puzzled air. 
 
 Dan Thornborough chuckled. 
 
 '' Meakin hates dogs, and rides a bicycle," 
 he said quietly. 
 
 Sir Godolphin burst out laughing. He
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 63 
 
 laughed and wiped his eyes and laughed 
 again, gasping at intervals. 
 
 *' A Thornborough to marry a fellow who 
 can't ride, and who is called Meakin ! Oh 
 Lord ! oh Lord ! But then it is only Mabel. 
 Eh .^ What ? Dare-devil Sally with such a 
 brother-in-law ! A little chap, I'll be bound, 
 too. Eh?" 
 
 " Five foot nothing, sandy hair, and a 
 diamond ring." 
 
 " He cannot help his size, Dan," remon- 
 strated Aunt Rachel. 
 
 **True, most true," replied her brother 
 with an air of conviction, stroking his chin ; 
 and, continuing to look at Sir Godolphin with 
 his whimsical smile, he added, " Oh, it is all 
 right ; Meakin is not exactly our sort. But 
 then, you know, no more is Mabel." 
 
 '' Monstrous pity she went to her mother's 
 relations — a bloodless fantastical set of town 
 folk." 
 
 "Well, I don't know. The grandmother 
 had a right to one of her grandchildren, I 
 suppose. But it was just like poor Jasper to 
 have chosen the right one to send to her ;
 
 64 SARAH : A SURVIVAL, 
 
 Sarah would never have suited her." Dan 
 Thornborough spoke with decision, as he 
 carefully picked some long yellow hairs off 
 his coat-sleeve. 
 
 '' I suppose the fellow came up here to 
 see what coin there was for Mabel, eh ? " 
 
 "Yes. And oh, Dol, though she is not 
 of age, Dan is going to " 
 
 ''There, there, Rachel, let the money be. 
 Mabel is nineteen. I intend giving her five 
 thousand pounds in addition to her own 
 half; it is equivalent to Sarah's half of her 
 father's money. Sarah will never want it. 
 I wish Mabel to have all that was Jasper's. 
 Sarah is mine," he added, half to himself. 
 
 Sir Godolphin Leigh halted in front of 
 him. 
 
 *' You mean ? " he asked. 
 
 " Who should have Meads when Rachel 
 and I are gone, but Sarah ? " said his 
 brother-in-law. " Gideon must o^o to Leis^h 
 Court, I suppose." 
 
 " But Sally will marry, and the name of 
 Thornborouorh has never failed in Meads 
 yet ! " exclaimed Sir Godolphin, helplessly.
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 65 
 
 **The man she marries must take her name, 
 Dol ; I have thought it all out. Sarah will be 
 what is commonly called ' a great catch,' but 
 I think she has sufficient backbone to com- 
 mand the situation successfully and sensibly." 
 
 ** God bless my soul ! " ejaculated Uncle 
 Dol, as he began his walk again. 
 
 He had never faced this question before. 
 He had always vaguely imagined that some- 
 how Gideon and Sarah would manage Meads 
 between them, that he himself should out- 
 live them all, but that if he did not, Gideon 
 would also keep an eye on the Leigh Court 
 estate. Facts began to settle themselves 
 into some sort of order in his untidy mind, 
 and it suddenly began to occur to him that 
 if Gideon was to have a share in Meads and 
 its income, he would have to marry Sarah 
 Thornborough. And if so, in order that 
 there might be still a Thornborough as 
 master of Meads, there would have to be 
 the name of Leigh lacking as master of 
 Leigh Court, unless he left it to one of his 
 younger sons. It was so very puzzling and 
 bewildering that quite a long f silence ensued, 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 and he paced the long dining-room many- 
 times. At last he said — 
 
 *' 'Tis a monstrous pity a girl should have 
 the run of so much money and land. She 
 may marry the first good-looking booby who 
 asks her, and then — whew — away will go 
 the land and the money." 
 
 *' That will not happen," returned his 
 brother-in-law, tranquilly. 
 
 "How the devil can you prevent it?" 
 demanded Sir Godolphin, testily. 
 
 " I shall bring up Sarah so that she will 
 not be likely to marry a booby." 
 
 " That won't help you. A man who 
 would change his name for the sake of a 
 maid can't have much backbone. A fellow 
 with any decent position or land of his own 
 ought to want to keep his name on it." 
 
 " Perhaps she will not marry a man with 
 land, or position." 
 
 Sir Godolphin stared. 
 
 " God bless my soul, Dan, you don't mean 
 to tell me that you hope Sally will marry a 
 mere business man, or an out-at-elbows 
 younger son, or a beggarly lawyer ? "
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 6 J 
 
 '' My dear Dan, surely you expect Sarah 
 to marry a gentleman ? " 
 
 '' Most certainly I do, Rachel. But times 
 are changed since we were young, when we 
 thought nothing could be so fortunate as to 
 join two estates by a marriage, and expected 
 all our dependents to be proud to serve us, 
 and eager to carry on our traditions. Why, 
 only yesterday Ben came to tell me he 
 thought of bringing up his eldest boy as an 
 architect ; while Old George tells me his 
 youngest hates the country, and wishes to 
 study in order to be a doctor. And Gray 
 intends to sell Gray's Wick, I hear, as soon 
 as he comes into the property ; he prefers his 
 foreign Consulship, and Janions, the great 
 confectioners, you know, are waiting to buy it." 
 
 *' How dreadful !" exclaimed his sister. 
 
 Sir Godolphin Leigh grunted, and resumed 
 his walk. Dan Thornborough smiled, and 
 went on — 
 
 " Thus you see that the future that lies 
 before Sarah is different to that which lay 
 before us half a century ago or more, and I 
 must fit her for it."
 
 68 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 "How?" demanded his brother-in-law, 
 halting in front of him, with his thumbs 
 in his armholes and his legs well apart. 
 "How? Eh?" 
 
 " I wish her to think for herself, to be 
 more proud of supporting than of leaning, 
 and not to be afraid of making decisions. I 
 shall teach her to value people according to 
 what they have achieved for themselves 
 rather than according to what other people 
 have achieved for them, and I wish her to 
 value the affections as highly as the intellect. 
 I intend to teach her all that Jacob Frant and 
 I know about the management of the land 
 and the farms. I will have no fool reigning 
 here after me, be it man or maid. No, I 
 believe Sarah will never marry a booby." 
 
 Miss Thornborough rolled up her work ; 
 she thought it time to change the conver- 
 sation. 
 
 '* Come, Dol, and let me show you what 
 Dan is sending to Mabel," she cried. 
 
 " Eh ? What ? Presents ? Well, with 
 my consent, Dan, Sally shall never marry 
 any fellow in business or connected with
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 69 
 
 trade. So now you know my mind on the 
 matter." And Sir Godolphin, with a huge 
 sigh of bewilderment, shook off his thoughts 
 and followed his sister-in-law out of the 
 room. 
 
 Dan Thornborough remained behind in 
 his armchair, staring into the fire, a tolerant 
 smile on his benevolent countenance. 
 
 On a side table in the oak-panelled, low- 
 ceiled drawing-room a silver tea and coffee 
 service was spread out, and beside it lay a 
 large calf-bound Bible. 
 
 *'Ah, very suitable, very solid and good; 
 something for their babies to inherit. A 
 fellow called Meakin isn't likely to leave 
 them much else," chuckled Sir Godolphin. 
 
 " Halloa," he went on, as he opened the 
 Bible at the first page and read, in his brother- 
 in-law's clear, large writing: ''To Mabel 
 Thornborough on her wedding-day," followed 
 by the date. '' Halloa [ oughtn't there to be 
 a text or something in a family Bible .^ " 
 
 " That is just what I have been seeking to 
 prevail upon him to put in," cried Miss 
 Thornborough, triumphantly, " and I wanted
 
 70 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 him to put * on her marriage ' instead of ' on 
 her wedding-day.' " 
 
 *' I do not know her well enough to put a 
 text," objected her brother, who now entered, 
 ''but I do know her well enough to judge 
 that it will be a wedding only. A marriage 
 Is a different thing altogether. Sarah's will 
 be a marriage." 
 
 " Dear me, Dan, you have so many curious 
 distinctions, it quite puzzles me. And as for 
 Sarah, I fear very often you are but making 
 a graven Image of her, for which untoward 
 love of the creature we must one day give an 
 account, even though it be shown to a little 
 orphan like Sarah." 
 
 " I shall be ready," said Uncle Dan, 
 calmly. 
 
 '' For what ? " asked his sister, rubbing a 
 mark of damp off the silver cream-jug. 
 
 But Sir Godolphin's jolly voice gave her 
 the answer. 
 
 ** Let be, Rachel, let be. He is always 
 ready for things ; he and the Almighty 
 understand each other in the matter of Sally, 
 ay, and of my lad too. You are monstrous
 
 2^ HE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 7 1 
 
 good to them yourself, you know. Come 
 Dan, I may as well see the boy and tell him 
 about this school business before I go." 
 
 Up to Gideon's bedroom they mounted. 
 The low iron bedstead was tumbled, but no 
 bruised hero lay on it ; the pillow was miss- 
 ing, the window stood wide open, and snow- 
 flakes were drifting in on to the boards. 
 
 *' Pretty draughty this, eh ? " cried Sir 
 Godolphin. ** No pampering the lad up here. 
 Where is he ? " 
 
 " In the schoolroom, I expect," replied 
 Dan Thornborough, stumbling over a book 
 which had evidently fallen on to the floor 
 from the bed. He picked it up. 
 
 " What's that ? " demanded his companion. 
 " Hoyle's 'Games.' He must have got it 
 out of the library. I haven't looked at it for 
 years." 
 
 " God bless my soul, Dan, why that's the 
 * Treatise on Game Cocks ' your father lent to 
 mine when I was a little chap. Give it to me. 
 Why, on page 460 there ought to be the 
 ' Rules for Horse-racing ' — * To be observed 
 by the owners and riders of all such Horses,
 
 72 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 Mares, or Geldings, as shall run for His 
 Majesty's Plates at NEWMARKET/ I 
 remember the heading. Stop a bit, here it 
 is," and Sir Godolphin began rapidly reading 
 scraps from the pages, intermingled with ex- 
 clamations and chuckles of delight. '' Bless 
 me, I learnt faro and hazard and brag out of 
 this book ; the lad is a bit of a Leigh after all. 
 Here's a bit of Sally's French exercise put in 
 to mark the place in the ' Treatise on Game 
 Cocks.' I'm sorry for that ; it's not fit reading 
 for a maid." 
 
 *' Nor for Gideon," put in Dan. " It was 
 a brutal sport, degrading to train for, and 
 disgusting to witness. 'Tis a pity that 
 treatise is in the book at all." 
 
 Uncle Dol turned and descended the 
 stairs, saying as he slipped the book into his 
 pocket — 
 
 " Well, well, Dan, times are changed since 
 those days, as you were saying. ' Rules 
 observed at the Royal Cock-pit, Westmin- 
 ster.' Why, I used to know these rules by 
 heart, and yet I never saw a cock-fight in my 
 life. Monstrous queer how one learns with-
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. ^l 
 
 out a bit of trouble anything that happens to 
 interest you, isn't it ? " 
 
 Dan Thornborough laughed. 
 
 " Now you understand why Sarah knows 
 so much about leeches," he said. 
 
 " Good thing too ; if she is to grow up 
 into a farmeress, she can't begin too soon. 
 Halloa, Dan, there's nobody in here, and 
 the fire is out. Where are they, do you 
 suppose ? " 
 
 Uncle Dan thought a moment, then led 
 the way down the long passage back to the 
 hall, where, reaching down his hat and coat, 
 he remarked — 
 
 '* Outside, I expect. Come across the 
 yard with me." 
 
 So out across the yard in the bitter 
 cold the two sturdy uncles stepped. The 
 pump was encased in straw, the stables 
 were closed, the light from the saddle-room 
 fire danced on the window-pane. Old George 
 sat within, reading his paper. Young George 
 was leading out Sir Godolphin's horse. 
 
 '' Quite right. Must be off in a quarter of 
 an hour," he cried to the young man.
 
 74 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 Through the yard and on to the crisp, 
 frozen grass towards an old shed, Dan 
 Thornborough led the way. It was used for 
 miscellaneous articles such as were discarded 
 by the house, the stable, or the garden. It 
 was lighted by a few uneven panes of glass, 
 roughly fitted into the woodwork, and in- 
 capable of being opened. Through these 
 the two men looked into the interior. 
 Strings of onions hung from the roof, old 
 iron hoops, torn fruit-nettings, and mildewed 
 stack -tarpaulins. On the floor were dilapi- 
 dated garden-chairs, a broken wheelbarrow, 
 stacks of flower-pots, part of a churn, and, 
 immediately under the panes of glass, an old 
 carpenter's bench. Upon this was spread 
 out a map ; the case lay face uppermost, im- 
 mediately under Sir Godolphin's eyes. He 
 read on a discoloured label, pasted on its 
 pink marbled back, Bowles's '' New Pocket 
 Plan of London, for the year 1 786." Grow- 
 ing accustomed gradually to the dark interior, 
 the eyes of the uncles at last made out a sack 
 of straw on the earthen floor, and lying upon 
 it was Gideon, his head supported by a
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 75 
 
 bundle of pea-sticks on which was laid a 
 pillow ; he was covered by a blanket. Perched 
 beside him, on an enormous inverted flower- 
 pot, sat Sarah, with a long-discarded over- 
 coat of her uncle's tied round her shoulders 
 by the sleeves. The long body of the coat 
 fell over the flower-pot to the ground behind 
 her, giving her the appearance of some 
 dwarf or gnome ; her yellow head was the 
 only bright thing in the dusty shed. She 
 held a book in her hand, and was evidently 
 reading to Gideon. 
 
 '' What is it ? " asked Sir Godolphin, in 
 a loud whisper. 
 
 '''Idylls of the King,'" returned Dan 
 Thornborough. " I know the binding. 
 Queer idea to come out here, isn't it ? I 
 never disturb them. Jael and I used to go 
 up into the corn-loft, I remember." 
 
 The two men stood watching them for 
 some time. They were safe from discovery, 
 for Gideon's head was bandaged and his eyes 
 were shut. 
 
 " What's the map for, do you suppose ? 
 Not exactly the latest edition, is it ?" asked
 
 76 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 Uncle Dol, presently, as his eye fell upon 
 '* Hide Park," and the three bridges of 
 London, " Black fryers," and Westminster, 
 and the open fields of Southwark. 
 
 Uncle Dan rubbed his face thoughtfully, 
 and replied — 
 
 " You told Sarah, you know, about Gideon 
 going to school. I suppose school means 
 London to her small mind. London is 
 terra incognita to her, therefore she hunts 
 up any map, date of no importance what- 
 ever. I take it that is what she has been 
 doing, and they have come here to talk 
 about it." 
 
 ''Think so ? Eh? Well then, leave them 
 to it. Boy and girl will be man and maid 
 soon enough, soon enough. Ride over with 
 Gideon in a day or two, when his stiff- 
 ness wears off, and we'll settle the matter 
 together. Better than disturbing them 
 
 now, eh ? " 
 
 '* Ay," replied Uncle Dan, with what was 
 unusual for him, a sigh, as they turned away 
 together. *' Ay, much better, Dol." 
 
 Sir Godolphin glanced at his brother-in-
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. J J 
 
 law, whose keen eyes were fixed upon an old 
 nest swaying in the leafless branches of a 
 tall elm. He was returning to a sprightly 
 and healthy wife, and the laughter and 
 pranks of his children ; he looked forward to 
 a hale old age at Leigh Court, cheered by 
 sons and daughters and grandchildren. All 
 the hopes for childless Dan Thornborough 
 and for Meads were concentrated in one 
 life — a girl's. 
 
 A gust of wind blew the crisp snow from 
 off the shed into their faces, the boughs of 
 the elm shook and bent and threatened to 
 toss out the empty nest. Dan Thorn- 
 borough had not spoken again, but Sir 
 Godolphin, accustomed as he was to his 
 frequent long silences, half expected some 
 words to follow that almost solemn acquies- 
 cence, *' Ay, much better, Dol." 
 
 Always impatient to throw off whatever 
 saddened or annoyed him, he broke the 
 silence by saying testily — 
 
 " Women have no logic and no judgment, 
 or poor Dulcie would never have jilted you 
 for that wine-sodden coxcomb. She might
 
 y8 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 have seen how he would turn out. Bless 
 my soul, I see her now. What a pretty 
 creature she was ! " 
 
 A shadow flitted across Dan Thorn- 
 borough's fine features ; he withdrew his 
 eaze from the elm branches and stood still 
 and began feeling in his pockets. His 
 brother-in-law waited, irritably scraping with 
 his stick the snow from the gutter pipe on 
 the end of the shed Dan carefully searched 
 his pocket-book, and finally handed a letter 
 to him, saying shortly — 
 
 '' Read that." 
 
 ** Eh ? What ? God bless my soul, the 
 fellow is dead, is he ? " cried Sir Godolphin, 
 in an astonished voice, when he had read the 
 short letter. *' Only last week, too," he 
 added, turning it over to look at its date. 
 '' Poor eirl, I wish it could have been t'other 
 way round. Why, it must be five and twenty 
 years ago since she died, and you have kept 
 him in bread and cheese ever since that 
 accident, haven't you ? " 
 
 His brother-in-law slowly nodded his 
 head in acquiescence.
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 79 
 
 " Pitiful scoundrel ! " grunted Sir Godol- 
 phin ; '* white-livered coxcomb ! " 
 
 " He had become a cripple, and she had 
 loved him ; let the dead rest," said Dan 
 Thornborough, sternly, as he held out his 
 hand for the letter, which his companion was 
 impatiently crunching up in his fist. 
 
 " Monstrous good fellow you are ! " 
 grumbled Sir Godolphin, as he relinquished 
 it. " Dead ! So he really died at last. 
 Poor Dulcie ! And to think you never saw 
 her again ! " 
 
 ''Once." 
 
 " Eh ? What ? You never told me ? " 
 
 ''No; I never told any one until now. 
 You would have been the one I should have 
 told had it been needful to mention it." 
 
 " Eh ? What ? Man alive, what a silent 
 fellow you are ! Well, I would cut my 
 tongue out to keep any secret of yours." 
 
 " I know. Say no more about it. I have 
 you and I have Sarah ; also a share in 
 Gideon. There is Rachel, too," he added. 
 
 " Rachel ! Yes, of course, there is Rachel. 
 And she is fond of every foot of Meads.
 
 8o SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 And as for Sally, when she says ' I believe 
 in one God ' I'll be bound she thinks in her 
 heart — Uncle Dan." 
 
 Dan Thornborough smiled, a peculiar 
 tender smile, which the mention of his niece 
 always caused. He took his brother-in-law's 
 arm, and they strode in silence through the 
 yard and along the carriage-drive to the 
 front door, where Young George was walking 
 the horse up and down. Both uncles were 
 thinking of Sarah.
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 8 1 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 In the following summer Mr. and Mrs. 
 Meakin were Invited to stay at Meads. 
 The blue guest chamber was duly put in 
 order for them, and Miss Thornborough 
 trotted in and out half a dozen times on 
 the day that they were expected, to see that 
 her handmaidens carried out all her orders. 
 Finally she called in her brother to see how 
 well the new chintz, with the blue convolvulus 
 pattern, matched the old wall-paper, with its 
 pattern of blue vine leaves and straggling 
 tendrils. 
 
 Dan Thornborough gave his sympathy 
 patiently, as he looked at all that was re- 
 quired of him. 
 
 ''It is well done, Rachel. Things are 
 always comfortable In our house, thanks to 
 you. 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " Comfortable ! Yes, Dan, but in truth I 
 would like you to consider this more than 
 comfortable. Mabel is a London young 
 lady, you must recollect, and is accustomed 
 to see the newest patterns and fashions." 
 
 " Then she will be glad to see old- 
 fashioned ones for a change, I should think," 
 returned her brother, smiling. 
 
 " I am not so sure, Dan. I think that, 
 on the whole, people prefer what they are 
 accustomed to ; it saves them the trouble of 
 having to cultivate an independent judg- 
 ment." 
 
 *' Perhaps. You are a shrewd woman, as 
 I have often had occasion to remark to 
 you," he said, putting his hand affectionately 
 on her shoulder. 
 
 She beamed up in his face. 
 
 ** I hope we shall not seem too old- 
 fashioned to them; I should like Mabel to 
 be fond of us," she said. 
 
 Keeping his hand on her shoulder, her 
 brother drew her to the looking-glass, and 
 tilted it to suit her small stature. 
 
 " Look ! Can it be said that so dainty
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 83 
 
 a hostess is old-fashioned ? Surely these 
 silver curls and this lace head erection, and 
 this shining gown, like a moonbeam, defy- 
 both time and fashion." 
 
 Miss Thornborough smiled at the fair old 
 face in the glass, and replied — 
 
 '' A well-favoured countenance is a gift 
 from the Lord ; and in truth I am glad I 
 bought this silver-grey poplin instead of the 
 blue one. But your words are pleasant to 
 hear, Dan, though I would that you set less 
 store by the outward appearance." 
 
 "Where is Sarah ? " demanded her brother, 
 who was accustomed to her admonishings on 
 this subject. 
 
 " Being dressed by Susan, I trust," replied 
 Miss Thornborough briskly, as she tilted the 
 looking-glass back into position again, and 
 smoothed the new chintz affectionately. 
 
 " I think not, for when I saw Gideon off 
 with the phaeton, Sarah was flying up to- 
 wards the top field, and I desired her to be 
 here to welcome her sister." 
 
 " Susan ! " called Miss Thornborough 
 sharply, going out on to the landing.
 
 84 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 Susan Frant, red-faced and out of breath, 
 appeared at the door of her special domain, 
 the work-room. 
 
 " Where is Miss Sarah ? " 
 
 " On the haystack in the top field, 
 reading. I told her the master expected 
 her to be ready when Mrs. Meakin came, 
 but she said she must finish a story about 
 a young lady whose husband made her lead 
 a lot of horses. I'm just going out after 
 her again." 
 
 *' No," commanded Dan Thornborough. 
 ** Go back to your sewing, Susan. If she 
 is not ready she will explain to me the 
 reason." 
 
 ** But, Dan," objected his sister, while 
 Susan seemed eager to remonstrate also ; 
 she could never see any fault in Sarah. 
 
 '' She is reading ' Geraint and Enid,' " 
 he said ; '' she will not stir till she has finished 
 it. She will not be ready ; she must give 
 her own reasons for disobedience. Come, 
 Rachel." 
 
 Reluctantly, Susan Frant returned to her 
 sewing, and Miss Thornborough silently
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 85 
 
 followed her brother down the great stone 
 staircase, and out on to the stone porch, 
 where they sat down each in their special 
 garden-chair, to watch for their niece and 
 her husband. 
 
 Meanwhile in the top field Sarah lay on 
 the haystack ; the sun beat full upon her, 
 except in the shaded hollow she had scooped 
 in the hay for her book. Everything was 
 still and silent around her ; she had for- 
 gotten all about Susan Frant and her 
 uncle's orders. Since Gideon had been at 
 school she had taken more than ever to 
 her books as her companions, and devoured 
 them with a ceaseless avidity that astonished 
 even her uncle. Much that she read she 
 learned by heart unconsciously and without 
 effort. Therefore having enviously seen 
 Gideon start for the station driving the 
 phaeton, she seized her book, and rushed 
 away through the garden repeating to 
 herself — 
 
 '• O purblind race of miserable men. 
 How many among us at this very hour 
 Do forge a life-long trouble for ourselves,
 
 86 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 By taking true for false, or false for true. 
 Here, thro' the feeble twilight of this world 
 Groping, how many, until we pass and reach 
 That other, where we see as we are seen." 
 
 When she reached the haystack she 
 cHmbed up on to it, and was soon wandering 
 in that enchanted land she read about. 
 Small wonder that an hour afterwards Susan, 
 calling her from below, only received for 
 answer — 
 
 " Oh, Susan, I say, just listen. He — 
 
 ' bound the suits 
 Of armour on their horses, each on each, 
 And tied the bridle-reins of all the three 
 Together, and said to her ' 
 
 (she was his wife, you know, such a nice 
 
 girl)' 
 
 ' " Drive them on before you," 
 And she drove them thro' the waste.' 
 
 Oh, I wish it had been me. I should like to 
 have tried. What, Susan? Come in and 
 be dressed. All right, presently. I shan't 
 be long. Go away. Oh, do go, Susan, and 
 don't bother." 
 
 So Susan Frant left her, knowing by
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. ^J 
 
 experience that if she " bothered " too much, 
 she would not come at all. But the time 
 went by, and happy little beetles crawled 
 over Sarah's legs and hands, and lady-birds 
 alighted on her book, and the clatter of 
 pails from the cowshed began to be heard, 
 and at last, when she had finished the closing 
 lines, she dreamily began to look about her. 
 Across the lower end of the field the 
 cows were slowly wending their way to 
 the milking-shed. There were the beautiful 
 dun Alderneys, and spotted Strawberry 
 her own especial pet, and the black-and- 
 white Ayrshire who kicked over the pail 
 unless her legs were fastened. Sarah 
 thought she would go and have a glass of 
 new milk ; Ben, the cow-man, always kept 
 the mug with the portrait of the Prince 
 Consort on it on the ledge of the rafters. 
 She scrambled down ; the hay was sticking 
 all over her hair, her cotton frock caught 
 on the iron rail that separated the stacks 
 from the rest of the field, a long tear 
 resulted. " Bother ! " ejaculated Sarah. 
 Then she found she had left her hat on
 
 88 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 the stack, and had to go back and fetch 
 it ; then she tore her pinafore on the same 
 obnoxious railing, and again said " Bother ! " 
 and finally reached the cowshed just as the 
 last cow was leisurely entering, meditatively 
 swishing the flies off her back with her long 
 tail. Sarah climbed on to the wooden gate 
 and waited with her feet on the bar and 
 her knees up to her chin. Ben was accus- 
 tomed to her visits, and knew what she had 
 come for. Like all the farm-people, he 
 always called her '' Missy," and as such he 
 now addressed her as he reached up to the 
 ledge for the '' Prince Consort " mug and 
 grunted out, '' Milk, missy ? " 
 
 " Yes, please ; and oh, Ben, shall I read 
 to you while you are milking ? Could you 
 hear, do you think, if I came and sat on the 
 stool close to you ? " 
 
 Ben grinned. '' No, no, missy ; this is 
 a mucky place ; we shall have Susan after 
 us. Stay where you are." 
 
 ** I don't care for Susan. I'm all torn 
 already ; look here ; " and she spread out the 
 rents for him to see.
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 89 
 
 But Ben had settled down to his work, 
 and his head was already leaning against 
 Strawberry's side ; he did not look up. 
 Sarah sat and watched him. There was 
 a great walnut tree by the cowshed, its 
 branches waved in the gentle wind ; beneath 
 it was a pool covered with green weed ; 
 flies were darting hither and thither over 
 it ; there were long black shadows on the 
 erass from the tall elms. 
 
 "■ Haven't you done with Strawberry 
 yet ? " demanded Sarah at last, heaving a 
 great impatient sigh. *' I'm tired of waiting." 
 
 Ben took up the mug, milked it full, and 
 held it out to her. 
 
 *' Here you are, missy," he cried. 
 
 Sarah slid down off the gate and went and 
 took the muof in both her hands. Her thouo^hts 
 were still with her book. Slowly she drank, 
 while the white froth spread round her red 
 lips and over the tip of her nose. Her eyes 
 looked over the top of the mug at Ben all 
 the time she was drinking. 
 
 " More, please," she demanded when she 
 had finished.
 
 90 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 Ben slowly milked into the mug again, 
 remarking — 
 
 *' You must bring Miss Mabel as was to 
 see the milking, missy." 
 
 Down from her enchanted world fell Sarah 
 Thornborough. Mabel was coming, and 
 Uncle Dan had told her to be ready. Why, 
 Susan had even been to fetch her, and she 
 had sent her away hours and hours ago. 
 What time was it ? What was going on in 
 the house ? Had they arrived ? Aunt 
 Rachel would say she had been disobedient, 
 and Uncle Dan would not say anything, 
 which was much worse, and Gideon — well, 
 Gideon would only laugh and say, " Books 
 again, Sarah ! " On the whole, Sarah thought 
 she would rather not go into the house just 
 yet. She thought she would not like to meet 
 them all in that dirty torn frock. How 
 horrid it was that Mabel was coming at all ! 
 Why need Gideon have gone to meet her "^ 
 Everything was horrid. 
 
 " Here, missy," cried Ben. 
 
 Sarah had got into that mood where 
 people feel they may as well be hung for
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 9 1 
 
 a sheep as for a lamb. She pushed his large 
 freckled hand away roughly. The mug he 
 held out to her on his open palm that the 
 handle might be free for her to take, was 
 jerked to the ground and broken in half. 
 Ben looked ruefully at the wasted milk. 
 
 '' Why, missy ! " he remarked with slow 
 surprise, staring at her hot face. 
 
 '' I don't want any more milk. I'm going 
 to see Jacob. I shall have tea with him. 
 They won't want me," declared Sarah, turn- 
 ing away. "I'm sorry the Prince Consort 
 mug is broken, but it does not matter ; 
 nothing matters." 
 
 Ben went on with his work stolidly ; he 
 was not a moralist. Sarah pursued her way 
 slowly across the sunny meadow, dragging 
 her feet, and angrily switching off the tops of 
 the tall daisies with the hat she held in her 
 hand. Under a group of walnut trees near 
 the barn in the next field stood two separate 
 cottages in gardens. One was considerably 
 larger than the other ; it had a piece of 
 kitchen-garden ,and a row of beehives was 
 set under the red-brick wall which divided it
 
 92 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 from the field. All the rest of the garden 
 was full of flowers in luxuriant trained con- 
 fusion. Here were to be seen masses of 
 mallow white and pink, blue love-in-a-mist, 
 lupin, and larkspur ; here were bushes of 
 lavender, and roses red and white and 
 yellow, patches of flaming poppies, and rows 
 of sweet-peas and tall white lilies. Over 
 the cottage climbed purple clematis and 
 honeysuckle. Jacob Frant lived here alone ; 
 in the smaller cottage adjoining lived his 
 married daughter, who saw to all that was 
 necessary for his comfort. Many a time had 
 Gideon and Sarah halted at his cottage in 
 their wanderings in field and lane to discuss 
 the bees, and examine the coops of young 
 chickens, or carry the fluffy ducklings to the 
 pond to see them start swimming. 
 
 Sarah Thornborough pushed open the 
 gate and went into the garden slowly, kicking 
 the stray pebbles out of her way up the box- 
 edged path. She stopped in the open door- 
 way and said, "Jacob, Tm come to tea 
 with you." 
 
 The smoke from Jacob Frant's pipe could
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 93 
 
 not quite dispel the scents from the flower- 
 laden air, but the parlour seemed close and 
 dark to Sarah after the bright sun outside. 
 
 Jacob Frant, lean, brown, and observant, 
 was sitting in his shirt-sleeves at the round 
 table, studying a pamphlet on manures. He 
 drew off his horn-rimmed spectacles and 
 surveyed Sarah from under his bushy eye- 
 brows as she stood inside the dark doorway 
 with the sunny brilliant garden behind her. 
 He carefully put a piece of twisted paper to 
 mark his place, folded the pamphlet and put 
 it on a shelf behind him, in company with his 
 Bible and his account-book, laid his pipe on 
 the edge of the mantelpiece between the 
 white china dog and the orange-and-blue 
 china shepherd, and, opening a cupboard in 
 the wall, began to get out plates and cups. 
 Sarah came in and sat down on the enor- 
 mous chintz sofa which took up all one side 
 of the room. Jacob Frant was even a more 
 silent man than his master ; it was one of his 
 many maxims that " a fool is known by his 
 much talking." Sarah generally chattered to 
 him unceasingly, but to-day she seemed to
 
 94 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 have nothing to say. The sharp baHiff was 
 soon aware of it, but he said nothing till, 
 having set the japanned tea-tray to his 
 satisfaction, he pushed the table up to Sarah 
 and said in his gruff voice — 
 
 '* What's amiss, child ? " 
 
 *' Nothing," answered Sarah, airily, swing- 
 ing her legs and drumming on the table. 
 
 *' Well, well, 'tis ill 'pouring water on a 
 drowned mouse.' Sit still while I step across 
 to Polly with the teapot." 
 
 ** Let me take it," cried Sarah, jumping up 
 again ; and, seizing the teapot, she held it 
 open while Jacob shook in the tea from the 
 canister painted with roses, which was the 
 most beautiful of all his possessions in 
 Sarah's eyes. He and she never took out 
 the tea with a teaspoon. 
 
 '' Are we going to have jam ? " she asked 
 eagerly, as, teapot in hand, she watched Jacob 
 fitting on the canister lid again. 
 
 *' Black currant," he answered, replacing 
 the canister on the shelf. 
 
 Sarah went out with the teapot down the 
 pebbly garden path, past the flowers and up
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 95 
 
 to the next cottage. Polly had seen her go 
 into her father's, and stood waiting in her 
 doorway, her baby in her arms. 
 
 '' Well, missy, you want my hot water ; I 
 thought you would. Fm right down sur- 
 prised to see you come to tea with father 
 to-day, and all so torn too. I thought you'd 
 be with Miss Mabel, maybe." 
 
 "She had not come when I left the house," 
 said Sarah stoutly. " I can hold baby while 
 you fill the teapot;" and she sat down on 
 the ofrass and held out her arms. 
 
 Polly lowered the fat baby carefully into 
 them. 
 
 " Mind his rattle, missy ; he's getting 
 powerful strong. See he don't hit you with 
 it." 
 
 The baby cheerfully banged Sarah on the 
 head with the valued silver rattle, now 
 battered and worn — a gift long years back 
 from one of Sarah's ancestors to one of 
 Polly's. Sarah jogged him up and down, 
 and the banging went on till Polly came out 
 again with the teapot wrapped up in a clean 
 cloth.
 
 96 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 '' It's scalding hot, missy ; mind how you 
 take it. Oh, baby, naughty to knock missy 
 like that." 
 
 *' I don't mind," said Sarah ; '' it doesn't 
 hurt. I like 'him;" and, relinquishing the 
 baby to his delighted mother, she took up 
 the swathed teapot and returned to Jacob's 
 cottage. 
 
 He had not been idle. A huge plate of 
 bread and jam stood opposite Sarah's plate, 
 and a saucer of sage and mint leaves floating 
 in water stood beside it. There was a bowl 
 of honey in the comb, and milk in a white 
 jug with a man's grinning face for a spout, 
 and a boy escaping over a stile from an 
 enraged bull depicted on its side. 
 
 But Sarah's heart was too heavy to rejoice 
 in these her loved festivities, and she sat 
 down on the sofa again without a word. 
 
 '' Where's Gideon } " demanded Jacob, as 
 he drew up his great wooden armchair to 
 the table and took his seat. 
 
 ** Gone to meet them." 
 
 Jacob knew who " them " meant, and he 
 knew how much Sarah had missed Gideon.
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 97 
 
 " Well, never mind, child. Best speak 
 out. There's something more amiss than 
 rents and crumples." 
 
 " I hate her," declared Sarah, savagely 
 tearing a refractory crust from her slice of 
 bread and jam. 
 
 "■ Heyday ! " he cried. 
 
 " I wish I was dead," she declared again. 
 
 *' That's a fool's wish, and you are no 
 fool. Do not anger the Lord," he said 
 gravely. 
 
 "What would He do to me ? " demanded 
 Sarah with interest. 
 
 " Take from you your many blessings, and 
 set your feet in a hard way, perchance, child. 
 'Tis ill sitting in the dark ; best speak out 
 and come into the light again. What's 
 amiss, little one ? " 
 
 But Sarah could find no words. She went 
 on devouring with angry rapidity, and 
 gulping down her miseries with the hot tea 
 Jacob provided her with. The black-currant 
 jam stained her lips and face, she had 
 dropped it on her pinafore ; she looked 
 naughty and cross and miserable. 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 Jacob Frant spread himself a thick sand- 
 wich of bread and butter, laying a layer of 
 mint leaves In between. He took a long 
 time over it, and there was silence In the 
 cottage. Bees buzzed In and out of the 
 open door and lattice windows ; a wasp 
 hovered over the honey ; Grip, Jacob's great 
 dog, lay across the doorway winking at the 
 flies. 
 
 "The way to Babylon will never bring 
 you to Jerusalem," remarked Jacob at last. 
 
 " Who wants to go to Jerusalem ? And 
 I don't see why you talk about Babylon, 
 Jacob." 
 
 " I expect you've done something wrong, 
 child, and Instead of undoing It you only sit 
 there wishing you were dead." 
 
 Sarah was far too quick a child not to see 
 the application ; also she had been accus- 
 tomed all her life to Jacob's way of putting 
 things. She made no answer, but held out 
 her cup for some more tea, saying affably — 
 
 " I'm glad I've got the cup with the 
 forget-me-nots on it. It was your wife's,, 
 wasn't it, Jacob ? "
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, 99 
 
 " Ay," he replied. 
 
 He was in many ways like Dan Thorn- 
 borough, having for years looked upon him 
 as his model. 
 
 " You often say ' ay,' just like Uncle Dan, 
 but yet you aren't like him in everything, 
 Jacob. He never has his meals in his shirt- 
 sleeves. I wish he did, and I wish Aunt 
 Rachel wore a sun-bonnet like Polly, and 
 I wish it didn't matter that my frock is all 
 torn, and — well, what do you look at me so 
 for, pray ? " 
 
 "A horse is neither better nor worse for 
 his trappings. I see you've been a naughty 
 maid, and you wish we were all like you. 
 You've a mind that it is more comfortable to 
 be dirty than clean. Give over hiding it up, 
 child, or it will be a thorn in your flesh." 
 
 Sarah tossed her head. " I don't care," 
 she said recklessly. 
 
 *' Perhaps the master does ; 'tis ill angering 
 him, though he says naught," observed Jacob, 
 taking out his large silver watch and looking 
 at it reflectively. 
 
 Sarah was silent; she suddenly evinced
 
 lOO SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 deep interest in melting a lump of sugar in 
 some hot tea in her spoon. 
 
 Jacob Frant saw his advantage, and went 
 on, as he slowly polished the case of his 
 watch with the palm of his hand — 
 
 " The day will come as a thief in the night 
 when the Lord will say to the master, ' Well 
 done, thou faithful servant ; ' and lo, we shall 
 look for him and shall not find him, and his 
 place will know him no more." 
 
 Sarah's eyes blazed ; she threw down her 
 spoon with a clatter, spilling the melted lump 
 on the cloth. 
 
 ** How dare you, Jacob ? I know what 
 you mean. You think that when he is dead 
 I shall be sorry to have vexed Uncle Dan. 
 Just as if I'm not miserable enough now 
 while he's alive. Why, I couldnt be more 
 miserable than I am now. I shan't ever be 
 happy any more. I should like to die now, 
 directly, and be buried here in your garden." 
 
 "Come, my dear, it's not so bad as that. 
 Confess your fault, and the Lord will pardon 
 you." 
 
 " I don't care for the Lord. It's Uncle
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 101 
 
 Dan. Here, take the horrid book and burn 
 it ; it's all through that. I shan't ever read it 
 any more." 
 
 And Sarah produced the cherished ** Idylls" 
 from beneath her pinafore and thrust it into 
 Jacob's hand, who took it, puzzled at the 
 tearless storm he had raised. He put it up 
 on the shelf with his papers and account- 
 books, saying as he glanced out of the 
 window — 
 
 " Here they all come." 
 
 " Who .'^ " cried Sarah, jumping up and 
 peeping under his arm. 
 
 *' Yon. Do you see, child ? The master, 
 and Miss Mabel with the parasol, and Gideon, 
 and the little chap with the glass in his eye 
 will be Mr. Meakin, walking with Miss 
 Rachel." 
 
 ** Are they coming here ? " gasped Sarah. 
 
 '* Ay. Move, child ; I must put on my 
 coat ; " and Jacob proceeded to take it down 
 from a nail behind the door. 
 
 Sarah turned from red to white and to red 
 again, but she stood her ground with her 
 hands clasped behind her.
 
 102 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 *' Its like the Judgment Day, Jacob," she 
 said under her breath ; " they'll all know now, 
 won't they ? " 
 
 He surveyed her with grim and proud 
 approval. 
 
 "Ay, child. That which is said in the 
 ear will be heard on the housetops. * Most 
 things have two handles, and a wise man 
 takes hold of the best.' There's the back 
 door and they won't see you ; will you go or 
 stay ? " 
 
 *' I shall stay," she answered, going and 
 standing behind Jacob's wooden armchair. 
 
 He made a step forward and laid his 
 knotted hand on her bright rough head. 
 ''The Lord be with thee," he said tenderly, 
 and then voices began to be heard as the 
 party entered his garden. 
 
 " Jacob ! Jacob Frant, I have brought my 
 husband to see you. Do you remember 
 me ? " cried the clear sweet voice of the 
 Thornboroughs, and Jacob went out of his 
 dark parlour into the sunshine to receive 
 Mabel Meakin. She was a slim dark girl of 
 middle height. She was dressed very fashion-
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 103 
 
 ably, and her clothes looked as though they 
 had been moulded on to her. She had a 
 languid way of looking round for help, which 
 apparently she generally obtained, for Gideon 
 Leigh stood close by her, holding a gold 
 scent-bottle, a fan, and a scarlet parasol with 
 a heavy embossed silver handle. He had 
 shot up into a well-groomed and beautiful 
 youth. The three years he had in advance 
 of Sarah made a perceptible difference now, 
 for she still remained an untidy child. 
 
 '* Halloa ! " he cried, catching sight of her 
 where she stood holding on to the wooden 
 chair with one hand, and dragging a long 
 curl of hair between her teeth with the other. 
 Everybody knew this habit of Sarah's when 
 she was excited or naughty. Sir Godolphin 
 Leigh encouraged it; it made ''Sally look 
 more dare-devil than ever," he declared. 
 Aunt Rachel, as has been seen, waged con- 
 stant war against it, but so far with but poor 
 success. 
 
 " Halloa, my cherub, so here you are. 
 Come and speak to Mabel ; she is awfully 
 keen on knowing you."
 
 I04 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 Sarah did not move ; her eyes were riveted 
 on Dan Thornborough, who stood just out- 
 side the door talking to Percy Meakin. 
 Gideon saw there was something wrong; 
 somehow Sarah looked rather in a mess, he 
 thought. Mrs. Meakin had followed him in. 
 
 o 
 
 She came up to Sarah and took her by both 
 hands and kissed her. 
 
 " Oh, Sarah dear, how glad I am to see 
 you ! How you are grown ! You were only 
 a little scrap of a thing when I saw you last. 
 Come and sit down on the sofa here beside 
 me. My fan, please, Gideon ; it really is very 
 warm ; " and she leant back against the sofa 
 pillows and drew her little sister down beside 
 her. 
 
 Gideon bent over her and fanned her with 
 a courteous gallantry that was new to Sarah. 
 
 " So you have been having tea here with 
 Jacob Frant, have you ? What a mess you 
 are in, dear. But what lovely looking jam ! 
 No wonder its attractions were stronger than 
 the desire to see me." 
 
 " It wasn'ty^;;^ that made me forget," cried 
 Sarah, scornfully.
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS, IO5 
 
 "Wasn't it, dear? Well, never mind. 
 That will do, Gideon, thanks. Give me that 
 footstool, will you. What a queer little room 
 this is ! I wonder If Jacob would sell us that 
 corner-cupboard. I must tell Percy to ask 
 him. I tried everywhere for one In no end 
 of old furniture shops. You shall come and 
 see my house, Sarah." 
 
 ** If Gideon comes too," said the child, 
 beginning to be attracted by the perfume 
 from the fan, and the rustle of the dress and 
 the bewildering number of her sister's move- 
 ments. 
 
 "Ah, stick to the old love, quite right. 
 Oh, Percy, you've done talking at last. 
 Here is Sarah. Country manners and dress, 
 you see." 
 
 " The genuine article," he answered. 
 
 Sarah scented a slight in the smile that 
 passed between husband and wife. She was 
 up In arms directly, as Percy Meakin came 
 towards her and held out his hand, saying 
 carelessly — 
 
 "Howd'y'do?" 
 
 " I am quite well, thank you. And please
 
 I06 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 I wish to say that it is not Aunt Rachel's 
 fault that I am all torn and dirty and wasn't 
 at the front door when you came. I was 
 told to, and I read on the top of the hay- 
 stack instead. And Susan came to fetch me, 
 and I wouldn't go. And there's my white 
 silk frock and sash on my bed, ready for me 
 to put on, and you can go and look at it, if 
 you don't believe me, and take ki7n too," and 
 she pointed at Percy Meakin. 
 
 *' What a coil about nothing. I dare say 
 you look very nice in the white frock, little girl. 
 True daughter of Eve, isn't she, Mabel } " 
 
 Then Gideon interposed, laughing — 
 
 " Sarah thinks your remark about country 
 dress and manners is a reflection upon my 
 uncle and aunt," he explained. 
 
 Sarah did not thank him. She was watch- 
 ing her uncle's back, and wondering that he 
 did not turn round. He must have heard 
 her confession. 
 
 " Oh, I see," said Mabel, yawning and 
 getting up. *'Well, if I were you, Sarah 
 dear, I wouldn't get into a temper about 
 nothing. Come up to my room when you
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. I07 
 
 are dressed, and I'll show you all my 
 jewellery. What nice hair you've got, dear ! 
 Hasn t she, Percy ? One kiss. There, now 
 we must be going. Percy, I hope you have 
 been talking to Jacob Frant. He is a most 
 intelligent man for his station, and always 
 expects to be taken notice of, I believe. 
 Come, Gideon." 
 
 Percy Meakin turned to Sarah. 
 
 "Aren't you coming ?" he asked. 
 
 She shook her head violently. 
 
 *' Well, then, we must hope to be better 
 acquainted at breakfast, I suppose." 
 
 Sarah stared at him, and then Miss Thorn- 
 borough, who had stayed at Polly's cottage 
 to ofive orders about some work she was 
 doing for her, came bustling in. 
 
 " My dear Sarah, I hope you have apolo- 
 gized to your sister and your new brother 
 for being absent on their arrival. Little 
 girls should never forget their manners." 
 
 But Sarah was past speaking. She had 
 painfully delivered her testimony, and they 
 had only thought she was in a temper, and 
 cared about jam, and had made a fuss about
 
 I08 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 nothing. And all the time Uncle Dan had 
 not taken the least notice of her, but stayed 
 outside talking to Jacob. 
 
 "You do not look quite the thing; you 
 have eaten too much tea, I fear, child. Well, 
 there, never mind, I do not wish to make 
 you cry. You forgot your uncle's orders 
 and are doubtless sorry. We will say no 
 more about it. Shall we go, Mr. Meakin ?" 
 
 He followed the dainty figure, put up her 
 large blue sunshade for her, and Sarah saw 
 them pass the window behind her sister and 
 Gideon. She stood quite still in a whirl of 
 passionate anger and rebellion. She choked 
 back the long pent-up sobs that were rising 
 in her throat, and furiously rubbed away 
 the tears that were filling her eyes. Nobody 
 should see her cry. 
 
 Uncle Dan remained in the garden. He 
 had moved from the porch where he had 
 stood most of the time, and was now stand- 
 ing on the path with his back to the door, 
 giving some directions to Jacob Frant. 
 Sarah saw him, with his stick tucked under 
 his arm, writing on a leaf of his notebook.
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. lOQ 
 
 She stalked to the window and put her head 
 out. He would be obliged to pass it in 
 going to the gate ; if he did not look back at 
 her then, she should know that he was very- 
 angry, or, worse still, had perhaps forgotten 
 all about her. She tore off the leaves of 
 honeysuckle and the clematis flowers, in her 
 rage, and threw them out on to the garden 
 path. The murmuring of the men's voices 
 stopped. Sarah hung further out of the 
 window and waited breathlessly, tearing off 
 the leaves faster and faster. 
 
 Presently she felt a touch on her shoulder, 
 and wriggled herself back Into the room and 
 faced her uncle. 
 
 " Come, Sarah, we will walk home to- 
 gether," he said, holding out his hand. 
 
 Then Sarah's anger was stilled, and the 
 awful load lifted from her heart. 
 
 *' Oh, Uncle Dan, I'm sorry," she walled, 
 as, clutching his arm and laying her head 
 against it, she gave one great sob. 
 
 He picked up her hat, tied it carefully on 
 for her, put his arm round her, and said as 
 they went to the door together —
 
 no SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " Leave off crying ; It is all over. Did you 
 think I had forgotten you ? It would not 
 have been strange if I had, for you forgot 
 me, you know." 
 
 Sarah looked up in his face, and met the 
 whimsical smile she knew so well, and was 
 comforted. Out into the bright garden they 
 came, where Jacob stood holding open the 
 eate. He waved his hand towards his 
 flowers. 
 
 ** Do you want to die and be burled there, 
 now directly, child .^ " he asked gravely. 
 
 But Sarah, feeling her uncle's arm tighten 
 round her, leaned closer to him and shook 
 her head, but did not answer. 
 
 "A wild goose never laid a tame ^ggy' 
 said Jacob to his master, nodding at 
 Sarah. 
 
 Dan Thornborough smiled and replied — 
 
 " Ay, a bird of the old flock. Good night, 
 Jacob." 
 
 Sarah wondered what they meant, but was 
 too happy to trouble to ask. 
 
 The next morning the Meakins were 
 agreeably surprised at the fair fresh edition
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. 1 1 1 
 
 of Sarah that made its appearance at prayers, 
 affably smIHng, with her beautiful hair shining 
 like spun gold over her clean frock. She 
 took her place at breakfast beside her aunt, 
 and slowly discussed her plate of porridge 
 in silence, staring the while at her new 
 relation, who was keeping up a running fire 
 of talk with Gideon about the places abroad 
 he and Mabel had just come from. 
 
 Presently he remarked — 
 
 " Well, you can take my word for it, there 
 is no change so complete, and no rest so 
 thorough, for a hard-worked man, as a few 
 weeks abroad. I don't know anything of 
 England myself, and don't wish to, but I 
 flatter myself I am a pretty good guide-book 
 for anybody who wants to go to the places 
 abroad that I have been to." 
 
 Sarah paused, holding a spoonful of por- 
 ridge halfway between her plate and her 
 mouth. Percy Meakin began to appear in 
 quite an interesting light to her, she stared 
 thoughtfully at him, saying dreamily, "/ 
 should like to go abroad too." 
 
 ** Should you ? " he asked good-naturedly.
 
 112 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 '' Well, perhaps some day your uncle will let 
 you come with us, if you ask him." 
 
 " And Gideon too ? " 
 
 There was a laugh round the table. 
 
 ** Gideon too, of course, if he wants to 
 come, but I dare say he will have been half 
 a dozen times before you are grown-up," 
 answered Percy Meakin. 
 
 " Can't you wait for me ? " asked the child, 
 entreatingly. 
 
 ** Oh yes, I dare say, Sarah. But look 
 here, I expect you will want to go to a 
 different place to what I do. That will be 
 jolly awkward, won t it ? " 
 
 *' I wish to go to Iceland and Timnath, 
 and to Paris and to Bethlehem," announced 
 Sarah, with decision.' 
 
 Dan Thornborough spoke for the first 
 time in the discussion, for a chorus of 
 laughter followed, and the red colour had 
 mounted over Sarah's clear brow. 
 
 " Let me hear your reasons, Sarah," he 
 said gently. 
 
 She turned eagerly to him. 
 
 *' Why, uncle dear, you told us about the
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. II3 
 
 great high-spouting springs, you know, all 
 hot, in Iceland ; then I should like to see 
 where Samson killed the lion all by himself ; 
 and then there was the French Revolution ; 
 and then — oh then, of course, you all want 
 to see Bethlehem yourselves," she ended, 
 looking triumphantly round the table. 
 
 " What a queer child ! " said Percy Meakin 
 to his wife, in an undertone. 
 
 '' What a large order, isn't it. Aunt 
 Rachel ? " asked Gideon. 
 
 " Yes, dear," said Uncle Dan, quietly ; 
 ^* those are very interesting places, but when 
 you go with Mabel and Percy I think you 
 must let them choose, as they have been 
 abroad so often, they know more about it 
 than you and I do." 
 
 Afterwards, while sauntering round the 
 garden, Mabel Meakin observed to her 
 uncle, " Sarah ought to be with other 
 children ; it is bad for a child always to be 
 with grown-up people." 
 
 A pang shot through Dan Thornborough's 
 heart that he might not, after all, be doing 
 the best for his darling. 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " You think so ? " he said anxiously. 
 
 " I am sure of it. Couldn't she go to 
 school ? " 
 
 " No, certainly not," he cried emphatically. 
 
 " Ah, well, perhaps not right away from 
 here. But Isn't there any place she could 
 ride over to in the town, and be fetched back 
 in the afternoon ? " 
 
 " I must see," he replied, " there may be 
 merits in the proposition ; you have lived 
 more among children, Mabel. I suppose they 
 like each other's society ? " 
 
 ** Why, of course," she answered cheer- 
 fully ; *'we look quite old fogies to them. 
 Sarah takes things too much to heart. I'll 
 drive over to the town with Aunt Rachel 
 and look round if you like, and we will go 
 and ask the Howards. It would be a pity 
 for Sarah to grow up different from other 
 people, wouldn't It ? " 
 
 There was a twinkle in Dan Thorn- 
 borough's eyes as he picked a crimson rose 
 from the bush they were passing, and pre- 
 sented it to his niece with the grand courtesy 
 which had made Percy Meakin confide to
 
 THE THORNBOROUGHS OF MEADS. II5 
 
 his wife the night before, that '* Your uncle 
 is a fine old bird." 
 
 '' Sweets to the sweet, niece," he said. " I 
 desire that Sarah should miss none of the 
 happinesses that should pertain to her youth. 
 So, if children's companionship be best for 
 her, as I doubt not is true, she shall have it 
 I am obliged to you for the suggestion." 
 
 '' Oh," said Mabel, looking gratified, '' I'm 
 sure you and Aunt Rachel have done every- 
 thing that is right and good for her. I only 
 hope she is grateful." 
 
 '' No," he said, as he drew a garden-chair 
 on to the gravel for her. '' No, I am thank- 
 ful to say that I believe it never enters 
 Sarah's head to be grateful." 
 
 She stared at him. ''How very odd I " 
 she said.
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 
 
 " We cannot kindle when we will 
 
 The fire which in the heart resides ; 
 The spirit bloweth and is still, 
 In mystery our soul abides. 
 But tasks in hours of insight will'd 
 Can be through hours of gloom fulfill'd. 
 
 " With aching hands and bleeding feet 
 We dig and heap, lay stone on stone ; 
 We bear the burden and the heat 
 
 Of the long day, and wish 'twere done. 
 Not till the hours of light return, 
 All we have built, do we discern."
 
 ( 119 ) 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Byron Villa stood in a long road with 
 semi-detached villas on either side. These 
 had little front gardens separated from the 
 road by a low iron railing, and little back 
 gardens separated from the railway by high 
 wooden fencing. Young sycamores, strag- 
 gling chestnuts, and bushes of arbutus 
 helped to fill up the bareness at the front, 
 while the back gardens were generally planted 
 with potatoes and artichokes and a few 
 patches of sweet peas. It was a very neat 
 road, and all the people who lived in it were 
 neat, kindly, and very respectable. They 
 were almost all of the same social position ; 
 the two great exceptions were the family 
 who lived at '* Glengowry " (these washed 
 at home, and hung their linen out in the
 
 I20 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 back garden) and the family at '* Chander- 
 nagore" (these had asphalted their back 
 garden from fence to fence, their many 
 children kept rabbits, and there was always 
 a puppy who squealed, and a baby who 
 cried). But then it was always hoped 
 that the ''people" from ''Glengowry" and 
 " Chandernagore " would move soon, and 
 meanwhile nobody visited them. There 
 were several widows in the road, several 
 maiden ladies, and a few young married 
 couples. The men went into London every 
 day from the new little suburban station 
 close by, and the women occupied their days 
 in keeping house, calling on each other's ''At 
 Home " days, making their clothes, or visiting 
 the poor, according to their several bents. 
 
 Every one kept a servant. It was a point 
 of honour among the ladies not to go to 
 each other's houses on any pretext whatever 
 till a reasonable time after lunch, so that the 
 servant should have had time " to dress ; '* 
 if at this hour she opened the door in her 
 cotton dress, that household was kindly but 
 firmly spoken of as "badly managed."
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA, 121 
 
 Byron Villa was exactly like all the other 
 houses in the road, but the few yards at the 
 back were sown with grass seed, and used 
 as a tennis lawn. Here, every Saturday 
 afternoon during the summer, certain youths 
 in shirt sleeves, and maidens in discarded 
 " best " skirts, and blouses more or less 
 badly fitting, amused themselves happily to- 
 gether, as youths and maidens have done, 
 and will continue to do, in spite of small 
 means, shabby clothing, and no possible 
 provision for the future. 
 
 The maidens were Ada, Augusta, and 
 Jessie Hay ; the youths were their only 
 brother, Edward, and Tom King, son of 
 the doctor in the next road. Sometimes 
 Herbert Moore, the Vicar's only son, and 
 Flora Moore, the Vicar's only daughter, 
 came, but that was when they happened to 
 know that Edward and Augusta Hay were 
 at home. 
 
 Mrs. Hay, placid, stout, and comely, would 
 sit just inside the window of the twelve-feet 
 square drawing-room watching the party, a 
 perennial smile on her simple countenance.
 
 122 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 knitting socks for her son, or making lace 
 trimming for her daughters, happy in the con- 
 viction that there never had been such dutiful, 
 attractive, and beautiful children as her own. 
 
 The good-natured, untidy servant would 
 bring out a tray of glasses, containing the 
 lemonade the Hay girls had made in the 
 morning, and set it down on the wooden 
 bench for the thirsty players. " Afternoon 
 tea " was done away with on Saturdays ; the 
 whole party sat down to a tea-supper, at 
 half-past seven, of cold meat, water-cress, 
 jam tartlets, and hot tea-cakes. 
 
 Mrs. Hay was a widow. Her husband 
 had been vicar of a country parish ; they had 
 lived in a roomy, rambling old house, with 
 garden, paddock, tennis lawn, and stable. 
 
 The girls were strong, noisy creatures, 
 without a talent of any sort except that 
 of amusing themselves, and without a taste, 
 except that for good-natured gossip, per- 
 petual parties, and perpetual changes of 
 raiment. Edward Hay was only like his 
 sisters in so far that he was strong and 
 well-grown.
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 1 23 
 
 All the time that had not been used in 
 riding to and from school in the neigh- 
 bouring town, he had spent with his father, 
 either among his books in the study or 
 walking with him through field and lane 
 on his parish visits. Mr. Hay had for years 
 been engaged upon a history of the families 
 in his county, and, as soon almost as he could 
 read, his son had shared his work. 
 
 There was not a brass or a monument 
 or a parish register in the county that was 
 unknown to father and son. The boy taught 
 himself to illuminate, to draw coats of arms. 
 He would stay in the town an hour after 
 school to learn bookbinding in a musty 
 shed in a close] back street. He bound 
 roughly, but with astonishing ease, his 
 father's sheets and his own beautiful 
 drawings, copying out in his clerkly hand 
 all the blotted or crabbedly written ones. 
 
 Edward Hay was destined for the Uni- 
 versity and the Church, but when he was 
 sixteen his father died, and his mother's 
 only brother offered him a clerkship in his 
 flourishing business in London.
 
 124 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 Mrs. Hay came up to town, and by the 
 advice of her rich and busthng sister-in-law 
 explored the little suburb, and a year after 
 her husband s death settled down in Byron 
 Villa. Neither she nor her daughters 
 greatly regretted the old home ; they were 
 tired of the large, half-empty country church, 
 with its rustic congregation, the stillness 
 of lanes and fields, the difficulty of visiting 
 their scattered neighbours. The sight of 
 roads full of neat villas, and the possibility 
 of attending at least three different churches 
 on a Sunday, promised them infinite variety ; 
 and the girls felt there was indeed something 
 to live for, when they heard of weekly teas 
 on the cricket-field, amateur concerts at the 
 Town Hall, and working-parties for various 
 charities. 
 
 It was now seven years since they had 
 settled down in Byron Villa, and all that 
 time Edward Hay had lived his solitary 
 life, going up to town at eight o'clock, 
 returning between six and seven in the 
 evening, and between two and three o'clock 
 on Saturdays.
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 1 25 
 
 The Steady, heavy-looking boy had grown 
 Into a handsome, somewhat silent man, 
 tolerant of the life he had to lead, affec- 
 tionate to his mother, indulgent to his sisters. 
 
 One determination, of which he never 
 spoke, but which guided all his actions, 
 was that he did not Intend to be all his 
 life a paid clerk, and live In suburbs. He 
 had nobody to advise him, his colleagues 
 had no standards beyond the very one he 
 was struggling against, and the family friends 
 at home had little sympathy with Ideals. 
 
 If there was any cloud upon the calm In 
 which Mrs. Hay moved, a calm that even 
 her husband's death had only very tem- 
 porally broken, it was that Jessie, her 
 youngest born, had of late shown a tendency 
 to discontent, and an aptitude for making 
 curious remarks which Mrs. Hay could not 
 understand. 
 
 Jessie Hay was in this mood now, as she 
 sat on the window-ledofe of the front slttlncr- 
 room, staring across the parched plot of 
 grass into the road. 
 
 " Don't lean against the curtains, Jessie
 
 126 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 love ; you will tear them off their hooks," 
 said her mother. 
 
 " Why do we have curtains ? People 
 can't see in. I only wish they could ! '' 
 returned Jessie, dreamily. 
 
 '* Thank Heaven they can't ! " cried 
 Augusta, briskly, "just when I'm trying on 
 this new blouse." 
 
 " Well, you look very nice in it. As your 
 hair is inclined to be red, I am glad you 
 had the sense to make a blue one, instead 
 of a pink one, like Ada's. Oh, Ada, don't 
 put those red flowers in my hat ! " 
 
 Ada, with her mouth full of pins, turned 
 the hat, with an energetic twist, towards 
 Mrs. Hay. " Look, mother ! " she cried. 
 
 *' I like red, Jessie love ; against your 
 dark hair it will look very nice. But, now 
 you are eighteen, you should be able to trim 
 your own hats, you know." 
 
 ** I don't like trimming hats, mother ; and 
 Ada does them so beautifully. I like " 
 
 "Sitting in the infirmary all day, and 
 hearing about the cases," interrupted 
 Augusta ; " and yet, you know, you aren't
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. \2J 
 
 a bit more sorry for the poor things than 
 I am, or Ada, or mother ! " 
 
 " I don't think being sorry has anything to 
 do with It; it Is all so curious, that Is why I go." 
 
 " Well, don't you come near me If I am 
 ever 111, Jess. I dare say I'm as curious as 
 most people, but I'd rather be looked after 
 by somebody who was sorry for me," cried 
 Augusta, In her clear, jolly voice. 
 
 '' There goes the two-thirty ; Edward will 
 be In directly," said Mrs Hay, when the 
 puffing of an engine drowned for some 
 moments all conversation. 
 
 ** I wish there would be an accident," 
 remarked Jessie, reflectively. 
 
 " Horrid child ! " cried both her sisters. 
 
 *' I don't want any one to be killed, but 
 I should like just to see an accident," 
 persisted Jessie. 
 
 *' Well, If you serve to Tom as you did 
 last Saturday, I dare say you'll see an 
 accident," declared Augusta, with conviction. 
 
 Jessie pouted, and said — 
 
 " Tom should not play tennis ; he is too 
 short-sighted, Isn't he, Ada t "
 
 128 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 "Oh, I don't know. There, I've finished 
 this hat at last. Put it on, Jess. No, not 
 like that ; let me do it. There, child. Look, 
 mother." 
 
 Mrs. Hay looked obediently, but it was at 
 the placid, large-framed Ada, whose imper- 
 turbable good temper was so like her own. 
 She was the eldest of the family, and they 
 all regarded her as a model of good sense. 
 Jessie remained sitting on the window-ledge, 
 her curly head bent for her sister to arrange 
 the hat. 
 
 *' I know somebody who will think you 
 have trimmed that hat beautifully, Ada 
 dear," said Mrs. Hay, with a knowing smile. 
 
 "Tom King, 
 Bring the ring. 
 All on a summer moxnmg" 
 
 sang Augusta, as she arranged her fringe 
 carefully under her straw hat in front of the 
 chimney-glass. 
 
 " Shut up, Gus," cried Ada, good-humour- 
 edly. "It is Jessie Tom comes after, not 
 me." 
 
 ** He laughs with Jessie, but he admires
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 1 29 
 
 you most, Ada. He said the other day that 
 you were the finest girl he knew, and took 
 the cake for good nature." 
 
 Ada Hay laughed her slow, comfortable 
 laugh, and turned the tables on her sister by 
 saying — 
 
 '' Is Herbert Moore coming this afternoon, 
 Gus .? " 
 
 " Have not the slightest idea, my child. 
 Flora won't, of course. She freckles so in 
 the sun, and she is not so keen on tennis as 
 
 am. 
 
 " One each," remarked Jessie, irrelevantly. 
 
 *' One what ? " cried Augusta, sitting down 
 on the arm of her mother's chair, and begin- 
 ning to undo a paper parcel. 
 
 " One, other half ; you and Herbert, and 
 Tom and Ada, and Flora for Edward. I 
 think, mother, / should like to go away and 
 earn some money." 
 
 " Well, dear, do, if you like." 
 
 '* Gracious, Jess, what's the matter with 
 you this afternoon .-^ " cried Augusta, trium- 
 phantly drawing from the parcel, and holding 
 up, a cardboard picture of a white swan 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 sailing upon a pond overshadowed with green 
 grasses ; a blue dragon-fly and a green 
 beetle hovered above the swan, and a border 
 of gilt paper enclosed the picture. " There ! " 
 she exclaimed, '' don't talk about earning 
 money, but look at that / " 
 
 *' Lovely ! " declared Ada, rapturously. 
 
 '* What is it for, dear ?" asked Mrs. Hay. 
 
 " For the fireplace in the drawing-room. 
 I bought it at the post-office, and these 
 two Japanese fans, just to brighten us up 
 a bit." 
 
 *' Sweet," said Ada again. 
 
 *' How very nice, dear ; just what I always 
 wanted your dear father to have, but he 
 never would let me buy them." 
 
 *' I think, mother, I should like to give 
 out the tickets at a booking-office," began 
 Jessie, ignoring the new fire ornament. 
 
 "It would be very draughty, dear ; you 
 would always be having toothache." 
 
 " Besides, suppose a drunken man came 
 and asked for a ticket, whatever would you 
 do then f " asked Ada, as she put pins and 
 cottons away in her rosewood workbox."
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 13I 
 
 '' Give it him, of course." 
 
 '' Suppose it was the race time ?" 
 
 '* It would be very interesting-. I should 
 see such lots of people," persisted Jessie. 
 
 *' Oh, Jessie, what a little goose you are ! 
 You know you can't be a railway clerk ; 
 what's the good of bothering about it ? " 
 cried Augusta, putting straight her mother's 
 cap bow. 
 
 Jessie turned her head and looked out of 
 the window. 
 
 " I shall talk to Edward about it," she said 
 calmly. 
 
 " Oh yes, of course, he'll know," cried 
 Augusta ; '' men always know those sort of 
 things. I say, Ada, I am afraid we can't 
 go out till it's cooler, can we 1 " 
 
 " Well, I don't know, let's see ; there is a 
 little shade on the gravel path by the water- 
 butt, but there is only room for three, the 
 rest must sit inside on the window-ledge," 
 declared Ada, yawning and stretching her 
 fine arms over her head. 
 
 " Here comes Edward," announced Jessie, 
 peering out down the road.
 
 132 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 '' Dear boy. It is really terrible to be 
 obliged to wear a silk hat in this weather," 
 said Mrs. Hay. " Just call to the girl to 
 bring in his dinner, Ada." 
 
 " If I were Edward I would have my 
 dinner in town on Saturdays," declared 
 Augusta. 
 
 ''He gets it for nothing here." 
 
 '' Now, Jessie, that's a beastly shame of 
 you ; you know there is not a grain of mean- 
 ness in Edward." 
 
 " I merely stated a fact," returned Jessie, 
 coolly. 
 
 " It was the nasty tone in your voice. 
 People can make quite a simple thing sound 
 nasty or nice ; can't they, mother ? " 
 
 ''There, there, girls, don't quarrel. Jessie 
 love, I am afraid you are not well. Ah, here 
 comes my dear, tired lad." 
 
 Edward Hay came into the hot little room, 
 kissed his mother, and sat down on the 
 nearest vacant seat, which happened to be 
 the music-stool. There was a red rim all 
 across his forehead where his hat had rested, 
 and distinct signs of coal-dust remained
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA, 1 33 
 
 round his eyes, his thick brown hair lay- 
 moist on his brow, his coat was dusty. 
 Glancing round, his dark eyes fell upon 
 Augusta's purchase. ''What is that?" he 
 asked. 
 
 " Oh, isn't it perfectly lovely ? I only gave 
 one and elevenpence halfpenny for it," cried 
 his sister. 
 
 " It looks like it!" 
 
 " My dear boy, don't you admire it ? " 
 
 " No ; I think it is hideous." 
 
 ''Edward I '' remonstrated his family in 
 chorus. 
 
 " Hideous, and out of place ! " he declared 
 again. 
 
 " Oh, you have not a scrap of taste. What 
 a mercy it is the house is not left to you ! " 
 
 " A great mercy, Gus ! When is my 
 dinner coming, mother ? " he asked, turning 
 round on his music-stool. 
 
 " Ada is gone to hurry the girl. Why, my 
 son, you look very hot." 
 
 He smiled at her. 
 
 " And very dirty too, I expect, mother. 
 Hot ? Yes, I should think so. I shall go
 
 134 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 up in a straw hat on Monday, if this weather 
 lasts. Tom King came down in my carriage. 
 He is coming along presently ; he asked me 
 to tell you." 
 
 Here Ada entered, carrying a tray on which 
 was an underdone chop, some boiled potatoes, 
 part of a rice pudding, burnt at the top, and 
 some stewed plums. She set it down before 
 him. He eyed it with dislike. A bewildered 
 wasp buzzed across the tray and fell into the 
 fruit. 
 
 " I don't want anything. Take it away 
 again, if you don't mind. Couldn't I have 
 had cold meat and a cucumber, mother ? " 
 
 " You shall, dear, next Saturday, of course. 
 I wish we had thought of it. But just try 
 now that nice, juicy chop, just a bit of it," she 
 urged coaxingly. 
 
 He shook his head, then leaned back un- 
 comfortably against the piano and looked 
 round the room critically. There were the 
 green woollen table-cloth, the gilt looking- 
 glass, the faded crimson rep chairs, the limp 
 art-muslin twisted round the fiower-pots in 
 the wire stand near the window, the beaded
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 1 35 
 
 fly-catcher hanging from the chandelier, the 
 brown lava spill-cases on the mantelpiece. 
 
 The sun was blazing into the room, but as 
 Jessie, in her tumbled white blouse and old 
 black shirt, chose to sit on the window- 
 ledge, nobody had thought of lowering the 
 blinds. 
 
 ** What funny people you all are ! " he 
 remarked at last. 
 
 *' Why ? " demanded Augusta, who had 
 produced some scarlet ribbon and was tying 
 bows on to the Japanese fans. 
 
 " Oh, because you seem to prefer being 
 roasted w^hen you might be cool, public when 
 you might be private, and you seem to have 
 saved all the rubbish from the old place and 
 to have piled it up in here. That's the only 
 decent thing in the room," he added, pointing 
 to his father's portrait. 
 
 " How cross you are ! " said Jessie. 
 
 " I am hot, dirty, and tired ; yes, and 
 perhaps cross. I will go up and change, 
 mother. Don't wait for me, girls ; I shall not 
 play tennis this afternoon." 
 
 "Which means that Flora Moore is not
 
 136 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 coming, I suppose ? " cried Augusta, mis- 
 chievously. 
 
 " Oh, don't tease your brother. I am sure 
 he tries to be obliging, whether Flora is here 
 or no. Are you really going upstairs, my boy ? 
 Come down as soon as you have changed." 
 
 '' I have some work I want to do. I will 
 come down at supper-time," he said, as he 
 went out of the room. 
 
 " Well, I shall bring you up some tea at 
 four o'clock, as you have had no dinner," his 
 mother called after him. 
 
 '' Thanks, that will be very nice," he 
 called back again. 
 
 '' I say, mother, he's awfully gone on 
 Flora. Did you see his face ? '' cried 
 Augusta, as soon as the door was shut. 
 
 " So silly of him. She is ever so well off; 
 she won't marry him'' declared Jessie. 
 
 "• Why not } What on earth can a child like 
 you know about it ? " cried Ada, laughing. 
 
 ''Quite as much as you," answered Jessie, 
 tossing her head. " Money goes with money, 
 and Flora Moore has lots of admirers besides 
 Edward."
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 1 37 
 
 " None half so good-looking," declared 
 Ada. 
 
 *' And certainly not half so good ; still I 
 won't have him teased about her. Do you 
 hear, girls ? " 
 
 *' Oh yes, mother dear, we hear ; but why 
 can't he talk about her openly, or stand a 
 little chaff, like we do about Tom or Herbert .^ 
 He shuts up, and makes you feel you have 
 broken the Ten Commandments, if you only 
 mention her name. I do it all the more, just 
 to cure him." 
 
 '' Oh, Gus, you should not do that. He 
 can't alter his nature ; we are not all made 
 alike, you know," said Mrs. Hay. 
 
 " Here comes Tom King," announced 
 Jessie once more, from her post in the 
 window ; and the girls presently left the hot 
 front room, and, with their mother, adjourned 
 to the back garden, the lemonade, and the 
 shady seat by the water-butt. 
 
 While balls were flying, and '' serves " and 
 " scores " were being vehemently discussed 
 on the sun-burnt grass outside, Edward Hay 
 sat at the table in his attic, poring over a
 
 nS SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 o 
 
 German grammar. The air was stifling, the 
 thinly built little house seemed to be baked 
 through, the brass door handle was hot to 
 the touch, the bedroom candle drooped down- 
 ward from the candlestick on to the mantel- 
 piece. Wasps were crawling on the window- 
 panes. Next door somebody was practising 
 Beethoven's Sonatas ; a train was letting off 
 steam in the station, the smoke travelled in 
 and filled the room. In the open drawer of 
 his table lay the precious ** History of the 
 County Families." Books filled a rough shelf 
 which ran all round the room, chiefly German, 
 French, and Spanish. 
 
 After a time there was a knock at the door 
 — all the family knew his dislike to being 
 interrupted — and, thinking it was his mother 
 with the tea, he cried, " Come in ! " 
 
 " Oh, Jessie, is it you ? I don't think you 
 had better stay up here, it is too hot," he 
 said, without closing his book. 
 
 Jessie sat down on his low bedstead. 
 
 " I want to ask your advice," she said. 
 
 ''About what ? A new hat or a new 
 lover ? " he asked, laughing.
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA, 1 39 
 
 •' Don't be stupid. I want to earn some 
 money." 
 
 Her brother gave a long whistle and went 
 on making notes In pencil on a strip of paper. 
 
 *' Why do you whistle ? What Is to hinder 
 me ? " she demanded impatiently. 
 
 He turned round, clasped his hands on 
 the back of his chair, and stared at her good- 
 naturedly. 
 
 " I believe you are actually In earnest,'^ 
 he said. 
 
 ** Of course I am ; but I don't know how 
 to begin." 
 
 "What do you want money for, my dear 
 girl?" 
 
 " Oh, I don't know. I think it is more for 
 the interest of the thing than for the money. 
 I am tired of being here." 
 
 "■ You can't earn money, you know, without 
 working pretty hard ; you have never been 
 used to do anything but amuse yourself." 
 
 " I know. I should only do it for a time, 
 just for the fun of it." 
 
 " No good work is done In that spirit," he 
 said, sighing.
 
 140 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 *' I don't care about doing good work ; I 
 only want a change." 
 
 *' Why, then, you little goose, as soon as 
 you got tired of that you would want another 
 change, I suppose ? " 
 
 " I suppose so," she answered, clasping 
 her hands behind her head and leaning back 
 against the wall. 
 
 " How odd girls are ! We men can't afford 
 to feel like that. It is awfully bad for you 
 not to stick to something." 
 
 " Don't preach." 
 
 At this he turned round to his book again. 
 
 Jessie sat still and stared at him. Pre- 
 sently she said — 
 
 '' I suppose you are saving up every penny 
 to get married with ? " Receiving no answer 
 she went on, " Now, can't you see how 
 uneven things are ? You have an object for 
 saving and working. I have none. All my 
 saving and honest toil would never give me 
 the right to ask the man I love to marry me." 
 
 He turned round again and looked at her, 
 then said slowly — 
 
 "That is true enough. But why should
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 141 
 
 you not work and save, apart from that ? I 
 should think any fellow would rather marry 
 a girl who showed she was capable of self- 
 denial and application, than a mere feather- 
 headed, well-got-up doll." 
 
 " Should you ? Dear me, then, I wonder 
 you are so set upon Flora Moore," she 
 returned saucily. 
 
 The dull red crept over his forehead. 
 
 " I don't think there is any occasion for 
 you to be impertinent, Jessie. Let us go on 
 discussing your ideas of work," he said stiffly. 
 
 *' Well, if I find out where to go, will you 
 lend me the money if I have to pay anything 
 for learning, say in a hospital ? " 
 
 '' No ; I never lend, but if you are really 
 in earnest, and mother has no objection, I 
 will give it to you." 
 
 '* Why should you give it, Neddy '^ I 
 could pay it back." 
 
 "■ Yes, if you were in earnest you could, 
 but I don't think you are. If I give it, then 
 it will not be my concern what you do with it. 
 If I lend it, every careless act of yours would 
 be an annoyance to me."
 
 142 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " You are right, I dare say. When can I 
 have the money ? " 
 
 '* My dear Jess, what a hurry you are in ! 
 It will take me much longer to make it, 
 I expect, than it will take you to spend it." 
 
 '' I dare say," she assented, clasping her 
 hands round her knee, and swaying to and 
 fro on the edge of the bed. 
 
 Her brother remained with his arm over 
 the back of his chair and his chin leaning 
 on it. 
 
 Another train shrieked past, smoke again 
 curled slowly through the thick atmosphere 
 and into the room. 
 
 ''Those beastly trains!" muttered Edward 
 Hay. 
 
 *' Oh, they are not bad. I rather like 
 them," answered Jessie. 
 
 There was another long silence. 
 
 '' What sort of thing do you want to do } " 
 he asked at last. 
 
 *' I want to go as a stewardess on board 
 some ship, going as far as ever it can go." 
 
 He burst out laughing. 
 
 '' They won't take a child like you ; you are
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 1 43 
 
 years too young, I expect. Think of some- 
 thing else." 
 
 From a very battered little purse Jessie 
 produced a cutting from a newspaper, and 
 proceeded to read it aloud to him. It stated 
 that a colonel's wife, about to winter abroad 
 with her children, was anxious to find a 
 superior young person, fond of children, to 
 help her. 
 
 '' I'm a superior young person. I'm fond 
 of children. I'm going," declared Jessie, 
 laughing. 
 
 Her brother looked dubious. 
 
 " Mother won't like it," he said. 
 
 ** Come, be honest ; say at once that you 
 don't like it. You think it is beneath our 
 family dignity for me to earn money in such 
 a manner, don't you } " 
 
 *' You would not earn much ; only twenty- 
 five pounds a year, and your washing," he 
 quoted from the paper she had handed him. 
 
 " Oh, I told you the money is the least 
 part of it. Look here, do you see that '^ " 
 and Jessie kicked off one of her well-worn 
 shoes, which she sent flying across the room
 
 144 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 and which hit the opposite wall. Then she 
 stuck out for his inspection a small foot with 
 an enormous hole in the heel of the stocking. 
 " Now do you see why it is high time I went 
 away, and had some sort of responsibility ? " 
 *' No, I am afraid I don't, Jess. Explain." 
 ** Well, look here, I just don't feel it 
 matters a straw what I do, or do not, here ; 
 whether I have holes in my stockings or not. 
 I don't like reading. Mother keeps house. 
 I'm not keen on tennis or parishes, like Ada 
 and Gus. There does not happen to be a 
 Tom or a Herbert pining to marry me, and 
 making all these horrid little roads seem 
 glorified to me for their sakes. If I stay on 
 here much longer I shall get careless about 
 a lot of things that matter much more than a 
 hole in my stocking. So I am going to that 
 colonel's wife, and you are going to give me 
 thirty pounds, and I am going to keep it 
 before me as a sacred duty to pay it back. 
 And you will feel you have saved me from 
 becoming like that awful Chandernagore girl, 
 who is going silly because she has never had 
 anything to do."
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 1 45 
 
 Edward Hay got up and leaned out of the 
 little window. The paint of the frame was 
 hot and blistered, a watercart was passing 
 below in the stony road. Two and two all 
 up the road the dusty young chestnuts 
 drooped in the glare of the afternoon sun. 
 At the red pillar-box there was a cross road ; 
 in it were more pairs of trees, and more red- 
 bricked villas. Beyond them, at some dis- 
 tance, was a thick mass of foliage, surround- 
 ing a square white house. It was the 
 Vicarage belonging to the largest church 
 in the neighbourhood. Flora Moore lived 
 there. 
 
 " Well, when are you going to speak to 
 me ? Don't get into one of your absent 
 moods, Neddy, there's a dear," implored 
 Jessie, as she got up, fetched her shoe, and 
 came and stood beside him. She supported 
 herself by holding his arm, while she balanced 
 herself on one foot and put her shoe on to 
 the other. 
 
 Her brother drew his head in from the 
 window, saying — 
 
 " I am not absent, Jess, I was only 
 
 VOL. I. 1.
 
 146 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 thinking over what you have just said to 
 me. I wish you would leave off calling 
 me Neddy. I suppose many girls must 
 feel as you do. I never thought of it 
 before. It seems all wrong, somehow, that 
 any one should go melancholy, like that poor 
 girl at Chandernagore, just through having 
 nothing to do. I suppose you are right. If 
 I were rich I should buy you a horse to ride, 
 and perhaps you would feel different. But 
 we are so poor that as you want a change 
 you must earn it. The only drawback to 
 your idea is that it does not lead on to any- 
 thing else. Those children will grow up, 
 and then they will not require you." 
 
 " Goosey, of course not. Don't you see 
 that going out with those people is only step 
 one ? Step two will be that when they come 
 back to England I shall not come, but stay 
 out there in a school and learn French in 
 return for English ; and then — oh, who 
 knows ? Something will turn up. And, 
 meanwhile, I shall have found it necessary 
 to mend my stockings." 
 
 They both laughed, and, standing on tiptoe,
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 147 
 
 she threw her arms round his neck and 
 kissed him. 
 
 " You are really rather a good Neddy. 
 Oh, I forgot you hate being called that. 
 Flora will be lucky; but you are far too good 
 for her." 
 
 He returned her caress gravely, but, as 
 usual, whenever that name was mentioned, 
 he said nothing. 
 
 " Don't you want to go abroad, Edward .-^ 
 You ought to go. Why, to judge by all 
 these books I should think you know a lot of 
 languages already, don't you ? " 
 
 '' None perfectly ; but I intend to travel 
 some day. I have only the evenings at my 
 own disposal and " 
 
 *' Saturday afternoons, when discontented 
 sisters take up all your time," she interrupted. 
 
 " I am glad to have been of use to you. 
 Now you had better go down and tell 
 mother, and write your letter at once," he 
 said, as he opened the door for her. 
 
 ''Well, I am awfully obliged to you. I 
 hope you'll find somebody to help you as 
 nicely in your hour of despair."
 
 148 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " * Despair ! ' " he repeated. '' What a big 
 word for such an ordinary sensation as dis- 
 content ! * Despair ! ' What a big word to 
 be uttered in such a commonplace, modern 
 little house ! " 
 
 " Ah, but it's not uttered about a common- 
 place, modern little man," she cried, laugh- 
 ing. *' Why, if anything awful happened to 
 you, you would not merely have an hour's 
 crumble like I have had, it would be like 
 an earthquake in your life. And when that 
 happens may I be well out of the way, 
 that's all." 
 
 " There, my dear girl, leave off talking 
 heroics," he cried, retreating back into his 
 room. He repeated Jessie's words to him- 
 self as he changed his coat : " ' These horrid 
 little roads seem glorified for their sakes.' I 
 suppose I know what she means ? " And 
 he again went to the window and stood long 
 looking across to the Vicarage.
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA, 1 49 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Ada King stood jogging her baby up and 
 down at the drawing-room window of Dr. 
 King's villa. She and Tom King had been 
 married about four years. They lived with 
 her father-in-law, a widower. The Kings 
 had a very good practice between them, and 
 Ada's home was larger and much better 
 furnished than Byron Villa in the adjacent 
 road, where her mother still lived. 
 
 Again it was summer, and a Saturday 
 afternoon. The window was open, and 
 the baby made vigorous but unavailing 
 efforts to clutch the golden laburnum that 
 the slight wind was blowing now towards, 
 now away from him. His mother continued 
 to jog him up and down, crooning snatches 
 of " Robin Adair."
 
 150 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 Presently, round the corner, swift, deter- 
 mined footsteps were heard. Ada King 
 paused in her song, and held the child 
 arrested at arms' length while she listened. 
 
 '' Edward ! " she cried. " I thought it must 
 be you ; how nice ! No time to come in ? 
 Well, never mind, stand there and look at 
 your nephew, and tell me the news. Did 
 mother hear from Jess last night ? and has she 
 found anybody to give the new kitten to ? " 
 
 "The Chandernagore children have got 
 the kitten, and Jess wrote by this mail ; here 
 is the letter for you. Allow me to offer my 
 usual remark, that matrimony agrees with 
 you. Here, give me the boy. Come to 
 me, old chap." 
 
 *' He simply loves you to take him, next 
 to Tom, of course. I'm glad I am not grow- 
 ing too utterly hideous ; fat girls like me 
 often do, you know. I say, Edward, don't 
 let him eat that laburnum blossom. Can't he 
 have your watch to play with ? " 
 
 ** Jess seems very jolly, doesn't she ? " 
 asked Edward Hay, as, swinging his nephew 
 on to his shoulder, he watched his sister
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 151 
 
 glancing rapidly over the thin foreign letter 
 he had given her. 
 
 " Gracious ! Whatever does she mean by 
 this absurd message to you — ' Tell Edward 
 I darn all my stockings most religiously, and 
 feel sure I shall ever continue to wish to 
 do so ^ ? " 
 
 Her brother laughed, and answered — 
 
 " Oh, only a little joke she and I had 
 before she went away." 
 
 ''Who would have thought India would 
 be her next destination ? Our little Jess 
 right hand to those nice people ever since 
 she answered that advertisement. Awfully 
 plucky of her. I see she says she has re- 
 ceived those books she asked you to send 
 out to her. Jess used not to be any more 
 booky than Gus or I. Of course you are the 
 only really clever one in our family. How 
 amusing of her to think of coming back to 
 train as a hospital nurse ! Just what she 
 always wanted to be. Well, I suppose I 
 may keep this letter to show to Tom '^/' 
 
 " Oh yes, I suppose so," said her brother, 
 somewhat absently.
 
 152 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 Mrs. King regarded him admiringly as he 
 took a step to the gate, hoisting the boy 
 high up that he might clutch the red roses 
 growing on the wire archway over it. 
 
 " Guess who has been to see me this 
 afternoon," she demanded, when she had 
 feasted her affectionate eyes sufficiently on 
 her brother and her child. 
 
 " Who ? " he cried, without turning his 
 head. 
 
 " Herbert Moore. He only arrived last 
 night. He tells me he likes his curacy 
 immensely, and he asked me to tell you he 
 hopes you will go up there to-morrow after- 
 noon ; he wants to see you. Oh, and that 
 Colonel Green is staying at the Vicarage 
 again." 
 
 This time there was no answer from the 
 gate. Ada King sighed. 
 
 " Gus is going up to tea there to-morrow ; 
 you might walk up together," she remarked. 
 
 " I am on my way there now," said her 
 brother. 
 
 " Oh, are you, dear ? Well, then, give me 
 the boy, and don't stop another minute. Oh,
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 1 53 
 
 you beauty, don't you just love to pull uncle's 
 hair with your fat fist ? " 
 
 Edward Hay approached the window and 
 handed the child in to its mother. Then, 
 smoothing down his ruffled hair, he put on his 
 hat, which he had taken off for the baby's con- 
 venience, and looked at his sister's beaming 
 face, as though he were about to speak. Her 
 happiness was infectious, he smiled at her. 
 
 " Edward, oh, my dear, I do believe you 
 have something good to tell me. Is it — oh, 
 is it anything to do with the partnership ? 
 Tell me quick. Has uncle said anything 
 about it 1 " 
 
 '' Yes, he has." 
 
 '' Oh, how lovely ! What does mother 
 say?" 
 
 " I have not told her yet. I shall tell her 
 to-night. Poor old Reggie ! If he had not 
 died I should never have had this offer, at 
 any rate not for years to come." 
 
 " Oh yes you would. Cousin Reg never 
 was good at business ; I have often heard 
 uncle say so himself. Besides, I should think 
 he would have been only too thankful to
 
 154 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 keep you with him, anyway ; so clever, so 
 steady, and knowing such a lot about 
 languages and drawing. And so frightfully 
 good-looking too ! " 
 
 He burst out laughing. 
 
 *' Sisterly partiality. Don't forget that 
 your brother is only a grave old business 
 man, after all." 
 
 *' He happens to be ; but he is fit to be in 
 any profession, which is better than being 
 in a profession and only fit to be a business 
 man. Besides, I don't know why I say 
 ' only a business man,' for people's callings 
 don't matter much. It is what they are 
 themselves that matters ; that is what father 
 used to say, I'm sure." 
 
 Her brother smiled at her vehemence. 
 " Well, good-bye," he said. 
 
 '* Oh, stop. I say, Edward, may I tell 
 Tom?" 
 
 He hesitated — a very unusual thing with 
 him. 
 
 " Can't you wait ? " he asked. 
 
 *' Of course, but what for .-^ " she said, in 
 a disappointed voice.
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 1 55 
 
 ''Till I give you leave. There, there, 
 perhaps only till to-night," he cried joyously, 
 as he kissed his hand to the crowing baby 
 and went out at the gate. 
 
 He turned back and leaned over It, as 
 though he would say more. But after 
 watching her a moment he strode away up 
 the road. 
 
 Ada King left the window suddenly, with 
 an Irritated gesture ; she put the child 
 down on the floor with some toys, and sat 
 down to her sewing. Presently her husband 
 came In. She did not rush to greet him, 
 as was her wont, but sat still with her eyes 
 on her work. He came up to her, put his 
 hand under her chin, and turned her face 
 upwards. Her eyes were full of tears. 
 
 " What's up } " he demanded. 
 
 The tears ran over, and, between laughing 
 and crying, she said — 
 
 " Oh, Tom, Edward has just gone up to the 
 Vicarage to propose to Flora Moore, and of 
 course she won't have him. Isn't It awful .-* " 
 
 Tom King drew up a chair beside her and 
 sat down.
 
 156 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 " How do you know ? " he asked. 
 
 ** From his manner. He has just been 
 here. I always hoped something would 
 happen before he had the chance to do it." 
 And Mrs. King dried her eyes vigorously. 
 
 *' It was bound to come," declared her 
 husband. '' What an ass he is to have been 
 taken in by that plausible, pretty little flirt 
 all these years ! " 
 
 '' I wish Gus had never had her for a 
 friend ; I am sure she only put up with her 
 because she was so fond of Herbert. And 
 now we can't cut her as I should like to do. 
 I begin to wish Gus and Herbert weren't 
 engaged at all, I declare I do." 
 
 '' Oh, rubbish ! Herbert is a very good 
 fellow ; he and Gus are right enough. And 
 as for dear old Ned, he must just get over 
 this like many a better man has had to do 
 before him." 
 
 '' But, Tom dear, why should not Flora 
 like him ? She has got money, and Edward 
 is not a pauper, and will soon be in a very 
 good position." 
 
 " My dear child, have you not discovered
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA, 157 
 
 yet that girls like Flora Moore only like us 
 men as an audience ? They are not capable 
 of liking us as individuals. Just think what 
 an audience Ned has been to her all this 
 time, noticing every trick of her dress and 
 actions and words, always adoring, always 
 ready at every moment when she did not 
 happen to have any one else, thankful for 
 a glance, drunk with a careless word of 
 approbation, simply grovelling on receiving 
 the most empty confidence. Why, the poor 
 chap has been making a perfect spectacle of 
 himself, and I for one am thankful he is 
 going to be shut out of his fool's paradise 
 once and for ever." 
 
 " But, dear, it's perfectly disgusting that 
 she should never get a rap on the knuckles 
 herself. It will be a most awful blow to 
 Edward, and she won't suffer a bit." 
 
 " Not a bit," returned her husband, cheer- 
 fully, as he stooped to set up some wooden 
 ninepins his boy was playing with. 
 
 ''Well, I think she is an odious little toad, 
 in spite of her scents and her curls and her 
 lovely clothes ! " declared Mrs. King, thrust-
 
 158 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 ing her handkerchief vehemently back into 
 her pocket. *' Edward will never be the 
 same again. Suppose I had pinned all my 
 faith on to you, and you had gone and 
 married somebody else, I should simply have 
 died." 
 
 " Oh, pooh ! Nonsense, my dear child.'* 
 
 *' I should," she persisted, '' if you had led 
 me on like Flora has led Edward. And he 
 is not like me ; he is really romantic, and I 
 am not, so I expect he has woven webs of 
 extra glory round that wicked little thing. 
 x\nd he is so silent ; he will just suffer and 
 suffer, all to himself" 
 
 " It is a nasty business. I am afraid Flora 
 is a tolerably bad lot. I pity the man who 
 saddles himself with her in the end. Poor 
 old Ned! Never mind, Ada, he will find 
 somebody else some day, when he has got 
 over this, and be a better man in the long 
 run, too." 
 
 ** It is a horrid process to have to go 
 through before you can be ' a better man,' " 
 bemoaned Mrs. King. " I'm sure I have 
 talked to him about the visits of that elderly
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 1 59 
 
 widower, Colonel Green, enough to have 
 opened the eyes of any one less infatuated 
 than Edward." 
 
 " Instructive sight ! Circe and her victims 
 in the garden of a respectable, monied, 
 suburban Vicar ! I think you and I had 
 better step up to-morrow and look at them." 
 
 **Who was Circe, Tom dear ?" 
 
 " An ancestress of Flora Moore's." 
 
 *' Oh, I suppose, then, it is in the family 
 to behave like that ? " 
 
 *' I suppose so. No, by Jove ! It is a 
 shame to take you in. I'll tell you all about 
 Circe another time. I wish you would step 
 up to the cricket-ground with me now, if 
 you have nothing better to do.'* 
 
 Mrs. King flew to get ready, and her 
 brother's affairs went out of her head for a 
 few hours. 
 
 Meanwhile Edward Hay, striding along 
 the dusty roads, arrived speedily at the 
 Vicarage gate. 
 
 The neat carriage-drive was bordered on 
 either side by bushes of evergreen ; through 
 the bushes, on the right, was a path leading
 
 l6o SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 on to a trim lawn, laid out with flower 
 beds, and bare of all trees except one ash of 
 quite respectable dimensions. In the shade 
 of this tree a wicker tea-table was spread, 
 and lying back in a luxurious lounging-chair 
 was a very beautiful girl ; on the grass beside 
 her lay a youth gazing up into her face, and 
 on the other side a middle-aged man sat, 
 holding in his hands, and feeding with cake, 
 a fine King Charles, with a blue ribbon round 
 its neck. 
 
 At the tea-table presided a young man in 
 clerical dress, bearing, on his honest bright 
 countenance, a slight resemblance to the 
 girl. 
 
 It was this group that Edward Hay saw 
 as he came out of the path on to the lawn. 
 In an instant he marked the soft folds of the 
 dress that swept over the low lounge on to 
 the grass, the glitter of the rings on the deli- 
 cate hand, the frill of lace that hung from it 
 as it reached out for a teacup, and the shape 
 of the dark head resting against the white 
 embroidered satin cushion. There did not 
 seem to him to be anything in the garden
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. l6l 
 
 except that one bewildering form, and the 
 sweet laugh that met his ears seemed full 
 of the promise of joy for him as her voice 
 said — 
 
 " Ah, here comes Edward Hay." 
 
 '' Well done, Ned, old man ; how good it is 
 to see you again ! " cried the young clergyman, 
 heartily ; and Herbert Moore got up and 
 came forward. " Green, you know, and this 
 is Daisy Moore, a cousin. I believe there is 
 a tradition that he was christened Godfrey, 
 but he has always been called Daisy, probably 
 on account of his extreme dissimilarity to 
 that simple and innocent flower." 
 
 " I won't have my Daisy sat upon," said 
 the girl, in a low sweet voice ; '' he reads 
 poetry divinely, and carries all my parcels 
 when I go into the district. I shall miss you 
 dreadfully, Daisy, when the Long is over 
 and you go up again to cram more wisdom 
 into your nice ugly head. No, Edward, no 
 more cake, thank you. Colonel Green has 
 been offering that plate to me regularly every 
 three minutes since four o'clock." 
 
 " You took some every time, so I con- 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 l62 SARAH : A SURVIVAL, 
 
 sidered I was doing right," returned Colonel 
 Green, looking straight at her. 
 
 '' Yes, oh yes, certainly, but there comes an 
 end at last to all sweet things," she replied 
 lazily. " For instance, I want you to move 
 and let Mr. Hay have your chair by me. 
 Come here, Edward, and tell me what you 
 think of my new photographs." 
 
 Colonel Green rose, deposited the dog on 
 his mistress's lap, and, going to the table, 
 helped himself to strawberries. 
 
 Herbert Moore tilted his chair on to its 
 back legs, and, leaning back, clasped his hands 
 behind his head and began to talk to his 
 cousin. Colonel Green listened awhile, then 
 said — 
 
 " Daisy, do you feel inclined to take my 
 boy on the continent for a month ? " 
 
 Daisy Moore got up from the grass, a sur- 
 prised, pleased look on his face, and sauntered 
 up to the table. 
 
 '' I'm not exactly as fresh as a daisy, as 
 Herbert said just now. Will you trust him 
 with me ? " 
 
 Colonel Green laughed.
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA, 1 63 
 
 "Come and walk round the garden and 
 have a smoke and talk it over," he said. 
 
 As they walked away, Herbert Moore 
 glanced at his sister and his friend, then 
 said — 
 
 "Well, Flora, I'm going down to the 
 cricket-field. You will stay and dine, Ned, 
 of course ; my father will like to see you." 
 
 Then he too walked away, and Edward 
 Hay found himself alone with Flora Moore. 
 It seemed to him quite natural that every- 
 body should have left them alone together 
 under the ash tree ; it seemed to him that 
 she had waited behind because it was sweet 
 to her to be with him. He sat in a state 
 of such excitement that he feared to trust 
 himself to speak. He watched her hand 
 smoothing the dog's head, the dog he had 
 given her ; he watched the long curled eye- 
 lashes as they lay on her cheek ; he watched 
 the rings of her dark hair as they lay on her 
 forehead ; he had learnt the pattern of the lace 
 on her handkerchief, stuck in her waistband 
 in company with a bunch of white roses ; and 
 he had marked the beautiful shape of her
 
 164 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 daintily shod feet. The curled lashes slowly 
 raised themselves, and she fixed her eyes 
 upon his face. 
 
 '' Do not let me keep you ; everybody 
 except us seems to have gone to the cricket- 
 field. I find it too hot." 
 
 '' I wish to stay," he managed to say. 
 
 " Ah yes ; you always are so oppressively 
 self-denying. Now, with such a face as yours 
 you could afford to be as disagreeable as you 
 liked. How is your uncle, and that clever 
 bustling aunt of yours } " 
 
 He told her, then laid before her his good 
 news about the partnership. 
 
 " Dear me, how very interesting ! You 
 will be able to leave business soon, I suppose 
 — when you have saved enough, I mean — 
 and be something else, will you not ? " 
 
 " Leave business ! " he echoed. '' Why } 
 What else could I start doing at my age } 
 Why should I leave business ? " 
 
 " Oh, because your father and your grand- 
 father were in the Church, and your great- 
 grandfather in the Army. It is a pity 
 you should come down," she said tran-
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA, 1 65 
 
 quilly, her lovely face covered with dimpling 
 smiles. 
 
 "Come down ! " he repeated. '' I do not 
 quite see that. We must move with the times. 
 Great numbers of men go into business 
 now, just as great numbers of women earn 
 their own living ; the same class who fifty 
 years ago would have done neither one nor 
 the other." 
 
 " Dear me ! You are quite eloquent. Do 
 not eet excited. Of course we must move with 
 the times ; that is why my father is a clergy- 
 man, whereas his father was only a brewer." 
 
 " The brewer earned the money to send 
 his son to the University with ; the poor 
 vicar had none, so his son has had to go 
 into business." 
 
 " To make money that Ids son in the 
 future may be able to follow a profession ; 
 I see," she said, smiling up in his face. 
 
 At these words all his vehemence suddenly 
 died away. 
 
 '* You are glad to hear of my good fortune, 
 at any rate, are you not, Flora ? " he asked 
 in a low voice, bending towards her.
 
 l66 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " Of course I am ; so will papa be. You 
 must tell him at dinner. I wonder where 
 Colonel Green and Daisy have gone to ? 
 They are always so amusing." 
 
 He laid his hand upon hers. 
 
 *' I want to talk to you, Flora," he said. 
 
 " Is not that just what you have been 
 doing ever since the others left us ? " she 
 asked, yawning. Then, as he said nothing, 
 she looked at him. " Now pray do not 
 make love to me ; you are the only 
 man who has not done it yet," she said 
 languidly. 
 
 " What else have I been doing all these 
 years ? " he demanded. 
 
 She laughed a laugh so lovely that, even 
 in his excitement, he was conscious of 
 wishing that she would prolong it. She 
 looked at him out of those marvellously 
 fringed eyes with cool daring, and said — 
 
 '* I suppose you are alluding to that far- 
 away day when you were silly enough to 
 ask me if I would wait for you, and I was 
 obliging enough to say yes, unless I saw 
 any one that pleased me better ? "
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 167 
 
 He Stood towering over her, one hand 
 leaning on the tea-table beside him, his eyes 
 riveted on her face ; he spoke in a low- 
 voice — 
 
 '' Yes. I am alluding to that far-away day, 
 as well as to a hundred others. Oh, Flora, 
 do not play with me. You have always 
 been so good to me. You have known 
 that I could not speak before. I am in a 
 position to do so now. You must listen to 
 me." 
 
 '' If I must, I must, I suppose," she said, 
 with a shrug of her shoulders ; then, unfurling 
 her fan, she settled her head more luxuri- 
 ously against her cushion, and, gently fanning 
 herself, smiled up in his face and awaited 
 what he had to say. 
 
 He stood there and poured out to her 
 his hopes of years, his plans for the future — 
 her future and his. He waxed eloquent ; 
 he lavished upon her all the endearing names 
 that had for years lain ready in his heart 
 for her. She never interrupted him, but 
 continued throughout to listen and, in an 
 intermittent manner, to fan herself.
 
 1 68 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 He ceased at last, his strong voice sinking 
 almost to a whisper from the excess of his 
 feelings. It was quite still in the garden. 
 An audacious sparrow hopped up, picked 
 up a crumb of cake that had fallen on the 
 grass, and flew with it in his beak on to a 
 lilac bush near by. 
 
 '* Look at him ; sparrows are always so 
 daring," said Flora Moore, in her silvery 
 voice, pointing with her lace-ruffled hand. 
 
 " What ? " he asked bluntly. 
 
 " I only said sparrows are always so 
 daring ; less plebeian birds have more 
 modesty." 
 
 '' I don't understand you. Oh, Flora, 
 how can you attend to anything else in such 
 a moment as this ? You have heard all I 
 have been saying. Be serious, my sweet 
 one, and answer me." 
 
 '' My dear Edward, do I understand you 
 seriously to mean that you have been making 
 me an offer of marriage '^. Because you 
 know really it is very foolish of you. Even 
 the dullest man, and you are not dull, must 
 have taken to heart my abuse of business-
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA, 1 69 
 
 men all these years. I am sure I have told 
 you a hundred times that nothing would 
 induce me to marry a man in business. 
 Have I not ? " she persisted, leaning for- 
 ward and tapping his hand with her fan, 
 as though to arouse him from the rigid 
 stare he was fixing on her. 
 
 *'Yes, you have," he assented mechanic- 
 ally. " People often say those foolish sort 
 of things. I paid no attention to them. 
 You do not really mean it now." 
 
 *' But I do mean it. You have always 
 been the dearest fellow to have about, and 
 papa is so fond of you. I am sure it is 
 natural you should have been coming here 
 so often to see me. Why, I was only a 
 child when I first knew you. Besides, you 
 are only one of many ; when a girl does 
 not happen to be too dreadfully ugly, of 
 course there are always heaps of men to 
 say pretty things to her. Do not stand 
 glaring at me like that, but take your 
 dismissal as a lover, and retain my acquaint- 
 ance as a friend." 
 
 " I do not understand you," he said
 
 170 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 hoarsely. '' Are you telling me that you will 
 not marry me ? " 
 
 *' Yes, my dear, dense Edward, I am 
 telling you that I will not marry you." 
 
 He fell down on the grass, spread his 
 arms over her, and burled his face In the 
 folds of her dress ; he shook all over, but he 
 did not speak. 
 
 Flora Moore's eyebrows went up ; she 
 shut her fan Impatiently. 
 
 ** I should have thought you would have 
 had more self-control," she remarked. He 
 made no movement. '' Don't kneel there, 
 Edward ; you look like the pictures in 
 Sunday-school books of pious young men 
 praying, or husbands at their wives' death- 
 beds. Get up ! " 
 
 He did not seem to hear her. 
 
 Presently she leaned forward and put her 
 hand on his head and watched complacently 
 her white fingers straying In his brown curls. 
 
 ** Silly man, to take It to heart." 
 
 A shudder shook him. 
 
 ** You have been the mainspring of my 
 life," he said in a broken voice. " I suppose
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA, 171 
 
 I am not good enough for you ; you would 
 not have married me even if I had had a 
 profession." 
 
 " Oh yes, I dare say I should," she said 
 cheerfully. *' I always thought you were going 
 to give up business. But, as we have been 
 having such a very intimate talk together, I 
 don't mind telling you what is a secret at 
 present, that I am engaged to Colonel Green." 
 
 He started up and again stood beside her ; 
 his face was white and stern. 
 
 ''Since when?" he demanded in a loud 
 voice. 
 
 ** Let me see," she said, clasping her hands 
 behind her head and knitting her brows — 
 " let me see, since about a year, I think." 
 
 ''A year? And you have let me come 
 and go all that time, knowing that I con- 
 sidered you practically engaged to me ?" 
 
 She nodded, smiling. 
 
 "Yes, about a year." 
 
 He turned away and strode up the lawn. 
 
 Flora Moore rose, shook out her dress, re- 
 adjusted her roses, yawned, and, sitting down 
 on the side of the lounge, picked up her hat
 
 172 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 and began pulling out its lace bows. From 
 time to time she glanced at the tall, broad- 
 shouldered man at the other end of the 
 garden. 
 
 " He will come back," she said to herself. 
 '' What a pity he takes things so seriously ! 
 He really looked extremely handsome while 
 he was proposing ; I think I should have 
 stopped him if he had looked ugly. The 
 very idea of me being buried in some villa a 
 degree or two larger than Dr. King's, or 
 some unfashionable, eminently respectable, 
 but deadly dull terrace in town ! What 
 vanity these men have ! " 
 
 She tied on her hat, pulled her curls out 
 afresh on her forehead, then, stretching out 
 her hand to the table, she daintily dipped a 
 lump of sugar into the cream and held it out 
 for the King Charles to beg for. 
 
 The dog sat up, the girl bent forward, the 
 sun shone full over her lovely face and lit up 
 the jewel that clasped her throat, and that 
 flamed from her finger. She smiled at the 
 dog and talked lovingly to him, in her 
 caressing voice.
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 1 73 
 
 '' Do you feel better ? " she asked wln- 
 somely, looking up at Edward Hay, as he at 
 last drew near. 
 
 He stopped a few paces from her. He 
 looked long at her. His eyes were full of 
 tears, his voice was full of misery, as he 
 said at last very slowly — 
 
 ** How beautiful you are ! " 
 
 She laughed, drew the white roses from 
 her belt, and tossed them to him. 
 
 *' There's for your pretty speech, which, 
 though it lacks originality, proves you want 
 to make peace." 
 
 The roses fell at his feet unheeded, his 
 eyes were still fixed on her. 
 
 *' How beautiful you are ! " he repeated 
 again, '' and how wicked ! I think you must 
 be quite the wickedest girl that has ever 
 been made." 
 
 " You are very rude, Edward." 
 
 *' Am I .^ I dare say." He replied with the 
 same slow painful utterance. " I wish you 
 could die before you are able to do any more 
 harm. I think I should not mind so much 
 if I could think of you as really dead."
 
 174 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 " What nonsense ! " she cried impatiently. 
 '* I am going indoors. You had better go 
 home." 
 
 '* I am going. Good-bye." 
 
 He stooped, picked up the roses, smoothed 
 out their crushed petals, put them to his lips, 
 and gently laid them beside her on the 
 lounge. She watched him with a disdainful 
 expression. 
 
 " Never mind those old roses, they are 
 all faded now." 
 
 " They must not be trodden to pieces ; 
 they are what jj/^?^ have worn," he said. 
 
 '' You may take them with you, if you like ; 
 something to remember your dead love by, 
 and your uncivil speeches. You really have 
 been very rude, you know. Confess that I 
 have been very good to forgive you so 
 easily." * 
 
 He drew his hand wearily across his eyes, 
 as if he were dreaming. 
 
 " Vote good ? Do you know when I think 
 of you, as I know I shall do, I shall always 
 think of you as a devil. I think you must 
 be the sort of creature that tempts a man
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 1 75 
 
 to kill you, and then to kill himself out of 
 contempt for having done it." 
 
 Flora Moore ceased to smile. 
 
 '* I am sure, if you feel so wicked as that, 
 it will be only right for us not to see any 
 more of you. I had no idea you had such 
 an ungovernable temper. I must really beg 
 that you will not come up here to-morrow 
 with Gus, or indeed at all, for the present." 
 
 '' It is my one prayer that I may never see 
 your face again." 
 
 She got up and stood facing him. 
 
 '' Shake hands ; we need not part in anger," 
 she urged. 
 
 '' What ? You would stoop to be friendly 
 with me after all I have been saying '^. It is 
 not good-nature that prompts you ; it is your 
 vanity, it is of a piece with all the rest. And 
 yet," here the scorn in his voice died out — 
 '' and yet, oh how beautiful you are ! Why 
 should you be so false ? " 
 
 '' Poor fellow ! " she said gently, as she put 
 her hand on his arm, '' you do not look so 
 violent now ; I will relent, you may come and 
 see me to-morrow, if you like."
 
 176 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 He shook off her hand. 
 
 '' You do not understand what you have 
 done, not even yet. I begin to think you 
 never will. I am going now." 
 
 He picked up his hat and stick, then 
 remained looking at her long and silently, 
 as she stood there in her white dress in 
 the sunshine, her scarlet lips apart with a 
 little disdainful smile. For the space of a 
 long moment, which seemed to him an hour, 
 they remained thus, looking at each other, 
 then, with a heavy sigh, he turned and went 
 slowly away out of the garden, leaving her 
 standing smiling under the ash tree. 
 
 Not many days afterwards, when he was 
 writing some letters in the office, his uncle 
 passed through in conversation with a tall 
 thin man. Edward Hay glanced at him, 
 struck by his distinguished bearing and 
 the quick keen glances he cast around him. 
 
 '* Well, well," he was saying, '' I have 
 had more time to devote to books, it is true, 
 than you have, but, my dear fellow, do not 
 forget that ' They do most by books who 
 could do much without them ; and he that
 
 THE HAYS OF BYRON VILLA. 1 77 
 
 chiefly owes himself unto himself is the 
 substantial man.' " 
 
 Edward Hay recognized the quotation, 
 and for a moment he once more breathed in 
 the old, loved atmosphere of his father's 
 study. 
 
 '' Who is that ? " he asked when his 
 uncle returned from seeing his friend to 
 the door. 
 
 '* Mr. Thornborough of Meads. As lads 
 we were at the same school for a short time. 
 He gets all he wants at Lawsons. He 
 doesn't often come to town, but he generally 
 looks in to see me. A fine example of a 
 country gentleman, Edward. Though his 
 life is so different, yet he knows more about 
 our business than many men who are in it. 
 I value his friendship highly." 
 
 His nephew went on with the French 
 letter he was answering. There were then 
 people who did not estimate men in business 
 as Flora Moore did, people like Mr. 
 Thornborough. 
 
 VOL.
 
 PART III. 
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY, 
 
 " Quelle race d'hommes ! quels types admirables ! La 
 race basque est etremement remarquable par la beaute 
 de son type, qui, grace \ la rarete des croisements, s'est 
 conserve avec une purete surprenante. . . . Un Mont- 
 morency disait a Tun d'eux : ' Savez-vous que nous 
 datons de mille ans ? ' ' Et nous/ repondit le Basque, 
 * nous ne comptons plus.' . . . Le Basque a vu toutes 
 les nations passer devant lui ; nos jeunes antiquites lui 
 font pitie."
 
 Ibl 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ** It is a very pleasant proposal. I should 
 scarcely have given Meakin credit for so 
 clear and well-arranged a plan," declared 
 Dan Thornborough, passing the letter to 
 his sister. 
 
 She adjusted her glasses, read it through, 
 then passed it to her niece. 
 
 " My turn next, please," laughed Gideon, 
 who was sitting opposite to his cousin. 
 
 "We shall all have time to finish our 
 breakfast before Sarah has sufficiently 
 revelled in the plan to allow her to speak," 
 said his uncle. 
 
 " I think, now that Sarah has attained to 
 the age of eighteen years, her mind might 
 be capable of benefitting by the sight of a 
 foreign country," announced Aunt Rachel.
 
 l82 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " Pass your uncle^s cup, Gideon, if you 
 please." 
 
 " I conclude it is on the cards that Sarah 
 is to go abroad with the Meakins, isn't it, 
 Uncle Dan ? " 
 
 ** There, read it," cried Sarah, sticking the 
 letter into the toast-rack and pushing it 
 across the broad space of white cloth be- 
 tween them. " Read the end part, Gideon, 
 it is about you going ; the first part is only 
 about me." 
 
 *' I consider it an act of unprecedented 
 folly for Mabel to take the children. Home 
 is the only suitable place for babies of five 
 years of age," remarked Miss Thornborough. 
 
 " But Mabel intends to stay away three 
 or four months, Aunt Rachel. Percy can't 
 stop, of course. Gideon and I are only 
 asked for a short time. Mabel tells us so 
 on the second page, where she says there 
 are sure to be people returning for me 
 to travel with. That would not be neces- 
 sary, of course, as Gideon would be with 
 
 me." 
 
 "Your uncle and I cannot permit that,
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 1 83 
 
 my dear," said Miss Thornborough, looking 
 meaningly at her brother. 
 
 '* Can't permit what ? " demanded Sarah. 
 
 '' Bosh ! " ejaculated Gideon, under his 
 breath. 
 
 " Oblige me, Sarah, by fetching the 
 green manuscript-book — the one labelled 
 ' Foreign,' " said their uncle. 
 
 " Let me go," cried Gideon, starting up. 
 
 But Sarah was already at the door. 
 
 "■ I think the question of the return journey 
 may be with safety deferred till the time 
 comes," said Dan Thornborough, as he 
 leisurely spread his marmalade. 
 
 '* Oh, certainly," assented his sister. ** I 
 only mean that Sarah is so wild ; it is the 
 more necessary that you and I should take 
 counsel concerning her." 
 
 " True, Rachel, most true ; we will con- 
 tinue to do so as occasion may require." 
 
 Gideon said nothins^^. He was cuttine 
 spiced beef at the sideboard. The season 
 was the end of January, and Christmas fare 
 still lingered in old-fashioned Meads. 
 
 Gideon Leigh was paying dearly for his
 
 184 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 latest piece of sport. At the end of the 
 previous term he had gone duck-shooting 
 with a man from his college. The weather 
 had been so unusually severe that they had 
 left even their dogs behind. Late into the 
 inclement night they stayed out in a wild, 
 marshy spot. Stiff and soaked through they 
 managed to get home. His friend was none 
 the worse, but Gideon had, for the first time 
 in his life, taken to his bed, and there lay 
 racked with such aches and pains that it was 
 not till the New Year that he was able to travel 
 to Meads, where he was slowly recovering. 
 
 Bearing all this in mind, Dan Thorn- 
 borough remarked, as his nephew sat down 
 again — 
 
 " I would go if I were you ; Percy seems 
 to think the sun will burn the cold out of 
 you. The spring is inclement in England, 
 and more especially here, and your joints 
 seem to me to require oiling still." 
 
 '* They do," laughed Gideon. *' I shall 
 have to miss a term, but I suppose I had 
 better go. I cannot carry a gun even yet, 
 and the two Georges had to hoist me up
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY, 185 
 
 yesterday when I rode over to my father's 
 with Sarah. Did they tell you ? " 
 
 '* Ay, they told me. Shall you object to 
 Percy as a travelling companion ? " 
 
 '' Lord, no. His fussiness is of real use 
 abroad ; he has the courage of his convic- 
 tions. When we were in the Engadine last 
 summer, we got on like a house on fire. I 
 believe he learns his guide-book by heart 
 before he starts — prices, weights, measures, 
 and all. No, Percy is a trifle of a bore 
 when at home, but he is not to be despised 
 when abroad." 
 
 Here Sarah returned, and laying down the 
 green manuscript-book beside her uncle, she 
 kissed the top of his head and demanded — 
 
 "What does Percy mean by ' Euscarra,' 
 and how on earth does he expect us to 
 enjoy ourselves in a place where we can't 
 talk?" 
 
 '' Sit down, Sarah ; your &gg and your tea 
 are already cold, and, my dear, how loudly 
 you speak. You often quite make me start." 
 
 " I am sorry. Aunt Rachel, but really I 
 think you should be accustomed to me by
 
 1 86 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 now," said her niece, laughing. " It is all 
 your fault ; you have helped me to grow up 
 so strong that of course I talk loudly." 
 
 '* Silence ! " commanded Gideon. " When 
 Uncle Dan opens that green book let us 
 be all ears, as when we were infants. He 
 is about to answer your terrible craving for 
 knowledge. 
 
 'But if the first Eve 
 
 Hard doom did receive, 
 When only one apple had she, 
 
 What a punishment new, 
 
 Shall be found out for you, 
 Who tasting, have robbed the whole tree ? ' " 
 
 He nodded at his cousin with mock 
 gravity as he repeated the verse. 
 
 "Well, I have not nearly robbed the 
 whole tree yet. I only asked Uncle Dan 
 what 'Euscarra' was, and you want to 
 know too, only you are such a lazy boy. 
 You like me to find out, and then tell you, 
 it saves you trouble." 
 
 " You have said it. The case stands just 
 so. Proceed, instruct us, Uncle Dan." 
 
 Miss Thornborough looked doubtfully at 
 him.
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 187 
 
 " I fear," she said, '' those Hnes are rather 
 irreverent, are they not, Gideon ? Such 
 lio^ht mention of our First Parents should 
 be discouraged. And though Sarah is so 
 frequently to blame, I cannot in this in- 
 stance censure her very proper desire for 
 understandinof her brother-in-law's letter." 
 
 Dan Thornborough had been turning over 
 the leaves of the old extract-book, he had 
 found what he wanted, and now waited with 
 his finger on the line of writing. He ob- 
 served now his nephew, now his niece, an 
 amused, interested look on his face, and, 
 before Gideon could answer his aunt, he 
 began — 
 
 " I have here some passages which I have 
 copied from time to time about the remark- 
 able people among whom you will shortly be 
 thrown. Just sit five minutes while I read 
 them to you." 
 
 ** ' The '' Euscarra " is the proper term for a 
 certain speech or language supposed to have 
 been at one time prevalent throughout Spain, 
 but which is at present confined to certain 
 districts, both on the French and Spanish
 
 1 88 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 side of the Pyrenees, which are laved by the 
 waters of the Cantabrian Gulf, or Bay of 
 Biscay. This language is commonly known 
 as the Basque, or Biscayan, which words are 
 mere modifications of the word "" Euscarra," 
 the consonant B having been prefixed for 
 the sake of euphony.' 
 
 " Then here is a translation from another 
 work on the subject of those interesting 
 people. Notice the marked traits which 
 separate them from their most intimate 
 neighbours in France and Spain. ' Their 
 patriarchal character, their nautical tastes, 
 their gaiety stamped with melancholy, their 
 sweetness and their irascibility, their pre- 
 judice against all persons and things un- 
 familiar to them, their sobriety, their courage, 
 their disdain of money, their ardent love of 
 independence. Who were the ancestors of 
 this strange people ? Whence did they 
 come ? Are they the remainder of the 
 inhabitants of Atlantis, mentioned by Plato, 
 Atlantis that great island next to the Pillars 
 of Hercules, whence the inhabitants might so 
 easily have passed to the mainland before the
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 1 89 
 
 earthquake engulfed it ? Or are they the 
 remains of a migration of a people from the 
 North commanded by Attila ? Or are they 
 descended from those masters of navigation, 
 the Phoenicians, whose king Hiram lent 
 Solomon his fleet to go to Ophir (that country 
 which after the discovery of America was 
 believed to be Peru), to fetch the gold with 
 which Israel decorated the sanctuary of the 
 Temple at Jerusalem ? ' " 
 
 *' There is a great deal more, but I will not 
 detain you. The Spaniards say that Satan 
 once lived seven years in the Basque country, 
 hoping to learn their tongue, but left baffled 
 at the end of that period, declaring that he 
 did not believe they understood it them- 
 selves. 
 
 " Very strange," said Dan Thornborough, 
 leaning back in his chair and looking at his 
 listeners — ''very striange and of deep interest. 
 I have always desired to visit those people 
 myself" 
 
 " It is awfully interesting. Why not come 
 with us, now ? Do !" cried Gideon. 
 
 But his uncle shook his head, and, closing
 
 IQO SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 the green manuscript-book he got up from 
 the breakfast- table with it under his arm, and 
 clasping his hands behind him he slowly- 
 walked out of the room. 
 
 ** He did that last year when I asked him 
 to come to Switzerland with Meakin and 
 me," grumbled Gideon. "• Why won't he 
 ever eo abroad, Aunt Rachel ? " 
 
 '*Ah, my dear boy, that has to do with 
 what happened in his life long before you or 
 Sarah were born. Your uncle dislikes all 
 reference to it. I should be glad of your 
 assistance, Sarah, in the workroom, where I 
 have directions to give to Susan." 
 
 *' I'll come. And look here, Gideon," she 
 added, as her aunt left the room, "you just 
 go to Uncle Dan and help him settle about 
 dates and tickets and things, and be ready 
 for a prowl with me this afternoon. Uncle 
 Dan is going to ride over to Gray's Wick, so 
 he won't want us." 
 
 *' What is he going to Gray's Wick for ? " 
 " To talk business with Mr. Gray." 
 *' Gray ? Is that poor little idiot chap 
 dead at last ? "
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 191 
 
 ** Yes, and the new heir is there now." 
 
 '* What do you think of him ? " 
 
 " Oh, you must often have heard people 
 speak of him ; you know more than I." 
 
 " I do. But I asked whdX yotc thought.'* 
 
 '' I Hke him," declared Sarah ; " he is very 
 clever." 
 
 " Just like you, you always do think such 
 a heap of fellows who run after books," he 
 returned, irritably. 
 
 " Books and horses and dogs and shooting 
 and fifty other things," laughed Sarah. 
 
 '' Gray is a puppy ! " 
 
 *'A pretty elderly dorg," she drawled, 
 imitating an acquaintance. 
 
 Her cousin laughed, in spite of his annoy- 
 ance. 
 
 '* Look here, Sarah, Gray of Gray's 
 Wick is not the sort of man for you to 
 know." 
 
 " Then it is very bad for you to know him 
 either, and I shall tell Uncle Dan what you 
 say, and ask him to forbid you going over to 
 Gray's Wick to play billiards. And it is 
 quite the best table about here. You should
 
 192 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 see it. But no, you must not ; I must protect 
 you from dangerous associations, dear boy." 
 
 '' Oh, Sarah, do be serious. Well, if you 
 
 won't stop I say, of course I will go 
 
 out with you all this afternoon," he shouted 
 after her. 
 
 " All right," he heard her cry, as she rushed 
 down the long passage leading to the work- 
 room and banged a door behind her. 
 
 Miss Thornborough was sitting before a 
 bale of grey flannel. Susan Frant and a 
 housemaid stood in front of her, awaiting 
 orders. The flannel was to be cut up for 
 the yearly needs of an orphanage which for 
 generations the Thornboroughs had sup- 
 ported in the town. 
 
 " Look at this great bale, child ; we cannot 
 move it. What can Houseman mean by 
 sending it up here uncut ? It is the fault 
 of that new man of his, I suppose. I fully 
 intended, with Susan's help, to have had the 
 dozen frocks cut out to take to the matron 
 when I drive into the town after lunch," said 
 Miss Thornborough, in vexed tones. 
 
 Sarah stood considering.
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY, 1 93 
 
 "It is account morning, or I could stay 
 and help," she said. 
 
 '' Yes, my dear, and on no pretext what- 
 ever have I at any time permitted your 
 uncle's hours to be interfered with." 
 
 " There is an hour yet," said her niece, 
 consulting her watch. " You go at once 
 and order dinner, and we three here will 
 measure off the whole bale." 
 
 '' Really, my dear, you are a great help. 
 I must say that of late I have been consider- 
 ably gratified by your readiness of spirit, and 
 by your practical assistance." 
 
 " Oh, Aunt Rachel, you know I have 
 always loved being in the thick of every- 
 thing, only when I was small of course you 
 very naturally did not consider me in my 
 proper sphere. Do you remember my 
 coming down to dessert at that dinner in 
 your new bonnet and cloak ?" 
 
 Here the housemaid showed signs of gig- 
 gling, but was suppressed by Susan Frant. 
 
 Miss Thornborough rose and answered, as 
 she replaced her spectacles in the case that 
 hung at her side — 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 194 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 " I recollect perfectly, my dear, and I gave 
 you for your punishment task a portion 
 of the second canto of Sir Walter Scott's 
 beautiful poem, ' The Lady of the Lake.'" 
 
 *' Of course you did," cried Sarah, laughing 
 *' Don't you remember how I called Gideon, 
 * Back, beardless boy, back Minion,' for 
 months after ? But, come Susan, we must 
 begin. Here, take the scissors ; you cut, I 
 measure, Kate can fold up." 
 
 In their ramble over the frosty country 
 that afternoon, Gideon and Sarah discussed 
 the coming trip from every point of view. 
 Every detail of a journey abroad was new 
 to Sarah, she had never been on a steamer, 
 never attempted to speak in a foreign tongue, 
 her uncle being of the opinion that no 
 language could be satisfactorily learned 
 save in the country where it was spoken 
 They were both in high spirits, and walked 
 rapidly in the keen air. After a while Sarah 
 slipped her arm through Gideon's, and said 
 confidentially — 
 
 " Are you very sorry to have given up 
 going into the Army ? "
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 1 95 
 
 He walked for some time hitting the 
 hedge with his stick and sending the snow 
 flying off it on to the road. 
 
 *' Do you know why I did give it up ? " he 
 asked at last. 
 
 " Not the faintest idea, dear boy," she 
 said in her clear, strong young voice. 
 
 '* You never heard any discussion about 
 Leigh Court or Meads, never heard my 
 father say anything to Uncle Dan ? " 
 
 *' Never," she declared again. 
 
 " Oh, well, then Oh, I say, Sarah, I 
 
 wish I were twenty-one," and he began again to 
 strike the hedges, pressing Sarah's hand more 
 closely against his side with his other arm. 
 
 " You have not long to wait, only till the 
 spring," she said, laughing. " What are you 
 in such a hurry for ? " 
 
 " Wasn't Gray consul out at some place 
 or other ? What a confounded nuisance of 
 him to have inherited Gray's W^ick ! Who 
 wants him here ? " was Gideon's apparently 
 irrelevant remark. 
 
 " What on earth has Mr. Gray to do with 
 your coming of age ? "
 
 196 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 '* Oh, Sarah, you are so dreadfully young," 
 he said dolefully. 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 "So are you, dear boy. But you have 
 been a great puzzle ever since you came 
 home, what Susan calls 'quite touchy' " 
 
 " Not to you, Sarah, surely ? Tm awfully 
 sorry, anyway, but " 
 
 He broke off, and his cousin suddenly 
 withdrew her arm and snatched his stick out 
 of his hand. 
 
 " There ! Now you can't bang the poor 
 hedges any more. I have not had an answer 
 to any of my questions, about the Army, or 
 your being twenty-one, or why Uncle Dan 
 won't go abroad, or anything, and I don't mean 
 to ask again. Poking my nose into other 
 people's affairs is not one of my many virtues. 
 I'm awfully glad you are coming abroad with 
 me." 
 
 '' Are you, truly, honour bright ? " he 
 asked eagerly. 
 
 " Oh, dear boy, it shows you have not the 
 least idea how much I miss you. Fancy 
 your doubting that I am glad ! "
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY, 197 
 
 He crossed to her side of the road, and 
 put his arm through hers ; they fell into 
 step and marched along for a few minutes 
 without saying anything, Sarah dexterously 
 tossing and catching his stick with her left 
 hand, Gideon making grabs at it and finally 
 possessing himself of it. 
 
 Sarah thrust her hand deep into the 
 pocket of her jacket, declaring her fingers 
 were frozen, and then said composedly — 
 
 " I am so glad I am a farmeress ; look at 
 all these acres of land, I suppose lots of girls 
 would march all over it without having the 
 least idea what was going to be put on it ?" 
 
 " Rather ! " said Gideon, admiringly. 
 
 *' You see there is Leigh Court for you to 
 be interested in, and Meads for me. How- 
 jolly it is that we care about the same 
 things ! What a huge boy Fred is growing ! 
 But he is rather spoilt, it is all Aunt Mary's 
 doing. It makes Uncle Dol all the harder 
 on him." 
 
 *' By Jove, yes ! Fred is nearly fifteen. 
 Spoilt ! Yes, worse luck. Poor chap ! he 
 ought to have had Uncle Dan behind him all
 
 198 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 these years ; my father does not understand 
 him." 
 
 " Well, I'm sure Fred Is devoted to you ; 
 he is lucky to have such a brother. But, do 
 you know Don t tell anybody, promise." 
 
 " I promise." 
 
 *'You know when he and I were at the 
 eel-trap, and he fell in ? " 
 
 Gideon nodded. 
 
 " He cried — he actually cried f' 
 
 " Nonsense ! " 
 
 ** Poor boy ! he did ; the slime and mud 
 were all over him of course, and a great eel 
 wriggled over his face in the rush of water, 
 and I was laughing so much that I could not 
 tell him that he was quite safe. I helped 
 him out, and he sat down on the grass and 
 simply blubbered. We never cried, not even 
 when you gashed your leg with the scythe." 
 
 " Poor chap ! I expect you and I have 
 the good luck to be made of sterner stuff. 
 My father frightens him ; he hates anything 
 that is afraid of him, and Fred knows it." 
 
 ''Well, dear boy, if anybody can make a 
 man of Fred, you can."
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 1 99 
 
 '' Sarah/' said her cousin, suddenly stop- 
 ping in the middle of the road, '' this is the 
 very spot where I fought that fellow ; do you 
 remember ? " 
 
 " So it is, the very spot ; and it was here 
 the girl scratched me for keeping her off 
 you." 
 
 *' Do you remember what you did before 
 we moved off home ? " 
 
 Sarah's wide-open blue eyes stared straight 
 into his. 
 
 " Yes ; I kissed your poor bruised face, and 
 you told me to pick up our clothes and not 
 be a muff, so I did," she said, laughing. 
 
 ** I should not say that now, Sarah," he 
 ventured, returning the stare with eyes full of 
 adoration. 
 
 " No, and I should not kiss you now, 
 either ; so you see, dear boy, we have grown 
 quite polite to each other since then." 
 
 " Why wouldn't you kiss me now "^ " he 
 demanded regretfully. 
 
 '* Oh, I don't know. Grown-up girls and 
 boys don't kiss. Come along, Gideon. Look, 
 the sun is nothing but a red ball behind
 
 200 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 Jacob's house, and the frost is settHng all 
 over my fur ; we must hurry. How glorious 
 it is ! Let us take hands and run down the 
 hill/' 
 
 He had no choice, she impetuously dragged 
 him on, and hand-in-hand they rushed down, 
 till, reaching the bottom they charged into 
 two horsemen who were turning out of the 
 cross lane on to the road. They rapidly 
 reined up, and half a dozen dogs jumped and 
 barked around them. 
 
 '' Eh ? What ? God bless my soul, it is 
 Dare-devil Sally and my lad!" shouted a jovial 
 voice out of the tumult. 
 
 '* It is Uncle Dol ! Oh, uncle, what fun ! 
 Here, give me your hand, quick," cried his 
 niece laughing, then, seizing it, she put her 
 foot on to his boot and sprang up behind 
 him. 
 
 " Bravo, Sally ! A pity there is no mount 
 for you, lad," and Sir Godolphin Leigh 
 moved on, Sarah chattering to his delighted 
 ears. 
 
 Gideon stood still, patting the neck of his 
 uncle's horse.
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 201 
 
 '* Been out together all the afternoon ? " 
 asked Dan Thornborough, bending down to 
 his nephew, who glanced up at him with a 
 wistful look. 
 
 " Yes," answered the young man. 
 
 His uncle laid a hand on his shoulder and 
 said in a low voice — 
 
 *' Patience, my boy." 
 
 Gideon leaned his arms against the horse's 
 neck and laid down his head on them. 
 
 '' She does not care for me in that way in 
 the least," he groaned. "My great grand- 
 father married at twenty-one, and our great 
 grandmother was only seventeen ; Sarah is 
 eighteen, but she does not understand a bit." 
 
 " She is none the worse for that. Pluck 
 up your courage. Play the man," said his 
 uncle, kindly. 
 
 " She has been asking me why I gave up 
 all thought of the Army. She does not seem 
 to have any idea about joining the two 
 estates, or that it seems best to stay with my 
 father, who has so little Idea of managing 
 his." 
 
 His uncle was silent. He shook the reins
 
 202 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 and his horse began to pace slowly along. 
 Gideon Leigh walked at its side. 
 
 " You still think I made a mistake ? You 
 would have had me take up a profession as I 
 wished, even if I meant to look after the land 
 later on ? " 
 
 *' I had my say, Gideon." 
 
 " I know you did. I agreed with you. It 
 has all been my father's doing. My out-look 
 is pleasant enough, but I should have been a 
 better man in the end if I could have had a 
 turn at what I was cut out for before I settled 
 down." And the young man stretched out a 
 mighty pair of arms, then let them fall heavily 
 at his side. 
 
 "Ay," assented his uncle, ''a much better 
 man." 
 
 *' You dear old chap, how you do under- 
 stand a fellow ! " cried Gideon, affectionately. 
 
 " I practised on my brother Jasper, years 
 ago. Your grandfather was averse to his 
 entering the Army, I upheld Jasper." 
 
 *' I expect you were always a brick. I 
 suppose Sarah is very like her father, isn't 
 she ? "
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 203 
 
 " No ; she Is your mother over again, 
 only Jael was dark. I sometimes think, 
 Gideon," he added regretfully, ''that It Is I 
 whom you are like. In fate as in character." 
 
 His nephew looked quickly up at him. 
 
 ** You mean ? " he asked. 
 
 '* That you will love as I have loved, lose as 
 I lost, and stay on the land as I have stayed." 
 
 Gideon Leigh said nothing ; he had never 
 before heard his uncle allude to the trouble 
 of his youth. 
 
 They paced along in silence till the cheery 
 voice of Sir Godolphin sounded through the 
 frosty air and the darkness, shouting — 
 
 " Here, my boy, come and open this gate. 
 That rascal of yours, Dan, has shut it, though 
 we told him not to." 
 
 Then the young man reached a hand up, 
 laid it on his uncle's arm, and said, in answer 
 to his last words — 
 
 " A man might play for a poorer stake 
 than that of becoming a second Dan Thorn - 
 borough. I am willing to take the odds." 
 
 A pleased look came over his uncle's face, 
 he smiled.
 
 204 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " ' Crabbed age and youth cannot live to- 
 gether,' eh ? You and I at any rate have 
 proved that saying untrue. You were ever 
 a generous and forbearing lad." 
 
 Gideon laughed. 
 
 '' There is not much of ' crabbed age ' about 
 you. All right, I'm coming," he shouted, as 
 Sarah's voice was heard impatiently demand- 
 ing to have the gate opened. 
 
 *' Sarah, always Sarah," said Dan Thorn- 
 borough to himself, as he walked his horse 
 leisurely towards the gate. *' I differ from 
 Rachel, who is so certain that the child will 
 take the lad. Well, well, sending them out 
 to see the world is surely the best I can do 
 for them both at present."
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 205 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A FORTNIGHT after the receipt of Percy 
 Meakln's letter, Gideon and Sarah joined 
 their relations in London, and a few days 
 afterwards the whole party found themselves 
 settled In a small town on the French side of 
 the Pyrenees. 
 
 Here, from the snow and mists and keen 
 winds of their northern home, they came 
 Into a land of sunshine, budding trees, and 
 gentle breeze. Here was a pleasant social 
 life among winter visitors, in a friendly town, 
 all bent upon amusing or being amused 
 during the winter months they had to spend 
 together. 
 
 Those families who had been there since 
 the previous autumn were already all ac- 
 quainted, and when the Meakins arrived a 
 constant round of expeditions, tea-parties,
 
 206 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 and dances was going on, In which they 
 were not slow to participate. 
 
 Sarah began to make discoveries. First, 
 that her nephew and niece were nervous 
 prigs, their small minds forced Into premature 
 development by her sister. Also, that the 
 standard of right and wrong among the 
 people she met was a very elastic one 
 compared with that which she had been 
 required to satisfy at Meads. Also, that she 
 herself was looked upon as an heiress, and 
 her cousin Mr. Leigh was pronounced to be 
 " handsome " ; and that it was actually re- 
 garded as possible that he was old enough 
 to be married, and that one or two young 
 ladles In the English colony were spoken 
 of as being suitable for him. 
 
 All these things set Sarah thinking, with 
 the result that she was so puzzled that she 
 put them aside to discuss with her uncle on 
 her return home, and yielded to the spirit of 
 the hour with all the zest that her youth 
 and vlofour afforded her. But sometimes 
 her views clashed against her sister's, and 
 promptly she delivered her testimony.
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 207 
 
 " Now then, children, make haste and go 
 to bed," she ordered briskly one evening, 
 when the whole party were going out to a 
 dance at one of the hotels and May and 
 Robin still lingered over the house of cards 
 they were building. 
 
 " We're going with you," they answered. 
 
 " Nonsense ! Bed is the proper place for 
 you two mites. Come, be off; Julie is wait- 
 ing for you." And Sarah laid a ruthless 
 hand on the cards, upset the house, and 
 shuffled them all away into a drawer. 
 
 The children made no moan, but buried 
 their faces in her silken skirts, murmuring — 
 
 " Oh, how nice your frock smells ! Like 
 lavender. Mother's has sandal-wood folded 
 up in her's, and we have got some sewn into 
 ours." 
 
 " Disgusting children ! Soap and water is 
 all you ought to know about In the way of 
 scents. There, run along, and Aunty Sarah 
 will come and tuck you up, like nice little 
 dormice." 
 
 " Do, do. But you must wait till we comci 
 home. I mean to dance every dance:," an-
 
 208 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 nounced May, getting on a footstool to reach 
 her mother's fan off a marble console-table. 
 
 Sarah stared. 
 
 ** So this is the meaning of your best 
 frocks, IS It ? You really are going ? " 
 
 '* In course we is," declared Robin, the 
 more babyish of the two, '' and Julie says I 
 may eat four macaroons when I have danced 
 with Leonore four times." 
 
 " You have been out all day ; It is perfectly 
 cruel to keep you up now. I would talk to 
 your mother only it is never any use. I 
 tell you what it is, grown-up people and 
 children ought not to go to the same parties ; 
 so if this is the sort of party for you, it 
 can't be the one for me, so I am going to 
 bed. Good night. I hope you will enjoy 
 yourselves." 
 
 ''Aunty Sarah, oh, you are so funny! 
 Don t go. Oh, please stay with us. If you 
 don t go it won't be half so nice. I shan't 
 have anybody's lap to sit on when I'm sleepy. 
 Mother is always dancing, and father too." 
 
 But Sarah was inexorable. 
 
 " I'm going to bed," she declared. " I
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 209 
 
 want you to tell mother why, as soon as she 
 comes in." 
 
 Soon after she had left the room Gideon 
 came in ready to go. 
 
 " Now then, you small people, where is 
 Sarah?" 
 
 " Gone to bed," they announced awestruck, 
 standing" hand-in-hand before him. 
 
 '' No humbug ! " he cried, laughing ; and 
 sitting down he pulled them on to his knees. 
 " Now then, where is she ?" 
 
 *' Gone to bed. She says if zue are going 
 it must be the wrong sort of party for her, 
 'cause she's grown up. We're so sorry." 
 
 Gideon began to understand. 
 
 Mrs. Meakin came in, slim, well-appointed 
 in toilette, and elegant as usual. 
 
 ** Oh, Gideon, how kind you always are to 
 my darlings ! You will spare May one nice 
 little turn round the room as you did the 
 other night ? I really think her steps are 
 better than Leonore Dupre's." 
 
 Gideon put the children gently down and 
 stood up. 
 
 " I am not sure that I shall go," he said. 
 
 VOL. I. p
 
 2IO SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 '' Why not ? You are ready dressed. My 
 dear Gideon, there will be such heart-break- 
 ings If you stay away. What else are you 
 going to do ? " 
 
 " It is a wild night, I think I shall go and 
 get Pierre to come for a stroll along the cliff 
 with me ; the sea must be splendid." 
 
 '' Going out with Pierre ? You glory In 
 being queer. I am quite disappointed in 
 you." And Mabel Meakin sank down on 
 the sofa and pointed to a footstool. 
 
 He fetched it for her, saying — 
 
 " I don't 'glory ' in anything that I know 
 of. Pierre is very good company ; he tells 
 me all about the habits of the people in these 
 parts. Besides, I don't feel inclined for all 
 the gas and Babel of languages In the hotel 
 to-night." 
 
 " I cannot think why you got ready if you 
 did not mean to go. W^here can Percy be 1 
 He has not come in. We shall be late." 
 
 '* ril go and hunt him up. He is upstairs 
 on old Murray's flat, I think. Good-bye, 
 babies, have a good time, and dance all the 
 dances."
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 211 
 
 So saying he left the room and went along 
 the corridor to his cousin's door, at which he 
 tapped gently. Sarah's clear voice answered 
 briskly — 
 
 " Can't come in, whoever you are, French 
 or English." Then she added in French, " I 
 am gone to bed." 
 
 ** I say, Sarah," he began in a low voice. 
 
 The door was torn open and Sarah stood 
 before him in the gleaming dress in which 
 she had intended to go to the dance. 
 
 " Halloa ! " she cried, *' I suppose you are 
 just off. The children have told you I'm not 
 coming, I suppose. I want to give Mabel a 
 lesson." 
 
 '' Don't go to bed, you absurd girl, come 
 out along the cliff for a walk ; it is a glorious 
 night." 
 
 '' Aren't you going with Percy and 
 Mabel } " 
 
 " Of course not. It is no fun without you." 
 
 *' You dear boy. What a pity I did not 
 happen to tell the children I was going for a 
 walk instead of saying I was going to bed, 
 then I could have come ! "
 
 212 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 Gideon saw that he should have to go for 
 his walk alone. Anybody else but Sarah he 
 would have attempted to persuade. 
 
 " I'll come back when they are gone, and 
 you and I will have supper here together," 
 he suggested. 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "Won't do. I told those chicks I was 
 going to bed, so to bed I must go, or they 
 will never believe me aorain. Tell Mabel 
 to bring them in to see me. Of course 
 I never thought of your staying away 
 too. I say, it will go all over the town. 
 What fun ! Mabel will never have the face 
 to take those poor babies out again in the 
 evening. Everybody will be so dreadfully 
 angry when they find out the reason you and 
 I stayed away. Poor Mr. Ferdinand Smith 
 and that nice young Spaniard and Monsieur 
 Dupre ! I promised dances to all of them. 
 What fun ! " 
 
 Gideon laughed. 
 
 " It is hard lines on them," he said. 
 
 "■ There, go, quick. Bring me the second 
 volume of my book ; I must have something
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 213 
 
 to read all the evening. Oh no, you need 
 not ; I will go to sleep instead, and be ready 
 for a walk at six to-morrow morning, as I 
 can't go with you to-night." 
 
 " All right ! " he answered, as she shut her 
 door as suddenly as she had opened it. 
 
 It took Mabel Meakin two or three days 
 before she clearly understood the reason for 
 her sister's action. 
 
 " I suppose Sarah and Gideon had been 
 having a quarrel ; all that nonsense about the 
 children was merely a blind, of course," she 
 said to her husband. 
 
 They were walking home after changing 
 their books at the library. They stopped to 
 greet an acquaintance, and when they passed 
 on again Percy Meakin answered — 
 
 '' About that silly affair the other night, 
 I was going to say that I think you had 
 better let the children stay at home on a 
 future occasion. I did not see any others 
 there, excepting that mincing little brat 
 Ldonore." 
 
 '' You don't mean to say you really think 
 Sarah stayed at home because I took the
 
 214 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 children, do you ? " demanded his wife, 
 incredulously. 
 
 " I don't mean to say anything, except 
 that I won't have the children taken out 
 again at night." 
 
 " And you think, then, that Sarah had not 
 been quarrelling with Gideon .^ " 
 
 *' Of course she had not. It seems to me 
 that I know your sister better than you do, 
 Mabel." 
 
 '* Well, I never thought Sarah was spiteful 
 before. The children dance really beauti- 
 fully, it is very disagreeable of her to have 
 prevented my taking them out. What is 
 the use of their dancing, if nobody is to see 
 them ? " 
 
 *' Sarah has not prevented your taking 
 them. It is I who have forbidden it," he 
 said coolly. 
 
 '' Oh, if I can feel you would not allow it 
 any way, that makes all the difference, of 
 course," she replied, with a relieved air. 
 
 Her husband was smoking. He said 
 nothing for some minutes. Then his wife 
 began again —
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY, 21 5 
 
 " I am rather disappointed in Sarah ; she 
 promised to be pretty, but nobody would 
 call her so now, would they ? " 
 
 " Oh, she is good-looking ; not a beauty, 
 of course, but certainly more than passable. 
 Her hair is very fine ; you don't often see 
 that spun-gold sort of hair." 
 
 '' No Thornborough has ever been ugly, 
 so I hear," she returned. " But the heiress 
 of Meads ought to be really beautiful." 
 
 '' Why ? With Meads at her back it could 
 not matter how plain she was, I should have 
 thought." 
 
 " Look at Gideon, now. Everybody here 
 simply raves over his good looks. He has 
 not the least self-consciousness. And I 
 don't believe Sarah sees that he is at her 
 feet. So silly of her. I want to shake her 
 sometimes." 
 
 '' I would not try if I were you," he said 
 laughing. ** Your uncle is the only person 
 who can manage her." 
 
 *'Of course Uncle Dan is a perfect dear. 
 But don't slang Sarah too much, Percy. 
 She is very good to the children, and they
 
 2l6 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 obey her much better than they do us. She 
 is really very kind-hearted, you always agree 
 to that, you know you do." 
 
 " Oh, I am very fond of Sarah ; she is a 
 thoroughly good sort. I flatter myself I 
 understand her. I should not care to have 
 had to marry her, though." 
 
 *' My dear Percy, I should hope not. I 
 know you never have admired those big, 
 bouncing sort of girls. I can't imagine how 
 it is that Sarah and I are so different." 
 
 '' Bringing up, I suppose, considering you 
 are both from the same stock. Voilct tout ! " 
 
 *' How beautifully you do pronounce, dear ! 
 To change the subject. Can't we make that 
 expedition over the border before Sarah 
 goes : 
 
 '' Yes. Next week. I have made out all 
 the trains. Ask the Ferdinand Smiths and 
 the Clintons to come too. They intend 
 going ; we might make up a party if young 
 Clinton is up to it." 
 
 " Oh yes ; the days are so warm now, it 
 won't hurt him. It is a very good idea. 
 But what shall we do about the language '^
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 21/ 
 
 There will not be a word of Spanish among 
 us." 
 
 "We shall not want it," he answered. 
 *' We can take lunch with us, and the four 
 o'clock train gets us back here in time for 
 table (Thote. We need not speak a word of 
 that beastly Spanish." 
 
 " Look, there they are, coming down the 
 hill. Oh, Percy, what a goose she will be 
 if she does not marry him ! " 
 
 The husband and wife stood still and 
 watched them coming. The sun shone on 
 Sarah's yellow wavy hair, and lighted the 
 dusky shadows of Gideon's curls. He carried 
 his hat in his hand, covered with his hand- 
 kerchief, and from time to time he stopped 
 that she might look at something it con- 
 tained. Their two strong, straight figures 
 stood outlined against the white road, as 
 they tramped down it in step, laughing and 
 talking eagerly. A woman of the country, 
 driving an ass with panniers, paused to look 
 at them, then went on smiling to herself. 
 Two soldiers, leaning out of a window 
 smoking their pipes, leaned out still further
 
 2l8 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 to watch them comino-. The eirls of the 
 convent school, conducted by two solemn 
 Sisters, turned each one to stare as they 
 passed them. The old Cure lifted his hat 
 and beamed, as he crossed the road in front 
 of them to go into a house. A child ran 
 barefoot out of a doorway and offered them 
 violets. Gideon threw her a coin, and 
 handed the violets to Sarah ; she divided 
 them, stopping to stick half into his button- 
 hole and half into her own. 
 
 The gorse beside the road was in blossom, 
 the sails of the fishing-boats shone red, and 
 the sea sparkled in the sunshine. 
 
 '* Spring and youth and strength, and 
 sunshine and flowers, and those two making 
 love. Very appropriate/' remarked Percy 
 Meakin, critically. 
 
 " Sunshine ! Yes, indeed. It is too hot 
 to-day for my fur cape ; I wish you would 
 carry it for me. I could eat a cream cake, 
 I think ; come in here and get one for me," 
 said Mabel Meakin, carelessly. 
 
 At nine o'clock one brilliant morning in 
 the week following, the Meakins and their
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY, 219 
 
 friends stood on the platform waiting for the 
 train which was to convey them as far as 
 the border town, where they would change 
 into the Spanish train. Percy Meakin was 
 in his element, he had commanded his little 
 troop each to bring their packet of lunch, 
 their coat or shawl as a protection after 
 sunset, and some Spanish money in case 
 they should wish to make purchases. He 
 himself carried in a strap his guide-book, his 
 maps and conversation book, his packet of 
 lunch, and a light overcoat ; his binocular 
 hung in a strap across his shoulder. A 
 leather case containinof the tickets of the 
 entire party reposed in his breast-pocket. 
 
 The youth he had spoken of to his wife 
 as " young Clinton " was the only serious 
 invalid amone them, and the mildness of the 
 weather weighed finally against the anxious 
 fears of his sisters and brother who were 
 also of the party. Ferdinand Smith stuck 
 to Sarah, which did not offend Gideon Leigh 
 to whom she had confided that he was " an 
 awful sawney." 
 
 On changing at the frontier they found
 
 2 20 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 themselves in the various compartments of 
 a long third-class carriage. One of the 
 Ferdinand Smiths leaned forward and began 
 to explain the probable nationalities of the 
 other passengers to Mrs. Meakin. 
 
 Sarah overheard part of his remarks, and 
 gathered that there were Basques, French, 
 and Spaniards ; she might have gleaned 
 more had she not been entirely absorbed 
 in watching a fair-haired peasant woman, 
 with a blue handkerchief twisted on her 
 head, talking volubly to a clean-shaven man 
 in the blue blouse and bonnet of the country. 
 The woman gesticulated and laughed, show- 
 ing her white teeth ; the man listened and 
 nodded, putting in a remark from time to 
 time. Their loud voices, fearless, frank 
 glances, their air of substantial prosperity 
 and noble cast of feature attracted Sarah 
 strangely, and the peculiar roll of their words 
 and emphasis made her say at last — 
 
 " I know it isn t French ; but I wish I 
 knew^ whether it was Basque or Spanish." 
 
 She spoke out clearly to Gideon, who sat 
 opposite to her. The couple stopped talking
 
 TN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 22 1 
 
 and surveyed her with frank, interested 
 eyes. 
 
 '' What does it matter ? All these jargons 
 are alike ; one sound more hideous than 
 another," cried young Ferdinand Smith. 
 
 ** Gideon, which is it ? Ask Percy to listen 
 when they begin again, he might know." 
 
 *' I should think it is Basque ; but then, 
 as I have never heard Spanish spoken, it 
 may turn out to be Spanish," said her cousin. 
 " Percy won't know. Listen, they are at 
 it again. It is very melodious. I expect 
 they are Basques, they look that type." 
 
 " I do wish Uncle Dan were here, he 
 would be sure to know. It is very stupid. 
 It is like walking in a dark room, to be 
 going about with people you can't under- 
 stand. I do wish I knew," insisted Sarah. 
 
 *' Those people are Basques. They are 
 speaking their own language ; it is not 
 Spanish. They have just been deciding 
 that you are an English party out on an 
 excursion," said a man's voice in Enelish, 
 from the next compartment, immediately 
 behind Sarah.
 
 222 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 She turned round sharply, but could only- 
 see him sideways. 
 
 '* Thank you," she said. *' Are you quite 
 sure.?" 
 
 '' Quite sure." 
 
 Gideon Leigh nodded to him. 
 
 '' Thanks," he said. " It is a difficult 
 language to follow." 
 
 ''It is," replied the stranger, and seemed 
 about to speak again ; but Sarah had leaned 
 forward, and was dragging May and Robin 
 into a corner near the window, so that they 
 might see out. Presently they stopped at 
 a station, and several passengers got out. 
 Somebody went to the window, asking 
 questions of the guard, who answered him, 
 banged the door, and the train went off 
 again. Sarah had jerked round to see who 
 was speaking. It was the same man who 
 had addressed her. 
 
 He resumed his seat, this time not so 
 immediately behind her. Their eyes met. 
 
 '' Were you talking Spanish .? " demanded 
 Sarah, admiringly. 
 
 ''Yes."
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY, 223 
 
 *' How clever you must be ! " 
 
 The stranger smiled. 
 
 *' I do not speak it very well," he said. 
 " If you understood it yourself you would 
 know." 
 
 She edged round sideways, so that she 
 could see him better. 
 
 '* That makes two languages you know." 
 
 '' No, only one. Nobody ever learns to 
 speak Euscarra. I understand it a little, 
 that is all." 
 
 " Euscarra, Gideon ; do you hear ? That 
 is what Uncle Dan read to us about ? Do 
 you remember ? " 
 
 '* Yes, of course I do. Did you bring any 
 sketching things with you .'* " 
 
 " No, I forgot. Ask Miss Clinton." 
 
 And Sarah turned round and beo^an her 
 catechism again. 
 
 *' Do you speak French .^ Comfortably, 
 1 mean ; not with a stammer ? " 
 
 But the stranger seemed to have been 
 aware of the disapprobation in Gideon's 
 voice, and Mrs. Meakin suddenly said 
 languidly but clearly —
 
 224 . SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " Who are you talking to, Sarah ? Put 
 up the window, or May will get toothache." 
 
 So all he said in answer to Sarah was — 
 
 '* Yes, I speak French." 
 
 Then drawing a book from his pocket, 
 he took the only vacant seat In his compart- 
 ment on the opposite side, and was soon 
 absorbed In his reading. 
 
 *'Well," declared Sarah, turning round 
 again to her own party, " he must be very 
 clever. I wanted to talk to him. Why did 
 you bother me, Mabel ? " 
 
 '' You can't talk to every stranger you 
 meet, my dear child," said her sister, 
 tranquilly. 
 
 " I don't want to," returned Sarah, 
 haughtily. Then, catching her cousin's eye, 
 she laughed. 
 
 Soon after this they reached their desti- 
 nation, and all got out. The train had gone 
 on again before it occurred to Sarah to nod 
 a good-bye to the stranger. When she 
 looked back, the carriage they had been in 
 had already got beyond the platform, and 
 the curve of the line hid it from her.
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 225 
 
 The object of the expedition was to see a 
 certain harbour. Its entrance between two 
 walls of rock was a long narrow passage, 
 opening out into a sheet of water shaped 
 like a vast inland pond. On its shores all 
 round was a small straggling town of wooden 
 houses ; beyond them towered the mountains. 
 The train had brought the party almost to 
 the edge of the harbour, among the dark- 
 beamed houses whose sides the water 
 washed. Facing them across the harbour 
 was the narrow channel leading out between 
 the walls of rock into the surging open sea 
 beyond. 
 
 " Now I understand a harbour at last ! ' 
 declared Sarah, gazing with delighted eyes. 
 
 Everybody laughed. 
 
 " What a place for artists ! " cried some 
 one. " Look at all those wonderful carved 
 balconies, with those sad-coloured olive and 
 red-brown garments hanging over them. 
 Look at those peeps of green mountain-sides 
 through open doorways, and stone steps 
 from the streets between the houses up to 
 the hills." 
 
 VOL. I. o
 
 226 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 *' Where to first, Mr. Meakin ? " cried 
 somebody else. 
 
 '' To the church across the harbour ; " and 
 he marshalled his party towards the boat, 
 which an excited, bare-legged fisherman was 
 holding in readiness. 
 
 During their passage across the harbour 
 Sarah never spoke. She had not dreamed 
 of such a place. She sat quite still, holding 
 Robin's little cold fingers in her own warm 
 ones, staring around and across and above. 
 
 *' Don't talk to me," she said once, when 
 Gideon made .some remark. *' Dear boy, 
 there are plenty to talk ; let me alone." 
 
 They examined the great dark church, 
 the fine ironwork on balconies, doors, and 
 lamps, the wooden houses, the shipping. 
 Afterwards they spread their lunch on one 
 of the stones that lay beside the winding 
 path leading round the cliff to the lighthouse. 
 The air was clear, the sunshine brilliant ; the 
 harbour was full of vessels, the inhabitants 
 busy. Snow still lay far away on the 
 mountain-tops, which seemed to touch the 
 sky. The hours went by ; it became time to
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 227 
 
 recross the harbour and 00 back to the 
 station. It was difficult to collect all the 
 lounging, laughing, talking party, and when 
 they disembarked on the stone stairway, 
 they saw their train slowly coming into the 
 station. 
 
 " Hurry, hurry ! These trains are very 
 leisurely, we may just catch it," cried Percy 
 Meakin. 
 
 But for once the train was not leisurely, 
 and as they hurried into the little station the 
 train steamed out of it. 
 
 '' I suppose we can take the next ? " said 
 somebody. 
 
 '' Oh yes, or get carriages and drive home. 
 We cannot have come more than twenty 
 miles," said another. 
 
 '' No, at the most not more than that ; it 
 is dawdling about on the frontier that takes 
 up the time," declared a third. 
 
 Percy Meakin came up to the group. 
 
 " I am very sorry. We ought to have 
 allowed more time to cross the harbour. 
 There is no train back for four hours, and 
 of course there are no carriages to be had.
 
 228 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 There are no hotels here ; this is merely a 
 harbour, you see." 
 
 A council was held on the little gravelled 
 platform. The officials had retired into a 
 sort of shed ; there was not a creature about 
 but themselves. 
 
 Finally, some of the party, after consulting 
 Mr. Meakin's excellent maps, decided to 
 walk back, only twelve miles, by going over 
 the mountains. After they had started, it 
 was suggested that the remainder should 
 occupy the time by going to see the large 
 and bustling town of San Pascual, only three 
 miles off, and a tram being descried going 
 along in the road in that direction, they 
 hurried towards it and got in. 
 
 " Now we are really in for it. All on our 
 way into a big Spanish town, none of us able 
 to speak or understand a word, four hours 
 before us, and dinner to be ordered some- 
 how. This is what / call an adventure," 
 declared Sarah with satisfaction. 
 
 Her brother-in-law got out his guide- 
 books; the responsibility was becoming 
 serious. Young Clinton looked white and
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 229 
 
 languid, his relations polite, but evidently 
 very anxious. The children were excited. 
 It would be impossible to reach home again 
 before eleven o'clock that night. His wife 
 sat placidly at his side ; other people were, 
 as usual, taking care of her children. 
 
 '' Shall w^e have enough money for a 
 dinner, do you suppose ? Everybody spent 
 a lot of money in that old shop on the quay," 
 she remarked to him. 
 
 **0h, we shall do, if they will take English 
 gold. I have no French money left," he 
 replied. "It is a great bore. The whole 
 expedition is spoilt." 
 
 Sarah overheard him. 
 
 ** Don't say that, Percy. It was not your 
 fault. I, for one, think this is great fun ; we 
 shall manage somehow. And as for the chil- 
 dren, I'll see they don't tire out Mabel. It 
 is a tremendously long day for them." 
 
 Then they relapsed into silence and jogged 
 on for about a mile. There was nothing to 
 see along the country road, and the few 
 people in the tram were not interesting. 
 
 Sarah put her arm through Gideon's, and.
 
 230 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 leaning against him, began to tell a story to 
 May, who was perched on his knee. One 
 of the CHnton sisters had taken compassion 
 on the excitable Robin, and held him by 
 his small coat, standing in the doorway, so 
 that he could see the horses. 
 
 Suddenly Sarah stopped in her recital. 
 
 " Look there, Gideon. Quick ! Coming 
 down the bank into the road. Do you see ? 
 There is the man who was in the train this 
 morning. I do believe he is going to get 
 in here. Yes, he is swinging himself up the 
 step. Here he comes." 
 
 The stranger entered, and sat down op- 
 posite them. Recognizing Sarah, he lifted 
 his hat in answer to her smile, but said 
 nothing. 
 
 Sarah continued her story in a low voice, 
 but hurried it to an end, for she saw the 
 stranger s brown eyes were fixed upon them, 
 though he looked over her shoulder and out 
 of the window every time she glanced at 
 him. 
 
 Presently Percy Meakin and Ferdinand 
 Smith began to discuss the value of Spanish
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 23 1 
 
 money, and the advisability of going first or 
 last to look over the church of San Pascual. 
 The stranger began to look interested, set 
 them right on one or two points, and when 
 the tram stopped at the corner of a large 
 square, and they all got out, the three men 
 were so busy talking, that the rest of the 
 party followed them slowly towards the 
 great church. There seemed a tacit under- 
 standing that the stranger was to be of their 
 party, for he entered with them, and Percy 
 Meakin plied him with incessant questions. 
 Mrs. Meakin and one of her friends kept 
 close to them ; one of the Clinton eirls 
 dragged Gideon off to look at an altar ; 
 Sarah, holding her nephew and niece by the 
 hand, wandered aside to watch a baby being 
 christened, and to examine the collection of 
 black-hooded and cloaked women who were 
 attending the mother. 
 
 " Is he dusting the baby ? What is he 
 doing ? " asked Robin in a whisper, clutching 
 his aunt tightly. 
 
 *' Can't imagine," she replied. 
 
 *' It looks more like a funeral than a
 
 232 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 christening," whispered May. *' I don't think 
 he is dusting the baby ; I think he is holy- 
 watering it, Hke JuHe tells us about." 
 
 '' Hush ! " commanded Sarah, '^ we are in 
 church." 
 
 They stood listening to the priest's mo- 
 notonous voice till the service was over and 
 he went away ; the bustle among the women 
 seemed to suggest that they were going 
 also. 
 
 Then Sarah turned slowly round to find 
 the stranger standing at her side ; all the 
 rest of the party were at the further end of 
 the church. 
 
 "■ I came to fetch you to look into the 
 sacristy," he explained. 
 
 " Have you been waiting ? " she asked. 
 
 *' Only a few minutes. I saw you were 
 interested. There is no hurry." 
 
 They began to move across the vast, bare 
 body of the church, empty of pew or chair. 
 
 May had slipped her other hand into his, 
 and Robin left his aunt and went round to 
 his other side. 
 
 *' How dark it is ! " whispered Sarah,
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 233 
 
 looking up at the small, unevenly placed 
 windows. 
 
 ** Yes, the Spanish churches in this part 
 make me feel as though they had been built 
 as refuges in time of war, rather than for 
 worship," he replied. 
 
 *'Why didn't one of the others come to 
 fetch me } They ought not to have sent 
 you," she declared suddenly. 
 
 '' They were all occupied. I noticed you 
 were not with them. They did not send 
 me." 
 
 *' I suppose you have been here numbers 
 of times ? " she said, when he had stopped 
 for some minutes to relate to her the history 
 of a certain saint whose virtues were recorded 
 in a stained window. 
 
 '* I know San Pascual tolerably well ; I 
 am fond of travelling." 
 
 "And I have never travelled before. We 
 should not be here now, only we missed 
 the train, and we cannot get home till the 
 evening express goes. And none of us can 
 speak a word. And if we had not met you 
 we might as well have been bats coming to
 
 234 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 see this town, because we can't ask a question 
 or read a word," cried Sarah. 
 
 ''Hush!" ordered Robin, "you said we 
 was in church. What a noise you are 
 making ! Isn't she ? " he added, clutching 
 the hand of their guide and compelHng an 
 answer. 
 
 He smiled. 
 
 '* I do not think your sister will be very 
 severely punished here." 
 
 *' K^^V/^r /" they both cried. "She is our 
 aunty 
 
 " Come, let us go outside ; I don't want 
 to see the sacristy. Look, the others are 
 just ready to leave, and we can't talk in here. 
 Do you mind waiting for them outside ? " 
 
 "■ Not in the least," he declared with 
 alacrity. 
 
 So the quartette turned, and waited on the 
 steps of the porch. 
 
 '* Are you coming with us ?" asked Sarah, 
 looking straight at him with her bright blue 
 eyes. 
 
 " Do, oh do ! " cried the children. 
 
 He looked pleased.
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 235 
 
 ''You seem to be a large party, and to 
 have plenty of guides," he said hesitatingly. 
 
 '* We were a large party, but some of us 
 have walked home, and have not I told you 
 we have not a guide among us ? But perhaps 
 you are going somewhere to join your own 
 party ? " she added. 
 
 '' No, I am alone." 
 
 *' Dear me, how very dull ! I should hate 
 that. Do you like it best ?" 
 
 " I am accustomed to it. I always take 
 my holiday alone." 
 
 " Why does not your wife come with 
 you ? " she demanded. 
 
 He looked at her with a puzzled but 
 amused air, and said quietly — 
 
 " I am not married." 
 
 " Oh, then you are an old bachelor like 
 Uncle Dan, I suppose ?" she said, stooping 
 to put her niece's hat straight. 
 
 " I am thirty-two. Is that old ? " 
 
 Sarah drew herself up tall and straight 
 before him. She looked at him consideringly. 
 
 ** It is younger than Uncle Dan, but it is 
 ever so much older than I am. Eighteen,
 
 22,6 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 you know, that is my age. Of course that 
 accounts for your being so clever ; you see 
 you have had more time to learn things in 
 than I have. What do you do all day ? 
 Are you in the Civil Service, like my brother- 
 in-law, or do you live on your land, like we 
 all do ? " 
 
 " Neither. I am in business," he said, 
 becoming suddenly grave. Then, dropping 
 the children's hands, he added, " I think I 
 must be going. I have told — your brother- 
 in-law, I suppose it was — where to find a 
 good place in which to dine." 
 
 " Oh, please wait a minute, unless you 
 really imcst go. It seems such a pity, just as 
 I want to ask you so many things. I never 
 met anybody in business before. How 
 interesting ! Don't go just yet," implored 
 Sarah. 
 
 *' I do not think you would find it interest- 
 ing at all," he said stiffly. '' Good-bye." 
 
 *' Ah, there you are. That's right ! " cried 
 Percy Meakin, issuing from the church door 
 at the head of his party. " Do you happen 
 to know the nearest way to that square
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 237 
 
 where the bull-fights used to be held ? It 
 would be a chanty to show us the way, if 
 you are not pressed for time. And just look 
 at this map of mine, if you don't mind ; is 
 this the spot ? Don't be such a nuisance, 
 children ; go and walk with Sarah." 
 
 The stranger glanced at her as if to see 
 whether the name referred to her or not, 
 then turned and walked on with Percy 
 Meakin, examining the map he held open. 
 The children again hung on to his hands. 
 Gideon shook off Miss Clinton and came 
 to his cousin's side. They walked on to- 
 gether. 
 
 " I am so sorry you have been left to that 
 fellow," he began. 
 
 *' You need not be sorry — I have been 
 enjoying myself immensely ; he has been 
 explaining everything to me." 
 
 ** Rather cool of him to stick himself on 
 to us like this, isn't it ? " 
 
 " My dear Gideon, he did not stick him- 
 self on, as you call it. Percy asked him to 
 show him the way." 
 
 *' Oh, well, I dare say he will be very use-
 
 238 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 ful. Just look at those cloaks those fellows 
 have on ! Awfully artistic, aren't they, 
 thrown over the shoulder like that ? " 
 
 Sarah laughed. 
 
 " You should get one," she said ; " it would 
 suit you." 
 
 For the next hour or so the party trailed 
 about, now stopping to look at shops, now 
 wandering: throug^h a church, now haltino- in 
 a square to admire the buildings. They 
 came at last to some public gardens. Every- 
 body was tired, and sank upon the benches. 
 
 " Stay here," ordered Percy Meakin. 
 '' This is pretty near to the station and to a 
 decent restaurant, you say '^ " and he turned 
 to the stranger. 
 
 "Yes," he replied, "that is why I have 
 piloted you here. That is the post-office 
 opposite ; your party can wait here while you 
 send your telegrams. Your best plan will be 
 to dine at the table d'hote provided for the 
 express at the frontier ; they leave more than 
 an hour for it, you will find, before the train 
 starts, then you need only have some light 
 refreshment here."
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 239 
 
 ** A very good plan," returned Percy 
 iMeakin, with a relieved air. '^ Here, 
 Gideon, come with me, will you, there's a 
 eood fellow." 
 
 Gideon rose reluctantly from the bench 
 beside his cousin. 
 
 "Go on," she cried, "go and help him out. 
 Poor Percy has felt a perfect Atlas this after- 
 noon with all his responsibilities." 
 
 The stranger lingered near ; he had not 
 been asked either to go or stay. 
 
 Mrs. Meakin and the Clintons were sitting 
 on Sarah's bench, young Ferdinand Smith 
 leaned over it behind and talked to her. 
 Sarah gave him only half her attention ; she 
 was wondering whether her sister would per- 
 ceive that the stranger had walked a few 
 paces off, and was standing with his back to 
 them, apparently absorbed in gazing into the 
 fountain. Finding that she pursued her con- 
 versation, Sarah called out with her usual 
 decision — 
 
 '* You had better come and sit down here, 
 there is plenty of room." 
 
 It seemed that he did not hear. She
 
 240 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 jumped up, went to him, and repeated her 
 order. 
 
 ** You have been taking such a lot of 
 trouble for us, don't stand here by yourself,'' 
 she urged. 
 
 His impassive face showed no sign of 
 pleasure, but he came and sat down by her. 
 
 ''You never asked me to sit there/' mur- 
 mured Ferdinand Smith in her ear. 
 
 "You did not need asking — he did," 
 retorted Sarah, in a scornful whisper. 
 
 The youth shrugged his shoulders, laughed, 
 and walked away to the bench where the 
 others were sitting. 
 
 There were beds of spring flowers in the 
 garden ; children were playing in and out 
 among the shrubs on the grass, or watched 
 the sparkle of the water as it fell in showers 
 into the basin of the fountain. Nurses 
 walked up and down in white caps and 
 handsome black dresses, many with their 
 long hair hanging in a tail down their backs, 
 tied with broad ribbons. Some wheeled 
 dainty babies in dainty carriages, some led 
 daintily dressed children by the hand. All
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 241 
 
 were talking and laughing. It was still day- 
 light, but the light was waning. The soft 
 spring air scarcely ruffled the spray of the 
 steadily falling water. 
 
 Sarah Thornborough sat watching all this 
 scene so new to her, so unlike anything else 
 she had ever seen. The stranger, too, 
 watched it all, and her. 
 
 The light died away in the west. The 
 nurses collected their charges and went out 
 by degrees through the great iron gates ; the 
 garden was almost deserted. 
 
 The stranger turned to Mrs. Meakin. 
 " Your husband knows the restaurant, I 
 have shown it to him. Unless your friends are 
 accustomed to sitting out at nightfall, I would 
 not advise you to remain here any longer. 
 Will you allow me to take you to get some 
 refreshment ? He will know where we are." 
 "You are very kind," she said somewhat 
 haughtily, "perhaps that would be best;" 
 and rising, she collected her party, and guided 
 by him they reached the restaurant. 
 
 Naturally the ordering of all their food fell 
 to him. 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 SARAH : A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " Do be so kind as to tell the waiter what 
 we want ; my sister will tell you," said 
 Mrs. Meakin, languidly dropping on to the 
 long low sofa and lifting her tired chil- 
 dren up beside her. The rest of the party 
 pulled up a table and joined it on to hers. 
 Young Clinton sank exhausted on to the 
 sofa, his anxious sisters sat down beside 
 him, Mrs. Meakin handed them her smell- 
 ing-bottle. 
 
 May began to whimper. 
 
 " I'm so dreadfully tired," she moaned. 
 
 *' Make haste, Sarah ; find out what every- 
 body wants," cried her sister. 
 
 " I say, it's awfully good of you ! " declared 
 Sarah, when the stranger had duly translated 
 the various orders for chocolate, tea, coffee, 
 cakes, bread, butter, and wine. 
 
 He smiled. 
 
 " What else can I do for you ? " he asked. 
 
 " Pour out the tea, will you ? I want to cut 
 this bread and butter for the children. Miss 
 Clinton, you are looking after your table, I 
 know." 
 
 "Would you ask your friend to be kind
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 243 
 
 enough to order us some milk ? " asked that 
 lady. 
 
 Sarah looked in the stranger's face laugh- 
 ingly. 
 
 " Do you hear } You are considered my 
 special * find.' I hope you don't mind } " 
 
 " Do you f " he asked, reaching over to 
 Mrs. Meakin's cup with his teapot. 
 
 '' Do I what ? " 
 
 ** Mind my being regarded as your special 
 ^findV" 
 
 *' Oh dear no. I am sure I do not know 
 what we should have done without you. 
 Not so much tea in Robin's cup, please ; he 
 has it nearly all milk. There, Mabel, drink 
 yours ; it will do you good, though it is such 
 poor stuff. This is cinnamon powdered in 
 my chocolate — how queer ! " she continued, 
 when she was at last at liberty to begin her 
 own repast. 
 
 '' Will you take nothing yourself ? " asked 
 Mabel Meakin, as she languidly sipped her 
 tea. 
 
 " No, thank you ; I dine in an hour," he 
 replied, looking at his watch.
 
 244 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 '' How very kind of you to wait with us ! 
 We are all too tired to be amusing, I am 
 afraid," declared Sarah. 
 
 Here Percy Meakin and Gideon rejoined 
 them. 
 
 Sarah dragged forward an empty chair 
 at her side, and called her cousin to her. 
 
 " Come, I have kept a cup of chocolate for 
 you. Sit by me, dear boy." 
 
 He devoted himself to her durinof the rest 
 of the meal, and Percy Meakin discussed with 
 the strano^er whether there would be time to 
 go to a hat-shop to purchase a particularly 
 artistic, drooping shape which had taken his 
 fancy. 
 
 It ended in their all adjourning thither on 
 their way to the station. Mrs. Meakin woke 
 up and became quite lively over trying hats on 
 to Robin. The Clintons and the Ferdinand 
 Smiths went on to the station and carried 
 Gideon off with them. Sarah remained, at 
 her sister's request, to look after the children. 
 
 The shop was lighted up ; it was dark in 
 the narrow street outside. The stately 
 proprietor leaned against his counter grimly
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY, 245 
 
 watching them making free with his goods. 
 Sarah got tired of waiting, and went to the 
 door. There, to her surprise, leaning against 
 the sliop window was the stranger, staring 
 into the night and smoking a cigarette. 
 
 '' I thought you had gone on with the 
 others," she said. 
 
 He turned towards her, threw his cigarette 
 into the road, and repKed — 
 
 "No, I waited for your brother-in-law. He 
 will get cheated without me." 
 
 Sarah opened her eyes wide. 
 
 " How very kind of you ! I should think 
 your people must be awfully fond of you, 
 aren't they } " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Have you got a father and mother, or are 
 they dead, like mine } " 
 
 " They are both dead. But you are young 
 to have lost both parents." 
 
 " Oh, I am used to it, it was so long ago. 
 Besides, when you have a really good uncle, 
 like my Uncle Dan, it does just as well, you 
 know. Are you an only child, like me ? 
 Mabel doesn't count, she's married."
 
 246 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 " I have two married sisters and one 
 unmarried ; she is a hospital nurse." 
 
 " Oh, that brings me back to what we were 
 talking about just now. Your business, do 
 you like it ? " 
 
 " Extremely.'' 
 
 '' What sort of things do you do ? " 
 
 He smiled. 
 
 " Do you really wish me to tell you ? " 
 
 '' Of course, or I should not have asked. 
 Make haste ! " she cried impatiently. 
 
 " Sarah ! " called Percy Meakin from within. 
 
 " There, I knew we should get interrupted,'* 
 she said in a vexed voice, as she went back 
 into the shop. 
 
 Mr. Meakin wanted his help, as the 
 stranger had foreseen. When the transac- 
 tion was over, and they passed out Into the 
 street, Mabel took her husband's arm. Sarah, 
 intent upon gaining her point, dropped a 
 little behind with the tired children, and, as 
 they approached the bridge, she found the 
 stranger at her side. 
 
 The night was a brilliant one ; many stars 
 were already visible in the clear sky, though
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 247 
 
 the lingering glow in the west outshone the 
 greater number of them. The river, coming 
 from among the tall dark houses, ran swift 
 and silent under the bridge on one side, 
 while out from beneath it on the other, it 
 hurried into the shimmering sea not many- 
 yards away. They came across the bridge 
 on to a square. A few people were leisurely 
 crossing it. The trees were in bud ; their 
 tassel-laden branches waved in the evening 
 breeze, and cast patterns of delicate tracery 
 on the ground. The balmy scents of a 
 spring evening were in the air. 
 
 " What a lovely night ! " said Sarah, taking 
 a deep breath. Her companion stopped a 
 moment, as if absorbed in some thought ; he 
 swept his hand towards the sky, saying — 
 
 '^ ' Ye heavens . . . 
 You remain 
 A world above man's head, to let him see 
 How boundless might his soul's horizon be, 
 How vast, yet of what clear transparency ! 
 How it were good to live there, and breathe free ; 
 How fair a lot to fill 
 Is left to each man still ! ' " 
 
 " Why, you say poetry almost as well as
 
 248 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 Uncle Dan ! " declared Sarah, admiringly, as 
 they walked on again. 
 
 '' It just came into my head," he said 
 apologetically. '' Do you not think it applies 
 to a night like this ? " 
 
 "Yes; but then I don't think I ever 
 doubted but that all our ' lots ' are ' fair.' " 
 
 " That shows you have never had any 
 trouble," he said. 
 
 *' No, I have not, and I don't intend to 
 have. Trouble is generally people's own 
 fault. I mean to keep out of it. I should 
 be so angry if I had a great deal of trouble. 
 I am sure it would not do me any good at 
 all," she declared rebelliously. 
 
 '* You will not be able to avoid it, and it 
 might not be the best thing for you if you 
 could. You had better make up your mind 
 to meet it bravely, and be strong in spite of 
 it. Trouble is the lot of every man, at some 
 time in his life," he said sadly. 
 
 '' Has it fallen to yours ? " she demanded. 
 
 *' Oh yes." 
 
 Sarah walked on, kicking the pebbles with 
 her old childish impatience.
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 249 
 
 ''Well, I don't want to hear about it, 
 anyway. Tell me what your business is, 
 please." 
 
 ''We make all kinds of agricultural imple- 
 ments, we employ a large number of hands, 
 we are interested in everything of the kind 
 that is used in other countries. But why 
 should I tell you about it ? People care 
 more to hear about events or books or 
 languages ; they are seldom interested in 
 hearing how things are made." 
 
 " I am," cried Sarah, eagerly. " I am, 
 so is Uncle Dan. Uncle Dol is not. I 
 suppose you are used to people like him. 
 He buys a ' reaper,' for instance, and does 
 not trouble in the least how it is made. 
 We like to know. But then you must study 
 drawings. When catalogues come, we — I 
 mean Jacob Frant, he is our bailiff, and 
 Uncle Dan and I — understand the pictures 
 ever so much better than anybody else 
 round us, because we can all draw all the 
 parts. Can you draw } " 
 
 " Certainly. I know how each part of 
 each machine is made. I have established
 
 250 SARAH: A SURVIVAL. 
 
 evening classes for the youths in our employ. 
 I wish them to grow into intelligent work- 
 men, who will see the beauty of what they 
 are doing, and " 
 
 '' I'm so dredf ly tired ! " sighed Robin, 
 suddenly stopping. '' Can't you carry me, 
 Aunty Sarah ? " 
 
 '' Let me," said the stranger, lifting the 
 boy in his arms. 
 
 " Shall I carry you, May ? " asked Sarah. 
 
 But May's legs were sturdier than Robin's, 
 and she dragged on her way, supported 
 by her aunt's firm hand. 
 
 " Where is your home ? " Sarah demanded 
 suddenly. 
 
 '' I have none." 
 
 ** Nonsense ! " she returned, laughing. 
 
 " A patch of ground with four walls built 
 on it, surrounding some tables and chairs, 
 does not constitute a ' home,' does it .'* " 
 
 ** Dear me, what a funny way of putting 
 it ! Well, where do you keep all your 
 treasures, the things you like best ? " 
 
 ** In a little shanty in the mountains, not 
 far from here. But I will not joke with
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 25 1 
 
 you. I understand what you wish to know. I 
 live chiefly in lodgings in London. I see 
 to all the town part of our business. Our 
 works are not in London." 
 
 " How dreadfully dull ! " she bemoaned. 
 
 The lights of the station gleamed near 
 them ; it wanted but five minutes by the 
 clock to the hour the train would start. They 
 hurried into the station. Percy Meakin took 
 his tired son from the stranger's arms. 
 
 '* I am sure I am extremely obliged to 
 you for all your help. We are all leaving 
 in a day or two, or I would ask you to come 
 and see us." 
 
 " Thank you. My wanderings are un- 
 certain." 
 
 Mrs. Meakin held out her hand. 
 
 ** Good-bye. We are most grateful to 
 you, I am sure." 
 
 ** Come, make haste ! We must not end by 
 losing this train ! " cried her husband, hurry- 
 ing her away. 
 
 The stranger turned to Sarah. She held 
 out her hand impulsively. 
 
 " Oh, what a pity we must say good-bye \
 
 252 SARAH: A SURVIVAL, 
 
 I do hope you will enjoy yourself. I wish 
 you were not travelling alone. It must 
 be so dull. I am so glad we met you. I 
 shall tell Uncle Dan all about you. Just 
 the most interesting part at the last. I 
 did so want to hear more about your busi- 
 ness. Good-bye. Oh yes, Gideon, I'm just 
 comino-." 
 
 o 
 
 ** Good-bye," said the stranger, as he shook 
 hands. Then suddenly he laid his other 
 hand over hers, and held it for a moment, 
 while he looked thoughtfully in her face 
 and in a low voice repeated, " Good-bye. 
 I thank you for to-day. I hope you will 
 remain always just as you are now." 
 
 Then he lifted his hat and went out of 
 the station. Gideon Leigh was hurrying 
 towards her. She seized him by the hand, 
 and together they rushed into the train just 
 as it moved off. 
 
 " My first and last day in Spain, I expect," 
 she said gaily. '* Oh, dear boy, that is a nice 
 man. I wish I had asked him his name." 
 
 ''You exchanged cards, didn't you, Percy?" 
 asked Gideon.
 
 IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY. 253 
 
 '* Yes, but I dropped his. It doesn't 
 matter," answered Percy Meakin, yawning. 
 
 " He must have enjoyed himself im- 
 mensely/' whispered Gideon ; " he had you 
 to talk to quite a long time." 
 
 '' Everybody does not think as much of 
 me as you do," she returned. " Here, put 
 my hat up in the rack, will you ? I can't 
 lean back in it, and I am getting so sleepy. 
 Come, Robin, you and I will have a doze 
 together." 
 
 She took the boy on her knee ; Gideon 
 covered them both over with a shawl, and 
 Sarah closed her eyes. For the first time in 
 her life her thouQ^hts went backwards Instead 
 of forwards. She felt again her hand warmly 
 clasped, and heard an earnest voice say, 
 " I hope you will always remain just as you 
 are now." '* I wonder what he could possibly 
 have meant ? " was her thought as she finally 
 fell asleep. 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
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