w 
 
 a I B RARY 
 
 OF THE 
 UN IVLRSITY 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 82. 2> 
 ■D2 SC2 b
 
 THE BROWNS MD THE SMITHS.
 
 THE BROMS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 " ANNE DYSAET," " ONWARDS/ 
 
 &c., &c. 
 
 ' Nurse : His name is Romeo, and a Montague ; 
 The only son of your great enemy." 
 
 Romeo and Juliet. 
 
 m TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. L 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, 
 
 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 1863. 
 
 The right of Translation is reserved.
 
 London: 
 
 Printed by R. Gardner, Gloucester Street, 
 
 Regent's ParL
 
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 I CHAPTER I. 
 
 f 
 
 ^ VERY HACKNEYED. 
 
 "I "There is nothing new under the sun," 
 
 ^ .said the wise monarch, and if this could 
 be said with truth nearly three thousand 
 years ago, when the world was not much 
 more than half as old as it is at present, 
 
 ■$ how doubly stale must all things have 
 now become! 
 
 J You have all, my readers, heard, ad nau- 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 seam^ of the Montagues and Capulets — 
 the Yorkists and Lancastrians ; the names 
 are as familiar as that rivalship of race, 
 and hatred of families, which, in our days 
 at least, are not confined to princes and 
 nobles, but may be found in every 
 market town, in every country village, 
 and, probably, in every thieves' quarter in 
 the world. 
 
 But though there is nothing new, not 
 even similes, though originality is more 
 than ever impossible to us in these latter 
 days, yet the picture of human passions 
 and human follies, be it only true, how- 
 ever commonplace, never fails to make 
 us weep or laugh, as the occasion de- 
 mands. It is this which encourages me 
 to introduce to your notice the Browns 
 and the Smiths, and to hope that you will 
 even pardon an allusion to the Monta-
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 3 
 
 gu.es and Capulets. It is so much easier 
 to take up an old simile than to rummage 
 through one's daily decreasing stores of 
 memory for a new one. And then, the 
 hackneyed one has the advantage of 
 being understood by everybody ; even 
 by those — if in these days of universal 
 knowledge there be any such — who have 
 only heard of the Montagues and Capu-. 
 lets by way of reference. 
 
 Now, the Browns and the Smiths were 
 the Montagues and Capulets of the 
 Borough of Goslingford. 
 
 Goslingford is a thorough old English 
 country town, and, in the days of which 
 I speak, though these are not very re- 
 mote, had not been invaded even by a 
 railway. It consists of four streets, at 
 right angles, somewhat narrow, but very 
 picturesque ; the colouring, old, dusky, 
 
 B 2
 
 4 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 and mellowed, and the tall chimneys, and 
 overhanging upper-stories, throwing, in 
 the summer sunshine, those shadows, 
 broad and deep, so dear to the heart of 
 the accomplished gentleman who writes 
 the " Stones of Venice." A broad river, 
 bearing a little — a very little — traffic on 
 its bosom, steals lazily by, past the little 
 town, and through green meadows, mostly 
 flat, onwards to the sea. Cattle repose in 
 these meadows, amid cowslips and butter- 
 cups, and under the shade of tall elms and 
 wide-spread oaks ; and low hills, not robed, 
 however, in '' the azure hue " of distance, 
 but chequered with the unmistakable 
 yellow and green of corn-fields or turnip- 
 fields, gird in the pleasant vale, which 
 has many a counterpart in rural England. 
 Thus, though a pretty and an interesting 
 old town, it is a very everyday one —
 
 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 5 
 
 being, in fact, in architecture and situa- 
 tion, the very commonest type of an Eng- 
 lish wwcommercial town. The people, too, 
 are the very kind of people who reside in 
 such towns, even in these days of rapid 
 and constant communication of every 
 place with every place else, when every- 
 body is becoming, outwardly at least, so 
 like everybody else, that national and 
 local distinctions, and even individual cha- 
 racter, seem in danger of being obliterated 
 by the modern monotony of refinement 
 and cultivation. But as yet, at Gosling- 
 ford, most people still dined at three 
 o'clock, and went out to tea-parties at six; 
 and it was, by many persons, thought very 
 fine and foolish of the Smiths, when they 
 gave a dinner-party at the irrational hour 
 of half-past six, at which the wine was 
 handed round by Thomas, indoors man-
 
 6 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 servant, and Sarah, housemaid, instead of 
 being put on the table, that the guests 
 might drink with each other in the old 
 friendly way, when "people were not too 
 fine to enjoy themselves." 
 
 The tide of public feeling, that is, the 
 feeling of the polite world of Goslingford, 
 for a time rose decidedly on the Brown 
 side. 
 
 "Old Mr. Brown," said Miss Clara 
 Wellby, to her friend Miss Harriet Rich- 
 ards, "would never have permitted such 
 new-fangled nonsense. But people now-a- 
 days must all be finer and wiser than 
 their fathers. Perhaps next time the meat 
 will be all carved at the side-table." 
 
 "It is sad to see so much vanity and 
 display among people professing Christian 
 principles," rejoined Miss Richards. "We 
 shall hear of them playing cards next."
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 7 
 
 " Cards ! " cried Miss Clara ; " and 
 suppose they do take a hand at whist, 
 or have a sixpenny pool at commerce, 
 where is the harm ? People were just as 
 good and as wise long ago, when " 
 
 " Clara ! " said Miss Richards, with 
 grief and solemnity. 
 
 "Well, well," cried Miss Wellby, for- 
 bearingly, "we are too old friends to 
 quarrel, Harriet ; but I remember the time 
 when you could enjoy a rubber yourself" 
 
 " I was then in the ^' 
 
 "Never mind," cried Clara, impatiently, 
 " nobody but the Rector shall preach to me. 
 But about the Smiths, as we were saying. 
 The Browns would never have done such a 
 thing, and the Browns have a much better 
 right to be uppish than the Smiths. But 
 that is always the way — it is always your 
 people who have no right that set up to be
 
 8 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 extra-genteel, and your people that talk 
 about equality and the rights of the people, 
 and all that sort of stuff, that are the most 
 jealous of their own dignity, and the most 
 hoity-toity with their servants. The Smiths 
 are ten times as exclusive as the Browns, 
 and yet the Browns visit people that would 
 never think of going near the Smiths." 
 
 ^^Yery true," said Miss Eichards, but 
 in somewhat an unwilling tone, though 
 continuing with an air of candour, "and 
 the Misses Smith have been learning 
 
 o 
 
 botany, and astronomy, and geology, and 
 ever so many languages — very dangerous 
 knowledge, which has led many astray. 
 And young Smith away to London and the 
 Continent, as if he would not have been 
 far better and safer in Goslingford, in his 
 father's office, as his father was before 
 him."
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 9 
 
 " Yes, what served his father might have 
 served him. And to send his son to the 
 Continent to be brought up among 
 foreigners ! " exclaimed Miss Wellby, v/ith 
 ineffable contempt. 
 
 " And they are good people, too — mem- 
 bers of the Evangelical Alliance." 
 " Yes, but they are dissenters." 
 
 " That does not signify, if they are '* 
 
 " It does signify. I never knew any 
 dissenters but themselves I could endure ; 
 and as for the Evangelical Alliance, people 
 were quite as good, let me tell you, 
 Harriet, when there were no Evangelical 
 Alliances, and when people did not ' make 
 broad their phylacteries,' as they do 
 now." 
 
 " Thank you, Clara," said Miss Richards, 
 half in sorrow, half in anger ; "I know I 
 must bear the reproach."
 
 10 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 ^'Good morning now, Harriet, we won't 
 quarrel ; we are far too old friends for 
 that." And for the moment, excited and 
 triumphant. Miss Wellby departed. 
 
 She had not been gone half-an-hour 
 when Miss Richards' anger was utterly 
 overcome by her sorrow. 
 
 "Poor Clara!" she thought, "how I 
 wish I could do something for her I " 
 
 For twenty years this had been one of 
 the most earnest wishes of this good crea- 
 ture ; but aU her attempts had ended some- 
 thing in the manner of the above. Clara 
 always came off triumphant and affronted. 
 Fortunately the affront never lasted long. 
 On the present occasion it only lasted 
 till the next day. Hearing the following 
 morning that Miss Richards was laid up with 
 influenza, down came Clara through the fog 
 and rain, at the risk of catching the complaint
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 11 
 
 herself, and nursed and watched over her 
 old friend as if she had been her child or 
 her mother. Clara Wellby was as kind a 
 soul as any in Goslingford. Wherever 
 there was sickness or distress, there was 
 Clara Wellby sure to be found, comforting, 
 helping, scolding. She had little to give, 
 but she gave it almost too freely. No baby 
 head had pillowed on her bosom, no soft 
 lisping voice had awakened in her heart 
 those thrills of tender delight which parents 
 only know ; but I challenge the wifehood 
 and motherhood of England to produce 
 more benevolent or more generous feelings 
 than those which moved the actions of 
 Miss Clara Wellby. 
 
 Miss Wellby and Miss Richards were two 
 middle-aged spinsters, or perhaps they were 
 somewhat beyond middle age. They were 
 both natives of Goslingford, and . though
 
 12 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 perpetually quarrelling, had been fast 
 friends from early childhood. They were, 
 however, about as unlike in taste, charac- 
 ter, disposition, and fortune as it was 
 possible for two persons to be. 
 
 Miss Wellby was the daughter of a 
 former Rector of Goslingford, — Miss 
 Richards owned the more humble parent- 
 age of an auctioneer and land-agent. 
 When young their families had moved in 
 rather different "spheres," but Clara 
 Wellby — handsome, lively, admired, and 
 sought after even by the county magnates 
 — was not the woman to disown the friend- 
 ship of her plain, timid, humble school- 
 fellow, whom she had always patronized 
 and protected. Clara had had many 
 admirers, and one or two advantageous 
 offers, which she had declined. Indeed, she 
 was in the habit of treating love-matters as
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 13 
 
 a jest, though it had been whispered that 
 an early disappointment had something to 
 do with her hard-heartedness. But be that 
 as it may, she never wore the willow, nor 
 was the milk of human kindness ever 
 curdled in her by the slightest infusion of 
 acidity. 
 
 At thirty years of age Harriet Richards 
 was deeply impressed by the preaching of 
 one of the Goslingford curates, and from 
 that time forth gave up cards, novels, 
 fashion, and might be seen constantly 
 going about in a bonnet shaped like a 
 Quaker's, a lanky dress, and a hideous 
 shawl, with a basket of tracts on her 
 arm. 
 
 Ten years afterwards her father died and 
 left her a large fortune — a great change to 
 Harriet, who had been brought up in a 
 very homely and frugal manner, and who
 
 14 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 had no mind above her destiny. At first 
 she hardly knew what to do with it, for, 
 being no hoarder, she felt it ought to be 
 spent. So she took a large, gloomy house, 
 which she furnished in a dull, tasteless, 
 expensive way — had a number of lazy 
 servants who imposed on her, innumerable 
 fat dogs and sleepy cats, and a large car- 
 riage and pair of horses, which she always 
 feared might be over-fatigued. She also 
 bestowed great sums on religious societies, 
 and gave lavishly to the poor — particularly to 
 those who admired the Evangelical Alliance. 
 
 And when the old Rector died, leaving 
 his daughter with very scanty means, she 
 offered her old friend a home in her house 
 and a share of her wealth. 
 
 Very unwonted drops glistened in Clara^s 
 bright eyes, and she wrung her friend's 
 hand painfully.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 15 
 
 " No, no, Harriet, it will never do. We 
 should quarrel all day long. The sight of 
 that heavy sideboard, and those great green 
 blinds, would throw me into low spirits. 
 I must have something cheerful to look at, 
 and every time I got into the coach I should 
 fancy I was going to a funeral. And then, 
 you know, I must have my novel in the 
 evening, and that would make you miser- 
 able, and you would think it so worldly in 
 me to have my dresses made like other 
 people, though, by the by, I understand 
 it is quite the thing now for your very 
 pious people to go visiting the poor, and 
 preaching to miners, dressed out in 
 silk and flowers and jewellery. Every- 
 body must preach now-a-days, even 
 fine ladies, so you see, it would be quite 
 the thing for you, Harriet, to have a decent 
 bonnet."
 
 16 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Miss Wellby spoke quickly. She was not 
 fond of demonstrations, and was eager to 
 prevent her friend pressing her offer. She 
 could scarcely keep from embracing Harriet, 
 and crying heartily as it was. Miss 
 Richards now murmured something about 
 " vanity," on which Clara asked trium- 
 phantly — 
 
 " If there was not quite as much vanity 
 in paying two shillings a yard for a ribbon, 
 when one at one shilling would do just as 
 well, as in putting it on like other people 
 after it was bought ?" 
 
 Miss Wellby did not go to live with Miss 
 Richards, but took the tiniest of cottages, 
 with the tiniest of gardens, quite at the 
 other end of the town, near the church, and 
 close to the large house where the Browns 
 lived. But though the smallest, it was the 
 very neatest and brightest little abode in
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 17 
 
 tlie county; and its neatness had none of 
 the ponderous formality which, as Clara 
 said, made poor Harriet's furniture so de- 
 pressing. Cheerful was the pattern of the 
 Kidderminster carpet on the floor, and the 
 shilling paper on the walls of the little 
 drawing-room; cheerful the snowy muslin 
 curtains and the glass of gay flowers on 
 the table, — cheerful as ]\liss Clara herself, . 
 in her fashionably-made dresses and cheap 
 stylish bonnets, which were always becom- 
 ing to her still handsome face, and tall, 
 straight, almost youthful figure. " What a 
 contrast !" said everybody, when Clara was 
 seen walking with her friend; the little, 
 awkward old-maidish figure of the latter, 
 clad in the dingiest and dearest of silk 
 dresses, made in the most ludicrously old- 
 fashioned manner, surmounted by an ugly 
 shawl, ungracefully put on, and her plain, 
 VOL. I. c
 
 18 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 long-chinned face, shaded by her Quaker- 
 bonnet. 
 
 I would not, however, have the reader 
 to suppose, from anything I have said, that 
 Miss Clara laughed at religion, for that 
 would be giving an altogether wrong idea 
 of her character. She only laughed at her 
 friend's fashion of it ; and her friend thought 
 it could not be genuine in any other 
 fashion. 
 
 One point, however, these ladies had in 
 common — they were very fond of a thorough 
 good gossip. 
 
 " What are our tongues made for but to 
 talk?" said Miss Clara. 
 
 " Yes, dear Clara, but," sighing, " we 
 must not forget that the tongue is a world 
 of iniquity." 
 
 " It is St. James says that, Harriet, and 
 I thought all your kind of people did not 
 think much of St. James."
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 19 
 
 " Really, Clara, your levity- 
 
 " Well, at any rate, you would not have 
 thought much of him if he had been any- 
 body else but St. James." 
 
 Now Harriet and Clara were almost 
 equally illogical, but Clara had always the 
 advantage of readiness ; and perhaps, after 
 all, in all arguments, readiness is of more 
 importance than logic, if victory be the 
 desirable point. 
 
 " But,'* says the reader, " what has be- 
 come all this time of the Browns and the 
 Smiths?" 
 
 c 'Ji.
 
 20 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HANNAH BROWN. 
 
 William Brown and Thorns' Smith were 
 two solicitors, of great respectability, and 
 the chief people in Goslingford. In every- 
 thing they were rivals. At elections, Mr. 
 Brown was agent for the Reds, and Mr. 
 Smith for the Greens. Mr. Brown was a 
 zealous Churchman, Mr. Smith a dissenter. 
 Mr. Brown liked everything old — old houses, 
 old gardens, old acquaintances, old fashions.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 21 
 
 In idea he belonged to the times of our 
 grandfathers. He was a man professing 
 religion ; but his religion was not of the 
 shape prevailing just at present. It had 
 considerable resemblance to that of Miss 
 Clara Wellby. As I have said, he was a 
 Churchman, but he almost equally repu- 
 diated Tractarianism and Evangelicalism, 
 and he would cordially echo Miss Wellby 's 
 opinion that people were quite as good 
 when there were no such things. Mr. 
 Smith, or rather Mr. Smith's family, were 
 innovators, as far at least as society at 
 Goslingford would permit innovation ; for 
 though Goslingford politics were, on the 
 whole, liberal, and though the municipal 
 and electioneering orators at times talked 
 largely of " progress" and " enlightenment," 
 and "keeping pace with the age," Gosling- 
 ford, in its heart of hearts, did not like
 
 22 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 anything very different from what it had 
 always been accustomed to. It looked 
 coldly on Mr. Smith's late hours, and 
 scientific, extra-fashionable daughters. It 
 commended Hannah Brown, who had never 
 been at a ladies' college, and who had never 
 been seen walking out either with a ham- 
 mer or a japanned tin case. Goslingford 
 admired Mrs. Ellis's writings amazingly, 
 and presented the "Women of England," 
 and " The Wives of England," on birth- 
 days and wedding-days, to all its female 
 acquaintance. Yet the Smiths, though 
 much more commented upon and criticised 
 than the Browns, seemed quite as popular. 
 The ladies copied their London dresses, and 
 though they did dine at half-past six, their 
 invitations were rather sought after, and 
 their parties were not, as might have been 
 supposed, too formal for enjoyment. Most
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 23 
 
 of the genteel people in Goslingford visited 
 both the Browns and the Smiths, but all 
 sided with one or other of these factions. 
 Miss Clara Wellby was a Brownite, Miss 
 Harriet Richards was a Smithite; though 
 Miss Clara allowed that the Miss Smiths 
 dressed well, and Miss Harriet admitted that 
 Hannah Brown was a modest, nice girl. 
 
 Nobody ever invited the Browns and 
 the Smiths to the same party. Not that 
 the Browns and the Smiths had quarrelled 
 in so outrageous a manner as not to be on 
 speaking terms. That is not the fashion 
 now-a-days, except among very foolish 
 people. On the contrary, Mr. Brown and 
 Mr. Smith forgave each other their mutual 
 offences; at least, they forgave each other 
 as Christians, if not as men and lawyers. 
 The Browns and the Smiths did not 
 
 " With brawls disturb the quiet of the streets."
 
 24 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 When Mr. Brown and Mr. Smitli met each 
 other, they bowed with great politeness. 
 So did Miss Brown and the Miss Smiths. 
 They were Browns and Smiths, you see, 
 and not Montagues and Capulets ; and 
 whoever heard of two respectable elderly 
 attorneys drawing their swords, or even 
 doubling their fists, English fashion, at 
 each other, however great their anta- 
 gonism ? 
 
 Yet there is nothing new under the 
 sun, and the very same spirit animated 
 the commonplace Browns and Smiths in 
 our own vulgar days, that wrought on the 
 Montagues and Capulets "in the brave 
 days of old." That pretty little table in 
 Mr. Smith's drawing-room, at Tudor 
 Lodge, is, after all, only a bit of maple- 
 wood, with exactly the same properties as 
 any other bit of maple-wood. Cotelettes de
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 25 
 
 mouton a la souhise are^ as to all sub- 
 stantial qualities, only good English mut- 
 ton chops, with a little dandified sauce 
 and frippery frying ; and so Montagues 
 and Capulets were only a more aristo- 
 cratic and refined kind of Browns and 
 Smiths. Or were they more refined ? 
 
 I am not by any means certain that a 
 modern grocer, of average fortune and 
 education, would not be shocked if he 
 were, by chance, to find himself in my 
 Lady Capulet's saloon, by the want of 
 refinement in the furniture, and the want 
 of manners in the company. 
 
 But, though no Brown had ever run 
 any Smith through the body, tongues can 
 pierce as well as swords, and the Browns 
 and the Smiths had many sad tales to 
 relate to their several confidants, of mu- 
 tual ungentlemanliness and unfairness —
 
 26 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 tales which, somehow or other, always 
 oozed out, in a quiet way, to the whole 
 public. 
 
 A generation or two back Mr. Smith's 
 progenitor had been a clerk in the office of 
 Mr. Brown's grandfather, or great grand- 
 father; but, having quarrelled, the Smith 
 of that day set up for himself. While he 
 had been with Mr. Brown it had always 
 been supposed that he shared that gentle- 
 man's sentiments ; but, after the separa- 
 tion, it was discovered that his opinions 
 were exactly antagonistic. He was imme- 
 diately taken by the hand by the anti- 
 Brown faction in the borough, and, ere 
 long, was put forward for the town-council, 
 and, in time, for the mayoralty. From 
 that time the Smiths had held their heads 
 as high as the Browns. But even after 
 this elevation, the elite, the creme de la
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 27 
 
 creme, of Goslingford, did not, for a time 
 visit the Smiths. It was even hinted that 
 they were pushing and vulgar; but we all 
 know, ever since we wrote in copy- 
 books, that perseverance, like faith, 
 removes mountains. And so the per- 
 severance of the Smiths removed even the 
 mountain of country-town exclusivism. 
 The Smiths were a race of people who 
 never lost anything for want of trying 
 for it. Their pluck — the Brownites called 
 it brass — was wonderful. Where the • 
 Browns were too proud or too lazy to 
 befriend themselves, the Smiths stepped in 
 preventing them. They ought to have 
 been celebrated in Mr. Smiles's book as 
 remarkable instances of Self-Help. But, 
 notwithstanding, the Smiths were good 
 people enough — at least the Smiths of 
 the generation of which I am writing.
 
 28 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 What the Smith — the original Smith, 
 who so suddenly changed his po- 
 litical and religious principles — was, it 
 does not now concern me to say, though 
 I may have my own opinion. To say the 
 least of it, he chose an unfortunate time 
 for his character, if it was a highly pro- 
 pitious one for his interests, though the anti- 
 Brown faction always upheld his recanta- 
 tion as an act of magnanimous candour. 
 But our Smith — the Thomas Smith al- 
 ready mentioned, was a conscientious dis- 
 senter — at least, he thought so himself — an 
 indulgent and fond father, and, though 
 with a sharp eye to his own interest, an 
 honest and honourable man, whatever the 
 Brownites might say, and wonderfully 
 benevolent for a lawyer. He would have 
 been friendly even with Mr. Brown, if Mr. 
 Brown would have let him; but that
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 29 
 
 elderly solicitor, or attorney, as he called 
 himself — "attorneys, in his day, were not 
 ashamed of being attorneys " — rode, as his 
 rival said, such a high horse, that it was 
 impossible. 
 
 '' He always treats me as if I were no 
 better than a pettifogger," said Mr. Thomas 
 Smith, not unreasonably affronted, " as if I 
 were going to refuse Sir George's business 
 when it was offered to me, with my large 
 family to provide for. It is very different 
 with Brown, who has only that girl 
 Hannah, poor man ! " added Mr. Smith, 
 with a momentary feeling for the family 
 misfortunes of his rival ; then adding, with 
 a mingling of compassion and bitterness, as 
 he continued his after-dinner tete-d-tete with 
 his wife, '^ I believe he thought I was glad 
 when that poor boy of his died." 
 
 '^Then, my dear," said Mrs. Smith— who
 
 80 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 was a quick-tempered woman, and to her 
 kind husband a most affectionate wife, and 
 the most thorough-going of his partisans, 
 though the Brownites said that in his 
 marriage even he had "had an eye to the 
 main chance," — " I am astonished at his 
 wickedness. I did not think even old 
 Brown would have been so uncharitable. 
 And to indulge in such feelings, too, after 
 such chastenings as he has had. What a 
 long illness poor Mrs. Brown's was, and 
 then the little girl that died of measles. 
 His sorrows seem to have had no 
 effect on his stony heart. I never knew 
 such an obstinate man. I have no patience 
 with him." 
 
 Now, unlike his wife, it was whe.n he 
 thought of his sorrows that Mr. Smith had 
 a little patience with his rival. He could 
 at such moments even make some allow-
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 31 
 
 ance for Mr. Brown's bitterness and obsti- 
 nacy, however much they might gall him 
 at other times. Now as he looked from 
 the pleasant though spirited face of his 
 wife, and from the comfortable dessert and 
 wine on the table at his three handsome 
 daughters swinging their younger brother 
 in a swing which hung from a high tree at 
 the further end of the flower-decked lawn, 
 he thought with pity of poor Brown in his 
 great old house by the church, with only 
 poor little Hannah stealing about the 
 gloomy, old-fashioned chambers. 
 
 After a few seconds' pause, Mrs. Smith 
 continued — 
 
 " Even if he had lived, poor puny little 
 fellow, he would never have been a match 
 for our Edgar ; and as for Hannah, I am 
 quite sorry for her, poor little ignorant, 
 unformed thing ! "
 
 32 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 And Mrs. Smith glanced througli the 
 window, too, with looks of proud compla- 
 cency. 
 
 *'How do you know, my dear, that she 
 is ignorant and unformed ? I did not know 
 you had ever spoken to her. Clara Wellby 
 says she is clever." 
 
 " Oh, but you know all Miss Wellby's 
 geese are swans, and she will hear of 
 nothing but perfection in those Browns. 
 They are church people, you know, and 
 with Miss Wellby that is everything. But 
 I must go and see about Edgar s room — he 
 is to be home to-morrow." 
 
 And with a proud mother's delight in a 
 first-born son, Mrs. Smith went joyfully to 
 prepare for the return of hers after some 
 years' absence. 
 
 Smiths and Browns have their pride as 
 well as Montagues and Capulets, and to
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 33 
 
 them, as to the whole human race, belongs 
 the same tale of anxious affection, 
 triumphant love, disappointment, sorrow, 
 and sadness — the old, old tale, never new, 
 but ever pathetic. 
 
 As I have already said, no railway had 
 yet reached Goslingford. There was a 
 station, however, about ten miles from the 
 place ; and a vehicle, something between an 
 omnibus and an old-fashioned stage-coach, 
 conveyed passengers to and from that 
 borough. About a dozen miles further, 
 upon the line of railway, there was a manu- 
 facturing town of some importance — of 
 great importance to the Goslingford ladies, 
 as most of their fashions were derived from 
 thence, and most of them when young 
 had been sent to a fashionable boarding 
 school, there to be " finished." To have 
 been "finished" at Miss Slater's was for a 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 long time at Goslingford synonymous with 
 being in possession of every accomplish- 
 ment the heart of woman could desire or 
 the eye of man admire. But the Miss 
 Smiths had taken a higher flight. They had 
 been " finished " in London at a " Ladies' 
 College/' where there were lecturers on all 
 the sciences, professors of all the languages 
 and literatures, and where " artists of 
 celebrity " gave instruction in every kind of 
 art. At this feminine university the 
 Miss Smiths learned " everything," — at 
 least so said Goslingford gossip, with a 
 curious mixture of awe and contempt. No 
 wonder, then, that the Miss Smiths so far 
 outshone the Goslingford ladies in general, 
 and Hannah Brown in particular — poor 
 Hannah Brown never even having been at 
 Miss Slater's. Goslingford had been of 
 opinion that Mr. Brown had done wisely
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 35 
 
 " not to turn Hannah's head " by sending 
 her to London ; and Miss Wellby remarked 
 that ^* people long ago were much more 
 amusing and much less conceited when 
 they had not learned so many things." 
 But it was a different affair not sending 
 her to Miss Slater's. Even Miss Wellby 
 could not defend that. It was making poor 
 Plannah inferior to other Goslingford girls, 
 and with William Brown's fortune, too, 
 and Hannah an only daughter ! 
 
 Hannah said nothing — showed nothing, 
 but she felt it keenlyh erself, poor girl! In 
 her simple heart she probably overrated the 
 advantages to be obtained at Miss Slater's 
 — as, indeed, we are all apt to overrate 
 those advantages which we have just missed 
 obtaining. 
 
 Hannah did her best to supply herself 
 the deficiencies of her education. She 
 
 D 2
 
 36 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 practised diligently at the handsome piano 
 her father had given her (the only new- 
 thing in the house), and accompanied her 
 performance with her own wood-notes wild. 
 She copied the ancient arches, the picturesque 
 tower, and the old porch of the church 
 with photographic accuracy, and she made 
 sketches of all the trees and all the decay- 
 ing stumps in the neighbourhood. She 
 even tried her hand at bead mats, at wax 
 flowers, at potichomanie. But somehow or 
 other all her own performances seemed to 
 herself to be failures — not like other 
 people's. And certainly they were not 
 very like other people's — in Goslingford, at 
 least. 
 
 Once, when Hannah Brown had taken 
 courage to show one of her little pencil 
 sketches to an acquaintance — the subject, 
 an ancient oak, with one green branch, and
 
 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 37 
 
 the others sapless and leafless, a gipsy-cart, 
 and one or two figures beneath it, and a 
 donkey in the background — the lady in 
 question had looked at it, and in a careless 
 tone, without seeming to see it, had pro- 
 nounced it " very pretty," and then gone 
 on to describe the exquisite view of Tin- 
 tern Abbey, by moonlight, in water- 
 colours, done at the college by Miss 
 Venetia Smith. Poor Hannah never 
 showed her drawings again. She was 
 proud and shy, and loved approbation, 
 and such people have a keen sense of mor- 
 tification. 
 
 Hannah's attempts at the sciences were 
 very humble. She had read Hugh Miller's 
 ^' Testimony of the Rocks," Mrs. Somer- 
 ville's "Physical Geography," and a few 
 popular papers in the publications of the 
 Messrs. Chambers. She had made a most
 
 38 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 valiant attempt at ^' Kosmos," and the 
 " Connection of the Physical Sciences," but 
 had been utterly routed by the hard words. 
 She had tried mathematics, but had never 
 even reached the jpons asinorum, it was so 
 intolerably dry, and the dread conviction 
 began to force itself upon her mind that 
 her capacity by no means equalled her 
 ambition. What wonderful girls the Miss 
 Smiths must be I — and how superior to 
 her ! Now, if Hannah Brown had been 
 an angel, she would, of course, have been 
 delighted to be inferior to the Miss Smiths, 
 but she was no angel — only a girl, though 
 equal, perhaps superior, to the average in 
 amiability ; therefore she was vexed and 
 depressed. She had been taught French, 
 for that could be acquired in Goslingford, 
 and she had purchased a book called 
 " German without a Master," by means of
 
 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 39 
 
 which she had endeavoured to make her- 
 self mistress of that crabbed but romantic 
 tongue. She did not, however, acquire 
 facility in it with that rapidity which 
 the preface of her book promised, and 
 again poor Hannah felt a keen sense of 
 inferiority, not only of attainment, but of 
 ability. For general literature she had a 
 greater aptitude, and, during her long, 
 mostly solitary days, devoured quantities 
 of books, her father allowing her to sub- 
 scribe to as many libraries as she pleased. 
 For some few years, reading was to Hannah 
 at once a pursuit and end ; but at twenty 
 years of age, the cui bono of that, and of 
 her whole existence, began to suggest itself 
 painfully to her mind. Oh ! how weary 
 seemed her life in that silent, empty house ! 
 and how purposeless ! 
 
 Hannah Brown had read and admired
 
 40 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Keble — privately — for he was tabooed by 
 Goslingford in general, and she knew 
 
 " The daily round, the common task, 
 Furnish all we ought to ask ; " 
 
 and that they did not to her, was surely a 
 proof that she had an ill-regulated mind. 
 Sometimes the large, tall, substantial red 
 house with the high flight of steps up to 
 the invisible-green door, seemed to Hannah 
 almost as silent and sepulchral as the 
 heavy, square tomb, like a huge stone 
 trunk, which covered the mortal parts of 
 her mother, sister, and brother. They had 
 been dead for years, but she could re- 
 member them all, and sometimes, as she 
 wandered about in the walks of the longr 
 garden at the back of the house, between 
 the rows of espaliers, looking vacantly at 
 the York and Lancaster roses, and the 
 Canterbury bells, she used to fancy that
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 41 
 
 if they — not the roses and the bells, but 
 the above named individuals — had been 
 alive, she should never have been dull. 
 She often wished that, instead of being 
 covered with that monstrous box-ottoman, 
 their grave, with a cross or a circle at the 
 head, had been planted with flowers. It 
 would have been so sweet — quite an object 
 in life —to tend them. But that frightful 
 tomb with the spiked iron-railings all 
 round ! 
 
 Hannah never looked at it, but the 
 quaintly horrible problem would present 
 itself to her mind, of how its tenants 
 would ever get out on the Resurrection 
 morning. She knew it was a very pro- 
 fane idea, and one that would fill all Gos- 
 lingford, and more especially her father, 
 with horror and indignation, so she sedu- 
 lously kept it to herself.
 
 42 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Goslingford was devoted to the box- 
 ottoman and anti- resurrection style of 
 monument, to an extent that, had the 
 orthodoxy of the place not been beyond 
 suspicion, might have led to a suspicion of 
 Sadduceeism, and it despised all mediaeval- 
 ism and innovation, as Puseyite and weak- 
 minded. Crosses and circles, roses and 
 immortelle, might be very well in Pere la 
 Chaise, — but in Goslingford churchyard! 
 The sound English common-sense of the 
 place revolted at such frivolity ! 
 
 And so poor Hannah Brown could find 
 no refuge from the comfortable dreariness 
 of her life in the poetic piety of visiting her 
 dead mother's grave. It was hard. She 
 should have liked so much in some way, 
 at once tangible and beautiful, to have 
 connected herself still with her sweet, sad 
 mother, who had faded away so gently into
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 43 
 
 the " silent land." Nor had she ever 
 found any break, in the too smooth flowing 
 current of her life, from the rocks and 
 shoals of love affairs — unfortunate or other- 
 wise. At twenty years of age, Hannah 
 Brown had never even had, as far as she 
 knew, so much as the ghost of a lover. It 
 was rather mortifying. 
 
 There were not very many eligible beaux 
 in Goslingford, still several of the girls had 
 lovers ; and at evening parties all of them 
 had more partners than Hannah Brown. 
 
 It was very — very mortifying. Hannah 
 knew that a superior mind would have been 
 above being mortified for such a cause ; but 
 she wcLs mortified, ergo, she could not have 
 a superior mind. And now what was the 
 cause of this most mortifying fact ? Why 
 were Miss Venetia, and Miss Julietta, and 
 Miss Laura Victoria Smith for ever on the
 
 44 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 floor, while poor Hannah Brown acted no 
 more prominent part than that of wall- 
 flower ? Often — undignifiedly, passionately 
 often, had she asked the question of herself, 
 and asked it even with tears. 
 
 Was she uglier than other people ? She 
 had stood in front of the old oblong mirror 
 in an ebony frame, which had been nailed 
 lengthwise on the end of her bedroom to 
 supply the place of a cheval glass, and 
 had asked herself this question dozens and 
 dozens of times ; and, it might be her 
 vanity, but the plate-glass oracle had never 
 answered " Yes." She could not see any- 
 thing repulsive in her young, slender, 
 slightly drooping figure — in her shy brown 
 eyes, nor in her long chestnut ringlets. 
 Nay, these latter she was quite sure were 
 pretty. What could it be ? What was 
 she to do ? Sometimes she thought of
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 45 
 
 adopting a more showy, flouncy style of 
 dress — like the Miss Smiths ; but when it 
 came to the point, somehow Hannah always 
 felt she could not go out so. People would 
 laugh at her, and say she was copying the 
 Smiths, and "anything rather than that," 
 thought Hannah Brown. And besides, 
 surely her own style of dress became her 
 better; and though she scarcely acknow- 
 ledged it to herself, and doubtless she 
 might be mistaken, she instinctively pre- 
 ferred her own appearance to that of the 
 Miss Smiths. 
 
 And now, good reader, I fancy I hear 
 you say : " What a conceited girl !" But 
 before you pass sentence on poor Hannah 
 Brown, think for a moment. You do not 
 mean to tell me that you really think your- 
 self ugly. You do not mean to say, 
 my lady reader ! that you have never
 
 46 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 viewed with satisfaction your fair face in 
 that glass which rests on your toilette : or, 
 if per force, candour has compelled you to 
 acknowledge that there are fairer faces 
 than your own, have you not been amply 
 consoled by remarking the symmetry of 
 your figure, and the elegance of your car- 
 riage ? or, if your figure had some faults, 
 did you not lay the flattering unction to 
 your soul, that your countenance had an 
 expression, your presence an air, your 
 tout ensemble^ a '''' je ne sais qaoi^^ in fact 
 (you know I don't set up for originality), 
 which amply atoned for any mere defect of 
 form ? As for you, my gentleman reader, 
 you, of course, being a man, never com- 
 promised your dignity by fidgeting over 
 the sit of your necktie, or admiring the 
 exquisite twirl of your moustache. If you 
 have never done any of these things, then
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 47 
 
 condemn Hannah Brown ; but don't expect 
 me to do the same. Shocking as it may- 
 seem, I prefer persons who have a little 
 personal vanity. It makes them so much 
 more agreeable, provided they have a little 
 confidence as well, which poor Hannah 
 Brown had not. Poor Hannah Brown 
 then had failed to solve the problem of her 
 own unattractiveness. It had never struck 
 her that to be interesting, one must be 
 interested. 
 
 The company of the Goslingford beaux 
 in general, and their topics of conversation, 
 were generally terribly tedious to poor 
 Hannah. She always fancied that they did 
 not think her worthy of any better conver- 
 sation. It had not as yet struck her that 
 they might have no better, or that ladies 
 might be found, in tolerably plentiful 
 numbers, who could really be animated and
 
 48 THE BROWNS Ami THE SMITHS. 
 
 charmed by what seemed to her so flat and 
 unprofitable. 
 
 Hannah was one of those persons who 
 cannot feign. When she was weary she 
 looked weary. I do not praise her for this, 
 and if there be any persons who consider 
 impoliteness a duty, she did not deserve 
 even their commendation. She tried hard 
 to seem lively and interested, but it would 
 not do. It was quite beyond her powers. 
 In spite of herself she looked absent and un- 
 interested. She was generally considered " a 
 good-natured kind of girl — but no fun in 
 her at all." I fear poor Hannah Brown was 
 Sifemme incomprise, though it seems very odd 
 that anybody with such a name — Hannah 
 — and Brown! should be anything so 
 "novel-like." I do not mean new. Oh no, it 
 must be a mistake, there could be no such 
 foreign monster in Goslingford — and that
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 49 
 
 very ordinary Hannah Brown of all people 
 in the world —Hannah Brown, whom even 
 that zealous Smithite, Miss Richards, 
 praised because she " never flirted." Ah ! 
 Miss Richards, — 
 
 "Things are not what they seem." 
 
 Quiet, sensible Hannah Brown, who never 
 dressed fine, would have had no objection 
 to flirt, as you call flirting, if she could 
 have found an eligible opportunity; for — 
 
 " The lads like lasses, 
 And the lasses, lads too " 
 
 And were they not meant to do so ? 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 50 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HANNAH brown's FIRST ADVENTURE. 
 
 The only diversity in the even tenor of 
 Hannah Brown's existence at Goslingforcl 
 was an occasional expedition to the town of 
 Buttonborough — the same large manufac- 
 turing town, illuminated by that seat of 
 every accomplishment (if not of all the 
 sciences), Miss Slater's establishment for 
 young ladies. 
 
 Hannah went to Buttonborough to shop,
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 51 
 
 sometimes accompanied by Miss Clara 
 Wellby, whom, though no relative, she 
 always called "Aunt Clara;" and some- 
 times alone. When alone she always 
 took an early dinner with old Mrs. 
 Beddoes — a deaf old lady above seventy, 
 who' only heard through an ear-trumpet, 
 and who was very fat and sleepy, and 
 always treated Hannah as if she were ten 
 years old. It was on one of those lively 
 occasions in the "leafy month of June," 
 when the days were long, the sun bright, 
 the roads dusty, and the evening breeze 
 still easterly and chill, that Hannah Brown 
 was returning by train from Button- 
 borough to the Dustwhirl Road Station, 
 whence she was to be conveyed home by 
 the Goslingford omnibus. Hannah had 
 taken a cab, which had carried herself and 
 her purchases to the Great Buttonborough 
 
 E 2
 
 52 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 station, where diiferent trains were starting 
 from various platforms for all points of the 
 compass. There was a great bustle, and 
 Hannah was rather late. She almost feared 
 losing the train, which would have been an 
 awful catastrophe, as she had ''promised 
 her father faithfully " (what is ]jromising 
 faithfully ?) that by that very train she 
 should certainly be home ; and she well 
 knew the fuss and anxiety that would per- 
 vade the great red house by the church, 
 should she not keep her appointment. In 
 her mind's eye she saw her father with 
 knitted brows, and taking out his watch 
 every instant, pacing up and down the 
 paved alley by the churchyard railings, 
 which led from their house to the main 
 street, muttering as he walked, with an 
 anxious heart and an irritated temper. 
 He would not say much to her, Hannah
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 53 
 
 knew, but she dreaded beyond everything 
 the frowning face, and the gloomy evening, 
 and the cold " Good night, Hannah," which 
 would end it. 
 
 Hannah had all her life been afraid of 
 her father, and yet he was a fond father, 
 and not by any means a bad-tempered man. 
 If she could only have coaxed him a little 
 when he was irritated, all would have been 
 well. But she could not do that, she was 
 too frightened. It was this fear which had 
 all her life weakened her love for him — this 
 fear, coupled with a feeling, only partly 
 acknowledged, that he ought to have done 
 more to make her life pleasant. 
 
 ^'Surely," thought Hannah, "he can 
 never have been young." And there 
 Hannah was right. William Brown never 
 had been young, and he had no sympathy 
 with youth. A strange compound of anti-
 
 54 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 quated prejudices, high moral principles, 
 honourable feelings, strong business sense, 
 intellectual narrowness, formal habits, 
 warm but undemonstiative feelings, and 
 narrow sympathies, he had no more con- 
 ception of his daughter Hannah than of the 
 man in the moon, if modern enlightenment 
 w^ill permit me the dear old simile of my 
 childhood. 
 
 And thus father and daughter lived 
 and loved — yes, loved ; for either would 
 have died for the other. But their mutual 
 love added little to the happiness of 
 either. In an economico-affectionate point 
 of view, it was a sheer waste of the pre- 
 cious material, and no " Moral Wealth of 
 Nations " had shown them how it might 
 be turned to account. 
 
 Hannah, however, saved the train on the 
 present occasion, tumbling in, head-fore-
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 55 
 
 most, with her arms full of parcels, just as 
 the carriages began to move and the 
 whistle to shriek, tripping, as she did so, 
 over the legs of a male fellow-passenger, 
 who prevented her further fall by catching 
 her in his arms. 
 
 Sensitive Hannah Brown blushed up 
 to her forehead at her own awkwardness, 
 and could scarcely find voice to say — 
 
 " I beg your pardon." 
 
 ^' Oh ! pray don't mention it ! " said the 
 gentleman addressed, who was young and 
 well-looking, though with a certain air of 
 superciliousness, which was not altogether 
 becoming, and made Hannah Brown feel 
 more vexed still. Or perhaps I was wrong 
 in the term superciliousness. There was 
 too much vanity, and too little pride in it 
 for superciliousness. Will the reader, with 
 a classical taste, and a chaste ear for Ian-
 
 56 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 guage, permit me to call it patronisingness ? 
 Hannah's fellow-traveller looked as if there 
 could be no doubt that he was very supe- 
 rior to the world in general ; but as if, at 
 the same time, he was good-humouredly 
 resolved to tolerate and patronise it, and 
 to be amused with, rather than contemp- 
 tuous of, its inferiority. He might have 
 been a London-bred man, coming down to 
 see his country cousins, and then, of 
 course, the frame of mind I have indicated 
 would have been quite natural. Country 
 cousins always are so inferior in sense, and 
 wit, and knowledge to their London rela- 
 tives. And then their dress ! What can 
 be so outrageously absurd? — though it is 
 the same that was worn in town only 
 last year. 
 
 Hannah Brown never spoke to her 
 fellow-passengers in — ^railway trains, I was
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 57 
 
 going to have said — but I mean in the 
 railway train between Buttonborough and 
 Dustwhirl Road Station, for she had never 
 been in any other. She was not sorry, 
 however, to be spoken to. But this was 
 an event which rarely occurred. Poor 
 Hannah's shyness was generally catching 
 to her companions. There are, however, 
 some individuals whose constitutions are 
 proof against certain diseases, even when 
 exposed to infection in the most unguarded 
 manner. Hannah's present fellow-traveller 
 had an idiosyncrasy of this nature. A 
 female Marlow would not have daunted 
 him, any more than the male one did Miss 
 Hardcastle. Moreover, he had discovered, 
 what the Goslingford beaux had never yet 
 found out, that this country girl had very 
 pretty brown eyes and hair, and it struck 
 him that it would pass the time quite as
 
 58 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 quickly to amuse himself with her naivete 
 and shyness, as to go on reading the book 
 with the bright yellow cover, which had 
 hitherto been the not unpleasant com- 
 panion of his journey. He fancied, too, 
 that the sight of so magnificent a hero 
 as himself might have had something to do 
 with his companion's shyness. He began: — 
 
 "Rather a prettyish line this! — very 
 English I " 
 
 " Very pretty, and, I daresay, very 
 English ; but, as I have never been out 
 of England, I have had no opportunity 
 of judging of it by comparison." 
 
 " Never out of England ! I fancied you 
 must have travelled." 
 
 Now, Hannah's sensitiveness and quick- 
 ness of perception made her instanta- 
 neously aware that her companion was 
 indulging in banter, and, feeling a little
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 59 
 
 angry and very awkward, she said 
 abruptly — 
 
 " I have never been anywhere but at 
 Buttonborough, in my life." 
 
 " Never been anywhere but at Button- 
 borough in your life ! " and he looked in- 
 finitely amused, but too well-bred abso- 
 lutely to laugh. " Why, you are the 
 wonder of the age. I might have travelled 
 all over Europe without meeting the one 
 personage who has never been anywhere 
 but at Buttonborough. You are indeed a 
 vara avis." ^ 
 
 '^ Not an avis at all, I assure you," said 
 Hannah, blushing, and feeling a little in- 
 dignation, at the same time not blind to 
 the humorous light in which this, to her 
 mortifying fact, might appear to the 
 traveller; "if I had, I should have flown 
 away long ago."
 
 60 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 " Ah ! I see you are a chained eagle, or 
 caged swallow. So this is your first 
 railway journey. I hope it is to be as 
 long as you would wish it to be." 
 
 " It is not my first railway journey. I 
 have often been to Buttonborough." 
 
 "I beg your pardon. I thought But- 
 tonborough was your home, and that 
 this very day marked the remarkable era 
 of your first flight from it — the Hegira 
 of Miss Blank from Buttonborough. Dies 
 cretd notanda. You have learned Latin, 
 I perceive." 
 
 " No, never ; but I understand these 
 common things, and often a short Latin 
 sentence, without having learnt it." 
 
 " Indeed. You mean, in short, but 
 are too modest to say so, that you are 
 quite a female Mezzofante." 
 
 Hannah blushed and laughed, and yet,
 
 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 61 
 
 in spite of his banter, she had never felt 
 so much at her ease with a person of his 
 sex before. 
 
 " No, no, I don't mean anything of the 
 sort. You are really too bad." 
 
 Now, Hannah's companion had fancied 
 that a girl who had never been " anywhere 
 but at Buttonborough," was not likely to 
 have heard of the celebrated Cardinal- 
 linguist ; but she evidently had. Indeed, 
 she did not seem ignorant, and her manners 
 were lady-like, and our young railway 
 traveller began to feel some little curiosity 
 to know where she did live. 
 
 "Buttonborough, then, is not your 
 home. You live in the country, I suppose?" 
 
 " No, I live in Goslingford." 
 
 *' In Goslingford I " he repeated, in a 
 tone of real- surprise, and looking for a 
 minute full in Hannah's face, but without
 
 62 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 any impertinence in the gaze. As he did 
 so, a faint reminiscence, like the memory of 
 a dream, came across her mind, that she 
 had seen that good-looking, good-natured, 
 self-complacent face before. Surely those 
 saucy blue eyes were not altogether un- 
 known to her. But Hannah Brown had 
 never been out of Goslingford, except to 
 go to Buttonborough, and in neither of 
 these places had she ever met in society 
 the person she now saw. Goslingford would 
 not have tolerated the Frenchified cut of 
 his coat, or the glossy curl of his brown 
 moustache, for Goslingford, only a few 
 years ago, held all hirsute facial decora- 
 tions, except whiskers, in abomination ; 
 and there is, to my mind, no more con- 
 clusive proof of the amazing velocity of 
 " progress," in these latter days, than that 
 beards, moustachios, and imperials now
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 63 
 
 abound in that thoroughly English town. 
 There are, however, a few individuals, 
 with Miss Wellby at their head, who per- 
 sist in considering all that, in their opinion, 
 superfluous hair, a proof, not of the advance- 
 ment, but of the degeneracy of the times. 
 And when Miss Richards, who naturally 
 takes the unbecoming side of the ques- 
 tion, happens to suggest that they are 
 healthy, and keep off consumption, her 
 friend and adversary will reply triumph- 
 antly — 
 
 '* Healthy I Dirty, you mean, Harriet. I 
 am an old-fashioned person, and believe 
 that cleanliness is akin to godliness ; but 
 you don't, I see, so we'll say no more 
 about it." 
 
 As I have said, then, the moustache was 
 proof positive that Hannah could not have 
 seen her fellow-traveller either at Gosling-
 
 64 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 ford, or at Mrs. Beddoes', or anywhere, 
 except in the streets of Buttonborough, and 
 she was yet pondering the possibility of 
 having passed him there, when all at once 
 there was a terrific shock that threw her 
 forward from her seat with astounding 
 violence, a tremendous bumping, an awful 
 rattling, a swaying over of the train, loud 
 cries and shrieks, and the fearful flash of 
 conviction that they were in all the 
 horrors of a railway accident. 
 
 Those dread moments were but brief. 
 The train, from some cause or other, had 
 gone off the rails. Providentially, it was 
 neither in a cutting nor on an embankment, 
 but on a plain, with hedges and corn-fields 
 on both sides ; still it was an awful scene, 
 and to this day Hannah Brown recalls, with 
 a shudder and a faintness of the heart, the 
 horror, the sickening anxiety of the
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 65 
 
 moment, when she knew not what sight 
 might meet her eyes, nor what sad tale her 
 ear. 
 
 In the midst of this spectacle of unpa- 
 ralleled confusion, the air yet resounding 
 with cries, and groans, and shouts, Hannah 
 found herself standing up to the waist in 
 green corn beside her late fellow-traveller, 
 the bright June sun. pouring down on 
 their pale, scared faces and torn dresses, 
 and on the whole scene of wreck and 
 disorder. 
 
 " You are not much hurt, I hope ? " he 
 asked, in a tone of interest. 
 
 "No. 1 think not — not at all; but 
 your face is streaming with blood." 
 
 " Is it ? A mere scratch from the broken 
 glass ;" and he stanched it with his pocket- 
 handkerchief. 
 
 "I wonder if there are many killed?" 
 
 VOL, I. F
 
 QQ THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 said Hannah, in a low tone, and with 
 blanched lips. 
 
 "Shall I go and see? You are not 
 afraid to be left alone for a few minutes ? " 
 
 " Oh no. I should like to know the 
 worst, or if I can do anything." 
 
 He was a long time in returning — at 
 least it seemed a long time to Hannah. 
 She looked eagerly down the long train of 
 carriages, and saw many taken out ; but 
 she was not near enough to see in what 
 condition they were, and she did not like 
 to go herself, lest she should be in the way. 
 She became very lonely and uncomfortable, 
 and longed for the return of her com- 
 panion. At last he came. 
 
 " Good news ! " he said, " no one killed, 
 or even in danger. A few broken limbs, 
 and a great many bruises, that is all." 
 
 " Thank heaven," cried Hannah, fer- 
 vently. And now that her mind was
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 67 
 
 relieved upon this point, and that it had 
 overcome the first bewildering shock of the 
 accident, it returned more nearly to its 
 accustomed channels of thought. 
 
 '^ My father!" she cried, "if he should 
 hear of this accident before I return. Oh, 
 what will become of him ? How can I 2:0 
 home ? " 
 
 " A man has walked on to Dustwhirl 
 Road, and the engine has gone back to 
 Buttonborough for help, and to stop the 
 next train. Probablv the Goslingford 
 omnibus will come on here, and after it has 
 helped to convey the wounded, it will 
 probably take us home." 
 
 " Oh, that will be so long," cried Hannah, 
 too much pre-occupied to remark that her 
 companion had spoken of Goslingford as 
 his home too. " I wonder if I could walk 
 to Dustwhirl Road ? " 
 
 f2
 
 QS THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 " I cannot see what good end it would 
 answer if you could, and I am sure you 
 cannot in this hot sun, and with your 
 bruises, for you must be bruised, though 
 excitement has hitherto prevented your 
 feeling it." 
 
 Poor Hannah looked so anxious and so 
 distressed that her companion good-na- 
 turedly began to think how he could help 
 her 
 
 " Stay," he said, " there is a farmhouse 
 about half a mile from here, and the 
 farmer keeps some sort of vehicle. Per- 
 haps he will lend it to us — shall I go and 
 ask him ? " 
 
 '' Oh, thank you, thank you ! How 
 kind you are! You see I am the only 
 one left." 
 
 "Then come here, and wait till I come 
 back."
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 69 
 
 And he led her to a quiet corner, 
 near the public road, and got her his 
 carpet-bag, which had been in the car- 
 riao:e with them, to sit on. Hannah 
 found that she could not walk without 
 pain. She felt bruised all over, and her 
 arm especially began to ache violently. 
 She did not complain, however, but sat 
 down on the carpet-bag, to await the 
 young man's return. And as she sat 
 alone and began to think, it struck her 
 for the first time how strange it was that 
 he should be going to Goslingford too. 
 Then she looked at the carpet-bag, to see 
 if there was a name on it, but there was 
 none — neither name nor address, and 
 Hannah mentally resolved that she would 
 carefully conceal this fact from her father, 
 in whose good opinion it would have 
 ruined the young gentleman for ever.
 
 70 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 During the three-quarters of an hour 
 which elapsed before his return, Hannah 
 had time to wonder at her own coolness 
 in putting him to so much trouble, and 
 to have worked herself up in consequence 
 into a miserable fit of shyness. 
 
 At last, when she had almost begun to 
 despair of ever seeing him again, he ap- 
 peared with the very shabbiest and 
 dirtiest of dog-carts — drawn by a horse 
 fresh from farm labour — and laughing 
 heartily. 
 
 " I can do no better for you, I am 
 sorry to say." 
 
 " Oh, thank you — I am ashamed " 
 
 " Of the carriage ? " 
 
 "Oh I no, of " 
 
 " My torn coat then ? " 
 
 ** No, of giving ycu all this trouble." 
 
 " Oh, if that is all you have to be
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 71 
 
 ashamed of, you are a fortunate person. 
 I was just thinking how lucky you have 
 been altogether. Though you have only 
 been to Buttonborough, you have actually 
 been in a railway accident, and that is 
 what few can say. Why, all the rest of 
 your life you will be quite an authority 
 on the subject of railway accidents." 
 ^ " Oh, please, don't," said Hannah — " it 
 was so horrible." 
 
 " It was," he said gravely, " but it is 
 not good for you to think of it in that 
 way now." 
 
 He then began to help her up the 
 awkward step into the high seat. 
 
 She gave her left hand. 
 
 " My right arm is a little hurt, I 
 think. It seems swollen." And as she 
 spoke she thrcAv back her open sleeve. 
 
 It was indeed very much swollen, and
 
 72 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 she could not bear it moved. Her com- 
 panion thought it was broken, and, making 
 a sling of his handkerchief, he placed her 
 arm in it very gently, almost tenderly. 
 Hannah felt that he was very kind, and in 
 spite of her late agitation and the pain she 
 was suffering, would have felt rather happier 
 than usual, had it not been for the thought 
 of her father. But the sweets of life 
 come not unmixed, as the reader has 
 often said, and often heard, and often 
 experienced — the latter always a little to 
 his surprise and chagrin. In short, 
 human life, generally speaking, is either 
 sweet and bitter at once — a kind of moral 
 marmalade, or flavourless, like calves'-foot 
 jelly before the wine and the seasoning 
 have been added. 
 
 As soon as they were seated in the 
 farmer's dog-cart, Hannah's companion said 
 politely —
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 73 
 
 ^' You must tell me what part of Gosling- 
 ford I am to drive you to. I have not the 
 pleasure of knowing your name." 
 
 " I live near the Church, and my name 
 is Hannah Brown." 
 
 She would have liked to ask his name too, 
 but this would have been too courageous 
 an effort for Hannah Brown, and he did 
 not tell it, as she expected. He made no 
 rejoinder, but received the information in 
 silence. During the rest of the way, he 
 was very agreeable and kind; but jested no 
 more during the rest of the time — a full 
 hour-and-a-half — that they were together.
 
 74 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AT HOME IN THE OLD RED HOUSE. 
 
 Mr. Brown's tea-hour was six o'clock, and 
 Hannah was expected home by half-past 
 five, which would be just in time; but 
 half-past five came, and no Hannah. Her 
 father concluded the train was late, or the 
 omnibus slow ; nevertheless he laid down 
 the book he was reading (the political 
 article in Blackwood), and began to walk in
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 75 
 
 the garden. Somehow or other he could 
 not attend to the meaning of what he was 
 reading. It was much easier and more 
 amusing just then to look what promise 
 there was of marrow-fats, and how the 
 nectarines and peaches on the south -wall 
 were coming on. Then Mr. Brown sat 
 down in the moss-house at the end of the 
 middle walk (a long alley formed by es- 
 paliers, and bordered by double daisies, at 
 the upper end of which was a sun-dial), 
 and admired the garden in general. And 
 it had a kind of beauty, though Hannah 
 did not like it — at least not at that period 
 of her life ; — it was so associated in her 
 mind with long, tedious days, a sinking 
 heart, and a longing, mortified spirit. It 
 had been the garden of Mr. Brown's father 
 and grandfather, and had doubtless been 
 new-fashioned in its time, but that was very
 
 76 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 long ago, and now nothing could look more 
 formal and antiquated than its long, straight 
 walks, all at right angles, its lines of espa- 
 liers, and its obsolete flowers, to which 
 there was no part of the garden especially 
 assigned, but which mostly formed a 
 narrow border between the espaliers and 
 the gravel walks. Still there was a charm 
 on a sunny summer afternoon in sitting 
 in that old moss-house, inhaling the 
 mingled breath of honeysuckles and cab- 
 bage roses, and pinks, and sweet-williams 
 — listening to the hum of insects, and 
 watching the bees flit from flower to 
 flower. Even the Canterbury bells and 
 the London pride had their own homely 
 beauty. A ramble in Mr. Brown's garden 
 was like meeting the long-lost and long- 
 forgotten friends of one's childhood, and 
 awakened a host of sleeping memories.
 
 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 77 
 
 " What landscapes I read in the primroses' looks, 
 And what pictures of pebbled and murmuring brooks, 
 In the vetches that tangled their shore." 
 
 Something like the feelings which 
 prompted these lines perhaps it was, that 
 made the old Goslingford attorney love 
 so dearly the garden of his childhood, 
 for even in an attorney's heart there may 
 linger a drop of poetry, though you, fair 
 young lady, in love with the pale, dark- 
 eyed curate, I see, don't believe it. But, 
 even apart from association, there was real 
 beauty in that old garden, in its old-world 
 quietness and seclusion, in the wealth of 
 rosy fruit basking on the brick walls, 
 in the coolness of the " ivy green" which 
 mantled the back of the tall red house, 
 and in the long shadow of the taper- 
 ing church-spire, which cut the sunshine 
 as clearly as did the index on the 
 sun-dial.
 
 78 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Mr. William Brown had never heard of 
 Keats, and would most likely have despised 
 both him and his poetry if he had. But 
 that old ancestral garden of his — for Browns, 
 even when attorneys, really have ancestors 
 as well as Capulets — was the very place 
 to experience such thoughts, as no other 
 writer, prosaic or poetical, has so well 
 expressed — 
 
 " And calmest thoughts come round us — as of leaves 
 Budding — fruit ripening in stillness — autumn dews 
 Smiling at eve upon the quiet sheaves — 
 Sweet Sappho's cheek — a sleeping infant's breath — 
 The gradual sand that through an hour glass runs — 
 
 ' A woodland rivulet — a Poet's death." 
 
 Now, Mr. Brown would doubtless have 
 told you that he had never thought any 
 one of these things in the whole course of 
 his life. Ripening apples were to him sug- 
 gestive of cider, and Sappho, if he had 
 ever heard of her at all, was associated
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 79 
 
 in his mind with crabbed Greek characters, 
 and the birch of Dr. Fell. 
 
 But thoughts of a certain class are so 
 much akin to feelings, that one can 
 scarcely draw the boundary line. The 
 difference is that the feelings are common, 
 but are only translated, or shaped into 
 thoughts, by the few. Thus, I have no 
 doubt, William Brown, in a vague, uncon- 
 scious way, experienced feelings akin to 
 those described by the poet, as he sat in 
 the afternoon sunshine, in the old garden 
 where he had played as a child, amid the 
 old familiar scenes where the sand of his 
 hour-glass had run so noiselessly. 
 
 But suddenly he was startled from a 
 half-sleeping, half-waking reverie by the 
 old church clock striking the hour of six 
 Hannah had not come. She must have 
 missed the train. It was intolerable in
 
 80 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Hannah. It was not to be borne. And 
 leaving the garden, he began to walk up 
 and down the paved path leading to the 
 street. It was in vain that the servants 
 offered tea. 
 
 ''I will have no tea till Miss Brown 
 comes home." 
 
 *' The next train, sir, is not till eight 
 o'clock." 
 
 " Then I will have no tea at all. I 
 cannot stand people being late. It is — 
 it is quite unpardonable. She might have 
 stayed as late as she liked, if she had only 
 said so before she went away." 
 
 And Lucy went away, telling her fellow- 
 servants she had never seen anyone so 
 put out at having to wait for his tea. 
 Lucy had a fellow-feeling for people who 
 were late. 
 
 " I wonder," said she, "if he will walk 
 there till eight o'clock."
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 81 
 
 As the time passed on, Mr. Brown 
 walked faster and faster, till he was ready 
 to drop down with fatigue, and the more 
 tired he was, he became the more angry 
 and anxious. The only thing that gave 
 him any consolation was the thought of 
 how vexed Hannah would be when she 
 found that he was so tired and had had 
 no tea. 
 
 They made another attempt, by bring- 
 ing him out a cup of tea. But he 
 ordered it away again angrily, though in 
 reality he would have liked to have had 
 it. 
 
 Lucy, angry in her turn, suggested — 
 
 " But it may not have been Miss 
 Brown's fault — there may have been an 
 accident." 
 
 '' An accident, you fool I Don't talk 
 such nonsense to me." 
 
 VOL. T. G
 
 82 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Now the truth of the matter was, it 
 was the dread of an accident which had 
 so much disturbed Mr. Brown, though he 
 would not have acknowledged it even to 
 himself, and he was one of those whom 
 anxiety always makes cross. 
 
 " 111 news travels fast." As the messen- 
 ger from the train reached Dustwhirl 
 Road there chanced to be a butcher's boy 
 riding by the station on his way to Gos- 
 lingford. After having heard the news 
 he rode off at a double pace, and in 
 about an hour afterwards it was all over 
 Goslingford that there had been a dread- 
 ful accident to the mail train between 
 Buttonborough and Dustwhirl Road, fif- 
 teen people killed, and a great many 
 injured. 
 
 Miss Wellby had just sat down to a 
 cup of tea with Miss Richards, when
 
 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 83 
 
 the parlour-maid came in, open-mouthed, 
 and carrying another buttered tea-cake as 
 an excuse, with the news. It gives peo- 
 ple such pleasure, apparently, to tell bad 
 news ; and yet Miss Richards' Mary was 
 a kind-hearted girl, and was quite dis- 
 tressed by the accident. But, you see, it 
 gives us a sort of momentary importance 
 to be able to tell anything. 
 
 Miss Wellby started from her seat, 
 upsetting her tea. 
 
 " Hannah Brown ! Hannah Brown went 
 to Buttonborough this morning, and was 
 to come home by this very train. Har- 
 riet, I must go to Mr. Brown's this 
 instant. Oh, those trains I How different 
 it was in the good old days of the But- 
 tonborough mail !" 
 
 " Trains are, no doubt, very unsafe," 
 said Miss Richards, who had never been 
 
 g2
 
 84 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 in one in her life, and always travelled 
 in her own carriage ; " but, dear Clara, 
 though it is no doubt tempting Provi- 
 dence when we have other means of con- 
 veyance, yet those who go in igno- 
 rance " 
 
 " Good-bye, Harriet. My gloves, Mary." 
 
 " Poor Hannah," said Miss Richards, 
 anxiously ; '^ I hope she had built " 
 
 Then, as her friend was disappearing 
 from the room — 
 
 " Mary will run along to your house 
 in half an hour. Poor old Mr. Brown ! " 
 
 Miss Wellby found her old friend 
 pacing up and down where we left him. 
 That he had not yet heard of the acci- 
 dent was evident. He was rather pleased 
 to see Miss Wellby — she was always so 
 cheerful, and her opinions were so cor- 
 rect.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 85 
 
 " There is that girl Hannah," he said, 
 "young people treated their parents dif- 
 ferently in our day, Miss Wellby — you 
 and I did not keep our fathers waiting 
 their meals — not come home by the train 
 as she promised! Most abominable care- 
 lessness — quite disgraceful ! " 
 
 " Come in, my dear sir, and let us 
 have a cup of tea," said Miss Clara, with 
 as much cheerfulness as she could assume, 
 " we will scold her well when she does 
 come." 
 
 But as Clara spoke, the youngest of 
 Mr. Brown's articled clerks, whose busi- 
 ness it was to fetch the letters, came up 
 in breathless haste. 
 
 " Letters not come, sir — accident to 
 the mail-train between Buttonborough 
 and Dustwhirl — sixteen killed they say." 
 
 He stopped short, and neither the clerk
 
 86 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 nor Miss Wellby ever forgot poor old 
 Brown's low cry of anguish, or his pale, 
 stricken countenance. 
 
 ''Uy child! — my Hannah!" Then, 
 turning fiercely to the lad, " Go, boy, this 
 instant to the Queen's Head, and order 
 a fly and pair — their best horses — any 
 money for them — quick ! I must go and 
 look for my child. She was my last " 
 and his lip quivered. 
 
 "My dear Mr. Brown," and poor Clara, 
 as she spoke, was agitated and weeping, 
 " there are hundreds, you know, in a 
 train, and Hannah was first-class, and 
 that is so much safer." 
 
 " Don't talk to me, Clara. You are not 
 a father. What can you know ? " Then 
 in a softer tone — " Clara, do you think 
 there is any chance of her having missed 
 the train ? " And the poor old man would
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 87 
 
 have given all his fortune that his 
 daughter should have done the very thing 
 which, only a minute before, he had been 
 so angry at the idea of her doing. 
 
 They were now at the end of the alley 
 which led from Mr. Brown's house to one 
 of the four main streets of Goslingford. 
 Here he began to fume for the fly, long 
 before the horses could possibly have been 
 harnessed, while Clara comforted, expos- 
 tulated, sympathised, and kept saying, for 
 Miss Wellby could never be silent, that — 
 
 " These things could not have happened 
 in the days of the Buttonborough 
 Mail." 
 
 Just as Mr. Brown's impatience was 
 getting beyond all bounds, the jingle of a 
 conveyance was heard in the distance. 
 
 " The fly at last ! " cried Miss Wellby. 
 
 " Fly 1 — nonsense ! There it comes,
 
 88 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 — a farmer's trap I Oh, Hannah I " and 
 he turned away in a frenzy of anxiety and 
 impatience." 
 
 But hark I The trap pulled up — Clara 
 gave a scream of delight — Mr. Brown 
 turned, and there was a gentleman lifting 
 Hannah down from the vehicle. 
 
 In another moment she was in her father's 
 arms, and they were mingling together their 
 sobs and tears. For the first time Hannah 
 guessed how much her father loved her. 
 
 " You must thank this gentleman, 
 father. He got the trap for me, and did 
 everything, or I should not have been 
 home for hours." 
 
 "I do thank him; and may I ask to 
 whom I am so much indebted ? " 
 
 Hannah's companion had, in the mean- 
 time, been talking to Miss Wellby. 
 
 *^ He has been in such a state," the lady
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 89 
 
 said; '*but won't your father and mother 
 be anxious ? " 
 
 "No, they do not expect me till the 
 next train. Had not I better send Mr. 
 Splint, as I go home ? I fear Miss 
 Brown s arm is broken ! " 
 
 The young man now turned, as Mr. 
 Brown addressed him, and Hannah re- 
 marked, for an instant, a peculiar, rather 
 puzzled expression in his face ; but it 
 quickly passed. With much self-posses- 
 sion and politeness he took his card- case 
 from his pocket, and presented his card to 
 Mr. Brown. On the card was engraved 
 the name : — 
 
 ''Mr. Edgar Smith:' 
 
 Mr. Brown was self-possessed too, but 
 all his old reserve returned. He thanked 
 Mr. Edgar Smith again — more pointedly 
 than before. Then they bowed, and the
 
 90 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 young man went away, with a low, but 
 doubtful reverence to Hannah. 
 
 As they returned to the house, Miss 
 Wellby remarked — 
 
 "I never saw anybody so changed as 
 Edgar Smith, but ^we years is a long time 
 at his age. How ridiculous his moustache 
 looks ! I have no patience with such 
 foreign airs, though he seems a nice 
 enough young man, too. But all the 
 Smiths are so — so "
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 91 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 EDGAR smith's OPINIONS. 
 
 It was the morning after the accident. 
 The Smith family were at breakfast, or, 
 at least, such of them as had come down 
 stairs, for the Smiths in general, and the 
 Miss Smiths in particular were not famous 
 either for punctuality or early rising. 
 They had, however, exerted themselves a 
 little more than usual this morning, as 
 they were all eager to renew their over-
 
 92 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 night's conversation with their brother, 
 and to hear more about the accident. 
 
 The Smith dining-room was probably 
 as handsome as that of any Montague in 
 Verona, though, to confess the truth, it had 
 nothing in the least ancestral about it, 
 except a rather vulgar portrait of grand- 
 father Smith, representing a stout, florid, 
 middle-aged gentleman, with a powdered 
 wig and pigtail, dressed in a white waist- 
 coat and blue coat with brass buttons. 
 In short, the whole aspect of Tudor Lodge 
 was undeniably modern, or, to speak 
 plainly, bran-new — an aspect which, to 
 some minds, is as objectionable in a resi-, 
 dence as in a coat. Of a bran-new pattern 
 was the silver teapot, the porcelain cups, 
 the tapestry carpet, the rep curtains ; 
 bran-new the deep oriel window, the 
 smooth-shaven, shadeless lawn, the bright
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 93 
 
 flower-beds, and the rustic seats. Mr. 
 Edgar Smith was seated next his mother. 
 She looked proud and pleased, and was 
 quite ready to fly at any prejudiced Gos- 
 lingford ignoramus who should object to 
 the moustache. This lady was of rather 
 a pugnacious disposition, when the entire 
 perfection of any member of her family 
 was, or seemed to be, questioned. 
 
 " And so you drove Hannah Brown " — 
 with a slightly contemptuous accent on the 
 name — "home. How very good-natured 
 in you, considering the way in which they 
 have always treated your father, and in- 
 deed all our family ! " 
 
 " Well, but, my dear mother," said 
 Edgar, with an air of amusement at his 
 mother's partisanship, *' but you know we 
 should return good for evil, at least, you 
 always taught me so when I was a little 
 boy."
 
 94 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 "My dear child!" with tender admira- 
 tion ; then, more briskly : " It is sad to 
 think how different these Browns are — 
 all ^ the Church, the Church ' — but, I fear 
 very little Christianity." 
 
 ** But I am sure Miss Brown never did 
 any of us any harm, nor would do it, if it 
 was in her power." 
 
 " No," said Miss Venetia Smith, a tall, 
 handsome girl, with blue eyes, and very 
 fashionably-made dress, who could never, 
 under any circumstances, have passed un- 
 noticed ; " I should not think she had the 
 wit to do us any harm, even if she wished 
 it, poor, stupid, little thing I" 
 
 " Stupid, Venetia ? " cried her brother. 
 "I differ from you entirely. I consider 
 Hannah Brown very clever, and very lady- 
 like, not to say pretty." 
 
 Having pronounced this opinion in his
 
 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 95 
 
 usual ex cathedra tone, Edgar leant back in 
 his chair, amused and pleased at the con- 
 sternation and surprise painted on the 
 faces of his mother and sisters. It was 
 the little revenge in which he indulged 
 himself for their contempt of Hannah 
 Brown. 
 
 Now, it was an established axiom with 
 all the ladies of the Smith family that in 
 matters of taste their brother's opinion 
 could not err. But his present dictum 
 sounded so heterodox to all preconceived 
 Smithian notions, that faint murmurs, even 
 of dissent, were heard. Poor Mrs. Smith 
 was between the horns of a dilemma, being 
 called upon either to doubt the infallibility 
 of her son, or to believe that a Brown 
 might possess merits. 
 
 Miss Laura Victoria Smith, was the 
 first to begin to come round. She was
 
 96 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 the youngest sister, and her brother's 
 favourite, being a rosy, sweet-tempered, 
 plump-faced girl, her chief claims to 
 beauty consisting in a good complexion 
 and good teeth. 
 
 "Miss Wellby always said she was 
 clever, and certainly her hair is very 
 beautiful. But, somehow, it is not the 
 fashion in Goslingford to admire her." 
 
 "Then I will make it the fashion," said 
 Edgar, loftily. 
 
 Mrs. Smith felt that it was perhaps 
 better not any longer to continue a direct 
 attack on Hannah Brown. She contented 
 herself with saying — 
 
 " What a disgraceful thing in old 
 Brown, with such a fortune as his, and 
 only one daughter, not to have given her 
 greater educational advantages I He can 
 have no affection for her."
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 97 
 
 "If you had seen him last night, you 
 would not have said so. Poor old fellow ! 
 He was stiff enough to me, but, from all 
 I saw, I should think the reason he did 
 not send Hannah to school, was because 
 he could not part with her." 
 
 " How very selfish, and what monstrous 
 ingratitude to be stiff to you after what 
 you had done ! It will teach you to do 
 anything for the Browns another time." 
 
 " I thought, mother, we were to love 
 our enemies^ and " 
 
 " We must take care how we love 
 them too well though, Edgar, my boy," 
 said his father, who had hitherto seemed 
 entirely absorbed in discussing some ham 
 and boiled eggs. 
 
 Edgar coloured slightly, but imme- 
 diately recovering his self-possession, 
 laughed, and said — 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 " Not much danger of that, I think, 
 
 sir." 
 
 But though Mr. Smith had not spoken 
 before, he had been listening to all that 
 had passed. Now, Mr. Smith was a clever 
 man — a man whose mind at once em- 
 braced the bearings of most things — a 
 quality which had made him a good law- 
 yer. He was also really an affectionate 
 father, and like most men who have made 
 money, he was by no means indifferent 
 to the glittering dross — the world said he 
 was fond of it. He had never wished to 
 quarrel with old Brown. It was old 
 Brown who had insisted on quarrelling 
 with him — most unreasonably. Was there 
 any lawyer who would not take all the 
 respectable business he could get? — and 
 if some of old Brown's clients had come 
 over to him, was he going to refuse them?
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 99 
 
 Or, rather, with his family, was it not his 
 duty to get as much business as he could ? 
 It was all well enough for a man to in- 
 dulge in professional Quixotism when he 
 had only one daughter, though even then 
 Mr. Smith was not sure that it was right. 
 A man who did so would never be the 
 best man of business. Still he never had 
 felt more than temporary irritation at 
 old Brown. His conscience was quite 
 clear upon that point. But a complete 
 reconciliation would be more Christian, 
 and a better example in the eye of the 
 world ; and if Edgar should take a fancy 
 to Hannah Brown, why, it would not 
 much signify then who had the busi- 
 ness. 
 
 With Edgar's last words the breakfast- 
 party broke up. Mr. Smith never jested 
 again . on the subject, and it had never 
 
 h2
 
 100 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 occurred to the ladies, in spite of what 
 Edgar had said, that there could be any- 
 thing to jest about. 
 
 Julietta remarked to Venetia that Edgar 
 certainly did take a pride in thinking 
 differently from everybody else ; and as 
 for Mrs. Smith, it never entered into her 
 head that her son would think of a flir- 
 tation with Hannah Brown, even though 
 he had the unaccountable taste to admire 
 her. Was she not a Brown?
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 101 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FURTHER HETERODOXY ON THE PART OF 
 MR. EDGAR SMITH. 
 
 Hannah Brown's arm was broken. It 
 was, however, a simple fracture, and Mr. 
 Splint said would soon be well if she 
 took care of it. She was ordered, how- 
 ever, to keep her room for a few days, 
 as her bruises were somewhat painful, 
 and quietness was good for her. During 
 these few days, as in all her past illnesses
 
 102 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 since her mother's death, Miss Clara 
 Wellby was her constant visitor. She 
 made sundry little sick dishes for her, 
 which nobody but herself could make, 
 and which always turned out quite dif- 
 ferent when anybody else attempted 
 them. 
 
 " I always make this apple-tea for poor 
 Harriet Richards when she has these 
 injBluenza colds. Would you believe it, 
 Hannah, with all her money, and the 
 ridiculous wages she gives her cook, she 
 cannot get a decent batter-pudding-ir- 
 though, to be sure, very few people can 
 make one. It should have flour enough, and 
 not too much, and — How can you be 
 so silly, Hannah, as to move your arm ? 
 You would have been much more com- 
 fortable if you had lain in the position I 
 recommended ; and the idea of your
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 103 
 
 stretching out yourself for that glass! 
 Did not I come here to help you?" 
 
 Miss Wellby was often a little put out, 
 for placidity of disposition was not among 
 her virtues, and she sometimes wearied 
 her patients by doing too much for them, 
 and by thinking that she understood 
 their comforts much better than they did 
 themselves. She spent the greater part 
 of her life in endeavouring to make 
 others happy, and occasionally felt it 
 somewhat ungrateful that her efforts were 
 not always attended with success. People 
 were so obstinately fond of their own 
 way — even of being happy. Poor Clara 
 had met with a great deal of perversity 
 of this kind in her life, and it spoke well 
 for her natural philanthropy, or her 
 Christian charity, that it had no effect in 
 making her relax her benevolent labours.
 
 104 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 There was nothing Miss Wellby hated 
 so much as conceit. She thought it a 
 positive duty to make people think as 
 little of themselves as possible — more es- 
 pecially Harriet Richards. The Smith 
 family, too, required to be taken down ; 
 but Hannah Brown was not conceited, 
 except in thinking that she knew how to 
 manage her father's house without the 
 constant suggestions of Miss Wellby's long 
 experience. Personally, however, Hannah 
 was not conceited, so that Miss Wellby, 
 in those ungarded moments we all have 
 when we say things that we ought not 
 to have said, would occasionally repeat or 
 originate something complimentary, and 
 the more especially if it afforded her the 
 luxury of contradiction, of which she was 
 rather fond. 
 
 "If you go on in this way, Hannah,
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 105 
 
 stretching out for your barley-water your- 
 self, and sitting with your arm in that 
 position, you will not be able to drink 
 tea at Miss Richards's next week, not to 
 say that you may disfigure yourself for life." 
 
 Now, Hannah, at that moment, felt 
 very low. She had been excited all the 
 day after the accident; but now the re- 
 action had come, and, though she was 
 touched by Miss Wellby's kindness, it had 
 somewhat worn her out. She answered, 
 wearily — 
 
 "I am sure I don't much care. Miss 
 Richards's parties are generally dull." 
 
 " Dull ! " cried Clara, who had given 
 utterance to the same sentiment dozens of 
 times herself " I am sure poor Harriet 
 does her best to make everybody happy ; 
 but young people now-a-days must have 
 excitement."
 
 106 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 " Well, Aunt Clara, I daresay the dul- 
 ness is in myself." 
 
 "Don't talk nonsense, Hannah. There 
 is Edgar Smith says you are both clever 
 and pretty." 
 
 A moment ago, life had seemed to 
 Hannah Brown very dull and cheerless. 
 Now, all at once, the sun broke out, the 
 birds sang, the flowers blossomed. It was 
 very undignified in Hannah Brown, no 
 doubt, but then she was only an attor- 
 ney's daughter, and one could not expect 
 her to feel as if she had 
 
 that repose 
 
 Which stamps the caste of Vere de Vere." 
 
 For sympathy and allowance, I must, 
 therefore, appeal to those who partake of 
 mere common human nature — the more 
 especially as Hannah had not even the 
 apology of being in love. But, excusable
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 107 
 
 or not, she now felt that she could very 
 well endure, if not enjoy, Aunt Clara's 
 company. No sooner, however, had the 
 speech, which had been such a draught 
 of champagne to poor Hannah's spirits, 
 passed Miss Wellby's lips, than she re- 
 pented of it, and added — 
 
 " But they say Edgar Smith is always 
 eccentric in his opinions, and likes to say 
 things different from other people. The 
 Smiths, we all know, Hannah, have not 
 the best taste in the world." 
 
 But Hannah, with all her sensitiveness, 
 and all her mortifying experiences, could 
 not be put down just then. She had been 
 thought clever and pretty, and she argued 
 that what had been the opinion of one person, 
 might possibly be the opinion of more 
 than one. She was anxious now to be well 
 enough to go to Miss Richards's tea-party.
 
 108 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 She would have liked to know if any of 
 the Smiths were to be there, but she did 
 not like to ask Miss Wellby in direct terms. 
 She had very rarely, except at large parties, 
 been asked to meet the Smiths anywhere 
 (her father never), but Miss Richards was 
 very intimate with them, for as Mr. Brown 
 had caustically remarked, " You might be 
 sure that Thomas Smith would be intimate 
 with anybody who was rich." So Hannah 
 merely asked if it was to be a large party 
 at Miss Richards's. 
 
 But Clara was not in the humour to 
 know anything about it ; and after having 
 wrapped Hannah's feet in a shawl, shaken 
 her pillows, strained her barley-water, 
 kissed her, and scolded her again for 
 sundry misdemeanours, she took leave. 
 
 But to cheer Hannah^s solitude, came 
 the remembrance of the fact that Edgar
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 109 
 
 Smith had said she was pretty and clever. 
 
 The Smiths were to be at the party, at 
 least they had b2en invited, rather to 
 the general dismay of the family, for there 
 was no concealing the fact that Miss Rich- 
 ards's parties were dreadfully dull. 
 
 " Of course," said Venetia, " we need 
 not all go, three will be quite enough — 
 Mamma, and Edgar, and one of us." 
 
 "Edgar is much obliged to you," said 
 her brother, " but begs to be excused, not 
 being very fond either of tea or twaddle." 
 
 " You must go, Edgar," said his father. 
 " I should not wonder if the party were 
 given on your account. Miss Richards is 
 an excellent woman, and one of our best 
 clients." 
 
 '' Are you going, sir ? I should think 
 Miss Richards would be disappointed if you 
 did not."
 
 110 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 "I shall drop in about supper-time, to 
 bring your mother home. I have business 
 in the earlier part of the evening." 
 
 " Cannot I do it for you ? The young, 
 you know, should work, and I should be so 
 happy." 
 
 A scarcely perceptible smile relaxed the 
 countenance of Mr. Smith, senior. 
 
 "No, I must do it myself. It is abso- 
 lutely necessary." 
 
 "Then I am very much afraid," said 
 Edgar, " there is some danger of my being 
 taken ill on Thursday week, with headache 
 or toothache, or something of that kind." 
 
 " No, no," said his father, quite good- 
 humouredly, but with considerable deter- 
 mination. " I will hear of no such 
 nonsense, we must all do tiresome things 
 occasionally." 
 
 "And I am sure," said Mrs. Smith, " no
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 1] 1 
 
 one ought to feel it tiresome to drink tea 
 with Miss Richards — such an excellent 
 Christian woman — and though she is a 
 churchwoman, so entirely without sectarian 
 feelings." 
 
 " She is certainly sufficiently without 
 taste, to have been a dissenter." 
 
 " Taste, my love ! " said his mother, " I 
 like good taste, and I hope," looking round 
 the handsome drawing-room, " I am not 
 very deficient in that way; but what has 
 taste to do with religion ? " 
 
 " Very little with our religion, certainly, 
 mother. Even Mr. Spurgeon, though he 
 has plenty of humour, has no taste," said 
 Edgar, with an uncomfortable reminiscence 
 of the long hot hours he had spent in a 
 square brick building like a Brodignagian 
 work-box, listening to discourses which he 
 had tried in vain to think were as eloquent
 
 112 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 as well-written, or as convinciDg as those of 
 the Rector, on the rare occasions on which 
 he had been permitted to hear that gentle- 
 man. 
 
 "Edgar! " said his father, with an abso- 
 lute frown, a rare thing on the face of 
 Mr. Thomas Smith, who was really a good- 
 tempered man. Edgar made no answer. 
 He had had his little bit of revenge for 
 being forced to accept Miss Richards's in- 
 vitation, and was contented with his tri- 
 umph. His sisters said nothing. They 
 dared not, for their very lives, have 
 supported their brother, but, privately, 
 they admired his hardihood. It is a trite 
 saying, that there is a crook in every 
 lot. Few people had a happier lot than 
 the Miss Smiths, and, wonderful to relate, 
 they thought so themselves. They were 
 young, they were handsome, they were
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 113 
 
 fashionable, they were clever, they were 
 accomplished, they were admired ; and to 
 the full, they believed in and enjoyed 
 their advantages. But even they had 
 their crook in the lot. And this was, 
 that they were chapel people. The Miss 
 Smiths felt deeply that they were the 
 only very genteel people in Goslingford 
 who went to chapel. Gentility was with 
 them a passion, and they could not but 
 feel that this chapel-going was derogatory 
 to it. Then their pastor, the Rev. Josiah 
 Winter, had married a butcher's daughter, 
 and they were painfully aware that their 
 minister and his wife were no associates for 
 them. They — Mr. and Mrs. Winter — were 
 occasionally asked to Tudor Lodge to dinner, 
 but never with a party. At least, Mrs. Winter 
 was never invited with a party. These enter- 
 tainments to the Winters were dismal occa- 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 THE BUOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 sions for all concerned. A kind of falsetto 
 tone of familiarity and friendliness, compared 
 with which the formality of the most formal 
 party was ease and unconstraint, pervaded 
 the evening. It could not but make Mrs. 
 Winter sour to know that Mrs. Greenfield, 
 the rector's wife, and Miss Wellby, the 
 late rector's daughter, were asked to all 
 the Smiths' best parties, while she only 
 came to family dinners ; but, of course, as 
 Mr. Smith was her husband's chief sup- 
 porter in Goslingford, and, substantially, 
 their best friend, they had both to 
 swallow down their indignation, as those 
 must generally do who depend for their 
 daily bread on the aura populains. 
 
 Edgar did not care for the matter in 
 the gentility point of view so much as 
 his sisters. Of course everything he did 
 was genteel. But Mr. Greenfield was a
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 115 
 
 good preacher, a good man, a gentleman, 
 a scholar, and dared to give utterance 
 to the truth as he saw it. Then Edgar 
 Smith admired and loved the Church — 
 that is, the material building — itself. It 
 had always been a weakness of this young 
 man that he was fond of differing from 
 other people. He piqued himself on see- 
 ing with his own eyes, and so he early 
 astonished his father and mother, and, 
 indeed, all Goslirgford in general, with 
 the opinion that Gothic was the only 
 architecture proper for a church, and that 
 there was nothing popish in a pointed 
 arch, except the letter P. The church 
 people of Goslingford, the reader must 
 know, though very staunch, understood 
 the architectural merits of their church 
 very little better than the dissenters — 
 having only a sort of dim notion that 
 
 i2
 
 116 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 there was something dissenting in a square 
 church, and something orthodox in a 
 chancel. It had sometimes dawned on 
 Edirar Smith too — the doctrine he heard 
 in the church being so exactly the same 
 as that in the chapel — that it was hardly 
 worth while to make all this fuss and 
 separation, for the mere pleasure of in- 
 dulofinjx in a taste for hideousness — the 
 only real mark of distinction he could 
 see between the church people and the 
 orthodox dissenters. Indeed, there were 
 some churches, as well as church people, 
 so entirely devoid of that taste, which, 
 Mrs. Smith had remarked, was no part 
 of religion, that even the general beauty 
 and decorum of the religion by law 
 established need have been no objection. 
 
 Once when the Winters were dining at 
 Tudor Lodge, as Mr. Winter and Mr.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 117 
 
 Smith were discussing over their port the 
 merits of the voluntary system, Edgar 
 inquired suddenly, "if it would not be 
 better to have everj^thing on the volun- 
 tary system — prisons, for instance, and 
 reformatories. Let those who wanted 
 them subscribe for them." 
 
 Mr. Winter laughed grimly. 
 
 "But, Mr. Edgar, the very people who 
 do want reformatories are those who 
 will not subscribe." 
 
 " Oh, I see. And it is exactly the 
 contrary then with religion. The very 
 people who are without it are the m.ost 
 anxious to build chapels and maintain 
 ministers.'' 
 
 Mr. Winter coloured up to the very 
 roots of his long black hair, and Mr. 
 Smith glanced at his son with angry 
 reproof.
 
 118 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 A slight mischievous smile played 
 round the young man's lips as he leant 
 back in his chair with an air of what 
 Mr. Winter privately stigmatised as " in- 
 tolerable conceit," but which Edgar him- 
 self meant for innocent unconsciousness. 
 He certainly thought himself a very 
 clever young man, and we will charitably 
 hope he was not altogether mistaken. 
 
 The morning after the discussion upon 
 Miss Richards' tea-party, Edgar gave great 
 pleasure and astonishment to the whole 
 family by announcing at breakfast that 
 he intended, if he could spare as much 
 time from the office, to call on Miss 
 Richards that very day. 
 
 " I shall see that you have time," said 
 his father, much pleased ; " Miss Richards 
 will be very glad to see you. Attention 
 from our sex is always valued by un-
 
 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 119 
 
 married women a little up in life, and 
 particularly from young men. Who 
 knows but she may put you down in her 
 will for a few thousands ?" 
 
 " I assure you, sir, that is not my 
 object in calling; and if I thought Miss 
 Richards or anybody else would think it 
 was " 
 
 "Now, Edgar, don't be a fool. Miss 
 Richards has no relations, and if she 
 should take a fancy to you she is wrong- 
 ing nobody." 
 
 *• Very well, sir — if she should take a 
 fancy to me I cannot help it ; but you 
 really must not expect me to toady to 
 Miss Richards, who, though a very re- 
 spectable, excellent woman, is not exactly 
 the companion I should find congenial." 
 
 Mr. Smith wisely said no more. As he 
 remarked to his wife afterwards, Edgar, if
 
 120 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 left to himself, would be much more 
 likely to do what was proper than if they 
 gave him advice. " I never saw a young 
 man so fond of his own opinion, nor 
 so jealous of being interfered with. Op- 
 position always drives him at once into a 
 confirmed determination to take his own 
 way. And yet he is not a bad boy 
 either." 
 
 "A bad boy, my dear ! We are very 
 well off, and ought to be thankful to 
 Providence who has given us such a son. 
 In my opinion what you think self-will 
 is only a joke. He is a most affectionate 
 son. I am sure Miss Richards will not 
 see such another young man in Gos- 
 lingford." 
 
 " I am afraid she won't like his mous- 
 tache." 
 
 " Then she is a very foolish and pre-
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 121 
 
 judiced woman. I am sure it is excessively 
 becoming. And poor dear Miss Richards, 
 you know, is no authority in matters 
 of taste. Her notions about dress are quite 
 exploded now among religious people." 
 
 But to return to Edgar. It had struck 
 that astute youth that as he must go to 
 Miss Richards' party, it would be as well 
 not only to do it with a good grace, but to 
 leave no stone unturned to make the even- 
 ing as agreeable as possible. He therefore 
 set out to call on that good simple soul 
 with a diplomatic end in view. Edgar 
 Smith, though a conceited youth (and we 
 all know that truly great minds are 
 never conceited — vide Socrates, Sir Isaac 
 Newton, &c.), was not without the heroic 
 quality of being able to make the best of 
 things as they are, and could turn even 
 his misfortunes to account.
 
 122 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS, 
 
 After having made himself very agree- 
 able to Miss Richards, and caused her 
 little twigs of grey hair to stand on end 
 with his account of the accident, the 
 opening he hoped for presented itself. 
 Miss Richards trusted she was to have 
 the pleasure of seeing him at tea. 
 
 " Certainly. He was looking forward 
 to it ; " — he did not say with pleasure, 
 my truth -loving reader. ^'Was it to be 
 a large party ? " 
 
 " Oh, no ! only Miss Wellby, and a few 
 other friends." 
 
 " Was Miss Brown to be one of the 
 party?" 
 
 " N-no. I think not," said Harriet. " I 
 thought of asking her, she is such a nice, 
 modest young person ; but, in fact, I was 
 not sure whether your father and mo- 
 ther" — and poor Harriet coloured painfully.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 123 
 
 "Would like it, you mean. I am cer- 
 tain they would have no objection. 
 Family feuds are very foolish and un- 
 christian." 
 
 " I am delighted to hear you say so, 
 Mr. Edgar. I will ask Hannah at once ; 
 and I am sure, if I could contribute, in 
 any way, to so excellent an object^ as to 
 eifect a reconciliation between the families, 
 I should be happy. I always felt sure so 
 good a man as your father could not be 
 to blame. But what could one expect 
 from poor Mr. Brown, after his calling 
 that sweet book, ' Shrieks from the 
 Depths,' rubbish. You have read it, Mr. 
 Edgar? Shall I lend it to you?" 
 
 Edgar had not read it, and he received 
 from good Miss Harriet, somewhat unwill- 
 ingly, a little blue volume, of which, on 
 opening it at random, a marked feature
 
 124 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 seemed to be inrmmerable notes of ex- 
 clamation, and a profusion of capital 
 letters. It did strike Edgar Smith that 
 it was rather a pity that religions writers 
 should imitate the style of a newspaper 
 advertisement, as if they meant to pnff off 
 the Kingdom of Heaven. He did not, 
 however, express this sentiment to Miss 
 Richards, but took leave, well satisfied 
 that he had gained the object of his 
 visit. 
 
 The next day Miss Richards told her 
 friend Clara, that she had had a visit 
 from young Edgar Smith, and how very 
 much she was pleased with him, and with 
 his evident wish for a reconciliation with 
 the Browns. 
 
 Clara listened, somewhat impatiently, 
 to the whole recital, and then broke 
 ont —
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 125 
 
 " Well, Harriet ! — you are the very 
 greenest goose ! What will not the Smiths 
 — and, indeed, your set of pious people in 
 general — do for money? " 
 
 " I do not understand you, Clara; and 
 you are very unjust." 
 
 " Well, Harriet, perhaps I am to you. 
 I do believe, with all your wealth, you 
 are not fond of money ; but," she added, 
 relapsing into her usual jesting, random 
 manner, "the exception, you know, proves 
 the rule. And now I must think over 
 this affair of the Browns and the Smiths. 
 Mr. Smith has too often behaved in an 
 un gentlemanly, sharp kind of way to Mr. 
 Brown, for my dear old friend to get 
 over it. Though he is a lawyer, Mr. 
 Brown has as keen a sense of honour as 
 if he had been — a — a knight of the Round 
 Table."
 
 126 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 " I don't know anything about the 
 Round Table. I don't see much difference 
 between fiction and lies, and I think it 
 would be more for Mr. Brown's happiness 
 if he had the spirit of a Christian, and 
 could forgive his brother what he has 
 against him." 
 
 "Well, so he does, Harriet. If a thief 
 were to pick my pocket, I would forgive 
 him, but I would not shake hands with 
 him ; and say, ^ My dear sir, I am glad 
 of this opportunity of making your ac- 
 quaintance.' Would you ? " 
 
 And so Clara came off, as usual, with 
 flying colours.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 127 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MISS RICHAEDS' TEA-PARTY. 
 
 Hannah Brown's general health had 
 quite recovered its ordinary tone before 
 the day of Miss Richards' tea-party. Her 
 arm was still in a sling, but Mr. Splint 
 said it would soon be quite well. It was 
 a fine evening late in June, so that 
 Hannah and Miss Wellby, who were to go 
 together, decided on walking. Hannah 
 did look very nice, Miss Clara thought,
 
 128 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 in her delicate silk dress, made with the 
 plainness and simplicity which always 
 characterised all she wore, and the fine 
 lace collar, fastened by the brooch which 
 contained her mother's hair. A little 
 more of decided fashion, Miss Wellby 
 might, perhaps, have preferred, still she 
 acknowledged Hannah was very ladylike, 
 and her hair beautiful. There was a 
 brighter colour rather than usual in her 
 cheek, and in her shy eyes a look of ex- 
 pectation, a rare thing with Hannah Brown, 
 who seldom expected anything. As they 
 reached Miss Richards' house, she became 
 even more nervous than she usually was 
 when she went to a party. She wished 
 Miss Clara had not told her what Edgar 
 Smith had said of her, and she felt cer- 
 tain that, if she should meet him again, 
 he would change his mind.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 129 
 
 Miss Wellby and Hannah were the first 
 arrivals. They found Miss Richards in her 
 drawing-room — a room which was only used 
 on state occasions. It was not a large 
 apartment, but the furniture in it seemed 
 all to have been intended for a room forty 
 feet long. The ugly pile carpet, the cum- 
 brous walnut- wood chairs and tables, the 
 dark-coloured, lavishly gilt paper, the heavy 
 cornices and rich, gloomy curtains, were al- 
 most smothering in a room about eighteen 
 feet by fourteen. Miss Wellby immediately 
 began to pull the furniture about, declaring 
 that the formality of its arrangement wag 
 quite enough to prevent them all opening 
 their lips. She was yet engaged in this occu- 
 pation, when Miss Splint and Miss Westcote 
 arrived. Miss Westcote was the belle of 
 Goslingford — a fair-skinned girl, with a 
 good deal of colour, large, unmeaning blue 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 eyes, and a self-satisfied simper. She had 
 been finished at Miss Slater's, as her framed 
 chalk-drawing of a baby's head with a 
 swollen cheek, and a very large vase of 
 potichomanie, — not to mention a pyramid of 
 wax fruit under a glass case, — abundantly 
 testified. Miss Westcote's mother was a na- 
 tive of Goslingford, and the widow of a But- 
 tonborough manufacturer. At her hus- 
 band's death, Mrs. Westcote had returned 
 to her native place, with her little girl and 
 a few thousand pounds. Miss Westcote 
 was not thought by the Goslingford public 
 to have the style and fashion of the Miss 
 Smiths — an opinion which it generally de- 
 livered in a tone of commendation as far as 
 regarded Miss Westcote — but she was con- 
 sidered prettier ; and as there were so many 
 of the Smiths, she was likely to have more 
 money. It was the fashion, in short, to
 
 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 131 
 
 laud Mary Westcote up to the skies, and 
 often at the expense of the Miss Smiths (no 
 one ever thought of poor Hannah Brown 
 as a rival to anybody), yet, somehow or 
 other, the Miss Smiths always secured the 
 lion's share of attention. Mary Westcote 
 bore this better than could have been ex- 
 pected. In fact, both she and her mother 
 felt that Mr. Edgar Smith was coming home. 
 He could not devote himself to his own 
 sisters, and he was undoubtedly the great 
 matrimonial prize of Goslingford. Miss 
 Westcote had met Mr. Edgar Smith in the 
 street since his return, and had secretly 
 formed an opinion that his moustache was 
 very becoming. She took good care, how- 
 ever, not to say so to any one, as, in the 
 days of which I write, not even the distant 
 murmur of the advancino^ wave of the crreat 
 moustache and beard movement had broken 
 
 K 2
 
 132 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 as yet on the Goslingford ear, and nothing 
 was esteemed more heterodox than to admire 
 these natural ornaments. They were thought 
 "foreign," and the Goslingford public yet 
 rejoiced unfeignedly in the sturdy English 
 belief that "foreign " and " contemptible " 
 were quite convertible adjectives. But 
 Miss Westcote, who was an original thinker, 
 if not as far as moustaches in general, but 
 at least as far as this moustache in particular, 
 was concerned, sat awaiting the arrival of its 
 owner with much complacency. Was not 
 she the belle of Goslingford ? Had not her 
 handsome-w^orked muslin dress been made 
 at Buttonborough at Paris House ? And was 
 not Mr. Edgar Smith a person of unexcep- 
 tionable taste? It had never struck Miss 
 Westcote that taste could reach beyond 
 dress and appearance. Perhaps she did not 
 know there was anything beyond.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 133 
 
 The Smiths were always late — much to 
 the grievance of Miss Richards ; and all 
 the rest of the party had arrived before 
 them. .Among these were Mr. Green- 
 field, the rector, and his eldest daughter. 
 Mr. Greenfield was a man much liked in 
 his parish. He was a man beyond middle 
 age, white-haired, blue-eyed, stout, hand- 
 some, florid — pious enough and strict enough 
 to please Miss Richards, cheerful and hard- 
 working enough to make Miss Wellby 
 pardon him for occasionally going on 
 missionary tours, and declining to play a 
 rubber at whist. Privately, the dissenters 
 did not quite like him, because he had 
 thinned the chapels; but they could not 
 find anything to say against him, as 
 neither by word nor deed had he ever in 
 any way set himself in direct opposition to 
 them. At first this had given umbrage to
 
 134 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Mr. Brown, Miss Wellby, and their party ; 
 and Miss Clara, who had always courage 
 equal to the occasion, attacked Mr Green- 
 field for his want of churchman ship. 
 He stoutly denied the charge. 
 
 ^' We have two enemies to oppose," said 
 he, " sin and schism ; but as I believe 
 schism to be a mere offshoot of sin, I 
 think it best to attack the enemy at 
 head-quarters. Depend upon it. Miss 
 Wellby, when there is no sin, there will 
 be no schism." 
 
 And years after, when Miss Wellby 
 was congratulating him on the accession 
 of a whole family to the church-com- 
 munion, he said, *^ You see, Miss Wellby, 
 I have not been such a bad church- 
 man after all." 
 
 Miss Wellby did not like Miss Green- 
 field so well as her father, or her mother.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 135 
 
 who was a gentle invalid, or her younger 
 brothers and sisters, who mostly inherited 
 the genial temper, if not the talents or 
 the devotedness, of their father. Miss 
 Greenfield was a strong-minded young wo- 
 man, about thirty, who worked, and taught, 
 and visited like two curates in one, and 
 was much more loved by the poor than 
 by the rich, who thought her dictatorial. 
 Miss Wellby, however, always treated 
 Miss Greenfield very politely. She did 
 not argue with or laugh at her, as at 
 Miss Richards, for whom in her heart 
 she had a tenderness greater than for 
 any other human being. She frequently 
 abused Miss Greenfield to Harriet, who 
 always maintained that she was the most 
 *^ devoted Christian " in the parish. After 
 a long argument, Clara would sometimes 
 conclude, —
 
 136 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 " Well Harriet, — one thing I will allow 
 in praise of Eliza Greenfield. She has 
 not published a book yet about her own 
 doings. In the good old days we used 
 to be taught not to sound a trumpet 
 before us ; but now-a-days your alms- 
 givers, and your missionary ladies, have 
 all a printer coming up at their heels." 
 
 But I have kept the reader waiting 
 long enough for the appearance of the 
 Smiths — not longer, however, than they 
 kept Miss Richards and the rest of her 
 guests. 
 
 Mrs. Smith, Miss Laura Victoria, and 
 Mr. Edgar Smith were the represent- 
 atives of the family on the present 
 occasion. There were at least two female 
 hearts present not altogether unmoved 
 by the presence of the young gentleman 
 — which, if he could have known him-
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 137 
 
 self, he would not have been in the 
 least surprised at, as a very low opinion 
 of his own attractions was by no means 
 one of his merits. And yet I do not 
 myself think that Edgar Smith was of 
 so haughty a mind as many other people, 
 — as some, even, who are considered 
 humble. He could pardon affronts to 
 his vanity, and he felt no mortification 
 in acknowledging superiority when he 
 met with it. 
 
 You don't think so very much of 
 this, my dear reader, with the mind at 
 once humble and lofty. I am sorry for 
 it, because, with all his faults and 
 weaknesses, I wished you to give my 
 hero — yes, Smith, attorney of Gosling- 
 ford, is my hero — some credit for mag- 
 nanimity; and magnanimity, dear reader, 
 though it does exist, is not common,
 
 138 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 perhaps the most uncommon of all the 
 virtues. 
 
 Edgar Smith was very fond of Mr. Green- 
 field. Most intelligent young men were, 
 for, though above sixty, Mr. Greenfield had 
 all the freshness and much of the enthusiasm 
 of youth still. His sympathies with the 
 young perhaps stronger even than with 
 
 those of his own standing. Now, as 
 soon, therefore, as Edgar saw that Mr. 
 
 Greenfield was of the party, and that he 
 was standing in a window a little apart, 
 and very accessible, he joined him, first 
 shaking hands with Miss Richards, and 
 bowing inclusively to the rest of the 
 party, — a movement which was no little 
 disappointment to Miss Westcote, who 
 confidently expected he would have come 
 to her. Hannah Brown was not disap- 
 pointed, for she had not exactly expected
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 139 
 
 anything. She only experienced a rather 
 deeper and fresher pang of the dull 
 old pain, — the mortified feeling that no- 
 body thought her worth paying any 
 attention to. 
 
 But tea was now on the table, and 
 Miss Harriet was seated behind the heavy 
 silver urn, with the china before her — 
 the only wonder of which was, that 
 Colebrook Dale had ever produced any- 
 thing so ugly. The strongest of tea, 
 the richest of cake, the thickest of cream 
 plentifully supplied the table ; and two 
 neat, quakerish-looking maid-servants stood 
 with silver trays, ready to convey 
 the sleep-destroying beverage and the 
 indigestible viands round to the ladies, 
 as soon as Mr. Greenfield should have 
 said grace. And then Mr. Edgar Smith 
 bestirred himself to be polite, and ere
 
 140 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 anyone was aware of his intention, he 
 was standing beside Hannah Brown. 
 
 *' I am delighted to see you able to be 
 here, Miss Brown, and to^ have heard from 
 Mr. Greenfield that your arm is so much 
 better. Allow me to fetch you tea, and to 
 act as your left hand. I can hold your cup 
 and saucer while you use the other to 
 drink it." 
 
 " Oh, thank you, but " 
 
 " I can sit on that stool at vour feet, 
 and then the cup will be just at the height 
 convenient for you to reach." 
 
 Mr. Edgar Smith sitting, in the face of 
 Goslingford and Miss Harriet Richards, at 
 the feet of Hannah Brown, who never 
 flirted ! Oh, ye old maids of Goslingford ! 
 Could ye have outlived such a spectacle ? 
 Hannah coloured all over her face and 
 throat with mingled terror and shyness.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 141 
 
 " Oh, no, Mr. Smith, I could not — you 
 must not, indeed." 
 
 Edgar Smith laughed heartily. He knew 
 just as well as Hannah the sensation such a 
 proceeding would have produced, but he 
 would have liked nothing better. He did 
 not wish to annoy her however, and he 
 read her feelings at a glance. 
 
 "Well, if the prejudices of society, or 
 your own prejudices, are against me," he 
 added, a little more gravely, " let me set a 
 chair for you at the table." 
 
 " Do, Hannah, dear," cried Miss 
 Richards from behind the tea-urn, " come 
 and sit at the table. Here is a nice quiet 
 place just beside me." 
 
 And Edgar Smith, as Hannah rose to 
 obey the summons, followed her with a 
 chair, and placed it not — exactly in the 
 spot indicated by Miss Richards, but where
 
 142 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 there was room for himself to stand near 
 her. 
 
 The surprise and just indignation of 
 Miss Westcote may be imagined. Surely 
 it must be some great mistake. She had 
 always heard that Edgar Smith prided 
 himself upon thinking differently from 
 other people ; but to go and devote himself 
 to Hannah Brown, whom nobody ever 
 thought of admiring, and considering the. 
 terms the families were on, it really was 
 a freak, and a most provoking freak, 
 considering the new dress from Button- 
 borough ! Mrs. Smith, in her heart, 
 sympathised with Miss Westcote, but if 
 any one had ventured to impugn her son's 
 taste, she would, of course, have taken his 
 part, even though it involved approbation 
 of Hannah Brown. As for Hannah 
 herself, the novel position of being singled
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 143 
 
 out for attention was not quite so agree- 
 able as she had fancied. It made her feel 
 awkward. She fancied everybody was 
 looking at her, to see how she bore it; 
 and then her arm was in a sling ! But 
 after tea was over, it was more comfort- 
 able. Edgar sat down a little behind her, 
 where he was not so conspicuous, and they 
 fell into a pleasant conversation, so that 
 Hannah forgot her own personality, and 
 became unconscious and at ease. 
 
 Hannah had read about most places, but 
 in her limited range of society she had 
 hardly met anyone before who had lived 
 abroad, and Edgar's lively sketches of 
 Bonn, where he had been at college, — his 
 rather humorous and somewhat exagge- 
 rated descriptions of Rhine tourists, — and 
 his little pictures of Alpine scenery, made 
 Hannah long and laugh by turns. Edgar
 
 144 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 was really doing his best to please, and 
 he was neither too nervous nor too con- 
 fident for success. Hannah's freshness and 
 naivete, united with her evident intelli- 
 gence, were just what interested, and, 
 perhaps, a little flattered him. He thought 
 what a pleasant thing it would be to show 
 her all these things, and to watch her 
 enjoyment of them. She had had such 
 a dull life ! How pleasant it would be 
 to brighten it ! 
 
 At last Hannah began to awaken to a 
 consciousness that their conversation had 
 been very long, and to feel again a little 
 uncomfortable. Hesitating for a second or 
 two, she said : — 
 
 " I wonder what Miss Wellby is talking 
 about so energetically to Mr. Greenfield ?" 
 
 ^' You mean you would like to go and 
 hear. I must not engross you all the evening,
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 145 
 
 Miss Brown, I know." Hannah coloured as 
 she passed, but Edgar Smith remarked, 
 within himself, that her 7idivete was not 
 without a mixture of dignity. He now 
 betook himself to the hitherto neglected 
 Miss Westcote, whose ruffled plumage began 
 to smooth as she saw him approach, and 
 the more especially as he addressed her 
 with a compliment, which she received with 
 a giggle. 
 
 " What a flirtation you have been having ! 
 It has quite amused me.'' 
 
 ^' Has it ? I am very happy to have 
 amused you." 
 
 " I don't think I ever saw Hannah Brown 
 flirt before." 
 
 " Probably not. Are you sure she has 
 been flirting now ? " 
 
 Miss Westcote was not very bright. She 
 fancied Mr. Edgar Smith was gratifying her 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 by a little detraction of Hannah Brown. 
 
 " I thought so ; but I am sure I don't 
 know why, people don't generally admire 
 her." 
 
 " Don't they ? If you don't know why, 
 it is not to be wondered at that I don't 
 know why either. Do you think her 
 pretty ? " 
 
 "I ! Oh no ; nobody does, that I know 
 of." 
 
 " I will tell you of one person, then, who 
 does." 
 
 "Oh, pray do. Who?" 
 
 " I do." 
 
 Miss Westcote had recourse to the giggle 
 with which she was wont to fill up any 
 hiatus in conversation. Talking was not 
 her forte. She looked Mr. Edgar Smith 
 full in the face, with a sort of feeling that 
 he might be joking. But, perhaps because
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 147 
 
 she was no physiognomist, she could read 
 nothing there to enable her to decide the 
 point. She thought he looked amused ; but 
 that it was at Hannah Brown, she did not 
 feel so certain perhaps as she could have 
 wished. Edgar Smith remained beside her 
 till the supper-trays made their appearance, 
 but her flirtation with him was not alto- 
 gether so satisfactory and comfortable as 
 she had expected. Miss Westcote was not 
 much of a philosopher, or she might have 
 consoled herself with the reflection — like 
 most true things trite, and like most trite 
 things, invested on occasions with all 
 the force of originality — that mortal aff^airs 
 seldom do turn out as they are expected. 
 Nor, had Miss Westcote been capable of 
 making a general reflection, would it have 
 been trite to her. Nothing is trite to stu- 
 pidity ; and when, by the irresistible power 
 
 l2
 
 148 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 of circumstance, an idea is forced upon 
 the stupid, it is attended with all the 
 surprise of novelty. You see, my clever 
 reader, all the advantages are not on your 
 side, so much for the law of compensation. 
 
 But perhaps on the present occasion, 
 Miss Westcote's feelings were too much 
 excited to permit of her making general 
 reflections. 
 
 When she returned home, and her mo- 
 ther, who had absented herself from the 
 party on account of a headache, asked her 
 what kind of evening she had had, she 
 answered, 
 
 *' Oh, so hot and tiresome ! T was so 
 sorry I had put on my new dress." 
 
 " Were the Smiths there ? " 
 
 " Yes. Edgar Smith is the most con- 
 ceited creature. Such ridiculous airs he 
 gives himself ! "
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 149 
 
 " Airs ! Young men who have been 
 brought up abroad often do. But I 
 should hardly have thought he would have 
 given himself airs to you. These Smiths 
 are so full of pretence — as if I did not 
 remember what a different position they 
 were in when I was a girl. I must say 
 the Browns are very different, though 
 they have a much better right. Hannah 
 is always so unassuming and quiet." 
 
 ^' I am not so sure of that, mamma. She 
 is a sly thing, and such a dowdy as she 
 looked to-night, with her arm in a sling. 
 Only fancy, Edgar Smith says she is 
 pretty," and a slight bitter giggle betrayed 
 to Mrs. Westcote, who, though not abso- 
 lutely a genius, was yet a cleverer woman 
 than her daughter, what had been the 
 jarring element in the party. 
 
 "Nonsense, my dear! He could not
 
 150 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 really think so. Nobody does. I have no 
 doubt he said it to tease you ; but you 
 must not let him see that it does." 
 
 " Oh, it does not tease me at all, I assure 
 y^ou." 
 
 " My darling ! Do you think Edgar 
 Smith has no eyes ? " 
 
 Mary Westcote at last condescended to 
 smile, and a glance in the mirror, at her 
 own great blue orbs, inclined her to take 
 her mother's view of the question. But 
 she had still sufficient misgiving to invest 
 the affair with the interest of uncer- 
 tainty. 
 
 But I have been anticipating the natural 
 course of the events of the evening. Mr. 
 Smith, senior, appeared about the same 
 time as the trays, and, after everybody 
 had partaken liberally of chicken and 
 tongue, rich creams and jellies, heavy
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 151 
 
 cakes and strong negus, the party broke 
 up. 
 
 Miss Brown's servant had come for her 
 and Miss Wellby, who lived near the 
 Browns; but Mr. Edgar Smith could not 
 hear of the two ladies walking such a 
 distance — Miss Westcote lived near Miss 
 Richards — without being protected by one 
 of the stronger sex. It was in vain 
 that Miss Wellby represented that Mr. 
 Greenfield's way lay along with theirs, 
 and that it would be a great distance 
 for him to walk back alone to Tudor 
 Lodge. 
 
 Mr. Edgar Smith " liked a solitary walk 
 on a summer night. I am romantic, Miss 
 Wellby," he said, a slight smile playing 
 round the corners of his mouth. Miss 
 Wellby laughed scornfully. 
 
 "Romantic! Take my word for it,
 
 152 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Mr. Edgar, common sense is better than 
 romance." 
 
 " I am not so sure of that, Miss Wellby. 
 Perhaps it may be better in the abstract, 
 but it is not better to me. It may be 
 my taste to prefer living on gooseberry- 
 fool to roast-beef" 
 
 " The more fool you, then," said Clara. 
 
 Edgar laughed. He was very good- 
 natured, and so Miss Clara thought. She 
 was pleased, moreover, with her own wit, 
 or what she considered wit. She had not 
 liked Edgar Smith walking home with 
 them, having quite sense enough to set 
 down this piece of gallantry to Hannah's 
 account. As long as she could remember 
 Goslingford, and that was all her life, 
 there had been rivalship, to call it by the 
 mildest name, between the Smiths and 
 the Browns. Now, Clara was of opinion
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 153 
 
 that the thing which had been was the 
 thing which should be, and that a Mr. 
 Smith should admire a Miss Brown ap- 
 peared to her unnatural and portentous, 
 and she had felt quite fidgety at having 
 been forced into a semblance of counte- 
 nancing anything so anomalous. But she 
 would speak to Hannah to-morrow. 
 
 It was a fine moonlight night, the sky 
 without a cloud, and the midsummer twi- 
 light in the north-west seemed to struggle 
 for ascendancy with the beams of the moon, 
 which rose, round as a wheel, and looked 
 over the chimney tops and the ancient 
 gables into the cruciform streets of Gosling- 
 ford. Hannah was a little too much ex- 
 cited to admire as much as usual the broad 
 shadows and the white lights, and the 
 quaint dark outlines of peak and chimney 
 beneath the silver blue sky ; or to note,
 
 154 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 with her artist's eye, the solitary light from 
 some cottage window, or the picturesque 
 interior of some little huckster's shop. 
 Hannah was walking as quietly as she 
 usually did on a fine moonlight or star- 
 light night, but she did not much observe 
 outward things. She was feeling, rather 
 than thinking, though she scarcely knew 
 what her feelings were. The predominant 
 one, perhaps, was, that she was actually 
 leaning on the arm of Edgar Smith, the 
 hereditary foe of her father's house. 
 Certain recollections of Romeo and Juliet, 
 Lucy Ashton and the Master of Ravens- 
 wood, &c., floated before her agitated 
 brain ; for, though but a modern attorney's 
 daughter, she actually recognised in the 
 history of these romantic heroines some- 
 thing that seemed akin to her own humble, 
 destiny. But, then, quiet Hannah Brown,
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 155 
 
 in the recesses of her own heart, was a 
 very romantic girl. 
 
 They had walked about half-way to the 
 Old Red House, when Mr. Edgar Smith, 
 who had hitherto been chatting with Miss 
 Wellby, suddenly addressed Hannah — 
 
 "Of course, Miss Brown, you are fami- 
 liar with Shakspeare ? '' 
 
 '' Shakspeare ! " cried Miss Clara, whose 
 associations with Shakspeare were limited 
 to a vivid recollection of the outside of 
 eight middle-aged volumes, handsomely 
 bound in calf, and occupying an honour- 
 able, dusty place in her late father's 
 library. Shakspeare, to Miss Clara, was 
 a book that her father and other clever 
 and literary men read, and authors 
 quoted. At her father's sale she had 
 purchased in the well-known eight 
 volumes, as she felt that it was respectable
 
 156 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 to have them on her own bookshelf at 
 the top of the chifFoniere in her drawing- 
 room ; but she would about as soon have 
 thought of Hannah Brown reading the 
 Koran. " You forget, Mr. Edgar, that 
 Hannah has not been at a college, and 
 learnt all the sciences, like the Miss 
 Smiths." 
 
 Now, Edgar did not quite see what 
 connection there was between Shakspeare 
 and the scientific education of his sisters, 
 so he could only laugh, while poor Hannah 
 remained very uncomfortable and nervous 
 on account of Clara's, as it seemed to her, 
 scarcely polite speech. 
 
 They had now come in sight of the 
 church, and Edgar admired the elegance 
 of the slender spire, as it rose up so clear 
 and tapering under the moonlight sky, and 
 the dark shadow beneath the old Norman
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 157 
 
 arch in the porch, and the fine old trees, 
 so shady and so solemn. And then 
 Hannah began to speak, and to join 
 warmly in the admiration ; for that 
 ancient church, and those venerable trees, 
 had early impressed the girl's imagination, 
 and she tasted with joy this first draught of 
 sympathy in feelings as old as her memory. 
 Clara, too, admired the church, but it was 
 because it was the church ; and, in the 
 presence of a dissenter, more especially, 
 she felt a sort of personal triumph in the 
 acknowledged superiority of its architec- 
 ture and antiquity. 
 
 The triumph was, perhaps, a little 
 spoiled by the fact that Edgar did not 
 seem altogether to regard it as a triumph, 
 but as a matter of fact universally 
 acknowledged. 
 
 *^ I often," said Hannah, at last joining
 
 158 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 in the conversation, "wonder what kind 
 of people they were who built such places. 
 What great thoughts I — what sublime 
 perseverance they must have had ! I 
 often wish I could realise the spirit of 
 the men whose imagination bodied forth 
 such grand monuments of their genius." 
 
 *' It was the monkish spirit, my dear," 
 said Clara, who, like most people, when 
 she said she liked old ways and old 
 thoughts, meant only the ways and the 
 thoughts of her own youth, and who 
 viewed the people of remote times, as of 
 remote countries, with a species of con- 
 tempt. " If you want to know about it, 
 I have a very nice abridged History of 
 England; but, though they did build fine 
 churches, they were such fools then, they 
 are not worth reading about." 
 
 ^' But if they had all been fools, Aunt
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 159 
 
 Clara, how could they have built the 
 churches ? " 
 
 '^ They framed Magna Charta, too," said 
 Edgar. 
 
 " Well, well, they were thought fools 
 in my day, and it was not the fashion 
 then for young people to be wiser than 
 their parents. Somebody, I have no 
 doubt, will tell us some day that Bloody 
 Mary was a humane queen, and old King 
 Harry a just ruler and a moral man, 
 though he was fond of cutting off the 
 heads of his wives." 
 
 Miss Clara little thought when she 
 made this speech that it would prove 
 prophetic. But she triumphed in silenc- 
 ing her companions, who probably thought 
 it was as well not to employ arguments 
 where arguments were of no use. What 
 is the use of overthrowing an enemy who
 
 160 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 is never conscious of defeat ? When 
 you imagined you had beaten Miss Clara 
 to the dust with a sledge-hammer on one 
 side, there she was on the other, aiming 
 her arrows at you as lively as ever, and 
 with all the pride of victory. 
 
 According to her intention, she called 
 on Hannah Brown the next morning. 
 
 " Hannah," she said, " I do not approve 
 of this foolish flirtation with Edgar 
 Smith. It can come to no good. And 
 if it were to go further " 
 
 If it were to go further ! Hannah's 
 heart beat at the ideas this " going fur- 
 ther" vaguely raised in her mind, and 
 then it suddenly sank. Nothing pleasant 
 was right for her. It was the old story 
 again. 
 
 "You must put a stop to it at 
 
 once."
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 161 
 
 "Oh, Aunt Clara! How can I? — he 
 has been so kind to me." 
 
 And she coloured painfully, while her 
 lip trembled, and a tear rose to her 
 eye. 
 
 Miss Wellby had a kind heart. She 
 felt herself slightly choking for a second, 
 but it was not her wont to exhibit such 
 emotions. 
 
 " My dear, I do not blame you, but I 
 am very angry with Edgar Smith, and if 
 it were not for your dignity I would 
 speak to him. Men have not much con- 
 sideration for us, Hannah, and they can 
 wring our hearts for a few hours' amuse- 
 ment — even men who are not thought 
 bad men. You have no mother, my poor 
 girl, and neither your father nor Mr. 
 Smith would approve of this. It is all 
 very well that good-natured simpleton, 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Harriet, talking about Christian forgive- 
 ness, but it is contrary to common sense. 
 Oh, Hannah, why do you cry ? " 
 
 " I am sure I don't know." 
 
 " But I know, Hannah, if this is not 
 put a stop to, it will break your heart. 
 You have not the spirit of some other 
 people. And it went hard enough with 
 them, too. But that is an old story, 
 gone and done long ago." 
 
 " But what am I to do. Aunt Clara ? " 
 
 " Don't encourage him." 
 
 " I will not ; but I cannot be uncivil 
 to him. No one else has ever been so 
 kind to me." 
 
 " Some kindness is no kindness, Han- 
 nah. And now remember; you are 
 warned I " 
 
 And Miss Clara took leave — kissing 
 her young friend with more than usual
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 163 
 
 tenderress. She felt she must not stay, 
 lest she should show more sympathy than 
 she wished. 
 
 Poor Hannah felt miserably depressed; 
 but first hopes are not, after all, so 
 easily crushed. Hannah began to think 
 of what Miss Richards was reported to 
 have said about Christian forgiveness. 
 Were forgiveness and good sense so in- 
 compatible ? And if forgiveness did not 
 mean reconciliation and mutual oblivion 
 of offence, what did it mean ? 
 
 Hannah was not naturally a very bold 
 thinker, but she did begin to suspect that 
 common sense was either a misnomer or 
 a different thing from good sense. 
 
 m2
 
 164 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE STATE OF PUBLIC OPINION AT GOSLING- 
 FORD ABOUT SUNDRY SOCIAL MATTERS. 
 
 Advice, more especially unasked advice, 
 is proverbially of little use. There is there- 
 fore nothinoj new in Miss Clara's counsel 
 falling fruitless to the ground. Or, if it 
 had any effect, it was merely to give 
 Hannah occasionally, when it came across 
 her, an uneasy, uncomfortable sensation. 
 But, on the whole, life had never been so
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 165 
 
 pleasant to Hannah Brown as it was 
 at present. The first time she had 
 met Edgar Smith after her conversation 
 with Miss Wellby (the interview was in 
 the street), she had endeavoured to pass 
 him, but Edgar was not to be so served. 
 He stopped to inquire for her arm, and to 
 shake hands, and then he discovered he 
 was going the same way, and walked with 
 her as far as the draper's shop at which she 
 was going to make some purchases. The 
 Goslingford public, having discovered that 
 Hannah Brown had met the Smiths, at 
 Miss Richards' tea-party, without any 
 terrific social explosion, or even without 
 that heavy gloom which usually results 
 from inharmonious elements in a party, 
 immediately began to follow the example 
 set by good Miss Harriet, and to invite 
 Hannah Brown to meet the Smiths. It
 
 166 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 saved the Goslingford party-givers the 
 uncomfortable alternative of either leaving 
 Hannah to mope alone in the dismal soli- 
 tude of the Old Red House, or of giving an- 
 other set of little, inferior parties, especially 
 for her benefit. Old Brown had for many 
 years — ever since Mrs. Brown's death — given 
 up promiscuous party-giving and party- 
 going. About once a-year he entertained 
 his own old friends, and year by year these 
 were diminishing in number. Often Miss 
 Wellby dropped in to tea ; and occasionally 
 she and the Greenfield family were more for- 
 mally invited to the same old-fashioned 
 meal ; but with these exceptions, the Browns 
 did not see any society. The Smiths, on 
 the contrary, were the greatest party-givers 
 in the place. Many people — nay, most 
 people — said it was very foolish and unne- 
 cessary in them to give so many parties, and
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 167 
 
 such expensive parties, and to introduce so 
 many fashions unheard-of in Goslingford ; 
 still nobody liked to be left out at these 
 parties, and, in consequence, at the best 
 Goslingford reunions it was felt that, 
 whoever was omitted, the Smiths must 
 be asked. 
 
 Hannah Brown could not be quite 
 ignored. Goslingford gentility had an here- 
 ditary respect for the Browns. They were 
 the oldest and most resj)ected family in 
 the place — identified as it were with the 
 respectability of the Borough itself. So 
 respectable they were, that the mere fact of 
 visiting them was in itself respectable. 
 Then people were sorry for " poor Hannah," 
 " she was so inoffensive, and led such a 
 dull life," though many doubted if she 
 found it dull. Then she would be rich 
 some day, and it was not an uncommon
 
 168 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 opinion in Goslingford, though Miss Wellby 
 and Mr. Greenfield dissented from it, that 
 Hannah Brown would be the Harriet 
 Eichards of the next Goslintrford ^en- 
 eration. 
 
 This notion had, however, somewhat 
 begun to decline since the advent of 
 Edgar Smith, and since Hannah Brown 
 was more seen at the gayer Goslingford 
 parties. 
 
 Monkeys are not more imitative then 
 men, and we imitate not onlv fashions of 
 dress and manner, but fashions of thought 
 and opinion. How many of us, I wonder, 
 have an original opinion even about the 
 colour of a ribbon ? Some have certainly, 
 but a small minority. On the other hand, 
 let anyone of us only have sufficient self- 
 confidence, or effrontery, to maintain 
 boldly, and without the weakness of the
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 169 
 
 smallest hesitation, any opinion on any 
 subject, and it will soon be echoed all 
 round with equal confidence. 
 
 And so, as Edgar Smith had discovered 
 that Hannah Brown was pretty, other 
 people now found out that there was 
 something " very interesting " in her ap- 
 pearance, she "was much improved," and 
 " really did look pretty." And, when this 
 was once acknowledged, the Goslingford 
 beaux would not let Edgar Smith have 
 her all to himself. They stood behind 
 her chair, and fetched her fan, and talked 
 mainly to her, and she was, in one sense, 
 much gratified, even sometimes when she 
 was ready to yawn in their faces with 
 very weariness, from the dismal dearth 
 of sense or wit in the conversation, which 
 she felt a compliment. 
 
 Poor, simple Hannah Brown ! I fear
 
 170 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 you despise her, and think she had no 
 greatness of soul. It was so pleasant to 
 her to think, after all, she could be 
 attractive like other people. Should you 
 like to feel yourself despised and neglected, 
 dear reader? No, of course you would 
 not — by people of judgment; but you 
 would not mind what such people as the 
 Goslingford people thought. But then 
 Hannah Brown knew no other people. 
 Goslingford was her world, and not so 
 much unlike the great world, perhaps, 
 as one might at first imagine. 
 
 And now, 1 fancy I see the utter 
 contempt with which you of the en- 
 larged mind, who have spent seasons in 
 London, and seasons in Paris; to whom 
 the mer de glace is as familiar as the 
 German or Atlantic Oceans, and who 
 have even " wintered at Rome,^' view the
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 171 
 
 smallness and the narrowness of Goslino^- 
 ford life. Yet the Goslingford world 
 was just as important to the Goslingford 
 people, as your great world is to you. 
 And why not ? What do the inhabi- 
 tants of Neptune, for instance, if propor- 
 tioned mentally to the size of their planet, 
 and if the old-fashioned notion be cor- 
 rect, that there are *' more worlds than 
 one," think of us ? Something similar, 
 probably, to what you think of the Gos- 
 lingford people. 
 
 In old-fashioned houses one sometimes 
 sees, at the end of a room, a little convex 
 mirror — there are many such in Gosling- 
 ford — which affords, in diminished per- 
 spective, a view of the apartment and its 
 inmates. I have often watched with 
 amusement, the little gestures, the seem- 
 ingly mimic graces of these Lilliputian
 
 172 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 men and women, and, in doing so, have 
 been invaded by a sense of the ludicrous. 
 And yet these tiny figures were our very 
 selves. It was only their proportions 
 that gave them a tinge of absurdity. 
 Now, the doings of dukes, and countesses, 
 and statesmen, and authors on the theatre 
 of the great world, are, after all, animated 
 by the same motives, and stimulated by the 
 same ambition, as those of the Goslingford 
 people on their little country-town theatre. 
 The difference is in the size of the stage, 
 not in the passions of its actors. 
 
 But this is very stale, you will say. 
 Dean Swift showed us, Ions: ago, in 
 Gulliver, how small, and contemptible, 
 and degraded we all are. He did. But 
 I want to show you, amid all its small- 
 nesses, how the universal human heart, 
 even reflected in the convex lens of a
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 173 
 
 country town, has its noble as well as its 
 trivial side. 
 
 " No man is a hero to his valet-de- 
 chambre,'* says the adage. I think it is 
 Carlyle who remarks, that if this be true 
 it is the valet's fault. Now, all life is 
 noble to those who are noble enough 
 to look through the trivialities which 
 overlie the outside. Perhaps the feeling 
 of the nobleman, who, for the first time, 
 appears at the drawing-room in blue 
 ribbon and star, may even be akin to 
 that of Miss Westcote, when she as- 
 tonishes a Goslingford party with a new 
 specimen of Buttonborough milliner}^ ; 
 or, when Mrs. Smith makes a new do- 
 mestic financial arrangement, which adds 
 to the family comfort, wnile it saves the 
 family purse, has she not a feeling, in 
 its small and humble way, akin to that
 
 174 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 of Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Disraeli when 
 they achieve, or think they have achieved, 
 a like feat in the production of the new 
 budget ? 
 
 But to return to Hannah Brown. She 
 had, as far as was possible with one so 
 shy, become the fashion at Goslingford ; 
 though it is probable, had Edgar Smith 
 not had an opinion of his own, she might 
 have been one of those flowers born to 
 blush unseen, merely because the world 
 does not see with its own eyes. And is 
 this an uncommon thing in the great 
 world ? How many faces have we 
 thought beautiful because some leader 
 of fashion said they were beautiful ! 
 How many books have we cried up as 
 clever, merely because some authority 
 made it the fashion to think so ! 
 
 Dancing was not a very favourite
 
 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 175 
 
 amusement at Goslingford. Still dancing- 
 parties did occasionally take place, and 
 were looked, upon as great events by 
 Young Goslingford. They were talked 
 about for a week before and a week after 
 their occurrence. Miss Harriet Richards, 
 of course, thought dancing a sin ; and 
 equally, of course, Miss Clara Wellby took 
 a directly contrary view. 
 
 " I have no patience, Harriet, with 
 people dancing till they are too old and 
 too wrinkled to find partners, and then 
 turninof round on the young and the 
 blooming, and saying, * You shall not 
 dance — it is a sin ! ' any more than I 
 should have any patience with a man 
 who was ordered by his physician to 
 abstain from wine, and then went about 
 preaching tee-totalism as essential to sal- 
 vation. Very like the old fable of the
 
 176 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 dog and the manger, which I sometimes 
 think must have been made prophetically 
 for the present generation. I remember 
 when the Smiths thought it a sin to 
 dance, but now that they have stylish 
 grown-up daughters, they seem to have 
 changed their minds." 
 
 Poor Harriet returned no answer. This 
 especial backsliding of the Smiths was a 
 sore subject with her. If they had been 
 any persons but themselves, she would 
 have had, and would have declared, very 
 decided opinions on the point. But the 
 Smiths ! And she thought and said it 
 was some great and temporary delusion 
 under which such pious people would not 
 be permitted long to remain. 
 
 Some people, no doubt, will say that 
 Miss Harriet was not very consistent ; but 
 who among us is ? — and what a world
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 177 
 
 this would be — how hard, how uncharit- 
 able, how unloving, if everybody's conduct 
 was in logical sequence with everybody's 
 opinion. Then let us be thankful there 
 is so little consistency. 
 
 As it was a moot point in (roslingford, 
 Hannah Brown had taken it into con- 
 sideration whether or not it was right to 
 dance. Now Hannah had rather an un- 
 common way of deciding such points — 
 differing, for instance, from that of the 
 Miss Smiths. When she was very fond 
 of anything she was not at all ingenious 
 in discovering reasons in its favour, but 
 generally suspected its harmlessness, so 
 singularly was it a fixed idea in her 
 mind that self-denial rather than self- 
 indulgence was the root of all virtue. 
 Now, Hannah had hitherto rather disliked 
 dancing. When she had danced it was 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 176 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 rather to oblige society than to please 
 herself, so that the temptations of dancing 
 being unfelt by her, her conscience had 
 pronounced it harmless; but she would 
 not join Aunt Clara in condemning as 
 conceited and self-righteous those who 
 thouo:ht otherwise. If she and Miss 
 Wellby ever quarrelled, it was about Lucy 
 Greenfield, the Rector's third daughter, 
 who, young, admired, and beautiful, had 
 declared for the other side of the ques- 
 tion. 
 
 This, Miss Wellby was of opinion, arose 
 from conceit and spiritual pride ; but 
 Hannah, with her wider sympathies, could 
 feel for the poor girl who had not only 
 renounced triumphs which her own heart 
 whispered must be gratifying to woman's 
 vanity, but bore bravely, though, per- 
 chance, with keenest sufi*ering, all the
 
 ■ THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 179 
 
 misconstruction and the hard judgment to 
 which the insulted self-complacency of 
 others subjected her. 
 
 " Don't talk to me, Hannah. Is she 
 not saying to all the other girls in Gos- 
 lingford, ' Stand by, I am holier than 
 thou?'" 
 
 " I cannot see that, Aunt Clara. 
 Dancing, without being a sin to other 
 people, might be a sin to her, if it made 
 her vain or jealous, or took her mind 
 away from her duties." 
 
 *' Then if it did so, she should have 
 been ashamed of having such a mind, 
 and have humbled herself instead of set- 
 ting herself up. She ought not to have 
 allowed herself to feel such things." 
 
 " Perhaps the very reason she has 
 given up dancing is because she will not 
 allow herself." 
 
 n2
 
 180 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 " Don't talk nonsense to me, Hannah. 
 We shall hear of you doing the same 
 some day." 
 
 " There is not much fear of my being 
 tempted in the same way/' said poor 
 Hannah, with a half-regretful sigh. 
 
 But the time was nearer, perhaps, than 
 Hannah expected. She had plenty of 
 partners now, but, somehow or other, 
 it did not elate or interest her much. 
 She had a deeper interest now in a 
 party than the mere hope of receiving 
 her share of attention (more than her 
 share the humble Hannah had never 
 aimed at), and the almost certainty that 
 this hope would be gratified, lent to her 
 mind a pleasurable, though not violent, 
 excitement, which left little room for 
 other emotions. 
 
 There was to be a grand party at Mr.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 181 
 
 Splint's. Mr. Splint was the principal 
 surgeon in Goslingford. He had risen 
 from small beginnings, but he was really 
 a clever man and a conscientious man, 
 and had prospered accordingly. He had 
 married early in life, and had a goodly 
 array of sons and daughters of all sizes, 
 from two feet in height to six. The 
 party was given in honour of the ma- 
 jority of his eldest son — a tall, red- 
 whiskered youth, who was intended to 
 follow the profession of his father. 
 
 Mr. Splint lived at the end of one of 
 the cross streets of Goslingford, in a large 
 house with green railings in front, and a 
 great many staring windows, looking on 
 the street. This house had once had three 
 pointed gables, but had been new-fronted 
 in the time of Mr. Splint's predecessor — 
 a change which had been thought a great
 
 182 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 improvement. Behind the house there 
 was a very large garden and orchard, 
 which, on this festive occasion, was to be 
 decorated with arches, flowers, &c. But 
 Mr. Splint did not, like the Smiths, imitate 
 the manners and hours of the great world. 
 Like most of the Goslingford people, he 
 thought four the proper hour for a dinner 
 party, and seven for an evening party; 
 and a chorus of praise arose from all 
 quarters on account of his good sense. 
 It must have been from a singular 
 opacity of intellectual vision in Hannah 
 Brown that she could not perceive the 
 superiority of sense connected with an 
 entertainment which began at four in the 
 afternoon and lasted all round the clock. 
 It struck her that it would have been 
 pleasanter divided into three. She was 
 not, however, asked to the four o'clock
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 183 
 
 dinner, but to the seven o'clock ball. 
 There were to be only gentlemen at the 
 dinner, which Edgar Smith had previously 
 told Hannah Brown he considered a 
 remnant of barbarism, and a practice 
 which, when he had a house of his own, 
 he would set his face against. 
 
 " That is," he continued, looking away 
 from her, and with less self-possession 
 than she had ever seen in him before, 
 "that is, if my wife (if I am so happy 
 as ever to possess a wife) should be of 
 my opinion." Then, suddenly raising his 
 eyes, and looking Hannah full in the 
 face, but with a raised colour, he asked, 
 " What would you do, Miss Brown ? " 
 
 But Hannah's heart had almost per- 
 formed the feat to which, under certain 
 circumstances, these fleshly force-pumps 
 are said to be prone, of jumping into her
 
 184 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 mouth, and agitation would not permit 
 her to reply, more especially as they 
 were in the street. They had met at a 
 call on Miss Richards, and Edgar's way 
 had lain in the same direction as 
 Hannah's. Ere either of them could 
 speak again, they were joined by Miss 
 Wellby, who had crossed the street on 
 purpose, a little to the discomfiture of 
 Hannah, and not a little to the chagrin 
 of Edgar. 
 
 " I am just going home, Hannah, so 
 we will walk together. I met your mother 
 looking for you in North Street, Mr. 
 Edgar, so we will not detain you. Good 
 morning." 
 
 "Good morning, Miss Wellby," he 
 answered, almost fiercely, and then turn- 
 ing to Hannah, he continued, with a slight 
 glance of defiance at her self-elected com-
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 185 
 
 panion, " T shall wish the hours away 
 to-morrow between the dinner and the 
 ball." 
 
 *' Hannah! Hannah!" said Aunt Clara, 
 as soon as he was gone, "what does this 
 mean ?" 
 
 "I don't know," said Hannah, meekly, 
 but she was not sad.
 
 186 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 CHAPTER TX. 
 
 MRS. splint's ball. 
 
 Edgar Smith was by no means, in a 
 general way, indifferent to the attractions 
 of turtle soup, venison, champagne, and 
 port of the twenty vintage, and the 
 other good cheer which the old-fashioned 
 English hospitality of Goslingford piqued 
 itself on setting before its guests on grand 
 occasions. But in spite of these gastro- 
 nomic alleviations of their tedium, the
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 187 
 
 three hours passed at table, on Mr. 
 Frederick Splint's birthday, did seem to 
 him more intolerably long than any three 
 hours in his life had ever seemed before. 
 He was, moreover, almost perfectly silent — 
 quite a phenomenon in Edgar Smith. 
 
 Hannah Brown, in the meantime, was 
 dressing for the ball. Aunt Clara arrived 
 to superintend the completion of her 
 toilet, and to act as her diaper one ^ for in 
 spite of her annoyance of the previous day, 
 and her dread of what the evening might 
 bring forth, a ball toilet, and Hannah 
 Brown's ball toilet, was a subject of too 
 engrossing interest not for the moment to 
 supersede all other considerations. Miss 
 Clara pronounced her young friend's dress 
 to be *' very nice." In her heart she 
 thought her looking something very much 
 beyond very nice, but it was contrary to
 
 188 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Miss Wellby's principles to make anybody- 
 conceited. 
 
 And as Hannah stood in front of the old 
 mirror on the end wall of her bedroom, 
 contemplating her figure by the red light 
 of a September sunset, she did not herself 
 feel discouraged. In truth, the Goslingford 
 people were not mistaken when they said 
 Hannah Brown was improved. She wore 
 a very pretty and becoming dress certainly ; 
 but it was not, as Miss Clara supposed, 
 to it that the improved looks were due ; 
 for though the snowy folds of her drapery 
 showed to advantage her slender figure, 
 though her coronet of oak leaves and 
 acorns was elegant as well as Druidical, 
 though the diamond brooch which had 
 been her mothers glittered bright on 
 her modest bosom, the difference was 
 owing rather to the fuller life which
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 189 
 
 had sent the blood to her cheek in a 
 warmer glow, and given to her eye the 
 excitement of hope. Even her long brown 
 ringlets seemed to share in the improve- 
 ment, and to have this evening a softer 
 and more graceful fall. Poor Hannah 
 Brown ! This night was the culminating 
 point of her youth — perhaps the only 
 night of her life in which she felt really 
 young. 
 
 Hannah was looking quite as well, only 
 with a little higher colour and rather 
 brighter eyes, when she and Miss Wellby 
 were ushered into Mrs. Splint's drawing- 
 room. Mrs. Splint's drawing-room was a 
 large, long room, with a large window at 
 one end — now open, and with two or three 
 steps down into the garden. Not many of 
 the evening guests had arrived. Miss 
 Westcote was there, however, in a re-
 
 190 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 splendent Buttonborough dress— all pink 
 and gold, and flowers, and slightly sug- 
 gestive of a performance on the tight rope. 
 The gentlemen had not come in from the 
 dining-room, and Hannah felt a momentary 
 sensation of disappointment. But as she 
 finished shaking hands with Mrs. Splint, 
 and the three g^rown-up Miss Splints, she 
 heard her name pronounced behind her by 
 a voice which brought an additional rush 
 of blood to her cheeks, and made her 
 foolish heart beat with nervous agitation, 
 for there are certain kinds of pleasure 
 which feel not very different from pain. 
 
 " I hope you are not engaged for the first 
 quadrille. Miss Brown ? " said Edgar boldly, 
 before everybody, and with a certain air 
 of devotion, as if he did not care whether 
 people remarked upon it or not. Hannah 
 answered in a very low tone, and very
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 191 
 
 shyly, that she was not engaged, on which 
 Edgar placed himself by her side, evidently 
 with the intention of waiting till the 
 dancing should commence. This was not 
 for some time ; but, in the meantime, 
 little passed between them. There was a 
 slight mutual awkwardness, which lasted 
 even through the quadrille. When that 
 dance was finished, they stood together at 
 the window — Edgar seeming resolved not 
 to leave his partner ; yet the awkwardness, 
 if possible, increased. A waltz was now 
 played, and a few couples were soon on the 
 floor. 
 
 Waltzing was not a favourite dance in 
 Goslingford, and at the time I write of, 
 had not been long introduced. Miss Wellby 
 was more lively in her condemnation of 
 it even than Miss Richards, and she now 
 sat down at the far end of the room in
 
 192 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 virtuous indignation. This was an un- 
 fortunate evening for poor Miss Clara. 
 Edgar Smith's conduct had chafed her not 
 a little, and now this waltzing quite upset 
 her already irritated spirits. 
 
 " The young people of the present day," 
 she said, " have no sense of propriety, 
 and their wilfulness is beyond endurance. 
 What is the world coming to ? " 
 
 Example is catching, and even though it 
 was in prudish English Goslingford, there 
 were now many pairs whirling round in the 
 dizzy foreign maze. 
 
 " Will you join in the waltz, Miss 
 Brown?" said Edgar Smith. 
 
 *' Thank you, I— I don't waltz." 
 
 Edgar's blue eye positively sparkled. 
 ^'I am glad you don't," he said, "for I 
 would rather be denied the pleasure of 
 waltzing with you than see any one else
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 193 
 
 do SO. The people here say I have foreign 
 ways, but you see, I am old-fashioned and 
 English enough in some of my feelings. 
 Will you take a turn in the garden, while 
 these people are dancing? I see two or 
 three persons there already." 
 
 Hannah's silence passed for assent, and 
 he led her doAvn the steps into the garden. 
 
 It was by no means a very tasteful 
 garden; still, smooth shaven turf and bright 
 flowers, however arranged, must always 
 possess some beauty. The evening too was 
 very fine — ^bright and clear as fine evenings 
 generally are in early September — and the 
 golden radiance of the autumn twilight had 
 begun to give place to the colder light of 
 stars, while the crescent moon grew every 
 moment brighter as it sank in the darken- 
 ing sky, over the fading meadows. The air 
 was soft and tepid, but it seemed fresh and 
 
 vo;l. I. o
 
 194 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 cool after the steaming ball-room ; and 
 the magnolia over the drawing-room win- 
 dows filled it with fragrance. 
 
 Hannah Brown leant on the arm of 
 Edgar Smith. He could feel that her 
 fingers trembled a little, but that might 
 have been from the heat and the dancing. 
 His own heart, however, thumped so loudly 
 that he fancied she must hear it. 
 
 " You have read ' Romeo and Juliet,' 
 Miss Brown, have you not? though you 
 have never had the advantage of being at 
 a ladies' college?" Ye — yes," said Hannah, 
 and he felt sure now her hands did tremble. 
 
 "And what do you think of the Mon- 
 tagues and Capulets?" 
 
 "Think of them!— How?" 
 
 "Don't you think they were fools? 
 They hated each other till they had lost 
 all that was worth livino; for, and then,
 
 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 195 
 
 when it was too late, they were reconciled. 
 So most people do. It is the way of the 
 world." Edgar paused, but Hannah made 
 no response. He then continued, — " I think 
 quarrels between families, of all kinds, 
 peculiarly foolish and wicked There is 
 more excuse for personal quarrels. I 
 always hated them. Miss Brown, and 
 always made up my mind that I would 
 have nothing to do with them. How easy 
 is it to misconstrue a man's every act, 
 if one wishes to do so ! " 
 
 " Very easy, " said Hannah, who 
 thought Edgar Smith the noblest-minded 
 of men. 
 
 "You agree with me, then," he said, 
 and he looked eagerly down on her face, 
 which she hastily turned towards the 
 ground. 
 
 " Yes," she said '' I do," but her tongue 
 
 0-2
 
 196 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 felt SO tied and heavy, it could hardly 
 utter the three short words. 
 
 " But I would not act like Romeo, that 
 is, if I were in Romeo's place. I would 
 have gone boldly to old Capulet, like an 
 honourable man ; and it is my belief, from 
 what followed, that, if Romeo had done 
 so, he might have married Juliet in the face 
 of day, instead of in the sneaking way he 
 did. I do not approve of any one of the 
 lot. Tell me what you think. I would 
 give worlds to know." 
 
 " I — T," but Hannah's lips closed ; her 
 bodily powers seemed under some strange 
 mesmeric, benumbing influence; and yet 
 she knew — by clairvoyance probably^as 
 her eyes were still on the ground, that 
 his were riveted on her. 
 
 " Hannah ! if you will give me leave, I 
 will go to your father to-morrow and tell
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 197 
 
 him how 1 love you. May I — Hannah ? " 
 She said neither yes nor no; but he 
 knew what she meant, and taking her 
 hand, which yet rested on his arm, he led 
 her round the garden, and talked the 
 nonsense which is sweeter far than wisdom, 
 let moralists and philosophers say what 
 they please. And when at last Hannah, 
 who now knew from experience — 
 
 *' How silver sweet sound lovers' tongues by night," 
 
 awoke to a sense that something was due 
 to society and the Splints, and urged a return 
 to the dancing room, people said he made 
 himself quite ridiculous. Hannah, herself, 
 hardly liked it. And yet she was happy — 
 wildly happy. 
 
 Till the end of her life, that night at 
 the Splints seemed as it did even now, 
 while yet real and present a bewildering,
 
 198 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 intoxicating vision. The ground she trod 
 did not seem like the solid earth ; the light, 
 and the music, and the moving figures, 
 appeared all phantom-like; and the voice 
 of her lover, and the eager cares with 
 which he encircled her, more unreal, 
 though more sweet, than anything besides. 
 
 Poor Clara Wellby sat in dismay. She 
 was cross and perturbed, and when Edgar 
 handed Hannah to her carriage, shawling 
 and cloaking her with the deepest in- 
 terest, and beseeching her not to catch 
 cold, she fumed and chafed and almost 
 scolded. 
 
 "Hannah," she said, as they drove off, 
 " I have seldom spent such a night of 
 vexation and annoyance. You know I 
 warned you at the very beginning what 
 this folly and nonsense would lead to." 
 
 "Oh, Aunt Clara!"' said Hannah, be-
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 199 
 
 seechingly, and laying her head on her old 
 friend's shoulder, " do let me be happy 
 for this one night." 
 
 Clara said no more ; but as she stroked 
 the long tresses which hung over her own 
 bosom, Hannah fancied she heard her 
 murmur, " Poor child ! "
 
 200 THE BROWKS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A CRISIS. 
 
 Hannah slept but little the night after 
 Mrs. Splint's ball. Her head was in a 
 whirl, her heart beat, and her excitement 
 was almost feverish. About an hour before 
 getting-up time, she fell into a disturbed, 
 dreamy slumber, from which she was 
 awakened by the housemaid, with the 
 warm water. Poor Hannah I She looked 
 very pale and haggard this morning. A 
 sort of re-action had come from the ex-
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 201 
 
 citeinent of the previous evening, and the 
 anxieties of the coming day appeared almost 
 too great to be borne. 
 
 Mr. Brown always came home to dinner 
 punctually at three o'clock, and this was 
 the hour chosen for Edgar's important 
 interview with him. 
 
 It yet wanted five minutes to three 
 o'clock. Hannah was in the drawing- 
 room, and her father standing on the 
 terrace walk in front of the windows, when 
 Edgar's knock at the door almost took 
 away her breath. The window was open, 
 so she heard her father's slight, gruff 
 exclamation of surprise, and beheld his 
 somewhat chagrined countenance as the 
 servant announced to him that Mr. Edgar 
 Smith was in the book-room, and wished 
 to see him. And now, how can I give you 
 an idea of poor Hannah's state of mind ?
 
 202 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 How long that agony of suspense lasted, 
 she could not herself have told. At first, 
 she tried to take her needlework; but 
 she laid it down again immediately, and 
 began to walk up and down the old 
 drawing-room. How loud and how slow 
 the time-piece on the high, carved wooden 
 chimney-piece ticked ! It seemed to echo 
 the throbs of poor Hannah's heart. Then 
 she stood still for a minute, and looked 
 out on the garden. The lengthening 
 shadow of the spire already began to 
 project tapering into the middle, and 
 beyond and around the September sun- 
 shine looked so bright and calm, that 
 her agitated spirits seemed to sicken at 
 the contrast. 
 
 For many a long day the sight of that 
 scene of silence and sunshine pierced 
 Hannah's heart like a poisoned arrow. She
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 203 
 
 turned from, it and mechanically took up 
 the books and ornaments on the table. 
 Then she opened the door, as if from the 
 farther corner of the house, where her father 
 and lover were closeted, she could hear some 
 sign of her fate. How interminable seemed 
 the time ! And yet it was only a few minutes. 
 
 At last, the bell of the book-room (Mr. 
 Brown would not allow it to be dignified 
 with the title of library,) rang sharply. 
 Hannah felt as if she must faint. It 
 seemed to her that the maid was never 
 going to answer it. She threw herself 
 upon the sofa. She heard footsteps ap- 
 proaching the drawing-room. 
 
 "If you please. Miss," said the maid, 
 " Master wishes to see you in the book- 
 room immediately." 
 
 The crisis of her fate had indeed come. 
 Her legs seemed almost to refuse to bear
 
 204 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 her along the passage, and when she came 
 to the door she gasped for breath. 
 
 Mr. Brown and Edgar Smith were both 
 standing. Edgar at the window, appa- 
 rently looking out on the church-yard ; Mr. 
 Brown at a writing-table in the middle of 
 the room. 
 
 Hannah dared not look at her father's 
 face ; but she instinctively felt it was a bad 
 omen that her lover did not advance 
 to meet her, or even turn to her on 
 her entrance. He made, however, an 
 involuntary twitching movement as he 
 heard the door open and close. Hannah 
 took hold of the back of a chair. The 
 moment was sickening. 
 
 '' Hannah ! " said her father, and one 
 could perceive that it was only with an 
 effort he spoke firmly, " this young 
 gentleman, this Mr. Edgar Smith, tells
 
 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 205 
 
 me that it is with your consent that 
 he comes here to ask mine to his 
 marrying you. Is this true ? " 
 
 Hannah could just find words to 
 answer — " Yes, father." She trembled 
 excessively ; but she was beginning 
 to get less nervous, though more 
 alarmed. 
 
 " Hannah," he said, and there was 
 grief and severity in his tone; "had I 
 not heard this from your own lips, I 
 could not have believed it. Are you 
 aware that this gentleman is one of a 
 family who would do anything — any- 
 thing not in the world's opinion dis- 
 honest — to better themselves, that they 
 even avow such principles? Have you 
 forgotten, poor simple girl, that you are 
 the only heir of my fortune, and has 
 it never struck you that to a Smith
 
 206 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 that may have been one of your chief 
 attractions? " 
 
 Here Edgar turned fiercely round, and 
 confronted Mr. Brown with angry eyes. 
 Edgar, though he was not quite blind 
 to family faults, like all the Smiths, 
 had strong family affections. But if he 
 intended to speak, Hannah prevented 
 him. 
 
 "Father," she said, firmly, "you are 
 mistaken. He would have loved me all 
 the same, if I had not had sixpence. 
 I know he would." 
 
 " Thank you, Hannah — thank you for 
 ever," said the lover, earnestly. 
 
 " You have great confidence in your 
 own charms, it appears," said Mr. Brown. 
 
 "No, father; but I have great con- 
 fidence in Mr. Smith's sincerity." 
 
 " God bless you, Hannah ! " said the
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 207 
 
 young man, "now no accusation can 
 wound me." 
 
 "Fine words, and the folly of a 
 lovesick girl," said Mr. Brown, " will 
 not alter facts, will not excuse you, Mr. 
 Smith, for clandestinely stealing ray 
 daughter's heart, when you must have 
 known such an alliance would be dis- 
 tasteful to me." 
 
 "Sir, I have not clandestinely stolen 
 your daughter's heart, I have sought 
 her in the face of the world, and the 
 moment I have known my affection 
 was returned, I have sought your coun- 
 tenance. I knew there were grudges 
 between the families, but I hoped this 
 union might have been the means of 
 terminating feelings which are neither 
 right nor wise." 
 
 "Perhaps, young man, your elders
 
 208 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 may be as good judges of that as you. 
 And now, Hannah, that you know my 
 opinion, and I think you ought to have 
 known it from the beginning, will you 
 inform me what you intend to do ? " 
 
 Hannah looked up in amazement, and 
 faltered out something about her father's 
 consent. Old William Brown fcecame 
 very pale, set his lips firmly, and 
 answered — 
 
 " That I should willingly consent that 
 you make yourself miserable for life, is 
 impossible. Hannah, you have but one 
 alternative. You are my only child — ' 
 the only thing left to me on earth to 
 comfort my old age. Marry this man, 
 and I will not curse you, I will not 
 disinherit ycu ; but if you do, you will 
 break my heart, and bring my grey 
 hairs with sorrow to the grave."
 
 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 209 
 
 For a moment there was a pause. 
 
 If William Brown had been pale, his 
 daughter became many degrees paler; but 
 her trembling and her nervousness were 
 over for the moment. She stood upright, 
 and said in a firm though very low tone : 
 
 "Then, father, I will not marry him." 
 
 But now Edgar started forward, his 
 eyes sparkling, and his chest heaving : 
 
 " You will not marry me ! I could 
 not have believed this unless I had heard 
 it from your own lips — I could not 
 have believed that you — you would 
 have been so heartless and cruel ! " 
 
 Hannah burst into tears — this was 
 more than she could bear. 
 
 " Oh, Edgar ! I am not heartless. If 
 you knew — Don't reproach me, for I can- 
 not bear it ! " 
 
 " Nothino^ on earth would have induced 
 
 . VOL. I. P
 
 210 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 me to give you up ; but your woman's 
 love is weak and shallow." 
 
 "I think, sir," said Mr. Brown, "this 
 interview had better terminate. It must 
 be highly painful to my daughter, and, 
 as a gentleman, you must wish to spare 
 her." 
 
 " God knows I would have given my 
 life for her," said the young man, bitterly. 
 " Farewell, Hannah — farewell, for ever — 
 since so you wish it to be." 
 
 She made no answer in words, only 
 her eyes, for one moment, sought his, 
 with a mute, deprecating appeal. He 
 took no notice of it then, but in after- 
 days that look often haunted him pain- 
 fully. 
 
 And so it was all over !
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 211 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 PUBLIC OPINION IN GOSLINGFORD 
 
 4 
 
 IS DIVIDED. 
 
 And now came the long days of trial 
 for Hannah Brown. Hannah was re- 
 solved not to be ill. She rose the follow- 
 ing morning at her usual time, and made 
 her fathers breakfast. Then she tried 
 to employ herself. Reading Avas impos- 
 sible. Housekeeping for an hour or two 
 did better. Then she tried to work, but 
 
 p2
 
 212 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 the time had not yet come even for that. 
 In that way she could not escape from 
 her own thoughts. 
 
 She was thankful when, at last, Clara 
 Wellby came — Clara, whose company she 
 could often have dispensed with, though 
 she was, at all times, grateful to her for 
 her kindness. Clara saw it all at a glance, 
 and her talkative sympathy, at this 
 period, was not out of place. Hannah 
 had not yet arrived at the time when 
 sorrow seeks silence, and shrinks with 
 dread from any infringement of it. Clara 
 proposed that Hannah should go out 
 with her, and make a few calls, and 
 Hannah acceded. Anything to escape 
 from her own recollections ! 
 
 It was not long ere the Goslingford 
 world became acquainted with the new 
 phase of the ancient feud between the
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 213 
 
 Browns and the Smiths. And once more, 
 as they had often been before, the rival 
 merits and demerits of the two famiUes be- 
 came the engrossing topic of conversation, 
 and parties ran high. Various reports 
 were circulated with regard to the inter- 
 view between Edgar Smith and Mr. Brown. 
 Some said that Mr. Brown had turned 
 the young man out of the house, while 
 others averred that he had threatened 
 Hannah with the same usage, if she ever 
 spoke to her lover again. This, or some- 
 thing like it, was one version of the 
 affair believed and circulated by the 
 Smithian partisans. The Brownites main- 
 tained, on the contrary, that they did 
 not believe that Mr. Brown ever thought 
 of turning his daughter out of the house, 
 or Edgar Smith either, and that if he 
 did in the latter case, it only served him
 
 214 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 right. Everybody knew that the Smiths 
 were always looking after money, and 
 would do anything to get it. Nobody 
 but themselves, under the circumstances, 
 would ever have thought of getting 
 old Brown's money, but they stuck at 
 nothing. Poor Hannah was a girl who 
 had seen nothing of the world, and was 
 not accustomed to much admiration, 
 and it was no wonder, poor thing, she 
 had been so easily taken in. Her 
 father had done the really kind thing 
 by her, and she would live to thank 
 him. 
 
 On the other hand, the Smith party 
 were quite as indignant at Hannah as 
 at her father. Instead of being the 
 quiet nobody of a girl everybody had 
 supposed, she had turned out an arrant 
 flirt, and, after giving poor Edgar Smith
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 215 
 
 every possible encouragement (had not 
 everybody seen her outrageous flirting 
 at Mrs. Splint's?), she had given him 
 up in the coolest and most heartless 
 manner. It was quite nonsense to say 
 she could not help it. Mrs. Smith 
 herself had said Hannah had behaved 
 most heartlessly, and that she was 
 thankful, for her part, that it was all 
 quite over. And to this the Brownites 
 were prone to answer that the grapes 
 were sour. 
 
 What really did occur at the inter- 
 view in Mr. Brown's book-room, nobody 
 ever did know, except Miss Wellby. 
 All that Miss Clara would say to the 
 world was, that Hannah Brown had 
 behaved most nobly, that there was not 
 one in Goslingford good enough for 
 her, and that she did not blame Mr.
 
 216 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Brown either. But Miss Richards, being 
 a Smithite, did blame Mr. Brown. He 
 had acted in a most unchristian manner. 
 But '' what could you expect from a 
 man who thought week-day sermons out 
 of place ? '^ She would not, however, join 
 in the censure on Hannah. She had 
 "always liked the poor girl, though, 
 perhaps, she had flirted a little lately." 
 Miss Richards had, besides, very ex- 
 alted notions of what was due to 
 parental authority. So she comfortably 
 laid all the blame on Mr. Brown, and, 
 whenever his name was mentioned, 
 sighed, and added — 
 
 "And a man of his age, too ! Ah ! 
 it is very sad." 
 
 On which. Miss Wellby would iire up 
 and answer — 
 
 " Sad ! It is very sad, I think, that
 
 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 217 
 
 Mr. Smith should be so fond of money 
 at his age. And covetousness, you 
 know, is idolatry, just all the same, 
 Harriet, as if he told his beads to the 
 Virgin." 
 
 " Ah ! but his views — his views are 
 so sound — his foundation so different 
 from " 
 
 " So much the worse for him, if he 
 knows what is right, and does not do 
 it. What is the use of a foundation if 
 it has no superstructure ? " 
 
 *' Oh ! Clara, surely you must know 
 what I mean by '' 
 
 "Indeed, Harriet, I never know what 
 you mean, except that everybody of 
 your way of thinking is right, and 
 everybody of any other way wrong, no 
 matter what their actions." And Miss 
 Clara laughed her triumphant laugh
 
 218 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 over her prostrate friend and adversary. 
 But, as we all know, 
 
 " A man convinced against his will, 
 Is of the same opinion still." 
 
 And so is a woman. Miss Richards 
 was not to be induced to think like 
 Miss Wellby. Nor was any Smithite 
 persuaded to become a Brownite, nor 
 any Brownite converted to Smithism, 
 as far as I know. All the arguing 
 and disputing, and gossiping and 
 counter-gossiping, went for nothing, or, 
 rather, tended only to confirm the 
 separate parties more strongly in their 
 own opinions. Mrs. Westcote, for in- 
 stance, who, from the first, took strong 
 Smith views, thought " that parents, 
 when the choice of their children was 
 respectable, had much to answer for in 
 thwarting their afi'ections," while Miss
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 219 
 
 Westcote was lost in astonishment at 
 the heartlessness of Hannah Brown. 
 *' She could not understand any woman 
 acting so to the man she loved. If 
 she loved anybody, she would never 
 give him up — she would die for him — 
 she would live on bread and water for 
 his sake — she would gladly jump into 
 the sea for him — she considered it a 
 woman's privilege, as well as duty, to 
 sacrifice everything for the man she 
 loved." These sentiments were main- 
 tained everywhere vehemently by Miss 
 Westcote, and a more or less garbled 
 account of them reached the ears of 
 Edgar Smith himself. 
 
 At the very next party at which he 
 met her (Hannah Brown was not there, 
 she was not asked to meet the Smiths 
 now), he placed himself beside her, and
 
 220 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 devoted himself to her. Miss Westcote 
 began to feel that her hour of triumph 
 was coming at last. She bridled and 
 giggled, and the next day bought two 
 new dresses and a new bonnet. Miss 
 Westcote had great faith in the effect of 
 silk and feathers on the male mind, or 
 rather heart. She had not much idea of 
 any other ornaments than the plaiting of 
 hair and the wearing of gold and apparel. 
 It was now remarked by the Gos- 
 lingford people that Edgar Smith was 
 much seen with Miss Westcote, and ap- 
 peared to be consoling himself for the 
 loss of Hannah Brown. " Quite right," 
 said the Smithites ; " why should he 
 wear the willow all his life for a cold- 
 hearted jilt like Hannah Brown, who 
 could go out and pay morning visits 
 the very day her love-affair was broken
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 221 
 
 off ?" And, " See," said the Brownites, 
 ''he never really cared for her. It was 
 her money after all, and Mary Westcote 
 is a fool not to see that he only takes 
 her five thousand because he cannot get 
 Hannah's fifteen." 
 
 Hannah Brown saw them herself one 
 day, when she was sitting in Mrs. Splint's 
 front parlour window, going down the street 
 together, and the sight sent the blood all 
 curdling back to her heart. She had been 
 speaking to Mrs. Splint, when all of a sud- 
 den she stopped, stammered, and became 
 very pale. Mrs. Splint was near the window, 
 too, and saw who was passing. She was 
 a kind-hearted and sensible woman, and 
 divining the truth in a moment, brought 
 her guest a glass of wine herself, and 
 made her swallow it. Mrs. Splint, in a 
 very quiet way, was a Brownite — in a
 
 222 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 very quiet way, however, for Smiths and 
 Browns were both patients of her hus- 
 band's, and he never espoused any party 
 cause. But Mrs. Splint knew that her 
 eldest son, Fred, admired Mary Westcote, 
 and at their party she had encouraged 
 him not a little; and Mrs. Splint herself 
 had looked favourably on the budding 
 courtship. Now, she felt very angry with 
 Edgar Smith for interfering with Fred's 
 affections and prospects, and full of pity 
 for poor Hannah Brown. In spite of 
 her husband, she would never again sit 
 silent when Hannah Brown was accused 
 of heartlessness. Mrs. Splint '' was sure 
 she was not heartless. She had not 
 flirted with anybody else since." 
 
 " Perhaps," said Mrs. Westcote, with a 
 sneer, "she has not had an opportunity." 
 To which Mrs. Splint had replied: —
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 223 
 
 " Oh, anybody that wants to flirt, Mrs. 
 Westcote, need be at no loss for an 
 opportunity."
 
 224 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI r. 
 
 THE SPRING WINDS. 
 
 Hannah Brown had kept her resolution. 
 She had not given way, she had not 
 fainted, she had not fallen ill, or taken 
 to her bed, or shut herself up from the 
 world; but it had been a hard struggle. 
 Her father, whose powers of observation, 
 as far at least as the character and 
 feelings of his daughter Hannah were 
 concerned, were not very keen, thought
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 225 
 
 she had not felt her disappointment 
 much ; that it had been merely a passing 
 girlish fancy ; that he had acted the part 
 of a kind father, and that in her after- 
 life she would be grateful to him. From 
 the day of his interview with Edgar 
 Smith he seemed, however, to have 
 tacitly yielded her a new position. Old 
 Brown — prejudiced, narrow-minded old 
 country attorney as he was — had nothing 
 mean or vulgar in his feelings. Because 
 his daughter had fallen in love once 
 without his knowledge, he did not, there- 
 fore, suspect her for evermore of being 
 ready to form clandestine attachments. 
 On the contrary, though he little appre- 
 ciated the sacrifice she had actually made, 
 he felt grateful to her for the surrender 
 of her own wishes to his will, and never 
 for one moment doubted her entire sin- 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 cerity. He respected his daughter more 
 than he had ever done before, and he 
 would have liked to testify to her the 
 increased estimation in which he held 
 her. Tenderness, it was not in the unde- 
 monstrative nature of William Brown to 
 exhibit, neither could he take Hannah 
 into his confidence or companionship. 
 Girls, of course, could not understand 
 business; and he could as little under- 
 stand needlework and dress, which he 
 imagined to be their chief sources of 
 interest. But what he could do, he did. 
 She was allowed to have entirely her 
 own way in everything; if she was late, 
 which rarely happened, or committed any 
 other sin against her father's love of 
 method or punctuality, she met with 
 no reproaches or gloomy looks now. 
 Then, he not only gave his consent as
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 227 
 
 in former days, but suggested visits to 
 Buttonborougli ; and taking Miss Wellby 
 into his confidence, Hannah would find, 
 besides her always liberal allowance for 
 clothes, presents of handsome new# dresses 
 and fashionable ornaments. Hannah was 
 much touched by these acts of kindness, 
 but they could not fill the void in her 
 breast, or occupy the long hours of her 
 weary days. 
 
 It would be impossible to describe the 
 heart-sinking blank of the days and 
 nights of the long winter which succeeded 
 that sunny September, so pregnant with 
 influence on the simple history of Hannah 
 Brown — that September which gave a 
 new edge and a more romantic interest 
 to the ancient feud between the Browns 
 and the Smiths. As the months passed, 
 the heavy pressure of existence without 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 aim or hope began to tell on Hannah 
 Brown. She became every day paler and 
 more dejected, and she suffered much 
 with headache. No wonder, when the 
 struggle to keep up during the day was 
 succeeded, as soon as she laid her head 
 on her pillow at night, by bursts of tears 
 and hours of wakeful misery. 
 
 It must not be supposed that Hannah 
 had no religion. She did pray, poor 
 girl ! and with fervour, and she was com- 
 forted often by the hope of a world 
 where there would be no cruel quarrels, 
 no blank uselessness ; but, in the mean- 
 time, life seemed so long, so tedious I 
 
 Hannah's imagination never pictured 
 for herself an early death, but, rather, a 
 long, loveless life. Poor Hannah ! she was 
 not an angelic paragon — only an erring, 
 suffering, loving woman, with times of
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 229 
 
 darkness and moments of doubt ; but 
 through all, believing in the Love and 
 Wisdom which had seen fit thus to try 
 her. 
 
 Among other expedients she tried to 
 attach herself to Miss Greenfield, as an 
 assistant visitor of the poor. But she 
 did not get on quite to that lady's 
 satisfaction. She could not preach to, or 
 exhort, or rebuke anybody. She could 
 not speak to members of the opposite 
 sex at all. She was only found good for 
 reading the Bible to those who could not 
 read themselves, and for administering 
 physical relief — at least, so Miss Green- 
 field thought — and Hannah, in her 
 humility, subscribed to the opinion ; but 
 long afterwards they both discovered that, 
 though not from direct admonition, yet 
 from some subtle personal influence, in
 
 230 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 more hearts than one a little germ had 
 been planted which, in the after time, grew 
 into a goodly tree. 
 
 As the spring advanced, Hannah became 
 worse and worse. She looked miserably- 
 weak and ill. Clara Wellby groaned and 
 bemoaned, and fussed about her looks 
 and her want of appetite, till Mr. Brown 
 himself became alarmed. Mr. Brown was 
 not easily alarmed, but if he once gave 
 way to anxiety it was apt to become 
 excessive. It was a long time ere he 
 would admit that there was anything the 
 matter with Hannah ; but when at last 
 the fact was forced upon his belief, his 
 nervousness lest anything should befall 
 this, his sole remaining child, knew no 
 bounds. All at once Hannah assumed in 
 his eyes an importance she had never 
 possessed before, and he discovered, just
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 231 
 
 as he feared to lose her, that she was 
 the light of his eyes and his sole hope 
 on earth. And with anxiety for her 
 health mingled another anxiety which he 
 hardly acknowledged to himself, but 
 which seemed occasionally to find some 
 expression when he spoke to Clara 
 Wellby. 
 
 " Girls are often delicate at Hannah's 
 age, are they not, Miss Wellby ? She is 
 just twenty-one now. Her mother was 
 very delicate when she was twenty-three. 
 Don't you think it is the spring winds? 
 She exposes herself too much to them. 
 It must be the spring winds, it cannot be 
 anything else ? " 
 
 " I am sure I don't know, Mr. Brown. 
 Hannah used not to feel the spring winds. 
 She is very reserved, and I sometimes think 
 Hannah has feelings she never mentions."
 
 232 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS, 
 
 " Feelings ? — what kind of feelings ? 
 She has very proper feelings. Hannah is 
 a very good daughter— a very superior 
 girl " 
 
 " Very superior girl, Mr. Brown, but a 
 very sensitive girl. She behaved very 
 well in Sep " 
 
 " Well I — she behaved nobly, and she 
 must feel so herself, and she must see" — 
 and as he spoke there was an accent of 
 bitterness in the father's voice — " she 
 must see now that heartless scoundrel 
 was as unworthy of her as I always knew 
 him to be — running after that painted 
 doll, who is no more fit to hold the 
 candle to Hannah ; all because of her 
 paltry thousands. You cannot make a 
 silk purse out of a sow's ear, Miss 
 Wellby, or a gentleman out of a Smith. 
 Hannah must see this— -she must see it,'*
 
 TPIE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 233 
 
 Mr. Brown repeated, with the eagerness 
 of a man anxious to convince himself. 
 " She must see, Clara, that there was 
 nothing but kindness for her in my 
 motives." 
 
 Mr. Brown had perhaps never in his 
 life before, or, at least, never since the 
 death of Mrs. Brown, been so communica- 
 tive of his own feelings to any human 
 being ; but Clara Wellby had a way of 
 gaining people's confidence. She was so 
 frank and outspoken herself, so kind- 
 hearted ; and, above all, nobody was 
 afraid of her, in spite of her sharp 
 tongue. 
 
 " Very likely she sees it all, Mr. 
 Brown. But suppose she does, I do not 
 see that there is anything very cheerr 
 ing for her in the view. Perhaps a 
 little change- "
 
 234 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 " I do not see what good change could 
 do her. Where could she possibly be so 
 comfortable as at home? She must have 
 everything she wants, and if she has not, 
 let it be got for her." 
 
 " But young people want — everybody, 
 Mr. Brown, wants change sometimes." 
 
 " I am sure I don't ; and I thought you 
 agreed with me, Clara, about the restless, 
 unsatisfied spirit of the present day, which 
 is for ever driving people away from their 
 homes and their duties." 
 
 "So I do, Mr. Brown. All this going 
 to and fro upon the earth reminds me 
 of Satan in the days of Job; and these 
 snorting, murderous, fire-vomiting trains 
 are surely the devil's carriages. Still, 
 when I was young, my father and your 
 good father, Mr. Brown, used to take 
 their daughters about a little in a proper
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 235 
 
 way. I was twice in London, it was two 
 days' journey in the mail. We once shared 
 a post-chaise with your father and sister, 
 to go to Bath, and such a dinner we had at 
 the ' Green Dragon !' Ah I these were the 
 days ! But, at any rate, I feel sure — almost 
 sure — change would do Hannah good," 
 said Clara, whose intuitions were generally 
 much more correct than her arguments. 
 
 "Well, if you think so," with desperate 
 resolution, "let her have a change. She 
 has done much for me, and I must do 
 something for her. I am an old man, 
 and miss anything I am accustomed to. 
 Still to miss her for a few weeks," — he 
 stopped and added, looking out from the 
 dining-room window on the churchyard, 
 and the great box-ottoman tombstone, 
 with the iron railings round it, — " I must 
 be there first, Clara."
 
 236 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 " Nonsense, Mr. Brown !" said Clara, 
 crossly. "Nobody is going to lie there 
 yet awhile that I know of;" but as she 
 spoke there was a tear in her eye. Clara 
 was often cross when anything occurred 
 to awaken in her unusual emotions, perhaps 
 because laughing was at all times more 
 pleasant to her, and more in harmony with 
 her nature, than crying. 
 
 Hannah did feel a gleam of something 
 like pleasure when she heard she was 
 to go from home. It seemed to her that 
 it would be a relief to see no longer for 
 a time the old familiar objects. But 
 where was the delight she would once 
 have felt, had she known that she was 
 actually to behold lakes and mountains, 
 and the great ocean itself? Faint in 
 comparison was the sensation she now ex- 
 perienced; and the idea of the packing.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 237 
 
 and the journey, and the strange people she 
 should see, was almost overwhelming ; and 
 thens he would think sadly. What a strange 
 thing life is, and how, when a wish is at 
 last fulfilled, the fulfilment comes when the 
 power to enjoy has passed away ! 
 
 Of course, nobody could leave Gos- 
 lingford to go anywhere without the 
 event creating a certain amount of talk- 
 ing. But that Hannah Brown should 
 go from home, not to Buttonborough, 
 but actually on a trip to North Wales, 
 was little less puzzling and interesting 
 to the Goslingford world, than the ex- 
 istence of Stonehenge on the middle 
 of Salisbury Plain is to the world of 
 archaeologists and geologists. At first her 
 going was disbelieved, but her own and 
 Miss Wellby's announcement of the fact 
 placed it beyond a doubt. When some one,
 
 238 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 too, had asked Mr. Brown about it, even 
 he had not denied it, but murmured 
 something about " spring winds," and 
 her mother having been delicate at Han- 
 nah's age. 
 
 The Brownites and the Smithites, as 
 was natural, took opposite views of the 
 causes and the propriety of Hannah leav- 
 ing home. If the Smithites in general 
 " had been only daughters with aged 
 fathers, they would not have left them 
 solitary in their old age, to seek for their 
 own pleasure. If they had been disap- 
 pointed in love, they would not have 
 worn the willow like Hannah Brown. It 
 was unladylike — it was indelicate, undig- 
 nified." They had apparently quite for- 
 gotten that not much more than half a 
 year ago Hannah had been heartless and 
 unfeeling, because she had not shown
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 239 
 
 more disappointment. Poor Hannah, it 
 seemed, could not hit the happy medium 
 in which alone lay feminine propriety ; 
 and it is my belief, if she had, it would 
 have been all the same. 
 
 My dear friends, if you have a kind 
 neighbour who is always considerately 
 pointing out your faults to yourself, as 
 well as to everybody else, take my advice, 
 and do not alter your proceedings. What- 
 ever you do will be wrong, simply because 
 it is you who do it. Your only hope is 
 in losing your fortune and your position, 
 which will naturally draw out the milk 
 of human kindness in the compassionate 
 bosom of your friendly neighbour, who 
 will then probably discover that " poor 
 
 is a good creature, with all his 
 
 follies," and will henceforth patronize in- 
 stead of censuring you, — that is, if you
 
 240 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 show the humility becoming your fallen 
 fortunes. 
 
 The two elder Miss Smiths snuffed the 
 air very much, and the sweep of their 
 flounces created a greater gale than ever, 
 when they heard of Hannah's delicate 
 health and projected journey. They did 
 not say much, but their looks were elo- 
 quent enough, and seemed to proclaim how 
 contemptible and silly Miss Brown was, and 
 how differently they would have acted. 
 Miss Laura Victoria was the only one of the 
 family who spoke much on the subject, and 
 it was to defend Hannah Brown. She 
 " had not seen much of her, but she 
 had always liked her. Edgar would 
 never tell exactly what had passed be- 
 tween him and the Browns, but she was 
 quite sure it had been all that old tyrant, 
 Mr. Brown ; and Hannah, poor thing, had
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 241 
 
 not much spirit, but she was sorry for 
 her, very sorry for her ; but it was too 
 late now." 
 
 The Brown party, of course, upheld 
 both Hannah and her father. They did 
 not believe Hannah was wearing the 
 willow. Mr. Brown had said it was the 
 spring winds, and what was more likely, 
 considering she had never looked very 
 strong? No wonder her father was a 
 little anxious about her, considering she 
 was the last of the family. " Mr Brown 
 was such a fond father," Miss Clara 
 Wellby said ; " and as for Hannah, she 
 was quite astonished to hear people talk. 
 The girl only wanted a little change, — all 
 girls did now and then ; and as for 
 wearing the willow," said Clara, boldly, 
 *' I have no patience with such stuff and 
 nonsense. Why should she wear the 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS 
 
 willow? To my certain knowledge, she 
 might have had him if she had liked." 
 
 Clara Wellby was a woman of spirit 
 and of pride. She would have died ere 
 she would have worn the willow, and in 
 her love for Hannah, and in the warmth 
 of her Brownite zeal, she was resolved 
 that no one should believe that her young 
 friend did so either. But when she made 
 the above speech in the presence of Miss 
 Richards, that good soul looked very un- 
 happy, and heaved a deep sigh. It was 
 at a small, quiet, gossiping tea-party of 
 middle-aged ladies only. Clara turned 
 round on her like an amiable tigress. 
 
 " What are you groaning for, Harriet, 
 as if you were at a Wesleyan prayer- 
 meeting ? I am not good enough to be 
 guilty of a pious fraud, and I tell you, 
 Mr. Brown never refused his consent to
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 243 
 
 Hannah, and I maintain she might have 
 had him if she had liked." 
 
 As Miss Clara had a very high charac- 
 ter for truthfulness, neither Miss Harriet 
 nor any one else could doubt her after 
 so positive an assertion ; but no further 
 light on the interesting subject was to be 
 gained from her. Indeed, she feared her 
 zeal had already led her to say rather 
 too much. And so the Goslingford 
 world was left to the solution of the 
 puzzle presented by this new phase of the 
 vexed question. There appeared to be 
 no way of deciding it but by appeal- 
 ing to Edgar Smith himself; and even 
 the curiosity of Goslingford, inimical or 
 friendly as the case might be, was not 
 quite capable of such eflProntery. 
 
 But the Smithites were not slow to 
 perceive that an advantage might be
 
 244 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 obtained from poor Clara's triumphant 
 assertion. If Mr. Brown had not refused 
 his consent, then Hannah's conduct had 
 really been that of a heartless jilt — quite 
 infamous; and on all sides arose to this 
 effect quite a Smithite chorus — almost 
 the only Smithites who did not join in 
 it being Mrs. Westcote and her daughter. 
 Mary Westcote was very certain Han- 
 nah Brown would have given her eyes 
 for Edgar Smith. She refuse him of 
 her own free will ! " Don't tell her." 
 Miss Westcote did not give herself much 
 concern about being consistent.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 245 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 NORTH WALES. 
 
 It was July before Miss Wellby and 
 Hannah Brown had completed their 
 arrangements for a trip to North 
 Wales — the locality which had been fixed 
 upon as altogether the most desirable to 
 visit. Miss Clara, in the affairs of ordi- 
 nary life, was not a slow person, but 
 a journey was with her, and still more 
 with Mr. Brown, a solemn affair, not
 
 246 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 to be entered into without due talking, 
 and fussing, and running about. Then 
 she had to calm the fears of her friend. 
 Miss Harriet Richards, which, to tell the 
 truth, though she would not have con- 
 fessed it, she in some degree shared. 
 In the opinion of that good soul, rail- 
 ways were one of the crying sins of 
 the age. Although she was too amiable 
 to have left her dying testimony against 
 them, as did Alexander Campbell, one 
 of the "Men of the North," against "the 
 ships that keep their course in spite of 
 the weather — that presumptuous sin," 
 yet she did not the less think them an 
 impatient tampering with the source of 
 all evil. That anyone should travel by 
 railway, was, in her opinion, a tempting 
 of Providence ; but that Hannah Brown, 
 who had already, as it were, been mi-
 
 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 247 
 
 raculously preserved in an actual, hond 
 fide accident, should think of again 
 audaciously risking her life, was almost 
 appalling, and she remonstrated with 
 Clara for leading her young friend into 
 temptation. The first time she did so, 
 Clara turned a deaf ear to her, merely 
 answering by a ^' humph," for, to tell the 
 truth, she was not without some mis- 
 givings herself, not precisely in a re- 
 ligious point of view, but she neither 
 liked nor approved of anything so in- 
 novating as trains ; he was also secretly 
 a little nervous about them, and she felt 
 a degree of uncomfortable responsibility 
 in having the care of poor old Mr. 
 Brown's only remaining child, Avith this 
 additional anxiety. 
 
 Now she would not for the world 
 have frightened old Mr. Brown, or have
 
 248 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 deprived Hannah of the benefit she 
 was sure the trip would confer upon 
 her j but the evening after Harriet had 
 made her remonstrance, she remarked, 
 as she was drinking tea at the 
 Browns — 
 
 *' How I wish this had been in the 
 good old days, and that Hannah and 
 I could have gone in a post-chaise ! One 
 sees so much more of the country, and 
 one can have comfortable meals at inns, 
 and have one's time at one's own dis- 
 posal, instead of being hurried, and 
 bustled, and hustled by people of all 
 ranks, at these dreadful stations, where 
 you must eat your plate of wretched 
 cold meat so quick, it gives you indi- 
 gestion, while the noise and the clatter 
 of a couple of hundred people all talk- 
 ing at once is enough to deafen you
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 249 
 
 for evermore, and to addle your brains 
 to the end of your life." 
 
 '^ And the confusion of ranks," said 
 Mr. Brown, " is so detestable." There 
 is nothino: so levellinoj as these trains. 
 Nothing, in my opinion, has contributed 
 so much to the popular democratic 
 notions of the times, that the taxes 
 should be imposed by those who don't 
 pay them, and that the ignorant should 
 rule the educated." 
 
 " I have no doubt, Mr. Brown, it is 
 exactly as you say. When our aristocracy 
 never travelled except in a carriage and 
 four horses, they were much more looked 
 up to than they are now ; and respectable 
 clergymen's and lawyers' daughters were 
 in a very different position in a post-chaise 
 and pair. I suppose one could hardly 
 go in a post-chaise now ?"
 
 250 THE BEOWNS AND TPIE SMITHS. 
 
 "No, you could not. I have thought 
 of it, Clara ; but it would not answer. If 
 it is necessary for Hannah to travel, she 
 must travel in the only way the mys- 
 terious course of Providence has now left 
 her. It is not our fault that she must 
 go by train, and, doubtless, God's hand will 
 be over her there in the future, as it has 
 been in the past." 
 
 Now, Clara was at once struck with 
 the superiority of Mr. Brown's religious 
 sentiments to those of Miss Richards ; so, 
 when that lady renewed the attack, she 
 was not listened to so mildly as on the 
 previous occasion. 
 
 " There is no other way for us to go, 
 Harriet ; and as to tempting Providence, 
 I should like to know if God is not with 
 us in the railway train just as much as He 
 is with us by our own fire-side."
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 251 
 
 " Of course He is, Clara ; but in a 
 different way." 
 
 '- How do you mean in a different way? 
 People have been killed in their own 
 chimney-corner before now, No, no, Har- 
 riet ; what is written, is written ; and what 
 is to be, is to be. That is your favourite 
 doctrine, you know." 
 
 " Oh, Clara, how you do misunderstand ! 
 That is fatalism, not predestination." 
 
 "Well, call it what you like. All I 
 know is, that if we all live till next week, 
 it is predestined that Hannah and I set off 
 by railway train to North Wales. And 
 now, as T have thousands of things to 
 see to, I have no time to talk any more 
 nonsense on the subject, so good-bye." 
 
 It was, however, some comfort to Miss 
 Clara to reflect that, when they really got 
 into North Wales, there would be other
 
 252 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 modes of conveyance than railway trains; 
 but her feelings on this point she did 
 not, of course, communicate to her friend 
 Miss Richards. 
 
 Miss Wellby and Hannah had, on the 
 whole, fine weather for their excursion. 
 It rained, of course, frequently amongst the 
 "Welsh mountains ; once or twice they 
 were prevented by mists from seeing the 
 finest views, and once they were wet to 
 the skin. Hannah bore all these contre- 
 temps with great equanimity ; but not so 
 Miss Clara. Every little accident always 
 fussed, and agitated, and excited that kind- 
 hearted creature. She was not, perhaps, 
 the choicest of travelling companions, and 
 yet there have been many worse ; for her 
 ill-humour never was of long duration ; 
 she w^as very cheerful in the intervals, 
 making many odd and piquant remarks;
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 253 
 
 and entirely devoted to Hannah's welfare, 
 though she frequently manifested this 
 devotion in the most despotic, and, occa- 
 sionally, somewhat capricious manner. At 
 first, the shy, timid Hannah had felt as 
 if she should like to sink into the earth 
 when Clara began to scold in every di- 
 rection, as if she had been at home in 
 Goslingford. And when she commenced to 
 teach the chambermaids how to make 
 beds, in the only way beds ought to be 
 made ; when she rated the waiters for 
 laying the tables, differing in some minute 
 particular from the only manner which 
 she conceived to be orthodox; when she 
 informed the landlady that inns were not 
 what they used to be in her time, and 
 more than hinted that her cook knew 
 nothing whatever about the composition 
 of a genuine old-fashioned rice-pudding —
 
 254 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Miss Clara's favourite dish ; in such mo- 
 ments as these, Hannah would have given 
 the world she had never left home. 
 
 Then, though Clara said she enjoyed 
 scenery, and indeed really appeared to 
 enjoy it after some fashion of her own, 
 it was not in Hannah's fashion. When 
 Hannah would have liked on some sweet 
 sunset evening to have sat in silence and 
 admired the gold, and purple, and opal 
 tints melting into shadows and darkness 
 on the mountain tops ; or to have watched, 
 in pleasant melancholy, the grey mists 
 stealing up the valleys, or to have gazed 
 at the moon as she rose over the shoulder 
 of the hill, and bathed herself in the dews 
 of the summer night; then, precisely it 
 was that Miss Clara became most talkative. 
 All pleasure or happiness, from whatsoever 
 source derived, made Miss Clara loqua-
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 255 
 
 cious, and she could not believe that any- 
 one was pleased or happy who sat silent. 
 That " Speech is silvern, and Silence is 
 golden," was far indeed from being the 
 creed of Miss Clara Wellby. 
 
 " You don't seem to admire the view, 
 Hannah. Dear me ! I should have ex- 
 pected you to fall into raptures with these 
 hills, and those fine clouds there in the 
 west. Even I, who do not pretend to 
 have such a turn for these things as you 
 have, say a great deal more about them 
 than you do. I should have thought 
 you would have exhausted the dictionary 
 in praising them, and hardly have been 
 able to find words to express your ad- 
 miration." 
 
 " I cannot find words, Aunt Clara," 
 said Hannah, in mild exculpation, but 
 her meaning was lost on her companion ;
 
 256 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 "but you must not fancy I am not en- 
 joying myself, for indeed I am, I feel so 
 much stronger and better." 
 
 And Miss Wellby was consoled, though, 
 at the same time, a little provoked by 
 what she considered Hannah's undemon- 
 strative manner. Sometimes Hannah 
 would have spoken, would have quoted 
 some line of poetry, or even have given 
 utterance to some romantic sentiment of 
 her own, suggested by all the novelty and 
 beauty, had she not been quite certain 
 that, according to her humour, Miss 
 Clara would either have laughed at her. 
 cut her short with a witticism, or in- 
 formed her that '' she was thankful to 
 say she knew nothing about poetry. 
 Eeal life was enough for her." 
 
 Still, on the whole, it may be doubted 
 if Hannah, considering the purpose for
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 257 
 
 which she went, could have had a better 
 companion. Even the trifling anxieties 
 and petty miseries caused her by Clara's 
 eccentricities did her good, and at last 
 even amused her. This, of course, to 
 romantic readers, if any such indeed have 
 followed me so far in my prosaic tale, 
 must appear very uninteresting in Hannah 
 Brown. But then, you see, Hannah Brown 
 was — Hannah Brown, and not Lady 
 Clarinda Capulet, or Lady Meliora Mon- 
 tague. Doubtless, if she had been one of 
 these exalted damsels, she would have 
 found poor Miss Clara's uncongeniality 
 unbearable rather than amusing. Her 
 soul would have withered, her spirits 
 have been oppressed, she would have 
 derived no enjoyment from the mountain 
 scenery, she would have apostrophised 
 solitude, she would have lost her appe- 
 VOL. I. s
 
 258 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 tite ; impatience, if not concealment, would 
 have preyed on her damask cheek, and 
 she would have returned home to her 
 flinty-hearted father, pining away with 
 green and yellow melancholy. But then 
 Hannah Brown's father, though in one 
 respect his conduct had been worthy of 
 a parent Montague or a parent Capulet — 
 though he was actually an attorney, or 
 perhaps, because he was an attorney, and 
 not my Lord Capulet or Baron Mon- 
 tague — was not flinty-hearted. He loved 
 his daughter Hannah, I do not say with 
 no common love, — for, thank God, such 
 love is not very uncommon, — but he 
 loved her with a father's love, that love 
 which the Great Father of all has em- 
 ployed as a type of His own ; and, in spite 
 of all the sufi*ering he had caused her, 
 Hannah knew it. She was anxious to be
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 259 
 
 well and happy, for his sake and her own 
 too. Romantic as she was in some re- 
 spects, it had never struck her that it 
 would be more interesting or desirable to 
 die, or to be miserable, than to be in 
 good health or in tolerable spirits. So she 
 looked at the bright side of Miss Clara — 
 and there really was a very bright side 
 to look at — and, in spite of their 
 unsuitableness in some things, they got 
 on very well together on the whole, ^ 
 and enjoyed themselves according to their 
 different temperaments. The rose came 
 back to Hannah's cheek, the light to her 
 eye, and elasticity to her step. Miss 
 Clara Wellby's scheme had succeeded. 
 
 s2
 
 260 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A THUNDERSTORM, 
 
 There was one pretty valley in North 
 Wales, which, so much smitten were they 
 with its beauties, Miss Wellby and Hannah 
 had made up their minds to revisit 
 and spend a week in before their return 
 home. It was a locality not much 
 frequented by ordinary tourists, as it 
 diverged considerably from the main-road, 
 "as quiet and secluded," said Hannah,
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 261 
 
 *' as Llangollen must have been when 
 Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Ponsonby 
 first took up their abode there." 
 
 "But don't expect me, Hannah," said 
 Miss Clara, "to be either a Lady Eleanor 
 or a Miss Ponsonby. You know I have 
 no turn for romantic seclusion. Moun- 
 tains may be very well, but men and 
 women are better. I wonder how often 
 Lady Eleanor and her friend quarrelled !" 
 
 "Never, I should think, Aunt Clara, or 
 they would not have remained so long 
 together " 
 
 " Impossible, my dear ; I tell you they 
 must have quarrelled. Only fancy Harriet 
 Richards and me living alone together 
 in a Welsh valley!" 
 
 Hannah burst into the heartiest laugh 
 she had had for many a day. 
 
 "Indeed, Aunt Clara, I cannot fancy it."
 
 262 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 " So you are laughing at me and poor 
 Harriet, you monkey I Well, it does 
 me good to hear you laugh, and I shall 
 be contented to act the part of the ro- 
 mantic friend here with you for a 
 week.'* 
 
 It was on a hot and sultry Saturday 
 that the travellers arrived at Llan Gwdd 
 and took up their abode in a pretty 
 little cottage where they had previously 
 engaged lodgings. It was almost the 
 only place in the tiny village where 
 they could have been accommodated. 
 A pretty little cottage it was, standing 
 under a gorse-clad hill, with a stream 
 tumbling and brawling over a rocky 
 bed a few paces in front, and a few 
 fine beech trees overhanging the stream 
 on the opposite bank. Some cottages 
 were scattered at short distances about
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 263 
 
 the vale, and on a green knoll further 
 down the stream, stood the little Welsh 
 church, not architectural, certainly, but 
 possessing, in spite of its want of taste — 
 to the perversely poetic mind — a certain 
 beauty from its associations with village 
 piety and purity, and with that rural sim- 
 plicity which minds, as I have said, per- 
 versely poetic, insist on connecting with 
 seclusion and interesting scenery. Such 
 people — and Hannah Brown, in spite of 
 her plebeian name and common-place as- 
 sociations, was one of these — do not 
 like to be told that wickedness like good- 
 ness has no locality — that the same 
 evil passions rage in the " peaceful 
 vale," as in the "wicked" city. I can 
 only say, may such persons be long 
 before their eyes are opened ! It is 
 not likely they will take a high rank
 
 264 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 among political economists, whatever 
 they may do among social reformers. 
 And if you, my dear reader, wonder 
 what I mean by these last few words, 
 I can only say, that to do moral 
 good to our neighbours, it is more ne- 
 cessary to believe in the good already in 
 them than to know of the evil. A 
 paradox, you will say, but what are life 
 and morality, and even Christianity, but 
 paradoxes ? 
 
 And so Hannah Brown thought what 
 a lovely village was Llan Gwdd, and what 
 an innocent, peaceful race must be its 
 inhabitants, and how sweetly the life of 
 the village pastor must there glide away I 
 Surely there could be no Brown and 
 Smith factions in Llan Gwdd. 
 
 Hannah and Miss Clara, having had 
 an early tea, set out, at the expressed
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 265 
 
 wish of the former, on a walk to the 
 churchyard. The landlady assured them 
 that, unless they climbed to the summit 
 of one of the hills, there was not a finer 
 view in the whole vale than from the 
 church door. As they walked thither, 
 Clara criticising the untidy appearance 
 of the cottage doors, and contrasting 
 them unfavourably with those of the 
 villages round Goslingford, and Hannah 
 endeavouring, as far as possible, to be 
 blind to all defects, and even defending 
 some of them as picturesque, neither of 
 them observed what packs of heavy 
 clouds were beginning to gather, or how 
 a breeze had commenced to rush through 
 the hitherto motionless foliage, turning 
 up the backs of the leaves with a low, 
 flapping sound. 
 
 " Picturesque, Hannah ! Don't tell me
 
 266 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 that a dirty broken wheelbarrow is half 
 as pretty in front of a cottage as a few 
 nice gillyflowers and marigolds." 
 
 ^' I did not say it was as pretty — I 
 only said " 
 
 " I have a great mind, Hannah, to go 
 and tell that lazy high-cheek-boned - 
 looking Welshman that he ought to be 
 ashamed to stand there smoking his 
 pipe, and looking contentedly at all that 
 rubbish, instead of removing it at once." 
 
 "Oh, no. Aunt Clara, pray don't. It 
 will only " 
 
 Here Hannah was interrupted by a peal 
 of thunder. 
 
 "Thunder!" cried Clara. "Let us go 
 home at once." 
 
 " It would not take us three minutes 
 longer. Aunt Clara, just to go to the 
 church door, as we are here. Do, Aunt
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 267 
 
 Clara ! The view will be so very fine, 
 with these magnificent lights and shadows." 
 
 " Lights and shadows ! It will be all 
 shadows in a minute, I am thinking. 
 But, perhaps, as dirt is picturesque, wet 
 clothes are romantic." 
 
 But Hannah coaxed, and Miss Wellby 
 always yielded when she was coaxed, 
 even against her better judgment. 
 
 They had almost reached the church 
 door, and Hannah had just turned round 
 to admire a gigantic black shadow on 
 the shoulder of the opposite hill, while 
 the summit stood out from it in preter- 
 natural light, when a vivid flash of 
 forked lightning from the clouds was 
 immediately succeeded by a tremendous 
 peal of thunder. 
 
 " There now, Hannah ! Did not I tell 
 you? — and these great drops of rain —
 
 268 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. ; 
 
 hail, I declare. We shall be wet to 
 the skin, and you will catch your 
 death with cold. Oh, what will your 
 father say ? I shall never forgive my- 
 self. You silly child, to insist on coming 
 up here in a thunderstorm!" And tears 
 of vexation stood in Miss Clara's eyes. 
 
 "But we should not have had time 
 to get back." 
 
 " Time I Don't talk nonsense, Hannah. 
 How can you be so provokingly cool ?" 
 
 " Indeed, Aunt Clara, I am very hot." 
 
 " All the worse ! You will have a 
 fever, or you will be struck with light- 
 ning. Don't go near the tree, I say ; " 
 and Miss Clara, looking wildly about 
 for shelter, seized the handle of the 
 church door, and shook it as if she 
 would break the door open. 
 
 To her surprise it yielded to her
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 269 
 
 grasp, and she and Hannah hastily sought 
 the little sanctuary it offered from the 
 rage of the storm. They had not closed 
 the door when Hannah shrank shyly 
 back as she perceived a gentleman — evi- 
 dently the clergyman himself — at a short 
 distance, and hastening towards them. 
 
 " I beg pardon," said Miss Wellby, 
 smoothing her ruffled plumage, " but 
 we were afraid of being struck by light- 
 ning." 
 
 " Pray make no apology. I am only 
 glad I happened to be in the church, 
 as otherwise the door would have been 
 locked." 
 
 The speaker was a very mild, very 
 pale young man, with very fine dark 
 eyes, and that air of melancholy which 
 by young ladies of a romantic tempera- 
 ment is considered "interesting." He
 
 270 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 had too a mild, placid voice, and 
 a gentle, dreamy manner. He was not 
 exactly Miss Clara's type either of man 
 or clergyman ; still she recognised in 
 him a gentleman, and Miss Clara was 
 always glad to have anyone to speak 
 to. So, while the storm lasted, she 
 related to him, in her own voluble 
 style, how they had been touring, how 
 they had walked up to see the view, and 
 had been caught in the storm; descant- 
 ing on her own nervousness about a 
 thunderstorm, her responsibility in having 
 the care of Hannah, her anxiety on her 
 account, and her earnest desire to take 
 her home to her father, whose only 
 child she was, in good health. 
 
 The young clergyman listened politely, 
 but, Hannah could not help fancying, a 
 little absently, and Hannah wished fer-
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 271 
 
 vently that Miss Clara were a little 
 less eccentric. As Miss Wellby had 
 spoken of her, he had glanced at her 
 once or twice, and she had coloured deeply 
 to find herself made the subject of con- 
 versation. 
 
 " This is not a very pretty church," 
 at last said Miss Clara. 
 
 "No," he replied, becoming a little 
 animated, but still in a subdued way ; 
 "it is sadly wanting in everything eccle- 
 siastical. I should be quite unhappy if 
 I did not hope to see it improved. It 
 is the object I live for." 
 
 "And to improve the people, too." 
 
 He looked at her with some interest. 
 "Yes; but the one object is included 
 in the other. As the worshippers, so the 
 temple. I have nothing else to live for." 
 
 " Indeed," said Hannah, sympathisingly.
 
 272 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 as sympathy seemed expected, but feeling 
 awkward, and not knowing what else to 
 say. Miss Wellby, however, was restrained 
 by no such scruples, and asked, point 
 blank — 
 
 '' What do you mean ? " 
 
 " I mean that she who was the 
 partner of all my cares, the angel of 
 my life, lies under the turf there out- 
 side — the chancel I was going to say — 
 but I mean where the chancel ought 
 to be. Her baby, too, is with her, 
 and I have nothing left but to go on 
 my work alone. I visit her grave every 
 day." 
 
 "Then you are very wrong. That 
 kind of sorrow is not healthy. I don't 
 approve of such sentimentalism." 
 
 Hannah looked deprecatingly at the 
 young clergyman. Her horror lest he
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 273 
 
 should be offended at Miss Clara's speech, 
 took away for the moment all shyness on 
 her own account. But he only smiled 
 faintly, with a sort of amiable melan- 
 choly towards Hannah, as much as to 
 say— 
 
 " I don't expect to be comprehended by 
 everybody." 
 
 The storm had now abated, and though 
 the trees dripped, and the roads ran 
 like water-courses, the ladies thought it 
 better to make the best of their way 
 to their lodgings. The young clergy- 
 man politely offered to go and fetch um- 
 brellas and goloshes — an offer which they 
 declined with many thanks. He then 
 asked permission to call on them in the 
 beginning of the week — a permission which 
 they gladly accorded. 
 
 " I declare, Hannah," said Miss Clara, 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 as they plunged on their way, "we have 
 had quite an adventure. What a remark- 
 ably handsome, interesting young man ! 
 and so polite and gentlemanly." 
 
 " I rather wonder," said Hannah, *' how 
 he could speak of his dead wife and his 
 innermost feelings to such strangers." 
 
 " I daresay he has nobody else to speak 
 to about them. I don't approve, how- 
 ever, of his visiting her grave in that 
 way ; it is quite morbid. People should 
 not brood and sentimentalise over their 
 sorrows, Hannah, as I have often told 
 you. I will try to cure him as I have 
 cured you, that is, if he is worth curing. 
 I will ask the landlady about him." 
 
 The landlady, who was something of 
 a gossiping body, was nothing loth to 
 communicate, in her broken English, all 
 she knew and all she thought about Mr.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 275 
 
 Edwards. " He had been their parson now 
 for five years. They had had a very 
 different kind of parson before he came, 
 a very good-natured man, and not at 
 all proud. He took all his meals with 
 Molly Jones in the kitchen, and his 
 glass of beer and his pipe with anybody 
 in the parish. To be sure he was often 
 too late for church, and sometimes there 
 was on wet days no service at all ; and 
 he did not go to see people ill of bad fevers, 
 like Parson Edwards, but he were a 
 very good-natured man for all that. 
 But everything were changed when Parson 
 Edwards came. He seemed so grandly 
 dressed, and so high and mighty at first, 
 nobody liked him. He had his Welsh 
 service and his English service regular 
 every Sunday. He had the church made 
 grand, and all the rubbish cleared away 
 
 T 2
 
 276 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 at his own expense, though he was not 
 rich ; and he preached every Sunday 
 against the Methodists, and the Ranters, 
 and the Mormonites, and said how as 
 there was but one true church; and 
 folks said he was a Jesuit, and prayed 
 to an image ; and the dissenters said he 
 had the mark of the beast, and I know 
 not what ; but he's a kind gentleman in 
 sickness, and visits the sick at any hour 
 of the day or night, and brings down 
 nice things, and so did Mrs. Edwards, poor 
 thing ! He brought her home here, such 
 a sweet pretty bride, only two years ago, 
 and she played on the — it is too 
 hard a name for me — in the church, 
 and sang so sweet. And then the baby 
 was born, — and she died of the 
 childbed fever,- — and he buried the child 
 a fortnight after the wife. And he was,
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SiMITHS. 277 
 
 they say, like to have gone out of his 
 mind at first. And then he put up a 
 fine carved stone to her — a very idola- 
 trous thing, the Ranters say, with a 
 cross on it, and a round thing, and a 
 three-sided thing, which all mean some- 
 thing Popish ; andjjt he goes to pray there 
 every day, and he visits more than ever, 
 and he's always a-talking of his wife." 
 
 "Is he rich?" asked Miss Clara. 
 
 " No, ma'am — not as I knows of. 
 He is a gentleman born, and can trace 
 his family, they say, in the female line, 
 to Owen Glyndwr." 
 
 Both the ladies were much interested 
 in this narrative, though Miss Clara 
 shook her head over the cross on the 
 tombstone, and thought it almost as 
 Popish as the Ranters did. She feared 
 Mr. Edwards was a " Puseyite."
 
 278 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Hannah still thought it odd he should 
 have spoken to strangers about his feel- 
 ings, but she did not doubt, now, that 
 his grief had been sincere ; and she be- 
 gan to meditate on the differences in 
 character. Miss Clara still maintained 
 there was nothing od(ji in it ; she liked 
 outspoken people, for her part.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMIIHS. 279 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE WELSH PARSON. 
 
 The day after the thunderstorm, which 
 was Sunday, proved fine. Miss Clara 
 and her young friend attended English 
 service in the little church. Mr. Edwards 
 did the whole duty. He read well, but 
 in rather a melancholy manner ; and he 
 preached also. Miss Clara declared, in a 
 very melancholy strain. Hannah liked 
 the sermon ; there was something sooth-
 
 280 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 ing in it, and in the not unmelodious 
 cadence of the preacher's voice. Hannah 
 felt as she walked out of the simple 
 little church, beneath the bright summer 
 sky and under the golden hills, that it 
 was altogether, in spite of the inferiority 
 of the building, not only more romantic 
 than the church at Goslingford, but that, 
 at that moment, it seemed more favour- 
 able to the devotional feelings. The 
 high-crowned hats of the Welshwomen 
 seemed more in harmony with pious 
 thoughts, than the gay bonnets and fine 
 flowers of Miss Westcote and the Miss 
 Splints. But remember, reader, I do 
 not quite uphold Hannah in this senti- 
 ment. It is the business of religion to 
 convert the outward things of life into its 
 own essence, and not to be converted by 
 them. If this were generally recognised.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 281 
 
 what floods of useless discussion might 
 we be spared with regard to what is 
 worldly or unworldly. Sumptuary laws 
 are at all times odious, and never more 
 so than when enforced by religious pe- 
 nalties. There is no essential connection 
 between dinginess and holiness, and arti- 
 ficial flowers even are not always the in- 
 signia of candidates for the infernal regions. 
 Perhaps, after all, there might have been 
 as much jealousy between Mary Jones and 
 Elizabeth Roberts about their high-crowned 
 hats and full borders, as between Miss 
 Westcote and Miss Julietta Smith about 
 their Buttonborough bonnets and French 
 flowers. However, be that as it may, it 
 pleased Hannah, like many other people, 
 to look at village life in its poetic aspect. 
 Hannah's life had hitherto been but 
 country-town life, and everybody knows
 
 282 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 how that is the most prosaic of all forms 
 of existence. Fashionable life in a 
 great city or in a foreign town, with 
 lords and ladies making love in blank 
 verse — or pastoral life, with village maidens 
 and rustic swains 
 
 "Behind the hawthorn in the dale," 
 
 pouring out the same tale with the 
 untutored eloquence of simplicity — has 
 so much more to attract the imagination 
 of those who have not yet discovered 
 that all romance lies in the heart and all 
 greatness in the soul. True, Hannah had 
 discovered that Smiths and Browns in 
 their every-day bourgeois sphere could be 
 as romantically unreasonable and as perti- 
 naciously ill-tempered as any Montague 
 or Capulet in Verona. She had, to 
 some extent, discovered painfully the 
 romance there is in commonplace things,
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 283 
 
 but she had not yet discovered the com- 
 monplace there is in romantic things. 
 
 Early on Monday Mr. Edwards called, 
 as he had promised. He was exactly 
 what young ladies in country towns call 
 an "interesting young man," and if des- 
 tiny and a bishop had licensed him to 
 a country town curacy, half the young 
 ladies of the place would immediately 
 have been smitten with a zeal for church 
 principles and a fondness for ecclesiastical 
 needle-work. Even Hannah could not 
 help thinking how the Miss Splints would 
 have raved about him, and how dissent 
 and chapel-going would have been more 
 odious than ever to the Miss Smiths. I 
 will not say what even Hannah herself 
 might have thought and felt in former 
 days ; but at this moment she still pre- 
 ferred blue eyes to black, a moustache to
 
 284 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 a shaven lip, and L'AUegro to II Pense- 
 roso. She could not, however, but ac- 
 knowledge that the young Welshman was 
 very agreeable, and seemed very amiable. 
 He quite won Miss Clara's heart by the 
 open and confidential manner in which 
 he spoke to her. 
 
 She soon discovered his whole history, and 
 she was equally communicative in her turn. 
 He offered to take them to all the best 
 walks and finest points of view, and he said 
 what a treat it was to him, in his loneliness 
 and seclusion, to have the society of two 
 educated persons, and more especially edu- 
 cated ladies. He generally addressed Miss 
 Wellby, but Hannah had always a con- 
 sciousness that what he said was even 
 more especially meant for her. Miss Well- 
 by invited him to return to early tea in 
 the evening, and afterwards to take a walk.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 285 
 
 As soon as he was gone, Miss Clara 
 was loud in his praise. 
 
 " Such a charming — such a handsome 
 young man ! So devoted — so gentleman- 
 like ! She had heard of his family long 
 ago, and knew them to be most respect- 
 ably, indeed, highly connected. She was 
 sure there was nobody in Goslingford for 
 a moment to be compared with him." 
 
 To this speech Hannah made no rejoin- 
 der, but Miss Clara fancied she distin- 
 guished a scarcely audible sigh. This sigh 
 threw her into rather a bad humour, 
 both with Hannah and herself, and she 
 sat silent and moody for some time, 
 returning to all her companion's attempts 
 at conversation merely monosyllabic an- 
 swers. At last she appeared to make a 
 sudden resolution, and all at once began 
 to talk and harangue in her natural 
 lively, rambling way.
 
 286 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Mr. Edwards came to tea, not only 
 that night, but every night while the 
 two ladies remained — and they prolonged 
 their stay a whole week beyond the time 
 they had originally intended. Every day 
 the young parson stood higher and 
 higher in Miss Clara's good opinion. Not 
 that by any means they agreed about 
 everything. Miss Wellby scolded the 
 young man for his Tractarianism, and 
 they had many arguments on the subject, 
 if those could be called arguments which 
 consisted in banter and declamation on 
 the one side, and quietly begging the 
 question on the other. Miss Clara did 
 not find Mr. Edwards, as an antagonist, 
 quite so easy to demolish as Miss Harriet 
 Richards. Hannah took little share in 
 the controversy, though Mr. Edwards 
 sometimes appealed to her in words, and
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 287 
 
 still often er in looks, but she generally 
 replied that she was no polemic. 
 
 " I should not have thought you were, 
 Miss Brown ; but I should think — I am 
 sure you must have a feeling for the 
 beauty of holiness." 
 
 " I trust I have, Mr. Edwards ; but 
 surely the beauty of holiness consists 
 rather in the charity which suffers long 
 and is kind, than in ceremonies or deco- 
 rations." 
 
 " Oh ! Miss Brown," said the young 
 
 man, looking much hurt. "You can- 
 not surely suppose that I think other- 
 wise." f 
 
 Hannah coloured up with vexation. 
 
 " Forgive me," she said, "if I 
 seemed to insinuate that you did, for 
 indeed I do not think so. I have 
 heard and seen too much of your 
 work in this parish."
 
 288 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 Mr. Edwards said nothing, but he 
 looked straight at Hannah, intensely- 
 gratified — so intensely gratified that she 
 felt quite annoyed, and passed the rest 
 of the evening in perfect silence. As 
 for Miss Clara, she seemed to think 
 Hannah had gained a complete victory 
 on their side of the question, and made 
 up, by her liveliness and talkativeness, 
 for her young friend's silence. Mr. 
 Edwards, too, seemed in excellent 
 spirits ; but the argument appeared, 
 for the time, to have lost all interest 
 for him, and he replied to Miss 
 Wellby almost at random. 
 
 During the latter part of their stay 
 at Llan Gwdd, the young parson 
 talked much less sadly than he had 
 done during the earlier part of their 
 visit. He even seemed to admit that
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 289 
 
 there might be such a thing as conso- 
 lation, and a faint possibility that, even 
 for him, the world might not be a 
 wilderness; or, if it was a wilderness, 
 that an occasional wild-flower might 
 blossom by the wayside. 
 
 "We have done him a great deal of 
 good, Hannah, I think," said Miss 
 Wellby. "He looks as well and as 
 happy again as when we came. What 
 a very charming and agreeable young 
 man he is — and so gentlemanly ! One 
 sees very few such." 
 
 " Do you think so ? '* 
 
 " Don't you ? I am sure there is 
 nobody to be compared with him in 
 Goslingford." 
 
 "I don't know that. Aunt Clara." 
 
 " But I know it, Hannah, and I 
 have seen much more of the world 
 
 VOL. I, ji U
 
 290 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 than you have. And then, what a 
 heart he seems to have ! What a 
 hitsband he seems to have been ! And 
 what polite manners he has ! How kind 
 of him to bring you such a pretty 
 bouquet every daj^, ever since he heard 
 you say you were fond of flowers ! " 
 
 '' I think," said Hannah, " he had 
 better have strewed them on his wife's 
 grave." 
 
 " Hannah, you are a goose ! — and 
 very unjust, and very unreasonable. I 
 have no respect for a man, or any- 
 body else, who breaks his heart." 
 
 "You will not require to despise 
 many men on that account, Aunt 
 Clara," said Hannah, with unwonted 
 bitterness. " Men don't break their 
 hearts, or, if they do, the fracture is 
 easily repaired."
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 291 
 
 *' So much the better, Hannah. I 
 see nothing but sin in wilful misery." 
 
 "But misery and constancy are not 
 the same thing." 
 
 "No, the contrary thing, of course, 
 when people still have their sweet- 
 hearts and wives ; but when they have 
 lost them, what is miserable constancy 
 but constant misery ? " And Miss Clara 
 turned away with the air of having 
 exhausted all that was to be said on 
 the subject. 
 
 Hannah said no more then, but the 
 next morning she expressed herself not 
 sorry that their sojourn at Llan Gwdd 
 now drew to a close. She "felt quite 
 well again, and should be glad to be 
 at home." 
 
 " Have you not enjoyed yourself here, 
 then ? " asked Clara, sharply. 
 
 U2
 
 292 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 "Very much indeed." 
 
 "Then I cannot understand why you 
 should wish to go. Girls are so 
 fidgety, and never know their own 
 minds.'' 
 
 Hannah made no answer, but thought 
 she knew her own mind very well. 
 Miss Wellby hardly recovered her good 
 humour till Mr. Edwards arrived to 
 tea, and to take his farewell walk with 
 them.
 
 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 293 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 FAREWELLS. 
 
 The Reverend Edward Edwards was 
 looking even handsomer than usual. 
 Some emotion, not unlike excitement, 
 brightened his fine dark eyes, and there 
 was an interesting mixture of melan- 
 choly and animation in his manner. 
 He looked just the man for a lady- 
 killer. But the Rev. Edward Edwards 
 hardly knew his own powers, and he
 
 294 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 had the great disadvantage of being 
 himself very susceptible. To be in love 
 yourself generally lessens your chance of 
 making another in love with you, per- 
 haps because we all prefer that which 
 is difficult of attainment. A woman 
 without a heart is the most likely wo- 
 man to have a dozen lovers — a dozen 
 rivals for that which does not exist. 
 
 Fortunately for himself, Mr. Edwards 
 hitherto had not had much opportunity 
 for exciting the admiration of the other 
 sex. He was a younger son of a Welsh 
 squire of decayed fortunes, and had been 
 educated in retirement almost as great as 
 that which was now his lot. In early 
 life he had been sent to Lampeter College, 
 where he had almost immediately formed 
 an attachment to the lady who afterwards 
 became his wife. Through her father's
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 295 
 
 interest he had obtained the living of 
 Llan Gwdd, and as soon as he had scraped 
 together enough to furnish his house, they 
 were married. Since her death, up to the 
 present time, he had not once seen the 
 face of any woman beyond the pastoral 
 Mollys and Jennys of his flock, and he 
 had persuaded himself that he did not 
 wish to see the face of one. In his own 
 language, his heart was " wedded to the 
 grave." One might infer, however, from 
 the eagerness with which he had sought ' 
 the society of the two stranger ladies, that 
 he was not quite dead to female charms, 
 and to-night especially he looked so 
 animated, that one would never have 
 guessed that he was an inconsolable 
 widower. It was a very fine evening, 
 the days were yet long, and as tea 
 was primitively early (that is, if his-
 
 296 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 tory will permit me the mention of the 
 meal as primitive at all), and there 
 was plenty of daylight yet to come, 
 Mr. Edwards proposed that they should 
 spend this their last evening in climb- 
 ing to the top of a high hill which 
 they had not yet mounted, and from 
 which he said there was a magnificent 
 view. Miss Clara did not in a gene- 
 ral way like climbing hills. She made, 
 however, no objection on this occasion, 
 merely remarking, '^ if they dropped her 
 on the way up, she hoped they would 
 pick her up on the way down again." 
 
 The hill was skirted at the base by 
 a wood, through which the path lay, 
 and there was a broad green track 
 higher up through the gorse, the deep 
 golden hue of which showed even more 
 brilliantly when contrasted with the woods
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 297 
 
 below. Miss Clara talked and grumbled 
 through the beech woods ; but her 
 grumbling to-night seemed more for a 
 joke than in real earnest. " Why did 
 people climb hills ? For her part, she 
 liked level ground, and saw nothing 
 charming in being red-faced and pant- 
 ing. Hills were much prettier to look 
 at than to look from, and she had no 
 idea of running the risk of a fit of 
 apoplexy that she might look upon a 
 fog on the one hand, and on the other 
 a country for all the world like a large 
 tract of village allotments. So with 
 your leave, my young friends, I will 
 sit down on this stump till you come 
 back. My legs and my lungs are both 
 older than yours.'' 
 
 " Then, Aunt Clara, we will not go 
 either. Let us go where you can ac-
 
 298 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 company us. Any other view will do 
 as well. They are all pretty." 
 
 As Hannah spoke, the young clergy- 
 man's face, which I have before noticed 
 as so unusually beaming, suddenly fell 
 many degrees of the physiognomical 
 barometer, and his voice betrayed his 
 vexation. 
 
 " I thought you said you should like 
 it so much, and I have watched for 
 days for a suitable evening, and to-night 
 it is neither foggy nor hot." 
 
 "Well, well," said Miss Clara, "I 
 will drag up my old legs if you will 
 not go without me, though I have a 
 long journey to-morrow." 
 
 " No, no. Aunt Clara, you have taken 
 enough fatigue for me already. I will 
 go to the top of the hill if Mr. Edwards 
 really cares about it."
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 299 
 
 But as Hannah spoke she could not 
 conceal a slight accent of annoyance. 
 He answered quickly, without a shade 
 of ill- humour, but making no attempt 
 to conceal his mortification — 
 
 ''If it ^ives you no pleasure, Miss 
 Brown, it will give me none. I thought 
 it would have pleased you." 
 
 Poor Hannah felt very ungrateful, for 
 she remembered well having expressed 
 a strong wish to climb this very hill, 
 and how kindly he had promised to 
 watch for a good opportunity for her. 
 
 " You are very kind," she said, peni- 
 tently ; " and I should like extremely 
 to see the fine view, if Aunt Clara does 
 not mind." 
 
 His face cleared up a little, though 
 it was far indeed from having the look 
 of entire satisfaction it had had before.
 
 300 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 They set off in silence. Hannah did 
 not see how she could have avoided 
 going, and yet she had a sense of 
 something like guilt on her conscience 
 because she had gone. She was neither 
 hard-hearted nor soft-hearted enough to 
 act quite justly towards the Rev. Edward 
 Edwards, and she was somewhat angry 
 both with him and with herself ; but 
 as they walked up the hill, the glory 
 of the evening and the beauty of the 
 prospect were not long in having a 
 soothing influence. Then Mr. Edwards' 
 manner was so gentle and unobtrusive, 
 she could not but feel softened towards 
 him, particularly as he had done no- 
 thing to merit her displeasure, but the 
 reverse. She therefore admired the view 
 and the sinking sun, and acknowledged 
 that there could not have been a finer
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 301 
 
 evening for such a walk. And the 
 young parson looked happy again ; and, 
 recovering his usual conversational powers, 
 he quoted sentimental poetry, and spoke 
 of the pleasures of sympathy in his 
 usual style. Time was when Hannah 
 might have thought this charming ; but, 
 with characteristic human perversity, she 
 did not think so now. As they stood 
 at the top of the hill all alone, by one 
 of those unaccountable flashes of memory 
 which, we know not why, make past 
 scenes seem all at once more real than 
 present ones, Hannah seemed transported 
 in spirit to the garden at thg Splints, 
 where she had walked with Edgar 
 Smith on the memorable evening of Mr. 
 Frederick Splint's birthday. It was not 
 nearly so romantic a scene as the pre- 
 sent, nor was Edgar Smith, with his
 
 302 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 sensible, self-satisfied, resolute counte- 
 nance, half so like a hero of romance, 
 as the pale, dark- eyed, melancholy young 
 widower. But then the romance of the 
 heart is not always the romance of 
 conventionalities. But be that as it may, 
 the recollection was an unfortunate one 
 for Mr. Edwards. And when he said — 
 
 " I shall treasure up the memory of 
 this evening to cheer me through the 
 solitary ones I see in prospect. They 
 were sad enough before 3^ou came, Miss 
 Brown, but I shall hardly know how 
 to bear them when you are gone." 
 
 She ansjvered — 
 
 "As a way of passing the time, you 
 will no doubt miss us ; but the sadness 
 you feel, could, I think, be made nei- 
 ther greater nor less by the society of 
 so recent acquaintances.'*
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 303 
 
 "I am hurt that you should say 
 so, Miss Brown ; you then will never 
 think of these to me happy even- 
 mgs r 
 
 "Yes I shall; but I meant, you must 
 have memories of much deeper in- 
 terest." 
 
 " You do not believe then in conso- 
 lation?" 
 
 She was saved the difficulty of an- 
 swering by the appearance of Miss Clara, 
 who, impatient of solitude, had climbed 
 part of the way to meet them. 
 
 As Mr. Edwards walked home that night 
 to his little parsonage, and a sense of its 
 loneliness smote upon him, his thoughts 
 certainly were ]iot more of the dead 
 than of the living. He wished he had 
 not said so much about his loss being 
 irreparable. His was not the grief cer-
 
 304 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 tainly, however luuch lie had once thought 
 so, to which 
 
 " Life nothing brighter or darker can bring." 
 
 Indeed I doubt if there can be any 
 such grief, except remorse. 
 
 It rained the next morning when the 
 Welsh car stopped at the door of their 
 little lodging to convey the two . ladies 
 to the nearest railway station. From 
 thence it was several hours' journey to 
 Buttonborough, and, as the reader knows, 
 still further to Goslingford. But in spite 
 of the rain, they found Mr. Edwards 
 standing under a tree, just where the 
 road to the village turned in to the 
 highway, and half a mile from the par- 
 sonage, with a large umbrella in one 
 hand, and a bouquet of flowers in the 
 other.
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 305 
 
 " I could not think of letting you go," 
 he said, "without saying farewell. Will 
 you accept these as a little remembrance 
 of Llan Gwdd?" and he extended the 
 bouquet to Hannah. 
 
 It seemed impossible to refuse it, after 
 he had taken so much trouble, and yet 
 Hannah felt so loth to accept it, that it 
 gave an air of ungracious embarrass- 
 ment to her manner. Mr. Edwards 
 sighed audibly, and seemed quite heed- . 
 less of the rain which poured in torrents 
 on his unprotected person, as he had 
 now lowered the umbrella. 
 
 "You are getting wet through," cried 
 Miss Clara. 
 
 "So much the better," caid he, de- 
 spondingly; "what does it signify what 
 becomes of me ? " 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Edwards !" cried Hannah ; and 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 306 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 then added, from a nervous desire to say 
 something, " they are very pretty flowers." 
 
 "Will you remember me at least till 
 they fade, Miss Brown ? " he said. 
 
 *^ My memory," said Hannah, " is not 
 so short." But her tone of reproof was 
 lost in a blast of wind and rain. He mere- 
 ly understood she would remember him. 
 
 "And now," said Miss Clara, "as I 
 don't wish to be drowned, good-bye, 
 and God bless you, Mr. Edwards ; I shall 
 always be happy to see you." 
 
 " Farewell," he said, " dear friend, dear 
 Miss Clara;" but he did not speak to 
 Hannah, he merely looked at her. 
 
 " Come, come," cried Miss Clara, scold- 
 ing, "it is too wet and cold to be 
 pathetic ; go on, driver." But as she 
 spoke, there was a tear in her eye. 
 
 "The nicest young man I ever met,"
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 307 
 
 said Miss Wellby, as they drove on, in 
 spite of his crosses and his scrapings. \ 
 
 "Now, Hannah, don't be a goose, and 
 throw away the* substance for the shadow, 
 like the dog in the fable." 
 
 "Mr. Edwards' memory is shorter than 
 mine," said Hannah, again returning to 
 the old idea. 
 
 "You mean, my dear, Mr. Edwards 
 is more submissive to the will of Pro- 
 vidence, and more ready to make the^ 
 best of things." 
 
 Hannah said nothing ; but Miss Clara's 
 was, to say the least, a new way of 
 putting it, and Hannah, like most of 
 Miss Wellby's friends, was obliged to 
 acknowledge, at times, that that lady's 
 random shots went as straight to the 
 mark as if they had been aimed with 
 the utmost precision.
 
 308 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 My dear reader, if you are like 
 Hannah, one whose thoughts cling to 
 the past, and in whom memory is 
 stronger than hope, yoil will, perhaps, 
 say there is nothing so noble as con- 
 stancy; but if, on the contrary, you are 
 an admirer of strong common sense, and 
 take a practical, I don't say a worldly, 
 view of the advantages and disadvan- 
 tages of life, you will say that true 
 wisdom and true religion really lie in 
 Miss Clara's theory of making the best 
 of things. If you ask me what I 
 think, what can I answer, but confess 
 that, according to my mood, I have 
 sometimes been of the one opinion and 
 sometimes of the other; and so I sus- 
 pect had Miss Clara, who, like most 
 preachers, had not, at all times acted 
 up to her own sermons. But let us
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 309 
 
 not blame either Miss Clara or the 
 preachers. 
 
 What sort of sermons would these 
 be, whose docrtrine corresponded with 
 the doings of the best of men ? It 
 is my belief that the best preachers 
 are always most powerful when they 
 preach on their own weik points. 
 
 Hannah, as we know, had a humble 
 mind, and, though Miss Wellby's speech 
 had no effect — what speeches ever have?. 
 — in arguing her out of her own feel- 
 ings, it made her think a little more 
 charitably of Mr. Edwards, and feel a 
 little remorseful towards him. And 
 then she said to herself — 
 
 ^' It is no matter, I shall never see him 
 again. Men cannot feel like women. 
 After all, he cannot help being a man." 
 
 And kind-hearted, irritable Miss Clara
 
 310 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 
 
 thought of how sadly the poor young 
 clergyman would go home in the drip- 
 ping rain, and sit down, wet perhaps, 
 in his lonely study, and she felt very 
 cross with Hannah. 
 
 She relented towards her, however, 
 long before they reached Goslingford, or 
 even Buttonborough. All irritable feel- 
 inofs were mero-ed in benevolent delio-ht 
 at the notion of restoring Hannah to 
 her father in perfect health, and, in 
 intense satisfaction, the root of which 
 did not, perhaps, lie in benevolence, 
 that such a return was a complete 
 triumph over the Smithites. And then 
 came the qualifying reflection : 
 
 "I wish she had only had sense and 
 spirit enough to show that flirting fel- 
 low what a much better match she 
 could make. It shows what he is, that
 
 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 311 
 
 he could ever tliink of Mary Westcote 
 after Hannah Brown," thought Miss 
 Clara, angrily, and quite oblivious that, 
 after all, Edgar Smith was only doing 
 what she advised Hannah to do — 
 making the best of things. 
 
 END OF VOL, I. 
 
 E. GARDNER, PKINTER, GLOUCESTER STREET, KEGENT's PARK.
 
 m