A Little World Part 31

We leave it to the statistician to decide upon the number of bushels of whelks boiled and consumed, after deposition in little white saucers, and peppering with dust; the loads of mussels, the great spongy-sh.e.l.led oysters, and the barrows and baskets full of periwinkles stewed in Billingsgate or Columbia coppers, sold in ha'porths, and wriggled out with pins, and then luxuriated upon--while we turn to outing. Outing-- whether it be by rail, boat, 'bus, van, or the various paintless, age-dried, loose-tired, nondescript vehicles forced into requisition for the purpose.

They are not particular, these Londoners, where or how they go--the very fact of there being the fresh air, green trees, and suns.h.i.+ne, that they miss at home, is sufficient; and all the dwellers upon suburban roads can attest to the air of tired satisfaction to be seen in the faces of many of those who come wearily back after that hardest of hard day's work--an outing. Tired, but happy all the same, and bearing now flowers, perhaps only lilac or hawthorn; later on in the season, bunches of green or ripening corn--treasures to be placed in water, or suspended dry over gla.s.s or picture, to bring back for months to come the recollection of the bright day spent in the country lanes.

The four-wheeler of which D. Wragg had spoken was at the door at the time appointed, ready to take the whole party, including Patty, who had been persuaded by Janet to obtain permission to accompany them, not without some reluctance on her own part; for after yesterday's scene she felt that she would have preferred the quiet protection of her own home.

It was a very shabby, sun-blistered green vehicle, whose appearance suggested a thorough knowledge of every road out of London--the kind of carriage that, give it motive-power, would be sure to find its own way home, in spite even of an obstinate horse. It looked as if accustomed to stop almost of its own accord at road-side public-houses, for its drawer and occupants to drink, while it rested its creaking springs and jangling iron, fetching its breath for another dusty run, as it longed for one of those wayside horseponds through which it might be driven to the eas.e.m.e.nt of its thirsty joints and badly-fitted wheels, almost now disposed to moult the spokes which rattled musically in their freedom from paint.

The four-wheeler was drawn by a curved-nosed beast of an angular nature, whose character was written in his sleepy eye and bended knees, worn by contact with hard or dusty roads. His vertebrae stood up like a minor chain of Andes, extending from his mangy neck to the tableland dominating the cataract-like tail of scrubby hair. To complete his description, he was a horse of a most retiring aspect, whose presence caused dogs to sniff, and cats to run a red rag-like tongue over their white teeth and skinny lips, as they thought of the barrow, and the three small slices upon a skewer.

Mrs Winks was in a state of moist and s.h.i.+ny excitement. She had already placed a fair-sized flat basket beneath the seat, and quite destroyed the appearance of her print ap.r.o.n, by rolling it up and folding it into fidget-suggested plaits.

But it was with no envious eyes that Mrs Winks gazed; for London, she said, was quite big enough for her, and contained all she wanted. Them as liked might go into the country for her, which she was quite sure could show no such flowers, fruits, or vegetables as Common Garding.

She liked to see others enjoy themselves, though, and her face beamed with good-humour as she held a chair for Janet to stand upon and climb to her seat, when Canau led her out with as great care and courtesy as if she had been a d.u.c.h.ess of the French court.

Patty, although the visitor, had insisted upon giving up to Janet the place of honour beside D. Wragg, who was already seated, and was making the angular horse toss its head in response to the unnecessarily jerked reins.

Then came Patty's turn to be helped into the back-seat--a bright little blossom with petals of white muslin--and Canau took his place by her side, both he and D. Wragg being perfectly stiff in the board-like white waistcoats, got up for them expressly by Mrs Winks.

That lady received divers admonitions respecting the administration of more water to the stock-in-trade; and a stern order "not to make no mistake; but if that party came about the little spannle, it warn't the same, and he'd best call again."

"Hooray! give's a copper, guv'nor," shouted a small boy, as D. Wragg now energetically jerked the reins, and cried, "P'st!" and "Go on then!" for the horse would not move, evidently considering that D. Wragg had cried "Wolf," in his previous jerkings of the reins; but at last the brute ambled off slowly, only, though, to be checked at the end of half-a-dozen yards, for his driver to shout to Mrs Winks--

"Here, I say! them there sparrers, I won't let 'em go at the price Pogles offered. Don't you make no mistake: I don't get my sparrers for nothing--p'st!"

They went on a few yards farther, but only for D. Wragg to recall something else--which made him pull up short and wave Mrs Winks forward with the whip.

"I didn't give them there bantams their mixter this mornin', and their combs is white as lather. Give 'em a few drops in their water."

"Now, do go on, there's a good soul!" cried Mrs Winks, impatiently; "just as if I couldn't mind the place as well as you!"

"I don't think as there's anything else I want to say," said D. Wragg, rubbing his nose--what there was of it--with the shaft of the whip.

"No, I shouldn't think there was," said Mrs Winks, pettishly; "_so_ now go on."

Mrs Winks turned to re-enter the shop, but she was calculating too much, for D. Wragg did not set her at liberty until he had called and recalled her to the very end of the street, to warn her about the rats--about that there pair of fancy rabbits--and lastly, to tell her to be sure and not forget about the spannle.

"Now, don't you make no mistake about that there dorg, for that there's the particularist part of it all."

"There! drat the man! what does he mean dragging me away like this?"

puffed the dame, fiercely; and, heedless of a shouted order sent flying after her as the four-wheeler turned the corner, she made her way back to the shop, while D. Wragg urged on his horse, working hard at his driving, so as to reach the country for a day of pleasure.

The pleasure was in antic.i.p.ation, but there was a shade on the brow of both girls, as they seemed to feel the coming of what was to be to one a stroke that should make a tender heart to ache with bitter misery--to bring forth confession upon confession, and to waken both to the fact that there are dreams of the day as well as dreams of the night--dreams of our waking moments as well as dreams when the body is steeped in sleep.

But now, they were still in Decadia, with D. Wragg--no very skilful driver--urging on his horse as he applied the whip and jerked the reins, telling it "not to make no mistake, for he was behind it."

"Come on, will you?" cried D. Wragg, to increase the speed. Result: the angular horse wagged its tail.

On he went, however, stumbling slowly along, bowing his head in sympathy with a halting leg; and they proceeded through the least frequented streets, D. Wragg being influenced in his choice of them by his want of confidence in himself as a driver.

On still, past the parts where the shops began to look new, but blighted as to trade; where the houses were more thinly scattered, until they had attained to their object of being in the country, when the horse was allowed to take its own pace.

It was not a pleasant pace; for there was, when he went slowly, too much turning of the head, and dragging along of one of the hind legs; while, when apparently startled to find that he was doing but little more than keeping up with the pedestrians on either side of the road, he started off for a hundred yards in a sharper trot, it was made unmusical by the clink, clink of shoe against shoe as the poor brute overstepped itself.

But in spite of these failings, the party in the four-wheeler seemed perfectly content, for they were progressing; suburban residences, with their pleasant green parterres and shrubberies, were gliding by them on either hand, so that there was always something new to notice; and besides, were they not leaving behind the misery, the dirt, and squalor of the Great City?

Learned in such matters, from his connection with the bird fancying and catching professions, D. Wragg had made up his mind to the most countrified spot he knew within easy range of London, the result being, that at mid-day the party were dining _al fresco_ in the pleasantly wooded region beyond Woodford Bridge; and then in the afternoon, Patty and Janet were wandering hand-in-hand--children once more in thought-- along by sweet hedgerow and waving corn.

Now they would rest for a while upon some stile to listen to the familiar note of a bird, which seemed more joyous here, though, in a state of freedom; now pausing to mark the busy hum of insect life; then wandering on again, speaking little, but revelling in the sweetness of the country--doubly dear to these prisoners of the great city.

It was their way of enjoying such trips as this; D. Wragg, for his part, taking solitary rambles for the purpose of combining profit with pleasure--clearing his "ex's" he called it--by hunting out suitable spots for his bird-catching clients, by the side of shady grove, or upon some pleasant common, where feathered prey might be inveigled and melted down into silver,

Canau, on his part, would take his thoughtful walks about, with his little screwed-up cigarette; it being an understood thing that at a certain hour they were all to meet at the little inn where the horse was resting, partake of an early tea, and then face homeward.

Pleasant fields, with here and there a farmhouse or villa, with its closely-shaven lawn and trimly-kept garden full of floral beauties, but presenting no greater attraction to the two wanderers than did hedge and bank rich with darkening leaf, berry, and flower; and on they strolled, both very quiet and thoughtful, forgetting D. Wragg, Canau, and Babel itself, in the enjoyment of the present.

Pa.s.sing slowly along--picking a harebell or scabious here, a cl.u.s.ter of sweet honeysuckle, or the bugloss there--Patty and Janet wandered over the road-side gra.s.s, their steps inaudible, till they reached a high hedge and evergreen plantation, which separated them from the grounds of a pleasant residence, upon whose lawn a party was a.s.sembled, apparently engaged in some out-door pastime. They were so close that the voices were easily distinguishable: the light happy laugh of maidenhood mingling with the deeper tones of male companions. Now and then, too, through the trees the light floating drapery of more than one fair girl could be made out, as it swept over the soft lawn.

At first little notice was taken by Patty and Janet; but suddenly, upon hearing a remark to which a merry laughing response was given, the former stopped short, to crimson and then turn pale, as she dropped the flowers which she had gathered.

She stood perfectly motionless, as a laughing, girlish voice, exclaimed--

"No, no; it's Mr Clayton's turn now--he's my partner!"

"Clayton--Harry Clayton; why don't you come?" exclaimed a man's voice; "why, I declare, if he isn't proposing to Miss Rawlinson!"

Patty was pressing forward, parting the leaves with one hand, heedless of the thorns which p.r.i.c.ked and tore her soft fingers, before she was able to obtain a pa.s.sing glance of dark, study-paled Harry Clayton, rising with a smile from the feet of a young lady seated upon a garden-chair--a maiden who, at that distance, seemed to Patty to be very beautiful in her light muslin dress, and framed as it were in the soft verdure around.

Then the listeners' ears were saluted by a merry burst of laughter, drowning the expostulating tones of a man's voice; while, with bleeding hands, ay! and bleeding heart, head bent, and the tears running from her great grey eyes, Patty turned and almost staggered away, closely followed by Janet; who, taking her arm, hurried her along, till, crossing a stile, they sat down beside the softly undulating corn.

The stillness was complete around, only broken by the cawing of a colony of rooks amongst some distant elms.

"Oh Patty, Patty, darling!" whispered Janet, taking the bended head to her breast, when, giving way to the desolation of her young heart in the fresh trouble that seemed to have come over her so suddenly, Patty wept long and bitterly, awakened as she was so rudely from a dream in which she had allowed herself to indulge.

"Oh Patty, Patty!" softly whispered Janet again, as, down upon her knees, she rocked the little head that rested against her to and fro-- hus.h.i.+ng her friend as if she had been a child, murmuring, too, as she bent over her--"And I thought so differently--so differently!"

"Let us go--let us go away from here," sobbed Patty, after vainly struggling to repress her feelings.

"Not yet--not yet," said Janet, as she played with the hair which fell upon her breast. "There is no one to see us here, and you are not yet fit for people to look at you. You must not think me cruel if I say I am glad to see you suffer--glad your poor breast can be torn and troubled; for I thought so differently, little one, and that it was the gay handsome boy who had stolen the little heart away; for I knew--I knew--I've known that there was something wrong for weeks and weeks; and I've been angry and bitter, and hated you; for, Patty, Patty," she cried, pa.s.sionately, hiding now her own swarthy face, "I feel that if he would but take me, to beat me, or to be as his dog that he fondles so-- to wait upon him--to be his slave--I could be happy. You don't know-- you cannot tell--the misery, the wretchedness of such a heart as mine.

Do you think I am blind? Do I not know that he would laugh and jeer at me? Would he not think me mad for looking up at him?" she cried pa.s.sionately, as she struck her face--her bosom--cruelly with her long, bony fingers. "Do you think I don't know what a toad I am--how ugly and foul I must be in the eyes of men? And yet I have a woman's heart; and though I've tried not to wors.h.i.+p his bold insolent face, I could almost have died again and again for one--only one--of those sweet words he has flung at you so often, when I have thought you were trying to lead him on. If I could but have had one word, to have lived on it for a few moments; even to have known directly after that it was false and delusive! Patty, Patty, darling! you must forgive me, because I have hated you for all this, and without reason. I have been madly jealous, and I believe that I am mad now. Oh! hold me! hold me! and help me to tear out this cruel love that is breaking my heart--killing me--but you cannot understand--even you cannot tell what it is to live without hope."

"Oh Janet!" sobbed Patty, reproachfully.

"I know, I know," cried Janet, pa.s.sionately; "you love him and he is another's. But you are pretty; your face is fair, and bright, and sweet; and you will soon forget all this, and love again. But look at me--at this face--at this shape! Oh! why did I not die when I was little? instead of living to become such a burden even to myself? They say that the crippled and deformed are vain, and blind to all their failings; but do you think that I am? Oh! no; I could loathe and trample upon myself for being what I am; while he is so brave, and straight, and handsome."

She clung, sobbing pa.s.sionately the while, to Patty's breast--clinging to her with a frightened, wild aspect, as if she almost feared herself, till, by slow degrees, the laboured sobs became less painful, and the flowers which she still clutched in her poor thin fingers withered away upon their bruised stalks.

The corn waved and rustled about them; the gaudy poppies nodded and fluttered their limp petals around; and here and there some cornflower's bright purple peeped out from amidst the tangle of pinky bear-bind and azure vetch. Now a lark would sing loud and high above their heads, or some finch or warbler, emboldened by the silence, would perch upon the hedge hard by, to jerk out a few notes of its song, and then flit to some further spray.

Peace seemed diffused around, and began by degrees to pervade the troubled hearts of the two girls.