The New Mistress Part 5

Mrs Thorne thought they were words of gold, and at Geringer's request she not only readily promised to prepare Hazel, but that all should be as he wished.

_L'homme propose_, as the French proverb has it and things do not always turn out as he wishes. Mr Geringer, after the preparation Hazel received from Mrs Thorne, proposed and was refused. Hazel said it was impossible, and such was her obstinacy, as Mrs Thorne called it, she refused to become a rich man's wife, and insisted upon going to the Whitelands training inst.i.tution, condemning her unfortunate mother to a life of poverty and degradation, her brother to toil, and blasting her young sisters' prospects, when she might have married, had her carriage, and all would have gone as merry as a marriage bell.

That was Mrs Thorne's view of the case, and she kept up her protests with tears and repining, winning Percy to her side till he was always ready to reproach his sister. Hazel bore all, worked with all the energy in her nature for the year of training, was fortunate in getting a school after a few months' waiting, and was, as we found her, duly installed in the little schoolhouse, her brother being boarded with some humble friends in town.

CHAPTER FIVE.

DISTURBING INFLUENCES.

Hazel Thorne felt giddy as she took her seat in the front of the gallery, the seat with a little square patchy cus.h.i.+on close to the red curtains in front of the organist's pew. Beside and behind her the school children sat in rows, with ample room for three times the number; but the seats were never filled save upon the two Sundays before the annual school feast when somehow the Wesleyan and Congregational Sunday-schools were almost empty, and the church school thronged.

It was precisely the same on Mr Chute's side of the organ, with his boys beside and behind, and so situated that he could lean a little forward and get a glimpse of Hazel's profile, and also so that he could leave his seat, go round by the back of the organ, and give the new mistress the hymn-book, and the music used, with all the hymns, chants, and tunes carefully turned down.

It was a pleasant little attention to a stranger, and Hazel turned and thanked him with a smile that was not at all necessary, as Miss Rebecca who played the organ, and saw this through an opening in the red curtains, afterwards said to her brother the Reverend Henry Lambent, while at the time she said:--

"s.h.!.+ s.h.!.+" For Ann Straggalls was fighting down a desire to laugh, consequent upon Feelier Potts whining sharply:--

"Oh, Goody, me!"

"Like her impudence," Mr Chute said to himself, in allusion to Miss Rebecca's interference with the duties of the new mistress. "She'd better not try it on with my boys," and he went back to think of Hazel Thorne's sweet sad smile.

And all the time the object of his thoughts felt giddy.

Archibald Graves down there, when she had believed that he had forgotten her; and the more she thought, the more agitated and indignant she grew.

At times she felt as if she must leave the church, for there, plainly in view, sat the disturber of her peace, one whom she had put behind her with the past; and when at last they stood up to sing the first hymn, to her horror she found that it was the custom in the old country church for the audience all to turn and face the organ, when Archibald Graves stood gazing up at her, and, strive how she would, she could not help once or twice meeting his eyes.

"It is cruel and unmanly," she thought, as she resumed her seat, feeling half distracted by the flood of emotion that seemed to sweep away the present.

Fortunately there was an audible "s.h.!.+ s.h.!.+" from behind the red curtains just then; and this drew Hazel's attention to the fact that Feelier Potts was, if not "tiddling," at all events making Ann Straggalls laugh, just when, in a high-pitched drawl, the Reverend Henry Lambent was going on with the service, as if he felt it a great act of condescension to make appeals on behalf of such a lower order of beings as the Plumtonites. What time the round smooth face of Mr William Forth Burge was looking over the edge of his pew, where he always knelt down standing up as Feelier Potts said, and always smelt his hat inside when he came into church. And while this gentleman forgot all about the prayers in his thoughtful meditation upon the face of one who he told himself had the face of an angel, Mr Chute kept forgetting the litany, and let the boys straggle in the responses, for he felt impelled to glance round the front of the organ pew at the soft white forehead he could just contrive to see.

"Those girls never behaved worse," said Miss Rebecca to herself. "If this is to be the way they are kept in order she will never do."

Miss Rebecca Lambent felt more sore than usual, for she was at heart aggrieved that the new schoolmistress should be so good-looking and ladylike--matters not at all in accordance with what was right for "a young person in her station in life;" and, to make matters worse, Jem Chubb, who blew the bellows, let the wind fail in the middle of the second hymn.

It was fortunate, then, that the girls did behave so badly, and that Feelier Potts would keep spreading out her hands, and saying, "Oh, Goody me!" in imitation of the vicar's tones, for it took Hazel's attention, and her task of keeping the girls quiet stayed her thoughts from wandering away.

There was no avoiding the meeting, and when at last--the service being over and the congregation going--the school children, evidently smelling dinner, having rushed off in spite of all efforts to detain them--Hazel slowly descended, it was to find Archibald Graves waiting at the foot of the stairs, and he stepped in front of Mr Chute, who, as he was so near a neighbour, aimed at walking with the new mistress home.

"Let us go off along the road here somewhere, Hazel," said Archibald Graves abruptly, "I have come down on purpose to see you. Never mind these people; come along."

What should she do? Miss Rebecca was staring--nay, glowering; the Burges were coming up, and this terrible interview, which she would have given worlds to avoid, was apparently inevitable: for, unlike some young ladies she did not feel disposed to faint. What then, should she do?

The knot was untied, for just then there was a rustle of silk, and Miss Beatrice swept up over the chiselled slabs, to say, in a stern, uncompromising voice--

"Miss Thorne, my brother, the vicar, wishes to speak with you in the vestry."

CHAPTER SIX.

THE REVEREND HENRY LAMBENT.

"I beg your pardon," said Archibald Graves, rather abruptly; "I spoke to Miss Thorne before church. I think she is engaged to me."

The eyes of Beatrice Lambent opened with astonishment and she stared at this daring young man, who had the presumption to talk of interposing between the new schoolmistress and the head of the parish. She was evidently about to speak, for her lips moved, but no words came.

It was Hazel who put an end to the unpleasant dilemma.

"I will come at once. Miss Lambent, if you please," she said respectfully.

"Miss Beatrice Lambent, if you please," said the lady haughtily; "Miss Lambent is now descending from the organ-loft."

"I beg your pardon," exclaimed Hazel. Then, glancing with quiet dignity at the intruder and back to Miss Beatrice: "Mr Graves was a friend of our family a year or two back. Mr Graves, my mother is at the schoolhouse; if you wish to see me, I must ask you to call there."

She followed Miss Beatrice up between the rows of pews that lady seeming to take her into moral custody; while, seeing himself the aim of several pairs of eyes, including those of Mr Chute, Mr William Forth Burge, Miss Burge, and above all, those of Miss Lambent, which literally flashed at him, Archibald Graves nodded shortly, turned upon his heel, and tried to march carelessly out of church; but his easy motions were terribly full of restraint.

"I was not aware that Miss Thorne would be so soon having friends," said Miss Lambent; but her remark elicited no reply, for Mr William Forth Burge and his sister both felt troubled, the schoolmaster angry, and all too much preoccupied with the appearance of Hazel Thorne as she pa.s.sed into the chancel, and through a bar of brilliant colour cast by the sun from the new stained-gla.s.s window, which had been placed in the south end of the chancel in memory of the late vicar, the effect being very strange, seeming to etherealise Hazel; though for the matter of that the same effect would have been seen, had it been noticed, in connection with Miss Beatrice, who had led the way, drawing aside the curtain that hung in front of the vestry door, and tapping softly with her knuckles.

"Come in!"

Very simple words, but they set Hazel's heart beating, as, in a whisper full of awe, but at the same time very distant and cold, Miss Beatrice said:

"You may go in now."

As she spoke she drew back, holding the curtain for Hazel to pa.s.s; and trying to master her emotion, the latter raised the latch and entered the vestry.

The vicar was standing with his hat in hand, gazing out of the little window at the cheerful prospect of a piece of blank old stone wall, surmounted by a large waterspout, and though he must have heard the door open and close, he did not turn, but stood there as stiff and uncompromising of aspect as his sisters.

He had seen Hazel Thorne twice before, but in a gloomy room in London; and being of rather a preoccupied turn of mind, he had paid so little heed to her personal appearance that he would hardly have recognised her again. A new mistress had been required, and the customary correspondence had taken place; he had called at the inst.i.tution, asked a few questions, and there was an end of the matter, the strong recommendations of the lady-princ.i.p.al being sufficient for the engagement to be decided on.

Hazel stood waiting for him to turn round, but the Reverend Henry Lambent remained gazing at the water-pipe for some few moments before coughing slightly to clear his throat. Then, in a voice full of haughty condescension, he began:

"I am glad to find that you arrived punctually. Miss Thorne, in accordance with the arrangements that were made; and I take this opportunity of saying a few words to you at this commencement of your career in Plumton."

Here he stopped, and faced slowly round, allowing his half-closed eyes to rest indifferently upon the new mistress, who was standing facing the window, and upon whose rather pale care-worn face the light fell strongly as he turned.

Very plainly dressed in her well-fitting mourning, Hazel Thorne was one who could have claimed a second look from the sternest of mortals.

It was not that she was surpa.s.sing beautiful, and could boast of finely-chiselled nostrils, Juno-like brow, or any of the wonderfully entrancing features with which some novelists endow their heroines; Hazel was simply a sweet-faced, thoroughly English girl, but there was an expression in her eyes, a touching look so full of appeal that it even affected the cold, unimpa.s.sioned vicar, who remained silent for some moments as if wondering, and then hastily said:

"I beg your pardon. Miss Thorne, will you sit down!"

He placed a chair for her, and drew another forward from where it was half hidden behind the folds of the surplice but lately hung upon its proper peg, and, astonished at himself waited till Hazel had seated herself before following suit.

"That young man" seemed to have vanished from his thoughts, and the lecture he had intended to read the young schoolmistress upon the bad appearance of such meetings as those which had taken place that morning dropped from his memory, and his lips formed words that surprised him as much as his acts.