Oh, dear me!
Jonathan hes been preparing for it for a week but he did not tell father until yesterday. I will give thee the names of four ladies that may assist in the way of sending food there is Mrs. Benson, the doctors wife her husband is giving his time to the sick and if she hednt a bit of money of her awn, Bensons family would be badly off, I fear. She may hev the heart to do as well as to pinch and suffer, but if she hesnt, we cant find her to blame. Send her an invitation. Send another to Mistress Craven. Colonel Craven is with his regiment somewhere, but she is wealthy, and for anything I know, good-hearted. Give her an opportunity. Lady Brierley can be counted on in some way or other and perhaps Mrs. Courtney. I can think of no others because everyone is likely to be looking for assistance just as we are. What day hev you named for the meeting?
Monday. Is that too soon?
About a week too soon. None of these ladies will treat the invitation as a desirable one. They doubtless hev many engagements already made. Say, next Saturday. It is not reasonable to expect them to drop iverything else and hurry to Annis, to sew for the hungry and naked.
O mother! Little children! Who would not hurry to them with food and clothing?
Hes thou been with Faith Foster to see any children hungry and naked?
No, mother; but I do not need to see in order to feel. And I have certainly noticed how few children are on the street lately.
Well, Katherine, girls of eighteen shouldnt need to see in order to feel. Thank God for thy fresh young feelings and keep them fresh as long as thou can. It will be a pity when thou begins to reason about them. Send letters to Mrs. Benson, Mrs. Craven, Lady Brierley, and Mrs. Courtney, and then we shall see what comes from them. After all, we are mere mortals!
But you are friendly with all these four ladies?
Good friends to come and go upon. By rights they ought to stand by Annis but ought stands for nothing.
Why ought, mother?
Thy father hes done ivery one o them a good turn of one kind or the other but it isnt his way to speak of the same. Now send off thy letters and let things slide until we see what road they are going to take. Im afraid Ill hev to put mysen about more than I like to in this matter.
That goes without saying but you dont mind it, do you, mother?
Well, your father took me on a sudden. I hednt time to think before I spoke and when my heart gets busy, good-by to my head.
Mrs. Courtney has not been here for a long time.
She is a good deal away but I saw her in London last year every now and then. She is a careless woman; she goes it blind about everything, and yet she wants to be at the bottom of all county affairs.
Mother, could we not do a little shopping today?
At the fag end of the week? What are you talking about? Certainly not. Besides, thy father is worried about the meeting this afternoon. He says more may come of it than we can dream of.
How is that?
Why, Katherine, it might end in a factory here, or it might end in the weavers heving to leave Annis and go elsewhere.
Cannot they get work of some other kind, in, or near by Annis?
Nay, tha surely knows, that a weaver hes to keep his fingers soft, and his hands supple. Hard manual work would spoil his hands forever for the loom, and our men are born weavers. They doant fashion to any other work, and to be sure England hes to hev her weavers.
Mother, would it not be far better to have a factory? Lately, when I have taken a walk with father he always goes to the wold and looks all round considering just like a man who was wondering about a site for a building. It would be a good thing for us, mother, would it not?
It seems so, but father does not want it. He says it will turn Annis into a rough village, full of strangers, with bad ways, and also that it will spoil the whole country-side with its smoke and dirt.
But if it makes money?
Money isnt iverything.
The want of it is dreadful.
Thy father got a thousand pounds this morning. If he does not put most of it into a factory, he will put it into bread, which will be eaten to-day and wanted again to-morrow. That would make short work of a thousand pounds.
Have you reminded father of that?
I doant need to. Father seems an easy-going man but he thinks of iverything; and when he hes to act no one strikes the iron quicker and harder. If thou saw him in London, if thou heard him in the House, brow-beating the Whigs and standing up for Peel and Wellington and others, thou would wonder however thou dared to tease, and contradict, and coax him in Annis. Thou would that! Now I am going to the lower summer house for an hour. Send away thy letters, and let me alone a bit.
I know. I saw father going down the garden. He is going to the summer house also; he intends to tell you, mother, what he is going to say to-night. He always reads, or recites his speeches to you. I have heard him sometimes.
Then thou ought to be ashamed to speak of it! I am astonished at thy want of honor! If by chance, thou found out some reserved way of thy father it should have been held by thee as a sacred, inviolable secret. Not even to me, should thou have dared to speak of it. I am sorry, indeed, to hev to teach thee this point of childhoods honor. I thought it would be natural to the daughter of Antony and Annie Annis!
Mother! Forgive me! I am ashamed and sorry and oh, do not, for my sake, tell father! My dear, dear father! You have made it look like mocking him I never thought how shameful it could look oh, I never thought about it! I never spoke of it before! I never did!
Well, then, see thou never again listens to what was not intended for thee to hear. It would be a pretty state of things, if thy father hed to go somewhere out of the way of listeners to get a bit of private talk with me.
Mother, dont be so cruel to me.
Was thou trying to compliment me or was thou scorning a bit about thy fathers ways? If thou thought I would feel complimented by being set above him that thought was as far wrong as it could possibly get.
Mother! Mother! You will break my heart! You never before spoke this way to me Oh, dear! Oh, dear!
For a few minutes Madam let her weep, then she bent over the crouching, sobbing girl, and said, There now! There now!
I am so sorry! So sorry!
Well, dearie, sorrow is good for sin. It is the only thing sorrow is good for. Dry thy eyes, and we will niver name the miserable subject again.
Was it really a sin, mother?
Hes thou forgotten the fifth commandment? That little laugh at thy fathers saying his speeches to me first was more than a bit scornful. It was far enough from the commandment Honor thy father and thy mother. It wasnt honoring either of us.
I can never forgive myself.
Nay! nay! Give me a kiss and go and look after thy letters; also tell Yates dinner must be on the table at one oclock no matter what his watch says. Then Katherine walked silently away and Madam went to the lower summer house, and the dinner was on the table at one oclock. It was an exceedingly quiet meal, and immediately after it, the squires horse was brought to the door.
So thou art going to ride, Antony! said Mistress Annis, and the squire answered, Ay, I hev a purpose in riding, Annie.