On the evening in which we introduce her, Miss Pritty was going to have her dear and intimate friend Aileen Hazlit to tea, and she laid out her little tea-table with as much care as an engineer might have taken in drawing a mathematical problem. The teapot was placed in the exact centre of the tray, with its spout and handle pointing so that a line drawn through them would have been parallel to the sides of her little boudoir. The urn stood exactly behind it. The sugar-basin formed, on one side of the tray, a pendant to the cream-jug on the other, and inasmuch as the cream-jug was small, a toast-rack was coupled with it to constitute the necessary balance. So, too, with the cups: they were placed equidistant from the teapot, the sides of the tray, and each other, while a salver of cake on one side of the table was scrupulously balanced by a plate of buns on the other side.
There she isthe darling! exclaimed Miss Pritty, with a little skip and (excuse the word) a giggle as the bell rang.
Miss Aileen Hazlit, announced Miss Prittys small and only domestic, who flung wide open the door of the boudoir, as its owner was fond of styling it.
Whereupon there entered an angel in blue, with a straw hat and ostrich feather.
We quote from the last, almost dying, speech of a hopeless youth in the towna lawyers clerkwhose heart was stamped over so completely with the word Aileen that it was unrecognisable, and practically useless for any purpose except beatingwhich it did, hard, at all times.
Aileen was beautiful beyond compare, because, in her case, extreme beauty of face and feature was coupled with rare beauty of expression, indicating fine qualities of mind. She was quiet in demeanour, grave in speech, serious and very earnest in thought, enthusiastic in action, unconscious and unselfish.
Pooh! Perfection! I hear some lady reader ejaculate.
No, fair one, not quite that, but as near it as was compatible with humanity. Happily there are many such in the worldsome with more and some with less of the external beautyand man is blessed and the world upheld by them.
The chief bond that bound Aileen and Miss Pritty together was a text of Scripture, Consider the poor. The latter had strong sympathy with the poor, being herself one of the number. The former, being rich in faith as well as in means, considered them. The two laid their heads together and concerted plans for the raising of the masses, which might have been food for study to some statesmen. For instance, they fed the hungry and clothed the naked; they encouraged the well-disposed and reproved the evil; they scattered seeds of kindness wherever they went; they sowed the precious Word of God in all kinds of groundgood and bad; they comforted the sorrowing; they visited the sick and the prisoner; they refused to help, or, in any way to encourage, the idle; they handed the obstreperous and violent over to the police, with the hopeif not the recommendationthat the rod should not be spared; and in all cases they prayed for them. The results were considerable, but, not being ostentatiously trumpeted, were not always recognised or traced to their true cause.
Come away, darling, exclaimed Miss Pritty, eagerly embracing and kissing her friend, who accepted, but did not return, the embrace, though she did the kiss. I thought you were not coming at all, and I have not seen you for a whole week! What has kept you? There, put off your hat. Im so glad to see you, dear Aileen. Isnt it strange that Im so fond of you? They say that people who are contrasts generally draw togetherat least Ive often heard Mrs Boxer, the wife of Captain Boxer, you know, of the navy, who used to swear so dreadfully before he was married, but, I am happy to say, has quite given it up now, which says a great deal for wedded life, though its a state that I dont quite believe in myself, for if Adam had never married Eve he would not have been tempted to eat the forbidden fruit, and so there would have been no sin and no sorrow or povertyno poor! Only think of that.
So that our chief occupation would have been gone, said Aileen, with a slight twinkle of her lustrous blue eyes, and perhaps you and I might never have met.
Miss Pritty replied to this something very much to the effect that she would have preferred the entrance of sin and all its consequencespoverty includedinto the world, rather than have missed making the friendship of Miss Hazlit. At least her words might have borne that interpretationor any other!
My father detained me, said Aileen, seating herself at the table, while her volatile friend put lumps of sugar into the cups, with a tender yet sprightly motion of the hand, as if she were doing the cups a special kindnessas indeed she was, when preparing one of them to touch the lips of Aileen.
Naughty man, why did he detain you? said Miss Pritty.
Only to write one or two notes, his right hand being disabled at present by rheumatism.
A gentleman, Miss, in the dinin-room, said the small domestic, suddenly opening a chink of the door for the admission of her somewhat dishevelled head. He wont send his name upsays he wants to see you.
How vexing! exclaimed Miss Pritty, but Ill go down. Im determined that he shant interrupt our tête-à-tête.
Miss Pritty uttered a little scream of surprise on entering the dining-room.
Well, aunt, said Edgar Berrington, with a hearty smile, as he extended his hand, you are surprised to see me?
Of course I am, dear Eddy, cried Miss Pritty, holding up her cheek for a kiss. Sit down. Why, you were in London when I last heard of you.
True, but Im not in London now, as you see. Ive been a week here.
A week, Eddy! And you did not come to see me till now?
Well, I ought to apologise, replied the youth, with a slight look of confusion, butthe fact is, I came down partly on business, andandso you see Ive been very busy.
Of course, laughed Miss Pritty; people who have business to do are usually very busy! Well, I forgive you, and am glad to see youbut
Well, auntbut what?
In short, Eddy, I happen to be particularly engaged this eveningon business, too, like yourself; but, after all, why should I not introduce you to my friend? You might help us in our discussionit is to be about the poor. Do you know much about the poor and their miseries?
Edgar smiled sadly as he replied
Yes, I have had some experimental knowledge of the poorbeing one of them myself, and my poverty too has made me inconceivably miserable.
Come, Eddy, dont talk nonsense. You know I mean the very poor, the destitute. But let us go up-stairs and have a cup of tea.
The idea of discussing the condition of the poor over a cup of tea with two ladies was not attractive to our hero in his then state of mind, and he was beginning to excuse himself when his aunt stopped him:
Now, dont say you cant, or wont, for you must. And I shall introduce you to a very pretty girloh! such a pretty oneyouve no ideaand so sweet!
Miss Pritty spoke impressively and with enthusiasm, but as the youth knew himself to be already acquainted with and beloved by the prettiest girl in the town he was not so much impressed as he might have been. However, being a good-natured fellow, he was easily persuaded.
All the way up-stairs, and while they were entering the boudoir, little Miss Prittys tongue never ceased to vibrate, but when she observed her nephew gazing in surprise at her friend, whose usually calm and self-possessed face was covered with confusion, she stopped suddenly.