Mabel Quiller Couch - The Story of Jessie

M >> Mabel Quiller Couch >> The Story of Jessie

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Jessie subsided into silence, a little moan alone escaping her as she
clung to her grandmother.

"It's simple enough," he went on, turning to Mrs. Dawson, "I want my
daughter, and I've come to fetch her. You've had her for five years,
and now I want her for five--or fifteen, or fifty," he added, "just
as it suits me."

"You can't--you've no right--you deserted her. She is ours."

"That's just where you make a mistake, old lady," he sneered, his
face lighting up with an ugly mocking smile. "She is mine, not
yours, and I've every right to her. I didn't desert her, and you
can't prove I did, and I guess if we went to law about it, it would
be you that would be in the dock for stealing her, or receiving
stolen goods, so to speak, from her mother, who stole her."

"You knew where she was!" gasped Mrs. Dawson, stunned by this new
aspect of affairs. "You knew poor Lizzie had sent her here--you know
you did."

"Prove it," he said tauntingly. "That's all! Prove it!"
Then suddenly remembering that time was flying, he changed his tone.
"Well, anyhow, you can settle all that to your liking later on, I
can't stay to argue now. I've married again, and my wife keeps a
lodging-house, and wants some one to help her, some one strong and
healthy, like Jessie here, and I've come for her. I didn't see the
fun of paying a girl, when we could get a better one for nothing; and
I came for her to-day because I thought it would be nice and quiet,
not too many about, and not too many leave-takings. Now, Jess, say
good-bye to your granny, I want to be off before the old man gets
back, so as to spare him the pain," with a cruel laugh.

Was there no one to help them! No one to appeal to! Jessie and her
grandmother looked at each other despairingly. They could think of
no one within a mile or two, except Mrs. Maddock and her little maid,
and how could they reach them, and what could they do to help if they
did! A deep, hopeless despair settled on both of them.

"If you've anything you wants to bring along with you," said her
father curtly, "look sharp and get it. I don't s'pose it's more than
I can carry."

Jessie was too stunned to know quite what she was doing. In her room
she had a big old-fashioned carpet bag that her grandfather had once
given her because she so admired the flowers on its sides, and into
this she thrust some of her clothes without in the least realizing
what she was doing. When, though, she came to her little shelf of
books, to a box Miss Grace had given her, a work-basket her
grandfather and grandmother had bought her on her birthday, and a
picture which had been Miss Barley's present, she stayed her hand.
She would not take any of her treasures to be knocked about perhaps
in a busy lodging-house. She would leave them here, they would seem
like a link between her and home--for no other place would ever be
"home" to her, she knew.

She took her little Prayer-book, the one that had been her mother's,
granny had given it to her on her eighth birthday, and she treasured
it dearly; it had her mother's name and her own written in it, and
that seemed always to draw them nearer and form a little link
between.

It was all soon over, and Jessie, without daring to look around her
beloved little room again, crept away back to her granny, her eyes
blinded with tears.

"Granny, you'll 'tend to my rose for me, won't you," she whispered in
a choked voice, "till I come home again, and--and kiss granp for me,
and--oh, granny, granny, what shall I do, I can't go away! I can't!
I can't! I think I shall die if--"

Perhaps mercifully, her father cut the leave-taking short. No good
could be done, not a fraction of their misery lessened by prolonging
it, and before Jessie had finished sobbing out her last words, he had
picked her up and carried her down-stairs and out of the house.

"This way," he said, when he put her down in the road. "I like
seclusion when I take a walk. There's a station I prefer to
Springbrook, it's one I used to favour a good bit," with a meaning
little laugh, "and if I haven't forgot my way all these years, and
they haven't altered the face of the country, the shortest cut to it
lies through these very fields, so step out and put your best foot
foremost."

CHAPTER VII.

THE JOURNEY AND THE ARRIVAL.

Harry Lang's "short cut" to the next station meant a good two hours
of heavy walking, sometimes over rough uneven ground, sometimes
through a little coppice, or along a quiet lane, all of them unknown
to Jessie. For this very reason, perhaps, the way seemed even longer
than it really was, but to the poor exhausted child it seemed
endless. Her head ached distractingly, her back and legs ached, and
her feet had almost refused to do her bidding long before she reached
the station.

Her father noticed that she lagged, but it never occurred to him that
the real reason was that she was exhausted--at least it did not occur
to him until, when they at last reached the refreshment room, Jessie
dropped like a stone upon the floor.

"What are you doing?" he snapped crossly, "get up! Can't you see
where you are going?"

But Jessie neither saw, nor heard, nor moved. The kindly-faced woman
behind the counter first leaned out over it to look at her, then came
around.

"Why, she's in a dead faint," she cried, lifting the limp little
hand; "has she walked far? She looks dead beat."

Harry Lang muttered something about "just a mile or so," but he did
not enlarge on the subject, and he seemed so morose and surly that no
one felt drawn to say more to him than they could help. The woman
lifted Jessie up, and laid her gently on a couch, but she had bathed
her brow and her hands, and held smelling-salts under her nose for
quite a long while before she showed any signs of life, and Harry
Lang had wished himself miles away, and regretted his day's work many
times before Jessie with a deep, deep sigh at last opened her eyes.

For a moment she looked about her uncomprehendingly; then, as
realization came to her, the woman bending over her heard her moan
despairingly.

"Is she ill?" she asked.

"No," said Harry Lang curtly, "only a bit tired and upset at having
to leave the folks that brought her up. Maybe she's hungry; we've
walked a good step to get here, and we haven't had a bite of
anything. I'm hungry myself, so I dare say she is. Hungry, Jessie?"

"I want to go home, I must--I must. Oh, let me go," moaned Jessie
wildly, looking up at him beseechingly; but at sight of his face she
shrank back frightened, and the words died on her lips.

"You are going home as fast as I can take you," he said roughly; "if
you'd sent word, I dare say they'd have got a special," he added,
with a sarcastic laugh.

"I'll give her something to eat," said the woman, without a smile at
his joke. "I dare say she'll feel better then. She looks to me dead
beat," and she laid Jessie gently back, and went behind the counter
and poured her out a basin of soup from some that was being kept hot
there. To Jessie, who had had no food since breakfast-time, the soup
brought new life. She took it all, and a large slice of bread with
it, to the great satisfaction of her new friend, who watched
delightedly the colour coming back to the poor little white face.

"Where do you want to get to, to-night?" she asked, turning to Harry
Lang.

"London."

"Um! The next train that stops here doesn't come in till 10.15.
It is a long time for her to wait, and late for her to get home."

"'Tisn't going to kill her," answered Jessie's father shortly.
"Everybody has got something to put up with sometimes. She is lucky
not to have to walk all the way." He hated to be asked questions,
and grew cross at being obliged to answer them.

"It's my opinion she'd never reach the other end if she had to do
that," said the woman curtly. Then, turning to Jessie, she said
gently, "If you lie back again, dear, maybe you'll be able to sleep,
and that will rest you, and help to pass the time too."

Jessie, only too glad to obey, and not to have to move her aching
body again, nestled back on the hard cushions, and turning her face
away from the light, shut her eyes, and soon was miles away from her
present surroundings and her miseries, in a deep dreamless sleep, and
she knew nothing more until she was wakened suddenly by a tremendous
rumbling and shaking, puffing and roaring, close at hand, which made
her start up in a terrible panic of alarm.

For a moment she did not realize where she was or what had happened;
her brain was dazed, her eyes full of sleep. Then her father came
in, and seizing her by the arm hurried her out of the room and across
the platform to the brightly-lighted train drawn up there. He gave
her no time for farewells to the kind-hearted woman who had helped
her so much, nor did he thank her himself. Poor Jessie could only
look back over her shoulder and try to thank her with her eyes and
smiles.

"Thank you very much," she called out, her voice sounding very weak
and small in the midst of all the uproar; but the gratitude on her
face and in her eyes spoke more than words.

"I've thought dozens of times of that poor little child," the woman
remarked next day to one of the porters; "the man looked so cruel and
horrid, and the child so frightened. I should like to know the truth
about them. I am sure he was unkind to her."

Once inside the railway carriage, Jessie's father put her to sit in
the corner by the window, and seated himself next to her. He was so
anxious that no one should speak to her that he even gave up the
comfortable corner seat himself, and sat bolt upright beside her, a
bit of self-denial which did not improve his temper, which was at no
time a sweet one; and when at last Waterloo was reached, it was with
no gentle hand that he shook and roused her from the kindly sleep
which had fallen on her again, and blotted for the time all her woes
from her memory.

With a shock Jessie started to her feet, staring about her with wide,
dazed, sleep-filled eyes. "Wake up, can't you? I can't stay here
all night while you has your sleep out!"

No one else ever spoke to her in that tone and manner. In a moment
poor Jessie's eyes and brain were as wide awake and alert as fear
could force them. That dreaded voice would rouse her from the sleep
of death almost, she thought. Shaking with cold and dread, she
followed him along the lighted platform, and out into the gloom and
squalor of the streets.

A heavy rain was coming down in sheets, driven in their faces by a
cold, gusty wind. It hit the pavement and splashed up against her
cold little legs and ankles until they were soaked through; it beat
on her face until she was nearly blinded; and, bewildered by the
bright lights, and the deep shadows, and the glitter of the wet
streets in the light of the lamps, she would soon have been lost
indeed, had her father not caught her by the hand.

On they went, and on and on, an endless distance it seemed to Jessie.
Her father never once spoke to her, and she was afraid to speak to
him. At last, though, she summoned up courage. "Where are we going,
father?"

"Home."

"Are we nearly there?"

"You'll know in time, so hold your noise."

She "held her noise." At least she did not venture to speak again,
and "in time" she did know, but it was a long time first.

Jessie had long been too tired to notice anything that was passing,
and when at last they did stop before a house, and went up to the
door of it, she was too exhausted to notice the place or the house,
or anything about her. She wanted only to be allowed to lie down
somewhere, anywhere, and not have to move, or speak, or even think.

When the door was at last opened she saw before her what looked like
a black pit, and that was all. Her father must have been able to see
more than she, for he swore at some one for keeping him waiting so
long, and Jessie supposed it was at an unseen person who had opened
the door to them, then he walked quickly ahead, telling Jessie to
follow him.

Follow him! How could she, when she could see nothing and did not
know where her next step would land her? She did not dare, though,
do anything but obey, so, groping blindly, and sliding her feet
carefully before her, one at a time, she crept with all the speed she
could in direction in which she thought he had gone.

"Mind the stairs," said some one behind her, and at the same moment
Jessie's foot went over the top one.

"Harry, you might have helped the child down," said the voice behind
her, more tartly, and Jessie guessed it was the door-opener who
spoke, and who was following her. Harry Lang muttered something
surlily enough, but he did pick up a lamp from somewhere, and held it
out for her to see the rest of her way by, and Jessie clambered down
the remaining stairs in comparative comfort.

"You'd better give the kid something to eat, and pack her off to bed
as soon as you can," he said. "She's pretty well fagged out, and so
am I," he added.

Jessie looked round to see to whom he was speaking, and saw standing
in the doorway a little thin woman, with a sharp, cross face, and
dull, tired eyes, eyes which looked as though they never brightened,
or lost their look of weary hopelessness. This was her stepmother.
She gave no sign of welcome, no word of comfort to the child, yet,
somehow, Jessie's heart went out to her a little. It might have been
only that in her terror of her father, she was ready to cling to any
one who might stand between her and him.

"There's bread and butter--"

"Bread and butter!" roared her husband, "is that all? Do you mean to
say you haven't got anything hot and tasty for me after all I've been
through to get this brat here, for nothing in the world but to help
you to do nothing all day long--"

"There's plenty for you," she retorted coldly. "I was speaking of
the child. I knew you wouldn't want to share yours with her," and
Harry Lang, who had stepped threateningly towards her, drew back
again, looking rather foolish and very cross. "Where is it?" he
snapped.

"In the oven," and she took out a big covered basin and put before
him.

Whatever the contents might have been, they smelt very savoury and
seemed to please him, but he never offered a mouthful of it to his
famishing little daughter, as she stood by, looking at him. A thick
slice of bad bread with some butter spread thinly on it was Jessie's
fare, and she wished the butter had been omitted altogether, so
horrid did it smell and taste.

As soon as he had finished the last mouthful of his supper Harry Lang
got up, and without a word to either of them, slouched out of the
kitchen and up-stairs to bed. Mrs. Lang began at once to clear a
very large old sofa of its untidiness.

"You'll have to sleep here," she said; "the house is so full there
isn't room for you anywhere else. Make haste and get your things
off. I want to get to bed myself. I've got to be up at five, and
it's past one now."

Jessie looked with dismay at the collection of dirty-looking shawls
and coats her stepmother was piling on the sofa as "bedclothes," and
if she had not been so dead tired, she could never have brought
herself to lie down under them. Visions of her own sweet little room
and spotless bed rose before her, and overcame her control.

"Is this your bag?"

"Yes," said Jessie tearfully, a sob rising in her throat.

The woman looked at her with dull interest. "You'd better keep your
feelings to yourself," she said; "there's no time for any here.
Try to go to sleep, and don't think about anything," she added, not
unkindly. "You are overtired to-night, you'll feel better
to-morrow." She helped Jessie into her rough bed, and tucked the
shawl about her, but she did not kiss her. "Now make haste and go to
sleep," she said, "for I shall be down very early, and then you'll
have to get up," and she walked away, taking the lamp with her.

Jessie shut her eyes and tried to go to sleep, but her nerves were
all unstrung, brain and ears were all on the alert, and there seemed
to be curious, unaccountable sounds on all sides of her. She had not
been alone more than a minute or two before there were strange
scraping noises in the kitchen not far from her. "Mice!" thought
Jessie, "or beetles."

She was a fairly brave child, but she had a perfect horror of black
beetles, and her heart sank at the thought of them. She drew the
shawl over her head as well as she could, and wrapped up her arms in
it, but still she felt that the beetles were running, running
everywhere, over the walls and over her, and she could scarcely
refrain from shrieking aloud in her horror. Then came louder and
more dreadful sounds, the cries of people quarrelling; they seemed to
be in the very house too; Jessie uncovered her head to hear, then
covered it quickly again, sick and faint with fear. A drunken man
reeled past the house, singing noisily; to Jessie in the kitchen area
he seemed horribly near.

She grew more and more frightened with each sound she heard. She was
alone in the dark, with dreadful things happening all around her, in
a house that she did not even know her way about. She felt sick and
faint with terror and horror of the place, and longing for home and
all that she had lost.

Then she remembered suddenly that she had not said her prayers.
It had all seemed so strange, and her stepmother had hurried her so,
that she had never thought of it until now.

"Oh, I can't get out and kneel down," she thought. "I might step on
some beetles. I am sure if God sees how dreadful everything is, and
how frightened I am, that He will forgive me if I say them here. And
she began--

"I trust myself, dear God, to Thee,
Keep every evil far from me.

"Does that mean drunken men and beetles," she wondered feverishly,
"'I trust myself, dear God, to Thee;' if I do, He will take care of
me, for certain," and a ray of comfort crept into her poor little
aching heart. "Granp told me so." And for the first time in her
life Jessie felt the true meaning of the dear old grandfather's
lessons in the garden, or by the kitchen fire.

Hitherto she had been sheltered and loved and guarded, been well
clothed, and fed, and cared for. Now, for the first time, she felt
the need of some one to turn to, and her prayers meant more than they
had ever meant before. They came from her heart, and were real
petitions.

"Granp said God loved little children, and always listened to them,"
and with this comforting thought she at last fell asleep.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE NEW HOME.

It seemed to Jessie that she was still saying, "Keep every evil far
from me," and trying to go to sleep, when a voice said sharply--

"Now then, it's time to wake up! Make haste and get your clothes on,
for your father and one of the lodgers will be here wanting their
breakfasts presently."

Jessie woke with a great start, and sprang up, struggling with the
shawl which was still wrapped about her head. Free of this, she
looked about her in a dazed way, trying to rouse herself and collect
her wits. It was not yet daylight, of course, and the lighted lamp
stood on the table in the midst of the dirty dishes just as it had
the night before; her stepmother too--her hair and dress and whole
appearance were exactly as they had been the night before, the only
difference being that she seemed, if anything, less agreeable.

"Wake up! wake up!" she called sharply again. "I want you to make
yourself useful, not to be giving me more trouble. Get on your
things, then light the fire as quick as you can--no, I'll light the
fire to-day, because your father can't bear to be kept waiting, but I
shall look to you to do it other mornings, and to get up without
being called, too."

"Yes," said Jessie dutifully, "I hope I shall be able to wake up."
She was so sleepy at the moment that she could scarcely stand, or see
to get into her garments. She looked around her for a place where
she could wash. Cold water would help her to wake up, perhaps.
It was really painful to be so terribly sleepy.

"Please, where can I wash?" she asked at last. "I--I can't wake--up;
I--I--" and she was asleep again. Her stepmother's sharp voice soon
roused her, though.

"A place to wash in!" she snapped crossly. "Why, you must wait until
some of them have gone out, then you can go to one of the bedrooms,
unless you'd like to wash at the tap, out there," pointing to the
scullery; "there's a dipper there you can use."

Jessie gladly accepted the last offer. She was longing to feel the
freshness of cold water on her aching head and heavy eyes, and her
hot face, and she groped her way out to the scullery.

It was lighted by a candle only, but even so Jessie could see the
untidy muddle of everything. The sink by the tap was crowded with
pots and pans and dirty dishes, and so was the table and the dirty
floor. Where was she to wash, and where was the dipper? She looked
around her hopelessly. She was so heavy with sleep she could hardly
see, so aching in every limb she could scarcely stand; and the sight
of the miserable place, and the close smell of it, made her feel
positively sick and ill.

She did not dare, though, trouble her stepmother any further, she had
to act for herself; so she looked about her, first of all for the
dipper, and presently saw it standing, full of potato peelings, on
the floor under the sink. She seized it thankfully, and emptying its
contents on to a dirty plate, went to the tap and gave it a good wash
out. While she was doing this her eye fell on a piece of soap.
At last she managed to draw a dipperful of clean fresh water, and
glad enough she was; it felt so delicious, in fact, and she enjoyed
it so much, she could not bear to tear herself away from it, until
her mother's sharp voice brought her back to her duties again, and
the rest of her toilet was finished more hurriedly.

"What shall I do first?" she asked timidly, when she was ready.
In her clean pinafore, with her hair well brushed, and her cheeks
still glowing from the cold water, she looked so fresh and such a
pleasant sight to see, that a ray of something like pleased surprise
showed itself for a moment even on Mrs. Lang's tired face.

"Can you wash up two or three of the cups and things without smashing
them?" she asked.

"Oh yes," said Jessie, almost reproachfully, "I always do at home."
But the mere mention of that name brought the tears to her eyes, and
prevented her saying more.

"Well, do that first. You needn't wash more than two cups and
plates. I'd better lend you something to put on over your clean
apron, or you'll be wanting another before the day is out."

"I've got my overalls here," said Jessie, with pride. "Granny made
me two," and she stepped to the old bag and lifted out a dark-blue
galateen pinafore which covered her all up to the hem of her frock.

When she came back from washing the dishes she brought the
sweeping-brush with her, and, as a matter of course, began to sweep
up the littered floor. Mrs. Lang opened her mouth to tell her to
stop, then apparently thought better of it, and let her go on.
The kitchen swept, Jessie asked for a duster to dust the chairs and
other things, which needed it badly enough!

"A duster! Don't bother me about such things. We haven't got any."

Jessie looked nonplussed. "May I have this?" she asked at last,
picking up a bit of rag from a pile of things untidily heaped on a
chair. Mrs. Lang, though, was gone, and did not hear her.
Jessie looked at the rag, and pondered. At last, however, the
temptation to wipe off some of the dust became too much for her, and
she used it. "I can wash out the rag again," she comforted herself
by thinking. "I wonder what I had better do next," for Mrs. Lang had
not returned. "I s'pose I'd better sweep out the passage and brush
down the steps. Oh, I do want some breakfast!" she added, with a
sigh.

While she was sweeping down the steps before the front door, her
stepmother came into the kitchen again. The semblance of a smile
crossed her face as she looked at the neatly-arranged chairs, and
heard the broom going in the distance.

"We're to be kept tidy, now, I s'pose," she muttered, with a laugh.
"I wonder how long it'll last. She won't get much encouragement
here."

Jessie came into the kitchen with her broom, and found her stepmother
frying bacon. It smelt very good, and Jessie was ravenously hungry.

"Does father have to go to work every day as early as this?" she
asked.

"Work!" cried Mrs. Lang, with a scornful laugh. "Work! I've never
known your father work since he crossed my path! It's the races he's
off to; you wouldn't find him get up at this hour for anything else."

Jessie stared wide-eyed. "Doesn't he ever work?" she gasped.
"How does he live, then?"

"Well you may ask!" snapped Mrs. Lang bitterly. "He's kept. I do
the work, and he finds that more to his taste. I've got the house
full of lodgers, and I can tell you it takes me all my time, and
more, to look after them. I never get any pleasure, and your father
never gets any work, and he thinks that is just as it should be."

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9