Kate's Ordeal, Emma Leslie [best historical fiction books of all time .TXT] 📗

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KATE'S ORDEAL***

E-text prepared by Al Haines




William in the shop.

KATE'S ORDEAL
BY EMMA LESLIE

THE NATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION
57 & 59 LUDGATE HILL, LONDON, B.C. 4 Printed 1887


CONTENTS.
THE MESSAGE DID SHE FORGET? IN LONDON THE LOST PURSE A DISCLOSURE AT THE THEATRE CONCLUSION


ILLUSTRATIONS.
William in the shop . . . . . . Frontispiece Miss Eldon's visit


KATE'S ORDEAL
CHAPTER I. THE MESSAGE.

o you think Katie Haydon is pretty—I don't?" and the speaker glanced at her own bright curls as she spoke.

"Well, I don't know whether she is exactly pretty, but she always looks nice, and then she is so pleasant and merry, and——"

"And so vain and stuck-up," put in the first speaker again.

"Oh, how can you say so?" said another, a plain, quiet-looking girl, who had not spoken before. "Mother says she would make such a nice nurse-maid; so quiet and bright as she is, children would be sure to take to her."

"Well, I don't know so much about that, Mary, but I know she has asked teacher about a situation—her mother wants her to go into the nursery."

"My mother wants me to do the same," said quiet Mary Green, "but although I have spoken to teacher I do not expect to hear of anything until Katie is suited, for she asked first, and people are sure to choose her in preference to me." This was said without the least touch of envy or jealousy. Before anyone could reply to it, Katie herself joined the group. "Are we not late?" she said, breathless with her run to catch them before they reached the school. "I have some news for you. What do you think—I am going to London!" she panted, fanning herself with her pocket-handkerchief, and casting a triumphant glance at Esther Odell, the girl who had called her proud and stuck-up. Esther was always talking about going to London, and saying disparaging things of going to service—servants were vulgar and despised and she never would be a servant, though her mother and father both said she ought to get a situation. This was how Esther had talked, and it gave Kate Haydon no small pleasure to be able to come and tell her schoolfellow that she was going to the wonderful city first.

"Is it settled, Katie?" asked Mary. "Have you got a situation—are you going to service?"

Katie shook her head. "I am going to serve in a shop. My cousin has got a nice place at a baker's and confectioner's, and they want somebody to help her, and she has written to me about it."

"What a lucky girl you are!" exclaimed Esther, in a tone of envy. "It does seem hard, too, for that is just the kind of situation I want, and I daresay you would have been as well pleased if it had been in the nursery."

"My mother would have liked it better, I do believe," laughed Katie, "for she seems half afraid to let me go to London, and serve in a shop too!"

"Here comes teacher!" said Mary Green, and the conversation was dropped, as the girls hurried forward to meet the lady.

They went into school together, and in the bustle of getting their seats, Miss Eldon whispered to Kate, "Will you ask your mother to come and see me to-morrow morning, Kate?"

"Yes, ma'am," answered the girl, wondering not a little what her teacher could want to see her mother about—quite forgetting the request she had made to the lady a few weeks before. The lesson for that Sunday afternoon was about the honour and dignity of work and service, for the lady knew that some of her class had adopted the foolish notions of Esther Odell, and did not fail to bring forward this subject whenever she had the opportunity, pointing out how God had made it necessary for all to work and serve their fellow-men. Then she went on to speak of the word "angel," and how in its original sense it meant servants, and how many a household servant was a veritable angel in the family she served, and with what honour and love she was regarded by every member of it.

Listening to her teacher, it suddenly occurred to Katie that it was about the business of her becoming a household servant that her teacher desired to see her mother and her thoughts instantly reverted to Esther Odell and the pleasant prospect held out by her cousin's letter. Her mother would be only too glad to hear of a situation nearer home for her she knew, but Katie had made up her mind to go to London if she possibly could, and so the more she thought of it the more vexed she felt that her teacher should want to see her mother just now, but how to prevent it she did not know.

The girls chatted about the lesson, and about the relative advantage of going to service, or learning dress-making and machine-work, but Kate took little part in the discussion to-day; and when they reached the corner where she must leave them, she felt glad to get away, to think out the problem she had been puzzling over all the afternoon. She had not told any of her schoolfellows of the message she had been charged to deliver to her mother, so no troublesome questions or surmises had been propounded by them, and if she could only contrive to banish the whole subject from her mind—forget it entirely, her future would be settled before the next Sunday came round, for her cousin's letter must be answered the next day, and the offer accepted or declined, and she knew there were many reasons why her mother could not well decline it, unless she had something else in view for her.

Mrs. Haydon was a widow, often ailing, and never strong enough to earn her own living by hard work, but through the kindness of her brother—himself not a wealthy man—a little business had been secured for her, enough to keep her in comfort, and he had urged that Kate, being young and strong, ought to get a situation.

But nothing had come in their way likely to suit Kate, until these letters from London offering her a situation with her cousin. Her uncle had written as well as her cousin, urging that if she had nothing else in view, she had better accept this, as she might not have such a chance again—a view of the matter that Kate fully endorsed. She was most anxious to go to London, and to serve in a shop and be called a "young lady" was so much better than going to service she thought.

But her mother shook her head rather gravely, when she ventured to say something of this to her. "I am not so sure about that, my dear. I was a servant myself for years before I married your poor father, and was much more comfortable and happy, I know, than half the girls are that set up to be 'young ladies' now; so that I hope you will never despise service, Kate," her mother had said.

Kate recalled these words, and many others that her mother had spoken lately upon the same subject, but now that it seemed as though the choice lay in her own hands, they had little weight with her. These notions were old-fashioned, she whispered to herself, nobody ever went to service now if they could possibly obtain any other employment. Even Esther Odell was going to learn dress-making, although there was a large family to keep, and her father's wages barely sufficed to supply all their wants; and thinking of Esther, made Katie decide to say nothing to her mother about her teacher desiring to see her, for she never could meet her schoolfellows' taunts and jeers about being a servant, when she had the chance of being something better. As Kate went into the little back room, behind the shop, where her mother was sitting, she noticed the traces of tears on her face, and asked rather anxiously if she was ill.

"No, my dear, I have only been thinking this matter over again, and I cannot help feeling troubled about it."

"But why should you, mother?" and Kate stooped and kissed the pale anxious face, and was about to whisper, "You may have your wish after all, for teacher wants to see you to-morrow morning." But a footstep was heard on the stairs, and she said, "Here comes Aunt Ellen;" and the next minute the door opened, and Mrs. Haydon's sister entered the room.

"Oh, you have come in, Kate. I came down to see if your mother was fretting still. It's very foolish of her, I think. Of course, we never can have things just as we wish, and if you can't get a nice respectable situation in a family, you ought to take your uncle's offer."

"Yes, yes, she shall; I've made up my mind about it now, Ellen," said the widow, hastily; while Kate turned to the window to hide her tell-tale face.

"Well, I'm glad the matter is decided so far, for you were just making yourself ill with the worry."

"I don't see why mother should worry so much about it," said Kate, petulantly.

Her aunt looked at her for a minute in silence, and then said, "Well, she cannot expect to keep you tied to her apron-string all your life. Of course, if you could get a quiet place near home it would be better;" for Aunt Ellen at that moment was asking herself the same question that Esther Odell had asked her schoolfellows an hour or two before, "Is Katie a pretty girl?" and all at once a doubt had crept into her mind about the wisdom of sending her into the midst of unknown temptations. But she put it down at once, seeing that her sister had at last decided the matter. "Of course, Kate will be careful and steady, and not make any chance acquaintances," she said, answering her own thoughts.

"Yes, yes; it is not that I am afraid of her," said the widow, hastily.

"And Aunt Ellen will always be here to take care of you," said Kate. "I would not think of going so far away, if you had to be left alone."

"Yes, yes, my dear; I was not thinking of myself at all in the matter, although I shall miss you terribly, but—but—"

"There, suppose you get your mother a cup of tea as quickly as you can, Kate, that is what she wants," interrupted Aunt Ellen; and Kate, feeling very uncomfortable, went to take her things off and get tea ready.

Mrs. Haydon was better after tea, and could talk more cheerfully of Kate leaving home. She knew very little of London herself, except what she had heard from her brother, and very little of her brother's family. He had several grown-up sons and daughters, and his wife had been dead some years. Beyond these bare facts, she knew very little about them, so that Kate would be going among comparative strangers, and it was this that had troubled the widow most.

"You shall write to your cousin to-morrow morning, Katie, and I will write to your uncle, it will be better to settle this at once, I suppose."

"Yes, mother, I am sure it will—not that I want to leave you, mother, I shall miss you dreadfully, I know, but then I may never have such a chance as this again."

"True, Kate; but still I cannot help wishing it was to some nice nursery you were going instead of a shop."

"But then it is only a baker's shop, mother," said Kate.

"Yes, yes; but it's so far away from home; if you could come to me for the Sundays, Kate, or if I knew anything of your cousin Marion, it would be different—I should feel more easy about you."

"Oh, mother, why need you feel uneasy. Surely you do not think I should do anything wicked?" exclaimed Kate.

"No, no, my child. I hope that which you have learned at Sunday school will not be so easily forgotten. Kate, you must find out a Bible-class as soon as you get there, even if your cousins do not go to Sunday school."

"But I should think they did, mother. Marion is only a year or two older than me, and Isabel younger, so that I should think they would go."

"I don't know, my dear, I never heard that they went to a Sunday school, but I hope they do for your sake.