Far Above Rubies, George MacDonald [open ebook txt] 📗

you must do without butter. I always preferred a piece of dry bread with an egg-you get the true taste of the egg so much better. One day or another we must part with everything. It is sure to come. Sooner or later, what does that matter? 'The readiness is all,' as Hamlet says. Death, or the pawnshop, signifies nothing. 'Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is it to leave betimes?' We do but forestall the grave for one brief hour with the pawnshop."

"You deserve to have married Epictetus, Annie, you brave woman, instead of Xantippe!"

"I prefer you, Hector."

"But what might you have said if he had asked you, and you had heard me bemoaning the pawnshop?"

"Ah, then, indeed! But, in the meantime, we will go to bed and wait there for to-morrow. Is it not a lovely thing to know that God is thinking about you? He will bring us to our desired haven, Hector, dearest!"

So in their sadness they laid them down. Annie opened her arms and took Hector to her bosom. There he sighed himself to sleep; and God put His arms about them both, and kept them asleep until the morning.

And in this love, more than in bed, I rest.


Annie was the first to spring up and begin to dress herself, pondering in her mind as she did so whether to go first to the pawnbroker's or to the baker, to ask him to recommend her as a charwoman. She would tell him just the truth-that she must in future work for her daily bread. Then Hector rose and dressed himself.

"Oh, Annie!" he said, as he did so, "is it gone, that awful misery of last night in the omnibus? It seemed, as I jolted along, as if God had forgotten one of the creatures he had made, and that one was me; or, worse, that he thought of me, and would not move to help me! And why do I feel now as if He had help for me somewhere near waiting for me? I think I will go and see a man who lives somewhere close by, and find out if he is the same I used to know at St. Andrews; if he be the same, he may know of something I could try for."

"Do," replied Annie. "I will go with you, and on the way call at the grocer's-I think he will be the best to ask if he knows of any family that wants a charwoman or could give me any sort of work. There's more than one kind of thing I could turn my hand to-needle-work, for instance. I could make a child's frock as well, I believe, as a second-rate dressmaker. Can you tell me who was the first tailor, Hector? It was God himself. He made coats of skins for Adam and his wife."

"Quite right, dear. You may well try your hand-as I know you have done many a time already. And, if I can get hold of ever so young a pupil, I shall be glad even to teach him his letters. We must try anything and everything. We are long past being fastidious, I hope."

He turned and went on with his toilet.

"Oh, Hector," said Annie suddenly, and walked to the mantelpiece, "I am so sorry! Here is a letter that came for you yesterday. I did not care to open it, though you have often told me to open any letters I pleased. The fact is, I forgot all about it; I believe, because I was so unhappy at your going away without breakfast. Or perhaps it was that I was frightened at its black border. I really can't tell now why I did not open it."

With little interest and less hope, Hector took the letter,-black-bordered and black-sealed,-opened it, and glanced carelessly at the signature, while Annie stood looking at him, in the hope merely that he would find in it no fresh trouble-some forgotten bill perhaps!

She saw his face change, and his eyes grow fixed. A moment more and the letter dropped in the fender. He stood an instant, then fell on his knees, and threw up his hands.

"What is it, darling?" she cried, beginning to tremble.

"Only five hundred pounds!" he answered, and burst into an hysterical laugh.

"Impossible!" cried Annie.

"Who can have played us such a cruel trick?" said Hector feebly.

"It's no trick, Hector!" exclaimed Annie. "There's nobody would have the heart to do it. Let me see the letter."

She almost caught it from his hands as he picked it from the fender, and looked at the signature.

"Hale & Hale?" she read. "I never heard of them!"

"No, nor anyone else, I dare say," answered Hector.

"Let us see the address at the top," said Annie.

"There it is-Philpot Lane."

"Where is that? I don't believe there is such a place!"

"Oh, yes, there is; I've seen it-somewhere in the City, I believe. But let us read the letter. I saw only the figures. I confess I was foolish enough at first to fancy somebody had sent us five hundred pounds!"

"And why not?" cried Annie. "I am sure there's no one more in want of it."

"That's just why not," answered Hector. "Did you ever know a rich man leave his money to a poor relation? Oh, I hope it does not mean that my father is gone. He may have left us a trifle. Only he could not have had so much to leave to anybody. I know he loved you, Annie."

In the meantime Annie had been doing the one sensible thing-reading the letter, and now she stood pondering it.

"I have it, Hector. He always uses good people to do his kindnesses. Don't you remember me telling you about the little old lady in Graham's shop the time your book came out?"

"Yes, Annie; I wasn't likely to forget that; it was my love for you that made me able to write the poem. Ah, but how soon was the twenty pounds I got for it spent, though I thought it riches then!"

"So it was-and so it is!" cried Annie, half laughing, but crying outright. "It's just that same little old lady. She was so delighted with the book, and with you for writing it, that she put you down at once in her will for five hundred pounds, believing it would help people to trust in God."

"And here was I distrusting so much that I was nearly ready to kill myself. Only I thought it would be such a terrible shock to you, my precious! It would have been to tell God to his face that I knew he would not help me. I am sure now that he is never forgetting, though he seems to have forgotten. There was that letter lying in the dark through all the hours of the long night, while we slept in the weariness of sorrow and fear, not knowing what the light was bringing us. God is good!"

"Let us go and see these people and make sure," said Annie. "'Hale and Hearty,' do they call themselves? But I'm going with you myself this time! I'm not going to have such another day as I had yesterday-waiting for you till the sun was down, and all was dark, you bad man!-and fancying all manner of terrible things! I wonder-I wonder, if-"

"Well, what do you wonder, Annie?"

"Only whether, if now we were to find out it was indeed all a mistake, I should yet be able to hope on through all the rest. I doubt it; I doubt it! Oh, Hector, you have taught me everything!"

"More, it seems, than I have myself learned. Your mother had already taught you far more than ever I had to give you!"

"But it is much too early yet, I fear, to call in the City," said Annie. "Don't you think we should have time first to find out whether the gentleman we were thinking of inquiring after to-day be your old college friend or not? And I will call at the grocer's, and tell him we hope to settle his bill in a few days. Then you can come to me, and I will go to you, and we shall meet somewhere between."

They did as Annie propose; and before they met, Hector had found his friend, and been heartily received both by him and by his young wife.

When at length they reached Philpot Lane, and were seated in an outer room waiting for admission, Annie said: "Surely, if rich people knew how some they do not know need their help, they would be a little more eager to feather their wings ere they fly aloft by making friends with the Mammon of unrighteousness. Don't you think it may be sometimes that they are afraid of doing harm with their money?"

"I'm afraid it is more that they never think what our Lord meant when he said the words. But oh, Annie! is it a bad sign of me that the very possibility of this money could make me so happy?"

They were admitted at length, and kindly received by a gray-haired old man, who warned them not to fancy so much money would last them very long.

"Indeed, sir," answered Annie, "the best thing we expect from it is that it will put my husband in good heart to begin another book."

"Oh! your husband writes books, does he? Then I begin to understand my late client's will. It is just like her," said the old gentleman. "Had you known her long?"

"I never once saw her," said Hector.

"But I did," said Annie, "and I heard her say how delighted she was with his first book. Please, sir," she added, "will it be long before you can let us have the money?"

"You shall have it by-and-by," answered the lawyer; "all in good time."

And now first they learned that not a penny of the money would they receive before the end of a twelvemonth.

"Well, that will give us plenty of time to die first," thought Hector, "which I am sure the kind lady did not intend when she left us the money."

Another thing they learned was that, even then, they would not receive the whole of the money left them, for seeing they could claim no relation to the legator, ten per cent must be deducted from their legacy. If they came to him in a year from the date of her death, he told them he would have much pleasure in handing them the sum of four hundred and fifty pounds.

So they left the office-not very exultant, for they were both rather hungry, and had to go at once in search of work-with but a poor chance of borrowing upon it.

Nevertheless, Hector broke the silence by saying:

"I declare, Annie, I feel so light and free already that I could invent anything, even a fairy tale, and I feel as if it would be a lovely one. I hope you have a penny left to buy a new bottle of ink. The ink at home is so thick it takes three strokes to one mark."

"Yes, dear, I have a penny; I have two, indeed-just twopence left. We shall buy a bottle of ink with one, and-shall it be a bun with the other? I think one penny bun will divide better than two halfpenny ones."