Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell [read this if TXT] 📗

that, in the long run, true and simple virtue always has its proportionate reward in the respect and reverence of every one whose esteem is worth having. To be sure, it is not rewarded after the way of the world, as mere worldly possessions are, with low obeisance and lip-service; but all the better and more noble qualities in the hearts of others make ready and go forth to meet it on its approach, provided only it be pure, simple, and unconscious of its own existence.

Mr. Benson had little thought for outward tokens of respect just then, nor had Mrs. Morgan much time to spare; but she smoothed her ruffled brow, and calmed her bustling manner, as soon as ever she saw who it was that awaited her; for Mr. Benson was well known in the village, where he had taken up his summer holiday among the mountains year after year, always a resident at the shop, and seldom spending a shilling at the inn.

Mrs. Morgan listened patiently—for her.

“Mr. Jones will come this afternoon. But it is a shame you should be troubled with such as her. I had but little time yesterday, but I guessed there was something wrong, and Gwen has just been telling me her bed has not been slept in. They were in a pretty hurry to be gone yesterday, for all that the gentleman was not fit to travel, to my way of thinking; indeed, William Wynn, the postboy, said he was weary enough before he got to the end of that Yspytty road; and he thought they would have to rest there a day or two before they could go further than Pen tre Voelas. Indeed, and anyhow, the servant is to follow them with the baggage this very morning; and now I remember, William Wynn said they would wait for her. You’d better write a note, Mr. Benson, and tell them her state.”

It was sound, though unpalatable advice. It came from one accustomed to bring excellent, if unrefined sense, to bear quickly upon any emergency, and to decide rapidly. She was, in truth, so little accustomed to have her authority questioned, that, before Mr. Benson had made up his mind, she had produced paper, pens, and ink from the drawer in her bureau, placed them before him, and was going to leave the room.

“Leave the note on this shelf, and trust me that it goes by the maid. The boy that drives her there in the car shall bring you an answer back.” She was gone before he could rally his scattered senses enough to remember that he had not the least idea of the name of the person to whom he was to write. The quiet leisure and peace of his little study at home favoured his habit of reverie and long deliberation, just as her position as mistress of an inn obliged her to quick, decisive ways.

Her advice, though good in some points, was unpalatable in others. It was true that Ruth’s condition ought to be known by those who were her friends; but were these people to whom he was now going to write friends? He knew there was a rich mother, and a handsome, elegant son; and he had also some idea of the circumstances which might a little extenuate their mode of quitting Ruth. He had wide-enough sympathy to understand that it must have been a most painful position in which the mother had been placed, on finding herself under the same roof with a girl who was living with her son, as Ruth was. And yet he did not like to apply to her; to write to the son was still more out of the question, as it seemed like asking him to return. But through one or the other lay the only clue to her friends, who certainly ought to be made acquainted with her position. At length he wrote—

“MADAM,—I write to tell you of the condition of the poor young woman”—(here came a long pause of deliberation)—“who accompanied your son on his arrival here, and who was left behind on your departure yesterday. She is lying (as it appears to me) in a very dangerous state at my lodgings; and, if I may suggest, it would be kind to allow your maid to return and attend upon her until she is sufficiently recovered to be restored to her friends, if, indeed, they could not come to take charge of her themselves.—I remain, madam, your obedient servant THURSTAN BENSON.”

The note was very unsatisfactory after all his consideration, but it was the best he could do. He made inquiry of a passing servant as to the lady’s name, directed the note, and placed it on the indicated shelf. He then returned to his lodgings, to await the doctor’s coming and the postboy’s return. There was no alteration in Ruth; she was as one stunned into unconsciousness; she did not move her posture, she hardly breathed. From time to time Mrs. Hughes wetted her mouth with some liquid, and there was a little mechanical motion of the lips; that was the only sign of life she gave. The doctor came and shook his head,—“a thorough prostration of strength, occasioned by some great shock on the nerves,”—and prescribed care and quiet, and mysterious medicines, but acknowledged that the result was doubtful, very doubtful. After his departure, Mr. Benson took his Welsh grammar and tried again to master the ever-puzzling rules for the mutations of letters; but it was of no use, for his thoughts were absorbed by the life-in-death condition of the young creature, who was lately bounding and joyous.

The maid and the luggage, the car and the driver; bad arrived before noon at their journey’s end, and the note had been delivered. It annoyed Mrs. Bellingham exceedingly. It was the worst of these kind of connections,—there was no calculating the consequences; they were never-ending. All sorts of claims seemed to be established, and all sorts of people to step in to their settlement. The idea of sending her maid! Why, Simpson would not go if she asked her. She soliloquised thus while reading the letter; and then, suddenly turning round to the favourite attendant, who had been listening to her mistress’s remarks with no inattentive ear, she asked—

“Simpson, would you go and nurse this creature, as this–-” she looked at the signature—“Mr. Benson, who ever he is, proposes?”

“Me! no, indeed, ma’am,” said the maid, drawing herself up, stiff in her virtue.

“I’m sure, ma’am, you: would not expect it of me; I could never have the face to dress a lady of character again.”

“Well, well! don’t be alarmed; I cannot spare you: by the way, just attend to the strings on my dress; the chambermaid here pulled them into knots, and broke them terribly, last night. It is awkward, though, very,” said she, relapsing into a musing fit over the condition of Ruth.

“If you’ll allow me, ma’am, I think I might say some thing that would alter the case. I believe, ma’am, you put a bank-note into the letter to the young woman yesterday?”

Mrs. Bellingham bowed acquiescence, and the maid went on—

“Because, ma’am, when the little deformed man wrote that note (he’s Mr. Benson, ma’am), I have reason to believe neither he nor Mrs. Morgan knew of any provision being made for the young woman. Me and the chambermaid found your letter and the bank-note lying quite promiscuous, like waste paper, on the floor of her room; for I believe she rushed out like mad after you left.”

“That, as you say, alters the case. This letter, then, is principally a sort of delicate hint that some provision ought to have been made; which is true enough, only it has been attended to already. What became of the money?”

“Law, ma’am! do you ask? Of course, as soon as I saw it, I picked it up and took it to Mrs. Morgan, in trust for the young person.”

“Oh, that’s right. What friends has she? Did you ever hear from Mason?—perhaps they ought to know where she is.”

“Mrs. Mason did tell me, ma’am, she was an orphan; with a guardian who was noways akin, and who washed his hands of her when she ran off. But Mrs. Mason was sadly put out, and went into hysterics, for fear you would think she had not seen after her enough, and that she might lose your custom; she said it was no fault of hers, for the girl was always a forward creature, boasting of her beauty, and saying how pretty she was, and striving to get where her good looks could be seen and admired,—one night in particular, ma’am, at a county ball; and how Mrs. Mason had found out she used to meet Mr. Bellingham at an old woman’s house, who was a regular old witch, ma’am, and lives in the lowest part of the town, where all the bad characters haunt.”

“There! that’s enough,” said Mrs. Bellingham sharply, for the maid’s chattering had outrun her tact; and in her anxiety to vindicate the character of her friend Mrs. Mason by blackening that of Ruth, she had forgotten that she a little implicated her mistress’s son, whom his proud mother did not like to imagine as ever passing through a low and degraded part of the town.

“If she has no friends, and is the creature you describe (which is confirmed by my own observation), the best place for her is, as I said before, the Penitentiary. Her fifty pounds will keep her a week or so, if she is really unable to travel, and pay for her journey; and if on her return to Fordham she will let me know, I will undertake to obtain her admission immediately.”

“I’m sure it’s well for her she has to do with a lady who will take any interest in her, after what has happened.”

Mrs. Bellingham called for her writing-desk, and wrote a few hasty lines to be sent by the postboy, who was on the point of starting—

“Mrs. Bellingham presents her compliments to her unknown correspondent, Mr. Benson, and begs to inform him of a circumstance of which she believes he was ignorant when he wrote the letter with which she has been favoured; namely, that provision to the amount of L 50 was left for the unfortunate young person who is the subject of Mr. Benson’s letter. This sum is in the hands of Mrs. Morgan, as well as a note from Mrs. Bellingham to the miserable girl, in which she proposes to procure her admission into the Fordham Penitentiary, the best place for such a character, as by this profligate action she has forfeited the only friend remaining to her in the world. This proposition Mrs. Bellingham repeats; and they are the young woman’s best friends who most urge her to comply with the course now pointed out.”

“Take care Mr. Bellingham hears nothing of this Mr. Benson’s note,” said Mrs. Bellingham, as she delivered the answer to her maid; “he is so sensitive just now that it would annoy him sadly, I am sure.”