Polly: A New-Fashioned Girl, L. T. Meade [unputdownable books txt] 📗
- Author: L. T. Meade
Book online «Polly: A New-Fashioned Girl, L. T. Meade [unputdownable books txt] 📗». Author L. T. Meade
The night was still and calm; the stars shone peacefully; the wind, which had come in gusts earlier in the evening, had died down. It took Flower a very few minutes to reach the village, and she wasn’t long in discovering Mrs. Ricketts’ humble abode.
That good woman had long retired to rest, but Flower’s peremptory summons on the door soon caused a night-capped head to protrude out of a window, a burst of astonishment to issue from a wonder-struck pair of lips, and a moment later the young lady was standing by Mrs. Ricketts’ fireside.
“I’m proud to see you, Miss, and that I will say. Set down, Miss, do now, and I’ll light up the fire in a twinkling.”
“No, you needn’t,” said Flower. “I’m hot; I’m burning. Feel me; a fire would drive me wild.”
“To be sure, so you are, all in a fever like,” said Mrs. Ricketts, laying her rough hand for a moment on Flower’s dainty arm. “You’ll let me light up the bit of a paraffin[Pg 133] lamp, then, Miss, for it ain’t often as I have the chance of seeing a young lady come all the way from Australy.”
“You can light the lamp, if you like,” said Flower. “And you can stare at me as much as you please. I’m just like any one else, only wickeder. I’ve come to you, Mrs. Ricketts, because you’re Maggie’s mother, and Maggie’s a good girl, and I thought perhaps you would help me.”
“I’m obligated for the words of praise about my daughter, Miss. Yes, she don’t mean bad, Maggie don’t. What can I do to help you, Miss? Anything in my power you are kindly welcome to.”
“Have you ever seen a diamond, Mrs. Ricketts?”
“I don’t know, I’m sure, Miss.”
“Diamonds are very valuable stones, you know.”
“Maybe, Miss. They ain’t in my way. I wish you’d let me light you a bit of fire, Miss Flower. You’ll have the chills presently, Miss, for you’re all of a burning fever now.”
“You can do anything you like in the way of fire by-and-by. I have a diamond here. Shall I show it to you?”
“Oh, law, Miss, I’m sure you are condescending.”
“Come over close to the paraffin lamp. Now you shall see. Doesn’t it sparkle!”
Mrs. Ricketts dropped a curtsey to the gem, which, unpolished as it was, cast forth strange reflections, giving her, as she afterwards explained, a “queer feel” and a sense of chill down the marrow of her back.
“This is very valuable,” said Flower. “I don’t know what it is worth, but my father gave it to my mother, and she gave it to me. She said it would be well for me to have it in case of emergency. Emergency has come, and I want to sell this stone. It is very likely that whoever buys it from me will become rich. Would you like it? You shall have it for what money you have in the house.”
“Oh, law, Miss! but I’m a very poor woman, Miss.”
Mrs. Ricketts curtseyed again, and drew closer. “For all the world, it looks as if it were alive, Miss.”
“All valuable diamonds look as if they lived. If this were cut and polished it would dazzle you.”
“And if I had it, I could sell it for a good bit of money?”
“I am sure you could. I don’t know for how much, but for more than I am likely to get from you.”
“I’d like to pay Miss Polly back that pound as Maggie took from her.”
“Don’t worry me about your debts. Will you have this beautiful uncut diamond for the money you have in the house?”
Mrs. Ricketts did not reply for a moment.
“I have nine shillings and fourpence-halfpenny,” she said at last, “and to-morrow is rent day. Rent will be eight shillings; that leaves me one-and-fourpence-half penny for food. Ef I give you all my money, Miss, how am I to pay rent? And how are the children to have food to-morrow?”[Pg 134]
“But you can sell the diamond. Why are you so dreadfully stupid? You can sell the diamond for one, two, or perhaps three pounds. Then how rich you will be.”
“Oh, Miss! there’s no one in this yer village ’ud give away good money for a bit of a stone like that; they’d know better. My word! it do send out a sort of a flame, though; it’s wondrous to look upon!”
“People will buy it from you in a town. Go to the nearest town, take it to a jeweler, and see how rich you will be when you come out of his shop. There, I will give it to you for your nine-and-fourpence-half penny.”
Flower laid the diamond in the woman’s hand.
“It seems to burn me like,” she said. But all the same her fingers closed over it, and a look of greed and satisfaction filled her face.
“I don’t know if I’m a-doin’clock right,” she said, “for perhaps this ain’t worth sixpence, and then where’s the rent and the food? But, all the same, I don’t like to say no to a pretty lady when she’s in trouble. Here’s the nine-and-fourpence-halfpenny, Miss. I earned it bit by bit by washing the neighbors’ clothes; it wasn’t easy come by; there’s labor in it, and aches and dead-tiredness about it. You take it, Miss. I only trust the diamond will repay what I loses on that nine-and-fourpence-half penny.”
Flower handled the money as if she thought it dirty.
Without a word she slipped it into the pocket of her dress.
“I am going away,” she said. “They are angry with me at Sleepy Hollow. I have done wrong. I am not a bit surprised. I’m going away, so as not to cause them any more trouble.”
“Oh, law, now, Miss! but they’ll fret to part with you.”
“No they won’t. Anyhow, it isn’t your affair. I’m going away as soon as I possibly can. Can you tell me where the nearest railway station is?”
“There’s none closer than Everton, and that’s a matter of five mile from here.”
“I must get there as quickly as possible. What road shall I take?”
“Do you think, Miss, I’d let a pretty young lady like you trape the lanes in the dead of night? No, no; carrier goes between two and three in the morning. You might go with him, if you must go.”
“That is a good thought. Where does the carrier live?”
“Three doors from here. I’ll run round presently and tell him to call.”
“Thank you. Do you think nine-and-fourpence-halfpenny will take me to Bath?”
“To Bath, Miss? It might, if you condescended to third class.”
“Third class will do very well. Did you ever hear Polly Maybright speak of an aunt of hers, a Mrs. Cameron?”
Mrs. Ricketts, whose back was half turned to Flower while she shut and locked the box out of which she had taken the precious nine-and-fourpence-halfpenny, now sprang to her feet, and began to speak in a tone of great excitement.
“Did I hear of her?” she exclaimed. “Did I hear of the woman—for lady she ain’t—what turned my Maggie out of her good place, and near broke Miss Polly’s heart? Don’t mention Mrs. Cameron, please, Miss Flower, for talk of her I won’t; set eyes on her I wouldn’t, no, not if I was to receive a pound for it!”
“You needn’t get so excited,” said Flower; “you have not got to see Polly’s aunt; only I thought perhaps you could give me her address, for I am going to her to-morrow.”
“I wouldn’t, Miss, if I was you.”
“Yes, you would if you were me. What is Mrs. Cameron’s address?”
“I don’t know as I can rightly tell you, Miss.”
“Yes, you must. I see you know it quite well.”
“Well then, well then—you won’t like her a bit, Miss Flower.”
“What’s her address?”
“Jasper Street; I think it’s Jasper Street.”
“And the number? She doesn’t live in the whole of Jasper Street.”
“Now, was it a one and a six or a one and a seven?” queried Mrs. Ricketts. “Oh, Miss! if I was you, I wouldn’t go near her; but I think her number is a one and a seven.”
“Seventeen, you mean.”
“Yes, that’s it; I was never great at counting.”
Mrs. Cameron’s house in Bath was decidedly old-fashioned. It was a large, solemn, handsome mansion; its windows shone from constant cleaning; its paint was always fresh, its Venetian blinds in perfect order.
When a certain wild, untidy, almost disreputable-looking girl ran up its snow-white steps, and rang its highly polished brass bell, the neat parlor maid who answered her summons stared at her, and doubted a good deal if Mrs. Cameron could see her.
“You had better step into the hall for a moment,” said the maidservant, “and I’ll inquire if my missis is at leisure; but if it’s the new housemaid’s place you’ve come after——”
Flower gasped; she drew herself up, raised her hand, and took off her small black velvet cap.
“You forget yourself!” she said, with a haughtiness which did not ill become her, notwithstanding her untidy and dishevelled state. “My name is Flower Dalrymple, and I have come from Sleepy Hollow. Please let your mistress know directly.”[Pg 136]
The parlor maid, who saw her mistake, was profuse in apologies.
She showed Flower into a dismal-looking dining room, and went upstairs.
“Who is it, Ann?” asked an anxious voice as she prepared to ascend the richly-carpeted stairs.
A door was opened at the end of the passage, and a fusty, dusty-looking little man put in an appearance.
“Who is it, Ann? Any one for me?”
“A young lady as wants to see the missis, sir. Oh, Mr. Cameron! what a deal of dust you has brought out into the ’all!”
The little man looked meekly down at his dusty garments.
“I have just been unpacking my last crate of curiosities from China, Ann. Where is the young lady? Perhaps she would like to see the relics.”
“No, sir, that I’m sure she wouldn’t; she’s all blown and spent like. She’s for all the world like a relic herself.”
Ann tripped lightly upstairs, and Mr. Cameron, pushing his spectacles high up on his bald forehead, looked with an anxious glance to right and left. Then very quickly on tiptoe he crossed the hall, opened the dining-room door, and went in.
“How are you, young lady? If you are very quick, I can get you into my sanctum sanctorum. I am just unpacking Chinese relics. I trust, I hope, you are fond of relics.”
Flower started to her feet.
“I thought, I certainly thought, Polly said Mrs. Cameron,” she remarked. “I don’t think I shall be at all afraid to live with you. I don’t exactly know what Chinese relics are, but I should love to see them.”
“Then quick, my dear, quick! We haven’t a minute to spare. She’s sure to be down in a jiffy. Now then, step on tiptoe across the hall. Ann has the quickest ears, and she invariably reports. She’s not a nice girl, Ann isn’t. She hasn’t the smallest taste for relics. My dear, there’s an education in this room, but no one, no one who comes to the house, cares to receive it.”
While the little man was talking, he was rushing across the wide hall, and down a long passage, Flower’s hand clasped in his. Finally he pushed open a baize-lined door, hastily admitted himself and Flower, and closed it behind them. The sanctum sanctorum was small, stuffy, dusty, dirty. There were several chairs, but they were all piled with relics, two or three tables were also crammed with tokens of the past. Flower was very weary, the dust and dirt made her sneeze, and she looked longingly for even the smallest corner of a chair on which to seat herself.
“I do want some breakfast so badly,” she began.
“Breakfast! My love, you shall have it presently. Now then, we’ll begin. This case that I have just unpacked contains teeth and a small portion of a jawbone. Ah! hark![Pg 137] what is that? She is coming already! Will that woman never leave me in peace? My love, the object of my life, the one object of my whole life, has been to benefit and educate the young. I thought at last I had found a pupil, but, ah, I fear she is very angry!”
The sound of a
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