All's Well

by Emily Sarah Holt

  CHAPTER TEN.

  TRYING EXPERIMENTS.

  Old Grandfather Hall had got a lift in a cart from Frittenden, and cameto spend the day with Roger and Christabel. It was a holy-day, forwhich cause Roger was at home, for in those times a holy-day was alwaysa holiday, and the natural result was that holiday-making soon took theplace of keeping holy. Roger's leisure days were usually spent by theside of his little Christie.

  "Eh, Hodge, my lad!" said Grandfather Hall, shaking his white head, ashe sat leaning his hands upon his silver-headed staff, "but 'tis astrange dispensation this! Surely I never looked for such as this inmine old age. But 'tis my blame--I do right freely confess 'tis myblame. I reckoned I wrought for the best; I meant nought save my maid'shappiness: but I see now I had better have been content with fewer ofthe good things of this life for the child, and have taken more thoughtfor an husband that feared God. Surely I meant well,--yet I did evil; Isee it now."

  "Father," said Roger, with respectful affection, "I pray you, rememberthat God's strange dispensations be at times the best things He hath togive us, and that of our very blunders He can make ladders to lift usnearer to Himself."

  "Ay, lad, thou hast the right; yet must I needs be sorry for my poorchild, that suffereth for my blunder. Hodge, I would thou wouldst visither."

  "That will I, Father, no further than Saint Edmund's Day, the which youwot is next Tuesday. Shall I bear her any message from you?"

  Old Mr Hall considered an instant; then he put his hand into his purse,and with trembling fingers pulled out a new shilling.

  "Bear her this," said he; "and therewithal my blessing, and do her towit that I am rarely troubled for her trouble. I cannot say more, lestit should seem to reflect upon her husband: but I would with all mineheart--"

  "Well, Nell!" said a voice in the passage outside which everybody knew."Your master's at home, I count, being a holy-day? The old master herelikewise?--that's well. There, take my pattens, that's a good maid.I'll tarry a bit to cheer up the little mistress."

  "Oh dear!" said Christabel in a whisper, "Aunt Tabitha won't cheer me abit; she'll make me boil over. And I'm very near it now; I'm sure Imust be singing! If she'd take me off and put me on the hob! AuntAlice would, if it were she."

  "Good-morrow!" said Aunt Tabitha's treble tones, which allowed no oneelse's voice to be heard at the same time. "Give you good-morrow,Father, and the like to thee, Christie. Well, Roger, I trust you're ina forgiving mood _this_ morrow? You'll have to hammer at it a while, Ireckon, afore you can make out that Edward Benden's an innocent cherub.I'd as lief wring that man's neck as eat my dinner!--and I mean to tellhim so, too, afore I do it."

  Aunt Tabitha left her sentence grammatically ambiguous, but practicallylucid enough to convey a decided impression that a rod for Mr Bendenwas lying in tolerably sharp pickle.

  "Daughter," said old Mr Hall, "methinks you have but a strange notionof forgiveness, if you count that it lieth in a man's persuading himselfthat the offender hath done him no wrong. To forgive as God forgiveth,is to feel and know the wrong to the full, and yet, notwithstanding thesame, to pardon the offender."

  "And in no wise to visit his wrong upon him? Nay, Father; that'd nota-pay me, I warrant you."

  "That a man should escape the natural and temporal consequences of hisevil doing, daughter, is not the way that God forgives. He rarelyremits that penalty: more often he visits it to the full. But he loveththe offender through all, and seeks to purge away his iniquity andcleanse his soul."

  "Well-a-day! I can fashion to love Edward Benden that way," saidTabitha, perversely misinterpreting her father-in-law's words. "I'llmix him a potion 'll help to cleanse his disorder, you'll see. Bittersbe good for sick folks; and he's grievous sick. I met Mall a-coming;she saith he snapped her head right off yester-even."

  "Oh dear!" said literal Christie. "Did she get it put on again, AuntTabitha, before you saw her?"

  "It was there, same as common," replied Tabitha grimly.

  "He's not a happy man, or I mistake greatly," remarked Roger Hall.

  "He'll not be long, if I can win at him," announced Tabitha, more grimlystill. "Good lack! there he is, this minute, crossing the Second AcreClose--see you him not? Nell, my pattens--quick! I'll have at himwhile I may!"

  And Tabitha flew.

  Christabel, who had lifted her head to watch the meeting, laid it downagain upon her cushions with a sigh. "Aunt Tabitha wearies me, Father,"she said, answering Roger's look of sympathetic concern, "She's like ablowy wind, that takes such a deal out of you. I wish she'd come at mea bit quieter. Father, don't you think the angels are very quiet folks?I couldn't think they'd come at me like Aunt Tabby."

  "The angels obey the Lord, my Christie, and the Lord is very gentle. He`knoweth our frame,' and `remembereth that we are but dust.'"

  "I don't feel much like dust," said Christie meditatively. "I feel morelike strings that somebody had pulled tight till it hurt. But I do wishAunt Tabitha would obey the Lord too, Father. I can't think _she_ knowsour frame, unless hers is vastly unlike mine."

  "I rather count it is, Christie," said Roger.

  Mr Benden had come out for his airing in an unhappy frame of mind, andhis interview with Tabitha sent him home in a worse. Could he by aneffort of will have obliterated the whole of his recent performances, hewould gladly have done it; but as this was impossible, he refused toconfess himself in the wrong. He was not going to humble himself, hesaid gruffly--though there was nobody to hear him--to that spiteful catTabitha. As to Alice, he was at once very angry with her, and very muchput out by her absence. It was all her fault, he said again. Why couldshe not behave herself at first, and come to church like a reasonablewoman, and as everybody else did? If she had stood out for a new dress,or a velvet hood, he could have understood it; but these new-fanglednonsensical fancies nobody could understand. Who could by anypossibility expect a sensible man to give in to such rubbish?

  So Mr Benden reasoned himself into the belief that he was an ill-usedmartyr, Alice a most unreasonable woman, and Tabitha a wicked fury.Having no principles himself, that any one else should have them wasboth unnecessary and absurd in his eyes. He simply could not imaginethe possibility of a woman caring so much for the precepts or the gloryof God, that she was ready for their sakes to brave imprisonment,torture, or death.

  Meanwhile Alice and her fellow-prisoner, Rachel Potkin, were engaged intrying their scheme of living on next to nothing. We must not forgetthat even poor people, at that time, lived much better than now, so faras eating is concerned. The Spanish noblemen who came over with QueenMary's husband were greatly astonished to find the English peasants, asthey said, "living in hovels, and faring like princes." The poorestthen never contented themselves with plain fare, such as we think teaand bread, which are now nearly all that many poor people see from oneyear's end to another. Meat, eggs, butter, and much else were too cheapto make it necessary.

  So Alice and Rachel arranged their provisions thus: every two days theysent for two pounds of mutton, which cost some days a farthing, and somea halfpenny; twelve little loaves of bread, at 2 pence; a pint and ahalf of claret, or a quart of ale, cost 2 pence more. The halfpenny,which was at times to spare, they spent on four eggs, a few rashers ofbacon, or a roll of butter, the price of which was fourpence-halfpennythe gallon. Sometimes it went for salt, an expensive article at thattime. Now and then they varied their diet from mutton to beef; but ofthis they could get only half the quantity for their halfpenny. Onfish-days, then rigidly observed, of course they bought fish instead ofmeat. For a fortnight they kept up this practice, which to them seemedfar more of a hardship than it would to us; they were accustomed to anumber of elaborate dishes, with rich sauces, in most of which wine wasused; and mere bread and meat, or even bread and butter, seemed verypoor, rough eating. Perhaps, if our ancestors had been content withsimpler cookery, their children in the present day would have had lesstrouble with doctors' bills.


  Roger Hall visited his sister, as he had said, on Saint Edmund's Day,the sixteenth of November. He found her calm, and even cheerful, verymuch pleased with her father's message and gift, and concerned that Maryshould follow her directions to make Mr Benden comfortable. That sheforgave him she never said in words, but all her actions said itstrongly. Roger had to curb his own feelings as he promised to take themessage to this effect which Alice sent to Mary. But Alice could prettywell see through his face into his heart, and into Mary's too; and shelooked up with a smile as she added a few words:--

  "Tell Mall," she said, "that if she love me, and would have me yet againat home, methinks this were her wisest plan."

  Roger nodded, and said no more.