Tom and Maggie Tulliver

by George Eliot

  Chapter V.

  THE FAMILY PARTY.

  On the day of the family party Aunt Glegg was the first to arrive, andshe was followed not long afterwards by Aunt Pullet and her husband.

  Maggie and Tom, on their part, thought their Aunt Pullet tolerable,because she was not their Aunt Glegg. Tom always declined to go morethan once during his holidays to see either of them. Both his unclestipped him that once, of course; but at his Aunt Pullet's there were agreat many toads to pelt in the cellar-area, so that he preferred thevisit to her. Maggie disliked the toads, and dreamed of them horribly;but she liked her Uncle Pullet's musical snuff-box.

  When Maggie and Tom came in from the garden with their father and theirUncle Glegg, they found that Aunt Deane and Cousin Lucy had alsoarrived. Maggie had thrown her bonnet off very carelessly, and comingin with her hair rough as well as out of curl, rushed at once to Lucy,who was standing by her mother's knee.

  Lucy put up the neatest little rosebud mouth to be kissed. Everythingabout her was neat--her little round neck with the row of coral beads;her little straight nose, not at all snubby; her little clear eyebrows,rather darker than her curls to match her hazel eyes, which looked upwith shy pleasure at Maggie, taller by the head, though scarcely a yearolder.

  "O Lucy," burst out Maggie, after kissing her, "you'll stay with Tomand me, won't you?--Oh, kiss her, Tom."

  Tom, too, had come up to Lucy, but he was not going to kiss her--no; hecame up to her with Maggie because it seemed easier, on the whole, thansaying, "How do you do?" to all those aunts and uncles.

  "Heyday!" said Aunt Glegg loudly. "Do little boys and gells come intoa room without taking notice o' their uncles and aunts? That wasn'tthe way when _I_ was a little gell."

  "Go and speak to your aunts and uncles, my dears," said Mrs. Tulliver.She wanted also to whisper to Maggie a command to go and have her hairbrushed.

  "Well, and how do you do? And I hope you're good children--are you?"said Aunt Glegg, in the same loud way, as she took their hands, hurtingthem with her large rings, and kissing their cheeks, much against theirdesire. "Look up, Tom, look up. Boys as go to boarding-schools shouldhold their heads up. Look at me now." Tom would not do so, and triedto draw his hand away. "Put your hair behind your ears, Maggie, andkeep your frock on your shoulder."

  Aunt Glegg always spoke to them in this loud way, as if she thoughtthem quite deaf, or perhaps rather silly.

  "Well, my dears," said Aunt Pullet sadly, "you grow wonderful fast.--Idoubt they'll outgrow their strength," she added, looking over theirheads at their mother. "I think the gell has too much hair. I'd haveit thinned and cut shorter, sister, if I was you. It isn't good forher health. It's that as makes her skin so brown, I shouldn'twonder.--Don't you think so, Sister Deane?"

  "I can't say, I'm sure, sister," said Mrs. Deane.

  "No, no," said Mr. Tulliver, "the child's healthy enough--there'snothing ails her. There's red wheat as well as white, for that matter,and some like the dark grain best. But it 'ud be as well if Bessy 'udhave the child's hair cut, so as it 'ud lie smooth."

  Maggie now wished to learn from her Aunt Deane whether she would leaveLucy behind to stay at the mill. Aunt Deane would hardly ever let Lucycome to see them, to Maggie's great regret.

  "You wouldn't like to stay behind without mother, should you, Lucy?"she said to her little daughter.

  "Yes, please, mother," said Lucy timidly, blushing very pink all overher little neck.

  "Well done, Lucy!--Let her stay, Mrs. Deane, let her stay," said Mr.Deane, a large man, who held a silver snuff-box very tightly in hishand, and now and then exchanged a pinch with Mr. Tulliver.

  "Maggie," said Mrs. Tulliver, beckoning Maggie to her, and whisperingin her ear, as soon as this point of Lucy's staying was settled, "goand get your hair brushed--do, for shame. I told you not to come inwithout going to Martha first; you know I did."

  "Tom, come out with me," whispered Maggie, pulling his sleeve as shepassed him; and Tom followed willingly enough.

  "Come upstairs with me, Tom," she whispered, when they were outside thedoor. "There's something I want to do before dinner."

  "There's no time to play at anything before dinner," said Tom.

  "Oh yes, there is time for this. Do come, Tom."

  Tom followed Maggie upstairs into her mother's room, and saw her go atonce to a drawer, from which she took a large pair of scissors.

  "What are they for, Maggie?" said Tom.

  Maggie answered by seizing her front locks and cutting them straightacross the middle of her forehead.

  "Oh, my buttons, Maggie, you'll catch it!" exclaimed Tom; "you'd betternot cut any more off."

  Snip went the great scissors again while Tom was speaking; and hecouldn't help feeling it was rather good fun--Maggie would look soqueer.

  "Here, Tom, cut it behind for me," said Maggie, much excited.

  "You'll catch it, you know," said Tom as he took the scissors.

  "Never mind; make haste!" said Maggie, giving a little stamp with herfoot. Her cheeks were quite flushed.

  One delicious grinding snip, and then another and another. The hinderlocks fell heavily on the floor, and soon Maggie stood cropped in ajagged, uneven manner.

  "O Maggie!" said Tom, jumping round her, and slapping his knees as helaughed--"oh, my buttons, what a queer thing you look! Look atyourself in the glass."

  Maggie felt an unexpected pang. She didn't want her hair to lookpretty--she only wanted people to think her a clever little girl, andnot to find fault with her untidy head. But now, when Tom began tolaugh at her, the affair had quite a new aspect. She looked in theglass, and still Tom laughed and clapped his hands, while Maggie'sflushed cheeks began to pale and her lips to tremble a little.

  "O Maggie, you'll have to go down to dinner directly," said Tom. "Ohmy!"

  "Don't laugh at me, Tom," said Maggie, with an outburst of angry tears,stamping, and giving him a push.

  "Now, then, spitfire!" said Tom. "What did you cut it off for, then?I shall go down; I can smell the dinner going in."

  He hurried downstairs at once. Maggie could see clearly enough, nowthe thing was done, that it was very foolish, and that she should haveto hear and think more about her hair than ever. As she stood cryingbefore the glass she felt it impossible to go down to dinner and endurethe severe eyes and severe words of her aunts, while Tom, and Lucy, andMartha, who waited at table, and perhaps her father and her uncles,would laugh at her--for if Tom had laughed at her, of course every oneelse would; and if she had only let her hair alone, she could have satwith Tom and Lucy, and had the apricot pudding and the custard!

  "Miss Maggie, you're to come down this minute," said Kezia, enteringthe room after a few moments. "Lawks! what have you been a-doing? Iniver see such a fright."

  "Don't, Kezia," said Maggie angrily. "Go away!"

  "But I tell you, you're to come down, miss, this minute; your mothersays so," said Kezia, going up to Maggie and taking her by the hand toraise her from the floor, on which she had thrown herself.

  "Get away, Kezia; I don't want any dinner," said Maggie, resistingKezia's arm. "I shan't come."

  "Oh, well, I can't stay. I've got to wait at dinner," said Kezia,going out again.

  "Maggie, you little silly," said Tom, peeping into the room ten minuteslater, "why don't you come and have your dinner? There's lots o'goodies, and mother says you're to come."

  Oh, it was dreadful! Tom was so hard. If _he_ had been crying on thefloor, Maggie would have cried too. And there was the dinner, so nice,and she was so hungry. It was very bitter.

  But Tom was not altogether hard. He was not inclined to cry, but hewent and put his head near her and said in a lower, comforting tone,--

  "Won't you come, then, Magsie? Shall I bring you a bit o' pudding whenI've had mine, and a custard and things?"

  "Ye-e-es," said Maggie, beginning to feel life a little more tolerable.

  "Very well," said Tom, going away. B
ut he turned again at the door andsaid, "But you'd better come, you know. There's the dessert--nuts, youknow, and cowslip wine."

  Slowly she rose from amongst her scattered locks, and slowly she madeher way downstairs. Then she stood leaning with one shoulder againstthe frame of the dining-parlour door, peeping in as it stood ajar. Shesaw Tom and Lucy with an empty chair between them, and there were thecustards on a side-table. It was too much. She slipped in and wenttowards the empty chair. But she had no sooner sat down than shewished herself back again.

  Mrs. Tulliver gave a little scream as she saw her, and felt such a"turn" that she dropped the large gravy-spoon into the dish, with themost serious results to the table-cloth.

  Mrs. Tulliver's scream made all eyes turn towards the same point as herown, and Maggie's cheeks and ears began to burn, while Uncle Glegg, akind-looking, white-haired old gentleman, said,--

  "Heyday! What little gell's this? Why, I don't know her. Is it somelittle gell you've picked up in the road, Kezia?"

  "Why, she's gone and cut her hair herself," said Mr. Tulliver in anundertone to Mr. Deane, laughing with much enjoyment. "Did you everknow such a little hussy as it is?"

  "Why, little miss, you've made yourself look very funny," said UnclePullet.

  "Fie, for shame!" said Aunt Glegg in her loudest tone. "Little gellsas cut their own hair should be whipped, and fed on bread andwater--not come and sit down with their aunts and uncles."

  "Ay, ay," said Uncle Glegg playfully "she must be sent to jail, Ithink, and they'll cut the rest off there, and make it all even."

  "She's more like a gipsy nor ever," said Aunt Pullet in a pitying tone."It's very bad luck, sister, as the gell should be so brown; the boy'sfair enough. I doubt it'll stand in her way i' life, to be so brown."

  "She's a naughty child, as'll break her mother's heart," said Mrs.Tulliver, with the tears in her eyes.

  "Oh my, Maggie," whispered Tom, "I told you you'd catch it."

  The child's heart swelled, and getting up from her chair she ran to herfather, hid her face on his shoulder, and burst out into loud sobbing.

  "Come, come, my wench," said her father soothingly, putting his armround her, "never mind; you was i' the right to cut it off if itplagued you. Give over crying; father'll take your part."

  "How your husband does spoil that child, Bessy," said Mrs. Glegg in aloud "aside" to Mrs. Tulliver. "It'll be the ruin of her if you don'ttake care. My father niver brought his children up so, else we shouldha' been a different sort o' family to what we are."

  Mrs. Tulliver took no notice of her sister's remark, but threw back hercap-strings and served the pudding in silence.

  When the dessert came the children were told they might have their nutsand wine in the summer-house, since the day was so mild; and theyscampered out among the budding bushes of the garden like small animalsgetting from under a burning-glass.