Delphi Complete Works of Elizabeth Gaskell

by Elizabeth Gaskell

  It was only four o’clock, but most of the inmates of the inn thought it must be between six and seven, the morning had seemed so long — so many hours had passed since dinner — when a Welsh car, drawn by two horses, rattled briskly up to the door. Every window of the ark was crowded with faces at the sound; the leathern curtains were undrawn to their curious eyes, and out sprang a gentleman, who carefully assisted a well-cloaked-up lady into the little inn, despite the landlady’s assurances of not having a room to spare.

  The gentleman (it was Mr Bellingham) paid no attention to the speeches of the hostess, but quietly superintended the unpacking of the carriage, and paid the postillion; then, turning round with his face to the light, he spoke to the landlady, whose voice had been rising during the last five minutes:

  “Nay, Jenny, you’re strangely altered, if you can turn out an old friend on such an evening as this. If I remember right, Pen trê Voelas is twenty miles across the bleakest mountain road I ever saw.”

  “Indeed, sir, and I did not know you; Mr Bellingham, I believe. Indeed, sir, Pen trê Voelas is not above eighteen miles — we only charge for eighteen; it may not be much above seventeen; and we’re quite full, indeed, more’s the pity.”

  “Well, but Jenny, to oblige me, an old friend, you can find lodgings out for some of your people — the house across, for instance.”

  “Indeed, sir, and it’s at liberty; perhaps you would not mind lodging there yourself; I could get you the best rooms, and send over a trifle or so of furniture, if they wern’t as you’d wish them to be.”

  “No, Jenny! here I stay. You’ll not induce me to venture over into those rooms, whose dirt I know of old. Can’t you persuade some one who is not an old friend to move across? Say, if you like, that I had written beforehand to bespeak the rooms. Oh! I know you can manage it — I know your good-natured ways.”

  “Indeed, sir — well! I’ll see, if you and the lady will just step into the back parlour, sir — there’s no one there just now; the lady is keeping her bed to-day for a cold, and the gentleman is having a rubber at whist in number three. I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Thank you, thank you. Is there a fire? if not, one must be lighted. Come, Ruthie, come.”

  He led the way into a large, bow-windowed room, which looked gloomy enough that afternoon, but which I have seen bright and buoyant with youth and hope within, and sunny lights creeping down the purple mountain slope, and stealing over the green, soft meadows, till they reached the little garden, full of roses and lavender-bushes, lying close under the window. I have seen — but I shall see no more.

  “I did not know you had been here before,” said Ruth, as Mr Bellingham helped her off with her cloak.

  “Oh, yes; three years ago I was here on a reading party. We were here above two months, attracted by Jenny’s kind heart and oddities; but driven away finally by the insufferable dirt. However, for a week or two it won’t much signify.”

  “But can she take us in, sir? I thought I heard her saying her house was full.”

  “Oh, yes — I dare say it is; but I shall pay her well; she can easily make excuses to some poor devil, and send him over to the other side; and, for a day or two, so that we have shelter, it does not much signify.”

  “Could not we go to the house on the other side, sir?”

  “And have our meals carried across to us in a half-warm state, to say nothing of having no one to scold for bad cooking! You don’t know these out-of-the-way Welsh inns yet, Ruthie.”

  “No! I only thought it seemed rather unfair — ” said Ruth, gently; but she did not end her sentence, for Mr Bellingham formed his lips into a whistle, and walked to the window to survey the rain.

  The remembrance of his former good payment prompted many little lies of which Mrs Morgan was guilty that afternoon, before she succeeded in turning out a gentleman and lady, who were only planning to remain till the ensuing Saturday at the outside, so, if they did fulfil their threat, and leave on the next day, she would be no very great loser.

  These household arrangements complete, she solaced herself with tea in her own little parlour, and shrewdly reviewed the circumstances of Mr Bellingham’s arrival.

  “Indeed! and she’s not his wife,” thought Jenny, “that’s clear as day. His wife would have brought her maid, and given herself twice as many airs about the sitting-rooms; while this poor miss never spoke, but kept as still as a mouse. Indeed, and young men will be young men; and, as long as their fathers and mothers shut their eyes, it’s none of my business to go about asking questions.”

  In this manner they settled down to a week’s enjoyment of that Alpine country. It was most true enjoyment to Ruth. It was opening a new sense; vast ideas of beauty and grandeur filled her mind at the sight of the mountains now first beheld in full majesty. She was almost overpowered by the vague and solemn delight; but by-and-by her love for them equalled her awe, and in the night-time she would softly rise, and steal to the window to see the white moonlight, which gave a new aspect to the everlasting hills that girdle the mountain village.

  Their breakfast-hour was late, in accordance with Mr Bellingham’s tastes and habits; but Ruth was up betimes, and out and away, brushing the dew-drops from the short crisp grass; the lark sung high above her head, and she knew not if she moved or stood still, for the grandeur of this beautiful earth absorbed all idea of separate and individual existence. Even rain was a pleasure to her. She sat in the window-seat of their parlour (she would have gone out gladly, but that such a proceeding annoyed Mr Bellingham, who usually at such times lounged away the listless hours on a sofa, and relieved himself by abusing the weather); she saw the swift-fleeting showers come athwart the sunlight like a rush of silver arrows; she watched the purple darkness on the heathery mountain-side, and then the pale golden gleam which succeeded. There was no change or alteration of nature that had not its own peculiar beauty in the eyes of Ruth; but if she had complained of the changeable climate, she would have pleased Mr Bellingham more; her admiration and her content made him angry, until her pretty motions and loving eyes soothed down his impatience.

  “Really, Ruth,” he exclaimed one day, when they had been imprisoned by rain a whole morning, “one would think you had never seen a shower of rain before; it quite wearies me to see you sitting there watching this detestable weather with such a placid countenance; and for the last two hours you have said nothing more amusing or interesting than — ’Oh, how beautiful!’ or, ‘There’s another cloud coming across Moel Wynn.’“

  Ruth left her seat very gently, and took up her work. She wished she had the gift of being amusing; it must be dull for a man accustomed to all kinds of active employments to be shut up in the house. She was recalled from her absolute self-forgetfulness. What could she say to interest Mr Bellingham? While she thought, he spoke again:

  “I remember when we were reading here three years ago, we had a week of just such weather as this; but Howard and Johnson were capital whist players, and Wilbraham not bad, so we got through the days famously. Can you play écarté, Ruth, or picquet?”

  “No, sir; I have sometimes played at beggar-my-neighbour,” answered Ruth, humbly, regretting her own deficiencies.

  He murmured impatiently, and there was silence for another half-hour. Then he sprang up, and rung the bell violently. “Ask Mrs Morgan for a pack of cards. Ruthie, I’ll teach you écarté,” said he.

  But Ruth was stupid, not so good as a dummy, he said; and it was no fun betting against himself. So the cards were flung across the table — on the floor — anywhere. Ruth picked them up. As she rose, she sighed a little with the depression of spirits consequent upon her own want of power to amuse and occupy him she loved.

  “You’re pale, love!” said he, half repenting of his anger at her blunders over the cards. “Go out before dinner; you know you don’t mind this cursed weather; and see that you come home full of adventures to relate. Come, little blockhead! give me a kiss, and begone.”

  She left the r
oom with a feeling of relief; for if he were dull without her, she should not feel responsible, and unhappy at her own stupidity. The open air, that kind soothing balm which gentle mother Nature offers to us all in our seasons of depression, relieved her. The rain had ceased, though every leaf and blade was loaded with trembling glittering drops. Ruth went down to the circular dale, into which the brown-foaming mountain river fell and made a deep pool, and, after resting there for a while, ran on between broken rocks down to the valley below. The waterfall was magnificent, as she had anticipated; she longed to extend her walk to the other side of the stream, so she sought the stepping-stones, the usual crossing-place, which were over-shadowed by trees, a few yards from the pool. The waters ran high and rapidly, as busy as life, between the pieces of grey rock; but Ruth had no fear, and went lightly and steadily on. About the middle, however, there was a great gap; either one of the stones was so covered with water as to be invisible, or it had been washed lower down; at any rate, the spring from stone to stone was long, and Ruth hesitated for a moment before taking it. The sound of rushing waters was in her ears to the exclusion of every other noise; her eyes were on the current running swiftly below her feet; and thus she was startled to see a figure close before her on one of the stones, and to hear a voice offering help.

  She looked up and saw a man, who was apparently long past middle life, and of the stature of a dwarf; a second glance accounted for the low height of the speaker, for then she saw he was deformed. As the consciousness of this infirmity came into her mind, it must have told itself in her softened eyes, for a faint flush of colour came into the pale face of the deformed gentleman, as he repeated his words:

  “The water is very rapid; will you take my hand? Perhaps I can help you.”

  Ruth accepted the offer, and with this assistance she was across in a moment. He made way for her to precede him in the narrow wood path, and then silently followed her up the glen.

  When they had passed out of the wood into the pasture-land beyond, Ruth once more turned to mark him. She was struck afresh with the mild beauty of the face, though there was something in the countenance which told of the body’s deformity, something more and beyond the pallor of habitual ill-health, something of a quick spiritual light in the deep set-eyes, a sensibility about the mouth; but altogether, though a peculiar, it was a most attractive face.

  “Will you allow me to accompany you if you are going the round by Cwm Dhu, as I imagine you are? The hand-rail is blown away from the little wooden bridge by the storm last night, and the rush of waters below may make you dizzy; and it is really dangerous to fall there, the stream is so deep.”

  They walked on without much speech. She wondered who her companion might be. She should have known him, if she had seen him among the strangers at the inn; and yet he spoke English too well to be a Welshman; he knew the country and the paths so perfectly, he must be a resident; and so she tossed him from England to Wales and back again in her imagination.

  “I only came here yesterday,” said he, as a widening in the path permitted them to walk abreast. “Last night I went to the higher waterfalls; they are most splendid.”

  “Did you go out in all that rain?” asked Ruth, timidly.

  “Oh, yes. Rain never hinders me from walking. Indeed, it gives a new beauty to such a country as this. Besides, my time for my excursion is so short, I cannot afford to waste a day.”

  “Then, you do not live here?” asked Ruth.

  “No! my home is in a very different place. I live in a busy town, where at times it is difficult to feel the truth that

  There are in this loud stunning tide

  Of human care and crime,

  With whom the melodies abide

  Of th’ everlasting chime;

  Who carry music in their heart

  Through dusky lane and crowded mart,

  Plying their task with busier feet,

  Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.

  I have an annual holiday, which I generally spend in Wales; and often in this immediate neighbourhood.”

  “I do not wonder at your choice,” replied Ruth. “It is a beautiful country.”

  “It is, indeed; and I have been inoculated by an old innkeeper at Conway with a love for its people, and history, and traditions. I have picked up enough of the language to understand many of their legends; and some are very fine and awe-inspiring, others very poetic and fanciful.”

  Ruth was too shy to keep up the conversation by any remark of her own, although his gentle, pensive manner was very winning.

  “For instance,” said he, touching a long bud-laden stem of fox-glove in the hedge-side, at the bottom of which one or two crimson-speckled flowers were bursting from their green sheaths, “I dare say, you don’t know what makes this fox-glove bend and sway so gracefully. You think it is blown by the wind, don’t you?” He looked at her with a grave smile, which did not enliven his thoughtful eyes, but gave an inexpressible sweetness to his face.

  “I always thought it was the wind. What is it?” asked Ruth, innocently.

  “Oh, the Welsh tell you that this flower is sacred to the fairies, and that it has the power of recognising them, and all spiritual beings who pass by, and that it bows in deference to them as they waft along. Its Welsh name is Maneg Ellyllyn — the good people’s glove; and hence, I imagine, our folk’s-glove or fox-glove.”

  “It’s a very pretty fancy,” said Ruth, much interested, and wishing that he would go on, without expecting her to reply.

  But they were already at the wooden bridge; he led her across, and then, bowing his adieu, he had taken a different path even before Ruth had thanked him for his attention.

  It was an adventure to tell Mr Bellingham, however; and it roused and amused him till dinner-time came, after which he sauntered forth with a cigar.

  “Ruth,” said he, when he returned, “I’ve seen your little hunchback. He looks like Riquet-with-the-Tuft. He’s not a gentleman, though. If it had not been for his deformity, I should not have made him out from your description; you called him a gentleman.”

  “And don’t you, sir?” asked Ruth, surprised.

  “Oh, no! he’s regularly shabby and seedy in his appearance; lodging, too, the ostler told me, over that horrible candle and cheese shop, the smell of which is insufferable twenty yards off — no gentleman could endure it; he must be a traveller or artist, or something of that kind.”

  “Did you see his face, sir?” asked Ruth.

  “No; but a man’s back — his tout ensemble has character enough in it to decide his rank.”

  “His face was very singular; quite beautiful!” said she, softly; but the subject did not interest Mr Bellingham, and he let it drop.

  CHAPTER VI

  Troubles Gather About Ruth

  The next day the weather was brave and glorious; a perfect “bridal of the earth and sky;” and every one turned out of the inn to enjoy the fresh beauty of nature. Ruth was quite unconscious of being the object of remark, and, in her light, rapid passings to and fro, had never looked at the doors and windows, where many watchers stood observing her, and commenting upon her situation or her appearance.

  “She’s a very lovely creature,” said one gentleman, rising from the breakfast-table to catch a glimpse of her as she entered from her morning’s ramble. “Not above sixteen, I should think. Very modest and innocent-looking in her white gown!”

  His wife, busy administering to the wants of a fine little boy, could only say (without seeing the young girl’s modest ways, and gentle, downcast countenance):

  “Well! I do think it’s a shame such people should be allowed to come here. To think of such wickedness under the same roof! Do come away, my dear, and don’t flatter her by such notice.”

  The husband returned to the breakfast-table; he smelt the broiled ham and eggs, and he heard his wife’s commands. Whether smelling or hearing had most to do in causing his obedience, I cannot tell; perhaps you can.

  “Now,
Harry, go and see if nurse and baby are ready to go out with you. You must lose no time this beautiful morning.”

  Ruth found Mr Bellingham was not yet come down; so she sallied out for an additional half-hour’s ramble. Flitting about through the village, trying to catch all the beautiful sunny peeps at the scenery between the cold stone houses, which threw the radiant distance into aërial perspective far away, she passed by the little shop; and, just issuing from it, came the nurse and baby, and little boy. The baby sat in placid dignity in her nurse’s arms, with a face of queenly calm. Her fresh, soft, peachy complexion was really tempting; and Ruth, who was always fond of children, went up to coo and to smile at the little thing, and, after some “peep-boing,” she was about to snatch a kiss, when Harry, whose face had been reddening ever since the play began, lifted up his sturdy little right arm and hit Ruth a great blow on the face.

  “Oh, for shame, sir!” said the nurse, snatching back his hand; “how dare you do that to the lady who is so kind as to speak to Sissy.”

  “She’s not a lady!” said he, indignantly. “She’s a bad naughty girl — mamma said so, she did; and she shan’t kiss our baby.”