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CHAPTER LX
ANNIE LUCKIER THAN JOHN
Some people may look down upon us for our slavish ways
(as they may choose to call them), but in our part of
the country, we do love to mention title, and to roll
it on our tongues, with a conscience and a comfort.
Even if a man knows not, through fault of education,
who the Duke of this is, or the Earl of that, it will
never do for him to say so, lest the room look down on
him. Therefore he must nod his head, and say, 'Ah, to
he sure! I know him as well as ever I know my own good
woman's brother. He married Lord Flipflap's second
daughter, and a precious life she led him.' Whereupon
the room looks up at him. But I, being quite unable to
carry all this in my head, as I ought, was speedily put
down by people of a noble tendency, apt at Lords, and
pat with Dukes, and knowing more about the King than
His Majesty would have requested. Therefore, I fell
back in thought, not daring in words to do so, upon the
titles of our horses. And all these horses deserved
their names, not having merely inherited, but by their
own doing earned them. Smiler, for instance, had been
so called, not so much from a habit of smiling, as from
his general geniality, white nose, and white ankle.
This worthy horse was now in years, but hale and gay as
ever; and when you let him out of the stable, he could
neigh and whinny, and make men and horses know it. On
the other hand, Kickums was a horse of morose and surly
order; harbouring up revenge, and leading a rider to
false confidence. Very smoothly he would go, and as
gentle as a turtle-dove; until his rider fully
believed that a pack-thread was enough for him, and a
pat of approval upon his neck the aim and crown of his
worthy life. Then suddenly up went his hind feet to
heaven, and the rider for the most part flew over his
nose; whereupon good Kickums would take advantage of
his favourable position to come and bite a piece out of
his back. Now in my present state of mind, being
understood of nobody, having none to bear me company,
neither wishing to have any, an indefinite kind of
attraction drew me into Kickum's society. A bond of
mutual sympathy was soon established between us; I
would ride no other horse, neither Kickums be ridden by
any other man. And this good horse became as jealous
about me as a dog might be; and would lash out, or run
teeth foremost, at any one who came near him when I was
on his back.
This season, the reaping of the corn, which had been
but a year ago so pleasant and so lightsome, was become
a heavy labour, and a thing for grumbling rather than
for gladness. However, for the sake of all, it must be
attended to, and with as fair a show of spirit and
alacrity as might be. For otherwise the rest would
drag, and drop their hands and idle, being quicker to
take infection of dullness than of diligence. And the
harvest was a heavy one, even heavier than the year
before, although of poorer quality. Therefore was I
forced to work as hard as any horse could during all
the daylight hours, and defer till night the brooding
upon my misfortune. But the darkness always found me
stiff with work, and weary, and less able to think than
to dream, may be, of Lorna. And now the house was so
dull and lonesome, wanting Annie's pretty presence, and
the light of Lorna's eyes, that a man had no temptation
after supper-time even to sit and smoke a pipe.
For Lizzie, though so learned, and pleasant when it
suited her, never had taken very kindly to my love for
Lorna, and being of a proud and slightly upstart
nature, could not bear to be eclipsed in bearing,
looks, and breeding, and even in clothes, by the
stranger. For one thing I will say of the Doones, that
whether by purchase or plunder, they had always dressed
my darling well, with her own sweet taste to help them.
And though Lizzie's natural hate of the maid (as a
Doone and burdened with father's death) should have
been changed to remorse when she learned of Lorna's
real parentage, it was only altered to sullenness, and
discontent with herself, for frequent rudeness to an
innocent person, and one of such high descent.
Moreover, the child had imbibed strange ideas as to our
aristocracy, partly perhaps from her own way of
thinking, and partly from reading of history. For
while, from one point of view she looked up at them
very demurely, as commissioned by God for the country's
good; from another sight she disliked them, as ready to
sacrifice their best and follow their worst members.
Yet why should this wench dare to judge upon a matter
so far beyond her, and form opinions which she knew
better than declare before mother? But with me she had
no such scruple, for I had no authority over her; and
my intellect she looked down upon, because I praised
her own so. Thus she made herself very unpleasant to
me; by little jags and jerks of sneering, sped as
though unwittingly; which I (who now considered myself
allied to the aristocracy, and perhaps took airs on
that account) had not wit enough to parry, yet had
wound enough to feel.
Now any one who does not know exactly how mothers feel
and think, would have expected my mother (than whom
could be no better one) to pet me, and make much of me,
under my sad trouble; to hang with anxiety on my looks,
and shed her tears with mine (if any), and season every
dish of meat put by for her John's return. And if the
whole truth must be told, I did expect that sort of
thing, and thought what a plague it would be to me; yet
not getting it, was vexed, as if by some new injury.
For mother was a special creature (as I suppose we all
are), being the warmest of the warm, when fired at the
proper corner; and yet, if taken at the wrong point,
you would say she was incombustible.
Hence it came to pass that I had no one even to speak
to, about Lorna and my grievances; for Captain Stickles
was now gone southward; and John Fry. of course, was
too low for it, although a married man, and well under
his wife's management. But finding myself unable at
last to bear this any longer, upon the first day when
all the wheat was cut, and the stooks set up in every
field, yet none quite fit for carrying, I saddled good
Kickums at five in the morning, and without a word to
mother (for a little anxiety might do her good) off I
set for Molland parish, to have the counsel and the
comfort of my darling Annie.
The horse took me over the ground so fast (there being
few better to go when he liked), that by nine o'clock
Annie was in my arms, and blushing to the colour of
Winnie's cheeks, with sudden delight and young
happiness.
'You precious little soul!' I cried: 'how does Tom
behave to you?'
'Hush!' said Annie: 'how dare you ask? He is the
kindest, and the best, and the noblest of all men,
John; not even setting yourself aside. Now look not
jealous, John: so it is. We all have special gifts,
you know. You are as good as you can be, John; but my
husband's special gift is nobility of character.' Here
she looked at me, as one who has discovered something
quite unknown.
'I am devilish glad to hear it,' said I, being touched
at going down so: 'keep him to that mark, my dear; and
cork the whisky bottle.'
'Yes, darling John,' she answered quickly, not desiring
to open that subject, and being too sweet to resent it:
'and how is lovely Lorna? What an age it is since I
have seen you! I suppose we must thank her for that.'
'You may thank her for seeing me now,' said I; 'or
rather,'--seeing how hurt she looked,--'you may thank
my knowledge of your kindness, and my desire to speak
of her to a soft-hearted dear little soul like you. I
think all the women are gone mad. Even mother treats
me shamefully. And as for Lizzie--' Here I stopped,
knowing no words strong enough, without shocking Annie.
'Do you mean to say that Lorna is gone?' asked Annie,
in great amazement; yet leaping at the truth, as women
do, with nothing at all to leap from.
'Gone. And I never shall see her again. It serves me
right for aspiring so.'
Being grieved at my manner, she led me in where none
could interrupt us; and in spite of all my dejection, I
could not help noticing how very pretty and even
elegant all things were around. For we upon Exmoor
have little taste; all we care for is warm comfort, and
plenty to eat and to give away, and a hearty smack in
everything. But Squire Faggus had seen the world, and
kept company with great people; and the taste he had
first displayed in the shoeing of farmers' horses
(which led almost to his ruin, by bringing him into
jealousy, and flattery, and dashing ways) had now been
cultivated in London, and by moonlight, so that none
could help admiring it.
'Well!' I cried, for the moment dropping care and woe
in astonishment: 'we have nothing like this at Plover's
Barrows; nor even Uncle Reuben. I do hope it is
honest, Annie?'
'Would I sit in a chair that was not my own?' asked
Annie, turning crimson, and dropping defiantly, and
with a whisk of her dress which I never had seen
before, into the very grandest one: 'would I lie on a
couch, brother John, do you think, unless good money
was paid for it? Because other people are clever,
John, you need not grudge them their earnings.'
'A couch!' I replied: 'why what can you want with a
couch in the day-time, Annie? A couch is a small bed,
set up in a room without space for a good four-poster.
What can you want with a couch downstairs? I never
heard of such nonsense. And you ought to be in the
dairy.'
'I won't cry, brother John, I won't; because you want
to make me cry'--and all the time she was crying--'you
always were so nasty, John, sometimes. Ah, you have no
nobility of character, like my husband. And I have not
seen you for two months, John; and now you come to
scold me!'
'You little darling,' I said, for Annie's tears always
conquered me; 'if all the rest ill-use me, I will not
quarrel with you, dear. You have always been true to
me; and I can forgive your vanity. Your things are
very pretty, dear; and you may couch ten times a day,
without my interference. No doubt your husband has
paid for all this, with the ponies he stole from
Exmoor. Nobility of character is a thing beyond my
understanding; but when my sister loves a man, and he
does well and flourishes, who am I to find fault with
him? Mother ought to see these things: they would turn
her head almost: look at the pimples on the chairs!'
'They are nothing,' Annie answered, after kissing me
for my kindness: 'they are only put in for the time
indeed; and we are to have much better, with gold all
round the bindings, and double plush at the corners; so
soon as ever the King repays the debt he owes to my
poor Tom.'
I thought to myself that our present King had been most
unlucky in one thing--debts all over the kingdom. Not
a man who had struck a blow for the King, or for his
poor father, or even said a good word for him, in the
time of his adversity, but expected at least a
baronetcy, and a grant of estates to support it. Many
have called King Charles ungrateful: and he may have
been so. But some indulgence is due to a man, with
entries few on the credit side, and a terrible column
of debits.
'Have no fear for the chair,' I said, for it creaked
under me very fearfully, having legs not so large as my
finger; 'if the chair breaks, Annie, your fear should
be, lest the tortoise-shell run into me. Why, it is
striped like a viper's loins! I saw some hundreds in
London; and very cheap they are. They are made to be
sold to the country people, such as you and me, dear;
and carefully kept they will last for almost half a
year. Now will you come back from your furniture, and
listen to my story?'
Annie was a hearty dear, and she knew that half my talk
was joke, to make light of my worrying. Therefore she
took it in good part, as I well knew that she would do;
and she led me to a good honest chair; and she sat in
my lap and kissed me.
'All this is not like you, John. All this is not one
bit like you: and your cheeks are not as they ought to
be. I shall have to come home again, if the women
worry my brother so. We always held together, John;
and we always will, you know.'
'You dear,' I cried, 'there is nobody who understands
me as you do. Lorna makes too much of me, and the rest
they make too little.'
'Not mother; oh, not mother, John!'
'No, mother makes too much, no doubt; but wants it all
for herself alone; and reckons it as a part of her.
She makes me more wroth than any one: as if not only my
life, but all my head and heart must seek from hers,
and have no other thought or care.'
Being sped of my grumbling thus, and eased into better
temper, I told Annie all the strange history about
Lorna and her departure, and the small chance that now
remained to me of ever seeing my love again. To this
Annie would not hearken twice, but judging women by her
faithful self, was quite vexed with me for speaking so.
And then, to my surprise and sorrow, she would deliver
no opinion as to what I ought to do until she had
consulted darling Tom.
Dear Tom knew much of the world, no doubt, especially
the dark side of it. But to me it scarcely seemed
becoming that my course of action with regard to the
Lady Lorna Dugal should be referred to Tom Faggus, and
depend upon his decision. However, I would not grieve
Annie again by making light of her husband; and so when
he came in to dinner, the matter was laid before him.
Now this man never confessed himself surprised, under
any circumstances; his knowledge of life being so
profound, and his charity universal. And in the
present case he vowed that he had suspected it all
along, and could have thrown light upon Lorna's
history, if we had seen fit to apply to him. Upon
further inquiry I found that this light was a very dim
one, flowing only from the fact that he had stopped her
mother's coach, at the village of Bolham, on the
Bampton Road, the day before I saw them. Finding only
women therein, and these in a sad condition, Tom with
his usual chivalry (as he had no scent of the necklace)
allowed them to pass; with nothing more than a pleasant
exchange of courtesies, and a testimonial forced upon
him, in the shape of a bottle of Burgundy wine. This
the poor countess handed him; and he twisted the cork
out with his teeth, and drank her health with his hat
off.
'A lady she was, and a true one; and I am a pretty good
judge,' said Tom: 'ah, I do like a high lady!'
Our Annie looked rather queer at this, having no
pretensions to be one: but she conquered herself, and
said, 'Yes, Tom; and many of them liked you.'
With this, Tom went on the brag at once, being but a
shallow fellow, and not of settled principles, though
steadier than he used to be; until I felt myself almost
bound to fetch him back a little; for of all things I
do hate brag the most, as any reader of this tale must
by this time know. Therefore I said to Squire Faggus,
'Come back from your highway days. You have married
the daughter of an honest man; and such talk is not fit
for her. If you were right in robbing people, I am
right in robbing you. I could bind you to your own
mantelpiece, as you know thoroughly well, Tom; and
drive away with your own horses, and all your goods
behind them, but for the sense of honesty. And should
I not do as fine a thing as any you did on the highway?
If everything is of public right, how does this chair
belong to you? Clever as you are, Tom Faggus, you are
nothing but a fool to mix your felony with your
farmership. Drop the one, or drop the other; you
cannot maintain them both.'
As I finished very sternly a speech which had exhausted
me more than ten rounds of wrestling--but I was carried
away by the truth, as sometimes happens to all of
us--Tom had not a word to say; albeit his mind was so
much more nimble and rapid than ever mine was. He
leaned against the mantelpiece (a newly-invented affair
in his house) as if I had corded him to it, even as I
spoke of doing. And he laid one hand on his breast in
a way which made Annie creep softly to him, and look at
me not like a sister.
'You have done me good, John,' he said at last, and the
hand he gave me was trembling: 'there is no other man
on God's earth would have dared to speak to me as you
have done. From no other would I have taken it.
Nevertheless every word is true; and I shall dwell on
it when you are gone. If you never did good in your
life before, John, my brother, you have done it now.'
He turned away, in bitter pain, that none might see his
trouble; and Annie, going along with him, looked as if
I had killed our mother. For my part, I was so upset,
for fear of having gone too far, that without a word to
either of them, but a message on the title-page of King
James his Prayer-book, I saddled Kickums, and was off,
and glad of the moorland air again.
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