Part 25 (1/2)

But mother and daughters were all united by a triple bond--family love; admiration for the finest work, the best action; and habitual industry.

Hans' desire to spend some of his money in making their lives more luxurious had been resisted by all of them, and both they and he had been thus saved from regrets at the threatened triumphs of his yearning for art over the attractions of secured income--a triumph that would by-and-by oblige him to give up his fellows.h.i.+p. They could all afford to laugh at his Gavarni-caricatures and to hold him blameless in following a natural bent which their unselfishness and independence had left without obstacle. It was enough for them to go on in their old way, only having a grand treat of opera-going (to the gallery) when Hans came home on a visit.

Seeing the group they made this evening, one could hardly wish them to change their way of life. They were all alike small, and so in due proportion to their miniature rooms. Mrs. Meyrick was reading aloud from a French book; she was a lively little woman, half French, half Scotch, with a pretty articulateness of speech that seemed to make daylight in her hearer's understanding. Though she was not yet fifty, her rippling hair, covered by a quakerish net cap, was chiefly gray, but her eyebrows were brown as the bright eyes below them; her black dress, almost like a priest's ca.s.sock with its rows of b.u.t.tons, suited a neat figure hardly five feet high. The daughters were to match the mother, except that Mab had Hans' light hair and complexion, with a bossy, irregular brow, and other quaintnesses that reminded one of him.

Everything about them was compact, from the firm coils of their hair, fastened back _a la Chinoise_, to their gray skirts in Puritan nonconformity with the fas.h.i.+on, which at that time would have demanded that four feminine circ.u.mferences should fill all the free s.p.a.ce in the front parlor. All four, if they had been wax-work, might have been packed easily in a fas.h.i.+onable lady's traveling trunk. Their faces seemed full of speech, as if their minds had been sh.e.l.led, after the manner of horse-chestnuts, and become brightly visible. The only large thing of its kind in the room was Hafiz, the Persian cat, comfortably poised on the brown leather back of a chair, and opening his large eyes now and then to see that the lower animals were not in any mischief.

The book Mrs. Meyrick had before her was Erckmann-Chatrian's _Historie d'un Conscrit_. She had just finished reading it aloud, and Mab, who had let her work fall on the ground while she stretched her head forward and fixed her eyes on the reader, exclaimed--

”I think that is the finest story in the world.”

”Of course, Mab!” said Amy, ”it is the last you have heard. Everything that pleases you is the best in its turn.”

”It is hardly to be called a story,” said Kate. ”It is a bit of history brought near us with a strong telescope. We can see the soldiers'

faces: no, it is more than that--we can hear everything--we can almost hear their hearts beat.”

”I don't care what you call it,” said Mab, flirting away her thimble.

”Call it a chapter in Revelations. It makes me want to do something good, something grand. It makes me so sorry for everybody. It makes me like Schiller--I want to take the world in my arms and kiss it. I must kiss you instead, little mother?” She threw her arms round her mother's neck.

”Whenever you are in that mood, Mab, down goes your work,” said Amy.

”It would be doing something good to finish your cus.h.i.+on without soiling it.”

”Oh--oh--oh!” groaned Mab, as she stooped to pick up her work and thimble. ”I wish I had three wounded conscripts to take care of.”

”You would spill their beef-tea while you were talking,” said Amy.

”Poor Mab! don't be hard on her,” said the mother. ”Give me the embroidery now, child. You go on with your enthusiasm, and I will go on with the pink and white poppy.”

”Well, ma, I think you are more caustic than Amy,” said Kate, while she drew her head back to look at her drawing.

”Oh--oh--oh!” cried Mab again, rising and stretching her arms. ”I wish something wonderful would happen. I feel like the deluge. The waters of the great deep are broken up, and the windows of heaven are opened. I must sit down and play the scales.”

Mab was opening the piano while the others were laughing at this climax, when a cab stopped before the house, and there forthwith came a quick rap of the knocker.

”Dear me!” said Mrs. Meyrick, starting up, ”it is after ten, and Phoebe is gone to bed.” She hastened out, leaving the parlor door open.

”Mr. Deronda!” The girls could hear this exclamation from their mamma.

Mab clasped her hands, saying in a loud whisper, ”There now! something _is_ going to happen.” Kate and Amy gave up their work in amazement.

But Deronda's tone in reply was so low that they could not hear his words, and Mrs. Meyrick immediately closed the parlor door.

”I know I am trusting to your goodness in a most extraordinary way,”

Deronda went on, after giving his brief narrative; ”but you can imagine how helpless I feel with a young creature like this on my hands. I could not go with her among strangers, and in her nervous state I should dread taking her into a house full of servants. I have trusted to your mercy. I hope you will not think my act unwarrantable.”

”On the contrary. You have honored me by trusting me. I see your difficulty. Pray bring her in. I will go and prepare the girls.”

While Deronda went back to the cab, Mrs. Meyrick turned into the parlor again and said: ”Here is somebody to take care of instead of your wounded conscripts, Mab: a poor girl who was going to drown herself in despair. Mr. Deronda found her only just in time to save her. He brought her along in his boat, and did not know what else it would be safe to do with her, so he has trusted us and brought her here. It seems she is a Jewess, but quite refined, he says--knowing Italian and music.”