Thereby Hangs a Tale Part 32

"Yes, sir, it is," said Mrs Lloyd, severely.

"And you've brought us our candles," said Frank, taking the waiter.

"Thank you, Mrs Lloyd; don't you sit up. Good night."

Pratt's good-humoured, smiling face puzzled the housekeeper. She allowed herself to be backed out, and the door closed behind her.

Volume 2, Chapter III.

TWO SCENES.

Matters had not been very pleasant in the neighbourhood of Mrs Lloyd that night Polly had escaped by being a prisoner; but the butler had been reduced, between fear of his wife and a burst of pa.s.sion from his master, into a state of semi-idiocy; while the rest of the servants, after one or two encounters, had had a meeting, and declared--being, for the most part, newly engaged in consequence of the young heir's return-- that if that woman was to do as she liked in the house, they'd serve their month and then go.

But it was on retiring for the night that the butler came in for the full torrent of his wife's anger.

"It sha'n't go on!" she exclaimed, fiercely, as she banged a chair down in the centre of the room, and seated herself. "Here do I stop till every light's out. That boy whom we wors.h.i.+pped almost, who's been our every thought, to come home at last like a prodigal son--backwards, and begin to waste his patrimony in this way."

"'s.h.!.+ 's.h.!.+" said the butler.

"'Sh yourself!" exclaimed Mrs Lloyd, angrily.

"But, my dear, he's master here," the butler ventured to say.

"Is he indeed!" exclaimed Mrs Lloyd. "I'll see about that."

"Oh, for goodness' sake--for Heaven's sake--pray don't do anything rash, Martha," said the butler, imploringly. "Think--think of the consequences."

"Consequences--you miserable coward, you; I haven't patience with you."

"But we are old now, Martha; and what could we do if anything happened to us here? Pray, pray think. After thirty years in this place; and we should never get another. Pray, pray don't speak."

"Hold your tongue! Do you think, after bringing him up and rearing him as we did when he was delicate, and nursing him through measles and scarlatina, and making a man of him as we have, taking care of the pence, and saving and scratching together, that I'm going to be trampled under foot by him?"

"But, Martha--"

"Hold your tongue, I say. Bringing home here his evil companions, for whom nothing's good enough; and they must have the best wines, and turn my dining-room into a tap-room with their nasty smoke. I won't have it, I tell you--I won't have it."

"But, Martha, dear, you are so rash; come to bed now, and sleep on it all."

"Not till every light is out in this house will I stir. Sitting smoking, and diceing, and gambling there at this time of night."

"Were they, my dear?" said the butler, mildly.

"Yes, with gold by their sides, playing for sovereigns; and that black-looking captain had actually got a five-pound note on the table.

We shall all come to ruin."

"Yes, that we shall, if you forget your place," said the butler, pitifully, as he gave his pillow a punch.

"Forget my place, indeed!" retorted his wife; "have I been plotting and planning all these years for nothing? Have I brought matters to this pitch to be treated in this way, to be turned upon by an ungrateful boy, with his rough, sea-going ways? This isn't the quarter-deck of a s.h.i.+p-- do you hear what I say?--this isn't the quarter-deck of a s.h.i.+p."

"No, my dear, of course it isn't," said the butler, mildly--"it's our bedroom," he added to himself.

"But I'll bring him to himself in the morning, see if I don't," she said, folding her arms, and speaking fiercely. "I'll soon let him know who I am--an overbearing, obstinate, mad--are you asleep, Lloyd?"

"No, my dear, I'm listening."

"Now, look here; I have my plans about Polly."

"Yes, dear."

"And, mind this, if that fellow Humphrey attempts to approach her again--"

"Poor Humphrey!" sighed the butler.

"Ah!" exclaimed his wife, "what was I about to marry such a milksop?

Did you know that he was making up to her?"

"I thought he cared for the girl, my dear."

"You fool! you idiot, Lloyd! and not to tell me. Have you no brains at all?"

"I'm afraid not much, my dear," said the butler, pitifully: "what little I had has been pretty well muddled with trouble, and upset, and dread, and one thing and another."

"Lloyd!" exclaimed the housekeeper, "if ever I hear you speak again like that--"

She did not finish her sentence, but her eyes flashed as she looked full in his, holding the candle over him the while.

"Now, look here," she said, more temperately. "I shall have a talk with my gentleman in the morning."

"What, poor Humphrey?"

"Poor Humphrey, no. But mind this--he's not to come near Polly."

"But you don't think--"

"Never mind what I think, you mind what I say, and leave me to bring things round. If she don't know what's good for her, I do; and I shall have my way."

The butler sighed.

"Now, look here, I shall have some words of a sort with my fine gentleman in the morning."

"No, no, Martha, don't--pray don't; let things be now; we can't alter them."

"Can't we?" said Mrs Lloyd, viciously--"I'll see about that."

"But, Martha, dear, I'm fifteen years older than you, and if anything happened it would break my heart--there!" he exclaimed, vehemently.

"I'd sooner go down to Treva.s.s Rocks, and jump off into the sea, and end it all, than that anything should happen to us now--after all these years."

Mrs Lloyd did not speak for a few minutes. Then, hearing a voice downstairs, she opened the door gently, and listened, to make out that it was only laughter from the smoking-room, and she closed the door once more.