Out in the Forty-Five Part 44

"Gemini!" I heard the girl whisper to herself in amazement.

I wrote hastily:--"Beg my Uncle Charles to come this moment, and bring Dobson. Tell him, if he ever loved either me or Miss Hester, he will do this. It is a matter of life and death."

"Promise me," I said, unlocking the door to give it to her, "that this piece of paper shall be in my black servant's hands directly, and that no one else shall see it."

I spoke to a young girl, apparently one of the lower servants of the house. Her round eyes opened wide.

"Please do it, Betty!" sobbed poor Hatty. "Do it, for pity's sake!"

"I'll do it for yours, Miss Hester," said the girl, and her kindly, honest-looking face rea.s.sured me. She hid the paper in her bosom, and ran down. I locked the door again, and went back to Hatty.

"O Cary, dear, G.o.d sent you!" she sobbed. "I thought I must give in."

"What are they trying to make you do, Hatty?"

To my amazement, she replied,--"To be a nun."

"To be what?" I shrieked. "Are these people Papists, then?"

"Not to acknowledge it. I had not an idea when we came--nor the Bracewells, I am sure."

"And did they want all three of you to be nuns?"

"No--only me, I believe. I heard Father G.o.dfrey saying to the Mother that neither Charlotte nor Amelia would answer the purpose: but what the purpose was, I don't know."

"Who are you talking about? Who is Father G.o.dfrey?--Mr Crossland?"

"Yes. He is a Jesuit priest."

"You mean his mother, then, by '_the_ Mother'?"

"Oh, she is not his mother. I don't think they are related."

"What is she?"

"The Abbess of a convent of English nuns at Bruges."

"And is that poor little girl, Miss Annabella, one of the conspirators?"

"She is the decoy. I think her wits have been terrified out of her; she only does as she is told."

"Hatty," I said, "you do not believe the doctrines of Popery?"

"I don't know what I believe, or don't believe," she sobbed. "If you can get me out of here and back home, I shall think there is a G.o.d again. I was beginning to doubt that and everything else."

A voice came up the stairs, raised rather loudly.

"You must pardon me, Madam, but I am quite sure both my nieces are here," said my Uncle Charles's welcome tones.

I rushed to the door again.

"This way, Uncle Charles!" I cried. "Hatty, where is your bonnet?"

"I don't know. They took all my outdoor things away."

"Tie my scarf over your head, and get into the chair. As my Uncle Charles is here, I can walk very well."

He had come up now, and stood looking at Hatty's white, miserable face.

If he had seen it a few minutes earlier, he would have thought the misery far greater.

"Well, this is a pretty to-do!" cried my Uncle. "Hatty, child, these wretches have used you ill. Why on earth did you stay with them?"

"At first I did not want to get away, Uncle," she said, "and afterwards I could not."

We went down-stairs. Mrs Crossland was standing in the door of the drawing-room, with thin, shut-up lips, and a red, angry spot on either cheek. Inside the room I caught a glimpse of Annabella, looking woefully white and frightened. Mr Crossland I could nowhere see.

"Madam," said my Uncle Charles, sarcastically, "I will thank you to give up those other young ladies, my nieces' cousins. If they wish to remain in London, they can do so, but it will not be in Charles Street. Did you not tell me, Cary, that their father wished them to come home?"

"My Aunt Kezia said that he intended to write to them to say so," I answered, feeling as though it were about a year since I had received my Aunt Kezia's letter.

"Really, Sir!" Mrs Crossland began, "the father of these gentlewomen consigned them to my care--"

"And I take them out of your care," returned my Uncle Charles. "I will take the responsibility to Mr Bracewell."

"I'll take all the responsi-what's-its-name," said Charlotte, suddenly appearing among us. "Thank you, Mr Desborough; I'd rather not stop here when Hatty is gone. Emily!" she shouted.

Amelia came down-stairs with her bonnet on, and Charlotte's in her hand.

"You can't go without a bonnet, my dear child."

"Oh, pother!" cried Charlotte, seizing her bonnet by the strings, and sticking it on the top of her head anyhow it liked.

"One word before we leave, Mr Desborough, if you please," said Amelia, with more dignity than I had thought she possessed. "I have strong reason to believe these persons to be Popish recusants, and the last to whom my father would have confided us, had he known their real character. They have not used any of us so kindly that I need spare them out of any tenderness."

"I thank you, Miss Bracewell," said my Uncle Charles, who also, I thought, was showing qualities that I had not known to be in him. (How scenes like these do bring one's faculties out!) "I rather thought there was some sort of Jesuitry at work. Madam," he turned to Mrs Crossland, "I am sure there is no necessity for me to recall the penal laws to your mind. So long as these young ladies are left undisturbed in my care, in any way,--so long, Madam,--they will not be put in force against you.

You understand me, I feel sure. Now, girls, let us go."

So, we three girls walking, and Hatty in the chair, with Dobson and Caesar as a guard behind, we reached Bloomsbury Square.

"Charles, what is it all about?" said Grandmamma, taking a bigger pinch than usual, and spilling some of it on her lace stomacher.

"A spider's web, Madam, from which I have been freeing four flies. But one was a blue-bottle, and broke some of the threads," said my Uncle Charles, laughing, and patting my shoulder.

"Really!" said Grandmamma. "I am pleased to see you, young ladies.

Hester, my dear, are you sure you are quite well?"

"I shall be better now," Hatty tried to say, in a trembling voice,--and fainted away.

There was a great commotion then, four or five talking at once, making impossible recommendations, and getting in each other's way; but at the end of it all we got poor Hatty into bed in my chamber, and even Grandmamma said that rest was the best thing for her. My Aunt Dorothea mixed a cordial draught, which she gave her to take; and as Hatty's head sank on the pillow, she said to my surprise,--