Janet's Love and Service Part 53

"No; it won't keep. Guess who is coming--Janet!"

Graeme uttered an exclamation of surprise.

"Arthur got a letter from Mr Snow to-day. Read it."

Graeme read, Rose looking over her shoulder.

"I am very glad. But, Rosie, you must make haste. f.a.n.n.y will be down in a minute, and Nelly is impatient."

"No wonder! But I must tell her about Mrs Snow."

And with her bonnet in her hand, she went dancing down the kitchen stairs. Nelly would have been in an implacable humour, indeed, if the sight of her bright face had not softened her. Regardless of the risk to muslins and ribbons, she sprang at once into the midst of the delayed preparations.

"Nelly! Who do you think is coming? You will never guess. I may as well tell you. Mrs Snow!"

"Eh, me! That's news, indeed. Take care of the gravy, Miss Rose, dear.

And when is she coming?"

There was not the faintest echo of rebuke in Nelly's tone. There was no possibility of refusing to be thus included in the family joy, even in the presence of overdone fowls and ruined vegetables. Besides, she had the greatest respect for the oldest friend of the family, and a great desire to see her. She looked upon her as a wonderful person, and aspired in a humble way to imitate her virtues, so she set the gravy-dish on the table to hear more.

"And when will she be coming?" she asked.

"Some time in June. And, Nelly, such preparations as we shall have!

But it is a shame, we kept dinner waiting. We could not help it, indeed."

"You dinna need to tell me that. I heard who came with you. Carry you up the plates, and the dinner will be up directly."

"And so your old nurse is coming?" said Mrs Grove, after they had been some time at the table. "How delightful! You look quite excited, Rose.

She is a very nice person, I believe, Miss Elliott." Graeme smiled.

Mrs Grove's generally descriptive term hardly indicated the manifold virtues of their friend; but, before she could say so, Mrs Grove continued.

"We must think of some way of doing her honour. We must get up a little _fete_--a pic-nic or something. Will she stay here or at Mr Birnie's.

She is a friend of his, I suppose, as Rose stopped him in the street to tell him she is coming. It is rather awkward having such people staying in the house. They are apt to fancy, you know; and really, one cannot devote all one's time--"

Rose sent her a glance of indignation; Graeme only smiled. Arthur had not heard her last remark, so he answered the first.

"I doubt such things would hardly be in Mrs Snow's way. Mrs Grove could hardly make a lion of our Janet, I fancy, Graeme."

"I fancy not," said Graeme, quietly.

"Oh! I a.s.sure you, I shall be willing to take any trouble. I truly appreciate humble worth. We so seldom find among the lower cla.s.ses anything like the faithfulness, and the grat.i.tude manifested by this person to your family. You must tell me all about her some day, Rose."

Rose was regarding her with eyes out of which all indignation had pa.s.sed, to make room for astonishment. Mrs Grove went on.

"Didn't she leave her husband, or something, to come with you?

Certainly a lifetime of such devotion should be rewarded--"

"By a pic-nic," said Rose, as Mrs Grove hesitated.

"Rose, don't be satirical," said Arthur, trying not to laugh.

"I am sure you must be delighted, f.a.n.n.y--Arthur's old nurse you know.

It need not prevent you going to the seaside, however. It is not you she comes to see."

"I am not so sure of that," said Arthur, smiling across the table to his pretty wife. "I fancy f.a.n.n.y has as much to do with the visit as any of us. She will have to be on her good behaviour, and to look her prettiest, I can a.s.sure her."

"And Janet was not Arthur's nurse," said Rose. "Graeme was baby when she came first."

"And I fancy nursing was but a small part of Janet's work in those days," said Arthur. "She was nurse, and cook, and housemaid, all in one. Eh, Graeme?"

"Ay, and more than that--more than could be told in words," said Graeme, with glistening eyes.

"And I am sure you will like her," said Rose, looking straight into Mrs Grove's face. "Her husband is very rich. I think he must be almost the richest man in Merleville."

Arthur did not reprove Rose this time, though she well deserved it. She read her reproof in Graeme's look, and blushed and hung her head. She did not look very much abashed, however. She knew Arthur was enjoying the home thrust; but the subject was pursued no farther.

"Do you know, f.a.n.n.y," said Mrs Grove, in a little, "I saw Mrs Tilman this morning, and a very superior person she turns out to be. She has seen better days. It is sad to see a lady--for she seems to have been quite a lady--so reduced."

"And who is Mrs Tilman?" asked Arthur.

f.a.n.n.y looked annoyed, but her mamma went on.

"She is a person Mrs Gridley was speaking to f.a.n.n.y about--a very worthy person indeed."

"She was speaking to you, you mean, mamma," said f.a.n.n.y.

"Was it to me? Well, it is all the same. She is a widow. She lived in Q---a while and then came here, and was a housekeeper in Haughton Place.

I don't know why she left. Some one married, I think. Since then she has been a sick nurse, but it didn't agree with her, and lately she has been a cook in a small hotel."

"She seems to have experienced vicissitudes," said Arthur, for the sake of saying something.

"Has she not? And a very worthy person she is, I understand, and an admirable cook. She markets, too--or she did at Haughton House--and that is such a relief. She must be an invaluable servant."

"I should think so, indeed," said Arthur, as n.o.body else seemed inclined to say anything.

Graeme and Rose were speaking about Janet and her expected visit, and f.a.n.n.y sat silent and embarra.s.sed. But Nelly, busy in taking away the things, lost nothing of what was said; and Mrs Grove, strange to say, was not altogether inattentive to the changing face of the energetic table maid. An uncomplimentary remark had escaped the lady, as to the state of the overdone fowls, and Nelly "could put this and that together as well as another." The operation of removing the things could not be indefinitely prolonged, however, and as Nelly shut the door Mrs Grove said,--

"She is out of place now, f.a.n.n.y, and would just suit you. But you must be prompt if you wish to engage her."

"Oh! there is no hurry about it, I suppose," said f.a.n.n.y, glancing uneasily at Graeme. But Graeme took no notice. Mrs Grove was rather in the habit of discussing domestic affairs at the table, and of leaving Graeme out of the conversation. She was very willing to be left out.

Besides, she never thought of influencing f.a.n.n.y in the presence of her stepmother.

"Oh! but I a.s.sure you there is," said Mrs Grove. "There are several ladies wis.h.i.+ng to have her. Mrs Ruthven, among the rest."

"Oh! it is such a trouble changing," said f.a.n.n.y, wearily, as if she had had a trying experience and spoke advisedly.

"Not at all. It is only changing for the worse that is so troublesome,"

said Mrs Grove, and she had a right to know. "I advise you not to let this opportunity pa.s.s."