bess passed back in her red cloak between the cedars with mrs. barbara’s taunts still sounding in her ears. she felt benumbed at heart, baffled and very miserable, not knowing whither to turn for shelter now that jeffray’s promise could have no fulfilment. mrs. gladden’s insolence had not hurt her so much as the thought of richard stricken down so suddenly by this disease. had but two days passed since he had talked with her in holy cross, and gazed with such earnestness upon her face? as she crossed the park bess looked back wistfully at the great house where jeffray lay sick of the fever. her heart waxed very tender towards the man, despite her wounded pride and mrs. barbara’s insolence. if only it had been her lot to wait on jeffray and spend her desire in such sweet service! if he had only fallen sick in ursula’s cottage and lain there to be nursed by her as she had tended him that night not long ago! she felt desperate enough for her own sake as she thought of dan. ursula would have discovered her flight by now, and doubtless the whole hamlet was as wise as ursula.
passing under the yews and out by the lodge gates, she leaned against the park walls to rest and think. she had little money in her pocket, and knew next to nothing of the world. where should she go, and how should she come by food and shelter? the very thought of returning to pevensel was an utter abhorrence to her soul, and now at rodenham priory she could win no welcome. to hide herself from dan and isaac, that was her whole desire. she would beg, slave, feed pigs to escape their treachery until jeffray was recovered of his disease.
much beset by her dreads and her dilemmas, she took the road for rodenham village after a last look at the priory half hidden amid its trees. she felt tired and hungry, having forgotten to take even a loaf with her in her fever to be gone. her shoes were dusty, her mouth dry, for she had not drunk since dawn, when she had taken water in her palms from a brook that ran through the woods. she would go down to the village to buy food, despite the danger that the boors might set dan on her track if he hunted her by way of rodenham. then, with her strength refreshed, she could trudge on towards rookhurst, and perhaps find refuge as a servant in some farm-house.
as bess was passing the garden gate of the rectory above the church, she saw a fat gentleman in his shirt-sleeves weeding the gravel path that wound up to the house. the place looked very peaceful in the morning light, with its tiled gables showing above chestnuts, yews, and hollies, and a single trail of smoke ascending from one tall chimney-stack. bess conjectured that it was the parsonage, and that the stout gentleman was the incumbent. she knew nothing much of parsons save that they preached on the ten commandments, made wedlock honest, and baptized babies. dr. sugg’s red face was turned towards her as she stood outside the gate looking wistfully in. the rector had a garden-trug beside him and a hoe in his right hand. he was proud of his flowers and fruit trees, and was more severe on weeds than he was on sinners.
bess was looking at dr. sugg very steadfastly. surely the old gentleman had a good-tempered face and a pair of kindly eyes that were inclined to twinkle. why should she not lay the burden of her distress before his broad, buckled shoes, and, being a man of god, he should be able to advise her. she turned in suddenly at the gate, purposing to try the sincerity of the old gentleman’s profession.
“may i speak with you, sir?”
dr. sugg stood up with several daisy roots in his hand, and stared at bess with his shrewd and genial eyes. at the first glance, with her black hair and ruddy face, she might have been taken for a gypsy. a closer scrutiny suggested a more romantic and interesting vagrant. the girl was strangely handsome, with a fine carriage and almost the air of a great lady, and dr. sugg always had an appreciative smile for a comely woman.
“well, susan, what can i do for you?”
the rector addressed all young women as “susan,” a fatherly and comprehensive pseudonyme that mingled benignity with good-humor. bess’s lips parted in a smile. the old gentleman’s manner pleased her, and she thought he appeared capable of being trusted.
“are you a parson, sir?”
dr. sugg seemed amused by the blunt innocence of the question. he threw the daisy roots into the trug, and reached for his coat that was hanging on a neighboring laurel.
“i happen to be the rector of rodenham, young woman,” he said, studying her with the professional eye.
“will you give me your advice, sir?”
“my advice is at your service, my dear, for what it is worth.”
bess had come well within the gate. she stood before the rector, with her black hair peeping out from under the hood of her cloak and her eyes fixed steadfastly on dr. sugg’s face. the rector had never heard a professional beggar ask him for his advice, and there was much in the girl’s manner that pleased him. he had perused her lines admiringly, and noticed the beautiful cleanliness of her clothes. it was not often that so tall and fine a girl was to be seen trudging the high-road through rodenham.
“well, my dear,” he said, with a shrewd smile, “how can i advise you?”
bess’s eyes were still fixed frankly on his face. their expression convinced the reverend gentleman that this red-mouthed phœbe was telling the truth.
“my trouble is just this, sir,” she confessed: “my kinsfolk want to bully me into marriage against my will, and i ran away from home last night, and came to see mr. jeffray yonder, who had promised to be my friend.”
parson sugg elevated his eyebrows and noticed that bess was blushing prettily.
“mr. jeffray’s ill with the small-pox,” he said.
“so they told me, sir, at the house. it was a great distress to me.”
dr. sugg took snuff, sneezed twice with emphasis, and glanced at bess with a curious twinkle in his eyes.
“are you from pevensel, my dear?”
“yes, sir.”
“one of the grimshaws, eh?”
bess nodded, and watched the stolid passage of thought over the rector’s good-natured countenance.
“and are you the girl, my dear, for whom mr. jeffray had his head broken in the woods?”
bess laughed and colored, her eyes brightening wonderfully.
“mr. jeffray saved me from my cousin dan,” she confessed.
dr. sugg shook his head reprovingly, and yet smiled as though he thoroughly sympathized with mr. richard in the adventure. he had heard of the affair from jeffray himself. his respect for the young squire was solid and sincere. possibly it was this same affection for his patron and a lively liking for this forest wench that persuaded the good-natured old gentleman to interest himself in her behalf.
“so mr. jeffray offered to play the protector to you?” he asked.
“he is an honorable gentleman, sir.”
“egad, you are quite right, my dear. and this would-be husband of yours, you don’t fancy him, eh?”
the sincerity of her disrelish was passioned forth on the girl’s face.
“i hate him,” she answered, hotly, “for he has tried to play many a coward’s trick by me. it was only the pistols mr. jeffray gave me that saved me last night. i want to hide myself, sir, till mr. jeffray is recovered.”
dr. sugg looked grave and not a little puzzled. the girl’s frank and childish trust in the master of rodenham was certainly a charming platonism, but one that might lead to delicate complications. richard jeffray might be a generous young gentleman, and a man of honor, but he had hardly arrived at that patriarchal and convincing age when romantic philanthropy becomes disinterested in the eyes of the world. bess grimshaw’s spirit pleased the old gentleman not a little. he was a born sportsman as well as a christian, and was honestly concerned for the girl’s future.
“what’s your age, my dear?” he asked, settling his wig and brushing the snuff from his waistcoat.
“two-and-twenty, sir.”
“can you milk and cook and use your needle?”
bess smiled and confessed to all these accomplishments.
“i would serve in a farm-house,” she said, “to get myself an honest home.”
dr. sugg appeared to be pondering the matter with all the gravity he could gather. that he was justified in abetting the girl’s frank spirit of independence he had no doubt at all. besides, his efforts on her behalf could not fail to please richard jeffray should that gentleman recover.
“listen to me, my dear,” he said, at length. “farmer pelham, of beechhurst, needs a girl. he is an honest fellow, and his wife is a kindly body. supposing i take my nag and see about the place for you?”
bess looked as though she were ready to embrace dr. sugg and his proposal at one and the same moment.
“i should bless the chance, sir,” she said.
“that is spoken like a woman of sense.”
“i don’t mind about the pay, sir.”
dr. sugg twinkled and patted the girl’s shoulder.
“you leave it to me, my dear,” he said. “i like your honesty and the way you have trusted me. it is a pleasure to help those who are willing to help themselves. you can make yourself comfortable at the rectory for the day; my daughter mary will make you welcome. there, give me a kiss, my dear, to show your good feeling.”
and bess kissed the old gentleman, a display of gratitude that might have shocked most grievously the more straitlaced of dr. sugg’s parishioners.
mary sugg assumed an air of mild and genteel hauteur when her father brought bess into the parlor and desired his daughter to exercise his hospitality in the girl’s behalf. like many plain and pious young women, mary sugg was inclined to view beauty with suspicion and to make of virtue a madonna of ugliness. she conceived it to be distinctly indiscreet of her father to introduce a strange girl into the house, especially when janet and sarah, the housemaid and the cook, had fled the place because of the small-pox. mary sugg atoned for her grimness, however, by being the possessor of a kind heart and a sympathetic nature. she made bess a gracious little courtesy, and looked shyly at the girl, who was gazing round the parlor, with its solid dutch furniture, its bookshelves, and its prints. a tall clock ticked sententiously beside the door. the chintz-curtained windows looked out upon the lawn and flower-beds, where dr. sugg’s daffodils and crocuses were in bloom.
the rector took his daughter apart into the hall, and, after closing the door, told her the whole of bess’s trouble. dr. sugg was a great man when giving voice to his opinions, and his daughter still believed him certain of a bishopric. perhaps, also, it was bess’s very virtuous disinclination to be married that impressed miss mary’s virgin heart. besides, richard jeffray had promised the girl help, and poor mary thought mr. richard one of the sweetest fellows in christendom. therefore, she kissed her father and declared that she approved heartily of his sentiments and his sensibility.
“why should not the girl stay with us?” she said, of a sudden, her tired eyes brightening. “now that janet and sarah have left us i should like some help, and i do not want to get a woman up from the village.”
dr. sugg slapped his thigh, and regarded mary as though she were a genius.
“bless my soul,” he said, “what a clodpoll i am, to be sure. the very thing, my dear. the wench has been clear of the fever, and if she will stay with us there is no need for me to ride to beechhurst. go in and talk to her yourself, mary.”
miss sugg’s sallow face had flushed a little.
“to be sure,” she exclaimed, “she looks a very decent young woman, clean and capable. i am surprised, sir—”
“surprised, mary?” asked the rector, with an amused twinkle.
“that a girl out of pevensel should look so neat and respectable.”
“can any good thing come out of nazareth, eh?”
“yes, father.”
“egad, many good things do originate from nazareth, my dear—more, i imagine, than from polite jerusalem.”
mary sugg returned to the parlor, and confessed with some shy courtesy to bess that the rector himself was in need of a servant. could bess cook and milk and mend stockings? bess’s eyes were fixed searchingly on miss sugg’s face for the moment as though probing her sincerity. contrasts that they were, there was a gentleness and an air of quiet sympathy about the parson’s daughter that appealed instinctively to the child of the woods. she met mary’s offer in the spirit that prompted it, and thanked her with a tremulous light in her eyes.
“madam,” she said, with simple stateliness, holding out her hand and making poor mary look utterly commonplace, “i thank you for your kindness and your trust in me. i will serve you with all my heart.”
there is magic in gratitude, and mary, blushing shyly, took bess’s hand and liked the girl unreservedly from that moment.
“my father is a kind man,” she said, a little confusedly; “he is always ready to help those who are in trouble.”
“and i see that you are his daughter, madam.”
“i hope i try to be worthy of him, my dear.”
it was a quaint sight to see mary sugg with her awkward little body and her ugly face mothering bess, who could have carried her in her arms like a child. bess seemed to become strangely sweet and gentle. her heart had gone out to this faded, shrivelled little person with the quiet face and the pale, short-sighted eyes. she was soon talking to mary of her life in pevensel, and miss sugg’s shocked face was a study in pained propriety when she heard of dan’s brutality. yet mary sugg was a very simple and untainted young woman for all her primness, and there was a certain inevitable ardor in bess’s personality that appealed to good women and to children.
mary took the girl into the kitchen, brewed her some coffee, and saw that she ate an honest meal. then she showed her the whole house—the attic that was to be her bedroom, the press where the clean linen was kept, the closet where the pans and brushes were. she gave bess one of her own aprons, an old pair of house shoes, and a cap. bess had much of the practical in her constitution, and, moreover, she was burning to prove her gratitude to her friends. there was to be a leg of mutton for dr. sugg’s dinner that day. bess bared her brown forearms, fastened on her apron, and blessed old ursula for having taught her to be useful. dr. sugg was delighted with her cooking and with the quiet and graceful way she waited at table. mary, a perfect housewife herself, congratulated her father on their refugee’s success.
“the girl looks quite a lady,” she said. “i must say i am in love with her, though she has only been with us half a day. i trust her terrible kinsfolk will not trouble her here.”
dr. sugg frowned and looked bellicose.
“the authority of this house,” he answered, “is sufficient to awe the rascals. my sympathies are wholly with the girl, my dear, and i shall protect her to the best of my ability.”
