i hear from mr. jonathan andrewes—yorkshire—alathea alias betty—we bury our dead out of our sight—voices of the north
i sat up for a short time with my father on my return. when i went to bed, to my amazement sweep was absent, and i could not find him anywhere. i did not like to return to the rectory, for fear of disturbing mr. andrewes' rest, so i went to bed without my dog.
i was up early next morning, for i had resolved to go to the station to see mr. andrewes off, though his train was an early one, that i might disabuse him of his superstition by our meeting once more. it was with a secret sense of relief, for my own part, that i saw him arranging his luggage. sweep, by-the-by, had turned up to breakfast, and was with me.
"i've come to see you off," i shouted, "and to break the charm of last times, and sweep has come too."
"strange to say, sweep came back to me last night, after you left," said the rector, laughing; "and he added omen to superstition by sitting under the window when i turned him out, and howling like a banshee."
sweep himself looked rather foolish as he wagged[197] his tail in answer to the rector's greeting. he had the air of saying, "we were all a little excited last night. let it pass."
for my own part i felt quite reassured. the rector was in his sunniest mood, and as he watched us from the window to the very last, his face was so bright with smiles, that he hardly looked ill.
for some days sweep and i were absent, fishing.
when i returned, i found on my mantelpiece a black-edged letter in an unfamiliar hand. but for the black i should have fancied it was a bill. the writing was what is called "commercial." i opened it and read as follows:
"north side mills, blackford,
yorks. 4/8, 18—.
"sir,
"i have to announce the lamented decease of my brother—reverend reginald andrewes, m.a.—which took place on the 3rd inst. (3.35 a.m.), at oak mount, blackford; where a rough hospitality will be very much at your service, should you purpose to attend the funeral. deceased expressed a wish that you should follow the remains; and should your respected father think of accompanying you, the compliment will give much pleasure to survivors.
"funeral party to leave oak mount at 4 p.m. on thursday next (the 8th inst.), d.v.
"a line to say when you may be expected will enable me to meet you, and oblige,
"yours respectfully,
"jonathan andrewes.
"reginald dacre, esq., jun."
it is useless to dwell upon the bitterness of this blow. my father felt it as much as i did, and[198] neither he nor i ever found this loss repaired. one loses some few friends in a lifetime whose places are never filled.
we went to the funeral. had the cause of our journey been less sad, i should certainly have enjoyed it very much. the railway ran through some beautiful scenery, but it was the long coach journey at the end which won my admiration for the rector's native county. i had never seen anything like these noble hills, these grand slopes of moorland stretching away on each side of us as we drove through a valley to which the river running with us gave its name. not a quiet, sluggish river, keeping flat pastures green, reflecting straight lines of pollard willows, and constantly flowing past gay villas and country cottages, but a pretty, brawling river with a stony bed, now yellow with iron, and now brown with peat, for long distances running its solitary race between the hills, but made useful here and there by ugly mills built upon the banks. sometimes there was a hamlet as well as a mill. tracts of the neighbouring moorland were enclosed and cultivated, the fields being divided by stone walls, which looked rude and strange enough to us. the cottages were also built of stone; but as we drove through a village i could see, through several open doors, that the rooms were very clean and most comfortably furnished, though without carpets, the floors, like everything else, being of stone.
it was dark before we reached blackford. the latter part of our journey was through a coal and iron district, and the glare of the furnace fires among the hills was like nothing i had ever seen. at the coach office we were met by mr. jonathan andrewes. he was a tall, well-made man, with[199] badly-fitting clothes, rather tumbled linen, imperfectly brushed hair and hat, and some want of that fresh cleanliness and finish of general appearance which went to my idea of a gentleman's outside. i found him a warm-hearted, cold-mannered man, with a clear, strong head, and a shrewdness of observation which recalled the rector to my mind more than once. the tones of his voice made me start sometimes, they were so like the voice that i could never hear again in this life. he spoke always in the broad dialect into which the rector was only wont to relapse in moments of excitement.
a carriage, better appointed than the owner, and a man-servant rather less so, were waiting, and took us to oak mount. in the hall our host apologized for the absence of mrs. andrewes, who was at the sea-side, out of health.
"but betty 'll do her best to make you comfortable, sir," he said to my father, and turning to a middle-aged woman with a hard-featured, sensible face, and very golden hair tightly braided to her head, who was already busy with our luggage, he added, "you've got something for us to eat, betty, i suppose?"
"t' supper 'll be ready by you're ready for it," said betty, when she had finished her orders to the man who was taking our things upstairs. "but when folks is come off on a journey, they'll be glad to wash their 'ands, and i've took hot water into both their rooms."
the maid's familiarity startled me. moreover, i fancied that for some reason she was angry, judging by the form and manner of her reply; but i have since learned that the ordinary answers of scotch and yorkshire folk are apt to sound more like retorts than replies.[200]
in the end i became very friendly with this good woman. her real name, i discovered, was not betty. "they call me alathea," she said, meaning that that was her name, "but i've allus gone by the name of betty." from her i learnt all the particulars of my dear friend's last illness, which i never should have got from the brother.
"he talked a deal about you," she said. "but you see, you're just about t' age his son would have been if he'd lived."
"his son!" i cried: "was mr. andrewes married?"
"ay," said she, "master reginald were married going i' two year. it were his wife's death made him that queer while he couldn't abide the business, and he'd allus been a great scholard, so he went for a parson."
every detail that i could get from alathea was interesting to me. apart from the sadly interesting subject, she had admirable powers of narration. her language (when it did not become too local for my comprehension) was forcible and racy to a degree, and she was not checked by the reserve which clogged mr. jonathan's lips. the following morning she came to the door of the drawing-room (a large dreary room, which, like the rest of the house, was handsomely upholstered rather than furnished), and beckoned mysteriously to me from the door. i went out to her.
"you'd like to see the body afore they fastens it up?" she said.
i bent my head and followed her.
"he makes a beautiful corpse," she whispered, as we passed into the room. it was an incongruous remark, and stirred again an hysterical feeling that had been driving me to laugh when i felt most sad[201] amid all the grotesquely dreary preparations for the "burying." but, like some other sayings that offend ears polite, it had the merit of truth.
it was not the beauty of the rector's face in death, however, noble as it was, that alone drew from me a cry of admiration when i stooped over his coffin. from the feet to the breast, utterly hiding the grave clothes, and tastefully grouped about his last pillow, were the most beautiful exotic flowers i ever beheld. flowers lately introduced that i had never seen, flowers that i knew to be rare, almost priceless—flowers of gorgeous colours and delicate hothouse beauty, lay there in profusion.
"mr. jonathan sent for 'em," betty murmured in my ear. "there's pounds and pounds' worth lies there. he give orders accordingly. there warn't to be a flower 'at warn't worth its weight in gowd a'most. mr. reginald were that fond of flowers."
i made no answer. bitterly ached my heart to think of that dear and noble face buried out of sight; the familiar countenance that should light up no more at the sight of me and sweep. "he looks so happy," i muttered, almost jealously. alathea laid her hand upon my arm.
"them that sleeps in jesus rests well, my dear. and, as i said to master jonathan this morning, it ain't fit to overbegrudge them 'ats gone home."
i think it was the naming of that name, in which alone we vanquish the bitter victories of death, that recalled the verse which had been floating in my head ever since that evening at the rectory:
"jesu, spes poenitentibus,
quam pius es petentibus!
quam bonus te quaerentibus!
sed quid invenientibus!"[202]
the loneliness of my childhood had given me a habit of talking to myself. i did not know that i had quoted that verse of the old hymn aloud, till i discovered the fact from hearing afterwards, to my no small surprise, that betty had reported that i "made a beautiful prayer over the corpse."
the grim and hideous pomp of the funeral was most oppressive, though in the abundance of plumes and mutes mr. jonathan had, as in the more graceful tribute of the flowers, honoured his brother nobly after his manner, which was a commercial one. it was a very expensive "burying." alathea did tell me what "the gin and whiskey for the mourners alone come to," though i have forgotten. but we lost sight of the ignoble features of the occasion when the sublime office for the burial of the dead began. when it was ended i understood one of betty's brusque remarks, which had puzzled me when it came out at breakfast-time.
"you'll 'ave to take what ye can get for your dinners, gentlemen," she had said; "for the singers is to meet at three, and i can't pretend to do more nor i can."
the women mourners at the funeral (there were a few) all wore large black silk hoods, which completely disguised them; but at the end of the service one of them pushed hers back, and i recognized the golden hair of alathea, as she joined a group rather formally collected on one side of the grave. she looked round as if to see that all were ready, and then in such a soprano voice as one seldom hears, she "started" the funeral hymn. it was the old psalm—
"o god, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come;[203]
our shelter from life's stormy blast,
and our eternal home."
i had heard very little chorus-singing of any kind; and i did not then know that for the best i had heard—that of st. george's choir at windsor—voices were systematically imported from this particular district. my experience of village singing was confined to the thin nasal unison psalmody of our school children, and an occasional rustic stave from a farmer at an agricultural dinner. great, then, was my astonishment when the little group broke into the four-part harmony of a fine chorale. one rarely hears such voices. betty had a grand soprano, and on the edge of the group stood a little lad singing like a bird, in an alto of such sweet pathos as would have made him famous in any cathedral choir.
mr. jonathan's head drooped lower and lower. affecting as the hymn was in my ears, it had for him, no doubt, associations i could not share. my father moved near him, with an impulse of respectful sympathy.
to me that one rich voice of harmony spoke as the voice of my old teacher; and i longed to cry to him in return, "i have made up my mind. it is worth trying for! it is 'worth any effort, any struggle.' our eternal home!"
