results of the accident.
years passed away—as years inevitably must—and many important changes took place in the circumstances and the management of the grand national trunk railway, but the results of that terrible accident did not quickly pass away. as we have said, it cost will garvie an arm, and nearly cost mrs marrot her life. we have much pleasure, however, in recording, that it did not make the full charge in this matter. a small, a very small modicum of life was left in that estimable woman, and on the strength of that, with her wonted vigour of character and invincibility of purpose, she set to work to draw out, as it were, a new lease of life. she succeeded to admiration, so much so, in fact, that but for one or two scars on her countenance, no one could have known that she had come by an accident at all. bob marrot was wont to say of her, in after years, that, “if it had bin his mother who had lost an arm instead of will garvie, he was convinced that her firmness, amountin’ a’most to obstinacy, of purpose, would have enabled her to grow on a noo arm as good as the old ’un, if not better.” we need scarcely add that bob was an irreverent scamp!
poor will garvie! his was a sad loss, yet, strange to say, he rejoiced over it. “w’y, you see,” he used to say to bob marrot—bob and he being great and confidential friends—“you see, bob, if it hadn’t bin for that accident, i never would have bin laid up and brought so low—so very nigh to the grave—and i would never have know’d what it was to be nursed by your sister too; and so my eyes might have never bin opened to half her goodness an’ tenderness, d’ye see? no, bob, i don’t grudge havin’ had my eyes opened by the loss of an arm; it was done cheap at the price. of course i know loo pretty well by this time, for a few years of married life is apt to clear a good deal of dust out of one’s eyes, but i do assure you, bob, that i never could have know’d her properly but for that accident, which was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me; an’ then, don’t ’ee see, i’m just as able to work these there points with one arm as with two.”
to which bob would reply,—“you’re a queer fish, bill; howsever, every man’s got a right to his own opinions.”
will garvie was a pointsman now. on recovering from his prolonged illness, during which he had been supported out of the provident fund of the railway—to which he and all the other men on the line contributed—he was put to light work at first at the station of clatterby. by degrees his strength returned, and he displayed so much intelligence, and such calmness of nerve and coolness of courage, that he was made a pointsman at the station, and had a sentry-box sort of erection, with windows all round it, apportioned to his daily use. there he was continually employed in shifting the points for the shunting of trains, none of which dared to move, despite their mighty power and impatience, until will garvie gave them leave.
to john marrot, the accident although not severe at first, had proved more damaging in the long-run. no bones had been broken, or limbs lost, but john had received a shake so bad that he did not resume his duties with the same vigour as heretofore. he continued to stick to his post, however, for several years, and, before giving it up, had the pleasure of training his son bob in the situation which garvie had been obliged to resign. bob’s heart you see, had been all along set on driving the lightning; he therefore gladly left the “works” when old enough,—and when the opportunity offered,—to fill the preliminary post of fireman.
during this period edwin gurwood rose to a responsible and sufficiently lucrative situation in the clearing-house. at the same time he employed much of his leisure in cultivating the art of painting, of which he was passionately fond. at first he painted for pleasure, but he soon found, on exhibiting one or two of his works, that picture-dealers were willing to purchase from him. he therefore began to paint for profit, and succeeded so well that he began to save and lay by money, with a view to that wife with the nut-brown hair and the large lustrous eyes, who haunted his dreams by night and became his guiding-star by day.
seeing him thus wholly immersed in the acquisition of money, and not knowing his motive, his faithful little friend joe tipps one day amazed, and half-offended him, by reminding him that he had a soul to be cared for as well as a body. the arrow was tenderly shot, and with a trembling hand, but joe prayed that it might be sent home, and it was. from that date edwin could not rest. he reviewed his life. he reflected that everything he possessed, or hoped for, came to him, or was to come, from god; yet as far as he could make out he saw no evidence of the existence of religion in himself save in the one fact that he went regularly to church on sundays. he resolved to turn over a new leaf. tried—and failed. he was perplexed, for he had tried honestly.
“tipps,” he said, one day, “you are the only man i ever could make a confidant of. to say truth i’m not given to being very communicative as to personal matters at any time, but i must tell you that the remark you made about my soul the other day has stuck to me, and i have tried to lead a christian life, but without much success.”
“perhaps,” said tipps, timidly, “it is because you have not yet become a christian.”
“my dear fellow!” exclaimed edwin, “is not leading a christian life becoming a christian?”
“don’t you think,” said tipps, in an apologetic tone, “that leading a christian life is rather the result of having become a christian? it seems to me that you have been taking the plan of putting yourself and your doings first, and our saviour last.”
we need not prolong a conversation referring to the “old, old story,” which ran very much in the usual groove. suffice it to say that edwin at last carefully consulted the bible as to the plan of redemption; and, in believing, found that rest of spirit which he had failed to work out. thenceforward he had a higher motive for labouring at his daily toil, yet the old motive did not lose but rather gained in power by the change—whereby he realised the truth that, “godliness is profitable for the life that now is as well as that which is to come.”
at last the painting became so successful that edwin resolved to trust to it alone—said good-bye to the clearing-house with regret—for he left many a pleasant companion and several intimate friends behind him—and went to clatterby, in the suburbs of which he took and furnished a small villa.
then it was that he came to the conclusion that the time had arrived to make a pointed appeal to the nut-brown hair and lustrous eyes. he went off and called at captain lee’s house accordingly. the captain was out—miss lee was at home. edwin entered the house, but he left all his native courage and self-possession on the doorstep outside!
being ushered into the drawing-room he found emma reading. from that moment—to his own surprise, and according to his own statement—he became an ass! the metamorphosis was complete. ovid, had he been alive, would have rejoiced in it! he blushed more than a poor boy caught in his first grievous offence. the very straightforwardness of his character helped to make him worse. he felt, in all its importance, the momentous character of the step he was about to take, and he felt in all its strength the love with which his heart was full, and the inestimable value of the prize at which he aimed. no wonder that he was overwhelmed.
the reader will observe that we have not attempted to dilate in this book on the value of that prize. emma, like many other good people, is only incidental to our subject. we have been obliged to leave her to the reader’s imagination. after all, what better could we have done? imagination is more powerful in this matter than description. neither one nor other could, we felt, approach the reality, therefore imagination was best.
“emma!” he said, sitting down on the sofa beside her, and seizing her hand in both of his.
“mr gurwood!” she exclaimed in some alarm.
beginning, from the mere force of habit, some half-delirious reference to the weather, edwin suddenly stopped, passed his fingers wildly through his hair, and again said, with deep earnestness,—“emma.”
emma looked down, blushed, and said nothing.
“emma,” he said again, “my good angel, my guiding-star—by night and by day—for years i have—”
at that moment captain lee entered the room.
edwin leaped up and stood erect. emma buried her face in the sofa cushions.
“edwin—mr gurwood!” exclaimed captain lee.
this was the beginning of a conversation which terminated eventually in the transference of the nut-brown hair and lustrous eyes to the artist’s villa in clatterby. as there was a good garden round the villa, and the wife with nut-brown hair was uncommonly fond of flowers, edwin looked out for a gardener. it was at this identical time that john marrot resolved to resign his situation as engine-driver on the grand national trunk railway. edwin, knowing that he had imbibed a considerable amount of knowledge of gardening from loo, at once offered to employ him as his gardener; john gladly closed with the offer, and thus it came about that he and his wife removed to the villa and left their old railway-ridden cottage in possession of will and loo—or, to be more correct, mr and mrs garvie, and all the young garvies.
but what of timid mrs tipps? the great accident did little for her beyond shaking her nervous system, and confirming her in the belief that railways were unutterably detestable; that she was not quite sure whether or not they were sinful; that, come what might, she never would enter one again; and that she felt convinced she had been born a hundred years too late, in which latter opinion most of her friends agreed with her, although they were glad, considering her loveable disposition, that the mistake had occurred. netta did not take quite such an extreme view, and joseph laughed at and quizzed them both, in an amiable sort of fashion, on their views.
among all the sufferers by that accident few suffered so severely—with the exception: of course, of those who lost their lives—as the grand national trunk railway itself. in the course of the trials that followed, it was clearly shown that the company had run the train much more with the view of gratifying the public than of enriching their coffers, from the fact that the utmost possible sum which they could hope to draw by it was 17 pounds, for which sum they had carried 600 passengers upwards of twenty miles. the accident took place in consequence of circumstances over which the company had no control, and the results were—that twenty persons were killed and about two hundred wounded! that one hundred and sixty claims were made for compensation—one hundred and forty of which, being deemed exorbitant or fraudulent, were defended in court; and that, eventually, the company had to pay from seventy to eighty thousand pounds! out of which the highest sum paid to one individual was 6750 pounds! the risks that are thus run by railway companies will be seen to be excessive, especially when it is considered that excursion trains afford but slight remuneration, while many of them convey enormous numbers of passengers. on the occasion of the first excursion from oxford to london, in 1851, fifty-two of the broad-gauge carriages of the great western were employed, and the excursionists numbered upwards of three thousand five hundred—a very town on wheels! truly the risks of railway companies are great, and their punishments severe.
