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Gladys, the Reaper by Anne Beale

A >> Anne Beale >> Gladys, the Reaper




'I am so thankful it is over, and that it has all gone off so well,'
says Lady Mary.

'Really, Lady Mary,' says Mr Gwynne, 'great thanks are due to you for
the admirable manner in which you managed everything. I think it was
wonderful that we amalgamated, and all that sort of thing, don't you,
Gwynne?'

Colonel Vaughan replies, yawning,--

'I don't know what on earth we shall do without Freda! And she to throw
herself away upon that stupid London parish, where all her charming
manner and talent will be lavished upon ragged schools and missionary
meetings. I wish she had never come back.'

'Oh, Gwynne, I'm thure Mr Prothero ith very nithe, and tho gentlemanlike
and good and handthome. And, you know, clergymen are ath good ath any
one in London.'

'Prothero is better than most, I think,' says Sir Hugh, 'because there
is no humbug about him. And I'm sure, since Freda wouldn't have me, I'm
glad she had him, though I never guessed she liked him; I used to think
she liked you best, Vaughan.'

The colonel sighs.

'Oh! I never flattered myself so far, I wish--'

'Certainly, I could not have believed the Protheros were such superior
people,' says Lady Mary. 'As to Mr Owen and his wife, they might be
introduced into any society.'

'Thweetly pretty, Gladyth ith, I never thought tho much of her before,'
lisps Mrs Vaughan. 'Tho interethting the looked in that dreth, the one
the wath married in, my maid thaith.'

'I was obliged to call at the farm myself, to induce old Prothero and
his wife to come,' says Mr Gwynne, 'Freda wished it so much; I cannot
say I did: you see it was rather awkward. But he did not change his old
manner towards me--or--in fact--you know, Sir Hugh he might have been--'

'Bumptious,' breaks in Sir Hugh; 'exactly, not a bit of it. They're
better behaved. Besides, there was Mrs Jonathan to support the honour of
the family, and her husband the learning.'

'Yes,' says Lady Mary; '' it is a comfort that they are really
gentlefolks. And Mr and Mrs Jones too--in short, with the exception of
the parents, after all, there is no great objection. Many girls make
worse matches. Only they live so near.'

Here little Harold comes bouncing into the room, followed by the other
children.

'Mamma! papa! do you know I am going to marry Minette, I told her so;
her name is Victoria, after the Queen, she said. I shall go to see her
to-morrow; she is bigger than Minnie, and looked prettier in her veil.
Didn't Dot look funny in a veil? Dot nearly cried, but Aunt Freda gave
her some cake. Why did Mr Prothero come, papa? isn't he a farmer?'

'And isn't your papa a farmer? and am not I a farmer, Master Harold?'
exclaims Sir Hugh, catching the boy up in his arms.

'I am so sorry Aunt Freda is going away,' says quiet little Minnie to
her mother.

'And tho am I, my dear.'

'And tho am I, mamma,' lisps Dot, exactly as lisps her mamma.

'I hope she will be happy,' says Mr Gwynne, aside to the colonel; 'do
you think she will?'

'Yes, I am sure she will; she is evidently sincerely attached to Rowland
Prothero, and he to her. He is a good man and a gentleman, one cannot
deny that. Pshaw! why am I so sorry she is gone? we shall miss her
dreadfully after this twelvemonth.'

'Thank you, Gwynne; she has been very good and kind to us all; so much
improved, and she told me she owed it all to Rowland. Well, I liked him
from the first. You saw the Bible his school children gave him, and the
presents from his parishioners and the letter from the bishop, so
complimentary, you know, so flattering, and all that sort of thing. God
bless them,'

Mr Gwynne very nearly begins to cry, and Colonel Vaughan feels inclined
to join; but by way of consoling himself, says,--

'I shall go and see the Protheros sometimes now. I never saw anything in
my life so lovely as that younger Mrs Prothero.'

'Take care, my dear,' cries Lady Mary to her daughter; 'the colonel is
going to visit the fair Gladys.'

'Oh! I thant allow that, Gwynne, the ith much too pretty.'

'Let us go out and look at the people before dinner,' says Colonel
Vaughan; 'I must say it was cruel of Freda to refuse to have a party.
This is fearfully dull; the vicar and his wife, or Mr and Mrs Jones
would have been better than nobody.'

'Much obliged!' says Sir Hugh.

As all the party go into the Park, we will follow them, and leaving them
there, retrace our steps to the farm.

There is high tea going on in the parlour, and a pleasant, cheerful
party they are, assembled round the tea-table. Gladys in the
wedding-gown, with a colour on her cheeks and a light in her eyes that
were not there in former days, presides. Owen divides his attentions
between her and some object in the corner of the room; first jumping up
to peep into this curtained curiosity, and then returning to put cream
into the tea-cups, hand the cakes and bread and butter, or do any and
everything that his loving and lovely Gladys asks him, with whom he is
just as much in love as ever.

Mr Jones and Mr Prothero sit on either side of Gladys, and seem to vie
with one another in showing a father's and uncle's affection to her.
Next to Mr Jones we have Mrs Prothero, looking more like what she looked
when first we saw her, than she has done for years. Then Mr Jonathan and
Mrs Jones; and between Mrs Jones and Owen we are glad to see poor Mrs
Jenkins, very kindly treated by her neighbours, and dressed in the
_moire_ and a handsome shawl; then Mrs Jonathan, in the richest of
silks, and the loveliest of caps; and, finally, Minette between her and
her grandfather; completing a 'round table' more cheerful and natural
than that of King Arthur.

Through the open window and white netted curtains--Gladys' treasured
work--the roses and sunbeams look in together, and the distant mountains
are blue and hazy as the sky. Flowers are on the mantel-piece and
tables, bridal-favours are scattered here and there. Above all, there is
a large white and silver bow, surmounting that 'curiosity' in the
corner, towards which all eyes occasionally turn. Perhaps we may as well
peep within the little white curtains.

There lies a wee baby, fast asleep, with its tiny hand outside the
coverlet, and its lace cap on the little pillow. 'Netta,' is the name of
that small fragment of humanity. Owen and Gladys' first-born.

Having surveyed the company, we will listen to their conversation.

'Well, father, don't you feel vain-glorious to-day?' says Owen,
stopping suddenly on his way to the cradle, and pulling his father's
grey whisker.

'I feel very thankful that it is all over, and very unnatural.'

'Not unnatural, David, bach,' says his wife.

'Yes, unnatural. It was never intended for Miss Gwynne to be my
daughter-in-law, and I breakfasting at the Park. I felt like a hog in
armour, fidgeting inside and out.'

'Perhaps it was never intended for me to be your daughter, either,' says
Gladys, looking archly at the farmer.

'Treue for you, my dear. That was a piece of luck that came without my
seeking, and I like it all the better for that reason, I suppose.'

'I am sure you may rejoice in the present Mrs Rowland Prothero,' says
Mrs Jonathan; 'and you certainly need not imagine, for one moment, that
she is degrading herself by marrying your son. In London he is in the
first society, and meets people constantly, on equal terms, who would
quite throw your Lady Marys into the shade. Does he not, Mr Jones?'

'I cannot quite enter into these points, ma'am,' says Mr Jones; 'but he
and his bride are as well suited to one another as any young people I
ever saw, and will be a blessing to their parish and their friends.'

'Besides, if you come to family, brother David,' says Mr Jonathan, 'ours
is of considerable antiquity, and I cannot think how it got Anglicised
into Prothero. You know I have been enabled to trace it back to
Rhyddrch, or Rhodri, a prince who fought with and frequently defeated
Ethelbald. You may not be aware, Mrs Jones, that our name, properly
Prydderch, means Ap Rhyddrch, and that we owe it to this illustrious
source.'

'Now, aunt,' exclaims Owen, 'never mention the Payne Perrys again. Why,
you cannot light a candle to us. I am sure your Herefordshire Perry
can't date back to the conquest, and here are we long before it. What
date, uncle?'

'720, Owen. And I wish you, as the eldest son, would begin to write your
name in the proper way. I contemn, absolutely, this altering our fine
old language into that jargon of Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Norman, and
French, now yclept English.

'Very well, uncle, let us spell it R, H, Y, D, D, R, C, H,--eight
consonants without the aid of one single vowel. I declare the very name
is courage itself,--no auxiliary forces. Gladys, I beg you will always
sign yourself so when you write to Mrs Jones; and be sure you spell your
own name as it ought to be spelt,--G, W, L, A, D, Y, S. Even this shows
the weakness of the female sex; you do require one little vowel to help
along the consonants,'

'Ha, ha, ha!' shouts Mr Prothero, 'he has you now, brother Jo.'

'Not at all. Owen seems to have forgotten that w and y are vowels. But
he never had a taste for study, Rowland is quite different; and our dear
niece, Claudia, is much better suited to him than to Owen, for she
appreciates the wisdom of a past age.'

'The little hypocrite,' cries Owen. 'She doesn't--'

'I never could have supposed Lady Mary could be so affable,' interrupts
Gladys, fearing a dispute.

'She can be anything she likes,' says Mrs Jones. 'She pressed me and Mr
Jones to stay there to-day, but I could not have done so without Freda.
She was especially kind all last week, and resolved to go through
everything properly. I told her that your uncle could only stay two
clear days, and that we had promised to spend them here. It is such a
relief to be here, Mr Gwynne and Mrs Gwynne Vaughan are very well; but
her ladyship's constant tact and effort to do exactly the right thing
are wearying.'

'Do my Laddy Marry be very grand? Grander than Laddy Simpson, Mrs
Jones?' asked Mrs Jenkins, in an undertone, of her neighbour. She has an
infinite awe of Mrs Jonathan.

'I don't think I ever saw Lady Simpson,' says Mrs Jones,

'Not be seeing Laddy Simpson! Well, it is no loss for you. She was as
ugly an 'ooman as I ever was seeing. I am hating the Simpsons, and no
wonder. But Miss Gwynne is a lady,--Mrs Rowland Prothero, I am meaning.
She was coming to see me the other day, and says she, "I know you have
been unfortunate Mrs Jenkins, fach! and no fault of yours." And she was
giving me this new white shoal. And, seure, if it wasn't for Rowland
Prothero and she, I 'oudn't be in that tidy cottage by there, with Mrs
Owen and my grandoater coming to see me and reading to me; and Mrs
Prothero too, is seure, and bringing me something nice, and my Griffey
with hundreds of thousands, Mrs Jones, as you was knowing,'

Mrs Jenkins gradually gets excited, as she finds Mrs Jones listens, and
by degrees she gains the ear of the rest of the party, who all, in spite
of Gladys' efforts to divert their attention, turn to her when they hear
the words 'Rowland and Miss Gwynne.'

'I must be telling you now, Mrs Jones, ma'am,' continues Mrs Jenkins,
'that I am not forgetting all your kindness to me up in London, when
every one else was turning away. Ach a fi! and they 'joying themselves
at Abertewey.'

Mrs Jones presses Mrs Griffey's arm, and whispers 'hush!'

'To be seure! I was forgetting. But, indeet, Rowland Prothero did be
more than a son to me, and if Miss Gwynne was my own doater she couldn't
be kinder. She was buying up enough of my beauty furniture to fill the
little cottage. I did be finding it out 'esterday, and seure it was
their wedding present to a poor, childless widow, as 'ould be in the
Eunion, and I with hundreds and thousands!'

'Hold your tongue, name o' goodness, 'Lizbeth Jenkins!' growls Mr
Prothero.

'Hush, Davy, bach! we have all our troubles,' says Mrs Prothero,
brushing a tear from her eye.

'Grandfather, I liked Harold so much!' says Minette, to the great relief
of the rest of the party.

'Call him Master Gwynne, you forward little minx,' says Mr Prothero,
patting the child's back gently.

'Oh! but he told me he should marry me, and that Colonel Vaughan said he
was my uncle.'

'Children and 'oomen all alike,' says the farmer; 'thinking of marriage
as soon as they can speak. Gladys, why don't you teach the child
better?'

'It was the champagne, father,' says Owen. 'My full impression is, that
a few glasses more and you would have kissed Lady Mary. I wish we had
brought a glass for you to drink the bride and bridegroom's health, Aunt
'Lizbeth.'

'Oh, I have been drinking that pain!'

A sudden little cry in the corner prevents any allusion to the occasion
on which Mrs Jenkins drank champagne.

Gladys has her baby in her arms in a few seconds. The infant is attired
in her christening robe and cap, and seems to add a new beauty to the
sweet and gentle Gladys. All eyes are directed towards them, all hearts
warm towards them. Minette is instantly kissing her little cousin, even
Mrs Jonathan takes its tiny hand, as Gladys carries it round in her
mother's pride and joy.

'Your grandchild and my grandniece, Mr Prothero,' says Mr Jones, 'may
she grow up as good as her mother.'

'Amen!' replies Mr Prothero.

And with this word we end our story. The wedding wreath--the
christening-robe--the shroud! Again the wreath and the robe! Such has
been our tale, and 'such is life!'




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