Go and Bw My Bessy Again
Manufactory Girls
Bessy Conway; or, The Irish Girl in America.
CHAPTER 11.
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The day of parting came at concluding, and Bessy was permitted as a special favor to become in the wagon with the Hibbard family to see Mrs. Walters on board the Garrick. Many friends were there, and many kind wishes were exchanged, and people were coming and going to the very last. The Hibbards were amid the last to get out the vessel, and Bessy Conway lingered behind whilst her mistress spoke with the Captain and his officers.. Mrs. Walters had kindly promised to go and see Denis Conway and his married woman as shortly every bit she returned to Garrick, where she meant to spend office of the following summertime, and Bessy stood drowned in tears, with Sirs Walters' ii easily clasped between her ain whilst she poured out the sorrow, and the dear, and the gratitude that filled her heart. Suddenly another voice spoke behind her, it was that of Henry Herbert:
"Mrs. Walters," said he," you will excuse me, I hope, for intruding myself upon you at a moment sacred to friendship and to grief. I could not permit you lot to depart without assuring you lot over again that I am deeply grateful for the generous involvement you have been pleased to take in a forlorn castaway like myself. I make no professions -- people would not believe me if I did�at to the lowest degree it seems and then -- merely oh! believe me, I am the creature of circumstances. My whole life has been unfavorable to the growth of virtue -- no genial sunshine, no softening dew has fallen on my heart to fructify the germ of skilful
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that nature, or nature'southward God implanted in it -- this you lot cannot understand, and there is no time at present for explanations -- permit me again to thank y'all about sincerely, and to wish you a safe and pleasant voyage. If we never meet once again I shall remember you lot as ane who spoke kindly and encourag ingly to the poor outcast -- "
Bessy had retreated to a corner, and her sobs went to Mrs. Walters' heart. Herbert turned chop-chop and fixed his eyes upon her with a sorrowful expression.
" Ay ! she may weep," he said to Mrs. Walters, " she beloved you and you were kind to her. She will find few to care for her equally you did -- to capeesh her as yous did. I know her value, and I would cherish her as a tender 'dower, but she will not take it then -- she 'dies me as though I were a serpent, -- and others view me through a still darker medium ! Mrs. Walters ! I do not complain, but I must say that some whom you know accept not used me well -- only no matter at present -- a time may come up, -- If they only left me, Bessy, I could bear all, and the world might be the gainer -- at present I am like a boat sent afloat on a stormy ocean without pilot or rudder -- cheerio !"
" Farewell, Mr. Herbert !" said Mrs. Walters with deep feeling; "farewell! and may God requite you forcefulness to resist temptation, and follow the instincts of your better nature ! -- there -- milk shake easily with Bessy now -- and become chop-chop -- y'all take simply a moment !"
Bessy came forward with downcast eyes, and Herbert taking her mitt looked a moment on her drooping tearful face, then sighed heavily, and dropping the mitt he held left the cabin without a discussion. Mrs. Walters looked at Bessy�the color had left her cheek and she was trembling with suppressed emotion.
"Bessy! Bessy ! take intendance!" said the lady in a kind and soothing tone, "I know and feel that your trial is a hard one -- merely you lot must persevere -- all that your friends tin do will not save you, unless you human activity firmly and -- keep him at a distance!
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Let no promises, no persuasions induce yous to listen to him -- were his intentions all that he says, you would be none the happier for being his married woman, knowing the lite in which his family would regard you Remember what I tell y'all, Bessy, and you volition never be sorry for taking my advice. You must hurry away now, for I hear the Captain calling to me that Mrs. Hibbard is going. Adieu, Bessy! good-bye ! I expect yous to write to me very soon and I volition answer your letter. God bless you lot, my dear girl ! and may His mighty arm protect you from all danger !"
Bessy's heart was too fall for words, only she pressed Mrs. Walters' paw again and once again, and raised her eyes to heaven invoking a approving on her head, then silently followed Mrs. Hibbard to the deck, and had barely time to say " good-bye" to the Captain when her mistress left the vessel, and they joined the crowd on shore who were waiting to see the Garrick sail. When the concluding moment came and the stately ship elbowed her way out through the throng of merchant craft representing almost every nation of the earth, Bessy felt every bit if she were alone in the globe and the halfforgotten sorrow of a quondam departing was renewed in her mind. Minor comfort did she find in the shining aureate piece which Mrs. Walters had slipped into her hand at parting. "Information technology volition exercise for a emblem," was her sorrowful thought as she looked at its jaunty liberty cap and its allegorical stars, and then kissed it and laid it advisedly away in the tiny silk purse which the fair easily of Mrs. Walters had fabricated expressly for her use
Mrs. Hibbard did her best to console Bessy, and to supplant the kind mistress she had lost. But somehow she never got and so tar into Bessy'south heart as her kindness would seem to warrant She was a very expert woman equally the earth goes, and meant well at all times, but there was a want of steadiness in her disposition that amounted at times to caprice, and there was also a listless indifference to the affairs of others that looked very like selfishness if annihilation else it could exist called. Consequently she
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could never be to Bessy what Mrs. Walters had been, and that the poor girl shortly institute out with a sinking heart. Still Mrs. Hibbard was strongly impressed with a sense of justice and desired, moreover, to make friends of her domestics if she only knew how to set properly about it. She knew very well when she was well served, and endeavored to encourage by every ways in her power those whom she institute faithful in the discharge of their duty. To Bessy, therefore, she was uniformly kind, and made it a practice to hold her up as an example to others, a favor with which Bessy could well accept dispensed, for she knew that it vexed and bellyaching her fellow-servants without at all benefiting her.
Bridget had no patience with her mistress for what she considered this unjust partiality, and she never took any pains to muffle her discontent. She contrived to make the kitchen and then uncomfortable to Bessy that she spent no more time in information technology than was really necessary. Yet she did not mutter to Mrs. Hibbard, fearing a trigger-happy concussion which would end in Bridget'south expulsion. Just old Wash was not so forbearing -- he thought he had borne too long, so he made it his business to lodge a formal complaint against Bridget, telling his mistress that he could live no longer in the aforementioned house with her.
Subsequently breakfast side by side forenoon Bridget was sent for to the sitting room, and Mrs. Hibbard asked her how it happened that she fabricated the place so disagreeable to her fellow-servants. This reused Bridget'south ire, and instead of giving any satisfactory answer, she launched out into a tearing tirade against the house and every ane in information technology, man, adult female and child. Mrs. Hibbard tried in vain to terminate her, maxim that at that place was no need for loud talk or angry words, only she might every bit well have tried to stop the rushing avalanche of the Alps or Apennines in its downwards course. Everything was said by Bridget that could possibly annoy her mistress, and she wound up by telling her that she didn't know a good girl from a bad one.
"Any bogtrotter that comes the way volition suit y'all as well
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as a girl that knows her business. I an't used to that Mrs. Hibbard, and I tell you I shan't stand information technology any longer. I'grand no greenhorn, Sirs. Hibbard ! nor I'm no stranger in New York, thanks be to God -- I have had proficient places, Mrs. Hibbard ! not all as 1, and I know what skillful places are, and I an't a'going to be walked over by any one -- I'll leave to-morrow Mrs. Hibbard ! -- there !"
"Then we are both of one mind, Bridget !" said Mrs. Hibbard quietly and coldly; " that is merely what I wanted to tell you. There are two weeks by of the present month, for which time I will pay you when you are ready to get out."
" Well ! Mrs. Hibbard, it'due south very hard" -- began Bridget in an altered tone -- she had had no idea that her mistress would take her at her give-and-take.
" I take nothing more to say to y'all, Bridget," said Mrs. Hibbard walking away; " you lot leave tomorrow forenoon."
Then it was that Bridget lost a place which she knew in her heart was as good as whatever in New York. She blustered a bang-up deal in the kitchen, and boasted over and over that she didn't intendance a snap for Mrs. Hibbard or whatever i else, "only in off-white play ;" she abused Bessy and old Launder till, as Bessy said, " a domestic dog wouldn't lick their blood," only neither of them made her an respond, and, indeed, they kept out of her mode equally much as possible, then the mean solar day passed over without whatsoever more serious catastrophe than the breaking of a kitchen bowl which Bridget flung out of her hand in i of her tantrums."
Adjacent morning she left the house, refusing the half calendar month'southward wages which was her due, and threatening to brand Mrs. Hibbard pay her calendar month in full, as she turned her away without any reason at all but just to please that spiteful old nigger, and that nasty lithe piece of consequence, Bessy Conway. Ellen was favored with a skilful-bye, together with a departing admonition to accept care of herself, for her turn would come up adjacent.
"Smooth h2o runs deep, Ellen," said Bridget with an emphatic
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shake of the caput; " y'all see they never stopped till they got i out, and they'll serve you lot the same trick, depend upon it. I'd advise you lot to get pious, and thump your craw, and plough upwards the whites of your eyes now and and then similar a duck in thunder -- when you think folks are looking at you. That's the way to go along, and -- do you hear, Ellen!" she added with a mischievous glance at Bessy, "if you only practise that you needn't be partic'lar as to what you lot do behind-backs -- voteens tin can make a longer tether to themselves than they're willing to give to others."
Ellen put this broad hint off with a laugh, just Bessy looked very grave, and felt strongly tempted to make a astringent retort on Bridget. A moment's thought, withal, served to show her how worse than useless this would be, and she allowed Bridget to depart without any allusion to what had been said.
Mrs. Hibbard had advertised for a cook the evening before, and of six or eight who presented themselves in the morn, she engaged a tall, thin, and rather fragile looking young adult female named Fanny Powers. Mrs. Hibbard was almost afraid to take her, fearing that her strength might not exist equal to what she undertook, but Fanny appeared so confident, and looked so tidy and and then amiable, moreover, that. in that location was no possibility of doubting her capacity or her willingness. She was, therefore, inaugurated every bit melt and laundress, and her fellow-servants were all prepossessed by her appearance.
Indeed, nothing could exceed the lodge and neatness with which Fanny went through her piece of work, and, of course, the com fort of the family unit was wonderfully increased. Her mildness and expert sense were equally remarkable in her intercourse with her fellowservants, and then that, in all respects, she seemed a almost valuable conquering to the household.
Bessy Conway, in particular, regarded the newcomer with admiration, and esteemed herself fortunate in obtaining such a companion, for she institute that Fanny was extremely pious,
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and loved going to church building across anything else in the whole earth. She could not alive, she said, without going to church regularly, and she wouldn't take the best place in New York where she couldn't get going as often equally she wished.
A happy daughter was Bessy when, on the first nighttime later on Fanny's arrival, the two knelt together to say their beads, and later on a piffling persuasion, and some goodnatured laughing, Ellen was at last persuaded to bring together them.
" Surely nosotros're all right at present," said Bessy to herself as she laid her head on the pillow that night. Undoubtedly things looked bright, merely Bessy had yet to larn the truth of the former proverb: " All is not gold that glitters. "
Things had gone on very smoothly and fairly for about a week, and every one was happy in the restored peace of the mansion. Old Wash spent more of his fourth dimension in the kitchen than he had washed for many a month, and it was a pleasance to see him as he sabbatum of an evening by the brightly-polished range, looking alternately, with a broad grin of satisfaction, at the clear burn and the shining teakettle on top, and the sedate countenance of the new melt every bit she saturday at the table hard past making a dress for herself. The old human thought he had never felt and so comfortable, and so he told Fanny who, of grade, took all the merit to herself, and thanked Wash for his good stance.
It was a real pleasure for Bessy, also, to bring down her piece of work to the kitchen, in the evening after tea, or mayhap read some pious or entertaining book while Fanny worked. And the old nigger pricked upwards his ears and listened -- he had never heard Catholic books read before and he seemed to call back them the strangest reading that ever was. As a general thing he sat listening in silence, mouth and eyes open, to catch the words whose meaning was so mystical to him. At present so, however, he would break out in exclamations of surprise, and his running comment on what reached his ear was amusing to the girls, though at times they had to phone call him to business relationship
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when his remarks, whether intentionally or not, fabricated irreverently free with sacred things.
This was all very pleasant while it lasted. The stream running and then beautifully clear no ane in the world could suppose that there was mud to exist stirred up from the lesser very soon that would discolor the sparkling water and make problem where all was peace and delectation
Viii or nine days after Fanny came, there was a sermon to be preached on Sunday evening, in St. Mary'due south Church building, and Fanny calculated and so certainly on being present that she was total of it all the calendar week, and could hardly speak of anything else.
She grew quite eloquent while giving an account to Bessy of sermons she had heard preached by the same eminent chaplain.
" Well! I declare," said Bessy innocently, "you were very lucky to be able to hear and so many one sermons."
"I guess I was," said Fanny, " but somehow I always make that out wherever I am."
"See that now ! -- the former saying over again: ' where there'southward a will in that location'southward a way."'
There wasn't "a mode" on that occasion, for when Sunday afternoon came circular, Fanny received orders to accept some supper prepare for a few friends whom Mrs. Hibbard had invited to come habitation with her later on evening service.
When Bessy went into the kitchen a little while later, she was surprised to see Fanny sitting there crying as if her heart would break.
" My goodness, Fanny love I what's the matter with you?"
Fanny could not answer at first, but went on sobbing most piteously.
" Lord bless me !" said Bessy again in great warning, " what's come over you at all, Fanny ? -- did you hear of whatsoever death?"
" North -- n -- no ! I didn't," sobbed Fanny, " only -- just -- simply -- "
" Just what ?"
"West -- can't -- can't -- go out this evening�"
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"Well ! what of that?"
" Why I shan't hear -- hear Father P 's -- sermon !"
With all Bessy'southward goodnature she could not help laughing
" Why, then, Fanny, is that all that ails y'all?"
" I approximate information technology'due south virtually enough," replied Fanny very sharply; " I don't meet what yous've got to laugh at, really !"
" Well ! after that" -- and Bessy held upward her hands in utter anaesthesia -- " after that I'm sure I'll non wonder at anything."
" You won't, eh? -- dear me !" ejaculated Fanny rather disdainfully, as Bessy thought, for such a pious person.
In the meantime Fanny had dried up her tears, and Bessy went on: " Well ! do you know, Fanny, I'grand surprised at yous -- indeed I am -- to let your listen exist disturbed at such a trifle as that."
" Trifle, indeed ! it ain't a trifle, I tell yous, to be disappointed like that !"
"I wish you may never have more cause to cry!" said Bessy; " if you don't you'll come off rubber enough !"
" Now volition you just keep your chat to yourself ?" said Fanny, with increasing sick-humor; " I an't in a state of mind to acquit much at the present time, I can tell y'all !"
"Why, Fanny! Fanny! where'south your patience gone ton Certain I often heard you say that it was a fine affair for people to have trials and troubles in this world, for that every one would be a crown to them in heaven; -- it seems you don't want to make a crown of this trial, anyhow."
But Fanny was quite also aroused to listen to reason. " Well ! information technology an't any use talking," she exclaimed petulantly, "if I'm vexed information technology an't without good reason. I approximate St. Peter himself couldn't carry it patiently!"
"Well! I think he could," said Bessy with a smile, ' -- and I'thou certain of it, too, for I couldn't bear what St. Peter diameter, I'thou agape, and I could bear this thwarting of yours as easy every bit could exist."
" That may exist," retorted Fanny, with a look so contemptuous and
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sour that Bessy could inappreciably believe her optics; " some an't equally anxious to hear sermons every bit others."
"Well! I can say for myself," said Bessy, still grinning, " that at that place'south no 1 likes meliorate to hear instructions than I do, -- but still I'd never fret about missing ane sermon; if I did, I'd be afraid that I wasn't profiting much past them that I did hear."
On this Fanny bridled up, and her optics actually flashed fire. " I'd give thanks you lot, Bessy Conway, to keep your opinion till it is asked for, and it will exist a long day before I inquire it, accept my word for it."
" Well ! sure you needn't be vexed with me anyhow," said Bessy mildly; "it isn't my fault that yous're kept in from church."
" I don't say it is, Bessy !" rejoined Fanny, a lilliputian softened, " merely I'm existent angry with Mrs. Hibbard."
" Well ! I don't run across why y'all should. Is it because she wants supper for three or 4 of her friends? Hasn't she a right to go what she wants in her own house?"
"Nobody says she hasn't," exclaimed Fanny with renewed warmth, " but information technology's the least a girl that's working like a slave all week should have Sunday evening to herself!" and again Fanny burst into a passionate overflowing of tears. " Here I've to go to w work amongst pots and saucepans instead of going to Church like a Christian to hear the word of God ! It's too bad, and I've a smashing mind to put on my things awl go off to Church."
" And lose your identify tomorrow forenoon?"
" I don't care a cent about the place ! I'd rather be for half wages where I could save my soul!"
Seeing the state of nervous excitement into which Fanny had worked herself, Bessy was driven to her wit's end, and genu not well what to say. Yet she felt as though she ought to say something.
" Well ! I don't know how it may be with you," said she,
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" but for my function, I recollect I can relieve my soul here as well as if I was in a nunnery; -- and exercise you know what, Fanny! peradventure yous're doing more than for your soul among the pots and saucepans to-night than if yous were sitting in a pew in St. Mary's Church listening to Begetter P ."
" How so, pray?"
" Why, because you'd be doing your own will if you went to Church building, simply it'due south God's will for you to stay at your piece of work, when the mistress wants you lot "
"Well, upon my word !" ejaculated Fanny in loftier disdain, " things are come up to a pretty pass with u.s. when a bit of a foreigner undertakes to lecture u.s.a. like that!"
"I hope you'll non have it ill of me," said Bessy mildly; "even if I am a foreigner, equally you say, that doesn't prevent me from knowing how to save my soul. There'due south every bit good Christians where I came from, thanks be to God, as there is anywhere else "
" Good gracious !" cried Fanny, glancing at the clock, " there its seven o'clock, and I hadn't got a thing done, not even my tea-dishes washed!"
" Well ! if you'll keep with your cooking," said Bessy, " I'll wash the dishes for you lot."
This welcome proposal restored Fanny's good humor, at to the lowest degree to a certain extent, and although she kept sighing at intervals all the evening as she thought of Father P-'southward sermon, she said no more about it, for Wash came in shortly after, and Bessy took care to go along other subjects afloat, so that the evening passed away without whatever further allusion to the exciting topic of Fanny'southward disappointment.
Merely the girls were never on the same terms after that evening. The bond of sympathy was cleaved between them, and their common confidence was much diminished if not entirely destroyed. Bessy's faith in Fanny had received a severe shock, and the subdued mildness, or rather calmness of her outside no longer impressed her equally it had done. She had dis --
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covered that a deep strata of homo pride lay below the modest and humble exterior, and that angry passions were smoldering beneath the cold surface, awaiting merely occasion to fan them to a blaze.
Dancers at a Club
During the following week, Bessy went up to come across Mrs. Finigan . She found the Castle Inn and every one in it in a country of exuberant hilarity. The merry sound of the dabble was heard from the large room off the bar, mingled with snatches of songs and " voices in their glee," and laughter that rang pleasantly on the ear. Marry was behind the bar with Ned, and both seemed as though their hearts were overflowing with content and they reveling in the sense of fortune's favors. They were both glad to meet Bessy, and Ally, inviting her in backside the bar, told her she was just in time for a dance .
" How is that, Mrs. Finigan?"
"Well ! the club meets to-night, you know, and they take elegant music and everything commencement-charge per unit."
" What'south the club!"
"Why, the Smoking Society, to be sure I idea you knew all about it. They meet hither once a week."
"Well ! but what have l to exercise with them?" inquired Bessy.
"Bad cess to you, Bessy, is there ne'er a spree in yous, at all q Didn't I tell you you were just in for a dance, and its what you question me similar a lawyer."
"Why dear me! Marry, practice you recall I'd go in among a room full of people that's all strangers to me, and step out on the flooring before them all? Sure enough I'd exist addicted of a dance when I'd do that !"
"Don't be botherin' me at present with your airs !" and Ally gave her a push in sportive mood. " Won't Ned go in with you himself, and its glad enough the boys will be to get such a partner! why our Mary comes every meeting nighttime and she wouldn't miss the fun for anything ! Come hither, Ned !"
Ned came accordingly and joined his persuasions to Ally'southward,
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but Bessy was proof against them all. They were forced to leave her to become to their business, and Ned especially was very angry, knowing what a stir her pretty modest face up would make in the club-room.
" You may get to the mischief, then!" he said testily as he hurried back to the bar; " if Herbert was there, she'd become in a minute," he added in an under tone, " but her own equals aren't good enough for her ladyship since she has a squireen running after her !"
Vexed as Ally was, she gave Bessy a seat near where she was standing. "But perchance you'd rather go up stairs," said she in an ironical tone, " my mother is above."
Bessy was rather amused, however, by the view which she had of the order-room through the open door, and she said she would wait a little where she was before she went up to see Mrs. Murphy. It was, indeed, a scene where mirth and jollity abounded, and where the hilarious elasticity of the Celtic nature was strikingly manifested. The Smoking Social club of that day is now with the by, for twenty years throws many a custom off the stage of popular favor into the gulf of things obsolete.
At the room-door sat an odd-looking genius with the drollest expression of countenance and that ceaseless menses of humour only to be found amid those of his class and state. This private held a plate on which was deposited, past each ane on inbound, the silver key which obtained him access, in the likeness of a York shilling. Each fellow member, it seemed, had the privilege of bringing a partner, and the pile of shillings on the plate was appropriated, first of all to paying the musicians, the balance to be spent at the bar in refreshments for the visitor. The smoking-members had another room appropriated to themselves, their pipes and tobacco�cigars were held in sovereign antipathy, and by common consent excluded the order-room.
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Bessy enjoyed the fun mightily for some fourth dimension. The whole scene was familiar, and as she watched each:
dancing pair that merely sought renown,
By holding out to tire each other down,
And the merry antics of the young men and the simpering shyness of the girls, as they gaily footed the floor to the melody of "The Rocky Road to Dublin," or "Jackson'south Forenoon Brush," or another traditional favorite, she could almost forget the thousands of miles that lay between her and " the big barn" where many a fourth dimension she tripped it on the bare earthen floor. When the recollection of where she was did recur to her mind, a sigh and a tear were given to the lightsome heart and the homely joys of that Auld Lang Syne which seemed to have fallen a score of years back into the past, though Bessy'south years were but a score.
It presently got about in the room that " old Denis Conway'south daughter from Ardfinnan" was somewhere in the vicinity, and i after another, full half a dozen "Tipperary boys" made their bow and scrape before her, request the pleasure of her visitor to trip the light fantastic. Bessy was fain to refuse them all, but no ane could take criminal offense, her smile was so sweet, and her excuses so plausible.
She was just thinking of going up stairs, when a well known phonation, speaking to Ned at the bar, made her plow quickly, and there she saw Henry Herbert, his face flushed either with liquor or some strong excitement. He had just come in, accompanied by a alpine showy man, whom Bessy recognized with a sinking eye as the same who had then impudently accosted her that well-remembered night in Chatham square.
The pair of friends were passing on to the smaller room adjoining the club-room, and Ned Finigan looked anxiously circular in search of Bessy. To his keen relief no Bessy was at that place.
Table of Contents Source: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/SADLIER/BESSY/Bessy11.htm
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