The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1859-08-27
Ritbmunn gispatfb,
THE OAKS or FAlRHoLaR.
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where WIS - ~ c,.rrsed again but no ono
,irra med that the old couple living Tag none
Farm had aay eon nns.aaalss,ons met us, no
ss x,,a,t,.d a, the door OF the foreign chapel,
=, ~ ,rrish we walked almost alone Never
thelass. nav husbands second marriage was
hIp hsa no, much time given me for reflection.
RI ,se WING soiourn as we did, year after year
a f,reicn lands. changing their abode when
ever its novelties are exhausted, have not the
.s,,a negotiations to revive old feelings and
y,aayrakcn conscience as the jewellers in English
homes. where church. bells aud village sights
and sounds, repeated day by day and week
after week. ring in our ears and pass before
TIE ca,aracss and temples Of the Nile, as we
drsamily foated on its current or Steamed
m ,onlights of ne tropics, the tread of the
camel. the fang0sd motion of the palanquin,
the caves OF Eilora, the shifting sands OF the
deseri--were familiar objects TO me in the
swiftly passing years, crowded with incident
and adyeatnre, during which we Travelled to-
gether over Egypt and Syria, and finally rest
ed from our wanderings among English peo-
pie. hearing our own language with delight
In the Indian cities of palaces
do not think that felt any misgiyings re-
.pecting the step had taken during several
happy years after our marriage-not, indeed,
until / began to perceive in my husband |
yearning desire TO return to England Our |
children were suffering from the Indian cli- |
mate We must send or take our little boy |
way the inclination which has so long guided
my own pointed, did not interpose any obsta-
Gle 10 the fulhllment of my husbands wishes;
but now that was mother, began to trem-
bic lest my own misconduct in deceiving and
forsaking my parents should be visited upon
me through my children.
I scarcely realized what the return TO my
birthplace would cost me until, after more
than twenty years of absence, ] saw the oaks
OF Fairholme crowning the hill down which
lay the road TO the old Hall. The western
henvens were flushed with crimson, and the
reflection Of the sunset giowed on the long
range Of upper windows. Two of these be-
longed to the room which had been Juiia's
nursery. 1 almost fancied that saw her lit
tie childish face at the window looking out
for me, rs she had done hundred times when
I was nay way from the farm TO the great
house TO play with her.
My hand was firmly clasped in my hus-
bands. There was no one with US in the car
riage. Our two children were with their
ayahs in the old fashioned family coach which
had been sent to meet us at the town near our
home. Our arrival had been only announced
that morning; nevertheless. the whole village
was astir to receive us. My husband return
ed the cordial welcoming of his humble neigh
bors with courtesy His manners were GER
tainly much softened. As for me, shrapk
back, ashamed of being seen; unconvinced, as
the old home feelings rushed, for the first time
for many years, upon me, how impossible 1t
was that even my own parents should recog-
nize me.
The climax of my suffering came when the
carriage swept round the corner, and the last
house in the long struggling village, the
matched roof and easement windows, the lit
tie garden, gay with summer flowers with
the path to the door through its centre, lay
before me. | scarcely breathed till l had
passed it; but my parents were old now. No
one came out from that house to gaze at us.
The foreign lady, as my own people called
me, was forgiven for not returning their
greetings. When we stopped at our own
door, had forgot myself for a moment in my
anxiety about the childrens arrival; raising
my veil for the first time that afternoon, to
Look OUT for Them loud hurrah rent the air.
Ny husband drew my arm within his own,
and stood calmly and colectedly on the steps
under the portico, thanking the tenantry for
their kind reception, and inviting them to re-
gale themselves in the park, where tables were
ordered to be laid out immediately. We
heard them shouting and drinking our healtbs
and that Of the children, after had gone
indoors, and w lille the nurses We're preparing
to lay my tired little ones in the beds where
Julia aud had often slept, side by side, when
any fancy OF hers, or Indictment weather, de-
tanned me at the great house.
could not close my eyes when lay down
that night. A thousand times / wished my
self child again, sleeping within the little
cblntZ- patterned bed-curtains at the farm
How longed to run up the hill, and throw
my arms round my mothers neck, and to
hear the homely tests, which sometimes used
to make me angry when my father spoke,
after the soft language of the inmates of the
Hall An, would have given the world To
climb upon his knee, and hear him call me
his own dear little Lucy, and bid me not to
be set mp with the presents and compliments
which was but too foud OF boasting about
when l returned from the Hall
saw my paren is for the first time in church.
Their pew was not far from u.s. The silver
haired yeoman stood aside to let me pass |
bent my head reverentially How little did
he think that he had made way for his own
daughter! l remembered the corner where |
used 10 sit in their large quare seat the pat
tern of damon Is on the carpet that used TO
CONT, my mothers black silk dress-it could
not be the same, but the make was scarcely al
tered, She had not used spectaces formerly:
but how my eyes grew dim as l watched her
wiping my fathers glasses and her own, and
finding the places in the large old bible and
prAyer-book, which had been laid on the high
desk, formed by the top of the pew, Sunday
after Sunday, for more years than l could re-
menber.
The magnitude of the fault l had committed
came vividly before me as looked at that dear
old couple. My husband watched me an xious-
ly. do not know what were his feelings but
believe them to have been that if it were to
be done again, he would not have brought his
wife to Fairholme.
Though none of the domestics who had gone
abroad with their master returned with us To
England, very little change had taken place
in the establishment main tanned ut home be-
yond the inevitable alteration produced by our
long absence. Time had laid gentle hand
onthc still comedy housekeeper. She seemed
TO me so like the image which had retained
OF her in my mind ever since she used to feed
Julia aud me with sweet-cakes in her pleasan I
room, that trembled lest she should recog-
nize me; bur in the pale, slender woman of
three thirty, with a skin darkened by the
hot sunshine of warmer skies than hung over
the Fairholme oaks, there was little to remind
her of the rosy, fair-haired English child who
had been her young mistress's piayfellow
My silence was construed into ignorance of
my native language. had unconscio usly dur
ing our long residence abroad, cquired a for
eign idiom; and the intelligence that their
new lady was an Italian, had been carefully
instiiled into the minds of all.
My evident emotion had gained for me their
fayor. IKE few words uttered, hesitatingly
could scarcely be otherwise than gracious
when among those present there not one
who had not, on many occasions shewn me
Kindness. There WAS Hillary the old gar
dener, who used to let me steal his flowers
and would load me with fruit to set our des
sarts: there was Prior, the coachman how
often he had carried me ia, in wet weather.
through the mud to spend the afternoon with
Julia in the long gallery where We PLAYED
battledoor and shuttiecock, when, in the short
cold winter days, she was not permitted 10
leave the house.
Our children did not gain strength as rapidly
as we expected. As for me, never left the
house, except to walk in the flower garden at
the back, where, in former days, / used to draw
Julia up and down in the little carriage The
smoke rising from the chimneys of the farm
on the hill seemed a constant reproach to me-
bat dared not disobey my husband was
more cut OF from my parents now than had
1elt when the sea first flowed between us.
naes master was just the same rs ever the
Villagers said. II there was any change in
hls appearance, 1t was for the better. He GER
talniy looked happier than formerly, when
1919 ns' esIie nome, put gradually his cheer
our vain hearts, inherited julia deIicacv Of
constitution Day after day, we saw him
washing away before our ewes Eyan ~
1880, " AK Lorglveness of my parents was