Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-08-26
V1I<hI LII Az V
JENNY AND HER MOTHER


the gateway OF his yard, wherein, under
sheds, stood his rolling stock, when Mrs.
Strangfield breathlessly came to him. and
besought him, with clasped, entreating
hands, instantly to order out one of his
coaches, that she might be driven to Win
ston.
Now, fortunately for her, Franklin was a
prompt man; and reading urgency in the
poor woman's desperate face, he gave
shrill whistle, and out from q little Office
tumbled knock-kneed hostler.
"Number Two, Jeremy, and Sarahs your
gal Let Thomas scrape hisself, and tell
him the leddy's waiting said Mr.. Franklin;
and with dispatch that would pleasure this
electric age to experience, a coach ratified up
to the gate.
"To the Greyhound, at Winston, as quick
as ever you can gallop," cried Mrs Strang-
field; and in a trice the heavy wheeled vehi-
Gle was scattering loungers in the roadway
on to the pavements, and making the shop
windows clink to the thunder of its progress
Still, it was a half-hour's drive, and a ter
ribly hustling one
AT last the village hove in sight; little
row of cottages swept by, and the coach
came to a stand in front of the glass door of
the Greyhound inn The man descended
from the box of the coach though already
she was spraining her wrist in esperate
efforts TO open the door for herself; and no
sooner was she liberated than she flew into
the arms of Sally, who, having caught sight
of the coach from window, was running to
the door.
"Are you the mistress" said Mrs. Strang-
field, in wild way.
"Yes, be, ma'am," replied Sally, with a
civil courtesy,
as there lady here!"
SAY; an you be her mother, l reckon"
IL am her mother Take me to her at
once"
Though Sally had been fortified with a
dozen scruples, they would have been help
lessly swept away by the peremptoriness OF
this command
"She's just where Mrs Mead left her.
ma'am. This way, please" and she went to
the parlor door and threw it open, saying:
"Here be thy mother, mistress"
Jenny was standing at the window over
looking the green space of garden at the back
of the house. With a stupefied face on her
she turned, and cry left her lips, and she
stepped back pace when her mother rushed
to her. Then, like a flash of night at the
sight of the beloved face, an impulse of love
and joy leapel up in her. and in close. sob
bling embrace were they locked as Sally.
looking away from the sacred sight, closed
the door upon them.
"Oh, Jenny, why are you here! why didst
thee leave mel" cried Mrs Strangfield. re-
linquishing her daughter to gaze at her,
with eyes in which rapture and sorrow were
strangely blended. "Never wa, mothers
heart wrung mine was when this morn
ing L beheld your boil untouched, and YOU
were no. near to answer to my call
Il could not stay Father would have
taken me to London to-day; and see what a
mad journey it would have been, and how
cruel my ignorance would make himi' the
girl said, pushing back her hair. aad stand
ing in half defiant, half dropping posture
before her mother
"Ihy father! Oh, Jenny! not only is it
my love for thee that has brought me here in
mad haste-thy father is dying! Ay, he
may be dead before we can return to himn
"Dying!- Mother, what do you say:'
said Jenny, taking, so to speak firmer hold
of the floor with her feet, and frowning.
while a sicky hue of pallor overspread her
face.
"Oh JENNY for the sake of God who hath
brought me to thee, put on your hat and come
with me quickly. l tell you your father is
dying-he fell to the ground when DR.. Shaw
brought him proof of yorr marriage with
Cuthbert Dostnot thee know that the doctor
has proved thee his sons wife! All, my poor
heart, how should she know and that the
cause of thy husbands missing, as the doctor
believes, is that he was seized by the press
gang aud carried away to seal Down thy
father fell, and we bore him to his room and
the surgeon fears for mis- life; and all the
while he lies grooming and crying upon thy
name. Bring Jenny TO mel bring Johny to
me! he means. My pretty, come quickly,
or you'll see him no more in this world"
The girl stood transtixed and overwhelmed
by her mothers news. Then you could have
seen her battling with the rush and surge of
tumutuous emotions whole minute ere she
spoke
do you tell me that my darling is
carried away to sea!n she said, in a febrile
whisper
otis what his father believes"
"And that DIR. Shaw hath proved me his
sons wife to my father.'
ayes, indeed. He came with a paper, and
the sight cf it hath killed thy father. His
hear is broken for the wrong he has done
his only onen walled the mother ooh,
Jenny, do not delay! There is a coach at
the door Make haste to put on your hat.
You would not let him be moaning for thee
in dying sorrow and not Gomez"
She looked at her mother with a wonder
full expression of troubled amazement and
incredulous horror in her eyes, then took up
her hat and in few minutes was ready to
depart. As she left the room she met Mrs
Walker, into whose hand she slipped a
guinea, giving her sweet, strange smile as
she did so, but quite powerless to speak.
ha ~
munificence, put the little trunk into the
coach, and low and numerous were the
courtesies she dropped as it drove off
The rattle of wheel and window. if not a
prohibition to speech, was q decided obstacle
to the hearing. But Mrs. Strangfeld had
too much TO say to hold her peace. With her
child's hand locked i'll hers she poured her
heart into Jenny's ear and oil the story of
Dr. Shaw's visit told her, and the medical
mans Judgment on Michael's condition, with
whatever else that her head was giddy with
sometimes reproducing and sometimes
breaking into passionate EXPLANATIONS of
rapture, which thoughts of her husband
would inevitably choke; silent scarcely ever,
and of the matter of her volubility leaving
Jenny, amid the roar of the coach, in pos
session of but very small fragments
And the girll
Her father knew at last that she was honest,
and for brief while had exultation, of the
kind that inflames the madmans eve, swelled
until it had sickened her heart with the force
and fullness of it But the emotion died
under the heavy droop of humi lated honor.
She had won back her name, but what had
the victory cost herr Her husband was gone,
her father was dying, her heart was wounded
and bleeding badly.
The bitter passion of shame thG.t had
driven her from Greystone revisited her
again when the coach entered the High
street, and she leenei back and involuntarilJ
drew her veil over her face The mother
stopped the coach AT the corner OF the street, /.
that the jar of he wheels might not pene-
trlte the resonant wooden house. and
alighted with her daughter, and both of
them went quickly in.
Mother" whispered Jenny, standing in
the passage as a stranger might, Il viii
stay here till you have seen him"
an the parlor, then, dearest, and rest thee.
Oh, Jenny, pray God to spare him! He is
thy father"
Softly the poor woman climbed the stairs,
and Jenny went into the little room which,
in all her life, she had vowed never again to
enter. Specializing she stood, wondering
how it had befallen that her mother had
come so speedily
Then through the doorway came whis-
per-"Jennyl"
She went out, and on the stairs she saw
her mother who for daSDair could .,ufy