The record-union., 1894-03-10
"The POacherS' Lucy Of BaIlnagee.

Copyright, 1894. All rights reserved.l
The old Duke of Banchester had been
dead long enough to permit of renewed
autumn hospitalities at the great castle Of
Ballnagee, in the Irish County Of Ar
magh, where the ducal family and the
invited guests came annually from Lon
don and the continent.
The family plate, loads Of pictures and
other bric-a-brac and scores of huge
trunks had come week before from the
London town-house, and Miss Todgers.
housekeeper, and John Jolly, confiden-
tial factotum, head butler and generals
simo at Ballnagee, of her grace. the
Duchess. and his Lordship. young
Viscount Drogo Victor Randeville who
would attain his majority and Duke
dom shortly after his arrival, with the
assistance of the upper and lower houses
of Ballnagee servants, all docking alive''
with great alacrity and zest, as they were
now out of "board wages" and into ''reg-
ulars," had set the great castle to rights
against the lords and ladies' coming.
The etiquette OF arrival, never stately
but always rigidly observed, had been
carried out. The first coachman and his
assistants, with the great carriages, had
brought milady and her titled guests,
with their maids, from the station, ana
milady's maid and Miss Todgers had met
them at the castle entrance and conducted
them to their apartments.
John Jolly and the groom had brought
young MILFORD and his titled guests, and
shown them to their apartments. Then
the grooms had returned for the guests
luggage and the Wallets and "loaders," "
for pheasant shooting was to be the sport
of the Young Lords guests for a week,
while all the peasantry of the struggling
hamlet, which huddled like a brown nest
of thatches under the castle walls, had
craned their neckS from windows, hlled
the leaning doorways and crowded to the
road edge OF the single street, crlnglng
and ducklng, grinning and pulling fore
locks, and mentally wondering now
much coin might overflow from the
guests of Ballnagee into their needy,
clutching palms..
Miss Todgers had got all the ladies'
maids into their little rooms beside their
Inistresses' apartments. and John Jolly
had seen that the gentlemen's Wallets were
all housed, with due regard to precedence
of their masters rank, in the servants
hall in the second story Of the great
quadrangle. This huge court was now
filed scores of men and maids Scurrylng
back and forth on their different errands
of service, while along the subterranean
regions, in the hOusekeepers' rooms, the
buffers rooms, the wine vaults. the stor-
age chambers, the kitchens and sculler-
les. everything was rattle, clatter and ex-
element. This extended to the carriage
rooms. the gun-rooms, the harness-roomS
and stables. where the grOomS were cheer
ily kissing and ''sissing" about the we'll
filled studs.
All the upper house of servants were
,,rrtJ n Sh11oic
ing'' each other with great volubllIty,
but in rigid decorum, and throughout
the lower house, above the clamor OF the
jangling bells leading to the apartments
OF Lord This, Lord That and Lord The
Other. was heard a steady, amazing,
interiecturaI staccato, of inverted appllca-
ton of masters title to servant, of Bun
raven, there's yer mans bell!. Scari-
borough. yer oP boy wants lis togs!"
"CarIington, yer lads 'owlin' fur a
shavep' "Warcourt, lively now, yer man
wants lis toddyw and 'Teverdon, yer
yally's waitin' to groom yer!'
Her grace, the Duchess OF Manchester.
could scarcely doH her travelling attlre
before seeing Miss Todgers, the house
keeper-Todgers, she Familiarity called
herla sharp-faced woman of 40, with a
curious upper squint OF one eye and a
drooninp subdued look of the other,
which. with her thin. red-tipped nose,
and her firmly set, thin lips, gave her the
appearance of always being ready, deti-
ant and deprecatiye, tor an immediate ac-
counting and a months notice.
'Todgers," asked milady abruptly, lis
there anything for me to know"
Nothing, your grace, save you Will
ind Ballnagee very neat and tidy"
'sNonsense, Todgers! You know what
mean. How about that girl Lucy?"
.sJest the same, your grace, as hever,
IL f1kar ra Gn
Dard'n. you'd sometimes think as 'ow she
were to hown th' 'ouse direcklyp'
The ewes of the Duchess flashed, but
she added inditferently enough, Moth
ing happened to her, Todgers?"
"Appened, your grace Happened to
ser! WY everythink pears to 'appen to
heyery other body, where she is ~
well. what about my orders 20 Filer?'
Filler was the agent OF Ballnagee-''to
have the gamekeeper's family removed
from BallnageeT
IVY, th' hagent was carryln' out
your horders, your grace, Lucy all th'
lime laughini at i'm like a idjut, Wien
'long come telegraphic horders from lis
lordship, sayin' as 'ow ee'd be Duke OF
Banchester in about six months, an il
'ee didn't want to 'ose lis 'ead, zee better
LET thu op gamekeeper an lis folk alone.
Wat could poor Filler do. your grace?"
'Oh, nothing, nothing" This dlscour-
RQeQly; ana IG6D, aS 10 Save uoI N1sH4ty
in the ewes of her servant, Il thought
best to humor him, Todgers; but has
Brlsbin carried out his orders to reform
the little mink?
'Well, your grace, without dIsrespects
TO th' rector, should venture ee's not
lest th' right age. Ee's been very at
tentive to Lucy, your grace?"
She said this with little stab OF lnton-
alton all women know how to de1trously
and safely give, when there can be no
immediate thrust in return.
.'That will do, Todgers. Send jolly up
to the drawing-room, said the Duchess
without show of feeling; whereupon
Todeers, with a courtesy of the sort
which seems to have a soft little click
somewhere in it, softly clicked herself
out of her lady's apartments.
The Duchess of Manchester wore her
most kindly smiles when John Jolly en-
tered the great drawing-room: for Jolly
was an old servant and had, for score OF
wears. sustained the most sacred relations
nossible between master and mistress and
man at Ballnagee. Wise, discreet to be
relied upon at all times, was John Jolly.
He was the repository OF countless conf
dences and deIiverer of none. He was all
seeing upon occasion, but sightless, when
hIindness was wisdom; familiar, but al
ways deferential to those above him;
hearty and kindly to those below; full OF
gentle diplomacy to all III the two far