Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-20

her exclusive care-cloistered in cherries
solitude
The rector's family is usually the main
spring of a small community. but at
Shalesmoor the parsonage was almost as
empty and secluded as the Grange. 1t
was fine old Georgian house. within a
stones throw of the venerable church,
and overlooked its mounds and crumbling
gravestones. The big red mansion had
evidently been intended for large house
hold. but now most of the rooms were
closed and given over TO spiders and
mice. The Rev. Edward Cave was an
oxford fellow, man of culture and an
old bachelor; also a biblophile and in his
way. a mild misogynist. His weekdays
mind was abandoned to rare editions-to
Elzevirs and Aldines-and there was no
space in his thoughts for the pale heiress.
his neighbor.
On Sunday he preached two short lit
erary sermons. far above the heads of
his fiock-hiS language was not theirs
and for the most part they did not under
stand him-and the clerk read the les
sons the rector peered over his glasses
TO note with leiSured gaze, who were and
who were not present tmany of his pa
r1shionerS frequented a neighhoring
Bethel" where they We're addressed in
their own tongue. with their own COLO
quialsms and rugged accent. and where
even their slow blood was stirred by the
impasSioned shouts and transports of the
preacher). But whoever Mr.. Cave might
miss. there were always three black fig
ureS in the Grange pew-Miss Forde, sup
ported by the sisters Jubber.
The Rev. Edward Cave was that I'M
common individual, a wealthy parson: he
was good to the poor, liberal minded and
generous: it never dawned on him that
Forbes wan, silent daughter was an OBJ
ject of charity secretly pining for COM
partnership and sympathy. He and her
father had had little in common. Mr..
Forde was at heart a Nonconformist
(early impressions are ineradicable and
stick). The plainneSs and lack of adorn-
ment in his home the simple, austere and
secluded life. were not the result of pow
erty. but the outcome of an innate
Puritanism: also, he had no taste for the
books that were to the Rev. Edward
Cave as his children and idols. He had
never heard of the great Sutherland sale,
much less of the Psalmorum Codex, 1859
or the ''Valdarfer Boccaccio." Ambrose
Forbes books" were chiefly dedicated to
way transported him to the counting
house. The rector had known Hester
since she was lanky school girl, spend
ing her holidays at the Grange: In those
days he had entered into playful CONVEX
sations. and offered her chocolates and
juiubes. Now she was grown up, and
seemingly another individual; her silence
and reserve daunted and alarmed him.
Occasionally he had ventured to visit her;
was he not her pastor and trustee? But
she seemed so cold and remote as they
sat together in the gloomy parlor. and
discussed the weather. the flowers and
the various village ailments. 1t had
struck him that the girl looked faded and
unhappy, and he was sincerely anxious
to help her in any way: he would have
even lent her one of his precious first edi-
tions bound by Grolier, if it would have
afforded her pleasure or interest Valnly
he endeavored to cheer her with anec-
dotes and scraps of local gossip. Had
she heard that Farmer Wade had called
his twelfth and latest infant "Ffnis." and
that Widow Timms had deplored the i'll
behavior of her boys in spite of his kind
obstruction: and that recently in Sun
day school, when he had asked a class
what was an epistle one little girl, after
a long silence and much painful thought,
had answered: please, sir, the wife of
an aDostle!"
Hester listened politely and nodded her
head. but no smile dawned upon her Sc
verely cut lip; apparently the wretcheC
young woman lived in an atmosphere or
mental gloom. never to be penetrated by
the feeblest ray o. humor. Before he
took his departure her visitor earnestly
exhorted her to go somewhere for a
change, threw out various suggestions
and was eloquent respecting the benefit
of sea air.
II am off, myself. to the Tyrol," he
SAID. w nat WOuiQ you lHlllh VI d
month at Whitby? You see, it's August
now-capital time there
But to this appeal Miss Forde merely
replied: II could not go alone: am all
right here. thank you very, very much
The rector departed to the Tyrol, Mr..
Levin and family to Scarborough; even
DIR. Marsh snatched a holiday: but Miss
Forde still remained at Shalesmoor, en-
loving her own company.
The Jubbers, now women of social inn
portance. were much feted in the village.
Miss Jane had relaxed her purse strings
land the hearts of the butcher and the
grocer were glad within them). A girl
and a gardener had been added to the
retinue, and she talked openly of car
riage and pair. Jonah Tudgoose. the
small farmer had proffered his photo
were marching. Even Fanny. thanks to
her fortune, had secured a swain-a
young man who came in the evenings,
grnned at her through the gate and
which excited her ecstatic giggles.
And presently the fate that Nurse
Dixon had prophesied began to overtake
Hester. The dark, low-lying Grange,
with its creaky boards and dusky corners.
held two closed death chambers; these
she frequently visited when the house was
still. Often she paced the water meadows
and the fields for she shrank from
strange faces and the new gardener,
standing or strolling as one in dream
by the tufted sedges and silent pools. or
making a black blot amidst the gray
green spaces, the foaming meadowsweet,
the butterflies and the sunshine. At night
she slept badly, lying awake for hours,
and listening with a humping heart to
the awful whispers of her imagination.
hearing. as plainly as the lazy clock
tick soft, timid footsteps outside her
door. accompanied by Silken ruStlingS
and long drawn shuddering signs
Hester was in curiously apathetic
condition: her laSSitude, was accepted for
pure contentment and a gentle reslgna-
ton to her lot. Her fellow inmates never
discerned that the girl was failing in
mind and body; that idleness and solitude
We're eating into her very soul. Often
she looked pitifully into the eyes of Jane
and Liza in search of a sympathy which
was not there. ''She was just pale and
quiet" they rem rked to one another: 1T
was Miss Hester'S way, and she liked TO
be left to herself and her books.
But sometimes Testers spirit awoke,
and her heart was filled with bitter re-
volt against her solitary. purposeless ex-
istence and the inevitable monotony OF
her life. On these occasions her thoughts
turned to Nancy Byng. If Nancy would
but come to her, But what would Jane
saw to the visitor? Never had the Grange
received one and there was no spare
ROOM Jane was so violently opposed 10
all outsiders or change that she had even
grumbled at the new piano.
But why should she fear Jane? Truly.
because she had feared her always-it
was the ineradicable habit of years: as a
little child she had shrunk from James
sharp slaps: she shrank from her sting
.I,.,t Oh.