Read Ebook: The Girl's Own Paper Vol. XX. No. 1011 May 13 1899 by Various

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"Of course, she's too old. I don't advise you to take her, remember that," Florence went on. "But your heart is set on it."

"I can't bear to talk of such a woman as being 'too old,'" cried Lucy. "I hope nobody will think me 'too old' when I am forty-five! Such years have not reached the infirmities of age, and if they have lost something, surely they have gained more. She may not run upstairs as quickly as a girl, but she must have sense and experience, and can be safely left in charge of the house, which is most important when I have outdoor engagements."

"You being so determined to have her, and she so eager to come," remarked Florence, "I think you might have brought down the wages a little."

"Why, you told me I should have to offer more!" said Lucy, aghast.

"Oh, horrid, horrid, Florence!" exclaimed Lucy. "I can't bear to hear you talk so. It was the grey hair which helped her to look so nice."

It was not far past Lucy's early dinner-hour. So she meant to hurry home. She invited Florence to come also, but Florence said no, she would get lunch near at hand, and then go straight home to dress for afternoon calls.

"I don't see that you couldn't do the same if you came with us," Lucy urged, for she had a hospitable soul, and it hurt her to part from her sister directly she had used her, and when she was willing to be useful again on the morrow. On the other hand, had she gone with Florence to a restaurant, she knew that Florence would not only have refused to be her guest, but would have insisted that Lucy and Hugh should be hers, and would have "treated" them to all sorts of luxuries in a way which always made Lucy wish she could set the same money going in other directions.

But Florence was deaf to all persuasions. To own the truth, she felt relieved to get rid of her sister, for, as she said to herself, "the worry and the bad atmosphere of the last two hours had made her feel so 'exhausted' that she meant to recuperate with champagne, and she knew Lucy would be shocked."

Lucy too, on reaching home, found herself more weary than she would have been after a hard day's work. However, as the "light" had gone, there was nothing very pressing to do, and she went to bed early--very soon after Hugh's usual bed-time.

Next afternoon the promised message from Florence duly arrived--

"Everything all right. She will enter service to-morrow before noon."

"Before noon" proved to be directly after ten o'clock in the morning, when Jessie Morison presented herself as comely and comfortable as before. In expectation of her arrival, Mrs. Challoner had dispensed with the charwoman, and had busied herself trying to give the kitchen its former trim aspect, already somewhat dimmed in the hands of the muddling, untrained worker. After giving a few necessary instructions, she delivered up the lower regions to their new ruler, and betook herself to her sketching. After dinner she would devote the rest of the day to household explanations.

The days passed on. Lucy found herself free to work with an unencumbered mind. The new servant proved as pleasant as efficient. She was not a woman who talked much, but when addressed, she always responded cheerily, expressed herself nicely, and frequently made shrewd remarks, well set off by her Scottish dialect. Lucy was especially touched by the real right feeling she showed in any observation which glanced towards the absent "master" whom she had never seen. She felt that it was a comfort to have in the house this experienced woman, who had known a wife's love and a widow's loss. There seemed a human bond between them in the thick clumsy little Bible with the Scotch metrical Psalms, which lay on the kitchen dresser, its fly-leaf inscribed "To Jessie Milne, from her respectful friend Alex^r. Morison," with a date of the courting days five and twenty years ago.

"We twa hae paidl't i' the burn, Frae mornin' sun till dine: But seas between us braid hae roared, Sin' auld lang syne."

No, Lucy felt that it would be impossible to endure all this just now. It would be too much for her nerves. It would cut her to the quick, tempting her to tears or laughter, both alike of cynicism and bitterness.

Yet Lucy feared that Florence would make a sad fuss if Lucy chose to sit at home alone--but for little Hugh--while a place at her sister's table was ready to welcome her.

Of late years the Challoners had kept Christmas after their own fashion. They had often been joined by one or two stray young people, teachers or students, who were living in lodgings. But they had had two regular guests. One of these, Miss Latimer, had been governess to Florence and Lucy in their girlhood. She used to go to the Brands for Christmas when they were first married and were not quite so showy as they had since become. Then Florence Brand had turned her over to Lucy, saying that she thought their "crowd" was too much for the old lady, "it only tired and excited her--she was such an intellectual person, there was much more enjoyment for her in a quiet talk with just one or two thoughtful people." That was true, and Miss Latimer was delighted to get Lucy's invitation, and to accept Mrs. Brand's excuses and explanation. But the shrewd old lady knew well enough that it was a truth which Mrs. Brand would not have discovered if Miss Latimer's dresses had been newer and richer, and if she had driven up in a brougham instead of coming to the street corner in a humble 'bus.

The other regular visitor was he whom Lucy had once named to Florence as "Charlie's great chum, Wilfrid Somerset." He was a man of about Charles Challoner's own age. They had been at school together. Then Charlie had gone, brave and bright and winsome, out into the world, and Wilfrid Somerset had retired to a hermitage in the heart of London. For he had been afflicted almost from birth with one of those dire disasters which set a sufferer apart from his fellows. His walk was a writhing struggle and distortion; his sad, worn face, though pathetically fine when in perfect repose, was convulsed even by the effort of speech. Yet a beautiful soul and a noble intellect dwelt in his wrung frame. Providentially he had a small independency, and was free to work only for pure love's sake. He had made a high mark in philology, and was a poet of no mean order, though neither those who profited by his researches nor those who sang his songs had ever heard his name or seen his face. Not unnaturally, he was morbidly sensitive. He had apartments in an old house in a deserted corner of the older London, and was rarely out of doors by daylight save when he took an early-morning stroll in the sunlight, which fell subdued on the dreary little square where he lived--a square where nobody else ever walked. He had many correspondents, but few visitors, and he visited absolutely nowhere but at the little house with the verandah. His visits were generally evening visits. The eyes of his fellows seemed to burn his very soul. Lucy had understood how to measure his great friendship when he dared to face the crowd at the docks that he might say good-bye to Charlie on board the Northern steamer.

When, during the first days of her loneliness, any thought of Lucy's had strayed towards Christmas--prompted perhaps by some question from little Hugh--she had wished she could go on with what Charlie and she had begun, since that would surround her with those who loved him and whom he loved, and would save her from any jar with the Brands or any reproaches from them. Had Pollie been with her, she would certainly have done this. She knew that Charlie, trustful of Pollie's fidelity, had inferred this would be so. Now, with this reliable woman on the scene it was again not only possible but quite easy. So Lucy called on Miss Latimer and delivered her invitation personally, getting it accepted with tears and embraces.

"If you had not felt equal to inviting me I should have gone nowhere else," said the little lady.

Lucy wrote to Wilfrid Somerset, and by return of post came his reply, thanking her for "the sacrifice she was making for her friends," and adding, "I had expected to sit alone this year."

Then Lucy remembered a young lad of fifteen or sixteen whom some country friend had introduced to Charlie, who had found him employment in the office of his firm. He had had no friends when he came to London, and he had now been in London only three or four months. So she sent him an invitation, and got a prompt, prim little reply. He was a shy boy and did not much care for the thought of a dinner-party, but he had been thinking "it would be very dull at Christmas," and he knew, too, that his mother in Lancashire would spend a happier Christmas if she knew he was made welcome in a friendly house.

Florence did not put in an appearance at her sister's house till two days before Christmas, when she came to say that, of course, Lucy and Hugh were coming to her, and she had only called to mention that dinner would be half-an-hour earlier than it had hitherto been. She cried out with deprecation, and even anger, to find that Lucy had already made her own arrangements. Who would have thought of such a thing? She had not sent her invitation earlier simply because she thought it would be understood as a matter of course. She had told two or three of her expected guests that they would meet her sister. What would they think? And what a queer creature Lucy was to wilfully choose the depressing society of a superannuated teacher, a deformed pedant, and a country bumpkin. There was no accounting for tastes.

Lucy was glad to divert her sister's ire by thanking her for her expedition to Willesden.

"It was you, Florence," she said, "who have helped me to do what Charlie and I used to do together. Unless I had secured that nice Mrs. Morison, I could not have ventured on my little dinner-party. You have not told me yet what sort of interview you had with her people."

"Oh, well enough," answered Mrs. Brand evasively. "It was a poor little place. I should not say they are well off. If they asked her for a visit, I expect they got something off her."

"I believe she had a little legacy," Lucy replied. "So if she wanted rest and change, nothing would be more natural than to visit relatives to whom a little board money would be helpful. But you seemed quite satisfied, Florence. You thought they were respectable."

"Oh, yes, for working people. He is a plumber, as you know by his card, but in a very small way. He's this woman's cousin, you know. I didn't see him, I saw his wife. She told over again what the woman herself told us at the registry office; and when I asked one or two questions about the woman herself, she seemed hesitating, and I began to get suspicious till she said, 'I shouldn't like you to think we were wanting to get rid of Jessie, poor body.' Then I understood why her assurances were not too gushing. She said, 'Jessie, poor body, had just set her heart on coming to the nice young lady with the pretty little boy.' Oh, it's all right. Don't expect too much. Then you won't be disappointed."

"Well, she has been with me nearly two months now," said Lucy, "and she has come up to all my hopes."

Mrs. Brand threw her sister a glance of indulgent disdain.

"What did I hear you call her?" she asked. "Didn't I hear 'Mrs. Morison'? Is that so?"

"Yes, certainly!" Lucy replied. "One would not call a middle-aged matron by her Christian name."

"Call her Morison, then," suggested Mrs. Brand.

Lucy shook her head. "She is a married woman and a widow," she answered. "I am not going to take her status from her because she is working in my kitchen."

Mrs. Brand laughed. "Oh, that's it, is it?" she said. "Well, she is so like a respectable lodging-house-keeper that I've no doubt strangers will give her the status of landlady of your house, and you'll have the status of lodger!"

"What strangers think does not matter to me," returned Lucy. "She is Mrs. Morison as I am Mrs. Challoner. Who is in the kitchen and who is in the parlour does not alter that."

"No servant gets her name prefixed with 'Mistress' except housekeepers in great mansions," asserted Mrs. Brand.

Lucy laughed in her turn. "Then, instead of her being general servant of my house," she said, "we will say she is the housekeeper in my little mansion."

Mrs. Brand took no notice of her sister's words, but went on: "And those housekeepers themselves are called 'mistress' only by convention, not because they have been married. They are generally really 'miss.'"

"I know that quite well!" cried Lucy. "I know Miss Latimer has told me that once when she was going through a nobleman's show palace, the great Dr. Guthrie was there too, and when he heard the housekeeper called 'Mrs.' Whatever-her-name-might-be, he whispered to somebody that he shouldn't have thought she was a married woman, and he was told she was not, but she was styled so because she was the housekeeper. Then said he, 'Henceforth I'll call her "miss," for these special fashions for domestic workers are just badges of servitude and relics of tyranny.' And he kept his word."

"You are incorrigible," observed Mrs. Brand. But now she spoke dreamily, her thoughts having gone elsewhere. "Well," she said, "as you won't come to us, there'll be two places empty, and I'll invite Mr. and Mrs. Forrest, our new neighbours. They are being very useful to Jem. I knew they ought to be asked, but if you had come there wouldn't have been room."

And she went off, leaving Lucy a thankful woman that she had a home of her own, where she needed no perfunctory welcome and filled no place which was wanted for other people.

HOW TO CONTRIVE AND DECORATE A COFFER OR LINEN PRESS.

It often happens that one gets an empty case which one feels ought to be turned to account, and yet the thing is to know what to do with it. Here is one suggestion--make it into a linen press. The case for preference should be long rather than square . You could get a new one made for about 3s. 6d. or 4s.

The panelling is glued and bradded on. The "stiles" should be got out of half-inch white wood and should be planed. So should the portions of the case where the panels are, if you intend to decorate them in any way, but if you get a case made, order it to be planed. Some builder's moulding forms the plinth at bottom of chest, and a narrower moulding should be nailed on to the edges of the lid if you want to get a finished-looking article, but of course all these adornments can be left out, though at a sacrifice to appearance. We can sit on a three-legged stool, but we prefer a chair. Four casters should be screwed to the bottom of the chest so that it can easily be moved about. These can be purchased at any ironmonger's.

The mouldings, stiles, top and sides of chest would look well stained brown. Varnish stain can be purchased, but I found that permanganate of potash put on with a brush stains the wood a nice brown, and it sinks right into it. Buy the potash by the ounce and dissolve it in warm water, and to obtain a deep colour put on a second coat. As it rots the hairs of a brush, use only a cheap one. This when dry can be either varnished with dark oak varnish or can have beeswax dissolved in warm turpentine rubbed on and polished by friction. This is the old housewives' way of polishing, and those who have seen chairs and tables in some country cottage polished in this way will admit that nothing can exceed the brilliance of the polish thus obtainable, as it improves with time, every rubbing you give it increasing the brilliance. If you use varnish you will probably have to give it two coats, as the first one is likely to sink in. Use a flat brush for putting on the varnish and apply it evenly.

As I want to cater for all tastes and pockets, I will give another suggestion which will involve very little outlay, as you can deal with any suitable strong empty case you may have by you. Get some patent size at an oil-shop and melt it to boiling point by putting it in a gallipot and this in boiling water. This saves contaminating the saucepan and keeps the size from burning. Give the case a good coat, and when dry a second one. Now purchase some Japanese gilt leather paper at some good furniture warehouse or decorator's. It is very tough material, and will require some good strong paste. That known as "cobbler's paste" is the best. It is too thick as it is, but can be thinned with a little boiling water. Put plenty on, as the paper will soak up a good deal, and don't attempt to stick it down on the wood until the paste has been on some twenty minutes or so.

In cutting the paper the right size, allow of it being turned over the top and bottom edges of the case, and should there be battens on the box , I should not attempt to paste a long piece of paper the length of the case, but first of all cut strips to cover these battens , allowing enough to come a little way on to the case itself. You then cut pieces to fit into the spaces, taking the edges close up to the battens. The end pieces should be put on last, and should be cut just to fit the width but turned inside the top of the box and underneath.

It would be a good plan to line the case with good stout brown paper, previously sizing the wood. The sizing, I may tell you, makes the paper stick well.

If you like to put the mouldings at edge of lid and at bottom, you can do so now, previously staining and varnishing them. Screw them on with long fine screws in preference to nailing.

No end of useful articles can be made by covering them with this Japanese gilt paper. It is to be had in many patterns and with colours introduced in some of them.

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