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RENCONTRES.
There was no news of Cornelius. In vain the detective to whom the major
had made liberal promises continued his inquiries. There was a rumour of
a young woman in whose company he had lately been seen, but she too had
disappeared from public sight.
Sarah did her best to make Hester comfortable, and behaved the better
that she was humbled by the consciousness of having made a bad job of
her caretaking with Cornelius.
One afternoon--it had rained, but the sun was now shining, and Hester's
heart felt lighter as she took deep breaths of the clean-washed air--she
turned into a passage to visit the wife of a book-binder who had been
long laid up with rheumatism so severe as to render him quite unable to
work.
They had therefore been on the borders of want, and for Hester it was
one of those happy cases in which she felt at full liberty to help with
money. The part of the house occupied by them was pretty decent, but the
rest of it was in bad repair and occupied by yet poorer people, of none
of whom she knew much.
It was in fact a little way beyond what she had come to count her limit.
She knocked at the door. It was opened by the parish doctor.
"You cannot come in, Miss Raymount," he said. "We have a very bad case
of small-pox here. You good ladies must make up your minds to keep away
from these parts for a while. Their bodies are in more danger than their
souls now."
"That may very well be," replied Hester. "My foot may be in more danger
than my head, but I can better afford to lose the one than the other."
The doctor did not see the point, and thought there was none.
"You will only carry the infection," he said.
"I will take every precaution," answered Hester. "I always take more, I
am certain, than it can be possible for you to take. Why should not I
also do my part to help them through?"
"While the parish is in my care," answered the doctor, "I must object to
whatever increases the risk of infection. It is hard while we are doing
all we can to stamp out the disease, to have you, with the best of
motives I admit, carrying it from one house to another. How are we to
keep it out of the West End, if you ladies carry the seeds of it?"
The hard-worked man spoke with some heat.
"So the poor brothers are to be left for fear of hurting the rich ones?"
"That's not fair--you know it is not!" said the doctor. "We are set here
to fight the disease, and fight it we must."
"And I am set here to fight something worse," returned Hester with a
smile.
The doctor came out and shut the door.
"I must beg of you to go away," he said. "I shall be compelled to
mention in my report how you and other ladies add to our difficulties."
He slipped in again and closed the door. Hester turned and went down the
stair, now on her part a little angry. She knew it was no use thinking
when she was angry, for when the anger was gone she almost always
thought otherwise. The first thing was to get rid of the anger.
Instinctively she sat down and began to sing; it was not the first time
she had sat and sung in a dirty staircase. It was not a wise thing to
do, but her anger prevented her from seeing its impropriety.
In great cities the children are like flies, gathering swiftly as from
out of the unseen: in a moment the stair below was half-filled with
them. The tenants above opened their doors and came down. Others came in
from the street and were pushed up by those who came behind them. The
stair and entrance were presently filled with people, all shabby, and
almost all dirty--men and women, young and old, good and bad, listening
to the voice of the singing lady, as she was called in the.
neighborhood.
By this time the doctor had finished his visit at the bookbinder's, and
appeared on the stair above. He had heard the singing, and thought it
was in the street; now he learnt it was actually in the house, and had
filled it with people! It was no wonder, especially when he saw who the
singer was, that he should lose his temper. Through the few women and
children above where Hester sat, he made his way towards the crowd of
faces below. When he reached her he seized her arm from behind and began
to raise at once and push her down the stair. He, too, was an enthusiast
in his way. Some of the faces below grew red with anger, and their eyes
flamed at the doctor. A loud murmur arose, and several began to force
their way up to rescue her, as they would one of their own from the
police. But Hester, the moment she saw who it was that had laid hold of
her, rose and began to descend the stair, closely followed by the
doctor. It was not easy; and the annoyance of a good many in the crowd,
some because Hester was their friend, others because the doctor had
stopped the singing, gave a disorderly and indeed rather threatening
look to the assemblage.
As she reached the door she saw, on the opposite side of the crowded
passage, the pale face and glittering eyes of Mr. Blaney looking at her
over the heads between. The little man was mounted on a box at the door
of a shop whose trade seemed to be in withered vegetables and salt fish,
and had already had the pint which, according to his brother-in-law, was
more than he could stand.
"Sarves you right, miss," he cried, when he saw who was the centre of
the commotion; "sarves you right! You turned me out o' your house for
singin', an' I don't see why you should come a singin' an' a misbehavin'
of yourself in ourn! Jest you bring her out here, pleeceman, an' let me
give her a bit o' my mind. Oh, don't you be afeared, I won't hurt her!
Not in all my life did I ever once hurt a woman--bless 'em! But it's
time the gentry swells knowed as how we're yuman bein's as well as
theirselves. We don't like, no more'n they would theirselves, havin' our
feelin's hurt for the sake o' what they calls bein' done good to. Come
you along down over here, miss!"
The crowd had been gathering from both ends of the passage, for high
words draw yet faster than sweet singing, and the place was so full that
it was hardly possible to get out of it. The doctor was almost wishing
he had let ill alone, for he was now anxious about Hester. Some of the
rougher ones began pushing. The vindictive little man kept bawling, his
mouth screwed into the middle of his cheek. From one of the cross
entrances of the passage came the pulse of a fresh tide of would-be
spectators, causing the crowd to sway hither and thither. All at once
Hester spied a face she knew, considerably changed as it was since last
she had seen it.
"Now we shall have help!" she said to her companion, making common cause
with him notwithstanding his antagonism. "--Mr. Franks!"
The athlete was not so far off that she needed to call very loud. He
heard and started with eager interest. He knew the voice, sent his eyes
looking and presently found her who called him. With his great lean
muscular arms he sent the crowd right and left like water, and reached
her in a moment.
"Come! come! don't you hurt her!" shouted Mr. Blaney from the top of his
box. "She ain't nothing to you. She's a old friend o' mine, an' I ain't
a goin' to see her hurt."
"You shut up!" bawled Franks, "or I'll finish the pancake you was meant
for."
Then turning to Hester, who had begun to be a little afraid he too had
been drinking, he pulled off his fur cap, and making the lowest and
politest of stage bows, said briefly,
"Miss Raymount--at your service, miss!"
"I am very glad to see you again, Mr. Franks," said Hester. "Do you
think you could get us out of the crowd?"
"Easy, miss. I'll carry you out of it like a baby, miss, if
you'll let me."
"No, no; that will hardly be necessary," returned Hester, with a smile.
"Go on before, and make a way for us," said the doctor, with an
authority he had no right to assume.
"There is not the least occasion for you to trouble yourself about me
farther," said Hester. "I am perfectly safe with this man. I know him
very well. I am sorry to have vexed you."
Franks looked up sharply at the doctor, as if to see whether he dared
acknowledge a claim to the apology; then turning to Hester,--
"Nobody 'ain't ha' been finding fault with you, miss?" he said--a little
ominously.
"Not more than I deserved," replied Hester. "But come, Franks! lead the
way, or all Bloomsbury will be here, and then the police! I shouldn't
like to be shut up for offending Mr. Blaney!"
Those near them heard and laughed. She took Franks's arm. Room was
speedily made before them, and in a minute they were out of the crowd,
and in one of the main thoroughfares.
But as if everybody she knew was going to appear, who should meet them
face to face as they turned into Steevens's Road, with a fringe of the
crowd still at their heels, but lord Gartley! He had written from town,
and Mrs. Raymount had let him know that Hester was in London, for she
saw that the sooner she had an opportunity of telling him what had
happened the better. His lordship went at once to Addison square, and
had just left the house disappointed when he met Hester leaning on
Franks's arm.
"Miss Raymount!" he exclaimed almost haughtily.
"My lord!" she returned, with unmistakable haughtiness, drawing herself
up, and looking him in the face, hers glowing.
"Who would have expected to see you here?" he said.
"Apparently yourself, my lord!"
He tried to laugh.
"Come then; I will see you home," he said.
"Thank you, my lord. Come, Franks."
As she spoke she looked round, but Franks was gone. Finding she had met
one of her own family, as he supposed, he had quietly withdrawn: the
moment he was no longer wanted, he grew ashamed, and felt shabby. But he
lingered round a corner near, to be certain she was going to be taken
care of, till seeing them walk away together he was satisfied, and went
with a sigh.
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