第147章

The schoolmaster sat for a long time smoking his pipe by the kitchen fire, which was now deserted, thinking, with a very happy face, on the fortunate chance which had brought him so opportunely to the child's assistance, and parrying, as well as in his simple way he could, the inquisitive cross-examination of the landlady, who had a great curiosity to be made acquainted with every particular of Nell's life and history.The poor schoolmaster was so open-hearted, and so little versed in the most ordinary cunning or deceit, that she could not have failed to succeed in the first five minutes, but that he happened to be unacquainted with what she wished to know; and so he told her.The landlady, by no means satisfied with this assurance, which she considered an ingenious evasion of the question, rejoined that he had his reasons of course.Heaven forbid that she should wish to pry into the affairs of her customers, which indeed were no business of hers, who had so many of her own.She had merely asked a civil question, and to be sure she knew it would meet with a civil answer.She was quite satisfied--quite.She had rather perhaps that he would have said at once that he didn't choose to be communicative, because that would have been plain and intelligible.However, she had no right to be offended of course.He was the best judge, and had a perfect right to say what he pleased; nobody could dispute that for a moment.Oh dear, no!

'I assure you, my good lady,' said the mild schoolmaster, 'that Ihave told you the plain truth.As I hope to be saved, I have told you the truth.'

'Why then, I do believe you are in earnest,' rejoined the landlady, with ready good-humour, 'and I'm very sorry I have teazed you.But curiosity you know is the curse of our sex, and that's the fact.'

The landlord scratched his head, as if he thought the curse sometimes involved the other sex likewise; but he was prevented from making any remark to that effect, if he had it in contemplation to do so, by the schoolmaster's rejoinder.

'You should question me for half-a-dozen hours at a sitting, and welcome, and I would answer you patiently for the kindness of heart you have shown to-night, if I could,' he said.'As it is, please to take care of her in the morning, and let me know early how she is; and to understand that I am paymaster for the three.'

So, parting with them on most friendly terms (not the less cordial perhaps for this last direction), the schoolmaster went to his bed, and the host and hostess to theirs.

The report in the morning was, that the child was better, but was extremely weak, and would at least require a day's rest, and careful nursing, before she could proceed upon her journey.The schoolmaster received this communication with perfect cheerfulness, observing that he had a day to spare--two days for that matter--and could very well afford to wait.As the patient was to sit up in the evening, he appointed to visit her in her room at a certain hour, and rambling out with his book, did not return until the hour arrived.

Nell could not help weeping when they were left alone; whereat, and at sight of her pale face and wasted figure, the simple schoolmaster shed a few tears himself, at the same time showing in very energetic language how foolish it was to do so, and how very easily it could be avoided, if one tried.

'It makes me unhappy even in the midst of all this kindness' said the child, 'to think that we should be a burden upon you.How can I ever thank you? If I had not met you so far from home, I must have died, and he would have been left alone.'

'We'll not talk about dying,' said the schoolmaster; 'and as to burdens, I have made my fortune since you slept at my cottage.'

'Indeed!' cried the child joyfully.

'Oh yes,' returned her friend.'I have been appointed clerk and schoolmaster to a village a long way from here--and a long way from the old one as you may suppose--at five-and-thirty pounds a year.Five-and-thirty pounds!'

'I am very glad,' said the child, 'so very, very glad.'

'I am on my way there now,' resumed the schoolmaster.'They allowed me the stage-coach-hire--outside stage-coach-hire all the way.Bless you, they grudge me nothing.But as the time at which I am expected there, left me ample leisure, I determined to walk instead.How glad I am, to think I did so!'

'How glad should we be!'

'Yes, yes,' said the schoolmaster, moving restlessly in his chair, 'certainly, that's very true.But you--where are you going, where are you coming from, what have you been doing since you left me, what had you been doing before? Now, tell me--do tell me.I know very little of the world, and perhaps you are better fitted to advise me in its affairs than I am qualified to give advice to you;but I am very sincere, and I have a reason (you have not forgotten it) for loving you.I have felt since that time as if my love for him who died, had been transferred to you who stood beside his bed.

If this,' he added, looking upwards, 'is the beautiful creation that springs from ashes, let its peace prosper with me, as I deal tenderly and compassionately by this young child!'

The plain, frank kindness of the honest schoolmaster, the affectionate earnestness of his speech and manner, the truth which was stamped upon his every word and look, gave the child a confidence in him, which the utmost arts of treachery and dissimulation could never have awakened in her breast.She told him all--that they had no friend or relative--that she had fled with the old man, to save him from a madhouse and all the miseries he dreaded--that she was flying now, to save him from himself--and that she sought an asylum in some remote and primitive place, where the temptation before which he fell would never enter, and her late sorrows and distresses could have no place.