lady. The stout lady eyed her savagely, but was not quite sure as to her identity. Lady Mason in her trouble passed the stout lady without taking any notice of her. CHAPTER XLII. JOHN KENNEBY GOES TO HAMWORTH. WHEN John Kenneby dined with his sister and brother-in-law on Christmas-day he agreed, at the joint advice of the whole party there assembled, that he would go down and see Mr. Dockwrath at Hamworth, in accordance with the invitation received from that gentlemanhis enemy, Dockwrath, who had carried off Miriam Usbech, for whom John Kenneby still sighed-in a gentle easy manner indeed-but still sighed as though it were an affair but of yesterday. But though he had so agreed, and though he had never stirred from that resolve, he by no means did it immediately. He was a slow man, whose life had offered him but little excitement; and the little which came to him was husbanded well and made to go a long way. He thought about this journey for nearly a month before he took it, often going to his sister and discussing it with her, and once or twice seeing the great Moulder himself. At last he fixed a day and did go down to Hamworth. He had, moreover, been invited to the offices of Messrs. Round and Crook, and that visit also was as yet unpaid. A clerk from the house in Bedford Row had found him out at Hubbles and Grease's, and had discovered that he would be forthcoming as a witness. On the special subject of his evidence not much had then passed, the clerk having had no discretion given him to sift the matter. But Kenneby had promised to go to Bedford Row, merely stipulating for a day at some little distance of time. That day was now near at hand; but he was to see Dockwrath first, and hence it occurred that he now made his journey to Hamworth. But another member of that Christmas party at Great St. Helen's had not been so slow in carrying out his little project. Mr. Kantwise had at once made up his mind that it would be as well that he should see Dockwrath. It would not suit him to incur the expense of a journey to Hamworth, even with the additional view of extracting payment for that set of metallic furniture; but he wrote to the attorney telling him that he should be in London in the way of trade on such and such a day, and that he had tidings of importance to give with reference to the great Orley Farm case. Dockwrath did see him, and the result was that Mr. Kantwise got his money, fourteen eleven-at least he got fourteen seven six, and had a very hard fight for the three odd half-crowns-and Dockwrath learned that John Kenneby, if duly used, would give evidence on his side of the question. And then Kenneby did go down to Hamworth. He had not seen Miriam Usbech since the days of her marriage. He had remained hanging about the neighborhood long enough to feast his eyes with the agony of looking at the bride, and then he had torn himself away. Circumstances since that had carried him one way and Miriam another, and they had never met. Time had changed him very little, and what change time had made was perhaps for the betHe hesitated less when he spoke, he was less straggling and undecided in his appearance, and had about him more of manhood than in former days. But poor Miriam had certainly not been altered for the better by years and circumstances as far as outward appearance went. ter. Kenneby as he walked up from the station to the house-and from old remembrances he knew well where the house stood-gave up his mind entirely to the thought of seeing Miriam, and in his memories of old love passages almost forgot the actual business which now brought him to the place. To him it seemed as though he was going to meet the same Miriam he had left-the Miriam to whom in former days he had hardly ventured to speak of love, and to whom he must not now venture so to speak at all. He almost blushed as he remembered that he would have to take her hand. There are men of this sort, men slow in their thoughts but very keen in their memories; men who will look for the glance of a certain bright eye from a window-pane, though years have rolled on since last they saw it-since last they passed that window. Such men will bethink themselves, after an interval of weeks, how they might have brought up wit to their use and improved an occasion which chance had given them. But when the bright eyes do glance, such men pass by abashed; and when the occasion offers, their wit is never at hand. Nevertheless they are not the least happy of mankind, these never-readies; they do not pick up sudden prizes, but they hold fast by such good things as the ordinary run of life bestows upon them. There was a lady even now, a friend of Mrs. Moulder, ready to bestow herself and her fortune on John Kenneby—a larger fortune than Miriam had possessed, and one which would not now probably be neutralized by so large a family as poor Miriam had bestowed upon her husband. How would Miriam meet him? It was of this he thought as he approached the door. Of course he must call her Mrs. Dockwrath, though the other name was so often on his tongue. He had made up his mind, for the last week past, that he would call at the private door of the house, passing by the door of the office. Otherwise the chances were that he would not see Miriam at all. His enemy, Dockwrath, would be sure to keep him from her presence. Dockwrath had ever been inordinately jealous. But when he came to the office-door he hardly had the courage to pass on to that of the private dwelling. His heart beat too quickly, and the idea of seeing Miriam was almost too much for him. But, nevertheless, he did carry out his plan, and did knock at the door of the house. come. And it was opened by Miriam herself. He | the baby, whom she carried, from one arm to the knew her instantly in spite of all the change. other as she gave him her hand in token of welHe knew her, but the whole course of his feelings were altered at the moment, and his blood was made to run the other way. And she knew him too. "La, John," she said, "who'd have thought of seeing you?" And she shifted "It is a long time since we met," he said. He felt hardly any temptation now to call her Miriam. Indeed it would have seemed altogether in opposition to the common order of things to do so. She was no longer Miriam, | bandbox. I am glad to see you, John, so I but the maternal Dockwrath; the mother of am." And she put her apron up to her eyes that long string of dirty children whom he saw and wiped away a tear. gathered in the passage behind her. He had known as a fact that she had all the children, but the fact had not made the proper impression on his mind till he had seen them. "A long time! 'Deed then it is. Why we've hardly seen each other since you used to be a courting of me; have we? But, my! John; why haven't you got a wife for yourself these many years? But come in. I'm glad to see every bit of you, so I am; though I've hardly a place to put you to sit down in." And then she opened a door and took him into a little sitting-room on the left hand side of the passage. "Is Mr. Dockwrath at home?" said John. "Sam, run round and see if your father's in the office. He'll be home to dinner, I know. Molly, do be quiet with your sister. I never see such a girl as you are for bothering. You didn't come down about business, did you, John?" And then Kenneby explained to her that he had been summoned by Dockwrath as to the matter of this Orley Farm trial. While he was doing so, Sam returned to say that his father had stepped out, but would be back in half an hour, and Mrs. Dockwrath, finding it impossible to make use of her company sittingroom, took her old lover into the family apartment which they all ordinarily occupied. His feeling of intense enmity to Dockwrath was beginning to wear away, and one of modi- "You can sit down there at any rate without fied friendship for the whole family was super- it all crunching under you, up to nothing." vening. It was much better that it should be And she emptied for him as she spoke the seat so. He could not understand before how Dock- of an old well-worn horse-hair bottomed armwrath had had the heart to write to him and call chair. "As to them tin things I wouldn't trust him John, but now he did understand it. He myself on one of them; and so I told him, anfelt that he could himself be friendly with Dock-gry as it made him. But now about poor Lady wrath now, and forgive him all the injury; he felt also that it would not go so much against the grain with him to marry that friend as to whom his sister would so often solicit him. "I think you may venture to sit down upon them," said Miriam, "though I can't say that I have ever tried myself." This speech referred to the chairs with which her room was supplied, and which Kenneby seemed to regard with suspicion. "They are very nice I'm sure," said he, "but I don't think I ever saw any like them." "Nor nobody else either. But don't you tell him so;" and she nodded with her head to the side of the house on which the office stood. "I had as nice a set of mahoganys as ever a woman could want, and bought with my own money too, John; but he's took them away to furnish some of his lodgings opposite, and put them things here in their place. Don't, Sam; you'll have 'em all twisted about nohows in no time if you go to use 'em in that way." Mason-. Sam and Molly, you go into the garden, there's good children. They is so ready with their ears, John; and he contrives to get every thing out of 'em. Now do tell me about this." Kenneby could not help thinking that the love match between Miriam and her husband had not turned out in all respects well, and I fear that he derived from the thought a certain feeling of consolation. "He" was spoken about in a manner that did not betoken unfailing love and perfect confidence. Perhaps Miriam was at this moment thinking that she might have done better with her youth and her money! She was thinking of nothing of the kind. Her mind was one that dwelt on the present, not on the past. She was unhappy about her furniture, unhappy about the frocks of those four younger children, unhappy that the loaves of bread went faster and faster every day, very unhappy now at the savageness with which her husband prosecuted his anger against Lady Ma But it did not occur to her to be unhappy because she had not become Mrs. Kenneby. "I wants to see the pictur' on the table," said son. Sam. "Drat the picture," said Mrs. Dockwrath. Mrs. Dockwrath had more to tell in the mat"It was hard, wasn't it, John, to see my own ter than had Kenneby, and when the elder of the mahoganys, as I had rubbed with my own hands children who were at home had been disposed till they was ever so bright, and as was bought of she was not slow to tell it. "Isn't it dreadwith my own money too, took away and them ful, John, to think that they should come against things brought here? Sam, if you twist that her now, and the will all settled as it was twenround any more I'll box your ears. One can't ty year ago? But you won't say any thing hear one's self speak with the noise." against her; will you now, John? She was al"They don't seem to be very useful," said ways a good friend to you; wasn't she? Though Kenneby. "Useful! They're got up for cheatery; that's what they're got up for. And that Dockwrath should be took in with 'em-he that's so sharp at every thing—that's what surprises me. But laws, John, it isn't the sharp ones that gets the best off. You was never sharp, but you're as smirk and smooth as though you came out of a it wasn't much use; was it?" It was thus that she referred to the business before them, and to the love passages of her early youth at the same time. "It's a very dreadful affair," said Kenneby, very solemnly; "and the more I think of it the more dreadful it becomes." "But you won't say any thing against her; will you? You won't go over to his side; eh, |ting the deposition of Bridget Bolster, but he John ?" had got that of John Kenneby. he. "I don't know much about sides," said "He'll get himself into trouble with it; I know he will. I do so wish you'd tell him, for he can't hurt you if you stand up to him. If I speak-Lord bless you, I don't dare to call my soul my own for a week afterward." "Is he so very—" "Oh, dreadful, John! He's bid me never speak a word to her. But for all that I used till she went away down to The Cleeve yonder. And what do you think they say now? And I do believe it too. They say that Sir Peregrine is going to make her his lady. If he does that it stands to reason that Dockwrath and Joseph Mason will get the worst of it. I'm sure I hope they will; only he'll be twice as hard if he don't make money by it in some way." "Indeed he will. You never knew any thing like him for hardness if things go wrong a while. I know he's got lots of money, because he's always buying up bits of houses; besides, what has he done with mine? but yet sometimes you'd hardly think he'd let me have bread enough for the children--and as for clothes-!" Poor Miriam! It seemed that her husband shared with her but few of the spoils or triumphs of his profession. "And now," said Dockwrath, "I'll tell you what we'll do; we'll go to the Blue Posts-you remember the Blue Posts?-and I'll stand a beef-steak and a glass of brandy-and-water. I suppose you'll go back to London by the 3 P.M. train. We shall have lots of time." Kenneby said that he should go back by the 3 P.M. train, but he declined, with considerable hesitation, the beef-steak and brandy-and-water. After what had passed between him and Miriam he could not go to the Blue Posts with her husband. "Nonsense, man," said Dockwrath. "You must dine somewhere." But Kenneby said that he should dine in Lon don. He always preferred dining late. Besides, it was a long time since he had been at Hamworth, and he was desirous of taking a walk that he might renew his associations. "Associations!" said Dockwrath, with a sneer. According to his ideas a man could have no pleasant associations with a place unless he had made money there or been in some way successful. Now John Kenneby had enjoyed no success at Hamworth. "Well, then, if you prefer associations to the Blue Posts I'll say good-by to you. I don't understand it myself. We shall see each other at the trial, you know." Kenneby, with a sigh, said that he supposed they should. with his head the side on which his wife was, as she before had indicated his side. Tidings now came in from the office that Dockwrath was there. "You'll come round "Are you going into the house," said Dockand eat a bit of dinner with us?" said she, hes-wrath, "to see her again?" and he indicated itatingly. He felt that she hesitated, and hesitated himself in his reply. "He must say something in the way of asking you, you know, and then say you'll come. His manner's nothing to you, you know. Do, now. It does me good to look at you, John; it does indeed." And then, without making any promise, he left her and went round to the office. Kenneby had made up his mind, talking over the matter with Moulder and his sister, that he would be very reserved in any communication which he might make to Dockwrath as to his possible evidence at the coming trial; but nev ertheless when Dockwrath had got him into his office, the attorney made him give a succinct account of every thing he knew, taking down his deposition in a regular manner. "And now if you'll just sign that," Dockwrath said to him when he had done. “Well, yes; I think I'll say good-by.” "Don't be talking to her about this affair. She understands nothing about it, and every thing goes up to that woman at Orley Farm." And so they parted. "And he wanted you to go to the Blue Posts, did he?" said Miriam, when she heard of the proposition. "It's like him. If there is to be any money spent it's any where but at home." "But I ain't going," said John. "He'll go before the day's out, though he mayn't get his dinner there. And he'll be ever so free when he's there. He'll stand brandyand-water to half Hamworth when he thinks he can get any thing by it; but if you'll believe me, John, though I've all the fag of the house on me, and all them children, I can't get a pint of beer "I don't know about signing," said Kenne--not regular-betwixt breakfast and bedtime." by. "A man should never write his own name Poor Miriam! Why had she not taken advice unless he knows why." when she was younger? John Kenneby would have given her what beer was good for her quite regularly. "You must sign your own deposition;" and the attorney frowned at him and looked savage. "What would a judge say to you in court if you had made such a statement as this, affecting the character of a woman like Lady Mason, and then had refused to sign it? You'd never be able to hold up your head again." Then he went out and took his walk, sauntering away to the gate of Orley Farm, and looking up the avenue. He ventured up some way, and there at a distance before him he saw Lucius Mason walking up and down, from the "Wouldn't I?" said Kenneby, gloomily; and house toward the road and back again, swinging he did sign it. This was a great triumph to a heavy stick in his hand, with his hat pressed Dockwrath. Mat Round had succeeded in get-down over his brows. Kenneby had no desire to speak to him; so he returned to the gate, and thence went back to the station, escaping the town by a side lane; and in this way he got back to London without holding further communication with the people of Hamworth. CHAPTER XLIII. JOHN KENNEBY'S COURTSHIP. "SHE's as sweet a temper, John, as ever stirred a lump of sugar in her tea," said Mrs. Moulder to her brother, as they sat together over the fire in Great St. Helen's on that same evening-after his return from Hamworth. "That she is—and so Smiley always found her. She's always the same,' Smiley said to me many a day. And what can a man want more than that?" 105 IN for M "That's quite true," said John.. "And then as to her habits-I never knew her take a drop' too much since first I set eyes on her, and that's nigh twenty years ago. She likes things comfortable; and why shouldn't she, with two hundred a year of her own coming out of the Kingsland Road brick-fields? As for dress, her things is beautiful, and she is the woman that takes care of 'em! Why, I remember an Irish tabinet as Smiley gave her when first that venture in the brick-fields came up money; if that tabinet is as much as turned yet, why I'll eat it. And then, the best of it is, she'll have you to-morrow. Indeed she will; or to-night, if you'll ask her. Goodness gracious! if there ain't Moulder!" And the excellent wife jumped up from her seat, poked the fire, emptied the most comfortable arm-chair, and hurried out to the landing at the top of the stairs. Presently the noise of a loudly-wheezing pair of lungs was heard, and the commercial traveler, enveloped from head to foot in coats and comforters, made his appearance. He had just returned from a journey, and having deposited his parcels and packages at the house of business of Hubbles and Grease, in Houndsditch, had now returned to the bosom of his family. It was a way he had, not to let his wife know exactly the period of his return. Whether he thought that by so doing he might keep her always on the alert and ready for marital inspection, or whether he disliked to tie himself down by the obligation of a fixed time for his return, Mrs. Moulder had never made herself quite sure. But on neither view of the subject did she admire this practice of her lord. She had on many occasions pointed out to him how much more snug she could make him if he would only let her know when he was coming. But he had never taken the hint, and in these latter days she had ceased to give it. "Why, I'm uncommon cold," he said, in answer to his wife's inquiries after his welfare. "And so would you be too, if you'd come up from Leeds since you'd had your dinner. What, John, are you there? The two of you are mak ing yourself snug enough, I suppose, with something hot?" "Not a drop he's had yet since he's been in the house," said Mrs. Moulder. "And he's hardly as much as darkened the door since you left it." And Mrs. Moulder added, with some little hesitation in her voice, "Mrs. Smiley is coming in to-night, Moulder." "The d-1 she is! There's always something of that kind when I gets home tired out, and wants to be comfortable. I mean to have my supper to myself, as I likes it, if all the Mother Smileys in London choose to come the way. What on earth is she coming here for this time of night ?" "Why, Moulder, you know." "No; I don't know. I only know this, that when a man's used up with business he don't want to have any of that nonsense under his nose." "If you mean me-" began John Kenneby. "I don't mean you; cf course not; and I don't mean any body. Here, take my coats, will you? and let me have a pair of slippers, If Mrs. Smiley thinks that I'm going to change my pants, or put myself about for her—":" "Laws, Moulder, she don't expect that!" "She won't get it, any way. Here's John dressed up as if he was going to a box in the the-atre. And you-why should you be going to expense, and knocking out things that costs money, because Mother Smiley's coming? I'll Smiley her!" "Now, Moulder-" But Mrs. Moulder knew that it was of no use speaking to him at the present moment. Her task should be this-to feed and cosset him if possible into good-humor before her guest should arrive. Her praises of Mrs. Smiley had been very fairly true But nevertheless she was a lady who had a mind and voice of her own, as any lady has a right to possess who draws in her own right two hundred a year out of a brick-field in the Kingsland Road. Such a one knows that she is above being snubbed, and Mrs. Smiley knew this of herself as well as any lady; and if Moulder, in his wrath, should call her Mother Smiley, or give her to understand that he regarded her as an old woman, that lady would probably walk herself off in great dudgeon-herself and her share in the brick-field. To tell the truth, Mrs. Smiley required that considerable deference should be paid to her. Mrs. Moulder knew well what was her hus band's present ailment. He had dined as early as one, and on his journey up from Leeds to London had refreshed himself with drink only. That last glass of brandy which he had taken at the Peterborough station had made him cross. If she could get him to swallow some hot food before Mrs. Smiley came, all might yet be well. "And what's it to be, M. ?" she said in her most insinuating voice; "there's a lovely chop down stairs, and there's nothing so quick as that." |