August 18, 2025 • 34 mins
In this captivating novella by the renowned Elizabeth Gaskell, we delve into the life and memories of the aristocratic Lady Ludlow, as narrated by her young charge, Margaret Dawson. Lady Ludlow embodies the resistance of the old English gentry to embrace social reform and technological advancements, including education for the less fortunate and a more lenient approach to religion. Through her reflections on friends from the tumultuous times of the French Revolution, she seeks to protect and mentor the many young ladies under her care. [Summary by Rosie]
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Adina Owen. My Lady
Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell, Chapter fourteen. Like many other things
which have been declared to be impossible, this report of
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Captain James being attentive to Miss Brooke turned out to
be very true. The mere idea of her agent being
on the slightest possible terms of acquaintance with the dissenter,
the tradesman, the Birmingham Democrat, who had come to settle
in our good orthodox, aristocratic and agricultural Hanbury, made my
Lady very uneasy. Miss Galindo's misdemeanor in having taken Miss
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Bessy to live with her faded into a mistake, a
mere error of judgment in comparison with Captain James's intimacy
at Yeast House, as the Brooks called their ugly square
built farm. My Lady talked to herself quite into complacency
with Miss Galindo, and even Miss Bessie was named by her,
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the first time I had ever been aware that my
Lady recognized her existence, but I recollect it was a
long rainy afternoon, and I sat with her Ladyship, and
we had time and opportunity for a long uninterrupted talk.
Whenever we had been silent for a little while, she
began again with something like a wonder how it was
that Captain James could ever have commenced an acquaintance with
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that man Brook. My lady recapitulated all the times she
could remember that anything had occurred or had been said
by Captain James which she could now understand a stirring
light upon the subject. He said once that he was
anxious to bring in the Norfolk system of cropping, and
spoke a good deal about mister Coke of Holcombe, who,
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by the way, was no more Coke than I am,
collateral in the female line, which counts for little or
nothing among the great old cobb Ander families of pure blood,
and his new ways of cultivation. Of course, new men
bring in new ways, but it does not follow that
either are better than the old ways. However, Captain James
has been very anxious to try turnips and bone manure,
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and he really is a man of such good sense
and energy, and was so sorry last year about the
failure that I consented, And now I begin to see
my air. I have always heard that town bakers adulterate
their flower with bone dust, and of course Captain James
would be aware of this and go to brook to
inquire where the article was to be purchased. My lady
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always ignored the fact, which had sometimes I suspect, been
brought under her very eyes during her drives, that mister
Brooks's new fields were in a state of far higher
cultivation than her own. So she could not, of course
perceive that there was any wisdom to be gained from
asking the advice of the tradesmen turned farmer. But by
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and bye this fact of her agent's intimacy with the
person who whom in the whole world she most disliked.
With that sort of dislike in which a large amount
of the uncomfortableness is combined, the dislike which conscientious people
sometimes feel to another without knowing why, and yet which
they cannot indulge in with comfort to themselves without having
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a moral reason why, came before my lady in many shapes.
For indeed, I am sure that Captain James was not
a man to conceal or be ashamed of one of
his actions. I cannot fancy his ever lowering his strong, loud,
clear voice, or having a confidential conversation with anyone when
his crops had failed. All the village had known it.
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He complained, he regretted, he was angry, or owned himself
a fool all down the village street. And the consequence
was that, although he was far more passionate than mister Horner,
all the tenants liked him far better. People in general
take a kindlier interest in anyone the workings of whose
mind and heart they can watch and understand, and in
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a man who only lets you know what he's been
thinking about and feeling by what he does. But Harry
Gregson was faithful to the memory of mister Horner. Miss
Galindo had told me that she used to watch him
hobble out of the way of Captain James, as if
to accept his notice, however good naturedly given, would have
been a kind of treachery to his former benefactor. But Gregson,
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the father and the new agent rather took to each other,
and one day, much to my surprise, I heard that
the poaching, tinkering vagabond, as the people used to call Gregson,
when I first had come to live at Hanbury, had
been appointed gamekeeper. Mister Gray standing godfather, as it were,
to his trustworthiness, as if he were trusted with anything,
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which I thought at the time was rather an experiment
only had answered as many of mister Gray's deeds of
daring did. It was curious how he was growing to
be a kind of autocrat in the village, and how
unconscious he was of it. He was as shy and
awkward and nervous as ever in any affair that was
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not of some moral consequence to him. But as soon
as he was convinced that the thing was right, he
shut his eyes and ran and butted at it like
a ram. As Captain James once expressed it, in talking
over something mister Gray had done, people in the village
said they never knew what the parson would be at next,
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or they might have said where his reverence would next
turn up, For I have heard his marching right into
the middle of a set of poachers gathered together for
some desperate midnight enterprise, or walking into a public house
that lay just beyond the bounds of my lady's estate,
and in that extra parochial piece of ground I named
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long ago, and which was considered the rendezvous of all
the nair Dodwell characters for miles around, and where a
person and a constable were held in much the same
kind of esteem as unwelcome visitors. And yet mister Gray
had his long fits of depression in which he felt
as if he were doing nothing, making no way in
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his work, useless and unprofitable, and better out of the
world than in it. In comparison with the work he
had set himself to do, what he did seemed to
be nothing. I suppose it was constitutional those attacks of
lowness of spirit which he had about this time, perhaps
a part of the nervousness which made him always so
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awkward when he came to the hall, even Missus Medlicott,
who almost worshiped the ground he trod on. As the
saying is owned that mister Gray never entered one of
my lady's rooms without knocking down something, and too often
breaking it. He would much sooner have faced a desperate
poacher than a young lady any day, at least, so
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we thought. I do not know how it was that
it came to pass that my lead he became reconsoled
to Miss Glindo about this time. Whether it was that
her ladyship was weary of the unspoken coolness with her
old friend, or that the specimens of delicate sewing and
fine spinning at the school had mollified her towards Miss Bessie.
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But I was surprised to learn one day that Miss
Galindo and her young friend were coming that very evening
to tea at the hall. This information was given me
by missus Medlicott as a message from my lady, who
further went on to desire that certain little preparations should
be made in her own private sitting room, in which
the greater part of my days were spent. From the
nature of these preparations, I became quite aware that my
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lady intended to do honor to her expected visitors. Indeed,
Lady Ludlow never forgave by halves, as I have known
some people to do. Whoever was coming as a visitor
to my lady Peariss or poor nameless girl, there was
a certain amount preparation required in order to do them
fitting honor. I do not mean to say that the
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preparation was of the same degree of importance in each case.
I dare say if a peeress had come to visit
us at the Hall, that covers would have been taken
off the furniture in the white drawing room. They never
were uncovered all the time I stayed at the Hall,
because my lady would wish to offer her the ornaments
and luxuries which this grand visitor, who never came, I
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wish she had. I did so want to see that
furniture uncovered was accustomed to at home, and to present
to them to her in the best order which my
lady could. That same rule mollified held good with Miss Galindo.
Certain things in which my lady knew she took an
interest were laid out ready for her to examine this
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very day. And what was more, great books of prints
were laid out, such as I remembered my lady had
had brought forth to beguile my own early days of illness,
mister Hogarth's works and the like which I was sure
put out for Miss Bessy. No one knows how curious
I was to see this missus, Miss Bessie, twenty times
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more mysterious, of course, for want of her surname, than
again to try and account for my great curiosity of
which in recollection, I am more than half ashamed. I
had been leading the quiet, monotonous life of a crippled
invalid for many years, shut up from any sight of
new faces, and this was to be the face of
one whom I had thought about so much and so long. Oh,
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I think I might be excused. Of course, they drank
tea in the Great Hall with the four young gentlewomen,
who with myself formed the small bevy now under Her
Ladyship's charge. Of those who were at Hanbury when first
I came, none remained. All were married or gone once
more to live at some home which could be called
their own, Whether the ostensible head were father or brother,
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I myself was not without some hopes of a similar kind.
My brother Harry was now a curate in Westmoreland, and
wanted me to go and live with him, as eventually
I did for a time. But that is neither here
nor there at present. What I am talking about is
miss Bessie. After a reasonable time had elapsed, occupied, as
I well knew by the meal in the Great Hall,
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the measured yet agreeable conversation afterwards, and a certain promenade
around the hall and through the drawing rooms with pauses
before different pictures, the history or subject at each, which
was invariably told by my lady to every new visitor,
a sort of giving them the freedom of the old
family seat by describing the kind and nature of the
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great progenitors who had lived there before the narrator. I
heard the steps approaching my Lady's room where I lay.
I think I was in such a state of nervous
expectation that if I could have moved easily, I should
have got up and run away. And yet I need
not have been from Miss Glinda was not in the
least altered. Her nose was a little redder, to be sure,
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but then that might only have been a temporary cause
in the private crying I know she would have had
before coming to see her dear Lady Ludlow once again.
But I could almost have pushed Miss Galindo away as
she intercepted me. In my view of the mysterious Miss Bessie.
Miss Bessie was, as I knew, only about eighteen, but
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she looked older, dark haired, dark eyes, a tall, firm figure,
a good sensible face, with a serene expression, not in
the least disturbed by what I had been thinking. Must
be such awful circumstances as a first introduction to my lady,
who had so disapproved of her very existence. Those are
the clearest impressions I remember of my first interview with
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Miss Bessie. She seemed to observe us all in her
quiet manner, quite as much as I did her, But
she spoke very little, occupied herself. Indeed, as my lady
had planned with looking over the great books of engravings,
I think I must have foolishly intended to make her
feel at ease by my patronage. But she was seated
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far away from my sofa in order to command the light,
and really seemed so unconcerned at her unwonted circumstances that
she did not need my countenance or kindness. One thing
I did like her watchful look at Miss Galindo from
time to time. It showed that her thoughts and sympathy
were ever at Miss Galindo's service, as indeed they well
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might be. When Miss Bessie spoke, her voice was full
and clear, and what she said to the purpose, though
there was a slight provincial accent in her way of speaking.
After a while, my lady set us to play at
chess a game which I had lately learned at mister
Gray's suggestion. Still, we did not talk much together, though
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we were becoming attracted towards each other. I fancy you
will play well, she said. You have only learned about
six months, have you, and yet you can nearly beat me,
who have been at it as many years I began
to learn last November. I remember mister Gray's bringing me
Philidora on chess one very foggy, dismal day. What made
up look up so suddenly with bright inquiry in her eyes?
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What made her silent for a moment as if in thought,
and then go on with something? I know not what?
In quite an altered tone. My lady and Miss Glinda
went on talking while I sat thinking. I heard Captain
James's name mentioned pretty frequently, And at last my lady
put down her work and said, almost with tears in
her eyes, I could not. I cannot believe it. He
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must be aware. She is a schismatic, a Baker's daughter,
and he is a gentleman by virtue and feeling as
well as by his profession, though his manners may be
at times a little rough. My dear miss Galindo, what
will this world come to Miss Galindo might possibly be
aware of her own share in bringing the world to
the past, which now dismayed my lady for. Of course,
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though all was now over and forgiven, yet Miss Bessie's
being received into a respectable maiden lady's house was one
of the portents as to the world's future, which alarmed her.
Ladys and Miss Glinda knew this, But at any rate,
she had too lately been forgiven herself not to plead
for mercy for the next defender against my lady's delicate
sense of fitness and propriety, so she replied, Indeed, my Lady,
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I have long left off trying to conjecture what makes
Jack fancy jail or Jill jack. It's best to sit
down quiet under the belief that marriages are made for
us somewhere out of this world and out of the
range of this world's reason and loss. I'm not sure
that I should settle it down. That they were made
in heaven to other places seems to me as likely
as a workshop. But at any rate, I've given up
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troubling my head as to why they take place. Captain
James is a gentleman. I make no doubt of that,
ever since I saw him stop to pick up old
goody Blake when she tumbled down on the slide last winter,
and then swear at a little lad who was laughing
at her, and cuff them till I tumbled down crying.
But we must have bread somehow, And though I like
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it better baked at home in a good sweet brick oven,
Yet as some folks never can get it to rise.
I don't see why a man may not be a baker,
you see, my lady, I look upon baking as a
simple trade, and as such lawful. There is no machine
comes in to take away a man's or woman's power
of earning their living, like the spinning Jenny, the old
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busybody that she is, to knock up all our good
old women's livelihood and send them to their graves before
their time. There's an invention of the enemy, if you will,
that's very true, said my lady, shaking her head. But
baking bread is wholesome, straightforward, elbill work. They have not
got to inventing any contrivance for that yet, thank Heaven,
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it does not seem to me natural, nor according to scripture,
that iron and steel whose brows can't sweat should be
made to do man's work. And so I say all
those trades were iron and steel, do the work ordained
to man at the fall are unlawful, and I never
stand up for them. But say the spaker Brook didn't
need his bread and make it rise, And then that
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people who had perhaps no good ovens came to him
and bought his good light bread. And in this manner
he turned an honest penny and got rich. Why all
I say, my lady, is this. I dare say he
would have been born a hanburyer or a lord if
he could, if if he was not. It is no
fault of his that I can see that he made
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good bread being a baker by trade, and got money
and bought his land. It was his misfortune, not his fault,
that he was not a person of quality by birth.
That's very true, said my lady, after a moment's pause
for consideration. But although he was a baker, he might
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have been a churchman. Even your eloquence, Miss Galindo, shan't
convince me that that is not his own fault. I
don't see even that. Begging your pardon, milady, said Miss Galindo,
emboldened by the first success of her elem. When a
baptist is a baby, if I understand their creator rite,
he is not baptized, and consequently he can have no
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godfathers and godmothers to do anything for him in his baptism.
You agree to that, my lady. My lady would rather
have known what her acquiescence would lead to before acknowledging
that she could not dissent from this first proposition. Still,
she gave her tacit agreement by bowing her head. And
you know, our godfathers and godmothers are expected to promise
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and vow three things in our name when we are
little babies and can do nothing but squall for ourselves.
It is a great privilege. But don't let us be
hard upon those who have not had the chance of
godfathers and godmothers. Some people we know are born with
silver spoons. That's to say, a godfather to give one
things and teach one's catechism and to see that we're
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confirmed into good church going Christians. And others with wooden
ladles in their mouths. These poor last folks must just
be content to be godfatherless orphans and dissenters all their lives,
and if they are tradespeople into the bargain, so much
the worse for them. But let us be humble Christians,
my dear lady, not hold our heads too high because
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we were born Orthodox quality. You go on too fast,
Miss Galindo, I can't follow you. Besides, I do believe
descent to be an invention of the devils. Why can't
they believe as we do? It's very wrong. Besides, it's
gissem and heresy, and you know the Bible says that
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it's as bad as witchcraft. My lady was not convinced,
as I could see. After Miss Galindo had gone, she
sent Miss Medlicott for certain books out of the great
old library upstairs, and had them made into a parcel
under her own eye. If Captain James comes tomorrow, I
will speak to him about these brooks. I have not
hitherto liked to speak to him because I did not
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wish to hurt him. But suppose there could be any
truth in the reports about his intimacy with them. But
now I will try and do my duty by him
and them. Surely this great body of Divinity will bring
them back to the true Church. I could not tell
for though my lady read me over the titles, I
was not any the wiser as to their contents. Besides,
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I was much more anxious to consult my lady as
to my own change of place. I showed her the
letter I had that day received from Harry, and we
once more talked over the expediency of my going to
live with him, and trying what entire change of air
would do to re establish my failing health. I could
say anything to my lady. She was so sure to
understand me rightly, For one thing, she never thought of herself,
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so I had no fear of hurting her by stating
the truth. I told her how happy my years had
been while passed under her roof, but that now I'd
begun to wonder whether I had not duties elsewhere in
making a home for Harry, and whether the fulfillment of
these duties quiet ones they must needs be in the
case of such a cripple as myself, would not prevent
my sinking into the querulous habits of thinking and talking
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in which I found myself occasionally falling, and to which
there was the prospect of benefit from the more bracing
air of the north. It was then settled that my
departure from Hanbury, my happy home for so long, was
to take place before many weeks had passed. And as
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when one period of life is about to be shut
up forever, we are sure to look back upon it
with fond regret. So I happy enough in my future prospects,
could not avoid recurring to all the days of my
life in the hall, from the time when I came
to it a shy, awkward girl scarcely past childhood, to
now when a grown woman past childhood, almost from the
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very character of my illness past youth. I was looking
forward to leaving my lady's house as a residence forever.
As it has turned out, I never saw her or
it again. Like a piece of sea wreck, I have
drifted away from those days, quiet, happy, eventless days, very
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happy to remember. I thought of good, jovial mister Mountford,
and his regrets that he might not keep a pack
a very small pack of harriers, and his merry ways
and his love of good eating, and of the first
coming of mister Gray, and my lady's attempt to quench
his sermons when they tended to enforce any duty connected
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with education. And now we had an absolute schoolhouse in
the village, and since Miss Bessie's drinking tea at the hall,
my lady had been twice inside it to give directions
about some fine yarn she was having spun for table knappery.
And her ladyship had so outgrown her old custom of
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dispensing sermon or discourse, that even during the temporary preaching
of mister Cross, she had never had recourse to it,
though I believe she would have had all the congregation
on her side if she had. And mister Horner was dead,
and Captain James reigned in his stead, good, steady, severe,
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silent mister Horner, with his clocklike regularity, and his snuff
colored clothes and its silver buckles. I have often wondered
which one misses most when they are dead and gone.
The bright creatures, full of life, who are hither and
thither and everywhere, so that no one can reckon upon
their coming and going, with whom stillness in the long
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quiet of the grave seems utterly irreconcilable, so full are
they of vivid motion and passion. Or the slow, serious
people whose movements, nay, whose very words seem to go
by clockwork, who never appear much to affect the course
of our life while they are with us, but whose
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methodical ways show themselves when they are gone to have
been intertwined with our very roots of daily existence. I
think I missed these last the most. Although I may
have loved the former best, Captain James, was never to
me what mister Horner was, though the latter had hardly
changed a dozen words with me at the day of
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his death. Then Miss Galindo, I remember the time as
if it had been only yesterday, when she was but
a name, a very odd one to me. Then she
was a queer, abrupt, disagreeable, busy old maid. Now I
love her dearly, and I found out that I was
almost jealous of Miss Bessy. Mister Gray never thought of
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with love. The feeling was almost reverence with which I
looked upon him. I have not wished to speak much
of myself, or else I could have told you how
much he had been to me during these long, weary
years of illness. But he was almost as much to
every one, rich and poor, from my lady down to
Miss Galindo's Sally. The village too had a different look
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about it. I'm sure I could not tell you what
caused the change, But there were no more lounging young
men to form a group at the cross road at
a time of day when young men ought to be
at work. I don't say this was all mister Gray's doing,
for there really was so much to do in the
fields that there was but little time for lounging now
a days, and the children were hushed up in school,
and better behaved out of it, too, than in the
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days when I used to be able to go my
lady's errands in the village. I went so little about
now that I am sure I can't tell whom Miss
Glindo found a scold, And yet she looked so well
and so happy, that I think she must have had
her accustomed portion of that wholesome exercise. Before I left Hanbury.
The rumor that Captain James was going to marry Miss Brooke,
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Bakerbrook's eldest daughter, who had only a sister to share
his property with her, was confirmed. He himself announced it
to my lady nay more, with a courage gained, I
suppose in his former profession, where as I have heard
he led his ship into many a post of danger.
He asked her ladyship, the Countess Ludlow, if he might
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bring his bride elect, the Baptist Baker's daughter, and present
her to my lady. I am glad I was not
present when he made this request. I should have felt
so much ashamed for him, and I could not have helped,
being anxious till I heard my lady's answer. If I
had been there, of course she acceeded, but I can
fancy the grave surprise of her look. I wonder if
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Captain James noticed it. I hardly dared ask my lady
after the interview had taken place what she thought of
the bride elect, but I hinted my curiosity, and she
told me that if the young person had applied to
Missus Medlicott for the situation of Cook, and Missus Medlicott
had engaged her, she thought that it would have been
a very suitable arrangement. I understood from this how little
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she thought of marriage with Captain James R. N. Suitable.
About a year after I left Hanbury, I received a
letter from Miss Galindo. I think I can find it. Yes,
this is it, Hanbury, May fourth, eighteen twelve. Dear Margaret,
you ask for news of us all, don't you know
there is no news in Hanbury? Did you ever hear
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of an event here? Now? If you have answered yes
in your own mind to these questions, you have fallen
into my trap and never wore more mistaken in your life.
Hanbury's full of news, and we have more events on
our hands than we know what to do with. I
will take them in the order of the newspapers, births, deaths,
and marriages. In the matter of births, Jenny Lucas has
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had twins not a week ago, sadly too much of
a good thing, you'll say, very true, But then they died,
so their birth did not much signify. My cat has
kitten too, She has three kittens, which again you may observe,
is too much of a good thing. And so it
would be if it were not for the next item
of intelligence I shall lay before you. Captain and missus
James have taken the old house next to Pearson's, and
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the house is overrun with mice, which is just as
fortunate for me as the king of Egypt's rat ridden
kingdom was to Dick Whittington. But for my cat's kittening,
decided me to go and call on the bride, and
hope she wanted a cat, which she did, like a
sensible woman, as I do believe she is in spite
of baptism, Beggar's bread and bourbing Ham, and something worse
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than all, which you shall hear about if you'll only
be patient. As I had got my best bonnet on
the one I bought when poor Lord Ludlow was last
at Hanbury in ninety nine, I thought it a great
condescension in myself, always remembering the date of the Glindo Baronetcy,
to go and call on the bride, though I don't
think so much of myself in everyday clothes, as you know.
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But who should I find there but my lady Ludlow.
She looks as frail and delicate as ever, But is
I think in better heart ever since that old city
merchant of a Hanberry took it into his head that
he was a cadet of the Hanbury's of Hanbury and
left her that handsome legacy. I'll warrant you that the
mortgage was paid off pretty fast, and mister Horner's money,
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or my lady's money, or Harry Gregson's mind call it
what you will, is invested in his name all right
and tight, and they do talk of his being captain
of his school, or Grecian or something, or going to
college after all, Harry Gregson, the poacher's son. Well, to
be sure, we are living in strange times, but I
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have not done with the marriage is yet Captain James
is all very well, but no one cares for it.
Now we are also full of mister Gray's. Yes, indeed,
mister Gray is going to be married, and to nobody
else but my little Bessie. I tell her she will
have to nurse him half of the days of her life.
He is such a frail little body, but she says
she does not care for that. So that his body
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holds his soul, it is enough for her. She has
a good spirit and a brave heart, has my Bessie.
It is a great advantage that she won't have to
mark her clothes over again, for when she has knitted
herself her last set of stockings, I told her to
put g for Galindo if she did not choose to
put it for Gibson. So she should be my child
if she was no one else's. And now you see
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it stands for Gray. So there are two marriages and
what more would you have? And she promises to take
another of my kittens. Now, as to death, old Farmer
Hale is dead, poor old man. I should think his
wife thought it a good riddance, for he beat her
every day that he was drunk, and he was never
sober in spite of mister Gray. I don't think, as
I tell him, that mister Gray would ever have found
(29:24):
courage to speak to Bessie as long as Farmer Hale lived.
He took the old gentleman's sins so much to heart,
and seemed to think it was all his fault for
not being able to make a sinner into a saint.
The parish bull is dead too. I was never so
glad in my life, but they say we are to
have a new one in his place. In the meantime,
I cross the common in peace, which is very convenient,
(29:48):
just now when I have so often to go to
mister Gray's to see about furnishing. Now you think I
have told you all the Hanbury news, don't you not?
So the very greatest thing of all is to come.
I won't tantalize you, but just out with it, for
you would never guess it. My lady Ludlow has given
(30:08):
a party just like any plebeian among us. We had
tea and toast in the blue drawing room, Old John
Footman waiting with Tom Diggles, the lad that used to
frighten away crows and Farmer Hall's fields. Following in my
lady's livery hair powdered and everything. Missus Medlicott made tea
in my lady's own room. My lady looked like a
(30:30):
splendid fairy queen of mature age, in black velvet and
the old lace, which I have never seen her wear
before since my lord's death. But the company, you'll say, why,
We had the Parson of Clover and the Parson of Headley,
and the Parson of Merybank, and the three parsonesses, and
Farmer Duncan, and the two miss Donkins, and mister Gray
(30:54):
of course, and myself and Bessie, and Captain and Missus James, yes,
and miss and Missus Brooke. Think of that. I am
not sure the Parsons liked it. But he was there,
for he'd been helping Captain James to get my lady's
land into order, and then his daughter married the agent
and mister Gray who ought to know says that, after all,
(31:16):
Baptists are not such bad people, and he was right
against them at one time. As you may remember, Missus
Brooke is a rough diamond. To be sure, people have
said that of me. I know, but being a Galindo,
I learned manners in my youth and can take them
up when I choose. But Missus Brooke never learned manners.
I'll be bound. When John Footman handed her the tray
(31:38):
with the teacups, she looked up at him as if
she were sorely puzzled by that way of going on.
I was sitting next to her, so I pretended not
to see her perplexity, and put her cream and sugar
in for her, and was all ready to pop it
into her hands. When who should come up but that
impudent lad Tom Diggles. I call him lad, for all
(31:58):
his hair is powdered, for you you know that it
is not natural gray hair. With his tray full of
cakes and whatnot, all as good as Missus Medlicott could
make them. By this time, I should tell you all
the parsonesses were looking at Missus Brook, for she had
shown her want of breeding before. And the parsonesses who
were just a step above her in manners were very
much inclined to smile at her doings and sayings, Well,
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what does she do but pull ou a clean bandana
pocket handkerchief, all red and yellow silk, spread it over
her best silk gown, as it was like enough a
new one, for I had it from Sally, who had
it from her cousin Molly, who is a dairy woman.
At the Brooks's that the Brooks were mighty set up
with an invitation to drink tea at the hall. There
(32:42):
we were Tom Diggles even on the grin. I wonder
how long it is since he was own brother to
a scarecrow, only not so decently dressed. And missus Parsoness
of Hedley, I forget her name, and it's no matter,
for she's an ill bred creature. I hope Bessie will
behave herself better. Was right down, bursting with laughter, and
(33:03):
as near a hee haw as ever a donkey was.
When what does my lady do? I there's my own
dear lady Ludlow, God bless her. She takes out her
own pocket handkerchief, all snowy cambric, and lays it softly
down on her velvet lap for all the world, as
if she did it every day of her life, just
(33:24):
like missus Brooke, the baker's wife. And when the one
got up to shake the crumbs into the fireplace, the
other did just the same, but with such a grace
and such a look at us all Tom Diggles went
red all over, and missus Parsoness of Headley Scarce spoke
for the rest of the evening, and the tears came
into my old silly eyes. And mister Gray, who was
(33:48):
before silent and awkward in a way which I tell
Bessie she must cure him of, was made so happy
by this pretty action of my lady's that he talked
away all the rest of the evening and was a
life of the company. Oh, Margaret Dawson, I sometimes wonder
if you're the better off for leaving us, to be
sure you're with your brother and blood is blood. But
(34:09):
when I look at my lady and mister Gray were
all they're so different, and I would not change places
with any in England. Alas, alas I never saw my
dear lady again. She died in eighteen hundred and fourteen,
and mister Gray did not long survive her, as I
dare say you know. The Reverend Henry Gregson is now
(34:30):
Vicar of Hanbury, and his wife is the daughter of
mister Gray and Miss Bessie. End of Chapter fourteen recording
by Adina Allen. End of My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth
Gaskell
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Adina Owen. My Lady
Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell, Chapter fourteen. Like many other things
which have been declared to be impossible, this report of
(00:23):
Captain James being attentive to Miss Brooke turned out to
be very true. The mere idea of her agent being
on the slightest possible terms of acquaintance with the dissenter,
the tradesman, the Birmingham Democrat, who had come to settle
in our good orthodox, aristocratic and agricultural Hanbury, made my
Lady very uneasy. Miss Galindo's misdemeanor in having taken Miss
(00:48):
Bessy to live with her faded into a mistake, a
mere error of judgment in comparison with Captain James's intimacy
at Yeast House, as the Brooks called their ugly square
built farm. My Lady talked to herself quite into complacency
with Miss Galindo, and even Miss Bessie was named by her,
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the first time I had ever been aware that my
Lady recognized her existence, but I recollect it was a
long rainy afternoon, and I sat with her Ladyship, and
we had time and opportunity for a long uninterrupted talk.
Whenever we had been silent for a little while, she
began again with something like a wonder how it was
that Captain James could ever have commenced an acquaintance with
(01:32):
that man Brook. My lady recapitulated all the times she
could remember that anything had occurred or had been said
by Captain James which she could now understand a stirring
light upon the subject. He said once that he was
anxious to bring in the Norfolk system of cropping, and
spoke a good deal about mister Coke of Holcombe, who,
(01:53):
by the way, was no more Coke than I am,
collateral in the female line, which counts for little or
nothing among the great old cobb Ander families of pure blood,
and his new ways of cultivation. Of course, new men
bring in new ways, but it does not follow that
either are better than the old ways. However, Captain James
has been very anxious to try turnips and bone manure,
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and he really is a man of such good sense
and energy, and was so sorry last year about the
failure that I consented, And now I begin to see
my air. I have always heard that town bakers adulterate
their flower with bone dust, and of course Captain James
would be aware of this and go to brook to
inquire where the article was to be purchased. My lady
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always ignored the fact, which had sometimes I suspect, been
brought under her very eyes during her drives, that mister
Brooks's new fields were in a state of far higher
cultivation than her own. So she could not, of course
perceive that there was any wisdom to be gained from
asking the advice of the tradesmen turned farmer. But by
(02:56):
and bye this fact of her agent's intimacy with the
person who whom in the whole world she most disliked.
With that sort of dislike in which a large amount
of the uncomfortableness is combined, the dislike which conscientious people
sometimes feel to another without knowing why, and yet which
they cannot indulge in with comfort to themselves without having
(03:17):
a moral reason why, came before my lady in many shapes.
For indeed, I am sure that Captain James was not
a man to conceal or be ashamed of one of
his actions. I cannot fancy his ever lowering his strong, loud,
clear voice, or having a confidential conversation with anyone when
his crops had failed. All the village had known it.
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He complained, he regretted, he was angry, or owned himself
a fool all down the village street. And the consequence
was that, although he was far more passionate than mister Horner,
all the tenants liked him far better. People in general
take a kindlier interest in anyone the workings of whose
mind and heart they can watch and understand, and in
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a man who only lets you know what he's been
thinking about and feeling by what he does. But Harry
Gregson was faithful to the memory of mister Horner. Miss
Galindo had told me that she used to watch him
hobble out of the way of Captain James, as if
to accept his notice, however good naturedly given, would have
been a kind of treachery to his former benefactor. But Gregson,
(04:24):
the father and the new agent rather took to each other,
and one day, much to my surprise, I heard that
the poaching, tinkering vagabond, as the people used to call Gregson,
when I first had come to live at Hanbury, had
been appointed gamekeeper. Mister Gray standing godfather, as it were,
to his trustworthiness, as if he were trusted with anything,
(04:48):
which I thought at the time was rather an experiment
only had answered as many of mister Gray's deeds of
daring did. It was curious how he was growing to
be a kind of autocrat in the village, and how
unconscious he was of it. He was as shy and
awkward and nervous as ever in any affair that was
(05:08):
not of some moral consequence to him. But as soon
as he was convinced that the thing was right, he
shut his eyes and ran and butted at it like
a ram. As Captain James once expressed it, in talking
over something mister Gray had done, people in the village
said they never knew what the parson would be at next,
(05:29):
or they might have said where his reverence would next
turn up, For I have heard his marching right into
the middle of a set of poachers gathered together for
some desperate midnight enterprise, or walking into a public house
that lay just beyond the bounds of my lady's estate,
and in that extra parochial piece of ground I named
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long ago, and which was considered the rendezvous of all
the nair Dodwell characters for miles around, and where a
person and a constable were held in much the same
kind of esteem as unwelcome visitors. And yet mister Gray
had his long fits of depression in which he felt
as if he were doing nothing, making no way in
(06:12):
his work, useless and unprofitable, and better out of the
world than in it. In comparison with the work he
had set himself to do, what he did seemed to
be nothing. I suppose it was constitutional those attacks of
lowness of spirit which he had about this time, perhaps
a part of the nervousness which made him always so
(06:33):
awkward when he came to the hall, even Missus Medlicott,
who almost worshiped the ground he trod on. As the
saying is owned that mister Gray never entered one of
my lady's rooms without knocking down something, and too often
breaking it. He would much sooner have faced a desperate
poacher than a young lady any day, at least, so
(06:54):
we thought. I do not know how it was that
it came to pass that my lead he became reconsoled
to Miss Glindo about this time. Whether it was that
her ladyship was weary of the unspoken coolness with her
old friend, or that the specimens of delicate sewing and
fine spinning at the school had mollified her towards Miss Bessie.
(07:14):
But I was surprised to learn one day that Miss
Galindo and her young friend were coming that very evening
to tea at the hall. This information was given me
by missus Medlicott as a message from my lady, who
further went on to desire that certain little preparations should
be made in her own private sitting room, in which
the greater part of my days were spent. From the
nature of these preparations, I became quite aware that my
(07:38):
lady intended to do honor to her expected visitors. Indeed,
Lady Ludlow never forgave by halves, as I have known
some people to do. Whoever was coming as a visitor
to my lady Peariss or poor nameless girl, there was
a certain amount preparation required in order to do them
fitting honor. I do not mean to say that the
(08:00):
preparation was of the same degree of importance in each case.
I dare say if a peeress had come to visit
us at the Hall, that covers would have been taken
off the furniture in the white drawing room. They never
were uncovered all the time I stayed at the Hall,
because my lady would wish to offer her the ornaments
and luxuries which this grand visitor, who never came, I
(08:20):
wish she had. I did so want to see that
furniture uncovered was accustomed to at home, and to present
to them to her in the best order which my
lady could. That same rule mollified held good with Miss Galindo.
Certain things in which my lady knew she took an
interest were laid out ready for her to examine this
(08:41):
very day. And what was more, great books of prints
were laid out, such as I remembered my lady had
had brought forth to beguile my own early days of illness,
mister Hogarth's works and the like which I was sure
put out for Miss Bessy. No one knows how curious
I was to see this missus, Miss Bessie, twenty times
(09:02):
more mysterious, of course, for want of her surname, than
again to try and account for my great curiosity of
which in recollection, I am more than half ashamed. I
had been leading the quiet, monotonous life of a crippled
invalid for many years, shut up from any sight of
new faces, and this was to be the face of
one whom I had thought about so much and so long. Oh,
(09:24):
I think I might be excused. Of course, they drank
tea in the Great Hall with the four young gentlewomen,
who with myself formed the small bevy now under Her
Ladyship's charge. Of those who were at Hanbury when first
I came, none remained. All were married or gone once
more to live at some home which could be called
their own, Whether the ostensible head were father or brother,
(09:46):
I myself was not without some hopes of a similar kind.
My brother Harry was now a curate in Westmoreland, and
wanted me to go and live with him, as eventually
I did for a time. But that is neither here
nor there at present. What I am talking about is
miss Bessie. After a reasonable time had elapsed, occupied, as
I well knew by the meal in the Great Hall,
(10:09):
the measured yet agreeable conversation afterwards, and a certain promenade
around the hall and through the drawing rooms with pauses
before different pictures, the history or subject at each, which
was invariably told by my lady to every new visitor,
a sort of giving them the freedom of the old
family seat by describing the kind and nature of the
(10:30):
great progenitors who had lived there before the narrator. I
heard the steps approaching my Lady's room where I lay.
I think I was in such a state of nervous
expectation that if I could have moved easily, I should
have got up and run away. And yet I need
not have been from Miss Glinda was not in the
least altered. Her nose was a little redder, to be sure,
(10:51):
but then that might only have been a temporary cause
in the private crying I know she would have had
before coming to see her dear Lady Ludlow once again.
But I could almost have pushed Miss Galindo away as
she intercepted me. In my view of the mysterious Miss Bessie.
Miss Bessie was, as I knew, only about eighteen, but
(11:11):
she looked older, dark haired, dark eyes, a tall, firm figure,
a good sensible face, with a serene expression, not in
the least disturbed by what I had been thinking. Must
be such awful circumstances as a first introduction to my lady,
who had so disapproved of her very existence. Those are
the clearest impressions I remember of my first interview with
(11:33):
Miss Bessie. She seemed to observe us all in her
quiet manner, quite as much as I did her, But
she spoke very little, occupied herself. Indeed, as my lady
had planned with looking over the great books of engravings,
I think I must have foolishly intended to make her
feel at ease by my patronage. But she was seated
(11:55):
far away from my sofa in order to command the light,
and really seemed so unconcerned at her unwonted circumstances that
she did not need my countenance or kindness. One thing
I did like her watchful look at Miss Galindo from
time to time. It showed that her thoughts and sympathy
were ever at Miss Galindo's service, as indeed they well
(12:17):
might be. When Miss Bessie spoke, her voice was full
and clear, and what she said to the purpose, though
there was a slight provincial accent in her way of speaking.
After a while, my lady set us to play at
chess a game which I had lately learned at mister
Gray's suggestion. Still, we did not talk much together, though
(12:40):
we were becoming attracted towards each other. I fancy you
will play well, she said. You have only learned about
six months, have you, and yet you can nearly beat me,
who have been at it as many years I began
to learn last November. I remember mister Gray's bringing me
Philidora on chess one very foggy, dismal day. What made
up look up so suddenly with bright inquiry in her eyes?
(13:03):
What made her silent for a moment as if in thought,
and then go on with something? I know not what?
In quite an altered tone. My lady and Miss Glinda
went on talking while I sat thinking. I heard Captain
James's name mentioned pretty frequently, And at last my lady
put down her work and said, almost with tears in
her eyes, I could not. I cannot believe it. He
(13:26):
must be aware. She is a schismatic, a Baker's daughter,
and he is a gentleman by virtue and feeling as
well as by his profession, though his manners may be
at times a little rough. My dear miss Galindo, what
will this world come to Miss Galindo might possibly be
aware of her own share in bringing the world to
the past, which now dismayed my lady for. Of course,
(13:49):
though all was now over and forgiven, yet Miss Bessie's
being received into a respectable maiden lady's house was one
of the portents as to the world's future, which alarmed her.
Ladys and Miss Glinda knew this, But at any rate,
she had too lately been forgiven herself not to plead
for mercy for the next defender against my lady's delicate
sense of fitness and propriety, so she replied, Indeed, my Lady,
(14:14):
I have long left off trying to conjecture what makes
Jack fancy jail or Jill jack. It's best to sit
down quiet under the belief that marriages are made for
us somewhere out of this world and out of the
range of this world's reason and loss. I'm not sure
that I should settle it down. That they were made
in heaven to other places seems to me as likely
as a workshop. But at any rate, I've given up
(14:38):
troubling my head as to why they take place. Captain
James is a gentleman. I make no doubt of that,
ever since I saw him stop to pick up old
goody Blake when she tumbled down on the slide last winter,
and then swear at a little lad who was laughing
at her, and cuff them till I tumbled down crying.
But we must have bread somehow, And though I like
(14:58):
it better baked at home in a good sweet brick oven,
Yet as some folks never can get it to rise.
I don't see why a man may not be a baker,
you see, my lady, I look upon baking as a
simple trade, and as such lawful. There is no machine
comes in to take away a man's or woman's power
of earning their living, like the spinning Jenny, the old
(15:20):
busybody that she is, to knock up all our good
old women's livelihood and send them to their graves before
their time. There's an invention of the enemy, if you will,
that's very true, said my lady, shaking her head. But
baking bread is wholesome, straightforward, elbill work. They have not
got to inventing any contrivance for that yet, thank Heaven,
(15:44):
it does not seem to me natural, nor according to scripture,
that iron and steel whose brows can't sweat should be
made to do man's work. And so I say all
those trades were iron and steel, do the work ordained
to man at the fall are unlawful, and I never
stand up for them. But say the spaker Brook didn't
need his bread and make it rise, And then that
(16:04):
people who had perhaps no good ovens came to him
and bought his good light bread. And in this manner
he turned an honest penny and got rich. Why all
I say, my lady, is this. I dare say he
would have been born a hanburyer or a lord if
he could, if if he was not. It is no
fault of his that I can see that he made
(16:25):
good bread being a baker by trade, and got money
and bought his land. It was his misfortune, not his fault,
that he was not a person of quality by birth.
That's very true, said my lady, after a moment's pause
for consideration. But although he was a baker, he might
(16:46):
have been a churchman. Even your eloquence, Miss Galindo, shan't
convince me that that is not his own fault. I
don't see even that. Begging your pardon, milady, said Miss Galindo,
emboldened by the first success of her elem. When a
baptist is a baby, if I understand their creator rite,
he is not baptized, and consequently he can have no
(17:10):
godfathers and godmothers to do anything for him in his baptism.
You agree to that, my lady. My lady would rather
have known what her acquiescence would lead to before acknowledging
that she could not dissent from this first proposition. Still,
she gave her tacit agreement by bowing her head. And
you know, our godfathers and godmothers are expected to promise
(17:32):
and vow three things in our name when we are
little babies and can do nothing but squall for ourselves.
It is a great privilege. But don't let us be
hard upon those who have not had the chance of
godfathers and godmothers. Some people we know are born with
silver spoons. That's to say, a godfather to give one
things and teach one's catechism and to see that we're
(17:53):
confirmed into good church going Christians. And others with wooden
ladles in their mouths. These poor last folks must just
be content to be godfatherless orphans and dissenters all their lives,
and if they are tradespeople into the bargain, so much
the worse for them. But let us be humble Christians,
my dear lady, not hold our heads too high because
(18:15):
we were born Orthodox quality. You go on too fast,
Miss Galindo, I can't follow you. Besides, I do believe
descent to be an invention of the devils. Why can't
they believe as we do? It's very wrong. Besides, it's
gissem and heresy, and you know the Bible says that
(18:36):
it's as bad as witchcraft. My lady was not convinced,
as I could see. After Miss Galindo had gone, she
sent Miss Medlicott for certain books out of the great
old library upstairs, and had them made into a parcel
under her own eye. If Captain James comes tomorrow, I
will speak to him about these brooks. I have not
hitherto liked to speak to him because I did not
(18:58):
wish to hurt him. But suppose there could be any
truth in the reports about his intimacy with them. But
now I will try and do my duty by him
and them. Surely this great body of Divinity will bring
them back to the true Church. I could not tell
for though my lady read me over the titles, I
was not any the wiser as to their contents. Besides,
(19:20):
I was much more anxious to consult my lady as
to my own change of place. I showed her the
letter I had that day received from Harry, and we
once more talked over the expediency of my going to
live with him, and trying what entire change of air
would do to re establish my failing health. I could
say anything to my lady. She was so sure to
understand me rightly, For one thing, she never thought of herself,
(19:43):
so I had no fear of hurting her by stating
the truth. I told her how happy my years had
been while passed under her roof, but that now I'd
begun to wonder whether I had not duties elsewhere in
making a home for Harry, and whether the fulfillment of
these duties quiet ones they must needs be in the
case of such a cripple as myself, would not prevent
my sinking into the querulous habits of thinking and talking
(20:07):
in which I found myself occasionally falling, and to which
there was the prospect of benefit from the more bracing
air of the north. It was then settled that my
departure from Hanbury, my happy home for so long, was
to take place before many weeks had passed. And as
(20:27):
when one period of life is about to be shut
up forever, we are sure to look back upon it
with fond regret. So I happy enough in my future prospects,
could not avoid recurring to all the days of my
life in the hall, from the time when I came
to it a shy, awkward girl scarcely past childhood, to
now when a grown woman past childhood, almost from the
(20:49):
very character of my illness past youth. I was looking
forward to leaving my lady's house as a residence forever.
As it has turned out, I never saw her or
it again. Like a piece of sea wreck, I have
drifted away from those days, quiet, happy, eventless days, very
(21:09):
happy to remember. I thought of good, jovial mister Mountford,
and his regrets that he might not keep a pack
a very small pack of harriers, and his merry ways
and his love of good eating, and of the first
coming of mister Gray, and my lady's attempt to quench
his sermons when they tended to enforce any duty connected
(21:30):
with education. And now we had an absolute schoolhouse in
the village, and since Miss Bessie's drinking tea at the hall,
my lady had been twice inside it to give directions
about some fine yarn she was having spun for table knappery.
And her ladyship had so outgrown her old custom of
(21:51):
dispensing sermon or discourse, that even during the temporary preaching
of mister Cross, she had never had recourse to it,
though I believe she would have had all the congregation
on her side if she had. And mister Horner was dead,
and Captain James reigned in his stead, good, steady, severe,
(22:12):
silent mister Horner, with his clocklike regularity, and his snuff
colored clothes and its silver buckles. I have often wondered
which one misses most when they are dead and gone.
The bright creatures, full of life, who are hither and
thither and everywhere, so that no one can reckon upon
their coming and going, with whom stillness in the long
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quiet of the grave seems utterly irreconcilable, so full are
they of vivid motion and passion. Or the slow, serious
people whose movements, nay, whose very words seem to go
by clockwork, who never appear much to affect the course
of our life while they are with us, but whose
(22:55):
methodical ways show themselves when they are gone to have
been intertwined with our very roots of daily existence. I
think I missed these last the most. Although I may
have loved the former best, Captain James, was never to
me what mister Horner was, though the latter had hardly
changed a dozen words with me at the day of
(23:16):
his death. Then Miss Galindo, I remember the time as
if it had been only yesterday, when she was but
a name, a very odd one to me. Then she
was a queer, abrupt, disagreeable, busy old maid. Now I
love her dearly, and I found out that I was
almost jealous of Miss Bessy. Mister Gray never thought of
(23:38):
with love. The feeling was almost reverence with which I
looked upon him. I have not wished to speak much
of myself, or else I could have told you how
much he had been to me during these long, weary
years of illness. But he was almost as much to
every one, rich and poor, from my lady down to
Miss Galindo's Sally. The village too had a different look
(24:02):
about it. I'm sure I could not tell you what
caused the change, But there were no more lounging young
men to form a group at the cross road at
a time of day when young men ought to be
at work. I don't say this was all mister Gray's doing,
for there really was so much to do in the
fields that there was but little time for lounging now
a days, and the children were hushed up in school,
and better behaved out of it, too, than in the
(24:23):
days when I used to be able to go my
lady's errands in the village. I went so little about
now that I am sure I can't tell whom Miss
Glindo found a scold, And yet she looked so well
and so happy, that I think she must have had
her accustomed portion of that wholesome exercise. Before I left Hanbury.
The rumor that Captain James was going to marry Miss Brooke,
(24:45):
Bakerbrook's eldest daughter, who had only a sister to share
his property with her, was confirmed. He himself announced it
to my lady nay more, with a courage gained, I
suppose in his former profession, where as I have heard
he led his ship into many a post of danger.
He asked her ladyship, the Countess Ludlow, if he might
(25:06):
bring his bride elect, the Baptist Baker's daughter, and present
her to my lady. I am glad I was not
present when he made this request. I should have felt
so much ashamed for him, and I could not have helped,
being anxious till I heard my lady's answer. If I
had been there, of course she acceeded, but I can
fancy the grave surprise of her look. I wonder if
(25:27):
Captain James noticed it. I hardly dared ask my lady
after the interview had taken place what she thought of
the bride elect, but I hinted my curiosity, and she
told me that if the young person had applied to
Missus Medlicott for the situation of Cook, and Missus Medlicott
had engaged her, she thought that it would have been
a very suitable arrangement. I understood from this how little
(25:48):
she thought of marriage with Captain James R. N. Suitable.
About a year after I left Hanbury, I received a
letter from Miss Galindo. I think I can find it. Yes,
this is it, Hanbury, May fourth, eighteen twelve. Dear Margaret,
you ask for news of us all, don't you know
there is no news in Hanbury? Did you ever hear
(26:09):
of an event here? Now? If you have answered yes
in your own mind to these questions, you have fallen
into my trap and never wore more mistaken in your life.
Hanbury's full of news, and we have more events on
our hands than we know what to do with. I
will take them in the order of the newspapers, births, deaths,
and marriages. In the matter of births, Jenny Lucas has
(26:30):
had twins not a week ago, sadly too much of
a good thing, you'll say, very true, But then they died,
so their birth did not much signify. My cat has
kitten too, She has three kittens, which again you may observe,
is too much of a good thing. And so it
would be if it were not for the next item
of intelligence I shall lay before you. Captain and missus
James have taken the old house next to Pearson's, and
(26:53):
the house is overrun with mice, which is just as
fortunate for me as the king of Egypt's rat ridden
kingdom was to Dick Whittington. But for my cat's kittening,
decided me to go and call on the bride, and
hope she wanted a cat, which she did, like a
sensible woman, as I do believe she is in spite
of baptism, Beggar's bread and bourbing Ham, and something worse
(27:14):
than all, which you shall hear about if you'll only
be patient. As I had got my best bonnet on
the one I bought when poor Lord Ludlow was last
at Hanbury in ninety nine, I thought it a great
condescension in myself, always remembering the date of the Glindo Baronetcy,
to go and call on the bride, though I don't
think so much of myself in everyday clothes, as you know.
(27:37):
But who should I find there but my lady Ludlow.
She looks as frail and delicate as ever, But is
I think in better heart ever since that old city
merchant of a Hanberry took it into his head that
he was a cadet of the Hanbury's of Hanbury and
left her that handsome legacy. I'll warrant you that the
mortgage was paid off pretty fast, and mister Horner's money,
(27:57):
or my lady's money, or Harry Gregson's mind call it
what you will, is invested in his name all right
and tight, and they do talk of his being captain
of his school, or Grecian or something, or going to
college after all, Harry Gregson, the poacher's son. Well, to
be sure, we are living in strange times, but I
(28:18):
have not done with the marriage is yet Captain James
is all very well, but no one cares for it.
Now we are also full of mister Gray's. Yes, indeed,
mister Gray is going to be married, and to nobody
else but my little Bessie. I tell her she will
have to nurse him half of the days of her life.
He is such a frail little body, but she says
she does not care for that. So that his body
(28:40):
holds his soul, it is enough for her. She has
a good spirit and a brave heart, has my Bessie.
It is a great advantage that she won't have to
mark her clothes over again, for when she has knitted
herself her last set of stockings, I told her to
put g for Galindo if she did not choose to
put it for Gibson. So she should be my child
if she was no one else's. And now you see
(29:02):
it stands for Gray. So there are two marriages and
what more would you have? And she promises to take
another of my kittens. Now, as to death, old Farmer
Hale is dead, poor old man. I should think his
wife thought it a good riddance, for he beat her
every day that he was drunk, and he was never
sober in spite of mister Gray. I don't think, as
I tell him, that mister Gray would ever have found
(29:24):
courage to speak to Bessie as long as Farmer Hale lived.
He took the old gentleman's sins so much to heart,
and seemed to think it was all his fault for
not being able to make a sinner into a saint.
The parish bull is dead too. I was never so
glad in my life, but they say we are to
have a new one in his place. In the meantime,
I cross the common in peace, which is very convenient,
(29:48):
just now when I have so often to go to
mister Gray's to see about furnishing. Now you think I
have told you all the Hanbury news, don't you not?
So the very greatest thing of all is to come.
I won't tantalize you, but just out with it, for
you would never guess it. My lady Ludlow has given
(30:08):
a party just like any plebeian among us. We had
tea and toast in the blue drawing room, Old John
Footman waiting with Tom Diggles, the lad that used to
frighten away crows and Farmer Hall's fields. Following in my
lady's livery hair powdered and everything. Missus Medlicott made tea
in my lady's own room. My lady looked like a
(30:30):
splendid fairy queen of mature age, in black velvet and
the old lace, which I have never seen her wear
before since my lord's death. But the company, you'll say, why,
We had the Parson of Clover and the Parson of Headley,
and the Parson of Merybank, and the three parsonesses, and
Farmer Duncan, and the two miss Donkins, and mister Gray
(30:54):
of course, and myself and Bessie, and Captain and Missus James, yes,
and miss and Missus Brooke. Think of that. I am
not sure the Parsons liked it. But he was there,
for he'd been helping Captain James to get my lady's
land into order, and then his daughter married the agent
and mister Gray who ought to know says that, after all,
(31:16):
Baptists are not such bad people, and he was right
against them at one time. As you may remember, Missus
Brooke is a rough diamond. To be sure, people have
said that of me. I know, but being a Galindo,
I learned manners in my youth and can take them
up when I choose. But Missus Brooke never learned manners.
I'll be bound. When John Footman handed her the tray
(31:38):
with the teacups, she looked up at him as if
she were sorely puzzled by that way of going on.
I was sitting next to her, so I pretended not
to see her perplexity, and put her cream and sugar
in for her, and was all ready to pop it
into her hands. When who should come up but that
impudent lad Tom Diggles. I call him lad, for all
(31:58):
his hair is powdered, for you you know that it
is not natural gray hair. With his tray full of
cakes and whatnot, all as good as Missus Medlicott could
make them. By this time, I should tell you all
the parsonesses were looking at Missus Brook, for she had
shown her want of breeding before. And the parsonesses who
were just a step above her in manners were very
much inclined to smile at her doings and sayings, Well,
(32:21):
what does she do but pull ou a clean bandana
pocket handkerchief, all red and yellow silk, spread it over
her best silk gown, as it was like enough a
new one, for I had it from Sally, who had
it from her cousin Molly, who is a dairy woman.
At the Brooks's that the Brooks were mighty set up
with an invitation to drink tea at the hall. There
(32:42):
we were Tom Diggles even on the grin. I wonder
how long it is since he was own brother to
a scarecrow, only not so decently dressed. And missus Parsoness
of Hedley, I forget her name, and it's no matter,
for she's an ill bred creature. I hope Bessie will
behave herself better. Was right down, bursting with laughter, and
(33:03):
as near a hee haw as ever a donkey was.
When what does my lady do? I there's my own
dear lady Ludlow, God bless her. She takes out her
own pocket handkerchief, all snowy cambric, and lays it softly
down on her velvet lap for all the world, as
if she did it every day of her life, just
(33:24):
like missus Brooke, the baker's wife. And when the one
got up to shake the crumbs into the fireplace, the
other did just the same, but with such a grace
and such a look at us all Tom Diggles went
red all over, and missus Parsoness of Headley Scarce spoke
for the rest of the evening, and the tears came
into my old silly eyes. And mister Gray, who was
(33:48):
before silent and awkward in a way which I tell
Bessie she must cure him of, was made so happy
by this pretty action of my lady's that he talked
away all the rest of the evening and was a
life of the company. Oh, Margaret Dawson, I sometimes wonder
if you're the better off for leaving us, to be
sure you're with your brother and blood is blood. But
(34:09):
when I look at my lady and mister Gray were
all they're so different, and I would not change places
with any in England. Alas, alas I never saw my
dear lady again. She died in eighteen hundred and fourteen,
and mister Gray did not long survive her, as I
dare say you know. The Reverend Henry Gregson is now
(34:30):
Vicar of Hanbury, and his wife is the daughter of
mister Gray and Miss Bessie. End of Chapter fourteen recording
by Adina Allen. End of My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth
Gaskell
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