Esther Waters — Chapter 24

London: Walter Scott, Ltd., 1 March 1894, pages 183-187, 1,952 words

XXIV.

Mrs. Humphries, an elderly person who looked after a bachelor’s establishment two doors up, and generally slipped in about tea-time, soon began to speak of Fred as a very nice young man who would be likely to make a woman happy. Esther moved about the kitchen in her taciturn way, hardly answering. Suddenly she told Mrs. Humphries that she had been to Dulwich with him, and that it was wonderful how he and Jackie had taken to one another.

"You don’t say so! Well, it is nice to find them religious folk less ’ard-’earted than they gets the name of.”

Mrs. Humphries was of opinion that henceforth Esther should give herself out as Jackie’s aunt. “None believes them stories, but they makes one seem more respectable like, and I’m sure Mr. Parsons will appreciate the attention." Esther did not answer, but she thought of what Mrs. Humphries had said. Perhaps it would be better if Jackie were to leave off calling her Mummie. Auntie! But no, she could not bear it. Fred must take her as she was or not at all. They seemed to understand each other; he was earning good money, 30s. a week. She was now going on for eight-and- twenty; if she was ever going to be married it was time to think about it.

"I don’t know how that dear soul will get on without me," she said one October morning as they jogged out of London by a slow train from St. Paul’s. Fred was taking her into Kent to see his people.

"How do you expect me to get on without you?"

Esther laughed.

“Trust you to manage somehow. There ain’t much fear of a man not looking after his little self.”

"But the old folk will want to know when. What shall I tell them?”

“This time next year; that’ll be soon enough. Perhaps you’ll get tired of me before then.”

"Say next spring, Esther.”

The train stopped.

"There’s father waiting for us in the spring cart. Father! He don’t hear us. He's gone a bit deaf of late years. Father!”

"Ah, so here you are. Train late.”

"This is Esther, father.”

They were going to spend the day at the farm-house, and Esther wondered what it would be like. She was going to be introduced to Fred’s sisters and to his brother. But these did not concern her much, her thoughts were set on Mrs. Parsons. Fred had spoken a great deal about his mother. When she had been told about Jackie she was of course very sorry; but when she had heard the whole of Esther’s story, she had said: "We are all born into temptation, and if your Esther has really repented and prayed to be forgiven, we must not say no to her." Nevertheless Esther was not quite easy in her mind, and half regretted that she had consented to see Fred’s people until he had made her his wife. But it was too late to think of such things. There was the farm-house. Fred had just pointed it out, and scenting his stable the old grey ascended the hill at a trot. He stopped before a little paling. Michaelmas daisies withered in the garden, and the Virginia creeper covered one side of the house with a crimson mantle. The old man said he would take the trap round to the stable, and Fred walked up the red-bricked pavement and lifted the latch. As they passed through the kitchen Fred introduced Esther to his two sisters, Mary and Lily. Both were busy cooking.

"Mother is in the parlour," said Mary; "she is waiting for you.”

By the window in a wide wooden arm-chair sat a large woman about sixty, dressed in black. She wore on either side of her long white face two corkscrew curls, which gave her a somewhat ridiculous appearance. But she ceased to be ridiculous or grotesque when she rose from her chair to greet her son. Her face beamed, and she held out her hands in a beautiful gesture of welcome.

“Oh, how do you do, dear Fred? I am that glad to see you! How good of you to come all this way! Come and sit down here.”

"Mother, this is Esther.”

“How do you do, Esther? It was good of you to come. I am glad to see you. Let me get you a chair. Take off your things, dear; come and sit down.”

She insisted on relieving Esther of her hat and jacket, and having laid them on the sofa she waddled across the room, drawing over two chairs.

"Come and sit down; you’ll tell me everything. I can’t get about much now, but I like to have my children round me. Take this chair, Esther." Then turning to Fred, “Tell me, Fred, how you’ve been getting on. Are you still living at Hackney?”

“Yes, mother; but when we’re married we’re going to have a cottage at Mortlake. Esther will like it better than Hackney. It is nearer the country.”

"Then you’ve not forgotten the country. Mortlake is on the river, I think. I hope you won’t find it too damp.”

“No, mother, there are some nice cottages there. I think we shall find that Mortlake suits us. There are many friends there, more than fifty meet together every Sunday. And there’s a lot of political work to be done there. I know that you’re against politics, but men can’t stand aside nowadays. Times change, mother.”

"So long as we have God in our hearts, my dear boy, all that we do is well. But you must want something after your journey. Fred, dear, knock at that door. Your sister Clara’s dressing there. Tell her to make haste.”

“All right, mother," cried a voice from behind the partition which separated the rooms, and a moment after the door opened and a young woman about thirty entered. She was better-looking than the other sisters, and the fashion of her skirt, and the worldly manner with which she kissed her brother and gave her hand to Esther, marked her off at once from the rest of her family. Clara was forewoman in a large millinery establishment. She spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday at the farm. To-day she had got away earlier, and, with the view to impressing Esther, she explained how this was.        .

Mrs. Parsons suggested a glass of currant wine, and Lily came in with a tray and glasses. Clara asked when dinner would be ready. Mary said she would have to wait, and Lily whispered, "In about half-an-hour.”

After dinner the old man said that they must be getting on with their work in the orchard. Esther said she would be glad to help, but as she was about to follow the others Mrs. Parsons detained her.

“You don’t mind staying with me a few minutes, do you, dear? I shan’t keep you long." She drew over a chair for Esther. “I shan’t perhaps see you again for some time; I am getting an old woman, and the Lord may be pleased to take me at any moment. I wanted to tell you, dear, that I put my trust in you. You will make a good wife to Fred, I feel sure, and he will make a good father to your child, and if God blesses you with other children he’ll treat your first no different than the others. He’s told me so, and my Fred is a man of his word. You were led into sin, but you’ve repented. We was all born into temptation, and we must trust to the Lord to lead us out lest we should dash our foot against a stone.”

"I was to blame, I don’t say I wasn’t, but — ”

"We won’t say no more about that. We’re all sinners, the best of us. You’re going to be my son’s wife; you’re therefore my daughter, and this house is your home whenever you please to come to see us. And I hope that that will be often. I like to have my children about me. I can’t get about much now, so they must come to me. It is very sad not to be able to go to meeting. I’ve not been to meeting since Christmas, but I can see them going there from the kitchen window, and how ’appy they look coming back from prayer. It is easy to see that they have been with God. The Salvationists come this way sometimes. They stopped in the lane to sing; I could not hear the words, but I could see by their faces that they was with God…. Now, I’ve told you all that was on my mind. I must not keep you; Fred is waiting.”

Esther kissed the old woman and went into the orchard. Fred was on a ladder shaking the branches, but he came down when he saw Esther, and Harry, his brother, took his place. Esther and Fred filled one basket, then, yielding to a mutual inclination, they wandered about the orchard, stopping on the little plank bridge. They hardly spoke at all, words seemed unnecessary; each felt happiness to be in the other’s presence. They heard the water trickling through the weeds, and as the light waned the sound of the falling apples grew more distinct. Then a breeze shivered among the tops of the apple trees, and the sered leaves were blown from the branches. The voices of the gatherers were heard crying that their baskets were full. They crossed the plank bridge, joking the lovers, who stood aside to let them pass. A red moon rose behind the hillside into a dark leaden sky.

When they entered the house they saw the old farmer, who had slipped in before them, sitting by his wife holding her hand, patting it in a curious old-time way, and the attitude of the old couple was so pregnant with significance that it fixed itself on Esther’s mind. It seemed to her that she had never seen anything so beautiful. So they had lived for forty years, faithful to each other to the end. She wondered if Fred would be sitting by her side holding her hand forty years hence.

The old man lighted a lantern and went round to the stable to get the trap out. They drove through the dark country, and village lights shone out of distant solitudes. A peasant came like a ghost out of the darkness; he stepped aside and called “Good-night!" which the old farmer answered somewhat gruffly, while Fred answered in a ringing cheery tone. Never had Esther spent so long and happy a day — a day so intimately in accord with the principles of her nature. Everything had combined to produce a strange exaltation of the spirit in her; and she listened to Fred more tenderly than she had done before.

The train rattled on through suburbs beginning far away in the country; rattled on through suburbs that thickened at every mile; rattled on through a brick entanglement; rattled over iron bridges, passed over deep streets, over endless lines of lights.

Fred bade Esther good-bye at the area gate. She had promised him that they should be married in the spring, and he went away with a light heart. She ran upstairs to tell her dear mistress of the happy day which her kindness had allowed her to spend in the country. Miss Rice laid the book she was reading on her knees and listened to Esther’s account of her pleasures as if they had been her own enjoyment.