In the early part of March, Samuel Lynn and William departed on their journey to France. And the first thought that occurred to Patience afterwards was one that is apt to occur to many on the absence of the master—that of instituting a thorough of the house, from garret to cellar; or, as Anna expressed it, "turning the house inside out." She knew Patience did not like her wild phrases, and therefore she used them.
Patience was parting with Grace—the servant who had been with them so many years. Grace had resolved to get married. In vain Patience assured her that marriage, generally speaking, was found to be nothing better than a bed of thorns. Grace would not listen. Others had risked the thorns before her, and she thought she must try her chance with the rest. Patience had no resource but to fall in with the decision, and to look out for another servant. It appeared that she could not readily find one; at least, one whom she would venture to engage. She was unusually particular; and while she waited and looked out, she engaged Hester Dell, a member of her own , to come in temporarily. Hester lived with her mother, not far off, chiefly supporting herself by doing fine needlework at her own, or at the Friends' houses. She readily consented to take up her with Patience for a month or so, to help with the housework, and looked upon it as a sort of holiday.
"It's of no use to begin the house until Grace shall be gone," observed Patience to Anna. "She'd likely be scrubbing the paper on the walls, instead of the paint, for her head is turned just now."
"What fun, if she should!" ejaculated Anna.
"Fun for thee, perhaps, who art ignorant of cost and labour," Patience. "I shall wait until Grace has departed. The day that she goes, Hester comes in; and I shall have the house begun the day following."
"Couldn't thee have it begun the same day?" asked Anna.
"Will thee attend to thy stitching?" returned Patience sharply. "Thy father's wristbands will not be done the better for thy nonsense."
"Shall I be turned out of my bedroom?" resumed Anna.
"For a night, perchance. Thee canst go into thy father's. But the top of the house will be done first."
"Is the roof to be scrubbed?" went on Anna. "I don't know how Hester will hold on while she does it."
"Thee art in one of thy humours this morning," responded Patience. "Art thee going to set me at now thy father's back is turned?"
"Who said anything about setting thee at defiance?" asked Anna. "I should like to see Hester scrubbing the roof!"
"Thee hadst better behave thyself, Anna," was the retort of Patience. And Anna, in her lighthearted , burst into a merry laugh.
Grace departed, and Hester came in: a quiet little body, of forty years, with dark hair and teeth. Patience, as good as her word, was up betimes the following morning, and had the house up betimes, to institute the ceremony. Their house contained the same accommodation as Mrs. Halliburton's, with this addition—that the garret in the Quaker's had been partitioned off into two . Patience slept in one; Grace had occupied the other. The three bedrooms on the floor beneath were used, one by Mr. Lynn, one by Anna; the other was kept as a spare room, for any chance visitor; the "best room" it was usually called. The house belonged to Mr. Lynn. , both houses had belonged to him; but at the time of his loss he had sold the other to Mr. Ashley.
The ablutions were in full play. Hester, with a pail, mop, scrubbing-brush, and other essentials, was ensconced in the top chambers; Anna, ostensibly at her wristband stitching (but the work did not get on very fast), was singing to herself in an undertone in one of the parlours, the door safely shut; while Patience was exercising a general superintendence, giving an eye everywhere. Suddenly there echoed a loud noise, as of a fall, and a scream throughout the house. It appeared to come from what they usually called the bedroom floor. Anna flew up the stairs, and Hester Dell flew down the upper ones. At the foot of the garret stairs, her head against the door of Anna's , lay Patience and a heavy bed-pole. In attempting to carry the pole down from her room, she had somehow overbalanced herself, and fallen heavily.
"Is the house coming down?" Anna was beginning to say. But she stopped in when she saw Patience. Hester attempted to pick her up.
"Thee cannot raise me, Hester. Anna, child, thee must not attempt to touch me. I fear my leg is br——"
Her voice died away, her eyes closed, and a , as of death, overspread her . Anna, more terrified than she had ever been in her life, flew round to Mrs. Halliburton's.
Dobbs, from her kitchen, saw her coming—saw the young face streaming with tears, heard the short cries of alarm—and Dobbs stepped out.
"Why, what on earth's the matter now?" asked she.
Anna seized Dobbs, and clung to her; partly that to do so seemed some protection in her great terror. "Oh, Dobbs, come in to Patience!" she cried. "I think she's dying."
The voice reached the ears of Jane. She came from the parlour. Dobbs was then running in to Samuel Lynn's, and Jane ran also, understanding nothing.
Patience was reviving when they entered. All her cry was, that they must not move her. One of her legs was in some manner doubled under her, and doubled over the pole. Jane felt a conviction that it was broken.
"Who can run fastest?" she asked. "We must have Mr. Parry here."
Hester waited for no further instruction. She caught up her fawn-coloured Quaker shawl and grey , and was off, putting them on as she ran. Anna, wildly, turned and hid her face on Jane, as one who wants to be comforted. Then, her mood changing, she threw herself down beside Patience, the tears from her own eyes falling on Patience's face.
"Patience, dear Patience, canst thee forgive me? I have been wilful and naughty, but I never meant to cross thee really. I did it only to tease thee; but I loved thee all the while."
Patience, suffering as she was, drew down the face to kiss it . "I know it, dear child; I know thee. Don't thee thyself for me."
Mr. Parry came, and Patience was carried into the spare room. Her leg was broken, and badly broken; the surgeon called it a compound fracture.
So there was an end to the grand cleansing scheme for a long time to come! Patience lay in sickness and pain, and Hester had to make her her first care. Anna's spirits revived in a day or two. Mr. Parry said a cure would be effected in time; that the worst of the business was the long for Patience; and Anna forgot her dutiful fit of . Patience would be well again, would be about as before; and, as to the present confinement, Anna rather grew to look upon it as the interposition of some good fairy, who must have taken her own liberty under its special protection.
Whether Anna would have succeeded in the vigilance of Patience up cannot be told; she certainly did that of Patience down. Anna had told Herbert Dare that he was not to pay a visit to Atterly's field again, or expect her to pay one; but Herbert Dare was about the last person to obey such advice. Had William Halliburton remained to be—as Herbert termed it—a spy, there's no doubt that Herbert would have striven to set his vigilance at defiance: with William's absence, the field, both and figuratively, was open to him. In the absence of Samuel Lynn, it was doubly open. Herbert Dare knew well that if the Quaker once gained the slightest inkling of his secret acquaintance with Anna, it would effectually be put a stop to. To wear a cloak resembling William Halliburton's, on his visits to the field, had been the result of a bright idea. It had suddenly occurred to Mr. Herbert that if the Quaker's lynx eyes did by mischance catch sight of the cloak, some fine night at the back of his residence, they would accord it no p............