The letters had come—nine costly letters, for which the postman hadbeen paid three and twopence, and Mr. Garth was forgetting his tea andtoast while he read his letters and laid them open one above the other,sometimes swaying his head slowly, sometimes screwing up his mouth ininward debate, but not forgetting to cut off a large red seal unbroken,which Letty snatched up like an eager terrier.
The talk among the rest went on unrestrainedly, for nothingdisturbed Caleb's absorption except shaking the table when he waswriting.
Two letters of the nine had been for Mary. After reading them, shehad passed them to her mother, and sat playing with her tea-spoonabsently, till with a sudden recollection she returned to her sewing,which she had kept on her lap during breakfast.
"Oh, don't sew, Mary!" said Ben, pulling her arm down. "Make me apeacock with this bread-crumb." He had been kneading a small mass forthe purpose.
"No, no, Mischief!" said Mary, good-humoredly, while she prickedhis hand lightly with her needle. "Try and mould it yourself: you haveseen me do it often enough. I must get this sewing done. It is forRosamond Vincy: she is to be married next week, and she can't bemarried without this handkerchief." Mary ended merrily, amused withthe last notion.
"Why can't she, Mary?" said Letty, seriously interested in thismystery, and pushing her head so close to her sister that Mary nowturned the threatening needle towards Letty's nose.
"Because this is one of a dozen, and without it there would only beeleven," said Mary, with a grave air of explanation, so that Letty sankback with a sense of knowledge.
"Have you made up your mind, my dear?" said Mrs. Garth, layingthe letters down.
"I shall go to the school at York," said Mary. "I am less unfit to teachin a school than in a family. I like to teach classes best. And, you see, Imust teach: there is nothing else to be done."
"Teaching seems to me the most delightful work in the world," saidMrs. Garth, with a touch of rebuke in her tone. "I could understand yourobjection to it if you had not knowledge enough, Mary, or if you dislikedchildren."
"I suppose we never quite understand why another dislikes what welike, mother," said Mary, rather curtly. "I am not fond of a schoolroom: Ilike the outside world better. It is a very inconvenient fault of mine."
"It must be very stupid to be always in a girls' school," said Alfred."Such a set of nincompoops, like Mrs. Ballard's pupils walking two andtwo."
"And they have no games worth playing at," said Jim. "They canneither throw nor leap. I don't wonder at Mary's not liking it."
"What is that Mary doesn't like, eh?" said the father, looking over hisspectacles and pausing before he opened his next letter.
"Being among a lot of nincompoop girls," said Alfred.
"Is it the situation you had heard of, Mary?" said Caleb, gently,looking at his daughter.
"Yes, father: the school at York. I have determined to take it. It isquite the best. Thirty-five pounds a-year, and extra pay for teaching thesmallest strummers at the piano."
"Poor child! I wish she could stay at home with us, Susan," saidCaleb, looking plaintively at his wife.
"Mary would not be happy without doing her duty," said Mrs. Garth,magisterially, conscious of having done her own.
"It wouldn't make me happy to do such a nasty duty as that," saidAlfred—at which Mary and her father laughed silently, but Mrs. Garthsaid, gravely—
"Do find a fitter word than nasty, my dear Alfred, for everything thatyou think disagreeable. And suppose that Mary could help you to go toMr. Hanmer's with the money she gets?"
"That seems to me a great shame. But she's an old brick," said Alfred,rising from his chair, and pulling Mary's head backward to kiss her.
Mary colored and laughed, but could not conceal that the tears werecoming. Caleb, looking on over his spectacles, with the angles of hiseyebrows falling, had an expression of mingled delight and sorrow as hereturned to the opening of his letter; and even Mrs. Garth, her lipscurling with a calm contentment, allowed that inappropriate language topass without correction, although Ben immediately took it up, and sang,"She's an old brick, old brick, old brick!" to a cantering measure, whichhe beat out with his fist on Mary's arm.
But Mrs. Garth's eyes were now drawn towards her husband, whowas already deep in the letter he was reading. His face had an expressionof grave surprise, which alarmed her a little, but he did not like to bequestioned while he was reading, and she remained anxiously watchingtill she saw him suddenly shaken by a little joyous laugh as he turnedback to the beginning of the letter, and looking at her above hisspectacles, said, in a low tone, "What do you think, Susan?"
She went and stood behind him, putting her hand on his shoulder,while they read the letter together. It was from Sir James Chettam,offering to Mr. Garth the management of the family estates at Freshittand elsewhere, and adding that Sir James had been requested by Mr.Brooke of Tipton to ascertain whether Mr. Garth would be disposed atthe same time to resume the agency of the Tipton property. The Baronetadded in very obliging words that he himself was particularly desirous ofseeing the Freshitt and Tipton estates under the same management, andhe hoped to be able to show that the double agency might be held onterms agreeable to Mr. Garth, whom he would be glad to see at the Hallat twelve o'clock on the following day.
"He writes handsomely, doesn't he, Susan?" said Caleb, turning hiseyes upward to his wife, who raised her hand from his shoulder to hisear, while she rested her chin on his head. "Brooke didn't like to ask mehimself, I can see," he continued, laughing silently.
"Here is an honor to your father, children," said Mrs. Garth, lookinground at the five pair of eyes, all fixed on the parents. "He is asked totake a post again by those who dismissed him long ago. That shows thathe did his work well, so that they feel the want of him."
"Like Cincinnatus—hooray!" said Ben, riding on his chair, with apleasant confidence that discipline was relaxed.
"Will they come to fetch him, mother?" said Letty, thinking of theMayor and Corporation in their robes.
Mrs. Garth patted Letty's head and smiled, but seeing that herhusband was gathering up his letters and likely soon to be out of reachin that sanctuary "business," she pressed his shoulder and saidemphatically—
"Now, mind you ask fair pay, Caleb."
"Oh yes," said Caleb, in a deep voice of assent, as if it would beunreasonable to suppose anything else of him. "It'll come to between fourand five hundred, the two together." Then with a little start ofremembrance he said, "Mary, write and give up that school. Stay andhelp your mother. I'm as pleased as Punch, now I've thought of that."
No manner could have been less like that of Punch triumphant thanCaleb's, but his talents did not lie in finding phrases, though he was veryparticular about his letter-writing, and regarded his wife as a treasury ofcorrect language.
There was almost an uproar among the children now, and Mary heldup the cambric embroidery towards her mother entreatingly, that itmight be put out of reach while the boys dragged her into a dance. Mrs.Garth, in placid joy, began to put the cups and plates together, whileCaleb pushing his chair from the table, as if he were going to move to thedesk, still sat holding his letters in his hand and looking on the groundmeditatively, stretching out the fingers of his left hand, according to amute language of his own. At last he said—
"It's a thousand pities Christy didn't take to business, Susan. I shallwant help by-and-by. And Alfred must go off to the engineering—I'vemade up my mind to that." He fell into meditation and finger-rhetoricagain for a little while, and then continued: "I shall make Brooke havenew agreements with the tenants, and I shall draw up a rotation ofcrops. And I'll lay a wager we can get fine bricks out of the clay at Bott'scorner. I must look into that: it would cheapen the repairs. It's a fine bitof work, Susan! A man without a family would be glad to do it fornothing."
"Mind you don't, though," said his wife, lifting up her finger.
"No, no; but it's a fine thing to come to a man when he's seen intothe nature of business: to have the chance of getting a bit of the countryinto good fettle, as they say, and putting men into the right way withtheir farming, and getting a bit of good contriving and solid buildingdone—that those who are living and those who come after will be thebetter for. I'd sooner have it than a fortune. I hold it the most honorablework that is." Here Caleb laid down his letters, thrust his fingersbetween the buttons of his waistcoat, and sat upright, but presentlyproceeded with some awe in his voice and moving his head slowlyaside—"It's a great gift of God, Susan."
"That it is, Caleb," said his wife, with answering fervor. "And it willbe a blessing to your children to have had a father who did such work: afather whose good work remains though his name may be forgotten." Shecould not say any more to him then about the pay.
In the evening, when Caleb, rather tired with his day's work, wasseated in silence with his pocket-book open on his knee, while Mrs.Garth and Mary were at their sewing, and Letty in a corner waswhispering a dialogue with her doll, Mr. Farebrother came up theorchard walk, dividing the bright August lights and shadows with thetufted grass and the apple-tree boughs. We know that he was fond of hisparishioners the Garths, and had thought Mary worth mentioning toLydgate. He used to the full the clergyman's privilege of disregarding theMiddlemarch discrimination of ranks, and always told his mother thatMrs. Garth was more of a lady than any matron in the town. Still, yousee, he spent his evenings at the Vincys', where the matron, though lessof a lady, presided over a well-lit drawing-room and whist. In those dayshuman intercourse was not determined solely by respect. But the Vicardid heartily respect the Garths, and a visit from him was no surprise tothat family. Nevertheless he accounted for it even while he was shakinghands, by saying, "I come as an envoy, Mrs. Garth: I have something tosay to you and Garth on behalf of Fred Vincy. The fact is, poor fellow,"he continued, as he seated himself and looked round with his brightglance at the three who were listening to him, "he has taken me into hisconfidence."
Mary's heart beat rather quickly: she wondered how far Fred'sconfidence had gone.
"We haven't seen the lad for months," said Caleb. "I couldn't thinkwhat was become of him."
"He has been away on a visit," said the Vicar, "because home was alittle too hot for him, and Lydgate told his mother that the poor fellowmust not begin to study yet. But yesterday he came and poured himselfout to me. I am very glad he did, because I have seen him grow up froma youngster of fourteen, and I am so much at home in the house that thechildren are like nephews and nieces to me. But it is a difficult case toadvise upon. However, he has asked me to come and tell you that he isgoing away, and that he is so miserable about his debt to you, and hisinability to pay, that he can't bear to come himself even to bid you goodby."
"Tell him it doesn't signify a farthing," said Caleb, waving his hand."We've had the pinch and have got over it. And now I'm going to be asrich as a Jew."
"Which means," said Mrs. Garth, smiling at the Vicar, "that we aregoing to have enough to bring up the boys well and to keep Mary athome."
"What is the treasure-trove?" said Mr. Farebrother.
"I'm going to be agent for two estates, Freshitt and Tipton; andperhaps for a pretty little bit of land in Lowick besides: it's all the samefamily connection, and employment spreads like water if it's once setgoing. It makes me very happy, Mr. Farebrother"—here Caleb threw backhis head a little, and spread his arms on the elbows of his chair—"thatI've got an opportunity again with the letting of the land, and carryingout a notion or two with improvements. It's a most uncommonlycramping thing, as I've often told Susan, to sit on horseback and lookover the hedges at the wrong thing, and not be able to put your hand toit to make it right. What people do who go into politics I can't think: itdrives me almost mad to see mismanagement over only a few hundredacres."
It was seldom that Caleb volunteered so long a speech, but hishappiness had the effect of mountain air: his eyes were bright, and thewords came without effort.
"I congratulate you heartily, Garth," said the Vicar. "This is the bestsort of news I could have had to carry to Fred Vincy, for he dwelt a gooddeal on the injury he had done you in causing you to part with money—robbing you of it, he said—which you wanted for other purposes. I wishFred were not such an idle dog; he has some very good points, and hisfather is a little hard upon him."
"Where is he going?" said Mrs. Garth, rather coldly.
"He means to try again for his degree, and he is going up to studybefore term. I have advised him to do that. I don't urge him to enter theChurch—on the contrary. But if he will go and work so as to pass, thatwill be some guarantee that he has energy and a will; and he is quite atsea; he doesn't know what else to do. So far he will please his father, andI have promised in the mean time to try and reconcile Vincy to his son'sadopting some other line of life. Fred says frankly he is not fit for aclergyman, and I would do anything I could to hinder a man from thefatal step of choosing the wrong profession. He quoted to me what yousaid, Miss Garth—do you remember it?" (Mr. Farebrother used to say"Mary" instead of "Miss Garth," but it was part of his delicacy to treather with the more deference because, according to Mrs. Vincy's phrase,she worked for her bread.)
Mary felt uncomfortable, but, determined to take the matter lightly,answered at once, "I have said so many impertinent things to Fred—weare such old playfellows."
