“Oh, before I was born! Does that tell you anything about her conduct to me? Once I was not, but now I am; and somebody quite distinct from other people.”
“Very distinct!” Captain Morgan said.
“Then what does she mean by it?” cried Hester. “She cannot endure the sight of me. Oh, I know she is not paltry in one way. She does not care about money, as some people do; but she is in another. Why should she care about what I wear? Did you ever hear anything about my father?” the girl said, raising her eyes suddenly, and looking him full in the face. The old captain was so taken by surprise that he fell back a step and almost dropped her arm in his dismay.
“About your father!”
“About him and Catherine Vernon—and how it was he went away? He had as good a right to the bank as she had, had he not? I have not thought much about it; but I should like to know,” said Hester with more composure, “how it was that she had it and not papa?”
“That was all before my time,” said Captain Morgan, who had recovered himself in the interval. “I did not come here, you know, till after. And then it is not as if I had been a Vernon to understand all the circumstances. I was not of the family, you know.”
“That is true,” said Hester thoughtfully, and she suffered herself to be led into safer subjects without any serious attempt to return to a question so unanswerable; while Captain Morgan on his side was too much alarmed by the possibility of having to explain to her the steps which had led to her father’s expatriation to inquire any more into the “muddles” which he had read in her countenance. And thus they made their way home together without any mutual satisfaction. The captain was obliged to own to his wife afterwards that he had given Hester no aid or good advice.
“She asked me about her father: and was I going to be so brutal as to tell the poor child what has always been concealed from her?”
“Concealments are never good,” Mrs. Morgan said, shaking her head. “It would be better for her to know.” But the captain had an easy victory when he said “Should you like to be the one to tell her?” with defiance in his voice.
Thus the time went on for Catherine Vernon’s great Christmas party, to which all Redborough was asked. It was not till the day before that Hester was bold enough to declare her intention not to go. “You must not be angry, mamma. What should I go for? It is no pleasure. The moment I am in Catherine Vernon’s house I am all wrong. I feel like a beggar, a poor relation, a dependent upon her charity; and she has no charity for me. Don’t make me go.”
“Oh Hester, my darling,” said Mrs. John. “It would never, never do to stay away, when everybody is there! And you her relation, that ought to wish to do her what honour you can.”
“Why should I wish to do her honour? She has never been kind to us. She has never treated you as she ought to have done. She has never behaved to us as a relation should, or even as a gentlewoman should.”
“Oh hush! Hester, hush!” said Mrs. John. “You don’t know what you are speaking of. If you knew all, you would know that Catherine has behaved to us—better than we had any right to expect.”
“Then let me know all, mother,” said Hester, sitting upright, her eyes shining, her whole face full of inquiry. “I have felt lately that there must be something which was concealed from me. Let me know all.”
Then Mrs. John faltered and explained. “There is nothing for you to know. Dear, dear, you are so literal. You take everything one says to you, Hester, as if one meant it. There are just things that one says—When I said if you knew all, I meant—if you were to consider properly, if you saw things in a just light—”
“I think you mean something more than that,” Hester said.
“What should I mean more? We had no claims upon her. Your poor father had got his share. He had not perhaps been very prudent with it, but I never understand anything about business. He got his share, all that he had any right to expect. Catherine might have said that, when we came back so poor; but she did not. Hester, you have forgotten what she has done for us. Oh, my dear, if you knew all! No, I don’t mean that there is anything to know—but just if you would think—Hester, you must not insult Catherine in the sight of all Redborough by refusing to go to her party. You must not, indeed you must not. If you do, you will break my heart.”
“What I do is of no importance to Catherine Vernon. Oh, mother, do not make me go. It is more than I can bear.”
“But you are of importance, and she would feel it deeply. Oh, Hester, for my sake!” Mrs. John cried with tears in her eyes. She would not be turned away from the subject or postpone it. Her daughter had never seen her so deeply in earnest, so intent upon having her way, before. On previous occasions it had been Hester that had won the day. But this time the girl had to give way to the impassioned earnestness of her mother, which in so mild a woman was strange to see.
XXX
The Party at the Grange
Catherine’s Christmas party called forth all Redborough. It was an assembly to which the best people in the place considered themselves bound to go, notwithstanding that many of the small people were there also. Everybody indeed was supposed to come, and all classes were represented. The respectable
