Keeping up Appearances CHAPTER 19.
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The condition of Mrs. Laurie and her daughter was now felt by them to be truly appalling. Annetta did not resume her work, for it seemed like a mockery of their necessities to do so. What was the poor pittance of twelve or sixteen shillings a week, that she could earn by the most unremitting application! It was but a drop in the bucket. Mrs. Laurie went to bed, sick, and did not rise again until the next morning.
On the day following the one upon which the mother and daughter had experienced such a bitter realization of their hopeless condition, Annetta again sat down to her work, impelled by a sense of duty. Her reason told her that, no matter how small the sum she could earn, it was something, and might be to them, in an extremity worse than any yet experienced, of great importance.
Another day of suffering had nearly reached its close, when a letter was left at the door for Mrs. Laurie. On breaking the seal, she found that it was from her landlord. It contained a receipt for five months' rent, dating from the commencement of the current quarter, which was nearly up, and the following note:
"Madam: A friend, who desires to be unknown, has paid your rent as far as two months beyond your present quarter, at which time I have agreed with him that you shall give up the house. On or before that time, I will expect to receive the key. Yours, etc."
Mrs. Laurie, after reading this note, handed it to Annetta without speaking, and then leaned her head upon her hand, and sat silent and almost motionless.
"Heaven-sent aid!" ejaculated Annetta, as soon as she comprehended what was in it. "May we not prove ungrateful for the blessing!" And she, too, leaned upon her hand, while tears, that had in them less of bitterness than any she had wept for a long time, came gushing over her cheeks. Neither Mrs. Laurie nor her daughter ever knew to whom they were indebted for this timely assistance. It came, as the reader has no doubt conjectured, from Mr. Lewis.
A few days after this, Mrs. Morton called to see them again, and now they opened all their hearts to her, and found her, not only a kind and sympathizing friend — but a judicious adviser. Particularly was Annetta strengthened in her better feelings by frequent conversations with Mrs. Morton, and led to comprehend, in some small degree, that from evenreverses and disappointments of the most distressing kind — some good may come.
A month before the time for which their rent had been paid, Mrs. Laurie rented a part of a house at forty pounds' rent, and after furnishing it plainly but comfortably, guided in this more by Mrs. Morton's advice than her own judgment, all that remained of her household goods was advertised to be sold, by auction, on the premises. The result of this sale exceeded even the best hopes of those for whose benefit it was made. Three hundred pounds were paid into the widow's hand by the auctioneer, a sum that was sufficient, with what Annetta could earn, to support them for two years, if dispensed with prudence.
It need not be said, that both Annetta and her mother were less unhappy under such circumstances of reality, than when struggling in the almost hopeless effort to keep up appearances. Still, the pain and disappointment of Annetta were severe. She had, amid all her efforts to deceive Mr. Lewis, and all her anxiety to become his wife, in order to be saved from poverty and a low condition, had for him a real affection, which still remained, although she no longer permitted herself to indulge even the feeblest hope of ever being more to him than a stranger.
One day, some months after they had moved into their more humble and obscure abode, Mrs. Morton, who seemed to take a good deal of interest in Annetta, and frequently invited her to her house, called to see them. She found Annetta as usual, patiently at work with her needle. After sitting for a short time, she said —
"Do you think yourself capable of giving instructions in Spanish and French, Annetta?"
"If I had a little time to brush away the dust from my memory, and make all that I have learned, bright again — I think I could do so very well. But why do you ask?"
"Because I can secure you a most excellent place in one of the best schools in the city, at a salary of one hundred and twenty pounds a year."
Mrs. Laurie shook her head. "The exposure of going into a school, Mrs. Morton, think of that."
"I hardly think I would like it," said Annetta, thoughtfully. "I would be fixed in a low position at once. Everybody would know me as simply Miss Laurie, the French teacher, and there I would be all my life."
"Yes, that's it, Mrs. Morton. That's just what I mean," remarked Mrs. Laurie, earnestly. "We have enough to live on for a couple of years, and something better for Annetta may turn up in that time. I think we had better wait. It will be time enough for this, if it must come, in twelve or eighteen months from now."
"What better can turn up?" asked Mrs. Morton. "One hundred and twenty pounds a year is a large salary for a young woman, and one that is not to be obtained every day."
"Oh! I don't mean that! You know what I mean," returned Mrs. Laurie, with a simpering smile, that conveyed her meaning to Mrs. Morton, at the same time that it displeased and half disgusted her.
"Just as you like," she said. "I only proposed the thing for Annetta's good as well as your own. She will destroy her health in a year or two in the way she is now going on, and then be unfit for a situation like this, even if one should offer, which is not an every-day occurrence. There will be twenty applications for the one I speak of, in a week."
"Where is it?" asked Annetta.
"At Mrs. Bolmero's," returned Mrs. Morton.
"Why, I thought Lucy Hartman was there?" said Annetta, quickly.
"So she is, but she is going to leave in a few days."
"Why?"
"She is to be married."
"Indeed! To one of the teachers in the school, I suppose," said Mrs. Laurie, in a voice of disparagement.
"No, to a young merchant."
"She?" Mrs. Laurie made this interrogation with a countenance of sincere surprise.
"Yes," was the simple response of Mrs. Morton.
"Who is it?" asked Annetta, with a sudden tremulousness of voice.
"His name is Arthur Lewis," said Mrs. Morton, quietly.
Annetta's face became instantly pale, and then covered with a deep crimson, which she sought to hide. No word was spoken for some time. At length Mrs. Laurie said —
"Can we have until tomorrow morning to think about this matter?"
"Oh, certainly. Tomorrow I will see you again," replied Mrs. Morton. "In the meantime, I trust you will be able to see that the only right way for you or anyone else, is to do what is right now. When this is done, the future will take care of itself."
It need hardly be said, that when Mrs. Morton saw them on the next day, there was no hesitation about accepting the situation at Mrs. Bolmero's school.
The sequel to all this is told in a few words. Lucy Hartman became the wife of Arthur Lewis, and Annetta took her place at Mrs. Bolmero's. The trials through which the latter had passed, in her efforts to keep up appearances, and the lessons that had been learned amid these trials, were of great use to her, in giving her higher and better views of life. Mrs. Morton continued to take a friendly interest in her, and encouraged her to visit at her house whenever she could do so.
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