Chapter 3 Mrs. Murray

"OH, I say, you girls have no idea what a great place ours is! I had to go all over it this morning, and Jack came to show me the way."

This was Arthur's greeting when he walked into the dining-room after his second day's work.

Annie looked up from her sewing to listen, while Molly said, "Tell us all about it. I am glad it is not just an ordinary shop."

"Oh, well, everybody knows Bradings are in a big way of business, but I never thought there were so many shops and factories. Why, the buildings down both the side streets and along the road behind the London Road all belong to Mr. Brading, and I have to be postman and deliver the letters every morning. It is jolly fun, I can tell you, with Jack to help me, and he is coming every morning for the first week, for fear I should lose my way in some of the passages and warehouses."

"But why can't the postman deliver the letters himself?" asked Molly, when her brother paused.

He shook his head. "I know nothing about that. All I know is that a private letter-bag is brought from the post office every morning, and Mr. Bristow told me when I went in, that it would be my duty to take charge of this and deliver the letters in the different departments. I was just wondering how I was to know where to find the places when Jack Brading rushed in.

"'I'm coming to help you with the letters, old fellow,' he said, slipping off his coat and turning to do the polite to old Bristow, as he told me afterwards, because Bristow is my chief, you see, and he might cut up rough even with Jack if he thought we were up to larks with the letters.

"Jack showed me how to sort them first. There was a stack, I tell you. Every department has a bag of its own, except the accountant's and those addressed to Mr. Brading personally. Those for our department I hand to Mr. Bristow as soon as I have got them all together, and Mr. Brading's, I take to his room, which is next to our offices; and then when all the other bags are ready, I sling them over my shoulder and start off on my round. Jack insisted upon carrying half the bags for me this morning, and in every department, he introduced me to its chief manager as 'Mr. Murray, our assistant-accountant.'

"There was no larking about Jack while he was doing this, I can tell you," said Arthur impressively. "But as we got through the place well within the time allowed, we turned into the gymnasium and let off steam for five minutes. Mr. Brading allows this to the youngest of the crowd, and it proves that he knows what he is about, and how he can get the best work out of a fellow. It took us nearly an hour before we gave up the last bag in the furniture warehouse, and as the clock was striking, I went up to my desk and Jack ran off to school."

"How late he would be!" put in Molly.

"Yes, but Mr. Brading had arranged it all with Dr. Robinson, and so Jack would only miss one of his classes, and there would be no time wasted in taking excuses to the doctor. Mr. Brading believes that time is money, even a school-boy's time."

"Hannah ought to go there and take a lesson," commented Annie.

"What time do you think we had our one-o'clock dinner to-day?" said Molly, laughing. "It was just half-past two by the dining-room clock, and when Annie told her of it she said, 'Time was of no consequence here'!"

"It never was to us, according to old Hannah. A good thing for me I don't have to come home to dinner, or I should have to live on bread and cheese half the week, I suppose."

"No, you wouldn't," said Molly promptly. "If Hannah would not begin to get the dinner ready in good time, I would go to the kitchen and get it myself. I know enough about cooking now to do most things, for I like to learn and Hannah likes to teach me. So if you wish to come home to dinner, only say what time you want it, and I will have it on the table all ready."

Annie laughed. "How bravely we talk!" she said. "But I should not like to face old Hannah on such an errand."

"Well, I'd manage it somehow if Arthur had to come home to his dinner," protested Molly.

"Well, I am glad I'm not at Hannah's tender mercies now, as I was when I went to school. But I should like some pudding for supper; we don't get pudding every day, and I miss that. So you might make me a pudding sometimes, Molly, or save me a piece from dinner to be warmed up in the oven. It won't matter so much what time that is ready, as I have only to go to bed afterwards."

"But it does matter," said Molly quickly. "I told Hannah to-day that she must have the supper ready for us at nine o'clock, or else it is late before you can get to bed, and I was reading in a book—"

But Arthur would not listen to what she had read.

And Annie laughed and said, "Listen to the old lady!"

"Never mind, Molly," said Arthur. "'Life is real, life is earnest', and we are beginning to find it out, you and I. We can't all indulge in Persian cats and—"

"Don't, Arthur," said his elder sister reprovingly. "You forget Mamma is an invalid, and can only interest herself in small things. Go up and see her now before Hannah serves her dinner." For the patient always insisted upon a hot dinner being carried to her room at eight o'clock.

"Have you told her that I have got a post yet?" asked Arthur.

"No, I have not had an opportunity," replied Annie, with something like a sigh, as she recalled the several efforts she had made to introduce the matter, and how each time, as if guessing that her daughter wished to say something that might prove unpleasant, Mrs. Murray had lifted up her hand as to ward off a blow, and had said plaintively:

"Don't tell me anything that isn't nice to-day, for my nerves are so shaken I could not bear it."

Annie told Arthur something of this now, by way of warning not to say anything that would disturb the invalid just as she was about to have her dinner, for it would inevitably spoil her appetite.

"All right!" said Arthur, as he went upstairs wondering when his mother could be told of the great step he had taken.

"Don't make a noise, Arthur," murmured the invalid in a feeble, complaining tone. "I am afraid I cannot bear you talking to me to-night," she added the next minute.

So Arthur pulled Tuffy's tail, and talked to Bob, and felt quite relieved when Hannah brought in the tray, and his daily visit was over, for he was afraid he should forget his sister's warning and break out with something he had seen or heard during the day. He did not want to do this until Annie had broken the news to her gently.

"I say, Annie, tell the Mater what I have done, and get it over," he said when he went downstairs.

"I wish I could, but you do not know how weak Mamma is getting."

Arthur went to the kitchen in search of Molly. "It is a beastly nuisance! I can't open my mouth to the Mater for fear of making her faint," he said hotly.

"But what are we to do? You know she never could bear anything disagreeable. It always made her ill, and we have always had to be careful and keep everything from her that was likely to disturb her. Papa said one day it would kill her if she knew about his money."

"Well, it seems as though we had all been a set of ostriches in this house, and stuck our heads in the sand instead of facing the difficulties. Papa did it, I know. It might have been to save Mamma, or it might have been to save himself trouble, we cannot tell; but we youngsters are not likely to find things easy. So the sooner we make up our minds to do the thing we ought, whether it is easy or hard, the better it will be for everybody concerned."

Molly looked at him questioningly. "Won't you tell me what you mean, Arthur? Is this why you were in such a hurry to get a situation?"

"Partly. Of course Papa's death compelling us to give up our old home and all our property set me thinking, and then I heard a few things from the fellows at school."

"What things?" demanded Molly angrily.

"Oh, nothing much!" said Arthur. And then, to turn the conversation, he said, "Are you cooking that for me, Molly?"

"Yes, dear. We did not have any pudding for dinner to-day, so I am making you an omelette with plenty of eggs."

"Don't let it cost much, Molly, because I know somehow that we cannot afford it."

"But—but what is it? Why are we so poor as you make out?" asked his sister in a perplexed tone. "We gave up everything when Papa died, and—"

"Yes, it seems we were obliged to do it. The same thing would have happened if Papa had lived, I have heard."

"But why should it?" demanded Molly in an imperative tone. "Everybody knows we are one of the oldest county families, and—"

"Yes, but look here, Moll; it isn't enough to be an old county family in these days. Everybody has to put his shoulder to the wheel and do something, and our folks have just been content to sit down and eat up the land, instead of trying to improve it, or wait for something to turn up, as Annie wanted me to do. That sort of thing is played out, and it would have been a good deal better for us if somebody had told Papa the truth about things as they told me."

"Who told you?" asked Molly.

"One of our fellows at school, and I gave him a black eye for it, for he said my father wasn't honest, living as he did."

"Arthur, how dare anybody say such a thing of dear Papa! I am sure he was a perfect gentleman," exclaimed Molly, flaming with wrath.

"Yes, but he hated trouble, and would never bother his head about business, and everything was in a muddle when his father died, and the muddle got worse, of course, as time went on and more money was wanted, and things were never put straight."

"How did you find out all about this?" asked his sister.

"Partly from Papa himself. I asked him one day, about a year ago, if I could not go to Eton with a fellow who was going just then, and he said he should like to send me, but he could not afford it, we were 'as poor as church mice'. Then I had that quarrel with Strangeways, and he told me Papa was no better than a swindler, living as we did and never paying our debts. Of course I didn't believe that, but I kept my eyes and ears open from that time, and I can pretty well make out that Strangeways didn't tell much of a lie after all. Now you can understand, Molly, why I wanted to earn some money as soon as I could. And—and we must try to pay for everything we have, for it is dishonest, I can see, to eat and drink things we cannot afford to pay for."

Molly heaved a sigh. "Does Annie know about this?" she asked.

"No, not a word, and I did not mean to tell you until I was obliged. But you had better try and remember when Mamma wants sole for those cats!"

"What are you saying about the cats, Master Arthur?" said Hannah, bustling into the kitchen at this moment. "What mess is this, Miss Molly?" she demanded, turning to the frying-pan on the fire.

"Oh, dear! I hope it isn't spoiled. I was making an omelette for Arthur's supper, only I forgot all about it while I was talking to—"

"Wasting my eggs in this fashion!" snorted Hannah.

"They won't be wasted. I can eat it, Hannah," said Arthur.

"Eat it, then," she said, turning the half-cooked omelette out upon a plate.

Arthur carried it to the dining-room, where supper was laid. "It's just as good, Moll, as though Hannah had roasted herself over the fire at it," said Arthur good-naturedly.

A few days later, as Arthur was returning home in the evening, he met Hannah a short distance from their own gate. "I've come out without the front-door key, Mr. Arthur, but you won't mind coming round the kitchen way with me, will you, for I want to speak to you."

"All right, Hannah! fire away. Has Molly been making any more omelettes for supper?"

"No, sir; if it was nothing worse than that it wouldn't matter, but that old Andrews has been here to-day at his old tricks. I can't abide that man. He never came to see your poor papa but he upset him, and now he's begun on the young ladies. I wish I'd had my dish-cloth handy when he went out and I'd ha' pinned it to his tail; coming here interfering! I wish I was his wife, I'd let him know," concluded Hannah as she led the way into the kitchen.

"But what was it he came about?" asked Arthur in a serious tone. But he did not wait for Hannah's reply, he went on into the dining-room, where his sisters were sitting at work as usual. Molly's face bore traces of tears still, but Annie was looking calm and reserved.