CHAPTER V
A Shadow on the House
OH! how dreary now seemed the House! Its Light and its Life were gone. The unseen Presence of Love no longer gladdened it, and the Shadow of Death was slowly creeping on.
Violet came to pour out her Wretchedness and her Self-reproaches to me as soon as she heard what had happened. She declared she could never be happy again—she could never cease thinking of him. I told her it would be very wicked of her now, to think of him in the Way she meant, any more. For saying which, I suppose she was offended at me; for she did not come near me again for a good While.
I don’t suppose Tears are often shed over thick Slices of Bride-cake, with Sugar and Almonds an Inch deep, such as Violet and I received (tied up with such vulgar white Satin Knots!) from Mistress Glossop, now, alas! Mistress Blenkinsop. When I took it up to my Mother, she turned away her Head, and said with her gentle Smile, “You may give my Share to Dolly,—perhaps she will like it to dream upon.”
I said, “I don’t believe Dolly will touch it;” however, there I was mistaken. She said, “Law, Mistress Cherry, I’m sure Mistress is very good.... I grudge the eating of it, too; for ’tis an unseemly Match, I calls it; but, there,—one don’t get such Cake as this every Day!”
When I repeated this Saying to my Mother, she said, “She belongs to the Glossop School, Cherry, that never can forbear.”
Mistress Blenkinsop would have been glad, I fancy, to show off her young Husband on the Bridge; but she received no Encouragement; and as for Mark, who had certainly intended to pique Violet, he was now as wretched as herself, to judge from his Looks, as reported to us by one or two who had seen Something of what was going on. Happy or unhappy, he never came near us, on Business or Pleasure; and as my Father dropped the Connexion, which was more to his Loss than Mistress Blenkinsop’s, we now saw Nothing of one another. For I scarce went out at all; but now and then Mistress Benskin would let fall how she had met the Blenkinsops going to such and such a Place of Public Resort; he looking ashamed and tired of his Companion; and she as fine as the Rainbow. For she would not only see Funamble Turk, and pay her Shilling to ride round Hyde Park, but intrude herself among the Quality in Mulberry Garden, I warrant her!
About this Time Master Armytage died. Thereby his Family sustained great Loss, not only of a kind Husband and Father, but of worldly Goods; for the Widow only got a Third of the Worth of the Business, and the Son, who was married and not very friendly with her, choosing to live on the Premises and carry on the Concern, she and her Daughters presently went into an exceeding small House in the Borough, where they opened a little Shop that did not answer very well. After a While, Violet, unused to such scant Living, was glad to come back as Shopwoman to her Brother, whose Wife had no Turn for Business; but it went sore against her to be Second in the House where she had hitherto been always treated like First; and also it was a Grievance to her to live among a Family of young Children. These Trials fretted her till they impaired her Beauty, making her grow peevish and thin.