So he went to his wife.And before Frank went to sea,he had the comfort of seeing his wife installed in her old little garret in his father's house.To have placed her in the one best spare room was a step beyond Mrs.Wilson's powers of submission or generosity.The worst part about it,however,was that the faithful Norah had to be dismissed.Her place as housemaid had been filled up;and,even had it not,she had forfeited Mrs.Wilson's good opinion for ever.She comforted her young master and mistress by pleasant prophecies of the time when they would have a household of their own;of which,in whatever service she might be in the meantime,she should be sure to form part.Almost the last action Frank Wilson did,before setting sail,was going with Alice to see Norah once more at her mother's house.And then he went away.
Alice's father-in-law grew more and more feeble as winter advanced.
She was of great use to her step-mother in nursing and amusing him;and,although there was anxiety enough in the household,there was perhaps more of peace than there had been for years;for Mrs.Wilson had not a bad heart,and was softened by the visible approach of death to one whom she loved,and touched by the lonely condition of the young creature,expecting her first confinement in her husband's absence.To this relenting mood Norah owed the permission to come and nurse Alice when her baby was born,and to remain to attend on Captain Wilson.
Before one letter had been received from Frank (who had sailed for the East Indies and China),his father died.Alice was always glad to remember that he had held her baby in his arms,and kissed and blessed it before his death.After that,and the consequent examination into the state of his affairs,it was found that he had left far less property than people had been led by his style of living to imagine;and,what money there was,was all settled upon his wife,and at her disposal after her death.This did not signify much to Alice,as Frank was now first mate of his ship,and,in another voyage or two,would be captain.Meanwhile he had left her some hundreds (all his savings)in the bank.
It became time for Alice to hear from her husband.One letter from the Cape she had already received.The next was to announce his arrival in India.As week after week passed over,and no intelligence of the ship's arrival reached the office of the owners,and the Captain's wife was in the same state of ignorant suspense as Alice herself,her fears grew most oppressive.At length the day came when,in reply to her inquiry at the Shipping Office,they told her that the owners had given up Hope of ever hearing more of the Betsy-Jane,and had sent in their claim upon the underwriters.Now that he was gone for ever,she first felt a yearning,longing love for the kind cousin,the dear friend,the sympathising protector,whom she should never see again,--first felt a passionate desire to show him his child,whom she had hitherto rather craved to have all to herself--her own sole possession.Her grief was,however,noiseless,and quiet--rather to the scandal of Mrs.Wilson;who bewailed her step-son as if he and she had always lived together in perfect harmony,and who evidently thought it her duty to burst into fresh tears at every strange face she saw;dwelling on his poor young widow's desolate state,and the helplessness of the fatherless child,with an unction,as if she liked the excitement of the sorrowful story.
So passed away the first days of Alice's widowhood.Bye-and-bye things subsided into their natural and tranquil course.But,as if this young creature was always to be in some heavy trouble,her ewe-lamb began to be ailing,pining and sickly.The child's mysterious illness turned out to be some affection of the spine likely to affect health;but not to shorten life--at least so the doctors said.But the long dreary suffering of one whom a mother loves as Alice loved her only child,is hard to look forward to.Only Norah guessed what Alice suffered;no one but God knew.
And so it fell out,that when Mrs.Wilson,the elder,came to her one day in violent distress,occasioned by a very material diminution in the value the property that her husband had left her,--a diminution which made her income barely enough to support herself,much less Alice--the latter could hardly understand how anything which did not touch health or life could cause such grief;and she received the intelligence with irritating composure.But when,that afternoon,the little sick child was brought in,and the grandmother--who after all loved it well--began a fresh moan over her losses to its unconscious ears--saying how she had planned to consult this or that doctor,and to give it this or that comfort or luxury in after yearn but that now all chance of this had passed away--Alice's heart was touched,and she drew near to Mrs.Wilson with unwonted caresses,and,in a spirit not unlike to that of,Ruth,entreated,that come what would,they might remain together.
After much discussion in succeeding days,it was arranged that Mrs.
Wilson should take a house in Manchester,furnishing it partly with what furniture she had,and providing the rest with Alice's remaining two hundred pounds.Mrs.Wilson was herself a Manchester woman,and naturally longed to return to her native town.Some connections of her own at that time required lodgings,for which they were willing to pay pretty handsomely.Alice undertook the active superintendence and superior work of the household.Norah,willing faithful Norah,offered to cook,scour,do anything in short,so that,she might but remain with them.
The plan succeeded.For some years their first lodgers remained with them,and all went smoothly,--with the one sad exception of the little girl's increasing deformity.How that mother loved that child,is not for words to tell!
