The strange transfiguration of Hannah Stubbs
born--I admit it--and ignorant, but she brings Youth and Health and
Innocence as her portion, and she brings what is better than
all--_Leonora!_”
“If you have quite made up your mind on the subject, I suppose it is
of no use my talking to you any more,” said Steinberg, in a tone of
annoyance.
“No! not if you would try to make me give up my wife, who has not yet
even spoken to me. With Hannah always at my commands, what may I not
accomplish? I can go on and on, until I hold Leonora in my arms again,
fresh, pure and beautiful, as when I first received her as my bride.
Do you not see, Steinberg--cannot you understand--that it is not
_Hannah_ whom I wish to marry, but Leonora whom I wish to call back to
my love and my embrace? And how can I accomplish this, except by
having the medium under my own control? Were I to engage Hannah as my
servant, and give her every comfort, I could never be sure that she
would not leave me for a better situation, but as my wife, she--I
mean, Leonora--will always be with me to my life’s end.”
“I understand your feelings perfectly,” replied the Doctor, “but I
would not have you do this extraordinary thing in too great a hurry. I
am not yet satisfied that the pursuit of Spiritualism is entirely
without its dangers, or that these spirits are always the persons whom
they profess to be! What should you do, if, after you had taken this
irremediable step of marriage, you were to discover that the form
which looks to you now like that of your lost wife, were that of some
stranger?”
“I should try again until I found her,” replied the Professor, “I
should consider my whole life well spent, if I only caught a glimpse
of her at the last!”
“And if this is to be, where do you propose to take Hannah?” continued
his friend.
“I have hardly thought of it! I want your advice on several things.
First, shall I mention my project of marrying her to her parents?”
“I should not! Since they have cast her off, I should take the girl
away with me as my servant, and let the matter alone for a little
while. If she is attached to her lover, as you seem to imagine, she
will probably refuse to listen to your proposal for some time
further.”
“True! then as to a residence----”
“I have something to say about that,” interposed Steinberg. “Some time
ago an acquaintance of mine offered me the lease of a cottage in
Hampstead for the rent of twenty-five pounds. I did not care for the
idea of setting up house by myself, and I did not think I could afford
it, but if you would like me to live with you and share expenses, I
believe we might be very comfortable together, and I could still share
your midnight studies with Hannah.”
“It is the very thing!” cried Ricardo, slapping his knee. “You and I
will pursue our several avocations whilst Hannah looks after the
cottage, and then in the evenings we will return home, to find all
things ready and comfortable for us, and to spend the hours in our
favourite pursuit. But supposing you, too, take it into your head to
marry, my friend, what then? Will the cottage hold us all?”
“Have no fears on that subject,” replied the Doctor, “I am not such a
fool! Excuse me, Professor, but you have heard my sentiments regarding
Marriage and Women long ago. I am wedded to my profession, and have no
wishes outside of Science. If I did not believe Spiritualism to be a
very great Science, disbelieved in by many, simply because it is
altogether above their heads, I should not pursue the knowledge of it.
But as it is----”
“As it is,” interrupted the Professor, gaily, “you _do_ believe in it,
and we will live happily together in the little cottage at Hampstead,
with our good Hannah to look after our temporal wants and assist us in
our spiritual researches. My dear Steinberg, I know of nothing that
has given me so much pleasure as this proposal of yours, for a long
time.”
“I am looking forward to it also,” said Steinberg, “I have long felt
the want of a home and a congenial companion in my leisure hours. My
quarters at the Hospital are too easy of access. I am never sure of
not being disturbed out of canonical hours, and a man does require a
few moments in the day that he can call his own. I must leave you now,
but I will write to my friend to-night about the cottage, and let you
know as soon as possible when we can take possession of it. I have a
few articles of furniture--so have you--and the rest I will procure on
credit. Have no fears, Professor, the cottage will be ours within the
week? But take my advice and think seriously--_very seriously_--before
you decide on the step you contemplate.”
He ran off, leaving Ricardo with his own thoughts, but when the
morning came, he was still of the same mind--he could not part with
Leonora, and if a marriage with Hannah Stubbs was the only way by
which to secure that end, a marriage there must be. He decided,
however, to keep his own counsel on the matter until he had left Mrs.
Battleby’s house.
When his landlady brought up his breakfast on the following morning,
she informed him in a severe tone, that Mrs. Stubbs was down below and
would be glad to hear what were his intentions with regard to her
misguided daughter, as she had to return to Settlefield by the twelve
o’clock train.
“My intentions are, as I told the woman last night, to provide for
Hannah,” replied the Professor, “Doctor Steinberg and I intend to take
a house and live together for the future, and we shall engage Hannah
to do our housework, and pay her at the rate of twenty pounds a year.
Will that satisfy her mother?”
As Hannah had never received more than ten pounds before, Mrs.
Battleby said that she considered the Sig-nor’s offer to be very
handsome, adding “that she didn’t know ’ow it ’appened, but some
people was so lucky, they seemed allays to fall on their feet.”
But when she rejoined her crony, Mrs. Stubbs, her sentiments appeared
to have undergone a change.
“Now! wot wickedness do you think them two is up to?” she commenced.
“The Professor’s been just a’telling me that ’e and ’is accomplish the
Doctor, is going to set up ’ouse and keep Hannah atween ’em, and won’t
they be up to all sorts of mischief, the three on ’em together! I’ll
tell you what it is, Mrs. Stubbs, that gal of yourn is right-down
’ardened, she is, and don’t want no ’ome, nor mother, nor nothink!
She’d rayther be off with them two old scamps, so let ’er go, says I,
till she comes back to ’er senses.”
“Well, if she’s got another sitivation, it’s all as I looks for, for
the gal must earn her living and learn to look arter ’erself into the
bargain. Joe Brushwood, he seems quite set against ’er like, and
wouldn’t come over this morning, though I arsked ’im ever so! ’Owever,
if Hannah’s pervided for, that’s all I arsks and I shall tell ’er
father as it’s all right, and she don’t want to marry Joe, for men are
so inquisitive and troublesome, there’s no a’bearing ’em. Well!
good-bye, Mrs. Battleby, and please to tell my gal as she’s seen the
larst of me and the rest, for we repugniates ’er!”
And gathering her Scotch plaid shawl about her, Mrs. Stubbs laboured
up the area steps and was lost to view. Hannah did not come down to
her breakfast that morning, but appeared an hour later, with red eyes,
a swollen nose, and blubber lips that looked as if she must keep them
open in order to breathe.
She did not speak for some time after she entered the kitchen, and
when she did, it was to ask when Mrs. Battleby expected her mother to
call.
“Your mother!” exclaimed the landlady, in her shrill voice, “why,
she’s been and gone this hour!”
“_Gone!_” cried Hannah, “and won’t she come back? Shan’t I see ’er
again?”
“Not you, I guess, and she was glad enough to go, pore creetur, and
’ide ’er shame in the country. Your young man too--though in course ’e
ain’t your young man no longer--’e wouldn’t step in, not for a minute,
’e was so afeared of seeing you again. You’ve disgraced ’em all,
Hannah Stubbs, that’s the long and the short of it, and they don’t
want to look upon you no more, so the best thing you can do is to go
arter your old gentleman and see what ’_e_ can do for you.”
“What old gentleman?” inquired the girl, “the Professor? O! ’e is
good, I know, and kind. ’E said that ’e would see as I never wanted
nothing, but ’e ain’t mother and ’e ain’t Joe!”
And she commenced to weep afresh.
“Now, look ’ere,” said Mrs. Battleby, “it’s no good your doing that.
It won’t bring ’em back to you, nor wipe out the ’arm you’ve done ’em.
You’d much better go upstairs and clear the Sig-nor’s breakfast
things, for that’s what you’ve got to do for the future, ’e tells me.
It’s your business now, plain enough, so just dry your eyes and do
your dooty, for I’ve got no time to waste over it to-day.”
Hannah did as she was told, and the Professor took the opportunity to
tell her about the new cottage and what he intended her to do for him
there, and she went downstairs again, satisfied, that if she had lost
the good-will of her friends, she had not, at least, the prospect of
starvation before her eyes.
CHAPTER IX.
Karl Steinberg’s negociations for the cottage at Hampstead, proved
eminently successful. The rooms were too small for most tenants, so it
was still unlet, and before the end of the week, he had signed the
agreement for it, and had such articles of furniture as were
absolutely necessary, put in. Ricardo and Hannah moved to their new
abode on the appointed day--their departure being loudly lamented by
Mrs. Battleby, who, finding her quiet, well-behaved lodger had taken
her at her word, was very doubtful where she should find such another
occupant for her attics.
The Professor was delighted at the prospect of the change. He had seen
the black draperies carefully taken down from the séance chamber--had
packed his precious books himself--and put together his few articles
of furniture, and now had the pleasure of looking forward to arranging
them in their place again, without any prospect of being turned out at
a moment’s notice.
Hannah also, though still in great grief for the loss of her young man
and the anger of her mother, was much cheered by the idea of having
twenty pounds a year, and reigning sole mistress over the little
domicile at Hampstead.
It was a tiny house, consisting of a sitting-room and kitchen on the
ground floor, with two bedrooms and two dressing-rooms above--the
larger of which were to belong to Ricardo and his friend, whilst
Hannah slept in one of the smaller, and the other was to be hung with
the black draperies and devoted to their séances.
There was so much to do on first taking possession of the cottage,
that they determined to postpone the pursuit of their studies until
they felt more at home. The Professor had his teaching to attend to,
as usual, and the Doctor his hospital, and when they met in the
evenings they were too much engaged in carpentering and painting to be
able to attend to anything else. Meanwhile, however, the resolution he
had arrived at respecting Hannah Stubbs, had not deserted the
Professor’s mind, and it was not long before he mooted the question to
her.
He saw more of the girl than the Doctor did. Steinberg had his
hospital duties to attend to, and occasionally they kept him from home
all the evening, but Ricardo’s work was more irregular. Sometimes he
had but two or three lessons to give during the day--sometimes eight
or nine. One day he would be employed all the morning and have his
afternoon free--on another, he would lounge in his arm-chair, robed in
a dressing-gown, and reading his favourite authors, until noon, and
rush away directly after his luncheon, not to appear again until it
was time for supper.
Hannah had but little hard work to do, as neither of the gentlemen