The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell

Hello and welcome. I'm Jennifer March and this is not Your Mother's Storytime. This week we bring you The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell. Gaskell is best known for her social novels, a work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem such as gender, race, or class prejudice is dramatized. Though at the time some said that she lacked the masculinity Right. North and South is her most famous social novel and has been made into movies several times. In any case, this story is not a social story. It's a gothic ghost story. She wrote several ghost stories as well, but this one is considered her classic. It was published in Dickens magazine called Household Words, so it must be good. And now The Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell. You know, my dears, that your mother was an orphan and an only child and I dare say you have heard that your grandfather was a clergyman up in Westmoreland where I come from. I was just a girl in the village school when one day your grandmother came in to ask the mistress if there was any scholar there who would do for a nursemaid. And mighty proud I was, I can tell ye, when the mistress called me up and spoke to my being a good girl at my needle and a steady honest girl and one whose parents were very respectable, though they might be poor. I thought I should like nothing better than to serve the pretty young lady who was blushing as deep as I was as she spoke of the coming baby and what I should have to do with it. However, I see you don't care much for this part of my story as for what you think is to come, so I'll tell you at once. I was engaged and settled at the Parsonage before Miss Rosamond—that was the baby who is now your mother—was born. To be sure I had little enough to do with her when she came, for she was never out of her mother's arms and slept by her all night long, and proud enough I was sometimes when Mrs. trusted her to me. There never was such a baby before or since, though you've all of you been fine enough in your turns, but for sweet winning ways you've none of you come up to your mother. She took after her mother, who was a real teal lady born, a Miss Fernaval, a granddaughter of Lord Fernaval's in Northumberland. I believe she had neither brother nor sister, and had been brought up in the Lord's family till she had married your grandfather, who was just a curate, son of a shopkeeper in Carlisle, but a clever fine gentleman as ever was, and one who was a downright hard worker in his parish, which was very wide, and scattered all abroad over the Westmoreland fells. When your mother, little Miss Rosamond, was about four or five years old, both her parents died in a fortnight, one after the other. Oh, that was a sad time. My pretty mistress and me was looking for another baby, when my master came home from one of his long rides, wet and tired, and took the fever he died of, and then she never held her head up again, but lived just to see her dead baby, and have it laid on her breast before she sighed away her life. My mistress asked me on her death bed never to leave Miss Rosamond, but if she had never spoken a word I would have gone with the little child to the end of the world. The next thing, and before we had well steeled ourselves, the executors and guardians came to settle the affairs. They were my poor young mistress's own cousin, Lord Furnivaugh, and Mr. Estewate, my master's brother, a shopkeeper in Manchester, not so well to do then as he was afterwards, and with a large family rising about him. Well, I don't know if it were their settling, or because of a letter my mistress wrote on her death bed to her cousin, my lord, but somehow it was settled that Miss Rosamond and me were to go to Furnivaugh Manor House in Northumberland, and my lord spoke as if it had been her mother's wish that she should live with his family, and as if he had no objections, for that one or two more or less could make no difference in so grand a household. So, though that was not the way in which I should have wished the coming of my bright and pretty pet to have been looked at, who was like a sunbeam in any family, be it ever so grand, I was well pleased that all the folks in the dale should stare and admire when they heard I was going to be young lady's maid at my lord Furnivaugh's at Furnivaugh Manor. But I made a mistake in thinking we were to go and live where my lord did. It turned out that the family had left Furnivaugh Manor House fifty years or more. I could not hear that my poor young mistress had ever been there, though she had been brought up in the family, and I was sorry for that, for I should have liked Miss Rosamond's youth to have been passed where her mothers had been. My lord's gentlemen, for whom I asked as many questions as I durst, said that that manor house was at the foot of the Cumberland fells, and a very grand place, that an old Miss Furnivaugh, a great aunt of my lord, lived there, with only a few servants, but that it was a very healthy place, and my lord had thought that it would suit Miss Rosamond very well for a few years, and that her being there might perhaps amuse his old aunt. I was bidden by my lord to have Miss Rosamond's things ready by a certain day. He was a stern, proud man, as they say all the lord Furnivaughs were, and he never spoke a word more than was necessary. Folk did say that he had loved my young mistress, but that because she knew that his father would object, she would never listen to him, and married Estewate. But I don't know. He never married at any rate, but he never took much notice of Miss Rosamond, which I thought he might have done if he had cared for her dead mother. He sent his gentlemen with us to the manor house, telling him to join him at Newcastle that very same evening. So there was no great length of time for him to make us known to all the strangers before he too shook us off, and we were left, two lonely young things—I was not eighteen—in the great old manor house. It seems like yesterday that we drove there. We had left our own dear parsonage very early, and we had both cried as if our hearts would break, though we were traveling in my lord's carriage, which I thought so much of once. And now it was long past noon on a September day, and we stopped to change horses for the last time at a little smoky town all full of colliers and miners. Miss Rosamond had fallen asleep, but Mr. Henry told me to awaken her, that she might see the park and the manor house as we drove up. I thought it rather a pity, but I did what he bade me, for fear he should complain of me to my lord. We had left all signs of a town, or even a village, and were then inside the gates of a large wild park, not like the parks here in the south, but with rocks, and the noise of running water, and gnarled thorn trees, and old oaks, all white and peeled with age. The road went up about two miles, and then we saw a great and stately house, with many trees close around it, so close that in some places their branches dragged against the walls when the wind blew, and some hung broken down, for no one seemed to take much charge of the place. To lock the wood, or to keep the moss-covered carriageway in order, only in front of the house all was clear. The great oval drive was without a weed, and neither tree nor creeper was allowed to grow over the long, many-windowed front, at both sides of which a wing projected, which were each the ends of other side-fronts, for the house, although it was so desolate, was even grander than I expected. Behind it rose the fells, which seemed enclosed and bare enough. When we drove up to the great front entrance, and went into the hall, I thought we should be lost, it was so large and vast and grand. There was a chandelier, all of bronze, hung down from the ceiling. At the opposite end of the hall, to the left as you went in, on the western side, was an organ, built into the wall. The afternoon was closing in, and the hall, which had no fire lighted in it, looked dark and gloomy. But we did not stay there a moment. The old servant, who had opened the door for us, bowed to Mr. Henry, and took us in through the door at the further side of the great organ, and led us through several smaller halls and passages into the west drawing-room, where he said that Miss Furnivall was sitting. Poor little Miss Rosamond held very tight to me, as if she was scared and lost in that great place, and as for myself, I was not much better. The west drawing-room was very cheerful-looking, with a warm fire in it, and plenty of good, comfortable furniture about. Miss Furnivall was an old lady, not far from eighty, I should think. But I do not know. She was thin and tall, and had a face as full of fine wrinkles as if they had been drawn all over it, with a needle's point. Her eyes were very watchful, to make up, I suppose, for her being so deaf as to be obliged to use a trumpet. Sitting with her, working at the same great piece of tapestry, was Mrs. Stark, her maid and companion, and almost as old as she was. She had lived with Miss Furnivall ever since they both were young, and now she seemed more like a friend than a servant. She looked so cold and grey and stony, as if she had never loved or cared for any one. And I don't suppose she did care for any one, except her mistress. And owing to the great deafness of the latter, Mrs. Stark treated her very much as if she were a child. Mr. Henry gave some message from my lord, and then he bowed good-bye to us all, taking no notice of my sweet little Rosamond's outstretched hand, and left us standing there, being looked at by two old ladies through their spectacles. I was right glad when they rung for the old footman who had shown us in at first, and told him to take us to our room. So we went out of that great drawing-room, and into another sitting-room, and out of that, and then up a great flight of stairs, and along a broad gallery, which was something like a library, having books all down one side, and windows and writing-tables all down the other, till we came to our rooms, which I was not sorry to hear we were just over the kitchens, for I began to think I should be lost in that wilderness of a house. There was an old nursery, that had been used for all the little lords and ladies long ago, with a pleasant fire burning in the grate, and the kettle boiling on the bob, and tea-things spread out on the table, and out of that room was the night-nursery, with a little crib for Miss Rosamond close to my bed, and old James called up Dorothy, his wife, to bid us welcome, and both he and she were so hospitable and kind, that by and by Miss Rosamond and me felt quite at home, and by the time tea was over, she was sitting on Dorothy's knee, and chatting away as fast as her little tongue could go. I soon found out that Dorothy was from Westmoreland, and that bound her and me together, as it were, and I would never wish to meet with people than were old James and his wife. James had lived pretty nearly all his life in my lord's family, and thought there was no one so grand as they. He even looked down a little on his wife, because till he had married her, she had never lived in any but a farmer's household. But he was very fond of her, as he well might be. They had one servant under them, to do all the rough work. Agnes they called her, and she and me and James and Dorothy, with Miss Furnivall and Mrs. Stark, made up the family, always remembering my sweet Rosamond. I used to wonder what they had done before she came. They thought so much of her now. Kitchen and drawing-room it was all the same. The hard, sad Miss Furnivall and the cold Mrs. Stark looked pleased when she came fluttering in like a bird, playing and pranking hither and thither, with a continual murmur and pretty prattle of gladness. I am sure they were sorry many a time when she flitted away into the kitchen, though they were too proud to ask her to stay with them, and were a little surprised at her taste. Though, to be sure, as Mrs. Stark said, it was not to be remembering what stock her father had come from. The great old rambling house was a famous little place for Miss Rosamond. She made expeditions all over it, with me at her heels, all except the east wing, which was never opened, and whither we never thought of going. But in the western and northern part was many a pleasant room, full of things that were curiosities to us, though they might not have been to people who had seen more. The windows were darkened by the sweeping boughs of the trees, and the ivy which had overgrown them, but in the green gloom we could manage to see old china jars, and carved ivory boxes, and great heavy books, and, above all, the old pictures. Once, I remember, my darling would have Dorothy go with us to tell us who they all were, for they were all portraits of some of my lord's family, though Dorothy could not tell us the names of every one. We had gone through most of the rooms when we came to the old state drawing-room over the hall, and there was a picture of Miss Fernibal, or, as she was called in those days, Miss Grace, for she was the younger sister. Such a beauty she must have been, but with such a set, proud look, and such scorn looking out of her handsome eyes, with her eyebrows just a little raised, as if she wondered how any one could have the impotence to look at her, and her lip curled at us as we stood there gazing. She had a dress on, the like of which I had never seen before, but it was all the fashion when she was young, a hat of some soft white stuff like beaver, pulled a little over her brows, and a beautiful plume of feathers sweeping round it on one side, and her gown of blue satin was open in front to a quilted white stomacher. Well, to be sure, said I, when I had gazed my fill. Flesh is grass, they do say, but who would have thought that Miss Fernibal had been such an out-and-out beauty to see her now? Yes, said Dorothy. Folks change, sadly, but if what my master's father used to say was true, Miss Fernibal, the eldest sister, was handsomer than Miss Grace. Her picture is here somewhere, but if I show it you, you must never let on, even to James, that you have seen it. Can the little lady hold her tongue, think you? she asked. I was not so sure, for she was such a little, sweet, bold, outspoken child, so I set her to hide herself, and then I helped Dorothy to turn a great picture that leaned with its face towards the wall, and was not hung up as the To be sure, it beat Miss Grace for beauty, and I think for scornful pride, too, though in that matter it might be hard to choose. I could have looked at it an hour, but Dorothy seemed half frightened at having shown it to me, and hurried it back again, and bade me run and find Miss Rosamond, for that there were some ugly places about the house, where she should like ill for the child to go. I was a brave, high-spirited girl, and thought little of what the old woman said, for I liked hide-and-seek as well as any child in the parish, so off I ran to find my little one. As winter drew on, and the days grew shorter, I was sometimes almost certain that I heard a noise, as if someone was playing on the great organ in the hall. I did not hear it every evening, but certainly I did very often, usually when I was sitting with Miss Rosamond after I had put her to bed, and keeping quite still and silent in the bedroom. Then I used to hear it booming and swelling away in the distance. The first night, when I went down to my supper, I asked Dorothy who had been playing music, and James said very shortly that I was a gawk, to take the wind soffing among the trees for music. But I saw Dorothy look at him very fearfully, and Agnes, the kitchen-maid, said something beneath her breath, and went quite white. I saw they did not like my question, so I held my peace till I was with Dorothy alone, when I knew I could get a good deal out of her. So the next day I watched my time, and I coaxed and asked her who it was that played the organ, for I knew that it was the organ and not the wind well enough, for all I had kept silent before James. But Dorothy had had her lesson, I'll warrant, and never a word could I get from her. So then I tried Agnes, though I had always held my head rather above her, as I was even to James and Dorothy, and she was little better than their servant. So she said I must never, never tell, and if I ever told, I was never to say she had told me. But it was a very strange noise, and she had heard it many a time, but most of all on winter nights, before storms. And folks did say it was the old lord playing on the great organ in the hall, just as he used to do when he was alive. But who the old lord was, or why he played, and why he played on stormy winter evenings in particular, she either could not or would not tell me. Well, I told you I had a brave heart, and I thought it was rather pleasant to have that grand music rolling about the house, let who would be the player. For now it rose above the great gusts of wind, and wailed and triumphed, just like a living creature, and then it fell to a softness most complete. Only it was always music and tunes, so it was nonsense to call it the wind. I thought at first that it might be Miss Furnival who played, unknown to Agnes. But one day, when I was in the hall by myself, I opened the organ, and peeped all about it, and around it, as I had done to the organ in Crossed-Waite Church once before, and I saw it was all broken and destroyed inside, though it looked so brave and fine. And then, though it was noonday, my flesh began to creep a little, and I shut it up, and ran away pretty quickly to my own bright nursery. And I did not like hearing the music for some time after that, any more than James and Dorothy did. All this time Miss Rosamond was making herself more and more beloved. The old ladies liked her to dine with them at the early dinner. James stood behind Miss Furnival's chair, and I behind Miss Rosamond's, all in state, and after dinner she would play about in a corner of the great drawing-room, as still as any mouse, while Miss Furnival slept, and I had my dinner in the kitchen. But she was glad enough to come to me in the nursery afterwards, for, as she said, Miss Furnival was so sad, and Mrs. Stark so dull. But she and I were merry enough, and by and by I got not to care for that weird rolling music, which did one no harm, if we did not know where it came from. That winter was very cold. In the middle of October the frosts began, and lasted many, many weeks. I remember one day at dinner Miss Furnival lifted up her sad, heavy eyes, and said to Mrs. Stark, I'm afraid we shall have a terrible winter, in a strange kind of meaning way. But Mrs. Stark pretended not to hear, and talked very loud of something else. My little lady and I did not care for the frost, not we. As long as it was dry we climbed up the steep brows behind the house, and went up on the fells, which were bleak and bare enough. There we ran races in fresh, sharp air, and once we came down by a new path that took us past the two old gnarled holly-trees, which grew about half-way down by the east side of the house. But the days grew shorter and shorter, and the old lord, if it was he, played away more and more stormily and sadly on the great organ. One Sunday afternoon—it must have been towards the end of November—I asked Dorothy to take charge of little Missy, when she came out of the drawing-room, after Miss Furnival had had her nap, for it was too cold to take her with me to church, and yet I wanted to go, and Dorothy was glad enough to promise, and was so fond of the child it all seemed well. And Agnes and I set off very briskly, though the sky hung heavy and black over the white earth, as if the night had never fully gone away, and the air, though still, was very biting and keen. "'We shall have a fall of snow,' said Agnes to me. And sure enough, even while we were in church, it came down thick, in great, large flakes, so thick it almost darkened the windows. It had stopped snowing before we came out, but it lay soft, thick, and deep beneath our feet, as we tramped home. Before we got to the hall, the moon rose, and I think it was lighter then—what with the moon, and what with the white, dazzling snow—than it had been when we went to church, between two and three o'clock. I have not told you that Miss Furnival and Mrs. Stark never went to church. They used to read the prayers together in their quiet, gloomy way. They seemed to feel the Sunday very long without their tapestry work to be at. So, when I went to Dorothy in the kitchen, to fetch Miss Rosamond and take her upstairs with me, I did not much wonder when the old woman told me that the ladies had kept the child with them, and that she had never come to the kitchen as I had bidden her, when she was tired of behaving pretty in the drawing-room. So I took off my things and went to find her, and bring her to supper in the nursery. But when I went into the best drawing-room, there sat the two old ladies, very still and quiet, dropping out a word now and then, but looking as if nothing so bright and merry as Miss Rosamond had ever been near them. Still, I thought she might be hiding from me. It was one of her pretty ways, and that she had persuaded them to look as if they knew nothing about her. So I went softly peeping under this sofa and behind that chair, making believe I was sadly frightened at not finding her. "'What's the matter, Hester?' said Mrs. Stark sharply. "'I don't know if Miss Fernaval had seen me, for, as I told you, she was very deaf, and she sat quite still, idly staring into the fire with her hopeless face.' "'I'm only looking for my Rosie Posey,' replied I, still thinking that the child was there and near me, though I could not see her. "'Miss Rosamond's not here,' said Mrs. Stark. "'She went away more than an hour ago to find Dorothy,' and she too turned and went on looking into the fire. My heart sank at this, and I began to wish I had never left my darling. I went back to Dorothy and told her. But she and me and Agnes took lights and went up into the nursery first, and then we roamed over the great large house, calling and entreating Miss Rosamond to come out of her hiding-place, and not frighten us to death in that way. But there was no answer, no sound. Oh!' said I at last, "'Can she have gotten into the East Wing and hidden there?' But Dorothy said it was not possible, for that she herself had never been in there, that the doors were always locked, and my Lord Steward had the keys, she believed. At any rate, neither she nor James had ever seen them. So I said I would go back, and see if after all she was not hidden in the drawing-room, unknown to the old ladies. And if I found her there, I said, I would whip her well for the fright she has given me. But I never meant to do it. Well, I went back to the West Drawing-room, and I told Mrs. Stark we could not find her anywhere, and asked her for leave to look all about the furniture there, for I thought now that she might have fallen asleep in some warm hidden corner. But no! We looked. Miss Furnivall got up and looked, trembling all over, and she was nowhere there. Then we set off again, every one in the house, and looked in all the places we had searched before, but we could not find her. Miss Furnivall shivered and shook so much, that Mrs. Stark took her back into the drawing-room, but not before they had made me promise to bring her to them when she was found. Well, a day! I began to think she never would be found, when I rethought me to look out into the great front court, all covered with snow. I was upstairs when I looked out. But it was such a dear moonlight, I could see quite plain, two little footprints, which might be traced from the hall door and round the corner of the east wing. I don't know how I got down, but I tugged open the great stiff hall door, and throwing the skirt of my gown over my head for a cloak, I ran out. I turned to the east corner, and there a black shadow fell on the snow. But when I came again into the moonlight, there were the little footmarks going up, up to the fells. It was bitter cold, so cold that the air almost took the skin off my face as I ran. But I ran on, crying to think how my poor little darling must be perished and frightened. I was within sight of the holly-trees, when I saw a shepherd coming down the hill, bearing something in his arms wrapped in his maud. He shouted to me, and asked me if I had lost a bairn. And when I could not speak for crying, he bore towards me, and I saw my wee bairn lying still and white and stiff in his arms, as if she'd been dead. He told me he had been up the fells to gather his sheep, before the deep cold of the night come on, and that under the holly-tree—black marks on the hillside, where no other bush was for miles around—he had found my little lady, my lamb, my queen, my darling, stiff and cold in the terrible sleep which has frost begotten. Oh, the joy and the tears of having her in my arms once again! For I could not let him carry her, but I took her, maud and all, into my own arms, and held her near my own warm neck and heart, and felt the life stealing slowly back again into her little gentle limbs. But she was still insensible when we reached the hall, and I had no breath for speech. We went in by the kitchen door. "'Bring the warming pan,' said I, and I carried her upstairs, and began undressing her by the nursery fire, which Agnes had kept up. I called my little lamby all the sweet and playful names I could think of, even while my eyes were blinded by my tears, and at last—oh, at length!—she opened her large blue eyes. Then I put her into her warm bed, and sent Dorothy down to tell Miss Furnivall that all was well, and I made up my mind to sit by my darling's bedside the live long night. She fell away into a soft sleep as soon as her pretty head had touched the pillow, and I watched her till morning light, when she wakened up bright and clear—or so I thought at first—and my dears, so I think now. She said that she had fancied that she should like to go to Dorothy, but that both the old ladies were asleep, and it was very dull in the drawing-room, and that as she was going through the west lobby she saw the snow through the high window falling, falling, soft and steady. But she wanted to see it lying pretty and white on the ground, so she made her way into the great hall, and then, going to the window, she saw it, bright and soft upon the drive. But while she stood there, she saw a little girl, not as old as she was, but so pretty, she said my darling, and this little girl beckoned to me to come out, and oh, she was so pretty and so sweet, I could not choose but go. And then this other little girl had taken her by the hand, and side by side the two had gone round the east corner. "'Now you are a naughty little girl in telling stories,' said I. What would your good mama that is in heaven and never told a story in her life say to her little Rosamond if she heard her, and I dare say she does, telling stories?' "'Indeed, Hester,' sobbed out my little child, "'I'm telling you true, indeed I am.' "'Don't tell me,' said I, very stern. "'I tracked you by your footmarks through the snow. There were only yours to be seen, and if you had had a little girl to go hand in hand with you up the hill, don't you think the footprints would have gone along with yours?' "'I can't help it, dear, dear Hester,' said she, crying. If they did not, I never looked at her feet, but she held my hand fast and tight in her little one, and it was very, very cold. She took me up the fell path, up to the holly trees, and there I saw a lady weeping and crying. But when she saw me, she hushed her weeping, and smiled very proud and grand, and took me on her knee, and began to lull me to sleep. "'And that's all, Hester.' "'But that is true, and my dear mamma knows it is,' said she, crying. So I thought the child was in a fever, and pretended to believe her as she went over her story, over and over again, and always the same. At last Dorothy knocked at the door with Miss Rosamond's breakfast, and she told me the old ladies were down in the eating-parlour, and that they wanted to speak to me. They had both been into the night nursery the evening before, but it was after Miss Rosamond was asleep. So they had only looked at her, not asked me any questions. "'I shall catch it,' thought I to myself, as I went along the North Gallery. "'And yet,' I thought, taking courage, "'it was in their charge I left her, and it's they that's to blame for letting her steal away unknown and unwatched.' So I went in boldly, and told my story. I told it all to Miss Fernaval, shouting it close to her ear. But when I came to the mention of the other little girl out in the snow, coaxing and tempting her out, and her up to the grand and beautiful lady by the holly-tree, she threw her arms up, her old and withered arms, and cried aloud, "'O Heaven forgive! Have mercy!' Mrs. Stark took hold of her, roughly enough, I thought, but she was past Mrs. Stark's management, and spoke to me in a kind of wild warning and authority. "'Hester, keep her from that child. It will lure her to her death. That evil child! Tell her it is wicked! Tell her it is a wicked, naughty child!' Then Mrs. Stark hurried me out of the room, where indeed I was glad enough to go. But Miss Fernaval kept shrieking out, "'O have mercy! Will thou never forgive? It is a many long year ago!' I was very uneasy in my mind after that. I durst never leave Miss Rosamond, night or day, for fear lest she might slip off again, after some fancy or other, and all the more because I thought I could make out that Miss Fernaval was crazy from their odd ways about her, and I was afraid lest something of the same kind, which might be in the family, you know, hung over my darling. But the great frost never ceased all this time, and whenever it was a more stormy night than usual, between the gusts and through the wind, we heard the old lord playing on the great organ. But old lord or not, wherever Miss Rosamond went, there I followed, for my love for her, my pretty helpless orphan, was stronger than my fear for the grand and terrible sound. Besides, it rested with me to keep her cheerful and merry, as beseemed her age. So we played together and wandered together, here and there and everywhere, for I never dared to lose sight of her again in that large and rambling house. And so it happened, that one afternoon, not long before Christmas Day, we were playing together on the billiard table in the great hall. Not that we knew the right way of playing, but she likes to roll the smooth ivory balls with her pretty hands, and I like to do whatever she did. And by and by, without our noticing it, it grew dusk indoors, though it was still light in the open air, and I was thinking of taking her back into the nursery, when all of a sudden she cried out, Look, Hester, look, there is my poor little girl out in the snow. I turned towards the long narrow windows, and there, sure enough, I saw a little girl, less than my Miss Rosamond, dressed all unfit to be out of doors, such a bitter night, crying and beating against the window-panes, as if she wanted to be let in. She seemed to sob and wail, till Miss Rosamond could bear it no longer, and was flying to the door to open it, when all of a sudden, and close upon us, the great organ pealed out so loud and thundering, it fairly made me tremble, and all the more, when I remembered me, that even in the stillness of that dead cold weather, I heard no sound of the little battering hands upon the window-glass, although the phantom child had seemed to put forth all its force, and although I had seen it wail and cry, no faintest touch of sound had found upon my ears. Whether I remembered all this at the very moment, I do not know. The great organ's sound had so stunned me into terror, but this I know, I caught up Miss Rosamond before she got the hall-door opened, and clutched her and carried her away, kicking and screaming, into the large bright kitchen, where Dorothy and Agnes were busy with their mince-pies. "'What is the matter with my sweet one?' cried Dorothy, as I bore in with Miss Rosamond, who was sobbing as if her heart would break. "'She won't let me open the door for my little girl to come in, and she'll die if she's out on the fells all night. Cruel, naughty Hester!' she said, slapping me. But she might have struck me harder, for I had seen a look of ghastly terror on Dorothy's face, which made my very blood run cold. "'Shut the back kitchen door fast, and bolt it well!' she said to Agnes. She said no more. She gave me raisins and almonds to quiet Miss Rosamond, but she sobbed about the little girl in the snow, and would not touch any of the good things. I was thankful when she cried herself to sleep in bed. Then I stole down to the kitchen, and told Dorothy I had made up my mind I would carry my darling back to my father's house in Applethwaite, where, if we lived humbly, we lived at peace. I said I had been frightened enough with the old lord's organ-playing, but now that I had seen for myself this little moaning child, all decked out as no child in a neighbourhood could be, beating and battering to get in, yet always without any sound or noise, with the dark wound on its right shoulder, and that Miss Rosamond had known it again for the phantom that had nearly lured her to her death, which Dorothy knew was true, I would stand it no longer. I saw Dorothy change colour once or twice. When I had done, she told me she did not think I could take Miss Rosamond with me, for that she was my lord's ward, and I had no right over her. And she asked me would I leave the child that I was so fond of, just for sounds and sights, that could do me no harm, and that they had all had to get used to it in their turns. I was all in a hot, trembling passion, and I said it was very well for her to talk, that knew what these sights and noises betokened, and that had perhaps had something to do with the spectre-child while it was alive, and I taunted her so, that she told me all she knew at last. And then I wished I had never been told, for it only made me more afraid than ever. She said she had heard the tale from our neighbours, that were alive when she was first married, when folks used to come to the hall sometimes, before it got such a bad name on the countryside. It might not be true, or it might, what she had been told. The old lord was Miss Furnival's father, Miss Grace, as Dorothy called her, for Miss Maud was the elder, and Miss Furnival by rights. The old lord was eaten up with pride. Such a proud man was never seen or heard of, and his daughters were like him. No one was good enough to wed them, although they had choice enough, for they were the great beauties of the day, as I had seen by their portraits where they hung in the state drawing-room. But as the old saying is, pride will have a fall, and these two haughty beauties fell in love with the same man, and he no better than a foreign musician, whom their father had down from London to play music with him at the manor-house. For above all things, next to his pride, the old lord loved music. He could play on nearly every instrument that ever was heard of, and it was a strange thing that it did not soften him. But he was a fierce, dour old man, and had broken his poor wife's heart with his cruelty, they said. He was mad after music, and would pay any money for it. So he got this former to come, who made such beautiful music, that they said the very birds on the trees stopped their singing to listen. And by degrees this foreign gentleman got such a hold over the lord, that nothing would serve him, but that he must come every year. And it was he that had the great organ brought from Holland, and built up in the hall where it stood now. He taught the old lord to play on it. But many and many a time, when Lord Furnival was thinking of nothing but his fine organ and his finer music, the dark foreigner was walking abroad in the woods with one of the young ladies, now Miss Maud and then Miss Grace. Miss Maud won the day and carried off the prize, such as it was, and he and she were married, all unknown to anyone. And before he made his next yearly visit, she had been confined of a little girl at a farmhouse on the moors, while her father and Miss Grace thought she was away at Doncaster races. Though she was a wife and a mother, she was not a bit softened, but as haughty and as passionate as ever, and perhaps more so for she was jealous of Miss Grace, to whom her foreign husband paid a deal of court, by way of blinding her, as he told his wife. But Miss Grace triumphed over Miss Maud, and Miss Maud grew fiercer and fiercer, both with her husband and her sister, and the former who could easily shake off what was disagreeable, and hide himself in foreign countries, went away a month before his usual time that summer, and half threatened that he would never come back. Meanwhile the little girl was left at the farmhouse, and her mother used to have her horse saddled and galloped wildly over the hills, to see her once every week, at the very least. For where she loved, she loved, and where she hated, she hated. And the old lord went on playing, playing on his organ, and the servants thought the sweet music he made had soothed down his awful temper, of which, Dorothy said, some terrible tales could be told. He grew infirm, too, and had to walk with a crutch, and his son—that was the present Lord Furnival's father—was with the army in America, and the other son at sea. So Miss Maud had it pretty much her own way, and she and Miss Grace grew colder and bitterer to each other every day, till at last they hardly ever spoke, except when the old lord was by. The foreign musician came again the next summer, but it was for the last time, for they led him such a life with their jealousy and their passions, that he grew weary and went away, and never was heard of again. And Miss Maud, who had always meant to have her marriage acknowledged when her father should be dead, was left now a deserted wife, whom nobody knew to have been married, with a child that she dared not own, although she loved it to distraction, living with a father whom she feared, and a sister whom she hated. When the next summer passed over, and the dark foreigner never came, both Miss Maud and Miss Grace grew gloomy and sad. They had a haggard look about them, though they looked handsome as ever. But by and by Miss Maud brightened, for her father grew more and more infirm, and more than ever carried away by his music, and she and Miss Grace lived almost entirely apart, having separate rooms—the one on the west side, Miss Maud on the east—those very rooms which were now shut up. So she thought she might have her little girl with her, and no one need ever know except those who dared not speak about it, and were bound to believe that it was, as she said, a cottager's child she had taken a fancy to. All this, Dorothy said, was pretty well known, but what came afterwards no one knew except Miss Grace and Mrs. Stark, who was even then her maid, and much more of a friend to her than ever her sister had been. But the servants supposed, from words that were dropped, that Miss Maud had triumphed over Miss Grace, and told her that all the time the dark foreigner had been mocking her with pretend love. He was her own husband. The colour left Miss Grace's cheek and lips that very day for ever, and she was heard to say many a time that sooner or later she would have her revenge, and Mrs. Stark was for ever spying about the east rooms. One fearful night, just after the new year had come in, when the snow was lying thick and deep, and the flakes were still falling, fast enough to blind anyone who might be out and abroad, there was a great and violent noise heard, and the old lord's voice above all cursing and swearing awfully, and the cries of a little child, and the proud defiance of a fierce woman, and the sound of a blow, and a dead stillness, and moans and wailings dying away on the hillside. Then the old lord summoned all his servants and told them, with terrible oaths and words more terrible, that his daughter had disgraced herself, and that he had turned her out of doors, her and her child, and if ever they gave her help, or food, or shelter, he prayed that they might never enter heaven. And all the while Miss Grace stood by him, white and still as any stone, and when he had ended, she heaved a great sigh, as much to say her work was done, and her end was accomplished. But the old lord never touched his organ again, and died within the year. And no wonder, for on the morrow of that wild and fearful night, the shepherds coming down the fellside, found Miss Maud sitting all crazy and smiling, under the holly trees, nursing a dead child, with a terrible mark on its right shoulder. But it was not what killed it, Dorothy said. It was the frost and the cold, every wild creature was in its hole, and every beast on its fold, while the child and its mother were turned out to wander on the fells. And now you know all, and I wonder if you are less frightened now." I was more frightened than ever. But I said I was not. I wished Miss Rosamond and myself well out of that dreadful house for ever. But I could not leave her, and I dared not take her away. But oh, how I watched her and guarded her! We bolted the doors, and shut the window shutters fast, an hour or more before dark, rather than leave them open five minutes too late. But my little lady still heard the weird child crying and mourning, and not all we could do or say could keep her from wanting to go to her, and let her in from the cruel wind and the snow. Oh, this time I kept away from Miss Furnival and Mrs. Stark as much as I ever could, for I feared them. I knew no good could be about them, and their grey hard faces, and their dreamy eyes, looking back into the ghastly years that were gone. But even in my fear I had a kind of pity, for Miss Furnival at least. Those gone down to the pit can hardly have a more hopeless look than that which was ever on her face. At last I even got so sorry for her, who never said a word but what was forced from her, that I prayed for her, and I taught Miss Rosamond to pray for one who had done a deadly sin. But often when she came to those words she would listen, and start up from her knees, and say, I hear my little girl planing and crying very sad. Oh, let her in, or she will die. One night, just after New Year's Day had come at last, and the long winter had taken a turn as I had hoped, I heard the West Wing drawing-room bell three times, which was the signal for me. I would not leave Miss Rosamond alone, for all she was asleep, for the old lord had been playing wilder than ever, and I feared lest my darling should waken to hear the spectre-child. See her I knew she could not. I had fastened the windows too well for that, so I took her out of her bed, and wrapped her up in such outer clothes as were most handy, and carried her down to the drawing-room, where the old lady sat with her tapestry work as usual. They looked up when I came in, and Mrs. Stark asked, quite astonished, why did I bring Miss Rosamond there out of her warm bed? I had begun to whisper, because I was afraid of her being tempted out while I was away, by the wild child in the snow. When she stopped me short, with a glance at Miss Furnival, and said, Miss Furnival wanted me to undo some work she had done wrong, and which neither of them could see to unpick, so I laid my pretty dear on the sofa, and sat down on a stool by them, and hardened my heart against them, as I heard the wind rising and howling. Miss Rosamond slept on sound, for all the wind blew so, and Miss Furnival said never a word, nor looked round when the gusts shook the windows. All at once she started up to her full height, and put up one hand, as if to bid us listen. "'I hear voices,' said she. "'I hear terrible screams. I hear my father's voice.' Just at that moment my darling wakened with a sudden start. "'My little girl is crying. Oh, how she is crying!' and she tried to get up and go to her, but she got her feet tangled in the blanket, and I caught her up, for my flesh began to creep at these noises, which they heard while we could catch no sound. In a minute or two the noises came and gathered fast and filled our ears. We, too, heard voices and screams, and no longer heard the winter's wind that raged abroad. Mrs. Stark looked at me, and I at her, but we dared not speak. Suddenly Mrs. Furnival went towards the door, out into the ante-room, through the west lobby, and opened the door into the great hall. Mrs. Stark followed, and I durst not be left, though my heart almost stopped beating for fear. I wrapped my darling tight in my arms, and went out with them. In the hall the screams were louder than ever. They sounded to come from the east wing, nearer and nearer, close on the other side of the locked-up doors, close behind them. Then I noticed the great bronze chandelier seemed all alight, though the hall was dim, and that a fire was blazing in the vast hearth-place, though it gave no heat, and I shuddered up with terror and folded my darling closer to me. But as I did so, the east door shook, and she, suddenly struggling to get free from me, cried, "'Hester, I must go. My little girl is there. I hear her. She is coming. Hester, I must go.' I held her tight with all my strength. With a set will I held her. If I had died, my hands would have grasped her still. I was so resolved in my mind. Miss Furnival stood listening, and paid no regard to my darling, who had got down to the ground, and whom I upon my knees now was holding with both my arms clasped around her neck, she still striving and crying to get free. All at once the east door gave way with a thundering crash, as if torn open in a violent passion, and there came into that broad and mysterious light the figure of a tall old man with grey hair and gleaming eyes. He drove before him, with many a relentless gesture of abhorrence, a stern and beautiful woman, with a child clinging to her dress. "'Oh, Hester, Hester,' cried Miss Rosamond, "'it's the lady, the lady below the holly trees, and my little girl is with her. Hester, Hester, let me go to her. They are drawing me to them. I feel them, I feel them. I must go.' Again she was almost convulsed by her efforts to get away, but I held her tighter and tighter, till I feared I should do her a hurt, but rather that than let her go towards these terrible phantoms. They passed along towards the great hall door, where the winds howled and ravened for their prey, but before they reached that, the lady turned, and I could see that she defied the old man with a fierce and proud defiance, but then she quailed, and then she threw her arms wildly and piteously to save her child, her little child, from a blow from his uplifted crutch, and Miss Rosamond was torn as by a power stronger than mine, and writhed in my arms and sobbed, for by this time the poor darling was growing faint. "'They want me to go with them on the fells. They are drawing me to them. Oh, my little girl, I would come, but cruel wicked Hester holds me very tight,' but when she saw the uplifted crutch, she swooned away, and I thanked God for it. Just at this moment, when the tall old man with his hair streaming as in the blast of a furnace was going to strike the little shrinking child, Miss Furnival, the old woman by my side, cried out, "'Oh, Father! Father, spare the little innocent child!' But just then I saw—we all saw—another phantom shape itself, and grow clear out of the blue and misty light that filled the hall. We had not seen her till now, for it was another lady who stood by the old man, with a look of relentless hate and triumphant scorn. That figure was very beautiful to look upon, with the soft white hat drawn down over the proud brows, and a red and curling lip. It was dressed in an open robe of blue satin. I had seen that figure before. It was the likeness of Miss Furnival in her youth, and the terrible phantoms moved on, regardless of old Miss Furnival's wild entreaty, and the uplifted crutch fell on the right shoulder of the little child, and the younger sister looked on, stony and deadly serene. But at that moment the dim lights and the fire that gave no heat went out of themselves, and Miss Furnival lay at our feet, stricken down by the palsy, death-stricken. Yes, she was carried to her bed that night, never to rise again. She lay with her face to the wall, muttering low, but muttering always, Alas, alas, what is done in youth can never be undone in age. What is done in youth can never be undone in age. And that's our story for this evening. I hope you enjoyed The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell. Thank you for listening. I'm Jennifer March, and this is not your mother's storytime.