Читать книгу The Birdikin Family - Arthur Hammond Marshall - Страница 7
ОглавлениеA VISIT TO THE SEA
Byron Grove, Mr. Birdikin's country seat, was situate six miles from the seaside town of X, to which, when temperature and weather conditions were favourable, the Birdikin children were sometimes taken for immersion in the ocean, their parents considering that, if due precautions were taken against the dangers of sea-bathing, its benefits could not but add to their health as well as to their enjoyment.
One summer morning, when Mr. Birdikin had satisfied himself by examination of the weather-glass that no immediate change was to be anticipated in the quiescent state of the elements, the four children were sent, under the charge of their instructress, Miss Smith, to spend the day at X. The programme arranged for them, with the thoughtful foresight which Mr. and Mrs. Birdikin exercised in all the details of family life, of which they were such exemplary exponents, was that they were to be driven to the seashore, and while Bodger, the coachman, was putting up his horses the children were to perambulate the sands and the rocks and, under the supervision of Miss Smith, were to investigate such denizens of the deep as star-fishes, winkles, jelly-fish, limpets and the like as came within the range of observation, but on no account, at this stage of the proceedings, were they to get their feet wet or venture beyond the control of their governess.
Upon the return of Bodger, a respectable family man who could be trusted to act responsibly in a case of emergency, Miss Smith was instructed to engage one of the larger bathing-machines, in which the whole party would disrobe themselves, with the exception of Bodger, who would keep watch upon the beach. This accomplished, the two boys and Miss Smith would plunge into the briny element, and, upon the expiry of a quarter of an hour, to be signalled by Bodger, who would stand on the marge of the ocean with his timepiece in his hand, the two girls would take the place of their brothers, Miss Smith being instructed on no account to let go of the hands of her young pupils nor to venture beyond her own middle.
All went according to plan until Bodger signalled, by the springing of a watchman's rattle, that the time allowed for Charles and Henry was at an end. Miss Smith was gratified at the complaisant spirit shown by the boys in returning to the machine, but no sooner had she led out Clara and Fanny than Charles, instead of rubbing himself briskly with a rough towel, as he had been instructed, leapt again into the water and with gleeful shouts began to splash his sisters and the governess. In vain did Miss Smith exhort him to obedience, in vain did Bodger threaten to wade into the water himself and chastise him. The insubordinate lad continued his rough play, and Fanny, always inclined to be refractory when encouraged by Charles, who had so often been adjured to show a good example to his younger brother and sisters, entered incontinently into the boisterous and unmannerly sport, and wrenched her hand away from Miss Smith's in order that she might the better strike the water into her brother's face.
At that moment a wave advancing towards the shore dislodged her foothold, and upon its return carried her some yards away from Miss Smith. The governess, anxious to seize hold of Charles, did not notice this catastrophe for the moment, and but for the presence of mind of the bathing-woman in attendance on the machines, who caught hold of Fanny and jerked her to her feet again, one of those tragedies might have been enacted against which Mr. Birdikin had enjoined all the precautions that were humanly possible. Fanny herself made light of the incident and refused to return to the machine until her appointed time in the water was over. Miss Smith put her and Clara into the charge of the bathing-woman and carried the struggling Charles back to the machine, where she carefully dried him, and did the same for Clara and Fanny before she attended to her own toilet, after which the machine was drawn out of the water and the bathing-party regained the safety of the shore, Miss Smith in a spirit of thankfulness that the peril brought about by Charles's thoughtless prank had mercifully been averted.
Miss Smith, however, had a frame far from robust, and the anxiety to which she had been subjected, together with the chilling effect of standing in her wet but decent serge bathing-dress while she saw to the welfare of her young charges, brought on a fit of shivering and a numbness of the extremities which caused Bodger, who had been trained by his wife to take observation of female ailments, some alarm. Followed by the frightened children he supported Miss Smith up the beach and led her to the first shelter available, which happened to be an establishment devoted to the exhibition and sale of ironmongery, where he demanded succour, suggesting that it should include the administration of a measure of French brandy.
He supported Miss Smith up the beach
It has already been said that Miss Smith's birth was not equal to her scholastic attainments. Of this Mr. Birdikin had been aware when he had engaged her for the responsible task of administering, under his own direction, the education of his children. What she had omitted, however, to disclose to him was that in this very town of X she had relatives who were by no means of a quality suitable for notice by a man of Mr. Birdikin's superior standing. It was to these relatives that the inscrutable leadings of chance had directed Bodger's unwitting footsteps. Miss Smith's own mother's sister, Mrs. Clott, received her and gave her the willing service and relief dictated by the promptings not only of charity but of consanguinity. A kind heart is not, as some would aver, the peculiar property of those of high or even of medium birth. This good woman's first preoccupation was to administer hot toddy to her relative and put her to bed in a small but decently furnished chamber. Her next was to provide entertainment for the young children who were for the time being in her charge, the coachman, Bodger, announcing that the shock he had undergone necessitated his repairing to a neighbouring hostelry where he could obtain the refreshment required by his condition. So well did Mrs. Clott accomplish her task that when, some hours later, Miss Smith was sufficiently recovered and Bodger was summoned from the 'Mariners' Rest' to drive her and her charges home again, all four children declared that they had never enjoyed themselves better, and took leave of their kind hostess with expressions of goodwill which, coming from the offspring of a man of Mr. Birdikin's superior station, must have caused her considerable gratification.
The adventures and alarms of the day were not yet quite over, for Bodger had not entirely recovered from the agitation that Miss Smith's indisposition had caused him, and showed less than his usual skill on the driving-seat, the carriage deviating from side to side of the road and narrowly escaping reversal in a ditch. Home was reached, however, without actual mishap, and Mr. and Mrs. Birdikin were put in possession of the details of the day's happenings.
It may be imagined that Miss Smith was far from being at her ease over the accident that had led to the children being received in the dwelling of her aunt, for Mr. Birdikin, taking into account the inferiority of her origin, had impressed upon her that it was her special duty to preserve her little charges from contact with anything low. He was inclined, however, to judge her part in the affair leniently, only remarking that had he been aware that she had relatives engaged in retail trade at so short a distance from Byron Grove as the town of X, he might have thought the risk of engaging her too great, and that she would do well to consider the indisposition she had herself experienced as a punishment for her lack of frankness. He could not, of course, countenance any further personal communication with Mrs. Clott, but, in consideration of the seemly way in which she had dealt with the situation, he intimated his intention of transferring his custom from the ironmonger whom he had hitherto honoured with his patronage to Mr. Clott. Thus the dictates of propriety and urbanity were alike honoured, and Miss Smith retired from the interview with a deep sense of the tolerance and benevolence of her employer.
Mr. Birdikin's displeasure with Charles and Fanny for their unprincipled conduct was expressed by a few sharp strokes of the rod for the boy and of the bare hand for the girl. But Fanny's punishment, alas, did not incline her to that compliance of the heart which she had promised with the lips. Her experience of the more obscure ranks of society, by which her excellent parent was above all anxious that his children should not be contaminated, had made no deeper impression upon the heedless child than to cause her to confide to her sister that when she attained maturity she should ally herself in wedlock to an ironmonger and live at the seaside.
