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ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 455
box with " Mademoiselle Baynes" thereon printed. And mamma
had to look on and witness those preparations. And Walsingham
Hely had called ; and he wouldn't call again, she knew ; and that
fair chance for the establishment of her child was lost by the
obstinacy of her self-willed reckless husband. That woman had to
water her soup with her furtive tears, to sit of nights behind hearts
and spades, and brood over her crushed hopes. If I contemplate
that wretched old Niobe much longer, I shall begin to pity her.
Away softness ! Take out thy arrows, the poisoned, the barbed,
the rankling, and prod me the old creature well, god of the silver
bow ! Eliza Baynes had to look on, then, and see the trunks
packed ; to see her own authority over her own daughter wrested
away from her; to see the undutiful girl prepare with perfect
delight and alacrity to go away, without feeling a pang at leaving
a mother who had nursed her through adverse illnesses, who had
scolded her for seventeen years.
The General accompanied the party to the diligence office.
Little Char was very pale and melancholy indeed when she took
her place in the coupé. " She should have a corner : she had been
ill, and ought to have a corner," Uncle Mac said, and cheerfully
consented to be bodkin. Our three special friends are seated.
The other passengers clamber into their places. Away goes the
clattering team, as the General waves an adieu to his friends.
" Monstrous fine horses those grey Normans ; famous breed, indeed,"
he remarks to his wife on his return.
"Indeed," she echoes. "Pray, in what part of the carriage
was Mr. Firmin ?" she presently asks.
" In no part of the carriage at all !" Baynes answers fiercely,
turning beetroot red. And thus, though she had been silent, obedient,
hanging her head, the woman showed that she was aware of her
master's schemes, and why her girl had been taken away. She
knew ; but she was beaten. It remained for her but to be silent
and bow her head. I daresay she did not sleep one wink that
night. She followed the diligence in its journey. " Char is gone,"
she thought. " Yes; in due time he will take from me the obedience
of my other children, and tear them out of my lap." He—that is,
the General—was sleeping meanwhile. He bad had in the last few
days four awful battles—with his child, with his friends, with his
wife—in which latter combat he had been conqueror. No wonder
Baynes was tired, and needed rest. Any one of those engagements
was enough to weary the veteran.
If we take the liberty of looking into double-bedded rooms, and
peering into the thoughts which are passing under private nightcaps,
may we not examine the coupé of a jingling diligence with an open