the little child who was so long prayed for, and who came at last in answer to james ashurst's fervent prayers, had nothing during her childhood to distinguish her from ordinary children. it is scarcely worthy of record that her mother had a hundred anecdotes illustrative of her precocity, of her difference from other infants, of certain peculiarities never before noticed in a child of tender years. all mothers say these things whether they believe them or not, and mrs. ashurst, stretched on her sick-couch, did believe them, and found in watching what she believed to be the abnormal gambols of her child, a certain relief from the constant, dreary, wearing pain which sapped her strength, and rendered her life void and colourless and unsatisfactory. james ashurst believed them fervently; even if they had required a greater amount of credulity than that which he was blessed with, he, knowing it gave the greatest pleasure to his wife, would have stuck to the text that marian was a wonderful, "really, he might say, a very wonderful child." but he had never seen anything of childhood since his own, which he had forgotten, and the awakening of the commonest faculties in his daughter came upon him as extraordinary revelations of subtle character, which, when their possessor had arrived at years of maturity, would astonish the world. the helmingham people did not subscribe to these opinions. most of them had children of their own, who, they considered, were quite as eccentric, and odd, and peculiar as marian ashurst. "not that i'm for 'lowin that to be pert and sassy one minute, and sittin' mumchance wi'out sa much as a word to throw at a dog the next, is quite manners," they would say among themselves; "but what's ye to expect? poor mrs. ashurst layin' on the brode of her back, and little enough of that, poor thing, and that poor feckless creature, the schoolmaster, buzzed i' his 'ed wi' book larnin' and that! a pretty pair to bring up such a tyke as miss madge!"
that was in the very early days of her life. as the "tyke" grew up she dropped all outward signs of tykishness, and seemed to be endeavouring to prove that eccentricity was the very last thing to be ascribed to her. the misses lewin, whose finishing-school was renowned throughout the county, declared they had never had so quick or so hardworking a pupil as miss ashurst, or one who had done them so much credit in so short a time. the new rector of helmingham declared that he should not have known how to get through his class and parish work had it not been for the assistance which he had received from miss ashurst at times when--when really--well, other young ladies would, without the slightest harm to themselves, be it said, have been enjoying themselves in the croquet-ground. when the wardrobe woman retired from the school to enter into the bonds of wedlock with the drill-sergeant (whose expansive chest and manly figure, when going through the "exercise without clubs," might have softened medusa herself), marian ashurst at once took upon herself the vacant situation, and resolutely refused to allow any one else to fill it. these may have been put down as eccentricities; they were evidences of odd character certainly not usually found in girls of marian's age, but they were proofs of a spirit far above tykishness. all her best friends, except, of course, the members of her family whose views regarding her were naturally extremely circumscribed, noticed in the girl an exceedingly great desire for the acquisition of knowledge, a power of industry and application quite unusual, an extraordinary devotion to anything she undertook, which suffered itself to be turned away by no temptation, to be wearied by no fatigue. always eager to help in any scheme, always bright-eyed and clear-headed and keen-witted, never unduly asserting herself, but always having her own way while persuading her interlocutors that she was following their dictates, the odd shy child grew up into a girl less shy, indeed, but scarcely less odd. and certainly not lovable: those who fought her battles most strongly--and even in that secluded village there were social and domestic battles, strong internecine warfare, carried on with as much rancour as in the great city itself--were compelled to admit there was "a something" in her which they disliked, and which occasionally was eminently repulsive.
this something had developed itself strongly in the character of the child, before she emerged into girlhood; and though it remained vague as to definition, while distinct as to impression in the minds of others, marian herself understood it perfectly, and could have told any one, had she chosen, what it was that made her unlike the other children, apart from her being brighter and smarter than they, a difference which she also perfectly understood. she would have said, "i am very fond of money, and the others are not; they are content to have food and clothes, but i like to see the money that is paid for them, and to have some of it, all for myself, and to heap it up and look at it, and i am not satisfied as they are, when they have what they want--i want better things, nicer food, and smarter clothes, and more than them, the money. i don't say so, because i know papa hasn't got it, and so he cannot give it to me; but i wish he could. there is no use talking and grumbling about things we cannot have; people laugh at you, and are glad you are so foolish when you do that, so i say nothing about it, but i wish i was rich."
marian would have made some such answer to any one who should have endeavoured to get at her mind to find out what that was lurking there, never clearly seen, but always plainly felt, which made her "old fashioned," in other than the pathetic and interesting sense in which that expression has come to be used with reference to children, before she had entered upon her teens.
a clever mother would have found out this grave and ominous component of the child's character--would have interpreted the absence of the thoughtless extravagance, so charming, if sometimes so trying, of childhood--would have been quick to have noticed that marian asked, "what will it cost?" and gravely entered into mental calculation on occasions when other children would have demanded the purchase of a coveted article clamorously, and shrieked if it were refused. but mrs. ashurst was not a clever mother--she was only a loving, indulgent, rather helpless one; and the little marian's careful ways were such a practical comfort to her, while the child was young, that it never occurred to her to investigate their origin, to ask whether such a very desirable and fortunate effect could by possibility have a reprehensible, dangerous, insidious cause. marian never wasted her pennies, marian never spoiled her frocks, marian never lost or broke anything; all these exceptional virtues mrs. ashurst carefully noted and treasured in the storehouse of her memory. what she did not notice was, that marian never gave anything away, never voluntarily shared any of her little possessions with her playfellows, and, when directed to do so, complied with a reluctance which all her pride, all her brave dread of the appearance of being coerced, hardly enabled her to subdue, and suffered afterwards in an unchildlike way. what she did not observe was, that marian was not to be taken in by glitter and show; that she preferred, from the early days in which her power of exhibiting her preference was limited by the extent of the choice which the toy-merchant---who combined hardbake and hairdressing with ministering to the pleasures of infancy--afforded within the sum of sixpence. if marian took any one into her confidence, or asked advice on such solemn occasions--generally ensuing on a protracted hoarding of the coin in question--it would not be by the questions, "is it the prettiest?" "is it the nicest?" but, "do you think it is worth sixpence?" and the child would look from the toy to the money, held closely in the shut palm of her chubby hand, with a perturbed countenance, in which the pleasure of the acquisition was almost neutralised by the pain of the payment--a countenance in which the spirit of barter was to be discerned by knowing eyes. but none such took note of marian's childhood. the illumination of love is rather dazzling than searching in the case of mothers of mrs. ashurst's class, and she was dazzled. marian was perfection in her eyes, and at an age at wthe inversion of the relations between mother and daughter, common enough in later life, would have appeared to others unreasonable, preposterous, mrs. ashurst surrendered herself wholly, happily, to the guidance and the care of her daughter. the inevitable self-assertion of the stronger mind took place, the inevitable submission of the weaker. in this instance, a gentle, persuasive, unconscious self-assertion, a joyful yielding, without one traversing thought of humiliation or deposition.
her daughter was so clever, so helpful, so grave, so good; her economy and management--surely they were wonderful in so young a girl, and must have come to her by instinct?--rendered life such a different, so much easier a thing, delicate as she was, and requiring so disproportionate a share of their small means to be expended on her, that it was not surprising mrs. ashurst should see no possibility of evil in the origin of such qualities.
as for marian's father, he was about as likely to discover a comet or a continent as to discern a flaw in his daughter's moral nature. the child, so longed for, so fervently implored, remained always, in her father's sight, heaven's best gift to him; and he rejoiced exceedingly, and wondered not a little, as she developed into the girl whom we have seen beside his death-bed. he rejoiced because she was so clever, so quick, so ready, had such a masterly mind and happy faculty of acquiring knowledge; knowledge of the kind he prized and reverenced; of the kind which he felt would remain to her, an inheritance for her life. he wondered why she was so strong, for he knew she did not take the peculiar kind of strength of character from him or from her mother.
it was not to be wondered at that these peculiarities of marian ashurst were noticed by the inhabitants of the village where she was born, and where her childish days had been passed; but it was remarkable that they were regarded with anything but admiration. for a keen appreciation of money, and an unfailing determination to obtain their money's worth, had long been held to be eminently characteristic of the denizens of helmingham. the cheesefactor used to declare that the hardest bargains throughout his county connection were those which mrs. croke, and mrs. whicher, and, worst of all, old mrs. m'shaw (who, though helmingham born and bred, had married sandy m'shaw, a scotch gardener, imported by old squire creswell) drove with him. not the very best ale to be found in the cellars of the lion at brocksopp (and they could give you a good glass of ale, bright, beaming, and mellow, at the lion, when they choose), not the strongest mahogany-coloured brandy-and-water, mixed in the bar by the fair hands of miss parkhurst herself, not even the celebrated rum-punch, the recipe of which, like the songs of the scandinavian scalds, had never been written out, but had descended orally to old tilley, the short, stout, rubicund landlord--had ever softened the heart of a helmingham farmer in the matter of business, or induced him to take a shilling less on a quarter of wheat, or a truss of straw, than he had originally made up his mind to sell it at.
"canny helmingham" was its name throughout the county, and its people were proud of it. mr. chambré, an earnest clergyman who had succeeded the old rector, had been forewarned of the popular prejudice, and on the second sunday of his ministry addressed his parishioners in a very powerful and eloquent discourse upon the wickedness of avarice and the folly of heaping up worldly riches; after which, seeing that the only effect his sermon had was to lay him open to palpable rudeness, he wisely concentrated his energies on his translation of horace's odes (which has since gained him such great renown, and of which at least forty copies have been sold), and left his parishioners' souls to take care of themselves. but however canny and saving they might be, and however, sharply they might battle with the cheesefactor and look after the dairymaid, as behoved farmers' wives in these awful days of free trade (they had a firm belief in helmingham that "cobden," under which generic name they understood it, was a kind of pest, as is the smut in wheat, or the tick in sheep), all the principal dames in the village were greatly shocked at the unnatural love of money which it was impossible to help noticing in marian ashurst.
"there was time enow to think o' they things, money and such-like fash, when pipple was settled down," as mrs. croke said; "but to see children hardenin' their hearts and scrooin' their pocket-money is unnatural, to say the least of it!" it was unnatural and unpopular in helmingham. mrs. croke put such a screw on the cheesefactor, that in the evening after his dealings with her, that worthy filled the commercial room at the lion with strange oaths and modern instances of sharp dealing in which mrs. croke bore away the palm; but she was highly indignant when lotty croke's godmother bought her a savings-bank, a gray edifice, with what theatrical people call a practicable chimney, down which the intended savings should be deposited. mrs. whicher's dairymaid, who, being from ireland, and a roman catholic in faith, was looked upon with suspicion, not to say fear, in the village, and who was regarded by the farmers as in constant though secret communication with the pope of rome and the jesuit college generally, declared that her mistress "canthered the life out of her" in the matter of small wages and much work; but mrs. whicher's daughter, emily, had more crimson gowns, and more elegant bonnets, with regular fields of poppies, and perfect harvests of ears of corn growing out of them, than any of her compeers, for which choice articles the heavy bill of madame morgan--formerly of paris, now of brocksopp--was paid without a murmur. "it's unnat'ral in a gell like marian ashurst to think so much o' money and what it brings," would be a frequent remark at one of those private helmingham institutions known as "thick teas." and then mrs. croke would say, "and what like will a gell o' that sort look to marry? why, a man maun have poun's and poun's before she'd say 'yea' and buckle to!"
but that was a matter which marian had already decided upon.
