Lydia Trent by Abigail Blanchart Page A

until you are out
of full mourning, so I am only asking you to add another eight months
to that time.

    I
am sorry if this verdict gives you disappointment, my dear, but hope
you will take it in the spirit it was intended, and give credit to
the kindly feelings of your affectionate uncle,

    John
Trent.'

    The
letter was their uncle all over - so very like their Papa, his
brother - all frank kindness and good, solid sense. His arguments
were disappointing to the young people, but his judgement was so
sensible, and so frankly and kindly expressed, that they could not
find a single objection which would hasten the day when Adeline Wade
would become Mrs Alfred Denham.

    And
so it was determined that the young couple should put off that happy
day ntil the first day following Adeline's twenty-first birthday, and
that until then Lydia would swallow her pride, and submit to being
regarded as a hired dependent in her father's house.

Chapter the 9 th

    Lydia
was not the only member of the household to be offended by Mrs Trent.
One afternoon Lydia was surprised to see Bessie the housemaid lugging
a battered portmanteau down the stairs, her face much streaked with
tears, her eyes red and puffy.

    “ Why
Bessie, whatever is the matter?” cried Lydia, “No trouble at
home, I hope.”

    “ Trouble
there is, but not at home. I've been give warning, Miss.” moaned
the distressed housemaid.

    “ Warning?
But why? It would be very unlike you to be remiss in your duties.”

    “ Well
it seems Mistress lost some trinket or other, and it's not the first
time things has gone a-walking, by her account, and she demanded the
key to my box, just like that, Miss Lydia, and me a respectable woman
as has always been used to be spoken to kindly in this house.

    “ Anyway
I fired up at that, like, for to have the finger pointed at me is
more than I could bear, as has always been honest. And I told her I
weren't no thief and if she wanted to find her things maybe she
should look in that Frenchy Estelle's box first. For the sneaky sly
thing is always creeping round, and seems to have more money than any
of us can account for, she's always dressed up that smart, and sneaks
around telling tales of folks, for it was her that told Mistress of
Maisy being late back from her evening out last week, when the poor
girl had to stay and watch her babby brother as had the croup, til
her mother got back from the doctors, and Maisy got such a scolding
as reduced her to tears, and her next months evening out stopped.

    “ Well
Mistress just drew herself up and said summat about how she 'didn't
choose to keep dishonest and insolent servants', and I might take my
months warning, and I said I wouldn't stay another day in a house
where I was supspected and insulted, let alone another month, so here
I am, and off I go, bag and baggage, this very afternoon. And this
the house where I've lived since I was but sixteen, and was my very
first place, and I've watched you young ladies grow up from babbies,
and served you faithful, and always been treated respectful...” and
here the loquacious woman's narrative broke off in a fresh flood of
tears. She was genuinely distressed, and not just at being 'out of
place'. The good creature had served the family faithfully for twenty
years, and this her reward! Lydia was incensed. She bade the
housemaid to go and have a cup of tea in the kitchen, and calm
herself, while she attempted to intercede with the lady of the house.

    She
found her stepmother idling over that same long piece of embroidery,
though the chair-back in berlin-wool and beads seemed to have made
very little progress since the first time we saw it.

    “ Mamm...
Mrs Trent, I am distressed to learn you have dismissed poor Bessie.”
said Lydia, in as gentle a tone as she could manage. “She is this
moment preparing to leave the house!”

    “ Really,
how tiresome.” drawled the widow, “These rustic servants are so
unreasonable, they take one up so. I only asked