CHAPTER LIII.
TELEGRAPH WIRES.
Daisy was quite right when she said that Hannah was not subject tonervous attacks. Hannah scorned nerves, and did not believe in them.When she was told that the human body was as full of nerves as anelectric battery was full of electricity, that nerves, in short, werelike numberless telegraphic-wires, prevailing the whole human frame,she stared at the speakers, and pronounced them slightly daft.
Yet Hannah went out of her own little sitting-room on that summerafternoon with, as she expressed it, trembling sensations running downher back, and causing her fingers to shake when she handled her cupsand saucers.
"Dear, dear," she said to herself, "one would think I had some ofthose awful telegrams in me which Miss Primrose said was the nervoussystem. Why, I'm all upset from top to toe. I never had a good view ofhim before, for I didn't pay no heed to nobody when my dear littleMiss Daisy was so ill; but I do say that the cut of the hand and theturn of the head is as like--as like as two peas. Now I do wonder--no,no, it can't be. Well, anyhow, my name ain't Hannah Martin if I don'tfind out where he comes from, and who he really is. Well, well,well--why this trembling won't leave me, and I don't dare go back intothe room. I suppose I have got a few telegraphs, and I mustn't neverlaugh at poor little Miss Daisy again when she says she's nervous."
Hannah sat and rested for about half an hour--then she drank off aglass of cold water--then she washed her face and hands--then she saidaloud that the telegrams should not get the better of her, and thenshe prepared as nice a little dinner as she could for Noel and the twosisters.
That evening, after Daisy was in bed, she came into the room wherePrimrose was quietly reading.
"You haven't never come across no one the least like that brother ofyours in the London streets, Miss Primrose?" she asked. "London's abig place, and strange things happen there--yes, very, very strangethings."
"Oh, Hannah, how you startle me!" said Primrose. "I come across mypoor little brother Arthur? How could I? Why, he must be dead for manyand many a year."
"Not a bit of him," said Hannah; "I don't believe he's dead. He was afine, hearty, strong child, and nothing ever seemed to ail him. Oh, itrises up before me now what a beautiful picture he made when he stoodin his little red velvet dress by your mamma's knee, and she so proudof him! There's no mistake, but he was the very light of her eyes. Shetook him up to London, and a nursemaid--not me, you may be quitesure--took him out. She went into a big shop, and the child was by herside. She kept him standing by her as she ordered some things acrossthe counter, and, I suppose, she turned her head for a minute, forwhen she looked round again he was gone. From that day to this he wasnever heard of, though everything you can think of was done. Oh, mypoor, poor mistress, what she did suffer!"
"Hannah, how excited you look!" said Primrose. "Why, you are alltrembling. It is a terrible story, but as I say to Daisy about Mr.Dove, don't let us think of it."
"Right you are, honey," said Hannah; "what can't be cured, you know.If you don't mind, Miss Primrose, I'll just sit down for a minute. I'mnot to say quite myself. Oh, it ain't nothing, dearie; just a bit ofthe trembles, and to prove to old Hannah that she is getting on inyears. I nursed you all, darling--him, my beautiful boy, and youthree. Miss Primrose, dear, how old would you say that Mr. Noel was.I didn't have a fair look at him until to-day, and he seems quite ayoung sort of man."
"Miss Egerton says that he is twenty-six, Hannah."
"Twenty-six," answered Hannah; "don't interrupt me for a minute, dear.I'm comparing dates--twenty-six--twenty-six. Law, goodness graciousme! You haven't never noticed, Miss Primrose, that he have a kind of amole--long-shaped, and rather big, a little way up his left arm? Haveyou, now, dearies?"
"No, really, Hannah, I've never seen Mr. Noel's arm without hiscoat-sleeve. How very queerly you are speaking, Hannah."
"Not at all, dearie; it's only because I've got the trembles on me.Well, love, and so you don't want to be under no compliments to thatMrs. Ellsworthy, who never took no notice of your poor dear ma?"
Primrose sighed.
"I feel sore about it, Hannah," she said. "But I must try not to betoo proud. I will ask God to help me to do what is really right in thematter."
"That's it, honey, and maybe you won't have to do it after all. Iwonder, now, dear, if Mr. Noel is well off."
"Really, Hannah, I think you have got Mr. Noel on the brain! Yes, Ihave heard Miss Egerton say that he is a rich man. He was the adoptedson of a very wealthy person, who left him all his property."
"Adopted, was he?" said Hannah. "On my word, these tremblings areterrible! Miss Primrose, dear, I have come in to say that I may begoing a little journey in the morning. I'll be off by the first dawn,so as to be back by night, and the shop needn't be opened at allto-morrow. There's a nice cold roast fowl for you and Miss Daisy, anda dish of strawberries which I gathered with my own hands not an hourback, so you'll have no trouble with your dinner. You see that MissDaisy eats plenty of cream with her strawberries, dear, for cream'sfattening; and now good-night."