The Pillars of the House, vol 1 | Page 7

and--'
A chorus of shouts interrupted him, all ecstatic, and rendered more
emphatic by the stamping of feet.
'And Angela will go!' added. Wilmet.
'And Papa,' entreated Cherry.
'And Mamma too, if she will,' said Felix.
'And Mr. Audley,' pronounced Robina, echoed by Clement and Angela.
'Mr. Audley must go!'
'Mr. Audley!' grunted Felix. 'I want nobody but ourselves.'
'Yes, and if he went we could not stay jolly late. My Lady would make
no end of a row if both curates cut the evening prayers.'
'For shame, Edgar!' cried the three elder girls.
While Wilmet added, 'We could not stay late, because of Papa and the
little ones. But I don't want Mr. Audley, either.'
'No, no! Papa and he will talk to each other, and be of no use,' said
Geraldine. 'Oh, how delicious! Will the wild-roses be out? When shall
it be, Felix?'
'Well, the first fine day after school breaks up, I should say.'
'Hurrah! hurrah!'
And there was another dance, in the midst of which Mr. Underwood

opened the door, to ask what honourable member was receiving such
deafening cheers.
'Here! here he is, Papa!' cried Alda. 'He is going to take us all out to a
picnic in the Castle woods; and won't you come, Papa?'
'O Papa, you will come!' said Felix. And the whole staircase bawled in
accordance.
'Come! to be sure I will!' said his father; 'and only too glad to be asked!
I trust we shall prove to have found the way to get the maximum of
pleasure out of Admiral Chester's gift.'
'If Mamma will go,' said Felix. 'I wonder what the van will cost, and
what will be left for the dinner.'
'Oh, let us two cook the whole dinner,' entreated the twins.
'Wait now,' said Felix. 'I didn't know it was so late, Father.' And he
carefully helped his father on with his coat; and as a church bell made
itself heard, set forth with him.
When the service was musical, Felix and his two next brothers both
formed part of the choir; and though this was not the case on this
evening, Felix knew that his mother was easier when he or Wilmet
could watch over Papa's wraps.
And Mamma herself, with one at least of the twins, was busy enough in
giving the lesser ones their supper, and disposing of them in bed, so
that the discreet alone might remain to the later tea-drinking.
And 'Sibby' must be made a sharer of the good news in her lower
region, though she was sure to disbelieve in Alda and Wilmet's amateur
cookery.
Sibby was Wilmet's foster-mother. Poor thing! Mr. Underwood had
found her in dire need in the workhouse, a child herself of seventeen
with a new-born babe, fresh from the discovery that the
soldier-husband, as she thought, and who had at least gone before the
praste with her,' and brought her from her Kilkenny home, was
previously husband to another woman. She was tenderly cared for by
Mr. Underwood's mother, who was then alive, and keeping house for
the whole party at the Rectory; and having come into the Vale Leston
nursery, she never left it. Her own child died in teething, and she clung
so passionately to her nursling, that Mrs. Underwood had no heart to
separate them, Roman Catholic though she was, and difficult to dispose
of. She was not the usual talking merry Irishwoman; if ever she had

been such, her heart was broken; and she was always meek, quiet,
subdued, and attentive; forgetful sometimes, but tender and trustworthy
to the last degree with the children.
She had held fast to the family in their reverses, and no more thought of
not sharing their lot than one of their children. Indeed, it would not
have been much more possible to send her out to shift for herself in
England; and her own people seemed to have vanished in the famine,
for her letters, with her savings, came back from the dead-letter office.
She put her shoulder to the burthen, and, with one small scrub under
her, got through an amazing amount of work: and though her great deep
liquid brown eyes looked as pathetic as ever, she certainly was in far
better spirits than when she sat in the nursery. To be sure, she was a
much better nurse than she was a cook; but as both could not be had,
Mrs. Underwood was content and thankful to have a servant so entirely
one with themselves in interests and affections; and who had the further
perfection of never wanting any society but the children's; shrinking
from English gossips, and never showing a weakness, save for Irish
tramps. Moreover, she was a prodigious knitter; and it was her boast
that not one of the six