hand; ‘but all are not condemned to meet a lingering and premature doom, such as yours would be if you perished here of want.’
‘Who or what speaks?’ I asked, terrified at the unexpected sound, and incapable now of deriving from any occurrence a hope of aid. A form was near – what form, the pitch-dark night and my enfeebled vision prevented me from distinguishing. With a loud, long knock, the new-comer appealed to the door.
‘Is it you, Mr St John?’ cried Hannah.
‘Yes – yes; open quickly.’
‘Well, how wet and cold you must be, such a wild night as it is! Come in – your sisters are quite uneasy about you, and I believe there are bad folks about. There has been a beggar-woman – I declare she is not gone yet! – laid down there. Get up! for shame! Move off, I say!’
‘Hush, Hannah! I have a word to say to the woman. You have done your duty in excluding, now let me do mine in admitting her. I was near, and listened to both you and her. I think this is a peculiar case – I must at least examine into it. Young woman, rise, and pass before me into the house.’
With difficulty I obeyed him. Presently I stood within that clean, bright kitchen – on the very hearth – trembling, sickening; conscious of an aspect in the last degree ghastly, wild, and weather-beaten. The two ladies, their brother, Mr St John, the old servant, were all gazing at me.
‘St John, who is it?’ I heard one ask.
‘I cannot tell: I found her at the door,’ was the reply.
‘She does look white,’ said Hannah.
‘As white as clay or death,’ was responded. ‘She will fall: let her sit.’
And indeed my head swam: I dropped; but a chair received me. I still possessed my senses, though just now I could not speak.
‘Perhaps a little water would restore her. Hannah, fetch some. But she is worn to nothing. How very thin, and how very bloodless!’
‘A mere spectre!’
‘Is she ill, or only famished?’
‘Famished, I think. Hannah, is that milk? Give it me, and a piece of bread.’
Diana (I knew her by the long curls which I saw drooping between me and the fire as she bent over me) broke some bread, dipped it in milk, and put it to my lips. Her face was near mine: I saw there was pity in it, and I felt sympathy in her hurried breathing. In her simple words, too, the same balm-like emotion spoke. ‘Try to eat.’
‘Yes – try,’ repeated Mary gently; and Mary’s hand removed my sodden bonnet and lifted my head. I tasted what they offered me: feebly at first, eagerly soon.
‘Not too much at first – restrain her,’ said the brother; ‘she has had enough.’ And he withdrew the cup of milk and the plate of bread.
‘A little more, St John – look at the avidity in her eyes.’
‘No more at present, sister. Try if she can speak now – ask her her name.’
I felt I could speak, and I answered, ‘My name is Jane Elliott.’ Anxious as ever to avoid discovery I had before resolved to assume an alias.
‘And where do you live? Where are your friends?’
I was silent.
‘Can we send for anyone you know?’
I shook my head.
‘What account can you give of yourself?’
Somehow, now that I had once crossed the threshold of this house, and once was brought face to face with its owners, I felt no longer outcast, vagrant, and disowned by the wide world. I dared to put off the mendicant10 – to resume my natural manner and character. I began once more to know myself; and when Mr St John demanded an account – which at present I was far too weak to render – I said after a brief pause –
‘Sir, I can give you no details to-night.’
‘But what, then,’ said he, ‘do you expect me to do for you?’
‘Nothing,’ I replied. My strength sufficed for but short answers. Diana took the word –
‘Do you mean,’ she asked, ‘that we have now given you what aid you require? and that we may dismiss you to the moor and the rainy night?’
I looked at her. She had, I thought, a remarkable countenance, instinct both with power and goodness. I took sudden courage. Answering her compassionate gaze with a smile, I said, ‘I will trust you. If I were a masterless and stray dog, I know that you would not turn me from your hearth to-night:11 as it is,