At Aunt Verbena’s: White Tree Publishing Edition

About the Book

Hester Walton is just starting a promising writing career, but she answers the call to care for her aunt, Verbena Bridge, who is both sour and bitter, as well as bedridden. Aunt Verbena’s elderly servant, Finnis, is also sour and bitter, as well as lazy. Hester discovers Finnis never changes Aunt Verbena’s bedding! Finis resents the intrusion of Hester as she goes about improving conditions for her aunt. Also in the house is Hugh Millard, the orphan son of Aunt Verbena’s friends who died in India. Hester helps with Hugh’s education, while doing her best to keep him out of trouble. With her writing career on hold, and the love of her life apparently courting one of her friends, Hester struggles to maintain her Christian faith when faced with so many difficulties.

At Aunt Verbena’s

Margaret S. Haycraft

1855-1936

White Tree Publishing Edition

Original book first published 1897

This edition ©White Tree Publishing 2019

eBook ISBN: 978-1-912529-38-4

Published by

White Tree Publishing

Bristol

UNITED KINGDOM

wtpbristol@gmail.com

Full list of books and updates on

www.whitetreepublishing.com

At Aunt Verbena’s is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this abridged edition.

Author Biography

Margaret Scott Haycraft was born Margaret Scott MacRitchie at Newport Pagnell, England in 1855. She married William Parnell Haycraft in 1883 and wrote mostly under her married name. In 1891 she was living in Brighton, on the south coast of England, and died in Bournemouth, also on the south coast, in 1936. She also wrote under her maiden name of Margaret MacRitchie. Margaret Haycraft is by far our most popular author of fiction.

Margaret was a contemporary of the much better-known Christian writer Mrs. O. F. Walton. Both ladies wrote Christian stories for children that were very much for the time in which they lived, with little children often preparing for an early death. Mrs. Walton wrote three romances for adults (with no suffering children, and now published by White Tree in abridged versions). Margaret Haycraft concentrated initially on books for children. However, she also wrote romances for older readers. Unusually for Victorian writers, the majority of Margaret Haycraft’s stories are told in the present tense, but not this one, except in the final pages.

Both Mrs. Walton’s and Margaret Haycraft’s books for all ages can be over-sentimental, referring throughout, for example, to a mother as the dear, sweet mother, and a child as the darling little child. In our abridged editions overindulgent descriptions of people have been shortened to make a more robust story, but the characters and storyline are always unchanged.

A problem of Victorian writers is the tendency to insert intrusive comments concerning what is going to happen later in the story. Today we call them spoilers. They are usually along the lines of: Little did he/she know that.... I have removed these when appropriate.

£1 at the time of this story may not sound much, but in income value it is worth approximately £120 pounds today (about US$150). I mention this in case sums of money in this book sound insignificant!

This story was sold in a combined volume of two novelettes by Margaret Haycraft, the other being the title of the volume, The Lady of the Chine. This novelette will be published by White Tree Publishing later in 2018. Unlike The Lady of the Chine, Iona seems to have been either rushed to meet a deadline, or poorly edited in places by the original publisher. For example, names appear later as though they have been in the story all along. These and other minor problems have hopefully been addressed in this White Tree Publishing Edition, without changing the plot or characters in any way.

Chris Wright

Editor

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

There are 20 chapters in the book. In the second part are some advertisements for our other books, so the story may end earlier than expected! The last chapter is marked as such. We aim to make our eBooks free or for a nominal cost, and cannot invest in other forms of advertising. However, word of mouth by satisfied readers will help get our books more widely known. When the story ends, please take a look at what we publish: Christian fiction, Christian non-fiction, and books for younger readers.

Table of Contents

Cover

About the Book

Author Biography

Note

1. Briarbloom Cottage

2, News from Aunt Verbena

3. Hester’s Decision

4. Aunt Verbena

5. Hester’s New Home

6. Birthday Festivities

7. The Secret in the Dresser

8. A New Project

9. Hugh’s Sacrifice

10. Sunlight for Hester

11. Called to Service

12. Graham and Phyllis

13. A Fit of Passion

14. Bad News for Finnis

15. At Oakleys Hall

16. A Pleasant Meeting

17. Sisters in Heart

18. The Haven

19. Mother’s Hymn

20. At Eventide

About White Tree Publishing

More Books from White Tree Publishing

Christian non-fiction

Christian Fiction

Books for Younger Readers

Chapter 1

Briarbloom Cottage

WHO wants a letter?

Oh, Graham, give it up directly. It must be from darling Phyllis. She promised to write when she was settled at the hospital.

Well, then, ‘darling Phyllis’s’ handwriting has changed of a sudden, said Graham Walton, surveying the letter he had taken from the postman, but holding it teasingly away from his sisters. The young lady always was rather strong-minded, but I did not know her calligraphy had become so decidedly masculine.

Graham, is it from Edgar?

The words came rather shyly from his eldest sister, Celia, as she paused in her occupation of cutting bread and butter, and looked up at him anxiously, as though no mail from India had been in the day before, bringing her the customary three volumes, as Graham termed the closely-written sheets from a certain dear friend of her own.

Did you expect a supplement to yesterday’s edition, then, my dear sister? asked Graham. No, I am afraid I can’t oblige you this time. A journal and six sheets of correspondence, a photograph, a Hindu figure for an inkstand, and a Calcutta paper you received yesterday ought to satisfy the most grasping-minded of your sex for one week. As for you, Miss Hester, what do you mean by receiving letters from the opposite sex? It is on my conscience that, as your brother and natural protector, I ought to open this package and acquaint myself with the goings-on of our family genius.

Give me my letter, Graham. You won’t open it, will you? implored Hester, who was preparing a blackboard lesson for her class tomorrow, but had been silently listening all this time with burning cheeks and inward excitement that Graham fully understood.

"‘Messrs. Tinley & Taylor return thanks to Miss Walton, the gifted authoress, for permitting them to peruse her manuscript Saint Charity, and deeply regret their inability to accept the exquisite composition, which they decline with thanks,’" said Graham, pretending to read from the letter; but just then Alys came behind him, and suddenly appropriated Hester’s property, bearing it over triumphantly to the rightful owner.

Hester wished them all in various quarters of the house, and herself tasting the sweets of solitude at that moment. It was extremely awkward to be surrounded by one’s family when about to read for the seventh time that Messrs. So-and-so regret they have no opening for the literary attempts submitted to them.

But her kindred listened expectantly, as usual, and Alys asked eagerly, "What is it, Hester? Does it say Messrs. Tinley & Taylor will be sending your story back? Never mind, it’s just splendid, and I should post it off to the Homestead Light tomorrow, if I were you."

They’ve ... they’ve taken it! gasped Hester, "and they’ve sent me five guineas, and I am to sign this receipt. And ... oh, Celia, they say they would be pleased to see a short serial from my pen. Messrs. Tinley & Taylor ‒ such a splendid firm! And the Beacon, where Saint Charity will come out, has such lovely pictures. Oh, what will father say, I wonder? And whatever shall I do with all this money? It is as much as I earn teaching at Mrs. Riddet’s in three months!"

Hester, I always knew you would be an author! cried Alys, throwing her arms round her younger sister. Your name will be in everybody’s mouth before long, and your photograph will be in all the papers!

Oh, dear, I hope not, said Hester. "Not if it comes out anything like Mrs. Riddet’s photograph in our local paper ‒ you know they put her in when Mr. Riddet was mayor. I felt so sorry for Mrs. Riddet, because she wasn’t a bit like that, and I think she felt it. But only to think of my story coming out in the Beacon! I’ll begin to write regularly now every afternoon and evening, and I’ll have the back attic for my writing room, and save up to buy a proper table with pigeon-holes, and drawers, and things. I wonder how much one would cost second-hand!"

Well, really, said Graham, I scarcely like to suggest such a mundane subject as boiled eggs on such an auspicious occasion, but I see that Lorry is bringing them in; and if I may be privileged to sit down and eat bread and butter in the presence of such a shining light of literature....

Don’t tease, you bad boy, said Hester, pulling his hair. Aren’t we going to wait tea for father, Celia?

No, dear, he said he might have tea at Dellthorpe if he is detained. How hard father works. I wish you would make haste and get through your exams, and help him, Graham.

I am quite willing to go through at a gallop, my beloved sister, said Graham, who was studying at one of the London hospitals, but unfortunately the examiners are somewhat prejudiced and opinionated, and demand a certain amount of acquaintance with the details of one’s profession. Guess the news, Lorry. One of us is going to be famous. ‘Which shall it be? Which shall it be?’ as a well-known recitation puts it.

Why, then, it’s Miss Hester, said the old servant, surveying with proud fondness the youngest of the sisters. Have you got your story accepted, dearie, and is it really going to come out in print, like a book?

It’s to be a tale in a magazine, Lorry, said Hester, whose face was still bright with the flush of excitement. "It’s Saint Charity, the story I read to you in the kitchen just before Christmas. And they have sent me five guineas for it. I shall soon be able to earn enough to keep us going, I am certain. Successful authors are paid very well, I am told. But I should not have minded if they gave me nothing for my tale. It is so lovely to have it out, and feel I have made a start at last. I have wanted to be an author ever since I was born."

‘Biography of Miss Hester Rose Walton,’ said Graham. ‘Our gifted contemporary at an early age showed signs of those remarkable talents which are now of European reputation.’

Well, said Celia, I have some compositions of Hetty’s which were made up almost in the nursery. I know she wrote a poem at seven years old about a ‘Sire Sitting by a Fire,’ and another ‘On the Death of Jenny, my Canary.’ It begins, ‘We weep, sweet bird, because thou’rt gone.’

Oh, Celia, don’t! cried Hester, laughing. I wish you would tear up those old things.

Don’t destroy them on any account, said Graham. "Think how valuable they will be for Chapter One when that biography of the family genius comes out! Perhaps it will be then of interest to the public to know that the author’s brother, on the occasion of the acceptance of Saint Charity waited in suspense for his cup of tea for fully eight minutes, and, as one of the faculty, he objects to tea that is overdrawn."

What a boy you are, Master Graham! said Lorry, gazing admiringly at the children, as she still regarded the Walton family. Well, it’s no more than I’ve expected of Miss Hester all these years. Hasn’t she always been scribbling and writing away whenever there was pencil and paper handy? And didn’t she always take the prizes at school? I always said as Miss Hetty would live to be great, and so she will; and it’s me that wishes your mother were alive this day to know you’ve succeeded at last, my dearie.

A silence fell upon the group. Five years had not dimmed the memory of the gentle sufferer, whose sweet patience had been in their midst a daily sermon of faith and peace and gladness.

I think she does know, Lorry, said Hester brokenly. She could not speak out the things that were in her heart. How many and many a time in their quiet talks together, when she would show her mother the dream-children concerning whom she was ofttimes shy to others, Mrs. Walton had reminded her that her gift of writing was a trust from her heavenly Father, and that greatness can attain no higher place than to be laid down for the Lord’s use at His feet. And the remembrance came to Hester of almost the last sermon to which she had listened