The Tide on the Moaning Bar, page 1
The Argosy, October, 1899
The Tide on the Moaning Bar
by Fannie Hodgson Burnett
The story of a girl’s love and a man’s nature, and the wreck made by the combination on the Rocks of “The Moaning Bar.”
HAD never liked him. Much as I loved
for my sake. I know he will always take care
my lady, and long as I labored in her
of you, Mallon. His father would have done it, I service, I cannot say that I ever knew the if he had lived; and I know Jack will.”
day when I had any affection for Mr. Jack,
But though I promised, I knew better
even the slightest. There was a hard look in
than to expect anything like gratitude from
his black eyes from the first, and the moment I Mr. Jack. I had watched him all his life, and
saw him, as he lay, a day old baby, bundled up never knew him to show a thoroughly
in lawn and laces, it seemed as if I saw into
unselfish impulse.
his future, and trembled. And as he grew
But for my sweet, dead lady’s sake, I
older, the evil spirit grew with him.
stayed with him as housekeeper, at the Manse,
He was cruel and selfish as a child,
as the country house was called, and I tried
though his handsome face covered his faults,
my best to please him; so we had no
as handsome faces are apt to do; and even my
disagreement, for he never interfered, so long lady, who was so gentle and kindly, could see
as things were to his liking; and I may add,
no harm in him, and thought his wilful ways
never even thought to give me the thanks his
were only high spirit.
father and my lady had never spared.
And perhaps she was the more blind to
However, I stayed and attended to the
it, because his black eyes were so like his dead servants, and kept the house accounts; and
father’s; and she had always clung to her
when he came down from London with his
husband’s memory so tenderly. But Mr. Jack
friends, he never had to complain. And so
was not like his father, though my lady matters went on, until the month after my fancied he was. Mr. Lowther had never made
lady’s death, when he suddenly took a fancy
an enemy in his life; and I am sure Mr. Jack
that he wanted me to go with him to a little
never made a true friend.
seaside town, where he had been staying for
People flattered and feared him, and
some whim or other; for, as he condescended
pretended to admire his beauty and high to say then for the first time, he “liked my handed ways, but no one ever liked him well
ways, and liked to have me about him.”
enough to speak a good word for him behind
So, remembering my promise to his
his back. But, for my lady’s sake, people bore dying mother, I went, without any words;
with him, and for my lady’s sake I bore with
though I must admit it was rather a trial, at my him among the rest; and when she lay upon
time of life, to make such a change all at once; her deathbed, it was me she gave the charge of and, moreover, I could scarcely see how it was caring for him, as I had cared for her.
that be could require me.
“Don’t leave Mr. Jack, Mallon,” she
I found his chambers very fine and
said to me, when she could not say anything
handsomely furnished; for it was just like Mr.
else. “Don’t leave my boy. Take care of him,
Jack to have everything of the handsomest and
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2
best. There was a large suite of them in a big as if it actually needed brushing; and it was
house, in the principal square, and the rest of tied back with a purple velvet ribbon, which
the establishment was let to an Irish officer, was anything but clean.
whose regiment was quartered in the town
I had never seen a lovelier, more
barracks.
supple little figure; it was so lithe and soft and Major Clangarthe, the gentleman’s round; but her crimson cashmere morning name was, and his family consisting of a wife
robe was soiled and frayed; and the seam on
and three or four children, was with him. His
one of her shoulders had come unstitched and
rooms were not so handsome as Mr. Jack’s, I
showed the white skin through plainly.
discovered; and even the best of them had a
Even her feet—such pretty feet—were
queer, untidy look. Mrs. Clangarthe had been
not tidy. One of her slippers had burst out, and a great beauty in her day, and came of a very
the other had lost its rosette. But she did not fine, very poor Irish family; and on the seem to care about her appearance, and drew strength of this she used to lie on the sofa, or up the chair I offered her close to mine, and
sit in an easy chair all day, joking with the
began to talk with a careless freedom that
major, and letting the children run wild.
made me almost catch my breath.
They had made away with plenty of
“I am Lina,” she said, as
money in their time, shabby as things seemed
unceremoniously as if she had known me for
now; and they were as carelessly happy, good
years. “Lina Clangarthe, from the rooms up
tempered a set as ever I saw in my life. When
stairs; and I thought I would come to see you.
they had money, it flew right and left, and
Mamma said I might, because we know Mr.
when they gave their gay little wine suppers, I Lowther so well. You have been housekeeper
am sure people never enjoyed themselves in his family ever since he was born, he says.”
more than they did; and there was never more
I told her that I had, and answered all
hearty laughing than I could hear among the
her questions as well as I could, though she
officers, who crowded into their asked a great many. The fact was, she asked drawingrooms, as if they would rather be there questions all the time, and seemed so sweet
than attend the finest entertainment in the tempered about it that I could not help liking West End. But they were queer people for all
the poor, neglected child.
that.
And she was as ready to answer
The first I saw of them was two or
questions as she was to ask them, and to my
three days after my arrival, when, as I was
bewilderment, told me all about the family
sitting at my work, there came a rap at my
affairs, speaking just as gaily about their
door, and in answer to my “come in,” it family troubles as if the whole affair was a opened and showed me a young lady standing
joke.
there laughing.
“And so it is a joke,” she said, “and
“Do you mean ‘come in’ really?” she
fine fun we have of it sometimes. If it wasn’t said, good naturedly. “If you don’t, I can run for Lady Medora and her lectures, and the
away again.”
tracts she sticks in the boxes of old finery she She was a very pretty young lady, sends us, we shouldn’t mind it a bit.”
indeed, and very young; not more than
Lady Medora was her father’s sister, I
seventeen; but to my mind she looked queer
found out, and a very rigid person. She sent
enough. She had big, round, lovely gray eyes,
them boxes of her cast off finery two or three and crinkling, silky black hair, hanging to a bit times a year, and when they came, they were
of a waist; but the crinkling black hair looked sure to herald a new lecture on family
The Tide on the Moaning Bar
3
frivolity, and a new supply of tracts.
thinking it is not quite proper to apply to Mr.
“I wore one in the toe of a slipper for a
Jack. You are too young and pretty for such
week,” Lina said. “Her ladyship had stuffed it things to be quite discreet, my love.”
in, and I should never have seen it, but that
From the bottom of my old woman’s
Fergus’ terrier was playing with the rosette
heart I felt that she was too good and innocent and tore the kid and pulled it out.”
to be trifled with, and I knew Mr. Jack too
I really thought I must be dreaming, it
well to hope that he meant to act honorably by seemed so strange that the pretty, her. But I did not think of the worst then. God incomprehensible creature should be revealing
knows, I never believed his heart could be as
the family secrets so frankly; but she rattled black as it proved itself.
on as gaily as if there was nothing at all
I thought it quite likely that he might
talk nonsense, and flatter her with hopes he
“I am so glad you have come,” she
never meant to realize; but I never went so far said. “I like old ladies, and you look so nice as to think he could mean to bring misery and
and good natured. I shall come in and see you
despair on this pretty, ignorant young thing,
often, if you don’t mind. You won’t mind, will whose heart was so fresh and childish.
you? Besides, I am glad for something else.
She sat and talked to me for more than
As long as you are here, it won’t be the least an hour, and the more she talked, the more I
bit improper to talk to Mr. Jack when I come
liked her light hearted, affectionate ways, and in to borrow things. I often come in to borrow the more I wished she had a better mother to
things, and I can’t help talking when he guide her. It seemed a trifle curious, too, that begins, though I suppose it is a tiny mite
I, with all my staid, old womanish notions,
improper. And mamma says I must be should have taken such a fancy; but somehow discreet; but the fact is, my darling Mrs. my heart warmed toward her, and she seemed Mallon, we are not a discreet family. I often
to see it.
think there must be the least taste of vagabond I knew that at first the innocent
blood in our veins, if we are Clangarthes.”
rattlebrain had only come to coax her way into I was so sorry for her, so fearful of the
my heart for Mr. Jack’s sake, but I could see
danger her beauty and ignorance and high
plainly enough in the end that she was quite
spirits might throw her into, that, even while honest in her liking for me, and would take
she laughed, I felt heavy hearted.
any motherly counsel I gave her.
What sort of a woman could she be,
I could not help thinking about her
this mother, who let the pretty creature run in when she was gone, and wishing that she was
and out of a gentleman’s private rooms to
not so ready to admire Mr. Jack’s fine ways
borrow things and listen to whatever flattering and handsome face. He was handsome
nonsense he chose to talk to her? In the liking enough, it cannot be denied, and he was the
I had taken to her I couldn’t help speaking a
very style of beauty to take a girl’s fancy. He word or two, which I thought might serve as a
was slight and lithe limbed, and dark as a
motherly hint.
Spaniard.
“I am glad I have come, too, my dear,”
Indeed,
there
had
been, two or three
I said to her. “And I hope you won’t take it
centuries ago, a touch of Spanish blood in the hardly if I say I am glad for your sake. I hope Lowther family, and now and then it broke out
you will come and see me often; and if you
again in a pair of dense black eyes, a slow,
want to borrow anything, just run in here,
sweet smile, and a graceful languor of motion.
right to me, because you are quite right in
My lady’s husband had possessed the
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4
dark eyes, but the rest had come to Mr. Jack,
gave me some hope that he had not taken any
and it was easy enough to see how a girl like
great fancy to her, as I had at first imagined he Lina Clangarthe would passionately admire
had. His fancies were not pleasant things to
his beauty and careless haughtiness.
cope with; and I knew such a fancy as this
That night, for the first time since my
could come to no good.
arrival, Mr. Jack paid me a visit, and the
But before I had been in the house
moment I saw him I knew why he had come.
many days, I found that the major and he were
And, after he had talked, about other things
great friends, and that Mrs. Clangarthe
for a while, he spoke out, carelessly enough.
admired him as much as her daughter did. She
“You had a visitor this morning, had a great weakness for beauty, and Mr.
Gorish tells me,” he said.
Jack’s dark eyes won her from the first.
The words were quiet sounding, to be
He spent hours in their apartments,
sure, but I did not trust them, for bold and
passing in and out in the queer, informal way
devil may care as he was by nature, he did not everybody who had dealings with them
look me in the face when he spoke. He looked
seemed to adopt; and it was plain that he was
down at the half smoked cigar in his hand, so
always welcome, for the major made a great to
that his black lashes cast a curious shadow
do over him, and Mrs. Clangarthe would laugh
over his dark, half closed eyes.
and talk to him in the good natured, light
“Yes, I had a visitor,” I answered, as
headed fashion which seemed natural to her.
brief as possible.
The major was pretty deeply in his
He smiled languidly, as he smoothed a
debt, Mr. Jack’s valet, Gorish, told me, and
loose leaf round the cigar with his strong
was continually borrowing fresh supplies; but
white fingers.
for the matter of that, Gorish added, he was in
“A pretty one, too,” he said. “However
debt over head and ears, and borrowed right
scandalized you may be with your recollection
and left wherever there was a chance.
of lovely, untidy hair, and lovely, untidy
As I have said before, there were
figure, you will agree with me there, I am
plenty of visitors constantly coming to the
sure.”
house, most of them military men like the
“Yes, sir,” I replied gravely again. “A
major, and all of them appeared to be of one
pretty one and a bright one. A bright, opinion regarding Miss Lina. They all admired affectionate, loving one, with a fresh, true
her, and all made love to her, and I must say
heart, I think.”
that I believe some of the younger ones were
He smiled again lightly, touching the
really in earnest.
ash of his cigar.
And no wonder. When she was
“Ah!” he said, in a low, half indifferent
dressed, as she was always of an evening, with sort of tone; and then he put the cigar in his her lovely figure, lovely face, lovely hair, and mouth again and went on smoking, as if he
reckless high spirits, I am sure there was not a had forgotten all about what we had been
more beautiful creature in London. In spite of saying. It was a way of his to pass things by
their untidy ways, the Clangarthes had a
and become indifferent to them in a moment.
wonderful taste in dress; and what with Lady
It had been so with his toys and pets as a
Medora’s presents, and going into debt, they
child; and it was so even with his friends and kept up in a way that was astonishing.
his extravagant fancies.
But with all the attention she received,
He said nothing more to me about and all the fine speeches that were poured into Miss Lina, and I was glad to find he didn’t. It her pretty, ready ears, it was easy to see that
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5
Miss Lina cared for none of them but Mr.
the genial, finely made, epauletted men, who
