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diff --git a/21103.txt b/21103.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6ccfff --- /dev/null +++ b/21103.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6697 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sisters Three, by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sisters Three + +Author: Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey + +Illustrator: Stanley Lloyd + +Release Date: April 16, 2007 [EBook #21103] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SISTERS THREE *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + + +Sisters Three + +By Mrs George de Horne Vaizey +________________________________________________________________________ +A very well-written book about the life of three sisters being brought +up in the Lake District of northern England by their well-known author +father. The time comes when one of them is of an age to get married. +Which eligible young man shall she take? She makes her choice, and the +preparations reach a very advanced state, when she realises she cannot +go through with it. + +Of course, it is just a bit dated; for instance young men are judged by +the size and quality of their moustaches, a practice long discontinued +in England, though not perhaps in other countries. + +Still, it is a light and easy read, and of course sheds light on the way +young girls were brought up around 1900. N.H. +________________________________________________________________________ +SISTERS THREE + +BY MRS. GEORGE DE HORNE VAIZEY + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +NEW YEAR'S DAY. + +"I wish something would happen!" sighed Norah. + +"If it were something _nice_," corrected Lettice. "Lots of things +happen every day, but they are mostly disagreeable. Getting up, for +instance, in the cold, dark mornings--and practising--and housework, and +getting ready for stupid old classes--I don't complain of having too +little to do. I want to do less, and to be able to amuse myself more." + +"We want a change, that is the truth," said Hilary, bending forward on +her seat, and sending the poker into the heart of the fire with a +vigorous shove. "Our lives jog-trot along in the same way year after +year, and it grows monotonous. I declare, when I think that this is the +first day of another January it makes me ill! Fifty-two more Mondays to +sit in the morning-room and darn stockings. Fifty-two Saturdays to give +out stores. Three hundred and sixty-five days to dust ornaments, +interview the cook, and say, `Well, let me see! The cold mutton had +better be used up for lunch'--Oh, dear me!" + +"I'll tell you what--let's have a nice long grumble," said Lettice, +giving her chair a hitch nearer the fire, and bending forward with a +smile of enjoyment. "Let's hold an Indignation Meeting on our own +account, and discuss our grievances. Women always have grievances +nowadays--it's the fashionable thing, and I like to be in the fashion. +Three charming and beauteous maidens shut up in the depths of the +country in the very flower of their youth, with nothing to do--I mean +with far too much to do, but with no amusement, no friends, no variety! +We are like the princesses in the fairy tales, shut up in the moated +tower; only then there were always fairy godmothers to come to the +rescue, and beautiful princes in golden chariots. We shall have to wait +a long time before any such visitors come tramping along the Kendal +high-road. I am sure it sounds melancholy enough to make anyone sorry +for us!" + +"Father is the dearest man in the world, but he doesn't understand how a +girl of seventeen feels. I was seventeen on my last birthday, so it's +worse for me than for you, for I am really grown-up." Hilary sighed, +and rested her sleek little head upon her hand in a pensive, elderly +fashion. "I believe he thinks that if we have a comfortable home and +enough to eat, and moderately decent clothes, we ought to be content; +but I want ever so much more than that. If mother had lived--" + +There was a short silence, and then Norah took up the strain in her +crisp, decided accents. "I am fifteen and a half, and I look very +nearly as old as you do, Hilary, and I'm an inch taller. I don't see +why I need go on with these stupid old classes. If I could go to a good +school, it would be another thing, for I simply adore music and +painting, and should love to work hard, and become celebrated; but I +don't believe Miss Briggs can teach me any more than I know myself, and +there is no better teacher for miles around. If father would only let +me go abroad for a year; but he is afraid of trusting me out of his +sight. If _I_ had seven children, I'd be glad to get rid of some of +them, if only to get a little peace and quietness at home." + +"Mother liked the idea of girls being educated at home, that is the +reason why father objects to sending us away. The boys must go to +boarding-schools, of course, because there is no one here who can take +them in hand. As for peace and quietness, father enjoys having the +house full. He grumbles at the noise sometimes, but I believe he likes +it at the bottom of his heart. If we do happen to be quiet for a change +in the evening, he peers over his book and says, `What is the matter; +has something gone wrong? Why are you all so quiet?' He loves to see +us frisking about." + +"Yes, but I can't frisk any longer--I'm too dull--I want something to +happen," repeated Norah, obstinately. "Other people have parties on New +Year's Day, or a Christmas-tree, or crowds of visitors coming to call. +We have been sitting here sewing from ten o'clock this morning--nasty, +uninteresting mending--which isn't half done yet, though it is nearly +four o'clock. And you never think of me! I'm fifteen, and I feel it +more than either of you. You see it is like this. Sometimes I feel +quite young, like a child, and then you two are too proper to run about +and play with me, so I am all alone; and then I feel quite old and +grown-up, and am just as badly off as you, and worse, because I'm the +youngest, and have to take third turn of everything, and wear your +washed-out ribbons! If only something would happen that was really +startling and exciting--!" + +"I sink it's very naughty to wish like that!" A tiny, reed-like voice +burst into the conversation with an unexpectedness which made the three +sisters start in their seats; a small figure in a white pinafore crept +forward into the firelight, and raised a pair of reproachful eyes to +Norah's face. "I sink it's very naughty to wish like that, 'cause it's +discontented, and you don't know what it might be like. Pr'aps the +house might be burned, or the walls fall down, or you might all be ill +and dead yourselves, and _then_ you wouldn't like it!" + +The three girls looked at each other, undecided between laughter and +remorse. + +"Mouse!" said Hilary, severely, "what are you doing here? Little girls +have no business to listen to what big people are saying. You must +never sit here again without letting us know, or that will be naughty +too. We don't mean to be discontented, Mouse. We felt rather low in +our spirits, and were relieving ourselves by a little grumble, that's +all. Of course, we know that we have really many, many things to be +thankful for--a nice house, and--ah--garden, and such beautiful country +all round, and--ah--good health, and--" + +"And the bunnies, and the pigeons, and the new carpet in the dining- +room, and because the puppy didn't die--and--and--_Me_!" said the Mouse, +severely; and when her sisters burst into a roar of laughter she +proceeded to justify herself with indignant protest. "Well, it's the +trufh! The bunnies _are_ pretty, and you said, `Thank goodness! we've +got a respectable carpet at last!' And Lettice cried when the little +pup rolled its eyes and squealed, and you said to Miss Briggs that I was +only five, and if I _was_ spoiled she couldn't wonder, 'cause I was the +littlest of seven, and no one could help it! And it's `Happy New Year' +and plum pudding for dinner, so I don't sink you ought to be +discontented!" + +"You are quite right, dear, it's very naughty of us. Just run upstairs +to the schoolroom, and get tidy for tea, there's a good little Mouse. +Shut the door behind you, for there's a fearful draught." Hilary nodded +to the child over her shoulder, and then turned to her sisters with an +expressive shrug. "What a funny little mite she is! We really must be +careful how we speak before her. She understands far too well, and she +has such stern ideas of her own. Well, perhaps after all we are wrong +to be discontented. I hated coming to live in this quiet place, but I +have been ever so much stronger; I never have that wretched, breathless +feeling now that I had in town, and I can run upstairs to the very top +without stopping. You can't enjoy anything without health, so I ought +to be--I am!--very thankful that I am so much better." + +"I am thankful that I have my two dear hobbies, and can forget +everything in playing and drawing. The hours fly when I can sit out of +doors and sketch, and my precious old violin knows all my secrets. It +cries with me, and sings with me, and shrieks aloud just as I would do +if I dared to make all the noise I want, when I am in a temper. I do +believe I could be one of the best players in the world if I had the +chance. I feel it in me! It is aggravating to know that I make +mistakes from want of proper lessons, but it is glorious to feel such +power over an instrument as I do when I am properly worked up! I would +not change places with any girl who is not musical!" + +Lettice said nothing, but she lifted her eyes to the oval mirror which +hung above the mantelpiece, and in her heart she thought, "And I am glad +that I am so pretty. If one is pretty, everyone is polite and +attentive; and I do like people to be kind, and make a fuss! When we +were at the station the other day the people nudged each other and bent +out of the windows of the train as I passed. I saw them, though I +pretended I didn't. And I should look far nicer if I had proper +clothes. If I could only have had that fur boa, and the feather for my +hat! But what does it matter what I wear in this wretched place? There +is no one to see me." + +The firelight played on three thoughtful faces as the girls sat in +silence, each occupied with her special train of thought. The room +looked grey and colourless in the waning light, and the glimpse of +wintry landscape seen through the window did not add to the general +cheeriness. Hilary shivered, and picking up a log from the corner of +the grate dropped it into the fire. + +"Well, there is no use repining! We have had our grumble, and we might +as well make the best of circumstances. It's New Year's Day, so I shall +make a resolution to try to like my work. I know I do it well, because +I am naturally a good housekeeper; but I ought to take more interest in +it. That's the way the good people do in books, and in the end they +dote upon the very things they used to hate. There's no saying--I may +come to adore darning stockings and wending linen before the year is +out! At any rate I shall have the satisfaction of having done my best." + +"Well, if you try to like your work, I'll try to remember mine--that's a +bargain," said Lettice solemnly. "There always seems to be something I +want particularly to do for myself, just when I ought to be at my +`avocations,' as Miss Briggs has it. It's a bad plan, because I have to +exert myself to finish in time, and get a scolding into the bargain. So +here's for punctuality and reform!" + +Norah held her left hand high in the air, and began checking off the +fingers with ostentatious emphasis. "I resolve always to get up in the +morning as soon as I am called, and without a single grumble; always to +be amiable when annoyed; always to do what other people like, and what I +dislike myself; always to be good-tempered with the boys, and smile upon +them when they pull my hair and play tricks with my things; always be +cheerful, contented, ladylike in deportment, and agreeable in manner. +What do you say? _Silly_! I am not silly at all. If you are going to +make resolutions at all, you ought to do it properly. Aim at the sky, +and you may reach the top of the tree; aim at the top of the tree, and +you will grovel on the ground. You are too modest in your aspirations, +and they won't come to any good; but as for me--with a standard before +me of absolute perfection--" + +"Who is talking of perfection? And where is the tea, and why are you +still in darkness, with none of the lamps lighted? It is five o'clock, +and I have been in my study waiting for the bell to ring for the last +half-hour. What are you all doing over there by the fire?" cried a +masculine voice, and a man's tall figure stood outlined in the doorway. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +HILARY IN LUCK. + +There was a simultaneous exclamation of dismay as the three girls leapt +from their seats, and flew round the room in different directions. +Hilary lighted the lamps, Norah drew the curtains across the windows, +while Lettice first gave a peal to the bell, and then ran forward to +escort her father to a chair by the fire. + +"Tea will be here in a moment, father; come and sit down. It's New +Year's Day, you know, and we have been so busy making good resolutions +that we have had no time for anything practical. Why didn't you come +down before? You are a regular old woman about afternoon tea; I believe +you would miss it more than any other meal." + +"I believe I should. I never get on well with my writing in the first +part of the afternoon, and tea seems to give me a fresh start. So you +girls have been making good resolutions? That's good hearing. Tell me +about them." And Mr Bertrand leant back in his chair, clasping his +hands behind his head, and looking up at his young daughters with a +quizzical smile. A photographer would have been happy if he could have +taken a portrait at this moment, for Mr Bertrand was a well-known +author, and the books which were written in the study in Westmoreland +went far and wide over the world, and made his name a household word. +He had forgotten his beloved work at this moment, however, at the sight +of something dearer still--his three young daughters standing grouped +together facing him at the other side of the old-fashioned grate, their +faces flushed from the heat of the fire, their eyes dazzled by the +sudden light. How tall and womanlike they looked in their dark serge +dresses! Lettice's hair framed her face in a halo of mist-like curls; +Hilary held up her head in her dignified little fashion; mischievous +Norah smiled in the background. They were dearer to him than all his +heroines; but, alas, far less easy to manage, for the heroines did as +they were bid, while the three girls were developing strong wills of +their own. + +"I believe you have been plotting mischief, and that is the beginning +and the end of your good resolutions!" + +"Indeed, no, father; we were in earnest. But it was a reaction, for +before that we had been grumbling about-- Wait a moment, here comes tea. +We'll tell you later on. Miss Briggs says we should never talk about +disagreeable topics at a meal, and tea is the nicest meal of the day, so +we can't afford to spoil it. Well, and how is Mr Robert getting on +this afternoon?" + +Mr Bertrand's face twitched in a comical manner. He lived so entirely +in the book which he was writing at the time that he found it impossible +to keep silent on the subject; but he could never rid himself of a +comical feeling of embarrassment in discussing his novels in the +presence of his daughters. + +"Robert, eh? What do you know about Robert?" + +"We know all about him, of course. He was in trouble on Wednesday, and +you came down to tea with your hair ruffled, and as miserable as you +could be. He must be happy again to-day, for your hair is quite smooth. +When is he going to marry Lady Mary?" + +"He is not going to marry Lady Mary at all. What nonsense! Lady Mary, +indeed! You don't know anything about it! Give me another cup of tea, +and tell me what you have been grumbling about. It doesn't sound a +cheerful topic for New Year's Day, but I would rather have even that +than hear such ridiculous remarks! Grumbling! What can you have to +grumble about, I should like to know?" + +"Oh, father!" The three young faces raised themselves to his in wide- +eyed protest. The exclamation was unanimous; but when it was over there +was a moment's silence before Hilary took up the strain. + +"We are dull, father! We are tired of ourselves. You are all day long +in your study, the boys spend their time out of doors, and we have no +friends. In summer time we don't feel it, for we live in the garden, +and it is bright and sunny; but in winter it is dark and cold. No one +comes to see us, the days are so long, and every day is like the last." + +"My dear, you have the housework, and the other two have their lessons. +You are only children as yet, and your school days are not over. Most +children are sent to boarding-schools, and have to work all day long. +You have liberty and time to yourselves. I don't see why you should +complain." + +"Father, I should like to go to school--I long to go--I want to get on +with my music, and Miss Briggs can't teach me any more." + +"Father, when girls are at boarding-schools they have parties and +theatricals, and go to concerts, and have all sorts of fun. We never +have anything like that." + +"Father, I am not a child; I am nearly eighteen. Chrystabel Maynard was +only seventeen at the beginning of the book?" + +Mr Bertrand stirred uneasily, and brushed the hair from his forehead. +Chrystabel Maynard was one of his own heroines, and the allusion brought +home the reality of his daughter's age as nothing else could have done. +His glance passed by Norah and Lettice and lingered musingly on Hilary's +face. + +"Ha, what's this? The revolt of the daughters!" he cried. "Well, +dears, you are quite right to be honest. If you have any grievances on +your little minds, speak out for goodness' sake, and let me hear all +about them. I am not an ogre of a father, who does not care what +happens to his children so long as he gets his own way. I want to see +you happy.--So you are seventeen, Hilary! I never realised it before. +You are old enough to hear my reason for keeping you down here, and to +judge if I am right. When your mother died, three years ago, I was left +in London with seven children on my hands. You were fourteen then, a +miserable, anaemic creature, with a face like a tallow candle, and lips +as white as paper. The boys came home from school and ran wild about +the streets. I could not get on with my work for worrying about you +all, and a man must work to keep seven children. I saw an advertisement +of this house in the papers one day, and took it on the impulse of the +moment. It seemed to me that you would all grow strong in this fine, +mountain air, and that I could work in peace, knowing that you were out +of the way of mischief. So far as the boys and myself are concerned, +the plan has worked well. I get on with my work, and they enjoy running +wild in their holidays; but the little lasses have pined, have they? +Poor little lasses! I am sorry to hear that. Now come--the post +brought me some cheques this morning, and I am inclined to be generous. +Next week, or the week after, I must run up to London on business, and I +will bring you each a nice present on my return. Choose what it shall +be, and I will get it for you if it is to be found in the length and +breadth of the city. Now then, wish in turns. What will you have?" + +"It's exactly like the father in _Beauty and the Beast_, before he +starts on his travels! I am sure Lettice would like a white moss rose!" +cried Norah roguishly. "As for me, I am afraid it's no use. There is +only one thing I want--lessons from the very best violin master in +London!" + +"Three servants who could work by electricity, and not keep me running +after them all day long!" + +"Half a dozen big country houses near to us, with sons and daughters in +each, who would be our friends." + +They were all breathless with eagerness, and Mr Bertrand listened with +wrinkled brow. He had expected to be asked for articles of jewellery or +finery, and the replies distressed him, as showing that the discontent +was more deepseated than he had imagined. For several moments he sat in +silence, as though puzzling out a difficult problem. Then his brow +cleared, and he smiled, his own, cheery smile. + +"Hilary, pack your boxes, and get ready to go up to London with me on +Monday week. If you are seventeen, you are old enough to pay visits, +and we will stay for a fortnight with my old friend Miss Carr, in +Kensington. She is a clever woman, and I will talk to her and see what +can be done. I can't work miracles, but I will do what I can to please +you. May I be allowed to have another cup of tea, Miss Seventeen?" + +"Poor, dear, old father! Don't look so subdued. You may have a dozen +if you like. Monday next! How lovely! You are the dearest father in +all the world!" + +Mr Bertrand shrugged his shoulders. + +"When I give you your own way," he said drily. "Pass the cake, Lettice. +If I have three grown-up daughters on my hands, I must make every +effort to keep up my strength." + +Lettice and Norah had a little conversation on the stairs as they went +upstairs to change their dresses for dinner. + +"It's very nice for Hilary, this going up to London; but it doesn't do +_us_ any good. When is something going to happen for _us_?" + +"I suppose we shall have to wait for our turn," sighed Lettice +dolefully; but that very same evening an unexpected excitement took +place in the quiet household, and though the Mouse's prophecy was +fulfilled, inasmuch as it could hardly be called an incident of a +cheerful nature, it was yet fated to lead to great and far-reaching +results. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +AN UNEXPECTED GUEST. + +The old grandfather's clock was just striking six o'clock when Raymond +and Bob, the two public schoolboys, came home from their afternoon +excursion. They walked slowly up the drive, supporting between them the +figure of a young fellow a few years older than themselves, who hopped +painfully on one foot, and was no sooner seated on the oak bench in the +hall, than he rested his head against the rails, and went off into a +dead faint. The boys shouted at the pitch of their voices, whereupon +Mr Bertrand rushed out of his sanctum, followed by every other member +of his household. + +"Good gracious! Who is it? What is the matter? Where did he come +from? Has he had an accident?" cried the girls in chorus, while Miss +Briggs ran off for sal volatile and other remedies. + +The stranger was a tall, lanky youth, about eighteen years of age, with +curly brown hair and well-cut features, and he made a pathetic figure +leaning back in the big oak seat. + +"He's the son of old Freer, the Squire of Brantmere," explained Raymond, +as he busied himself unloosing the lad's collar and tie. "We have met +him several times when we have been walking. Decent fellow--Harrow-- +reading at home for college, and hates it like poison. We were coming a +short cut over the mountains, when he slipped on a bit of ice, and +twisted his ankle trying to keep up. We had an awful time getting him +back. He meant to stay at the inn to-night, as his people are away, and +it was too dark to go on, but he looks precious bad. Couldn't we put +him up here?" + +"Yes, yes, of course. Better carry him straight to bed and get off that +boot," said Mr Bertrand cordially. "It will be a painful job, and if +we can get it done before he comes round, so much the better. Here, you +boys, we'll carry him upstairs between us, and be careful not to trip as +you go. Someone bring up hot water, and bandages from the medicine +chest. I will doctor him myself. I have had a fair experience of +sprained ankles in my day, and don't need anyone to show me what to do." + +The procession wended its way up the staircase, and for the greater part +of the evening father and brothers were alike invisible. Fomentations +and douches were carried on with gusto by Mr Bertrand, who was never +more happy than when he was playing the part of amateur surgeon; then +Miss Briggs had her innings, and carried a tray upstairs laden with all +the dainties the house could supply, after partaking of which the +invalid was so far recovered that he was glad of his friends' company, +and kept them laughing and chatting in his room until it was time to go +to bed. + +The next morning the ankle was much better, but, at his host's +instigation, the young fellow despatched a note to his mother, telling +her not to expect him home for a few days, as Mr Bertrand wished him to +stay until he was better able to bear the long, hilly drive. + +The girls discussed the situation as they settled down to finish the +much disliked mending in the afternoon. "It's very annoying," Hilary +said. "I do hope he won't be long in getting better. We were going to +London on Monday week, but if he is still here we shall have to wait, +and I hate having things postponed." + +"I wish he had been a girl," said Norah, who came in for so much teasing +from her two brothers during the holidays that she did not welcome the +idea of having another boy in the house. "We could have had such fun +together, and perhaps she might have asked us to stay with her some day. +I should love to pay visits! I wonder if father will take us up to +London in turns, now that he has begun. I do hope he will, for it would +be great fun staying in Kensington. I remember Miss Carr when we were +in London; she was a funny old thing, but I liked her awfully. She was +often cross, but after she had scolded for about five minutes, she used +to repent, and give us apples. She will give you apples, Hilary, if you +are very good!" + +Hilary screwed up her little nose with an expression of disdain. Apples +were not much of a treat to people who had an orchard at home, and she +had outgrown the age of childish joy at the gift of such trifles. +Before she could speak, however, the door burst open, and Raymond +precipitated himself into the room. He was a big, broad fellow of +sixteen, for he and Lettice were twins, though widely differing in +appearance. Raymond had a flat face, thickly speckled over with +freckles, reddish brown hair, and a pair of brown eyes which fairly +danced with mischief. It was safe to prophesy that in less than two +minutes from the time that he entered the room where his sisters were +sitting, they would all three be shrieking aloud in consternation, and +the present instance was no exception to the rule. It was very simply +managed. He passed one hand over the table where lay the socks and +stockings which had been paired by Hilary's industrious fingers, and +swept them, helter-skelter, on the floor. He nudged Norah's elbow, so +that the needle which she was threading went deep into her fingers, and +chucked Lettice under the chin, so that she bit her tongue with a +violence which was really painful. This done, he plunged both hands +into his pockets and danced a hornpipe on the hearthrug, while the girls +abused him at the pitch of their voices. + +"Raymond Bertrand, you are the most horrid, ungentlemanly, nasty, rude +boy I ever knew!" + +"If you were older you'd be ashamed of yourself. It is only because you +are a stupid, ignorant little schoolboy that you think it funny to be +unkind to girls." + +"Very well, then! You have given me all my work to do over again; now I +won't make toffee this afternoon, as I promised!" + +"I don't want your old toffee. I can buy toffee in the village if I +want it," retorted Raymond cheerfully. "Besides, I'm going out to +toboggan with Bob, and I shan't be home until dark. You girls will have +to go and amuse Freer. He is up, and wants something to do. I'm not +going to stay indoors on a jolly afternoon to talk to the fellow, so +you'll have to do it instead." + +"Indeed, we'll do nothing of the kind; we have our work to do, and it is +bad enough to have two tiresome boys on our hands without looking after +a third. He is your friend, and if you won't amuse him, he will have to +stay by himself." + +"All right! Nice, hospitable people you are! Leave him alone to be as +dull as he likes--it's no matter to me. I told him that you would look +after him, so the responsibility is off my shoulders." Raymond paused, +pointed in a meaning manner towards a curtained doorway at the end of +the room, tiptoed up to the table, and finished his reply in a tragic +whisper. "And I've settled him on the couch in the drawing-room, so you +had better not speak so loudly, because he can hear every word you say!" + +With this parting shot, Mr Raymond took his departure, banging the door +after him, while his sisters sat paralysed, staring at each other with +distended eyes. + +"How awful! What _must_ he think? We can't leave him alone after this. +Hilary, you are the eldest, go and talk to him." + +"I won't--I don't know what to say. Norah, you go! Perhaps he is +musical. You can play to him on your violin!" + +"Thank you, very much. I'll do nothing of the kind. Lettice, you go; +you are not shy. Talk to him prettily, and show him the photographs." + +"I daren't; I am horribly shy. I wouldn't go into that room now, after +what he has heard, for fifty thousand pounds!" + +"Norah, look here, if you will go and sit with him until four o'clock, +Lettice and I will finish your work between us, and we will all come and +have tea in the drawing-room, and help you out for the rest of the +afternoon!" + +"Yes, Norah, we will; and I'll give you that pink ribbon for your hair. +Do, Norah! there's a good girl. You won't mind a bit after the first +moment." + +"It's all very well," grumbled Norah; but she was plainly softening, and +after a moment's hesitation, she pushed back her chair and said slowly, +"All right, I'll go; but mind you are punctual with tea, for I don't +bargain to stay a moment after four o'clock." She brushed the ends of +cotton from her dress, walked across to the door, and disappeared +through the doorway with a pantomimic gesture of distaste. At the other +side she paused and stood facing the invalid in silent embarrassment, +for his cheeks were flushed, and he looked so supremely uncomfortable +that it was evident he had overheard the loud-toned conversation which +had been carried on between the brother and sisters. Norah looked at +him and saw a young fellow who looked much older and more formidable +than he had done in his unconsciousness the night before, for his grey +eyes had curious, dilating pupils, and a faint mark on the upper lip +showed where the moustache of the future was to be. The stranger looked +at Norah, and saw a tall, slim girl, with masses of dark hair falling +down her back, heavily marked eyebrows, and a bright, sharply cut little +face, which was very attractive, if it could not strictly be called +pretty. + +"How do you do?" said Norah desperately. "I hope you are quite--I mean, +I hope your foot is better. I am glad you are able to get up." + +"Thank you very much. It's all right so long as I lie still. It's very +good of you to let me stay here. I hope I'm not a great nuisance." + +"Oh, not at all. I'm sure you are not. I'm not the eldest, you know, +I'm only the third, so I have nothing to do with the housekeeping, but +there are so many of us that one more doesn't make any difference. My +name is Norah." + +"And mine is Reginald, but I am always called Rex. Please don't trouble +about me if you have anything else to do. If you would give me a book, +I'd amuse myself." + +"Are you fond of reading?" + +"No, I hate it--that is to say, I like it very much, of course, but I +have had so much of it for the last two years that I sometimes feel that +I hate the sight of a book. But it's different here, for a few hours." + +"I think I'll stay and talk to you, if you don't mind," said Norah, +seating herself on an oak stool by the fire, and holding out a thin, +brown hand to shade her face from the blaze. "I'm very fond of talking +when I get to know people a little bit. Raymond told us that you were +reading at home to prepare for college, and that you didn't like it. I +suppose that is why you are tired of books. I wish I were in your +place! I'd give anything to go to a town, and get on with my studies, +but I have to stay at home and learn from a governess. Wouldn't it be +nice if we could change places? Then we should both be pleased, and get +what we liked." + +The young fellow gave a laugh of amusement. "I don't think I should +care for the governess," he said, "though she seems awfully kind and +jolly, if she is the lady who looked after me last night. I've had +enough lessons to last me for the rest of my life, and I want to get to +work, but my father is bent on having a clever son, and can't make up +his mind to be disappointed." + +"And aren't you clever? I don't think you look exactly stupid!" said +Norah, so innocently, that Rex burst into a hearty laugh. + +"Oh, I hope I'm not so bad as that. I am what is called `intelligent,' +don't you know, but I shall never make a scholar, and it is waste of +time and money to send me to college. It is not in me. I am not fond +of staying in the house and poring over books and papers. I couldn't be +a doctor and spend my life in sick-rooms; the law would drive me crazy, +and I could as soon jump over a mountain as write two new sermons a +week. I want to go abroad--to India or Ceylon, or one of those places-- +and get into a berth where I can be all day walking about in the open +air, and looking after the natives." + +"Oh, I see. You don't like to work yourself, but you feel that it is +`in you' to make other people exert themselves! You would like to have +a lot of poor coolies under you, and order them about from morning till +night--that's what you mean. I think you must be very lazy to talk like +that!" said Norah, nodding her head in such a meaning fashion that the +young fellow flushed in embarrassment. + +"Indeed, I'm nothing of the kind. I am very energetic--in my own way. +There are all sorts of gifts, and everyone knows which one has fallen to +his share. It's stupid to pretend that you don't, I know I am not +intellectual, but I also know that I have a natural gift of management. +At school I had the arrangement of all the games and sports, and the +fellows would obey me when no one else could do anything with them. I +should like to have a crowd of workmen under me--and I'll tell you this! +they would do more work, and do it better, and be more contented over +it, than any other workmen in the district!" + +"Gracious!" cried Norah, "you are conceited! But I believe you are +right. It's something in your eyes--I noticed it as soon as I saw you-- +a sort of commanding look, and a flash every now and then when you +aren't quite pleased. They flashed like anything just now, when I said +you were lazy! The poor coolies would be frightened out of their +senses. But you needn't go abroad unless you like. You could stay at +home and keep a school." + +"No, thank you. I know too much about it. I don't want the life +worried out of me by a lot of boys. I could manage them quite well +though, if I chose." + +"You couldn't manage me!" Norah brought her black brows together in +defiant fashion, but the challenge was not taken up, for Master Rex +simply ejaculated, "Oh, girls! I wasn't talking about girls," and laid +his head against the cushions in such an indifferent fashion that Norah +felt snubbed; and the next question came in a very subdued little +voice--"Don't you--er--_like_ girls?" + +"Ye-es--pretty well--the ones I know. I like my sister, of course, but +we have only seen each other in the holidays for the last six years. +She is sixteen now, and has to leave school because her chest is +delicate, and she has come home to be coddled. She don't like it a +bit--leaving school, I mean--so it seems that none of us are contented. +She's clever, in music especially; plays both violin and piano +uncommonly well for a girl of her age." + +"Oh, does she? That's my gift. I play the violin beautifully," cried +Norah modestly, and when Rex laughed aloud she grew angry, and protested +in snappish manner, "Well, you said yourself that we could not help +knowing our own talents. It's quite true, I _do_ play well. Everyone +says so. If you don't believe it, I'll get my violin and let you hear." + +"I wish you would! Please forgive me for laughing, I didn't mean to be +rude, but it sounded so curious that I forgot what I was doing. Do +play! I should love to hear you." + +Norah walked across the room and lifted the beloved violin from its +case. Her cheeks were flushed, and she was tingling with the +remembrance of that incredulous laugh, but her anger only made her the +more resolved to prove the truth of her words. She stood before Rex in +the firelight, her slim figure drawn up to its full height, and the +first sweep of the bow brought forth a sound so sweet and full, that he +started in amazement. The two sisters in the adjoining room stopped +their work to listen, and whispered to one another that they had never +heard Norah play so well; and when at last she dropped her arms, and +stood waiting for Rex to give his verdict, he could only gasp in +astonishment. + +"I say, it's wonderful! You can play, and no mistake! What is the +piece? I never heard it before. It's beautiful. I like it awfully." + +"Oh, nothing. It isn't a piece. I made it up as I went along. It is +too dark to see the music, and I love wandering along just as I like. +I'll play you some pieces later on when the lamps are lit." + +"I say, you know, you are most awfully clever! If you play like that +now, you could do as well as any of those professional fellows if you +had a chance. And to be able to compose as well! You are a genius--it +isn't talent--it's real, true, genuine genius!" + +"Oh, do you think so? Do you really, truly think so?" cried Norah +pitifully. "Oh, I wish you would say so to father! He won't let us go +away to school, and I do so long and pine to have more lessons. I +learnt in London ever since I was a tiny little girl, and from a very +good master, but the last three years I have had to struggle on by +myself. Father is not musical himself, and so he doesn't notice my +playing, but if you would tell him what you think--" + +"I'll tell him with pleasure; but if he won't allow you to leave home, I +don't see what is to be done--unless--look here! I've got an idea. My +sister may want to take lessons, and if there were two pupils it might +be worth while getting a man down from Preston or Lancaster. Ella +couldn't come here, because she can only go out on fine days, but you +could come to us, you know. It would make it so much more difficult if +the fellow had to drive six miles over the mountains, and we are nearer +a station than you are here. I should think it could be managed easily +enough. I'll write to the mater about it if you like." + +"Will you, really? How lovely of you! Oh, it would be quite too +delightful if it could be managed. I'd bless you for ever. Oh, isn't +it a good thing you sprained your ankle?" cried Norah in a glow of +enthusiasm, and the burst of laughter which followed startled the +occupants of the next room by its ring of good fellowship. + +"Really," said Hilary, "the strange boy must be nicer than we thought. +Norah and he seem to be getting quite good friends. Let us hurry up, +and go and join them." + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +ROUND THE FIRE. + +Mrs Freer wrote a grateful letter to Mr Bertrand, thanking him for his +hospitality to her son, and arranging to drive over for Rex on the +following Saturday afternoon, so that Hilary's anxiety was at an end, +and she could enjoy the strange boy's society with an easy mind. After +Norah had broken the ice, there was no further feeling of shyness. When +Rex hobbled downstairs at ten o'clock in the morning, he ensconced +himself on the old-fashioned sofa in the sewing-room, and remained there +until he adjourned into the drawing-room for the evening. The boys came +in and out as they pleased, Miss Briggs coddled him and brought him cups +of beef-tea, but it was upon the girls that he chiefly depended for +amusement. In the morning they were busy with their household duties; +but, as regular lessons had not begun, afternoon was a free time, and +while Norah drew, Lettice carved, and Hilary occupied herself +manufacturing fineries for the London visit, a brisk clatter of tongues +was kept up, in which the invalid took his full part. The sound of +five-finger exercises would come from the schoolroom overhead, but so +soon as four o'clock struck, the Mouse would steal in, in her little +white pinafore, and creep on to the corner of the sofa. She and the +"strange boy" had made friends at once, and were on the best of terms. + +"I wish you lived with us for ever!" she said one afternoon, looking +lovingly in his face, as he stroked her wavy locks. + +"And I wish you lived with me, Mouse," he answered. "I should like a +little sister like you, with a tiny pointed chin, and a tiny little +nose, and big dark eyes. You are a real little mouse. It is exactly +the right name for you." + +"No, it's my wrong name. My true name is Geraldine Audrey. It's +written that way in the Bible." + +"Dear me! that's a big name for a small person. And who gave you that +name?" asked Rex, laughing. But the child's face did not relax from its +characteristic gravity as she replied-- + +"My godfathers and my godmothers, and a silver mug, and a knife and fork +in a case, with `GAB' written on the handles. Only I mayn't use them +till I'm seven, in case I cut my fingers." + +Dear little Geraldine Audrey! Everyone loved her. She was always so +desperately in earnest, so unsuspicious of fraud, that her little life +was made a burden to her in the holidays by reason of the pranks of her +big brothers. They sent her into village shops to demand "a halfpenny- +worth of pennies," they kept her shivering in the drive staring at the +lions on the top of the gate-posts, to see them wag their tails when +they heard the clock strike twelve; they despatched her into the garden +with neat little packets of salt to put on the birds' tails, and watched +the poor mite's efforts in contortions of laughter from behind the +window curtains. The Mouse was more sorrowful than angry when the +nature of these tricks was explained to her. "I fought you told the +trufh," she would say quietly, and then Raymond and Bob would pick her +up in their arms, and try to make amends for their wickedness by petting +her for the rest of the day. + +On the third day of Rex's visit, the weather was so tempestuous that +even Raymond and Bob did not stir from the house. They spent the +morning over chemical experiments in the schoolroom, but when afternoon +came they wearied of the unusual confinement and were glad to join the +cosy party downstairs. Norah had a brilliant inspiration, and suggested +"Chestnuts," and Master Raymond sat in comfort, directing the efforts of +poor red-faced Bob, as he bent over the fire and roasted his fingers as +well as the nuts. When half a dozen young people are gathered round a +fire, catching hot nuts in outstretched hands, and promptly dropping +them with shrieks of dismay, the last remnants of shyness must needs +disappear; and Rex was soon as uproarious as any other member of the +family, complaining loudly when his "turn" was forgotten, and abusing +the unfortunate Bob for presenting him with a cinder instead of the +expected dainty. The clatter of tongues was kept up without a moment's +intermission, and, as is usual under such circumstances, the +conversation was chiefly concerned with the past exploits of the family. + +"You can't have half as many jokes in the country as you can in town," +Raymond declared. "When we were in London, two old ladies lived in the +house opposite ours, who used to sit sewing in the window by the hour +together. One day, when the sun was shining, Bob and I got hold of a +mirror and flashed it at them from our window so that the light dazzled +their eyes and made them jump. They couldn't see us, because we were +hiding behind the curtains, but it was as good as a play to watch first +one, then the other, drop her work and put up her hand to her eye? Then +they began shaking their fists across the road, for they knew it was us, +because we had played some fine tricks on them before. On wet days we +used to make up a sham parcel, tie a thread to the end, and put it on +the side of the pavement. Everyone who came along stooped down to pick +it up, we gave a jerk to the string and moved it on a little further, +then they gave another grab, and once or twice a man overbalanced +himself and fell down, but it didn't always come off so well as that-- +oh, it was capital sport!" + +"You got into trouble yourselves sometimes. You didn't always get the +best of it," Norah reminded him. "Do you remember the day when you +found a ladder leaning against the area railings of a house in the white +terrace? Father had forbidden you to climb ladders, but you were a +naughty boy, as usual, and began to do it, and when you got to the top, +the ladder overbalanced, and you fell head over heels into the area. It +is a wonder you were not killed that time!" + +Raymond chuckled softly, as if at a pleasant remembrance. "But I was +not, you see, and the cook got a jolly fright. She was making pastry at +a table by the window, and down we came, ladder and I, the finest smash +in the world. There was more glass than flour in the pies that day!" + +"But father had to pay for new windows, and you were all over bruises +from head to foot--" + +"That didn't matter. It was jolly. I could have exhibited myself in a +show as a `boy leopard,' and made no end of money. And I wasn't the +only one who made father pay for new windows. When Bob was a little +fellow, he broke the nursery window by mistake, and a glazier came to +mend it. Bob sat on a stool watching him do it, and snored all the +time--Bob always snores when he is interested--and as soon as the man +had picked up his tools and left the room, what did he do but jump up +and send a toy horse smashing through the pane again. He wanted to +watch the glazier put in another, but he hadn't the pleasure of seeing +it mended that time. He was whipped and sent to bed." + +"We-w-w-well," cried Bob, who was afflicted with a stammer when he was +excited, "I didn't c-c-ut off my eyelashes, anyway! Norah went up to +her room one day and p-played barber's shop. She cut lumps off her hair +wherever she could get at it, till she looked like an Indian squaw, and +then she s-s-snipped off her eyelashes till there wasn't a hair left. +She was sent to bed as w-well as me." + +"They have grown again since then," said Norah, shutting one eye, and +screwing up her face in a vain effort to prove the truth of her words. +"I had been to see Lettice have her hair cut that day, and I was longing +to try what it felt like. I knew it was naughty, but I couldn't stop, +it was too fascinating. ... Oh, Lettice, _do_ you remember when you +sucked your thumb?" + +Lettice threw up her hands with a little shriek of laughter. "Oh, how +funny it was! I used to suck my thumb, Rex, until I was quite a big +girl, six years old, I think, and one day mother spoke to me seriously, +and said I really must give it up. If I didn't I was to be punished; if +I did, I was to get a prize. I said, `Well, may I suck my thumb as long +as ever I like to-day, for the very last time?' Mother said I might, so +I sat on the stairs outside the nursery door and sucked my thumb all day +long--hours, hours, and hours, and after that I was never seen to suck +it again. I had had enough!" + +"It must be awfully nice to belong to a large family," said Rex +wistfully. "You can have such fun together. Edna and I were very quiet +at home, but I had splendid times at school, and sometimes I used to +bring some of the fellows down to stay with me in the holidays. One +night I remember--hallo, here's the Mouse! I thought you were having a +nice little sleep on the schoolroom sofa, Mouse. Come here and sit by +me." + +Geraldine advanced to the fireplace in her usual deliberate fashion. +She was quite calm and unruffled, and found time to smile at each member +of the party before she spoke. + +"So I was asleep, only they's a fire burning on the carpet of the +schoolroom, and it waked me up." + +"Wh-at?" + +"They's a fire burning in the miggle of the carpet--a blue fire, jest +like a plum pudding!" + +There was a simultaneous shriek of dismay, as work, scissors, and +chestnuts were thrown wildly on the floor, and the Bertrand family +rushed upstairs in a stampede of excitement. The schoolroom door stood +open, the rug thrown back from the couch on which the Mouse had been +lying, and in the centre of the well-worn carpet, little blue flames +were dancing up and down, exactly as they do on a Christmas pudding +which has been previously baptised with spirit. Bob cast a guilty look +at his brother, who stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at the +conflagration with smiling patronage. + +"Phosphorus pentoxide P2O5," he remarked coolly. "What a lark!" + +"It wouldn't have been a lark if the Mouse had been stifled by the +nasty, horrid fumes," said Lettice angrily. "Get some water at once and +help us put it out, before the whole house is on fire." + +"Water, indeed! Don't do anything so foolish. You mustn't touch it +with water. Here, it's only a square, pull the thing up and throw it +through the window into the garden. That's the best thing we can do," +said Raymond, dropping on his knees and setting himself to pull and tear +with all his strength. Bob and the girls did their best to assist him, +for the Bertrands were accustomed to help themselves, and in a very few +minutes the carpet was lifted, folded hurriedly in two, and sent flying +through the window to the garden beneath. After which the tired and +begrimed labourers sank down on chairs, and panted for breath. + +"This is what comes of chemical experiments," said Hilary severely. "I +shall ask father to forbid you to play with such dangerous things in the +house. I wonder what on earth you will do next." + +"Have some tea! This sort of work is tiring. I'm going downstairs to +ring the bell and hurry Mary up," said Raymond coolly. It was +absolutely impossible to get that dreadful boy to realise his own +enormities! + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +A VISIT TO LONDON. + +On Saturday afternoon Mrs Freer drove up to the door in an old- +fashioned carriage. She was a thin, little woman, not at all like her +big son, whom she evidently adored as the most wonderful specimen of his +sex, and full of gratitude for the kindness which had been shown to him. +Rex's letter had evidently been of a descriptive nature, for his mother +recognised each of the three girls, addressed them by name, and referred +to their special interests. + +"How do you do, Miss Hilary? I hope my son's illness has not interfered +with the arrangements for your journey. How do you do, Miss Lettice? +How do you do, Norah? Rex has told me of your wonderful playing. I +hope you will let me hear something before I go." + +Norah was never loath to play, and on this occasion was anxious to make +a good impression, so that Mrs Freer might gain her father's consent to +the proposed music lessons. At the earliest opportunity, therefore, she +produced her violin, played her favourite selections, and had the +satisfaction of seeing that Mrs Freer was unmistakably impressed. + +The little head in the large black bonnet approached Mr Bertrand's in +confidential fashion. Norah watched the smile of pleasure on her +father's face, followed by the usual pucker of the brows with which he +was wont to receive a difficult question. Mrs Freer was evidently +approaching the subject of the professor from Lancaster, and presently, +oh, joy! the frown passed away, he was leaning forward, clasping his +hands round his knees, and listening with an air of pleased attention. + +"Mr Freer is quite willing to allow Edna to take lessons, even if they +should be rather expensive, for the poor child frets at being separated +from her friends, and she is not strong enough to remain at school. She +could not come here to have her lesson, I am afraid, for she is only +allowed to go out when the weather is mild and sunny; but if you would +allow Norah to come to us for the day, once a fortnight (fortnightly +lessons would be quite enough, don't you think?), it would be a real +pleasure to have her. She would have to stay for the night, of course, +for it is too far to come and go in one day, but Edna would be all the +more charmed! It would be a charity to the poor child!" + +"You are very good. It sounds feasible. If you will be kind enough to +make inquiries, I shall be happy to fall in with your arrangements. And +now let me give you some tea." + +Half an hour later the carriage was brought round again, for the nights +grew dark so soon that it was necessary to make an early start on the +ten-mile drive. Rex hobbled down the hall on his sticks, escorted by +the entire Bertrand family, for the week of his visit had seemed to +place him on the standing of a familiar friend, and the Mouse shed tears +when he kissed her in the porch, while Lettice looked the picture of +woe. Norah was the most cheerful of all, for Rex whispered in her +ear--"I'll keep them up to the mark about the lessons. We will have +some good times together when you come over, and--I say!--I impressed +upon your father that you were awfully clever; you'll have to do as much +for me, and convince mine that I am too stupid to do any good at +college--!" + +"Oh, I will!" said Norah emphatically. "I will! Good-bye. I'm most +fearfully obliged!" She stood on the path waving her hand and nodding +farewells so long as the carriage remained in sight. It seemed as if +her wish were to be fulfilled indeed, and the thought of the new friends +and the fortnightly visits to Brantmere filled her with delighted +expectation. + +For the next few days Hilary was as busy as a bee preparing for her +visit to London. She gathered together all her nicest things, and, not +content with her own, cast a covetous eye on the possessions of her +sisters. Half a dozen times in the course of the morning the door of +the room in which the two youngest sisters sat would burst open, and +Hilary's sleek little head appear round the corner to make some new +request. + +"Lettice! you might lend me your new muff!" + +"Oh, Hilary! I only got it at Christmas, and I need it myself in this +cold weather." + +"Don't be so selfish. I'll leave you my old one. It doesn't matter +what sort of a muff you wear here, and you know quite well mine is too +shabby for London. It's only for a fortnight!" + +"Oh, well, I suppose you must have it. It's very hard, though, for I do +like nice things, even if I am in the country." + +"Oh, thanks awfully. I'll take mine to your room." Then the door would +bang and Hilary's footsteps be heard flying up the staircase, but in +less than ten minutes she would be down again with another request. +"You don't mind, I suppose, if I take your silver brushes?" + +"My silver brushes! I should think I _do_ mind, indeed. What next?" + +"But you never use them. You might just as well lend them to me as +leave them lying in their case upstairs." + +"I am keeping them until I go away visiting. If I don't even use them +myself, it's not likely I am going to lend them to anyone else." + +"Lettice, how mean! What harm could I do to the brushes in a fortnight? +You know what a grand house Miss Carr's is, and it would be too horrid +for me to go with a common wooden brush. I do think you might lend them +to me!" + +"Oh, well, you can have them if you like, but you are not afraid of +asking, I must say! Is there anything else--?" + +"Not from you; at least, I don't think so just now. But, Norah, I want +your bangle--the gold one, you know! Lend it to me, like a dear, won't +you?" + +"If you lose it, will you buy me a new one?" + +"I won't lose it. I'll only wear it in the evening, and I'll be most +awfully careful." + +"You have a bangle of your own. Why can't you be content with that?" + +"I want two--one for each arm; they look so nice with short sleeves. +I'll put it in my jewel-box, and lock it up safely--" + +"I haven't said I would lend it to you yet." + +But Hilary ran away laughing, and gathered brushes and bangles together +in triumph. + +It was on the evening preceding the journey to London that Mr Bertrand +came upon his second daughter standing alone in the upstairs corridor, +which ran the whole length of the house, pressing her forehead against +the panes of the windows. Lettice had been unusually quiet during the +last few days, and her father was glad to have the opportunity of a +quiet talk. + +"All alone, dear?" he asked, putting his arm round her waist and drawing +her towards him. "I was thinking about you only a few minutes ago. I +said on New Year's Day, you remember, that I wanted to give each of you +three girls some special little present. Well, Hilary is having this +trip with me, and Norah seems in a fair way of getting her wish in the +matter of lessons; but what about you? I'll take you with me next time +I go away; but in the meantime, is there any little thing you fancy that +I could bring back from London town?" + +"No, thank you, father. I don't want anything." + +"Quite sure? Or--or--anything I can do for you here, before I go?" + +"No, thank you, father. Nothing at all." + +The tone was dull and listless, and Mr Bertrand looked down at the fair +face nestled against his shoulder with anxious eyes. + +"What is it, dear? What is the matter, my pretty one?" + +He was almost startled by the transformation which passed over the +girl's face as he spoke the last few words. The colour rushed into the +cheeks, the lips trembled, and the beautiful eyes gazed meltingly into +his. Lettice put up her arm and flung it impetuously round his neck. + +"Do you love me, father? Do you really love me?" + +"Love you! My precious child! I love every one of you--dearly--dearly! +But you--" Mr Bertrand's voice broke off with an uncontrollable +tremble--"you know there are special reasons why you are dear to me, +Lettice. When I look at you I seem to see your mother again as I met +her first. Why do you ask such a question? You surely know that I love +you, without being told?" + +"But I like being told," said Lettice plaintively. "I like people to +say nice things, and to be loving and demonstrative. Hilary laughs at +me if I am affectionate, and the boys tease. Sometimes I feel so +lonely!" + +Mr Bertrand drew his breath in a short, stabbing sigh. He was +realising more keenly every day how difficult it was to bring up young +girls without a mother's tender care. Hilary, with the strain of +hardness and self-seeking which would ruin her disposition unless it +were checked in time; beautiful Lettice, longing for love and +admiration, and so fatally susceptible to a few flattering words; Norah, +with her exceptional talents, and daring, fearless spirit--how was he to +manage them all during the most critical years of their lives? "I must +speak to Helen Carr. Helen Carr will help me," he said to himself, and +sighed with relief at the thought of sharing his burden with the kind- +hearted friend of his youth. + +It was nearly six o'clock when the travellers drove up to the door of +the white house in Kensington, and Miss Carr came into the hall to meet +them, looking far less altered by the lapse of years than did her young +visitor, who had developed from a delicate schoolgirl into a self- +possessed young lady of seventeen. + +"And this is Hilary. Tut, tut! what do you mean by growing up in this +ridiculous manner, child?" Miss Carr pecked the girl's cheek with a +formal kiss, and turned to hold out both hands to Mr Bertrand. +"Austin! how good to see you again. This is a pleasure--a real +pleasure." There was no doubting the sincerity of the tone, which was +one of most affectionate welcome, and the plain old face beneath the +white cap was beaming with smiles. Miss Carr had been Austin Bertrand's +devoted friend from his youth onwards, one of the earliest believers in +his literary powers, and the most gratified by the fame which he had +gained. Hilary was left out in the cold for the next ten minutes, while +the old lady fussed round her father, inquiring anxiously if he were +cold, if he were tired, and pressing all manner of refreshments upon +him. Even over dinner itself she received scanty attention. She had +put on a pretty blue dress, with a drapery of lace over the shoulders, +arranged her hair in a style copied from the latest fashion book, and +snapped the gold bangles on her arms, with a result which seemed highly +satisfactory upstairs, but not quite so much so when she entered the +drawing-room, for Miss Carr put up her eye-glasses, stared at her +fixedly for several moments, and then delivered herself of an expressive +grunt. "Deary me! seventeen, are we! Don't be in too great a hurry to +grow up, my dear. The time will come when you will be only too thankful +to be young!" + +At this rate Hilary began to feel that it was not uninterrupted bliss to +be in London, and this suspicion was deepened when at nine o'clock her +hostess looked at her stolidly, and remarked-- + +"You are tired, my dear. Go to bed, and have a good night's rest." + +Hilary bridled, and held her little head at the angle of injured dignity +which her sisters knew so well. Nine o'clock indeed! As if she were a +baby! + +"Oh, thank you, Miss Carr, but I am not tired. It was such an easy +journey. I am not sleepy at all." + +"My dear, all young girls ought to get to bed and have their beauty +sleep before twelve o'clock. Don't mind me. Your father will manage to +entertain me. He and I have always plenty to say to each other." + +After such plain speaking as this, it was impossible to object any +further. Hilary rose with a flush on her cheeks, kissed her father, and +held out a stiff little hand towards Miss Carr. The old lady looked at +her, and her face softened. She was beginning to repent, in the +characteristic manner to which Norah had referred. Hilary felt herself +pulled forward, kissed lovingly on the lips, and heard a kindly tone +take the place of the mocking accents, "Good-night, dearie, good-night! +We must have some good times while you are here. Sleep well, and to- +morrow we will talk things over, and make our plans." + +The door shut behind the girl, and the two occupants of the room looked +at one another in silence. Miss Carr's expression was self-conscious +and apologetic; Mr Bertrand's twitching with humorous enjoyment. + +"Too bad, Helen, too bad! I can't have my poor little lass snubbed like +that!" + +"My dear Austin, it will do her all the good in the world. What a +little Miss Consequence! What have you been about to let the child +think so much of herself?" + +"Put a woman's responsibilities on her shoulders before she was ready to +bear them. My dear Helen, that's the very thing about which I am +anxious to consult you. These girls of mine are getting on my nerves. +I don't know what to do with them. Hilary has the audacity to be +seventeen, and for the last eighteen months she has practically done all +the housekeeping. Miss Briggs looks after the Mouse--Geraldine, you +know--gives lessons to Lettice and Norah, but beyond that she does +little else. She is a good, reliable soul and a great comfort in many +ways, but I fear the girls are getting beyond her. We had a conference +on New Year's Day, and I find that they are tired of present +arrangements, and pining for a change. I promised to think things over, +and see what could be done, and I want your advice. Hilary is a +conscientious, hard-working little soul. She has been thrust into a +responsible position too soon, and it is not her fault if she is a +trifle overbearing, poor child. At the same time, it will be a terrible +misfortune if she grows up hard and unsympathetic. Norah is a vivacious +young person, and they tell me she is developing a genius for music. +She is afire to go abroad and study, but I think I have settled her for +the time being with the promise of the best lessons that the +neighbourhood can produce. Lettice--" + +"Yes--Lettice?" + +"She is a beautiful girl, Helen! You remember what Elma was at her age. +Lettice is going to be quite as lovely; but I am more anxious about her +than any of the others. She is demonstrative herself, and loves +demonstration, and flattery, and appreciation. It's natural, of +course--quite natural--but I don't want her to grow up into a woman who +lives only for admiration, and whose head can be turned by the first +flattering tongue that comes along. What would be the best thing for a +girl with exceptional beauty, and such a disposition as this--?" + +Miss Carr gave one of her comical grunts, "Small-pox, I should say!" she +replied brusquely, then softened into a laugh at the sight of her +friend's horrified face. "I see you are like most parents, Austin; all +your geese are swans! Norah a genius, Lettice a beauty, and Hilary a +model housewife! You seem to be in a nest of troubles, poor man; but I +can't undertake to advise you until I know more of the situation. We +will have a pleasant time while you are here--take Miss Consequence +about, and let her see a little life; and then, as you're an old friend, +I'll sacrifice myself on your behalf, and as soon as the weather is +anything like warm, pay you a visit, and see how things are for myself." + +"My dear Helen, this is really noble of you. I know your dread of the +`North Countrie,' and I assure you I appreciate your self-sacrifice. +There is no one else in the world who can help me so much as you." + +"Well, well, I have an idea; but I won't say anything about it until I +know the girls better. Would you be willing to--" + +"Yes, what?" + +"Nothing at all. What a silly old woman I am to be sure, when I had +just said that I wouldn't speak of it! It's something for the good of +your girls, Austin, but that's all you will hear about it until I come +to Cloudsdale, and see them for myself." + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +SCARLET SLIPPERS. + +So soon as Mr Bertrand's arrival in town became known, he was inundated +with invitations of every description. To most of these it was +impossible to take Hilary, but Miss Carr was indefatigable in escorting +the girl to concerts and entertainments, and insisted that she should +accompany her father when it was possible. + +"If the child is old enough to have the responsibility of a household, +she is old enough to have a little enjoyment, and to make her entrance +into society. She is eighteen next May, she tells me, and she is old +for her age. You must certainly take her to Lady Mary's `At Home.' +There will be music, and recitations, and a crowd of people--just the +sort of thing to please a young girl!" + +Mr Bertrand shrugged his shoulders and affected to be horrified at the +idea of having to take out a grown-up daughter. "It makes a man feel so +old," he said, "and I know quite well I shall forget all about her when +I begin talking to my old friends! However, I'll do my best. See that +the child has something decent to wear, like a good soul. I'm not so +short of money now as in the days when you used to send hampers to my +rooms in Oxford, and I should like her to look well. She is not a +beauty like Lettice, but she is a nice-looking little girl in her way, +isn't she, Helen?" + +"Oh, I think we may give her credit for more than that. She has an +exquisite complexion, and holds up her little head as if she were quite +conscious of being the eldest child of a famous man. You won't be +ashamed of your daughter, I promise you." + +Hilary was delighted at the thought of accompanying her father to the +"At Home," but though she gushed over the prospect in her letters to her +sisters, she did her utmost to hide her excitement from Miss Carr. The +old lady had a habit of making sly little hits at her expense, the cause +of which the girl totally misunderstood. She imagined that it was her +youth and want of experience which annoyed her hostess, whereas, in +reality, it was her affectation of age and worldly knowledge. When the +night arrived, however, it was impossible to keep as calm as she would +have liked, as she arrayed herself in her dainty new frock before +dinner. Miss Carr's choice had been eminently successful. A plain +white satin dress with an overskirt of chiffon, which gave an effect of +misty lightness, a wreath of snowdrops among the puffings at the neck, +and long ends of ribbon hanging from the waist. Hilary looked very +sweet and fresh as she walked into the drawing-room, with a flush of +self-conscious pleasure on her cheeks, and her father gave a start of +surprise as he saw her. + +"So! My little girl!" Miss Carr was not yet in the room, and he took +Hilary by the hands, holding her out at arm's length, and looking down +at her with grave, tender eyes. "It's very nice, dear. I'm proud of +you!" Then drawing her to him, and kissing her on the forehead, "We +must be great friends, you and I, my big daughter. This is the +beginning of a new life for you, but you will not grow to think less of +the old home and the old friends?" + +"No, no, father! no, never!" Hilary spoke in a quick, breathless +whisper, and there was an unusual moisture in her eyes. Her father saw +that she was nervous and excited, and hastened to change the subject +before there was any danger of a breakdown. The door opened at this +moment to admit Miss Carr, and he advanced to meet her holding Hilary's +hand in his, in the high, stately fashion in which a knight of old led +out his partner in the gavotte. + +"Miss Hilary Maud Everette Bertrand--at your service. And many thanks +to the good fairy who has worked the transformation!" + +"Humph!" said Mrs Carr, shortly. "Fine feathers make fine birds. +There's the gong for dinner, and if you two are not hungry, I am, so let +us get the serious business over first, and then I'll have a look at the +fineries." Then, after her usual fashion, she slipped her hand through +the girl's arm and led her affectionately across the hall. "Sweet +seventeen! Ah, dear me, I wonder how many years ago it is since I went +out in my first white dress? I was a pretty girl then, my dear, though +you may not think it to look at me now, and I remember my excitement as +if it were yesterday." + +When the carriage came to the door two hours later on, Hilary wrapped +herself up in fleecy shawls and went into the drawing-room to bid her +hostess good-night, but she was not allowed to take her departure so +easily. Miss Carr protested that she was not wrapped up sufficiently, +and sent upstairs for a hood and a pair of hideous scarlet worsted +bedroom slippers, which she insisted upon drawing over the dainty white +satin shoes. Hilary protested, but she was not allowed to have a say in +the matter. + +"Nonsense, my dear; it's a bitterly cold night, and you have half an +hour's drive. We can't have you catching cold, just to have your feet +looking pretty in a dark carriage. Go along now, and `Good-night,' for +I shall be in bed when you come back. I'll hear all your adventures in +the morning," and she waved the girl away in the imperious fashion which +no one dare resist. + +Hilary was annoyed, but she soon forgot the ugly slippers in the +fascination of a drive through the brightly-lighted streets, and when +the carriage drew up beneath an awning, and she had a peep at a +beautiful hall, decorated with palms and flowering plants, and saw the +crowd flocking up the staircase, her breath came fast with excitement. +Her father led her into the house and disappeared through a doorway on +the left, while she herself was shown into a room on the right, wherein +a throng of fashionable ladies were divesting themselves of their wraps, +and giving finishing touches to their toilets before the mirrors. Those +who were nearest to Hilary turned curious glances at her as she took off +her shawls, and the girl felt a sudden and painful consciousness of +insignificant youth. They were so very grand, these fine ladies. They +wore such masses of diamonds, and such marvellous frocks, and mantles, +and wrappings, that she was over-awed, and hurried out of the room as +quickly as possible, without daring to step forward to a mirror. Such a +crowd of guests were making their way up the staircase, that Hilary and +her father could only move forward a step at the time, but after they +had shaken hands with a stout lady and a thin gentleman at the head of +the stairs, there was a sudden thinning off, for a suite of reception +rooms opened out of the hall, and the guests floated away in different +directions. + +Mr Bertrand led the way into the nearer of the rooms, and no sooner had +he appeared in the doorway, than there came a simultaneous exclamation +of delight from a group of gentlemen who stood in the centre of the +floor, and he was seized by the arm, patted on the shoulder, and +surrounded by a bevy of admiring friends. Poor Hilary stood in the +background, abashed and deserted. Her father had forgotten all about +her existence. The group of friends were gradually drawing him further +and further away. Not a soul did she know among all the brilliant +throng. Several fashionably dressed ladies put up their eye-glasses to +stare at her as she stood, a solitary figure at the end of the room, +then turned to whisper to each other, while the youngest and liveliest +of the party put her fan up to her face and tittered audibly. They were +laughing at her, the rude, unkind, unfeeling creatures. + +"What could there be to laugh at?" asked Hilary of herself. Her dress +had been made by a fashionable modiste; Miss Carr's own maid had +arranged her hair. "I may not be pretty, but there's nothing ludicrous +about me that I know of," said the poor child to herself, with catching +breath. In spite of her seventeen years, her new dress, and all her +ecstatic anticipations, a more lonely, uncomfortable, and tearfully- +inclined young woman it would be difficult to find. She looked round in +despair, espied a seat in a retired corner, and was making for it as +quickly as might be, when she came face to face with a mirror, and in it +saw a reflection which made the colour rush to her cheeks in a hot, +crimson tide. A girlish figure, with a dark head set gracefully upon a +slender neck, a dainty dress, all cloudy chiffon, satiny ribbons, and +nodding snowdrops, and beneath--oh, good gracious!--beneath the soft +frilled edgings, a pair of enormous, shapeless, scarlet worsted bed +slippers! It would be difficult to say which was the more scarlet at +that moment--the slippers themselves or Hilary's cheeks. She shuffled +forward and stood in the corner, paralysed with horror. There had been +such a crowd in the cloak-room, and she had been so anxious to get away, +that she had forgotten all about the wretched slippers. So that was why +the ladies were laughing! Oh, to think how she must have looked-- +standing by herself in the doorway, with those awful, awful scarlet feet +shown up against the white skirts! + +"Sit down and slip them off, and hide them in the corner. No one will +see you!" said a sympathetic voice in her ear, and Hilary turned sharply +to find that one end of the seat was already occupied by a gentleman, +who was regarding her with a very kindly smile of understanding. His +face was thin, and there were signs of suffering in the strained +expression of the eyes, so that Hilary, looking at him, found it +impossible to take his advice otherwise than in a friendly spirit. + +"Th-ank you," she stammered, and pulling off the offending slippers, hid +them swiftly behind the folds of the curtains, and seated herself on the +sofa by his side. + +"That's better!" cried the stranger, looking down with approving eyes at +the little satin shoes which were now revealed. "Forgot to take them +off, didn't you? Very natural. I did the same with snow-shoes once, +and was in the room for half an hour before I discovered that I still +had them on." + +"But snow-shoes are black. They wouldn't look half so bad. I saw those +ladies laughing at me. What _must_ they have thought?" + +"Do you think it matters very much what they thought?" The stranger +turned his face towards Hilary, and smiled again in his slow, gentle +manner. "Why trouble yourself about the opinion of people whom you +don't know, and whom you will probably never see again? I suppose it is +a matter of perfect indifference to them, but what _I_ think about them +is, that they were exceedingly ill-bred to behave as they did, and I +should attach no value whatever to their opinions. Have you--er--lost +sight of your friends?" + +"No, they have lost sight of me." The stranger was at once so kind, and +so sensible, that Hilary began to feel a delightful sense of restored +equanimity, and even gave a little laugh of amusement as she spoke. "I +came with my father, and he has gone off with some friends and forgotten +all about my existence. He is over there at the end of the room; the +tall man with the brown moustache--Mr Austin Bertrand." + +The stranger gave a little jump in his seat, and the colour tinged his +cheek. "Bertrand!" he exclaimed. "You are Bertrand's daughter!" He +stared at Hilary with newly-awakened interest, while she smiled, well +pleased by the sensation which the name caused. + +"Yes; Austin Bertrand, the novelist. You know him, then? You are one +of his friends?" + +"Hardly that, I am afraid. I know him slightly, and he has been most +kind to me when we have met, but I cannot claim him as a friend. I am +one of his most ardent admirers." + +"And do you write yourself?" queried Hilary, looking scrutinisingly at +the sensitive, intellectual face, and anticipating the answer before it +came. + +"A little. Yes! It is my great consolation. My name is Herbert +Rayner, Miss Bertrand. I may as well introduce myself as there is no +one to do it for me. I suppose you have come up to town on a visit with +your father. You have lived in the Lake district for the last few +years, have you not? I envy you having such a lovely home." + +Hilary elevated her eyebrows in doubtful fashion. "In summer it is +perfectly delightful, but I don't like country places in winter. We are +two miles from a village, and three miles from the nearest station, so +you can imagine how quiet it is, when it gets dark soon after four +o'clock, and the lanes are thick with snow. I was glad to come back to +London for a change. This is the first grown-up party I have been to in +my life." + +Mr Rayner smiled a little, repeating her words and lingering with +enjoyment on the childish expression. "The first _party_! Is it +indeed? I only wish it were mine. I don't mean to pretend that I am +bored by visiting, as is the fashionable position nowadays. I am too +fond of seeing and studying my fellow-creatures for that ever to be +possible, but a first experience of any kind has an interest which +cannot be repeated. I am like you, I don't like winter. I feel half +alive in cold weather, and would like to go to bed and stay there until +it was warm again. There is no country in the world more charming than +England for seven months of the year, and none so abominable for the +remaining five. If it were not for my work I would always winter +abroad, but I am obliged to be in the hum of things. How do you manage +to amuse yourself in the Lakes?" + +"We don't manage at all," said Hilary frankly. "At least, I mean we are +very happy, of course, because there are so many of us, and we are +always having fun and jokes among ourselves; but we have nothing in the +way of regular entertainments, and it gets awfully dull. My sisters and +I had a big grumbling festival on New Year's Day, and told all our woes +to father. He was very kind, and said he would see what could be done, +and that's why I came up to London--to give me a little change." + +"I see!" Mr Rayner looked into the girl's face with a scrutinising +look. "So you are dull and dissatisfied with your surroundings. That's +a pity! You ought to be so happy, with such a father, brothers, and +sisters around you, and youth, and health! It seems to me that you are +very well off." + +Hilary put up her chin with an air of offended dignity. For one moment +she felt thoroughly annoyed, but the next, her heart softened, for it +was impossible to be vexed with this interesting stranger, with his +pathetic, pain-marked face. Why had he used that word "consolation" in +reference to his work? And why did his voice take that plaintive note +as he spoke of "youth and health"? "I shall ask father about him," said +Hilary to herself; and just at that moment Mr Bertrand came rushing +across the room with tardy remembrance. + +"My dear child, I forgot all about you. Are you all right? Have you +had some coffee? Have you found anyone to--er--" He turned a +questioning glance upon the other occupant of the seat, knitted his +brows for a second, and then held out his hand, with an exclamation of +recognition. "Rayner! How are you? Glad to see you again. I was only +talking of you to Moss the other day. That last thing of yours gave me +great pleasure--very fine indeed. You are striding ahead! Come and +lunch with me some day while I am in town. I should like to have a +chat. Have you been making friends with my daughter? Much obliged to +you for entertaining her, I have so many old friends here that I don't +know which way to turn. Well, what day will you come? Will Tuesday +suit? This is my present address, and my kind hostess allows me to ask +what guests I will. There was something I had specially on my mind to +ask you. Tuesday, then--half-past one! Good-bye till then. Hilary, I +will look you up later on. Glad you are so well entertained." He was +off again, flying across the room, scattering smiles and greetings as he +went, while the two occupants of the corner seat exchanged glances of +amusement. + +"That's just like father. He gets so excited that he flies about all +over the house, and hardly knows what he is doing." + +"He is delightfully fresh and breezy; just like his books. And now you +would like some refreshments. They are in the little room over there. +I shall be happy to accompany you, if you will accept my somewhat--er-- +inefficient escort." + +Hilary murmured some words of thanks, a good deal puzzled to understand +the meaning of those last two words. Somewhat to her surprise, her new +friend had not risen to talk to her father, and even now, as she stood +up in response to his invitation, he remained in his seat, bending +forward to grope behind the curtains. A moment later he drew forth +something at the sight of which Hilary gave an involuntary exclamation +of dismay. It was a pair of crutches; and as Mr Rayner placed one +under each arm and rose painfully to his feet, a feeling of overpowering +pity took possession of the girl's heart. Her eyes grew moist, and a +cry of sympathy forced themselves from her trembling lips. + +"Oh--I--I'm _sorry_!" she gasped, with something that was almost a sob +of emotion, and Mr Rayner winced at the sound as with sudden pain. + +"Thank you," he said shortly. "You are very kind. I'm--I'm used to it, +you know. This way, please." And without another word he led the way +towards the refreshment room, while Hilary followed, abashed and +sorrowful. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +AN "AT HOME." + +Hilary asked her father many questions about the new acquaintance, and +took great interest in what he had to tell. + +"Clever fellow, clever fellow; one of the most promising of the younger +men. I expect great things of him. Yes, lame, poor fellow! a terrible +pity! Paralysis of the lower limbs, I hear. He can never be better, +though I believe there is no reason why he should get worse. It's a sad +handicap to such a young man, and, of course, it gives a melancholy cast +to his mind. It was kind of him to entertain you so nicely--very kind +indeed." + +Hilary gave her head a little tilt of displeasure. Why should it be +"kind" of Mr Rayner to talk to her? Father seemed to think she was a +stupid little girl, on whom no grown-up person would care to waste their +time; but Mr Rayner had not seemed at all bored by her conversation, +and when some friends had tried to take him away, he had excused +himself, and preferred to remain in the quiet corner. + +When Tuesday came, and Mr Rayner arrived, Mr Bertrand was busy +writing, and despatched his daughter to amuse his guest until he should +have finished his letters. "Tell him I won't be more than ten minutes; +and he must excuse me, like a good fellow, for I am obliged to catch +this post," he said, and Hilary went into the long drawing-room, to find +her new friend seated on the couch, with his crutches by his side. He +was looking better than when she had seen him last, and had a +mischievous smile on his face. + +"Good morning, Miss Two Shoes!" he cried, and Hilary gave a little start +of consternation. + +"Oh, h-ush! They don't know--I didn't tell them. Miss Carr would never +stop talking about it, and father would tease me to death. I only said +that I had forgotten to put the slippers on coming home, which was quite +true. It was rather awkward, for they belonged to Miss Carr. She +insisted on lending them to me at the last moment. The servants would +be surprised when they found them behind the curtains the next morning, +wouldn't they?" + +"They would!" said Mr Rayner drily, and there was a peculiar smile upon +his face which Hilary could not understand. "So they were not yours, +after all. I thought the size seemed rather--excessive! I promise not +to betray you if you would rather keep the secret, but if the story gave +as much pleasure to your father as it has done to me, it seems rather +selfish to keep it from him. I have had the heartiest laughs I have +known for months past, thinking of the tragic incident of the scarlet +slippers!" + +"Please don't!" said Hilary; but she laughed as she spoke, and so far +from being offended, was quite thankful to hear that she had been the +means of giving some amusement to the new friend. "I have been hearing +all about you from father," she continued, nodding her head at him +cheerily. "He has promised to give me one of your books to read when we +get back to Clearwater. Will you please write your name in my autograph +book? I brought it downstairs on purpose. There are pens and ink on +this little table." + +Mr Rayner smiled, but made no objections. He took a very long time +over the signature, however, and when Hilary took up the book, she saw +that each leg of the H ended in the shape of a dainty little shoe, so +finely done that it would probably escape the notice of anyone who was +not critically inclined. + +"Too bad," she cried laughingly; "I am afraid you are going to be as +persistent as father in keeping up the joke." + +"They are the proper slippers, you observe--not the woollen atrocities," +replied Mr Rayner; and Hilary was still rejoicing in the discovery that +he could be mischievous like other people, when the door opened, and her +father came rushing into the room. + +Luncheon was served immediately afterwards, and when it was over, Mr +Bertrand carried off the young man to have a private talk in the +library. They did not make their appearance until the afternoon was +well advanced, and when they did, the drawing-room was full of people, +for it was Miss Carr's "At home" day, and the presence of Austin +Bertrand, the celebrated novelist, brought together even more visitors +than usual. + +Hilary had not found the entertainment at all amusing. It seemed absurd +to her innocent mind that people should come to see Miss Carr, and +exchange no further word with her than "How d'you do," and "Good-bye," +and though the hum of conversation filled the room, most of the visitors +were too old and too grand to take any notice of a girl just out of the +schoolroom. A few young girls accompanied their mothers, but though +they eyed Hilary wistfully, they would not speak without the +introduction which Miss Carr was too busy to give. One girl, however, +stared more persistently than the rest, and Hilary returned her scrutiny +with puzzled curiosity. She was a tall, elegant girl, but there was +something in the wavy line of the eyebrows which seemed strangely +familiar, and she had a peculiar way of drawing in her lips, which +brought back a hundred misty recollections. Where had she seen that +face before? Hilary asked herself, staring fixedly at the stranger. +The stranger began to smile; a flash of recollection passed across each +face, and the next moment they were clasping hands, and exclaiming in +mutual recognition-- + +"Hilary!" + +"Madge!" + +"The idea of meeting you here! I haven't seen you since we were tiny +little dots at school. I thought you lived ever so far away--up in the +North of England." + +"So we do; but we are here on a visit. Madge! how grown-up you are! +You are only six months older than I, but you look ever so much more +than that. How are you, and what are you doing, and how are all your +brothers and sisters? Lettice will be so interested to know I have seen +you." + +"Dear Lettice, yes! She was a nice girl. So affectionate, wasn't she? +I should like to see her again. Perhaps I may, for father has taken a +house at Windermere for next summer, and if you are not far away, we +could often meet and go excursions together." + +"Oh, how lovely! We are three miles from Windermere station, but we +have a pony carriage and bicycles, and could drive over to see you. Do +sit down, Madge. I don't know anyone here, and it is so dull sitting by +myself in a corner." + +"I am afraid I can't. I am with mother, you see, and she doesn't like +to be left alone. Perhaps I shall see you again before I go!" And +Madge Newcome nodded, and strolled off in a careless, indifferent manner +which brought the blood to Hilary's face. Mrs Newcome was talking to a +group of friends and looked very well satisfied, so much so that Hilary +suspected that the daughter's anxiety had been more for herself than her +mother, and that Miss Madge did not appreciate the attractions of +sitting in a quiet corner. + +"It's very unkind, when I told her I knew nobody; but she was a selfish +girl at school. She doesn't want to stay with me, that's the truth. I +wish this horrid afternoon would come to an end!" she told herself +dolefully, and it was with unconcealed delight that at last she heard +the sound of Mr Rayner's crutches, and welcomed that gentleman to a +seat by her side. He looked brighter than she had yet seen him, and had +evidently been enjoying himself upstairs. + +"Well," he said cheerily, "here you are in the midst of the merry +throng! Have you had a pleasant time? Not! Why, how's that? I +thought you enjoyed seeing a crowd of people." + +"I thought I did, but I find I don't like it so much as I expected," +said Hilary dejectedly. "When people are talking and laughing all +round, and I am left to keep myself company in a corner, it isn't at all +amusing. I suppose there are a great many celebrated people here, but I +don't know one from the other, so I am no wiser." + +"Never mind, I know them all. We will sit here quietly, and when anyone +interesting comes along, I will let you know. Your father has been so +kind to me, and has encouraged me until I feel as strong as a giant, and +greedy for work. He has asked me to come down to the Lakes to visit you +some time in spring, so I may see you again before long. Now then! one +of those ladies over there on the sofa is the Duchess of M---. Guess +which of the three she is!" + +"Oh, I know; the pretty one, of course, with the blue dress, and the +bonnet with the cream lace." + +"Wrong! Guess again." + +"The dark one with the beaded cape!" + +"Wrong again! It is the grey-haired lady in the corner." + +Hilary gasped, and stared aghast at the stout, shabby lady, who looked +everything that was motherly and pleasant, but as different as possible +from her ideas of what a duchess ought to be. Then Mr Rayner went on +to point out a poet, a painter of celebrated pictures, and half-a-dozen +men and women whose names the girl had known from her youth, but who all +seemed terribly disappointing in reality. She expressed her opinions in +a candid manner, which seemed vastly to amuse her hearer, and they were +so merry together that Hilary saw many envious glances directed towards +their corner, and realised that other people were envying her in their +turn. Madge Newcome came up to say good-bye, before leaving, and +elevated her eyebrows in a meaning manner towards Mr Rayner. + +"You seem to be having a pleasant time. I think Mr Rayner has such an +interesting face, but people say he is so stiff and reserved that it is +impossible to know him." + +"He is not reserved to me!" said Hilary consequentially. She had not +forgiven Madge Newcome for her desertion an hour earlier, and shook +hands with an air of dignified reserve. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +A PAINFUL AWAKENING. + +A fortnight in London passes quickly enough; but the time seems much +longer to the friends who are left at home, and who have no variety in +the quiet course of their lives. Half-a-dozen times a day Lettice and +Norah said to each other, "What will Hilary be doing now?" And when a +letter came, telling the plans of the next few days, they followed her +movements hour by hour, telling each other, "Now she will be driving +into town!" "Now she will be looking at the pictures!" "Now she will +be dressing for the evening!" When the day of the traveller's return +arrived, there was quite a bustle of excitement in the home. Lettice +ordered Hilary's favourite puddings for dinner, Norah gave the drawing- +room a second dusting in the afternoon, while Miss Briggs put on her cap +with the pink ribbons, and dressed Geraldine in her best frock. They +were all in the hall, ready to receive the travellers, as the fly from +the station drove up to the door, and while Mr Bertrand stayed without +to pay the driver, Hilary lost no time in hurrying indoors. Within the +first two minutes the sisters noticed a change in her manner. Her voice +seemed to have a new tone; when Miss Briggs held out a welcoming hand, +she extended her own at an elevation which made the good lady stare, and +even while kissing the girls, her eyes were roving round the hall with +an expression of dissatisfaction. + +"Why have you not lighted all the lamps?" she inquired, and when Lettice +replied in amazement that there were as many lamps as usual, she +shrugged her shoulders, and muttered something about "inky darkness." +If Mr Bertrand had not appeared at that moment it would be difficult to +say what would have happened, but he came rushing in like a breeze of +fresh, wintry air, seizing each of the girls in turn, and folding them +in a bear-like hug. + +"Well--well--well--here we are again! Glad to be back in the old home. +How are you, dear? How are you, pet? Miss Briggs, I see you are +flourishing! How have all these young people been behaving while I was +away? What about dinner? I'm so hungry that I shall eat the Mouse in +desperation if I am kept waiting. Well, little Mouse, glad to see your +father back again, eh? Come upstairs with me while I change my coat for +dinner." + +It was like another house when the cheery, bustling master was at home, +and Lettice and Norah forgot their passing annoyance in rejoicing over +his return. During the evening, however, Hilary managed to give offence +more than once. She kept frowning to herself as she sat at the head of +the table, and looking up and down with a discontented air which was +very exasperating to those who had done their utmost to study her tastes +and to give her a pleasant home-coming. When dinner was over and the +family party adjourned into the drawing-room, she kept jumping up from +her seat to alter the arrangement of plants and ornaments, or to put +some article in its proper place. Norah elevated her eyebrows at +Lettice, who nodded in sympathetic understanding, but both girls +controlled their irritation out of consideration for their father, whose +pleasure in the first evening at home would have been spoiled if his +daughters had taken to quarrelling among themselves. + +Mr Bertrand had brought home a perfect treasure-trove of presents for +the stay-at-homes. A beautiful little brooch and bangle for Lettice; +music, books, and a paint-box for Norah: furs for Miss Briggs; and a +small toy-shop for the dear little "youngest of seven." + +Such an excitement as there was in the drawing-room while the +presentations were going on! such shrieks of delight! such exclamations +of "Just what I wanted!" such huggings and kissings of gratitude! Mr +Bertrand declared at last that he would be pulled to pieces, and ran +upstairs to the shelter of his beloved study. After he had gone, Hilary +seemed for the time being to forget her grievances, whatever they might +be, and drawing her chair to the fire, settled down to one of the good +old-fashioned gossips which her sisters loved Lettice and Norah had a +dozen extra questions which they were burning to ask about every +incident of the visit to London; and they were not more eager to hear +than Hilary was to tell, for what is the good of going away and having +adventures if we cannot talk about them when we come home? + +The meeting with Madge Newcome was a subject of much interest. "Quite +grown-up, you say, and very grand and fashionable! And you went to +lunch with her one day. Are the boys at home? What are they like? +There was Cyril, the little one in the Eton jacket, who used to play +with Raymond; and Phil, the middy; and the big one who was at college-- +Arthur, wasn't he? What is he like now?" + +"I saw him only once, but it was quite enough. He is in business with +his father--a terribly solemn, proper person, who talks about books, and +says, `Were you not?'--`Would you not?' Miss Carr says he is very +clever, and good, and intellectual, but all the same, I am sure she +doesn't like him. I heard her describe him to father as `that wooden +young man.' It will be nice to see Madge in the summer, though I +haven't forgiven her for leaving me alone that afternoon. Oh, and I +must tell you--" And the conversation branched off in another direction, +while the girls crouched over the fire, laughing and talking in happy +reunion. + +Alas! the next day the clouds gathered over the family horizon and +culminated in such a storm as was happily of rare occurrence. The +moment that she left her bedroom Hilary began to grumble, and she +grumbled steadily the whole day long. Everything that Lettice had done +during her absence was wrong; the servants were careless and +inefficient; the drawing-room--Norah's special charge--looked as if no +one had touched it for a fortnight; the house was dingy and badly +lighted, and each arrangement worse than the last. Lettice hated +quarrelling so much that she was prepared to bear a good deal before +getting angry, but quick-tempered Norah exploded into a burst of +irritation before the afternoon was half over. + +"The fact is you have been staying for a fortnight in a grand London +house, and you are spoiled for your own home. I think it is mean to +come back, after having such a lovely time, and make everyone miserable +with your grumbling and fault-findings! Lettice did everything she +could while you were away, and the house is the same as when you left +it." + +"Perhaps it is, but I didn't know any better then. I know now how +things ought to be done, and I can't be satisfied when they are wrong." + +"And do you expect things to be managed as well in this house with five +of us at home, besides father and Miss Briggs, and three servants to do +all the work, as it is at Miss Carr's, with no one but herself, and six +or seven people to wait upon her?" Lettice spoke quietly, but with a +flush on her cheeks which proved that she felt more than she showed. +"It's very foolish if you do, for you will only succeed in upsetting +everyone, and making the whole house miserable and uncomfortable." + +"As you have done to-day!" added Norah bluntly. "I would rather have an +old-fashioned house than the finest palace in the world with a cross, +bad-tempered mistress going about grumbling from morning till night." + +"Norah, you are very rude to speak to me like that! You have no right. +I am the eldest." + +"You had no right to say to me that I haven't touched the drawing-room +for a fortnight." + +"I have a right to complain if the work of the house is not properly +done. Father has given me the charge. If I see things that can be +improved, I am certainly not going to be quiet. Suppose Mr Rayner or +the Newcomes came here to see us, what would they think if they came +into a half-lit hall as we did last night?" + +"Yes, I knew that was it. It's your grand London friends you are +thinking of. If they are too grand to come here, let them stay away. +Father is a greater man than any of them, if he is not rich." + +"Girls, girls, girls! what is all this?" Miss Briggs pulled aside the +curtain over the doorway, and came hurriedly into the room. "I heard +your voices across the hall. Are you quarrelling the first day Hilary +is at home? Don't let your father hear, I beg you; he would be terribly +grieved. What is the matter?" + +"It's Hilary's fault. She has done nothing but grumble all day long, +and I can't stand it. She has made Lettice miserable; the servants are +as cross as they can be, and there's no peace in the house." + +"Norah has been very rude to me, Miss Briggs. I am obliged to find +fault when things are wrong, and I can't help it if the servants are +cross." + +Miss Briggs looked at the younger girls. "Go upstairs, dears, and +change your dresses for dinner. I want to speak to Hilary by herself," +she said quietly, and Lettice and Norah left the room with awed faces. +The kind old governess did not often interfere with the girls now that +they were growing up, but when she did, there was a directness about her +speech which was very telling, and this afternoon was no exception to +the rule. + +"Hilary," she said slowly, when the door had closed behind the two +younger girls, "I have been with you now for ten years, and have watched +you grow up from a little girl. You were my first pupil, and I can't +help taking a special interest in you. You were a dear little child. I +thought you would grow up into a sweet, lovable woman; but you will have +to change a great deal, Hilary, if you are to do that! You will think +me cruel; but your mother is dead, and I must be truthful with you for +your own good. I think you have behaved very unkindly to your sisters +to-day. You have been away enjoying yourself while they were left at +home; they did their best to fill your place, and counted the days until +your return, and you have made them miserable from the moment of your +arrival. The house is as you left it; but even supposing you had +noticed a few things which were not to your taste, you could have put +them right quietly, or spoken of them in a pleasant, kindly manner. +Things have gone on smoothly and quietly while you were away--more +smoothly than when you are at home, my dear, for though Lettice is not +such a good manager, she has a sweet, amiable manner which makes the +servants anxious to please her by doing their best. You are very young, +Hilary, and you make the mistake of over-estimating your own importance, +and of thinking you are necessary to the welfare of the household. You +can easily make yourself so, if you wish, for you are a very clever +housekeeper; but if you continue to be as self-satisfied and as +regardless of the feelings of others as you are at present, I tell you +plainly that you will end in being a hindrance rather than a help. I am +not saying that the other girls are faultless, but instead of setting +them a good example, in nine cases out of ten you are the one to begin a +quarrel. You think me very cruel to speak like this--it's not easy to +do, Hilary--but you may thank me for it some day. Open your eyes, my +dear, and try to see yourself as you really are, before it is too late!" + +Miss Briggs swept from the room in a flutter of agitation, and Hilary +sank into the nearest chair, and gazed blankly at the fire. Her heart +was beating in heavy thuds, and she put her hand to her head in +stupefied fashion. For several minutes she sat motionless, unable to +form any definite thought. She only felt a curious shattered sensation, +as though she had come through some devastating experience, which had +laid waste all her fondest delusions. _What_ had Miss Briggs said? +That the household arrangements had been managed _better_ in her absence +than when she was at home. That if she did not alter, she would end in +being a hindrance rather than a help. That she set a bad example to the +younger girls and was the instigator of quarrels!--Hilary's cheeks burnt +with a flush that was almost painful. Her pride was wounded in its most +sensitive point. She would have been ready enough to acknowledge that +she was not so sweet-tempered as Lettice, or so clever as Norah, but she +had been secure in her conviction that no one could touch her in her own +department--that she was a person of supreme importance, without whom +the whole fabric of the household would fall to pieces. And things had +gone on _better_ while she was away! _Better_! Hilary writhed in +humiliation, and the flush burnt more fiercely than before. If she +could only manage to disbelieve it all, and wave it aside as a piece of +foolish prejudice; but she could not do this, for her eyes were opened, +and she saw the meaning of many things which she had misread before. +Miss Carr's quizzical, disapproving glance; her father's anxious gaze; +the little scornful sniff on the face of the old cook as she took her +morning's orders. Could it be that they all felt the same, and were +condemning her in their hearts as a stupid, consequential little girl, +who had no importance whatever except in her own estimation? And--"_a +hindrance_!" The word brought with it a throb of something deeper than +wounded pride, for, with all her faults, Hilary was devoted to her +father and her brothers and sisters, and the thought stung like a whip +that they might not care for her--that the time could come when they +might even wish for her absence! + +The light was growing dim in the deserted room, and, as Hilary laid her +head back in the old-fashioned chair, the tears which rose to her eyes +and trickled down her cheeks were the bitterest she had known in the +course of her short life. + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +THE VIOLIN LESSON. + +Three days after Mr Bertrand's return, Rex Freer arrived at the house +in a state of triumphant excitement. This was by no means his first +appearance since he had left Cloudsdale, for he never passed the house +on any of his numerous expeditions without running in for ten minutes' +chat, so that the girls were getting accustomed to see his head appear +at the window as they sat at work, or to hear the loud rat-tat on the +door which heralded his coming. They soon had practical demonstration +of his "managing powers," for more than once, after definitely making up +their minds that nothing would induce them to stir from the house, they +found themselves meekly putting on hats and jackets to join a +tobogganing party, and to accompany the young gentleman part of his way +home. Lettice was always easily influenced, but high-spirited Norah +made many protests against what she was pleased to call his "Indian +ways," and on one occasion even went so far as to dare a direct refusal. +Lettice had left the room to get ready for a walk along the snowy +lanes, but Miss Norah sat obstinately in her chair, the heel of one +slipper perched on the toe of the other, in an attitude which was a +triumph of defiance. + +"Well!" said Mr Rex, putting his hands in his pockets, and standing +with his back to the fire in elderly gentleman fashion. "Why don't you +get on your coat? I can't wait many minutes, you know, or it will get +dark. Hurry up!" + +"I'm not going. It's too cold. I don't like trudging over the snow. I +am going to stay at home." + +Norah raised her thin, little face to his with an audacious glance, +whereat "the strange boy's" eyes dilated with the steely flash which she +knew so well. + +"Then please go upstairs and tell Lettice not to trouble to get ready. +I can't allow her to come home alone, along the lonely roads," he said +quietly; and Norah slunk out of the room and put on her snow-shoes in +crestfallen silence, for it did Lettice good to have a daily walk, and +she could not be so selfish as to keep her at home. + +This afternoon, however, the call was longer than usual, for Rex came as +the bearer of good news. "You have only to make up your mind to do +anything, and the rest is quite easy," he announced coolly. "The mater +has made a point of speaking to everyone she has seen about the music +lessons, and she has heard of a capital man in Lancaster who is willing +to come down for an afternoon once a fortnight. I met your father in +the village, and he agrees to the terms, so now there is nothing left +but to write and fill in the day to begin. Thursday suits him best. Do +you say Thursday first or Thursday fortnight?" + +"Oh, the first Thursday. I don't want to wait a day longer than I can +help. Oh, how lovely! So it is really settled. I wanted it so badly +that I was afraid it would never come true. How am I to get over to +your house, I wonder?" + +"I'll drive over and bring you back next morning. We might use our +bicycles, but the violin case would be rather a nuisance, and I suppose +you'll need a bag of some description. I'll be here at eleven, and then +we shall get home to lunch. Edna is in a great state of excitement at +the thought of seeing you." + +Norah pulled a funny little face of embarrassment. "I'm rather shy, you +know," she said, laughing. "I've only seen your mother once, and the +other two are absolute strangers; it seems funny to be coming over to +stay. Is your father a formidable sort of old gentleman?" + +"Humph--well--I think he is rather! He is awfully fond of getting his +own way," said Rex, in a tone which implied that he failed to understand +how anyone could be guilty of such a weakness. "But he is an awfully +decent sort if you take him the right way; and poor little Edna would +not frighten a mouse. You will feel at home with her in five minutes. +I only wish she knew Lettice. We must arrange for her to come over some +time." + +Norah looked at him with a feeling of curiosity which was not altogether +agreeable. "Why do you wish that she knew Lettice! Do you think she +would like her better than me?" + +"Oh, yes," said Rex easily. (He was just like other boys, Norah told +herself, and had not the slightest regard for a poor girl's feelings!) +"She is such a jolly, affectionate little thing, you know, that Edna +would take to her at once. And she has heard so much of `Lovely +Lettice'! I say, _isn't_ she pretty?" + +"Yes, she is--lovely! It's a very good name for her." Norah spoke with +all the greater emphasis because, for the moment, she had been guilty of +an actual pang of envy of her beloved Lettice, for she regarded the +"strange boy" as her special friend, by virtue of having been the first +to make his acquaintance, and it was not agreeable to find her own +claims to popularity brushed aside in this unceremonious fashion. +"Lettice is a darling, and everyone likes her, because she is sweet- +tempered, and never says unkind things to make other people miserable," +she added, not without the hope that Mr Rex would take the hint to +himself. He did nothing of the sort, however, but only yawned, thought +he must be going, and marched away with stoical unconsciousness of the +aching little heart which he had left behind. + +On Thursday morning Rex duly drove up to the door in his father's dog- +cart. He was a little before his time, but Norah was waiting for him, +wrapped up in her warm scarlet coat; her violin case and bag ready on +the hall table. Before he came she had been lamenting loudly, because +she felt a conviction that something would happen to prevent his +arrival; but when it came to setting off, she was seized with an attack +of shyness, and hung back in hesitating fashion. "Oh, oh! I don't like +it a bit. I feel horrid. Don't you think father would drive over, and +bring me home to-night?" + +"H-ush! No! Don't be foolish, Norie! You will enjoy it ever so much +when you get there. Remember everything to tell me to-morrow," +whispered Lettice encouragingly, and Norah climbed up into the high seat +and waved her hand to her two sisters until a turn of the drive hid them +from sight. + +"If you want to cry, don't mind me!" said Rex coolly, which remark +served better than anything else could possibly have done to rouse Miss +Norah to her usual composure. The saucy little nose was tilted into the +air at once, and the red lips curled in scornful fashion. + +"I wonder how it is that schoolboys are always so rude and unpleasant?" + +Mr Rex laughed, and gave the horse a flick with the whip, which sent +him spinning round the corner at break-neck speed. Norah understood +that he was proud of his driving, and wished to impress her with the +fact that it was very unlike a schoolboy performance. She pressed her +lips together to stifle an exclamation of dismay at his recklessness, +and her silence pleased Rex, who liked to see "a girl with some +courage," so that presently he began to talk in quite a confidential +strain. "The professor will be at the house about half-past two, so you +won't have too much time to spare. He is a tall, lanky fellow, six feet +two, with a straggling black beard, goggle eyes, and spectacles. He +looks awfully bad-tempered, but I suppose he can't do more than rap your +knuckles with a pencil, and they all go as far as that." + +"No one ever rapped my knuckles," said Norah loftily. "You told Hilary +a few minutes ago that none of you had seen him, and that your mother +had engaged him entirely on her friends' recommendation. So you can't +know what he is like, or anything about him!" + +"How do you know that the friends did not describe him?" cried Rex +quickly. "You can't know what they said. I tell you he is a tall, +cadaverous fellow, with a stoop in his back and a white beard." + +"Black! black! You said black last time," cried Norah in triumph. "You +are making it up, and I could imagine what he is like as well as you, if +I liked, but I won't, because it is so horribly uncomfortable when you +really meet. I tried that trick with Lettice once, when a friend of +Miss Briggs came to visit us. She was a very nice old lady, and awfully +kind (she made me a sweet little pin-cushion for my room), but she _was_ +ugly! She looked just like a fat, good-natured frog, with light eyes +very far apart, big, big freckles spotted over her face, and such a +great, wide mouth. Well, I saw her first, and then I went upstairs, and +Lettice met me and asked me what she was like. I felt mischievous, so I +said that she was dark, and tall, and stately, with a long, thin face, +and beautiful, melancholy eyes. Lettice went rushing downstairs, and +when she saw her she stopped quite short, and began to choke and gurgle +as if she were going to have a fit. She pretended that she was laughing +at something Raymond was doing in the garden; but it was horribly +awkward, and I vowed I'd never do it again. I should hate people to +laugh at me, and it's unkind to do things that you wouldn't like other +people to do to you--I mean--you know what I mean!" + +"I know," said Rex gravely. He looked quite serious and impressed, and +Norah cast inquiring glances at his face, wondering what he could be +thinking of, to make him so solemn all of a sudden. + +At last, "Look here," he said, "talking of meeting strangers, don't +stare at poor little Edna when you meet! There is--er--something--about +her eyes, and she is very sensitive about it. Try and look as if you +don't notice it, you know." + +"Oh, I will!" cried Norah gushingly. She knitted her brows together, +trying to think what the "something" could be. Something wrong with her +lungs, and something wrong with her eyes--poor Edna! she was indeed to +be pitied! "I am glad he told me, for I wouldn't hurt her feelings for +the world," she said to herself; and many times over, during the course +of the next hour, did her thoughts wander sympathetically towards her +new companion. + +It was a long, cold drive, but Norah could have found it in her heart to +wish it were longer, as the dog-cart turned in at the gate of the Manor +House and drew up before the grey stone porch. Mrs Freer came into the +hall to welcome her guest, with a grey woollen shawl wrapped round her +shoulders, and her little face pinched with cold. + +"How do you do, dear? I'm afraid you are quite starved. Come away to +the fire and get thawed before you go upstairs," she said cordially; and +Norah followed, conscious that a girl's head had peeped out of the door +to examine her, and then been cautiously withdrawn. When they entered +the room, however, Miss Edna was seated demurely behind a screen, and +came forward in the most proper way to shake hands with the new-comer. +Norah was only conscious that she was tall, with narrow shoulders, and +brown hair hanging in a long plait down her back, for the fear of +seeming to stare at the "something" in her eyes about which she was so +sensitive, kept her from giving more than the most casual of glances. +Conversation languished under these circumstances, and presently Mrs +Freer took Norah upstairs to her room to get ready for lunch. Before +that meal was served, however, there was another painful ten minutes to +go through downstairs, when the mistress of the house was out of the +room and Rex came in to take her place. Edna was reported to be shy, +but in this instance it was Norah who was tongue-tied, and the other who +made the advances. It is so extremely difficult to speak to a person at +whom one is forbidden to look. Norah fixed her eyes on Edna's brooch, +and said, "Yes, oh yes, she was fond of skating." Questioned a little +further, she gave a rapid glance so far upward as to include a mouth and +chin, and was so much abashed by her own temerity that she contradicted +herself hopelessly, and stammered out a ridiculous statement to the +effect that she never used a bicycle, that is to say always--when it was +fine. Edna sat silent, dismayed at the reality of the sprightly girl of +whom she had heard so much, and it did not add to Norah's comfort to +hear unmistakable sounds of chuckling from the background. She darted +an angry glance at Rex, scented mischief in his twitching smile, and +turned at bay to stare fixedly into Edna's face. A broad forehead, thin +cheeks, a delicate pink and white complexion, dark grey eyes, wide open +with curiosity, but as free from any disfigurement about which their +owner could be "sensitive" as those of the visitor herself. + +"Oh--oh!" gasped Norah. Rex burst into a roar of laughter, and Edna +pleaded eagerly to be told of the reason of their excitement. + +"He told me I was not to look at you. He told me--there was something-- +wrong--with your eyes; that you didn't like people to stare at you. I-- +I was afraid to move," panted Norah in indignation. + +"Something wrong with my eyes! But there isn't, is there? They are all +right?" cried Edna in alarm, opening the maligned eyes to about twice +their usual size, and staring at Norah in beseeching fashion. "How +_could_ he say anything so untrue!" + +"I never said there was anything `wrong.' I was very particular how I +put it. I said there was `something' about your eyes, and that you were +sensitive about meeting strangers, and did not like to be stared at. +All quite true, isn't it? It's not my fault if Norah chose to think you +squinted," declared Rex, jetting the best of the argument as usual, and +nodding his head at Norah with the air of triumph which she found so +exasperating. + +Edna looked from one to the other in startled fashion, as though she +were afraid that such flashing looks must be the commencement of a +quarrel, and drew a sigh of relief when Norah's dignity gave way to +giggles of uncontrollable amusement. + +The Squire made his appearance at the luncheon table, an irascible- +looking old gentleman, with red, weather-beaten face, grey hair, and +fierce white whiskers sticking out on either side. The ribbons on his +wife's cap trembled every time he spoke to her, and she said, "Yes, +love, yes!" and "No, love, no!" to everything he said, as if afraid to +differ from him on any subject. Norah jumped on her seat the first time +he spoke to her, for his voice sounded so loud and angry. He said, "I +am afraid you have had a cold drive," in much the same tone as that in +which the villain on the stage would cry--"Base villain, die a thousand +deaths!" and when he called for mustard, the very rafters seemed to +ring. "What on earth must he be like when he is really angry, if he is +like this when he is pleased?" asked Norah of herself; but there was +something in the Squire's keen, blue eyes which took her fancy, despite +his fierceness, and she noticed that when he spoke to his little +daughter his face softened, while each time that she coughed, he knitted +his brows and stared at her with undisguised anxiety. Edna was +evidently his darling, and her delicate health the cause of much +anxiety. + +At two o'clock the two girls ensconced themselves behind the window +curtains and exchanged confidences while watching for the first +appearance of the Professor from Lancaster. Edna told Norah about the +school which she left; how grieved she had been to say good-bye to her +friends, and how sadly she missed their bright society, and Norah +comforted her in warm-hearted fashion. "Never mind, I am coming every +fortnight, and when the bright days are here you will be able to drive +over and see us. I hope you will like me, for I think I shall like you +very much indeed, in spite of your eyes." Then they pinched each other, +and crouched together with "Oh's!" and "Ah's!" of excitement, as a +small, wiry figure came hurrying towards the house. It was Mr Morris, +of course, but the collar of his coat was turned up and his hat pulled +over his face, so that it was impossible to tell what he was really +like. Only one thing was certain--he had neither a white nor a black +beard, as Mr Rex had predicted. + +"Let me have the first lesson! He won't think I am so bad if he hears +me first," pleaded Edna; and at the end of an hour she came out of the +drawing-room, to announce that Mr Morris was rather terrible, but that +she was sure he was a good teacher, and that she had not been so +frightened as she expected. Then it was Norah's turn. She played her +favourite pieces, one after the other, while Mr Morris sat at the edge +of the table, watching and listening. Never a word of praise or blame +did he say until she had finished the third selection. Then he looked +at her fixedly with his light, grey eyes (they _were_ rather goggled, +after all!), and said quietly, "Well, and what do you mean to do?" + +"Mean to do? I--I don't think I understand." + +"Are you content to be a young lady amateur who plays well enough to +entertain her friends in her own drawing-room, or do you mean to work +seriously, and make a first-rate performer? You can do as you like. +You have the talent. It is for yourself to decide." + +Norah's face was a study in its raptured excitement. "Oh-oh!" she cried +breathlessly, "I'll work--I don't care _how_ hard I work! I love it so +much. I want to do my very, very best." + +"Then I'll work too, and do all I can to help you!" said Mr Morris in +return. He jumped off the table as he spoke, and advanced towards her, +rubbing his hands as one who prepares for a pleasant task. "Now then!" +he cried; and for the next hour Norah was kept hard at work, with never +another word of praise, but with many sharp corrections and reminders to +call attention to hitherto unsuspected faults. She was radiantly happy, +nevertheless, for the first step towards correcting a fault was to +discover its existence, and what was the good of a teacher who did not +point out what was wrong? At four o'clock Mr Morris took his +departure, and Norah found that Edna had retired to her room to rest, as +was her custom every afternoon. Mrs Freer was also invisible, but Rex +came to join her in the drawing-room, looking particularly cheerful and +self-satisfied. + +"Well, has the old fellow departed? How are the knuckles? Is he any +good? He looks a miserable little shrimp." + +"He's a delightful teacher! I like him immensely! He told me I could +be a splendid player if I would only work hard enough." + +"Oh, well, I could have told you as much as that myself." It was clear +that Rex thought it the polite thing to inquire about the success of the +music lesson, but also that his attention was fixed on some other +subject. "Look here!" he said suddenly, "the mater and Edna always rest +for an hour or two in the afternoon, and I promised to look after you +until they come down. Would you like a real, genuine--bloodcurdling +adventure?" + +Norah gave a shriek of delight. "Rather, just! I should think I would. +What is it?" + +"You can pin up your dress, and put on a big old coat?" + +"Yes--yes!" + +"And you won't mind if you do get grimy?" + +"Not a bit I'm used to--I mean, I can soon wash myself clean again." + +"Come along then! Follow me, and tread lightly. I don't want anyone to +see where we are going." And Rex led the way down the cellar stairs, +while Norah followed, afire with curiosity. + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +A DANGEROUS ADVENTURE. + +The Manor house dated back for nearly two hundred years, and the +underground premises were of an extent unknown in modern houses. Rex +led the way through various flagged divisions, and leaving behind +washing, wine, and coal cellars, came at last to a large door, locked +and bolted. Here he stopped, and drawing a bunch of keys from his +pocket, fitted one into the lock, and pushed and dragged at the door +until it opened before him. "Now then," he said, turning to Norah, "we +will prepare for business! I've got a lantern here and two old coats; +button yourself up in this, and you will come to no harm. I found these +old keys in a drawer to-day, and it struck me that one of them might fit +this door, so I came down to experiment before coming back for you. +There is a tradition that there is a subterranean passage leading from +this house to the lake, and I believe I have discovered the entrance. +I'll show you what I mean. Be careful how you tread, for the floor is +strewed with rubbish." + +He took Norah by the arm as he spoke, and led her forward for two or +three steps. At first the darkness appeared impenetrable, but presently +her eyes became accustomed to the imperfect light, and she saw that she +was standing in a long apartment, filled with all manner of odd, +injured, and useless articles. Scraps of broken furniture, balks of +timber, and strangely-shaped pieces of iron lay on every side. It was +evidently a lumber-room of past generations which had been deserted by +later tenants, for the grated windows were thick with dust, and the +cobwebs hung in wreaths on the walls. Rex lighted the lantern, closed +the door as quietly as might be, and dodged in and out the piles of +rubbish to the far end of the cellar. "Come here! What do you think of +this?" he cried triumphantly; and Norah groped her way forward, to find +him standing before a part of the wall which had been broken down for +some purpose and left unrepaired. The stones and mortar were piled high +on the ground, and hidden behind them was a large hole opening into a +dark passage. "This looks like the genuine article, doesn't it? Are +you game to explore, and see where it leads?" queried Rex; and Norah +assented eagerly-- + +"Oh, yes, yes; I should love it! It looks so beautifully mysterious. +There may be hidden treasures. Would they belong to me if I found +them?" + +"You would have a share, of course; the rest would be mine because I +discovered the opening. Now then, I'll go first, and hold the lantern; +you will have to stoop, but it may get higher as we go along." + +The passage proved to be smooth, and, to Norah's relief, quite dry and +free from those "creepy, crawly animals" which were the only things +about which she was really nervous. But Rex was wrong in thinking that +it might improve in height, for it grew ever narrower and lower as they +progressed, until at times they were obliged to bend almost double. +"This is the way people have to crawl about inside the Pyramids," said +Rex. "It's a queer kind of place, but I mean to go on until I find +where it leads. I say, though! don't you come on if you would rather +not. You could go back to the cellar and wait for me." + +But Norah would not listen to such a suggestion. What if her back did +ache, it was not every day that she had the chance of such an adventure; +besides, she had no particular wish to be left alone in the dark, while +it yet remained to be proved how she was to turn round when the time +came for the return journey. For five minutes longer they trudged +forward in silence, then Rex's stick struck against some other substance +than stone, and his outstretched hand came across a bar of iron. It +proved to be a half-closed grating, shutting out the entrance into the +further portion of the passage, but he was not to be turned aside by +such a trifle as this, and after much pushing and banging managed to +raise it sufficiently to make it possible to scramble underneath. Norah +followed in agile fashion, but hardly had she done so than there came +the sound of a fall, and a sharp, metallic click. + +"What's that?" cried Rex quickly, and Norah stretched out her hand to +discover the cause of the noise. It came, into contact with something +hard and cold, and her heart gave a leap of fear, for she realised in an +instant that the trap-door had fallen, and that the click which they had +heard had been the catch with which it had swung into its rightful +position. + +"I--I think something has fastened the grating," she said faintly. "I +can't make it move. We shan't be able to get back this way." + +"Oh, what nonsense! Let me come and try," said Rex impatiently, but the +passage was so narrow at this point that it was impossible for him to +pass, and he had to content himself with directing Norah's efforts. +"I'll hold the lantern; look up and down and see if you can find the +fastening. Push upwards! Put your fingers in the holes, and tug with +all your might. ... Try it the other way. ... Kick it with your feet!" + +Norah worked with all her strength--and she was a strong, well-grown +girl, with no small muscular power--but the grating stood firm as a +rock, and resisted all her efforts. "It's no use, Rex," she panted +desperately; and there was silence for a few moments, broken by a sound +which was strangely like the beating of two anxious hearts. + +"Well, we shall just have to go on then, that's all," said Rex shortly. +"A passage is bound to lead somewhere, I suppose. The worst that can +happen is that we may have a walk home, and you couldn't come to much +harm in that coat!" + +"Oh no! I shall be all right," said Norah bravely. For a few moments +she had been horribly frightened, but Rex's matter-of-fact speech had +restored her confidence in his leadership. Of course the passage must +have an outlet. She considered where they would come out, and even +smiled faintly to herself at the thought of the comical figure which she +would cut, striding through the lanes in the squire's old yellow +mackintosh. She was determined to let Rex see that though she was only +a girl, she could be as brave as any boy; but it was difficult to keep +up her spirits during the next ten minutes, for the passage seemed to +grow narrower all the time, while the air was close and heavy. A long +time seemed to pass while they groped their way forward, then suddenly +Rex's stick struck against some obstacle directly in his path, and he +stopped short. + +"What is it?" cried Norah fearfully. It seemed an endless time to the +poor child before he answered, in a voice so strained and hoarse as to +be hardly recognisable. + +"The passage is blocked. It is walled up. We cannot get any further!" +Rex lifted the lantern as he spoke and looked anxiously into the girl's +face, but Norah said nothing. It seemed as if she could not realise the +meaning of his words, but there was a dizzy feeling in her head as if a +catherine-wheel were whirling round and round, and she felt suddenly +weak and tired, so that she was obliged to sit down and lean against the +wall. + +Rex bent over her with an anxious face. + +"You are not going to faint, Norah?" + +"Oh, no; I am--quite well." + +There was a long silence, then--"Rex," said Norah, in a very weak little +voice, "did anyone know that you were down in the cellars to-day?" + +Rex cleared his throat in miserable embarrassment. + +"No, Norah. I am afraid no one saw me." + +"Will they miss the keys?" + +"They are very old keys, Norah. Nobody uses them." + +A little frightened gasp sounded in his ear, but Norah said no more. +Rex clenched his fist and banged it fiercely on his knee. + +"Idiot! idiot that I was! What business had I to let you come. It's +all my fault. It was no place for a girl; but the opening looked right +enough, and I thought--" + +"I know. Besides, you asked me if I would like an adventure, and I said +I would. I came of my own free will. Don't be angry with yourself, +Rex; it is as much my fault as yours." + +"You are a little brick, Norah," said a husky voice, and Rex's hand +gripped hers with a quick, strong pressure. "I never thought a girl +could be so plucky. I'll not forget--" He broke off suddenly, and +Norah's voice was very unsteady as she asked the next question-- + +"If--if we shouted very loudly would anyone hear?" + +"I--er-- Think how far away from the house we must be by this time, +Norah!" + +There was a long, throbbing silence. Rex sat with his head bent forward +on his knees; Norah stared blankly before her, her face looking thin and +ghost-like in the dim light. The silence grew oppressive, and presently +the lad raised his head and touched his companion on the arm. "Don't +look like that, Norah. What is it? Norah, speak! What are you +thinking about?" He had to bend forward to hear the answer, for Norah's +lips were dry, and her throat parched as with thirst. + +"Poor father!" she gasped; and Rex started at the sound with a stab of +pain. + +"Don't! I can't bear it. Norah, for pity's sake don't give in--don't +give up hope. Something will happen--it will--it must! We shall get +out all right." + +"But if we can't go forward, and if we can't go back, and if no one can +hear us call," said Norah, still in the same slow, gasping accents, "I +don't see--how--we can. ... Rex! how long shall we have to wait before +we--" + +"If you say that word, Norah, I'll never forgive you! We must get out-- +we _shall_ get out! Come, rouse yourself like a good girl, and I will +go back to see what I can do with that grating. It's our only chance. +Lead the way until we come to the broadest part of the passage, and then +I must manage to pass you somehow or other. It has to be done." + +Norah put out her hands and dragged herself wearily to her feet. The +feeble gleam of the lantern seemed only to call attention to the inky +blackness, and the air was so close and noisome, that she breathed in +heavy pants. It had been a delightful adventure to explore this +passage, so long as it was in her power to turn back at any moment; but +now that there was this dreadful terror of not being able to get out at +all, it seemed like a living grave, and poor Norah staggered forward in +sick despair. As they neared the grating, however, it became possible +to stand upright, and this, in itself, was a relief, for her back was +aching from long stooping. + +Rex laid down the lantern at a safe distance, and put his hand on the +girl's shoulder. "Now then, Norah, I am going to squeeze past. I may +hurt you a little, but it will be only for a moment. Stretch your arms +out flat against the wall, turn your head sideways, and make yourself as +small as you can. I will take off my coat. Now! Are you ready?" + +"Ready!" said Norah faintly; and the next moment it seemed as if the +breath were being squeezed out of her body, as Rex pressed her more and +more tightly against the wall. A horrible gasp of suffocation, a wild +desire to push him off and fight for her own liberty, and then it was +all over, and they were standing side by side, gasping, panting, and +tremulous. + +"That's over!" sighed Rex thankfully. "Poor Norah! I am afraid I hurt +you badly, but it was the best plan to get it over as quickly as +possible. Now then, hold up the lantern, and let me have a look round." +... + +It was a time of breathless suspense as Rex went carefully over every +inch of the door, examining niche and corner in the hope of discovering +the secret of the spring by which it was moved. The grating was rusty +with age, and had evidently stuck in the position in which he had found +it an hour before, when his vigorous shakings had loosened the springs +by which it was moved. Try as he might, however, he could not succeed +in moving it a second time; there was no sign of knob or handle; he +could find no clue to its working. + +"It's no use, Rex," said Norah feebly. "You will have to give it up." +But the lad's indomitable will would not permit him to agree in any such +conclusion. + +"I will never give it up!" he cried loudly. "I brought you into this +place, and I'll get you out of it, if I have to break every bar with my +own hands--if I have to pick the stones out of the wall! Move along a +few yards; I'm going to lie down on my back, and try what kicking will +do." + +No sooner said than done. Rex stretched himself at full length on the +ground, moved up and down to get at the right distance, and began to +assail the grating with a series of such violent kicks as woke a babel +of subterranean echoes. Not in vain he had been the crack "kick" of the +football team at school; not in vain had he exercised his muscles ever +since childhood in scrambling over mountain heights, and taking part in +vigorous out-of-door sports. Norah clasped her hands in a tremor of +excitement. It seemed to her that no fastenings in the world could long +withstand such a battery, and when Rex suddenly sprang to his feet and +charged at the door, she fairly shrieked with exultation. + +"Go on! Go on! It shakes! I'm sure it shakes! Oh, Rex, kick! kick +for your life!" It was a superfluous entreaty. The strength of ten men +seemed to be concentrated in the lad for the next ten minutes, as he +fought the iron grating, changing from one position to another, as signs +of increasing weakness appeared in different parts of the framework. +Norah gasped out encouragement in the background, until at last, with a +crash and bang, the old springs gave way, and the grating fell to the +ground. + +"Now--come!" shouted Rex. He did not waste a moment in rejoicing; now +that the barrier was removed both he and Norah were possessed with but +one longing--to get out of the passage as quickly as possible into +light, and air, and safety. Two minutes later they were seated side by +side on one of the beams of timber on the cellar floor, gazing into each +other's face with distended eyes. Rex was purple with the strain of his +late efforts--his breath came pantingly, his hair lay in damp rings on +his forehead. Norah's face was ghastly white; she was trembling from +head to foot. + +"Thank God!" said Rex solemnly. They were his first words, and Norah +bent her head with a little sob of agitation. + +"Oh, thank God! We might have been buried alive in that awful place." + +Rex took out his handkerchief and mopped his forehead, looking anxiously +at his companion the while. "You don't think you will be ill, do you, +Norah? You look horribly white." + +"Oh no!--oh no! I shall be all right in an hour, but I shall never +forget it. Rex, I think we ought to be awfully good all our lives--we +have had such a wonderful escape, and we know now how it feels-- When I +thought I was never going to come out of that passage, I was sorry I had +been cross to Hilary, and--so selfish! I made up my mind if I had +another chance--" + +"I don't believe you have ever done anything wrong, Norah," said Rex, in +a low, husky voice. There was a long silence, then--"My father will +feel inclined to kill me when he hears about this!" he added shortly. + +Norah started. "But need we tell them? I don't think it would be wrong +to say nothing about it. We are safe, and it has taught us to be more +careful in future. It would only upset everyone, and make them +miserable, if they knew we had been in such danger. I'll slip quietly +to my room, and it shall be a secret between us, Rex--you and I." + +Rex looked at her in silence, with his big, keen eyes. "You are the +best little soul in the world, Norah," he said. "I wish I were like +you!" + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +THE NEW MARY. + +Norah was white and subdued for the rest of the evening, but as she was +a stranger to three out of the four members of the household, this +unusual fact attracted little attention. It was taken for granted that, +like Edna, she was exhausted by the excitement of the first music +lesson, and both girls were despatched to bed at an early hour. + +Next morning Rex hied off to the Vicarage, to work for a couple of hours +with the vicar, a scholarly recluse, with whom he was reading for +college, and the girls were left alone to pursue their acquaintance. +Conversation naturally turned on Rex, but Edna told the story of his +discontent from a fresh point of view. + +"Father doesn't ask him to choose a profession if he would rather go +into business, but he thinks every man is the better for a college +education, and that Rex is too young to decide for himself until he is +twenty-one. If he works till then, he can do what he likes in the +future. But Rex is so obstinate; he thinks he is a man because he is +nearly eighteen, and wants to have his own way at once. It makes father +so angry." + +Norah pursed up her lips. She could imagine that a conflict of wills +between the old Squire and his son would be no trifling matter. In +imagination, she saw them standing facing each other, the father ruddy, +bristling, energetic, Rex straight and tall, his lips set, his eyes +gleaming. They were too like each other in disposition for either to +find it easy to give way. + +"Boys are a great trial," she said, sighing profoundly. "We have two, +you know--Raymond and Bob. They have gone back to school now, and the +house is so peaceful. I am glad I wasn't born a boy. They never seem +happy unless there is a disturbance going on. But both Rex and your +father seem so fond of you. Can't you coax them round?" + +"Oh, I daren't!" Edna looked quite alarmed. "Mother and I never +interfere; we leave them to fight it out between themselves. But if +they go on fighting for the next three years it won't be very lively, I +must say!" + +Edna would have been as much surprised as delighted if she had known +that the conflict which had so long destroyed the peace of the household +was at an end, even as she spoke. No one could fail to notice that the +Squire was in an unusually radiant frame of mind at luncheon, or that he +addressed his son with marked favour; but it was not until the drive +home was nearly over, and the gates of Cloudsdale in view, that Rex +enlightened his companion's curiosity on the point. He cleared his +throat once or twice in a curious, embarrassed manner, before he began +to speak. + +"Er--Norah--I've something to tell you. When we were shut up in that +hole last night, I was thinking too. The governor has been very good to +me, and it seems ungrateful to stand out about college, when he is so +keen on it. It is only for three years. I--er--I told him this morning +that I would do my best till I was twenty-one, if he would promise to +let me have a free choice after that." + +"Oh, Rex, did you? I am so glad. I am sure you will never regret it. +You will always be glad that you did what your father wished, even if it +is hard at the time. I think you are very, very good and kind, and +unselfish." + +"All right! You needn't gush. I hate girls who gush," said Rex curtly; +and Norah understood that she was to say no more on the subject, and +collapsed into obedient silence. + +It seemed a day of good resolutions, for Norah could not but notice that +Hilary looked ill and was obviously in low spirits. Her greeting had +been more affectionate than usual; nevertheless, the remembrance of the +quarrel of a few days earlier still rankled in Norah's mind, and the +resolutions of yesterday were too fresh to allow her to be satisfied +without a definite reconciliation. The first time they were alone +together, she burst into impetuous apologies. "Oh, Hilary, I wanted to +say that I'm sorry I was cross on Monday. I don't mind a bit about the +drawing-room; alter it in any way you like. Of course you know better +how things should be, after staying in London. I'm sorry I was rude, +but I did dust it, really!" + +To her surprise, the tears rose in Hilary's eyes, and she looked +absolutely distressed. "Oh, Norah, don't! I'm sorry too. I didn't +think I had grumbled so much. But Miss Carr's house is so beautiful, +and when I came home--" + +"I know. But it looks ever so much nicer in summer, when the doors are +open and the flowers are in bloom. If you like to move the piano, and +make it stand out from the walls, I'll give you my yellow silk for the +drapery. Aunt Amy sent it to me for a dress, but I've never used it." + +"Thank you, Norah; it's awfully good of you, but I shall have something +else to do besides draping pianos for the next few weeks, I'm afraid," +said Hilary dismally. "Mary has given notice!" And the poor little +housekeeper heaved a sigh, for Mary had been a model housemaid, and it +would be a difficult matter to replace her in this quiet country place. + +"Mary given notice! Oh, how horrid! I hate strange servants, and she +has been with us so long. Why ever is she--" Norah checked herself with +a quick recollection of the events of the last week, but Hilary did not +shirk the unfinished question. + +"She was vexed because I found fault. I felt cross and worried, and +vented it on her. I didn't realise it at the time, but I see now that I +was unreasonable." And to hear Hilary confess a fault was an experience +so extraordinary, that Norah sat dumbfounded, unable to account for the +phenomenon. + +The threatened loss of Mary was too important a family event to pass +unnoticed in the general conversation. Lettice was full of +lamentations, and even Rex had a tribute to pay to her excellence. "The +big, strapping girl, who waited on me when I was laid up? Oh, I say, +what a nuisance! I wish she would come to us; she has such a jolly +good-natured face." + +"If she came to you, I would never stay at your house again. I'd be too +jealous," said Norah dolefully. "We shall never get anyone like Mary." + +"We may be thankful if we get anyone at all. Girls don't like living so +far from the village," groaned Lettice in concert; and the virtues of +Mary, and the difficulties of supplanting her, were discussed at length +throughout the afternoon. Hilary's sense of guilt in the matter made +her even more energetic than usual in her efforts to find a new maid. +She visited the local registry offices, inserted advertisements in the +papers, and wrote reams of letters; and, on the third day, to her +delight, a young woman arrived to apply for the situation. It was the +first time that the duty of interviewing a new servant had devolved upon +Hilary's shoulders, for all three maids had been in the family for +years, and, in her new doubtfulness of self, she would have been glad to +ask the help of Miss Briggs, but that good lady had taken Geraldine for +a walk, and there was no help at hand. + +"I don't know if she is afraid of me, but I am certainly terrified of +her!" said poor Hilary, smoothing her hair before the glass, and trying +to make herself look as staid and grown-up as possible. "I don't know +what on earth to say. Lettice, come and sit in the room, there's a +dear, and see what you think of her. I shouldn't like to engage anyone +on my own responsibility." So the two girls went downstairs together, +and Lettice looked on from a quiet corner, while Hilary sat bolt +upright, cross-questioning the new servant. She was a tall, awkward +girl, untidily dressed, with a fly-away hat perched on the top of her +head, a spotted veil drawn over her face, and the shabbiest of boas +wound round her neck. "What a contrast to our nice, trim Mary!" groaned +Lettice to herself, while Hilary cudgelled her brain to think of +appropriate questions. + +"And--er--have you been accustomed to housemaid's work?" + +"Oh, yes, miss. I'm very handy about a house, miss. I'm sure I could +give you satisfaction, miss." + +("I don't like her voice. She has not nearly such nice manners as +Mary," sighed Hilary to herself. "Oh dear me!") + +"And--er--can you--er--get up in the morning without being called?" + +"Oh yes, miss; I'm fond of early rising. It's never any trouble to me +to get up." + +"And--er--we are rather a large family, and I am very particular. Are +you quite strong and able to work?" + +"Oh yes, miss; quite strong, miss. Never had a day's illness in my +life." + +"And--er--(there must be other questions to ask, but it's terribly +difficult to think of them. I can't ask her to her face if she is +honest and sober--it's absurd," thought Hilary in despair). "And--er-- +er--I suppose you are good-tempered, and would not quarrel with the +other servants?" + +"Oh yes, miss. Oh no, miss. All my mistresses would say for me, I'm +sure, miss, that there never was a girl with a sweeter temper. I +couldn't hurt a fly, miss, I'm sure I couldn't, I've such a tender +heart." + +("I'm sure she has nothing of the kind. I don't like her a bit; but, oh +dear! what can I do? If she goes on agreeing with all I say, I have no +excuse for telling her that she won't suit.") + +"And--er--you would have to attend to all the bedrooms, and the +schoolroom, and help the parlour-maid with the waiting. If you have not +been accustomed to a large family, I am afraid you would find it a heavy +place." + +"Oh no, miss; not too heavy, miss. I'm never so happy as when I'm +working. I've been brought up to work." + +"Yes--but--but--but I'm afraid you would not suit me," cried Hilary, +summoning the courage in despair, and determined, at all costs, to put +an end to the interview. "I won't trouble you to send your character, +for perhaps your mistress might object to give it twice, and I--er--you +see--I don't quite know when my present maid is leaving, and I think--I +am afraid--" + +"Oh, it's no trouble at all, miss. I'll bring it with pleasure. I am +sure you would suit me very well. I've always heard of you as such a +good mistress, and I'd like to live with you; I would indeed!" + +Hilary sat dumbfounded. She was beginning to feel quite afraid of this +terrible young woman who stood up before her, looking so tall and +formidable, and tossing her head until all the shabby black feathers +shook again on her hat. "I--I won't detain you any longer," she said +icily, as she rose from her seat. "You can leave your address, and if I +change my mind I will let you know." She laid her hand on the bell as +she spoke, but, to her amazement, the young woman suddenly flopped down +on a chair, and folded her arms with a determined gesture. + +"I won't stir an inch till I've had my lunch," she said; and from +beneath the skirts of her dress there appeared a pair of stout, hob- +nailed boots; from within her muff, two big, brown hands; and beneath +the veil, a laughing, mischievous face. + +"Rex!" screamed Hilary, at the pitch of her voice. "Oh, you horrible, +deceiving, bad, impertinent boy!" + +"Rex!" echoed Lettice in chorus. "Oh, oh! how lovely I how delicious! +However did you do it? Norah!--Norah! Norah! Oh, do come here!" + +In rushed Norah, breathless with curiosity, to know what had happened, +and the next ten minutes was passed in a clamour of questionings. When +had he thought of it? How had he thought of it? Where had he found the +clothes? How had he dressed? etcetera, etcetera. + +Rex paraded the room with mincing steps, and simpered at his own +reflection in the looking-glass. + +"Old things of the mater's and Edna's. Brought 'em over in the cart, +and dressed in the summer-house. What a nice girl I should have made, +to be sure! Seems quite a waste, doesn't it? I say, though, I am +nearly suffocating with heat. Can't I go and take them off somewhere?" + +He was crossing the hall on the way to the cloak-room, when who should +come tripping downstairs but Mary herself, trim and neat as ever, but +casting a glance the reverse of approving at the strange young woman who +had come to supplant herself. + +"Good morning, Mary. I've come to apply for the place," said Rex +gravely; then suddenly picking up his skirts, displayed his trousered +legs underneath, and executed a wild schottische round the hall. + +Mary gave a shriek, put her hand to her heart, and sank down on the +stairs, brushes and all, in a breathless heap. "Oh, Mr Rex, oh! I +never in all my life! Oh, what a turn you gave me! Oh! oh! oh!" And +she gasped and panted till Norah became alarmed, and went up to pat her +on the shoulder. + +"Don't, Mary, don't! Oh, Mary, I wish it was all fun. I wish you +weren't going." + +"So do I, Miss Norah. I don't want to leave you, but Miss Hilary--" + +"I don't want you to go, Mary. I would rather have you than anyone +else." + +"Ha! ha! ha!" Rex pranced round the hall in wild delight. "Look at +that now! Reginald Freer, Esquire, peacemaker and housemaid-waitress. +Apply--Brathey Manor--" + +"What in the world is the matter? Has everyone gone mad? How am I +supposed to write in this uproar?" Mr Bertrand appeared at his study +door with an expression of long-enduring misery, whereat there was a +general stampede, and the house subsided into silence. + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +VISITORS ARRIVE. + +Whitsuntide fell in the beginning of June, and as Hilary went a tour of +inspection round the house and grounds, she was proudly conscious that +everything was looking its very best. The rooms were sweet with the +scent of flowers; the open doors and windows showed a vista of well-kept +lawn, and in the distance the swelling height of mountains, beautiful +with that peculiar rich, velvet green which can be seen in no other +country in the world. Who would pause to notice the deficiencies of +curtain and carpet, when they could look out of the window and see such +a scene as that? As for the garden itself, it was a miracle of beauty, +for the flowering trees were still in bloom, while the wild roses had +thrown their branches high over the tall fir trees, and transformed the +drive into a fairy bower. + +Hilary had special reasons for wishing everything to appear at its best +to-day, for two visitors were expected to arrive by the afternoon +train--Miss Carr, and the crippled author, Henry Rayner himself. Half- +a-dozen times she made a round of inspection, each time finding some +trifling alteration or addition to make to her preparations. At last, +however, all was ready: the tea-tray laid in the drawing-room, her own +white dress donned, a bunch of roses pinned in her belt; and there was +nothing left but to wait in such patience as she could command, while +Lettice and Norah looked at her slyly and exchanged glances of approval. + +"Doesn't she look nice?" they whispered; and, indeed, Hilary was looking +her best this afternoon, with the pretty flush in her cheeks, and her +eyes alight with excitement. A few minutes after six o'clock the fly +drove up to the door, and there sat Miss Carr, in her fashionable London +bonnet, and, beside her, Mr Rayner, pale and delicate as ever, but +looking around him with an air of intense delight in the beautiful +surroundings. Mr Bertrand was on the front seat, and Hilary came +forward to do the honours with much less assurance than she would have +shown six months earlier. + +"My dear, good child, have you any tea? I am perishing of thirst!" +cried Miss Carr loudly. She was so bustling and matter-of-fact, that +she was the best remedy in the world for shyness; and Hilary led the way +to the drawing-room with recovered equanimity. She had only had time +for a quick hand-shake with the other visitor, but the glance which had +been exchanged between them was delightful in its memory of past +meetings--its augury of good times to come. + +"And here are your other big girls. Dear me!" said Miss Carr, bestowing +a hasty glance at Norah, and staring hard at Lettice over the edge of +her cup. "I remember them all in long clothes, but I shall make a point +of forgetting them soon if they go on growing up like this. There is a +limit to everything--even to the memory of an old woman like myself. +The boys are at school, I suppose? But the little one--my baby-- +Geraldine?" + +"Quite well, sank you--how are you?" said the Mouse, coming forward from +her hiding-place, and holding out her tiny hand, with a sweet-faced +gravity which was too much for the good lady's composure. Down went the +teacup on the table, and Geraldine was folded in a hearty embrace. + +"Bless your innocent face! I'm well, my darling--a great deal better +for seeing you. You don't remember me, do you?" + +The Mouse put her head on one side as if considering how to answer +truthfully, without hurting the visitor's feelings. "I _sink_ I don't," +she said slowly, "only p'raps I shall by-and-by. I'm very pleased to +see you." + +"There now! What do you think of that? She couldn't possibly belong to +anyone in the world but you, Austin," cried Miss Carr in triumph; and +Mr Rayner held out his hand to the child with a smile that showed that +the Mouse had added yet another to the long list of her adorers. + +It was not until dinner was over and the whole party had strolled into +the garden, that Hilary had a chance of a quiet talk with Mr Rayner; +but when her father and Miss Carr began to pace up and down the lawn, he +came up to her with a gesture of invitation. + +"Won't you sit down for a few minutes on this seat?" Then, with a smile +of friendly interest, "Well--how goes it?--How goes it?" + +Hilary drew in her breath with a gasp of pleasure. She had not realised +when in London how greatly she had been touched and impressed by her +meetings with the crippled author; it was only after she had returned to +the quiet of the country home that she had found her thoughts returning +to him again and again, with a longing to confide her troubles in his +ear; to ask his advice, and to see the kindly sympathy on his face. The +deep, rich tone of his voice as he said that "How goes it?" filled her +with delighted realisation that the long-looked-for time had arrived. + +"Oh, pretty well--better and worse! I have been making discoveries." + +"About--?" + +"Myself, I think!" And Hilary stretched out her hands with a little +gesture of distaste, which was both graceful and natural. + +Mr Rayner looked at her fixedly beneath bent brows. "Poor little Two +Shoes!" he said gravely. "So soon! It hurts, Two Shoes, but it's good +in the end. Growing pains, you know!" + +"Yes!" said Hilary softly. It was good to find someone who understood +without asking questions or forcing confidence. "And you?" she asked +presently, raising her eyes to his with a smile of inquiry--"what have +you been doing?" + +"I? Oh! making discoveries also, I fear; among others, the disagreeable +one that I can no longer work as I used, or as other men work, and must, +therefore, be satisfied to be left behind in the race. But we are +getting melancholy, and it's a shame even to think of disagreeable +subjects in a place like this. What a perfect view! I should never +tire of looking at those mountains." + +"Aren't they beautiful? That is Coniston Old Man right before us, and +those are the Langdale Pikes over there to the right. I like them best +of all, for they stand out so well, and in winter, when they are covered +with snow, they look quite awful. Oh, I am so glad you have come! We +generally have good weather in June, and we will have such lovely +drives--" + +Meantime Mr Bertrand and Miss Carr were having an animated +conversation. + +"What do you think of my three little girls?" had been his first +question, and Miss Carr laughed derisively as she answered-- + +"Little girls, indeed! They will be grown-up women before you know +where you are, Austin. I like that young Norah. There is something +very taking about her bright, little face. Miss Consequence has +improved, I think; not quite so well pleased with herself, which means +more pleasing to other people. She looks well in that white dress. As +for Miss Lettice, she is quite unnecessarily good-looking." + +"Isn't she lovely?" queried Mr Bertrand eagerly. "And you will find +her just as sweet as she looks. They have been very good and contented +all spring, but it has been in the expectation of your visit, and the +changes which you were to make. We are looking to you to solve all our +difficulties." + +"Very kind of you, I am sure. It's not an easy position to fill. The +difficulty, so far as I can see, is compressed into the next three +years. After that you will have to face it, Austin, and come back to +town. You can keep on this house for a summer place, if you wish, but +the boys will be turning out into the world by then, and you ought to be +in town to keep a home for them. Hilary will be twenty-one, the other +two not far behind, and it is not fair to keep girls of that age in this +out-of-the-way spot all the year round, when it can be avoided. For the +next three years you can go on very well as you are; after that--" + +"I'm afraid so! I'm afraid you are right. I've thought so myself," +said Mr Bertrand dolefully. "I can't say I look forward to the +prospect, but if it must be done, it must. I must make the most of my +three last years. And, meantime, you think the girls are all right as +they are? I need make no change?" + +Miss Carr pressed her lips together without speaking, while they paced +slowly up and down the lawn. "I think," she said slowly, at last, "that +three girls are rather too many in a house like this. You have Miss +Briggs to look after Geraldine, and three servants to do the work. +There cannot be enough occupation or interest to keep three young people +content and happy. I have thought several times during the spring, +Austin, that it would be a good plan if you lent one of your daughters +to me for a year or two." + +"My dear Helen! A year or two! One of my girls!" + +"Yes--yes! I knew that you would work yourself up into a state of +excitement. What a boy you are, Austin! Listen quietly, and try to be +reasonable. If you send one of the girls to me, I will see that she +finishes her education under the best masters; that she makes her +entrance into society at the right time, and has friends of whom you +would approve. It would be a great advantage--" + +"I know it, I feel it, and I am deeply grateful, Helen; but it can't be +done. I can't separate myself from my children." + +"You manage to exist without your boys for nine months of the year; and +I would never wish to separate you. She could come home for Christmas +and a couple of months in summer, and you yourself are in town half-a- +dozen times in the course of the year. You could always stay at my +house." + +"Yes, yes; it's all true; but I don't like it, Helen, and--" + +"And you think only of yourself. It never occurs to you that I have not +a soul belonging to me in that big, lonely house, and that it might be a +comfort to me to have a bright young girl--" + +Mr Bertrand stopped short in the middle of the lawn and stared into his +companion's face. There was an unusual flush on her cheeks, and her +eyes glistened with tears. + +"Oh, my dear Helen," he cried. "I am a selfish wretch! I never thought +of that. Of course, if you put it in that light, I can say no more. My +dear old friend--I accept your offer with thanks! You have done so much +for me, that I can refuse you nothing. It will be a lifelong advantage +to the child, and I know you will make her happy." + +"I will, indeed; and you may trust me, Austin, to consider more than +mere happiness. I will do my best to make her such a woman as her dear +mother was before her." + +"I know you will. Thank you, Helen. And which--which--?" + +"Nay, I am not going to tell you that." Miss Carr had brushed the tears +from her eyes, and with them all signs of her unusual emotion. She was +herself again--sharp, decisive, matter-of-fact. "I must have my choice, +of course; but I will take a week to make up my mind. And she must be +left entirely in my hands for the time being, remember! I shall look +after her clothes, education, pleasuring, as if she were my own child. +There must be no interference." + +"Obstinate woman! Who would dare to enter the lists against you?" cried +Mr Bertrand between a laugh and a sigh. "Heigho! Which of my little +lasses am I going to lose? Whichever it is, I shall feel she is the +last I could spare, and shall bear you a grudge for your choice. Can't +you give me a hint?" + +"No! and I wouldn't if I could. I'll tell you when I am ready," said +Miss Carr coolly. And that settled the question for the time being. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +A TETE-A-TETE. + +During the next few days the girls could not help noticing a peculiar +contradiction in their father's manner towards themselves. He was +alternately demonstratively affectionate and unreasonably irritable. He +snubbed Norah's performance on the violin, scolded Lettice because she +was wearing white dresses instead of her old blue serge, and called +attention to flaws in the housekeeping in a manner which sent the iron +into Hilary's soul. And then, when a chance meeting occurred on the +landing or stairs, he would throw his arms round them and kiss them over +and over again with passionate tenderness. + +"Something is happening, but I haven't the remotest idea what it is," +said Norah to her sisters; and it added to their curiosity to notice +that Miss Carr was openly amused at their father's demeanour, while he +was as evidently embarrassed by her quizzical smiles. + +Mr Bertrand had decided to say nothing of Miss Carr's invitation until +that lady had made her final choice; but when the third day came he +could restrain himself no longer, and taking the girls aside he +proceeded to inform them of the new life which was before one of their +number. The news was received in characteristic fashion. Hilary stood +in silence, thinking deeply; Lettice promptly burst into tears, and +clung round her father's arm; and Norah blurted out a dozen +contradictory speeches. + +"How horrid of her! I won't go! I should hate to leave you all. It's +very kind. ... The best masters! It would be lovely, of course, but-- +Oh, dear! whom will she choose?" + +"I couldn't leave home, father. Who would look after the house? It +would be impossible for Lettice to do the housekeeping. Miss Carr knows +me best. I should love it if it were not for leaving home." + +"I don't want to go! I don't want to leave you. Oh, father, father! +I'd be so homesick! Don't let me go!" + +Mr Bertrand stroked Lettice's golden locks, and looked on the point of +breaking down himself. + +"Whichever Miss Carr chooses will have to go," he said slowly. "I have +promised as much, and I think it will be for the best. I shall be in +town every two or three months, and she will come home for the Christmas +and the summer holidays, so that it will not be a desperate matter. +Don't cry, my pet; you are only one of three, remember; it is by no +means certain that Miss Carr would have you, even if you begged to go. +Perhaps I should not have said anything about it; but it was on my mind, +and I was bound to speak. London is a fascinating place. It is the +centre of the world--it _is_ the world; you will find many +compensations." + +"I shall see a great deal of Mr Rayner. I'm sure she will choose me. +It's only fair. I'm the eldest, and she knows me best," thought Hilary +to herself. + +"I should go to the Royal College of Music, learn from the best masters, +and play at the concerts," thought Norah. "I wonder if it would stop +Edna's lessons! I should feel mean if it did that, and I _do_ enjoy +going over every fortnight and having fun at the Manor!" + +Lettice sobbed on her father's shoulder, and tried to smother the +thought that it would be "nice" to know grand people, and drive in the +park dressed in pretty, fashionable clothes. + +Very little more was said on the subject. The girls were shy of +revealing their secret thoughts, and Mr Bertrand was already beginning +to repent the confidence which had had the effect of damping their high +spirits. + +"We must get up an excursion of some kind to-morrow, or we shall all be +in the blues," he said to himself, and when tea-time arrived he had all +the plans cut and dried. + +"A char-a-banc will be at the door at half-past ten to-morrow, good +people. We will drive over to Grasmere and lunch at the Rothay. It is +convenient for the churchyard and the gingerbread shop, and there is a +good garden. We can lounge about in the afternoon, and get back in time +for a late dinner. There will be eight of us, and the char-a-banc holds +twelve, so we shall have plenty of room." + +"Oh, father!--Rex and Edna! Do let us ask them! There is time to send +a letter to-night, and we could pick them up at the cross-roads. Oh, +father!" + +"Oh, Norah! Certainly, my dear; ask your friends if you wish. I shall +be pleased to have them," said Mr Bertrand laughingly; and Norah rushed +off in delight to scribble her note of invitation. + +When the char-a-banc came to the door the next morning, Hilary busied +herself looking after the storage of cloaks, cushions, camp-stools, and +various little etceteras which would add to the comfort of the +excursion. She looked a very attractive little mistress of the +ceremonies as she bustled about, with a sailor hat on her head and the +nattiest little brown shoes in the world peeping out from beneath the +crisp, white, pique skirts. Hilary was one of the fortunate people who +seemed to have been born tidy, and to have kept so ever since. The wind +which played havoc with Norah's locks never dared to take liberties with +her glossy coils; the nails which tore holes in other people's garments +politely refrained from touching hers; and she could walk through the +muddiest streets and come home without a speck upon boots or skirt. + +Mr Rayner leant on his crutches and watched her active movements with +the wistful glance which was so often seen upon his face. Hilary knew +that for the thousandth time he was chafing at his own inability to +help, and made a point of consulting him on several matters by way of +proving that there were more ways than one in which he could be of +service. + +"I don't know. In the front--in the back; put them where you like. Are +you going to sit beside me?" he replied hurriedly, and with an +undisguised eagerness which brought a flush of pleasure into the girl's +cheek. + +"Oh, yes, I should like to!" + +Hilary stood still in a little glow of exultation. The last few days +had been delightful with their experiences of lounging, driving, and +boating, but the coach-drive along the lovely roads, side by side with +Mr Rayner, able to point out each fresh beauty as it appeared, and to +enjoy a virtual _tete-a-tete_ for the whole of the way--that was best of +all! And he had chosen her as his companion before Lettice, before +Norah, before any one of the party! The thought added largely to her +satisfaction. + +As Miss Carr refused point-blank to take the box seat, and as Mr +Bertrand insisted that it should be taken by the other visitor, Hilary +advanced to the ladder, and was about to climb up to the high seat, when +she turned back with an expression of anxious inquiry. + +Mr Rayner stood immediately behind, but his "Please go on!" showed that +he understood her hesitation, and was annoyed at the suggestion of help. +She seated herself, therefore, and tried in vain to look at ease while +he followed. For two or three steps he managed to support himself on +his crutches with marvellous agility; on the fourth they slipped, and if +he had not been seized from behind by Mr Bertrand and pulled forward by +Hilary's outstretched hand, he must have had a serious fall. Hilary +literally dare not look at his face for the first ten minutes of the +drive, for with an instinctive understanding of another person's feeling +which was a new experience to this self-engrossed little lady, she +realised that he was smarting beneath the consciousness of having made +himself an object of general commiseration. Whatever happened, he must +not think that she was pitying him. She racked her brain to think of +something to say--some amusing stories to tell. "I wish we were going +on a coach instead of a char-a-banc. I love to see the drivers in their +white hats and red coats, and to hear the horns blowing. There is +something so cheerful about a horn! We are getting to know all the +drivers quite well now. I say `getting to know,' because it takes quite +three years to know a North-countryman. They are so terribly reserved! +Last year I was on the box seat of a coach sitting next to the driver +whom we knew best of all. There were some American ladies behind who +kept worrying him with questions all the while. `Driver, will you show +us Wordsworth's house?' `Driver, you won't forget Wordsworth's house?' +`Driver, hev you passed by Wordsworth's house?' He just sat like a +statue and took no notice whatever. Poor man! I wonder how many +thousand times he has been asked those questions! One of the horses had +bandages round his front leg, and at last I said--I believe I was trying +to show off a little bit, you know, just to let them see how polite he +would be with me--I said, `Oh, Robert, why has the off leader got +gaiters on to-day?' His face was just as blank as if I had never +spoken. We drove along in silence for about ten minutes, while I got +hotter and hotter. Then he cleared his throat deliberately, and said, +`Well, in the first place--he needs 'em! and in the second place--he +likes 'em! and in the third place--he can't do without 'em!' I felt so +small!" + +A forced "Humph!" being the only reception which the story received, +Hilary braced herself to fresh efforts. Two or three experiences of +North-country manners were suggested by the last; she related them in +her liveliest manner, and even forced herself to laugh merrily at the +conclusion. "So funny, wasn't it? Don't you think it was good?" + +The char-a-banc had now reached Bowness, and, for the first time, she +ventured a glance into her companion's face. He met her eyes and +smiled, the slow, sweet smile that transformed his expression. + +"I know someone who is good," he said meaningly. "You have talked +yourself out of breath trying to drive away the evil spirit. It's too +bad! I am ashamed of my own stupidity." + +"I wish--" began Hilary eagerly, and stopped short as suddenly as she +had begun. + +"You wish? Yes, what is it? Tell me, do! I want to hear--" + +Hilary paused for a moment and turned her head over her shoulder. A +reassuring clatter of voices came to her ear. Rex, Norah, and Lettice +chattering away for their lives, and Edna's soft laughter greeting each +new joke. The young folks were too much taken up with their own +conversation to have any attention to spare for the occupants of the box +seat. She could speak without fear of being overheard. + +"I wish you would try not to be so cross with yourself for being lame!" + +Mr Rayner winced in the old, pained manner, but the next moment he +began to smile. + +"`Cross'! That's a curious way of expressing it. How am I cross?" + +"Oh, always--every way! Every time it is alluded to in the most distant +way, you flare up and get angry. You have snubbed me unmercifully three +or four times." + +"I have snubbed you? I!" He seemed overcome with consternation. "Miss +Hilary, what an accusation. I have never felt anything but sincerest +gratitude for your sympathy--I suppose I am stupid. I ought to be +hardened to it by this time, but after being so strong, so proud of my +strength, it is a bitter pill to find myself handicapped like this--a +burden to everybody." + +"You have been with us now for nearly a week, and there have only been +two occasions on which you have seemed any different from another man, +and each time," said Hilary, with unflinching candour, "it has been +entirely your own fault! You would not let yourself be helped when it +was necessary. If I were in your place, I would say to myself--`I am +lame! I hate it, but whether I hate it or not, it's the truth. I am +lame! and everybody knows it as well as I do. I won't pretend that I +can do all that other people do, and if they want to be kind and help +me, I'll let them, and if they don't offer, I'll _ask_ them! Whatever +happens, I am not going to do foolish, rash things which will deceive +nobody, and which may end in making me lamer than ever!' And then I'd +try to think as little about it as I could, and get all the happiness +that was left!" + +"Oh, wise young judge!" sighed Mr Rayner sadly. "How easy it is to be +resigned for another person. But you are quite right; don't think that +I am disputing the wisdom of what you say. I should be happier if I +faced the thing once for all, and made up my mind as to what I can and +cannot do. Well--Miss Carr told me her plans last night. If you come +to London, you must keep me up to the mark. I shall hope to see a great +deal of you, and if you find me attempting ridiculous things, such as +that ladder business to-day, you must just--what is it I am supposed to +have done?--`snub' me severely as a punishment." + +Hilary smiled with two-fold satisfaction. So Mr Rayner agreed with her +in believing that Miss Carr's choice was practically certain. The +prospect of living in London grew more and more attractive as the +various advantages suggested themselves, and she was roll of delicious +anticipations. + +"Oh, I will," she said merrily. "I am glad that I did not know you +before you were ill, because I see no difference now, and I can do it +more easily. I think I am like the Mouse; I like you better for being +different from other people. She spent a whole morning searching for +twigs in the garden, and now all her dolls are supplied with crutches." + +"Dear little mortal! I never met a sweeter child," cried Mr Rayner, +and the conversation branched off to treat of Geraldine and her pretty +ways. + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +THE WISHING GATE. + +Lunch was ready when the visitors reached the hotel at Grasmere, and as +they were equally ready for lunch, they lost no time in seating +themselves at the large table in the window, and making a vigorous +attack upon rolls and butter. The other tables were well filled, and +Hilary held up her head with complacent pride, while Lettice and Norah +nudged each other to call attention to the glances of curiosity and +interest which were directed towards their father. + +"A party of Americans, and the waiter whispered to them as we passed. +Oh, father, you are in for it! _Now_--I told you so! The one with the +light hair is getting up. She is going upstairs to bring down the +autograph albums. Wait till you've finished lunch, then it will +be--`Oh, Mr Bertrand, such an honour to meet you; would you be kind +enough to write your name in my little book?'" + +Mr Bertrand went through a pantomime of tearing his hair. "Is there no +escape?" he groaned. "It's bad enough to be a lion in town, but I +positively refuse to roar in the country. I won't do it. I have +writer's cramp--I can't use my right hand. Rayner, my boy, I'll turn +them on to you!" + +"He is only pretending. He is really awfully pleased and flattered. +Wait till you see how polite he will be when they ask him," said Lettice +mischievously; and, indeed, nothing could have been more courteous than +Mr Bertrand's manner when the American party flocked round him in the +hall after luncheon. + +"Your books are in every house in America, sir, and it gives us the +greatest pleasure to have an opportunity of--" + +"Oh, come along!" whispered Norah, pulling impatiently at Edna's arm. +"I know it all by heart. Come into the garden, both of you; Lettice and +I have something to tell you--an exciting piece of news!" + +"Kitten dead? New ribbons for your hats?" queried Rex indifferently. +He was sceptical on the point of Norah's "exciting confidences," but +this time Lettice looked at him reproachfully with her great, grey eyes. + +"No, indeed--don't make fun--it's serious! Miss Carr is going to adopt +one of us to live with her in London as her own daughter, for the next +three years." + +"Nonsense!" Rex sat down in a heap on the grass, in front of the bench +where the girls were seated. "Which?" + +"Ah, that's the mystery! She is to have her choice, and she won't say +which it is to be until Wednesday night--two days more. So, you see, +you had better be polite, for you mayn't have me with you much longer." + +"I am always polite to you," said Rex moodily: and the statement passed +unchallenged, for however much he might tease Norah, and snap at Hilary, +he was always considerate for the feelings and comfort of "Lovely +Lettice!" + +"Oh, Norah, Norah! I hope it won't be you!" cried Edna, clasping her +hands round her friend's arm in warm-hearted affection. "What should I +do without you? We have been so happy, and have had such fun! Three +years! What an age of a time! We shall be quite grown-up." + +"Yes; and after that, father is going to take a house in London, because +the boys will have left school, and it will be better for them. Isn't +it horrid to think that after to-day it may never be the same for one of +us again? She will only come back as a visitor, for a few weeks at a +time, and everything will be strange and different--" + +"And Rex may go abroad before the end of the three years, and Hilary may +marry--and--oh, a hundred other horrible things. Perhaps we may never +meet again all together like this until we are quite old and grey- +headed. We would write to one another, of course; stiff, proper sort of +letters like grown-up people write. How funny it would be! Imagine you +writing to me, Edna--`My dear Eleanora, you must not think my long +silence has arisen from any want of affection towards you and yours. ... +And how has it been with you, my valued friend?'" + +The burst of laughter which greeted this speech did something to liven +the gloom which was fast settling upon the little party, and presently +Mr Bertrand's voice was heard calling from the verandah-- + +"Now then, children, what are we to do until four o'clock? Do you want +to go on the lake?" + +"It's no good, sir. We could row round it in ten minutes." This from +Rex, with all the scorn of a young man who owned a _Una_ of his own on +Lake Windermere. + +"Do you want to scramble up to the Tarn, then? I don't. It's too hot, +and we should have no time to spend at the top when we got there." + +"Let us go to the Wishing Gate, father," suggested Norah eagerly. "It's +a nice walk; and I got what I wished for last summer--I did really--the +music lessons! I'm sure there is something in it." + +"Let us go then, by all means. I have a wish of my own that I should be +glad to settle. Helen, will you come?" + +"No, thank you, Austin, I will not. I can wish more comfortably sitting +here in the shade of the verandah I've been once before, and I wouldn't +drag up there this afternoon for a dozen wishes." + +"And Rayner--what will you--?" + +Mr Rayner hesitated, then, "I--er--if it's a steep pull, I think I had +better stay where I am," he added, in cheery, decided tones, which +brought a flush of delight to Hilary's cheeks. + +She turned in silence to follow her sisters, but before she had advanced +many steps, stood still hesitating and stammering--"I--I--the sun is +very hot. My head--" + +"Well, don't come, dear, if you are afraid of head-ache. Stay where you +are," said her father kindly; and Miss Carr chimed in, in characteristic +fashion-- + +"But if you are going to chatter, be kind enough to move away to another +seat. I am not going to have my nap disturbed if I know it." + +"Come along, Miss Hilary. Our pride won't allow us to stay after that!" +cried Mr Rayner, picking up his crutches and leading the way across the +lawn with suspicious alacrity; and no sooner were they seated on the +comfortable bench than he turned a smiling face upon his companion, and +wished to know if she were satisfied with the result of her lecture. + +"Entirely," said Hilary. "It sounded brave and man-like, and put all at +their ease. It is always best to be honest." + +"It is. I agree with you. What about the head?" + +"What head?" + +"Ah! and is _that_ honest? You know what I mean. Does it ache _very_ +badly?" + +"N-no! Not a bit! I stayed behind because I preferred to--to talk to +you," said Hilary stoutly, wishing she could prevent herself blushing in +such a ridiculous fashion, wishing Mr Rayner would not stare at her +quite so fixedly; happy, miserable, discomfited, triumphant, all at the +same moment, and in the most incomprehensible fashion. + +"That's very satisfactory, because I like to talk to you also," he said +gravely; and the next two hours passed so quickly that it was quite a +shock to hear calls from the verandah, and to see the walking party +already assembled round the tea-table. + +"What did you wish?" was Hilary's first question, but, with the +exception of the Mouse, everyone refused to divulge the secret. + +"I wished I might have a doll's pramulator," said Geraldine gravely, and +when Miss Carr asked if the dolls were not able to take walking +exercise, she shook her head with pathetic remembrance. + +"Mabel isn't, 'cause she's only one leg. She really had two, only one +day, Raymond hanged her up from the ceiling, and when I sawed her, I +cried, and pulled with my hands, and one leg earned off. So now I want +a pramulator." + +"And she shall have one, bless her! and the best that can be bought," +muttered Miss Carr beneath her breath; while Norah whispered eager +questionings into her companion's ear. + +"You might tell me, Rex--you might! I won't tell a soul. What did you +wish?" + +"Don't be so curious. What does it matter to you?" + +"It does matter. I want to know. You might! Do-oo!" + +"No-o! I won't now. There's an end of it." + +"Oh, Rex, look here--I've sixpence in my pocket. I'll buy you a packet +of gingerbread if you will." + +"I don't want the gingerbread. What a girl you are! You give a fellow +no peace. I didn't wish anything particular, only--" + +"Yes! Yes!" + +"Only that she," with a nod of the head towards where Miss Carr sat +sipping her tea--"that she might choose Hilary to live with her in +London." + +"Oh-oh! You wouldn't like it if it were Lettice?" + +"Of course not, neither would you." + +"But--but--it might be me!" + +"It might. There's no saying. I'll have another cup of tea, if you +please," said Rex coolly. + +Aggravating boy! It would be just as easy to draw water from a stone, +as to persuade him to say anything nice and soothing to one's vanity! + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +MISS CARR'S CHOICE. + +Wednesday was a day of great, though suppressed excitement, and when +evening came, and Miss Carr summoned the girls into the drawing-room, it +would be difficult to say which of the three felt the more acute +anxiety. Mr Rayner had considerately taken himself out of the way, but +Mr Bertrand was seated in an easy chair, his arms folded, his face +grave and set. Miss Carr pointed to the sofa, and the three girls sat +down, turning inquiring eyes on her face. It was horribly formal, and +even Norah felt cowed and spiritless. + +"Girls," said Miss Carr slowly, "it was my intention to say nothing +about my plans until I had made my decision, but it seems that your +father has forestalled me and told you of my wishes. ... When you were +little children I saw a great deal of you. Your father was one of my +most valued friends, your dear mother also, and you were often at my +house. When you came here I felt a great blank in my life, for I am +fond of young people, and like to have them about me. Last January, +your father visited me, and told me of a conversation which he had had +with you here. He was anxious about your future, and it occurred to me +that in some slight degree I might be able to take the responsibility +off his hands. I have felt the need of a companion, and of some fresh +interest in life, and nothing could give me more pleasure than to help +one of Austin Bertrand's daughters. Well, my dears, I spoke to your +father: he did not like the idea at first, as you will understand, but +in the end he gave way to my wishes, and it only remained to make my +choice. When I use the word `choice,' you must not imagine that I am +consulting merely my own preference. I have honestly tried to study the +question from an unselfish point of view--to think which of you would +most benefit from the change. One consideration has influenced me of +which I can only speak in private, but for the rest I have watched you +carefully, and it seemed to me that two out of the three have already a +definite interest and occupation in their lives, which is wanting in the +other case. Lettice has no special work in the house, no pet study to +pursue; therefore, my dears, I choose Lettice--" + +There was a simultaneous exclamation of consternation. + +"Lettice!" cried Hilary, and drew in her breath with a pang of bitterest +disappointment. + +"Lettice! Oh, no, no, no!" cried Norah, throwing her arms round her +favourite sister, and trembling with agitation. + +"My little Lettice!" echoed Mr Bertrand, with a groan of such genuine +dismay, that Miss Carr stared at him in discomfiture. + +"My dear Austin--if it makes you so unhappy--" + +"No--no. I gave you my word, and I am not going back. Besides," with a +kindly glance at the other two girls, "I should have felt the same, +whichever way you had decided. Well, that's settled! I am off now, +Helen. We can have our talk later." + +He walked hastily out of the room, and Miss Carr turned back to the +girls with a troubled expression. + +"My dears, I know you will both feel parting with your sister, but I +will do all I can to soften the blow. You can always look forward to +meeting at Christmas and Midsummer, and I shall ask your father to bring +you up in turns to visit us in London. Though Lettice is to be my +special charge, I take a deep interest in you both, and shall hope to +put many little pleasures in your way. And now, my dears, will you +leave us alone for a time? I want to have a quiet talk with Lettice +before we part." + +The two girls filed out of the room, and stood in the hall, facing each +other in silence. Miss Briggs put her head out of the morning-room, +with an eager--"Well--_Who_!" and when Norah pointed dolefully towards +the drawing-room door, disappeared again with an exclamation of dismay. +It was the same all round, Hilary told herself. Everyone was miserable +because Lettice had been chosen. Everyone called out in sharp tones of +distress, as if disappointed not to hear another name. Mr Bertrand was +too dear and kind for it to be possible to make a charge of favouritism +against him, but Lettice's striking likeness to her mother seemed to +give her a special claim to his tenderness, while as for the rest of the +household, Miss Briggs was as wax in Lettice's hands, for the simple +reason that she was a solitary woman, and the girl showed her those +little outward signs of affection which make up the sweetness of life; +while the servants would do twice as much for her as for any other +member of the family, because, "bless her pretty face, she had such a +way with her!" Hilary felt indescribably chilled and humiliated as she +realised how little regret her own departure would have caused in +comparison, and when she spied Mr Rayner's figure crossing the lawn, +she shrank back, with uncontrollable repugnance. "You tell him, Norah! +I can't. I am going upstairs." + +Meanwhile, Lettice herself had not broken down, nor shown any signs of +the emotion of a few days earlier. She was a creature of moods, but +though each mood was intense while it lasted, it lasted, as a rule, for +a remarkably short space of time. If she were in tears over a certain +subject on Monday, it was ten to one that she had forgotten all about it +before Thursday. If she were wild with excitement over a new +proposition, she would probably yawn when it was mentioned a second +time, and find it difficult to maintain a show of interest. So, in the +present case, she had exhausted her distress at the idea of leaving home +while weeping upon her father's shoulders, and ever since then the idea +of the life in London, in Miss Carr's beautiful house, had been growing +more and more attractive. And to be chosen first--before all the +others! It was a position which was full of charm to a girl's love of +appreciation. + +"Come here, dear," said Miss Carr tenderly, when the door had shut +behind the other two girls; and when Lettice seated herself on the sofa, +she took her hands in hers and gazed fixedly into her face. In truth, +it would have been difficult to find an object better worth looking at +than "lovely Lettice" at that moment. The hair which rippled over her +head was of no pale, colourless flaxen, but of a rich coppery bronze, +with half-a-dozen shades of gold in its luxuriant waves; the grey eyes +had delicately marked brows and generous lashes, and the red lips +drooped in sweetest curves. The old lady's face softened as she gazed, +until it looked very sweet and motherly. + +"Lettice," she said softly, "my dear little girl, I hope we shall be +happy together! I will do all I can for you. Do you think you can be +content--that you can care for me a little bit in return?" + +"Yes, oh yes--a great deal!" Lettice's heart was beating so quickly +that she hardly knew what she was saying, but it came naturally to her +to form pretty speeches, and the glance of the lovely eyes added charm +to her words. + +"I hope so--I hope so! And now I want to tell you the reason why I +choose you before either of your sisters. I alluded just now to +something which had influenced me, but which I could not mention in +public. It is about this that I want to speak." Miss Carr paused for a +few minutes, stroking the girl's soft, flexible hands. + +"Do you know what is meant by an `Open Sesame,' my dear?" + +"Oh, yes. It is the word which Ali Baba used in the `Arabian Nights,' +and that made the doors in the rocks fly open before him." + +"Yes, that is right. I see you know all about it; but would you +understand what I meant, dear, if I said that God had given _you_ an +`Open Sesame' into other people's hearts and lives?" + +Lettice looked up quickly, surprised and awed. "I? No! How have I--?" + +"Look in the mirror opposite!" said the old lady gravely, and the girl +hung her head in embarrassment. + +"No, my dear, there is no need to blush. If you had a talent for music, +like Norah, you would not think it necessary to be embarrassed every +time it was mentioned, and beauty is a gift from God, just as much as +anything else, and ought to be valued accordingly. It is a great power +in the world--perhaps a greater power than anything else, and the people +who possess it have much responsibility. You are a beautiful girl, +Lettice; you will be a beautiful woman; everyone you meet will be +attracted to you, and you will have an `Open Sesame' into their hearts. +Do you realise what that means? It means that you will have power over +other people's lives; that you will be able to influence them for good +or evil; that you can succeed where others fail, and carry sunshine +wherever you go. But it will also be in your power to cause a great +deal of misery. There have been women in the world whose beauty has +brought war and suffering upon whole nations, because they loved +themselves most, and sacrificed everything for the gratification of +vanity. You are young, Lettice, and have no mother to guide you, so +perhaps you have never thought of things in this way before. But when I +saw you first, I looked in your face and thought, `I should like to help +this girl; to help her to forget herself, and think of others, so that +she may do good and not evil, all the days of her life.'" + +The ready tears rose to Lettice's eyes and flowed down her cheeks. She +was awed and sobered, but the impression was rather pleasurable than +otherwise. "A beautiful woman"--"a power over +others"--"sunshine"--"success"--the phrases rang in her ear, and the +sound was musical. "Of course I'll be good. I want to be good--then +everyone will like me," she said to herself, while she kissed and clung +to Miss Carr, and whispered loving little words of thanks, which charmed +the good lady's heart. + +For the next three days all was excitement and bustle. Lettice's +belongings had to be gathered together and packed, and though Miss Carr +would hear of no new purchases, there were a dozen repairs and +alterations which seemed absolutely necessary. Mr Bertrand took his +two guests about every morning, so as to leave the girls at liberty, but +when afternoon came he drove them out willy-nilly, and organised one +excursion after another with the double intention of amusing his +visitors and preventing melancholy regrets. Norah was in the depths of +despondency; but her repinings were all for her beloved companion, and +not for any disappointment of her own. Now that she had the interest of +her music lessons, and the friendship of Rex and Edna, she was unwilling +to leave home even for the delights of London and the College of Music. +Poor Hilary, however, was in a far worse case. She had made so sure of +being chosen by Miss Carr, had dreamed so many rosy dreams about the +life before her, that the disappointment was very bitter. The thought +of seeing Lettice driving away in the carriage with Miss Carr and Mr +Rayner brought with it a keen stab of pain, and the life at home seemed +to stretch before her, still and uneventful, like a stretch of dreary +moorland. Her pride forbade her showing her disappointment, since no +one had expressed any satisfaction in retaining her company. Stay! +there was one exception. Mr Rayner had said a few simple words of +regret which had been as balm to the girl's sore heart. He, at least, +was sorry that she was not to be in London, and would have preferred her +company even to that of "lovely Lettice" herself. + +On the whole, it was almost a relief when the hour for departure +arrived. Rex and Edna drove over to see the last of their friend and +cheer the stay-at-homes by their presence; but it did not seem as though +they could be very successful in their errand of mercy, since Edna cried +steadily behind her handkerchief, and Rex poked holes in the garden +walks with gloomy persistence. + +When Mr Rayner said his good-byes, he left Hilary to the last, and held +her hand in his a moment or two longer than was strictly necessary. +"Good-bye, and thank you for all you have done for me. I'll remember +your advice. ... We shall meet soon, I hope. You will be coming up to +town, and Mr Bertrand has been good enough to ask me to come again next +spring." + +Next spring! A whole year! As well say the end of the world at once. +Hilary felt such a swelling sense of misery that the only way in which +she could refrain from tears was by answering in sharp, matter-of-fact +tones, and the consciousness that Mr Rayner was surprised and hurt by +her manner was part of the general misery against which it was useless +to fight. + +As for Lettice, she was fairly dissolved in tears--clinging to every one +in turn--and sobbing out despairing farewells. "Oh, Norie, Norie! my +heart will break! I shall die; I know I shall. I can never bear it. +Oh, Mouse, don't forget me! Don't let her forget me! Oh, do write-- +everyone write! I shall _live_ on the letters from home!" + +The last glimpse was of a tear-stained face, and a handkerchief held +aloft in such a drenched condition that it refused to open to the +breeze, and when the carriage turned the corner Miss Briggs shuffled off +to the schoolroom, Hilary ran off to her room upstairs, leaving the +three young people in the porch staring at each other with a miserable +realisation of loss. + +"What shall I do?--what shall I do? She said _her_ heart would be +broken, but it is ten times worse for me! The house will seem so +dreadfully bare and lonely!" + +"Just when we were all so happy! Oh, that hateful Miss Carr! why did +she ever come? I thought we were going to have such a h-appy summer," +sobbed Edna dolefully. "It's always the way! As soon as I make +friends, I am bound to lose them." + +Rex put his hands into his pockets and began to whistle. "It will do no +good to turn yourselves into a couple of fountains! I'll go for a walk, +and come back when you've done crying. It's a nuisance, but it might +have been worse," he said shortly, and Norah looked at him with a gleam +of curiosity lighting up her poor, tear-stained eyes. + +"How worse? What do you mean?" she inquired; but Rex did not deign to +answer, or to have anything more to say until tea was served a couple of +hours later. The tears to which he so much objected were dried by this +time, but the conversation was still sorrowfully centred on the dear +traveller. "What is she doing now? Poor, poor Lettice! she will cry +herself ill. Every mile further from home will make her more wretched!" +cried Norah, and the listeners groaned in sympathy. + +If they had seen Miss Lettice at that moment, however, their fears would +have been allayed. Miss Carr had changed into a corridor train at +Preston, and her companion was charmed with the novel position. She had +never before travelled in a corridor, and the large, open carriage, the +view, the promenade up and down, were all fascinating to her +inexperience. Then to have lunch, and afternoon tea just when the +journey was beginning to drag--it was indeed a luxurious way of +travelling! Lettice had ceased to cry before the train had reached +Kendal; at Lancaster she began to smile; at Crewe she laughed so merrily +at one of Miss Carr's sallies, that the people on the next seat turned +to look at her with smiles of admiring interest. Everyone was "so nice +and kind." It was a pleasure to see them. Clearwater was a dear, sweet +place, but, after all, it was only a poky little village. Delightful to +get away and see something of the world! + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +AFTER THREE YEARS. + +Three years had passed away since Lettice Bertrand had bidden farewell +to her Northern home and accompanied Miss Carr to London, but there was +little sign of change in the big drawing-room at Kensington, or in the +mistress herself, as she sat reading a magazine by the window one sunny +June afternoon. When the purse is well lined it is easy to prevent +signs of age so far as furniture and decorations are concerned, while +the lapse of three years makes little difference in the appearance of a +lady who has long passed middle age. Miss Carr looked very contented +and comfortable as she lay back against the cushions of her easy chair, +so comfortable that she groaned with annoyance as the servant came +forward to announce a visitor, and the frown did not diminish when she +heard the name. + +"Oh, ask Mr Newcome to come up, Baker! I will see him here." The man +disappeared, and she threw down the magazine with an exclamation of +disgust. "That stolid young man! Now I shall have to listen to +improving anecdotes for the next half-hour. Why in the world need he +inflict himself upon me?" + +The next moment the door opened and the "`stolid' young man" stood +before her. So far as appearance went, however, the description was +misleading, for Arthur Newcome was tall and handsome, with yellow hair, +a good moustache, and strong, well set up figure. He came forward and +shook hands with Miss Carr in a quick, nervous fashion, which was so +unlike his usual stolid demeanour, that the good lady stared at him in +amazement. + +"He is actually animated! I always said that it would take a convulsion +of nature to rouse him from his deadly propriety, but upon my word he +looks excited. What can have happened?" + +The laws of propriety do not always permit us to ask the questions +nearest our hearts, however, and Miss Carr was obliged to content +herself with commonplaces. + +"It is a beautiful day. I suppose Madge got home safely last night? +She isn't too tired after the picnic, I hope!" + +"A little fatigued, I believe, but no doubt she will have recovered +before evening. She is apt to get excited on these occasions and to +exert herself unduly." + +"Nobody can say the same of you, more's the pity," was Miss Carr's +mental comment. "Madge rows very well, and the exercise will do her no +harm," she said shortly, and relapsed into determined silence. "I +suppose he has something to say, some message for Lettice most likely; +better let him say it and take himself off as soon as possible," was her +hospitable reflection; but Mr Newcome sat twirling his hat and studying +the pattern of the carpet in embarrassed silence. + +Three times over did he clear his throat and open his lips to speak, +before he got the length of words. + +"Miss Carr, I--er, I feel that I am--er--I am deeply sensible of my own +unworthiness, and can only rely on your generosity, and assure you of my +deep and sincere--" + +"What in the name of all that is mysterious is the man driving at?" +asked Miss Carr of herself; but she sat bolt upright in her seat, with a +flush on her cheeks and a pang of vague, indefinite fear at her heart. + +"My dear Mr Newcome, speak plainly, if you please! I cannot follow +your meaning. In what respect are you a claimant for my generosity?" + +"In respect of what is the most important question of my life," replied +Mr Newcome, recovering his self-possession at last, and looking her +full in the face, in what she was obliged to confess was a very manly +fashion--"In respect to my love for your ward, Miss Bertrand, and my +desire to have your consent to our engagement, to ratify her own +promise." + +"Her own promise! Your engagement! Lettice? Do you mean to tell me +that you have proposed to Lettice and that she has accepted you?" + +"I am happy to say that is my meaning. I had intended to consult you in +the first instance, but yesterday, on the river, we were together, and +I--I--" + +He stopped short with a smile of tender recollection, and Miss Carr sat +gazing at him in consternation. + +Arthur Newcome had proposed to Lettice, and Lettice had accepted him. +The thing was incomprehensible! The girl had showed not the slightest +signs of preference, had seemed as gay and heart-whole as a child. Only +a fortnight before she had convulsed Miss Carr with laughter by putting +on Mr Rayner's top-coat, and paying an afternoon call, _a la_ Arthur +Newcome, when all that young gentleman's ponderous proprieties had been +mimicked with merciless fidelity. And she had actually promised to +marry him! + +"I--excuse me--but are you quite sure that you understood Lettice +aright? Are you sure you are not mistaken?" + +Mr Newcome smiled with happy certainty. + +"Quite sure, Miss Carr. I can understand your surprise, for I find it +difficult to believe in my own good fortune. Lettice is the sweetest, +most beautiful, and most charming girl in the world. I am not worthy of +her notice, but there is nothing that I would not do to ensure her +happiness. She is all the world to me. I have loved her from the day +we first meet." + +He was in earnest--horribly in earnest! His voice quivered with +emotion, his eyes were shining, and his face, which was usually +immovable, was radiant with happiness. Miss Carr looked at him, and her +heart fell. If the mere thought of Lettice could alter the man in this +manner, she could imagine the transformation which must have passed over +him as he spoke to the girl herself, among the trees and flowers on the +river-bank; and, alas for Lettice! she could imagine also how easily +gratified vanity might have been mistaken for reciprocal love. It had +been late when they returned from the water party the night before, and +Lettice had hurried off to bed. She had been a trifle more lingering +than usual in her good-night embrace, but Lettice was always +demonstrative in her ways, so that the fact had attracted no attention, +and the morning had been so full of engagements that there had been no +time for private conferences. + +Miss Carr was speechless with grief, disappointment, and dismay. Her +anxious training for the last three years, her motherly oversight, her +hopes and prayers for the welfare of her beloved child, had they all +ended in this, that Lettice had been too selfish to discourage +admiration which she could not return?--too weak to say no to the first +man who approached with flattering words? Poor, foolish child! What +misery she had prepared for herself and everyone belonging to her!--for +of course it was all a mistake, her heart was not really touched; the +engagement could not be allowed. With a sigh of relief Miss Carr +reflected that the onus of responsibility was lifted off her shoulders +by the fact of Mr Bertrand's arrival in town that very afternoon, and +also that Lettice's engagements for the day would prevent a meeting +until she had been able to consult with her father. She drew a long +sigh, and her voice sounded both sad and tired as she replied-- + +"Ah, well! I am only Lettice's guardian in name, Mr Newcome; I have no +authority to refuse or to sanction her engagement. I have had a +telegram to say that Mr Bertrand is coming to town on business to-day, +so you will be able to see him to-morrow and hear what he has to say. +Lettice is very young--too young, in my opinion, to be able to know her +own mind. I wish there had been no such questions to disturb her for +the next two or three years. I don't know what Mr Bertrand will +think." + +"I am in a good position. I can provide a name that will not be +unworthy of her. You know me and my family. We have been friends for +years. She would have the warmest welcome--" + +"Yes, yes, I am sure of that. I will tell Mr Bertrand all you say, Mr +Newcome, and if you call to-morrow morning you will find him at home. +In the afternoon he will probably be engaged. I can say nothing, and-- +Excuse me! I am not so young as I was, and I feel a good deal upset..." + +Arthur Newcome rose at once, and held out his hand in farewell. + +"Pray pardon me. I can understand your sentiments. It must be a shock +to think of losing Lettice in any case, and I am aware that I am not +what is called a good match. Such a beautiful girl--her father's +daughter, your ward--might marry into any circle. I sympathise with +your disappointment; but, believe me, Lettice should never have any +reason to regret her choice. I would devote my life to securing her +happiness. I will call to-morrow morning, then, with your permission. +Eleven o'clock? Thank you! Pray pardon any distress I may have caused +you, and think of me as indulgently as you can." + +He left the room, and Miss Carr raised both hands to her head with a +gesture of despair. + +"He is all that he should be--humble, devoted, deferential--but oh, +Lettice! my poor, dear child, what a mistake you have made! You would +eat your heart out in a year's time, married to a man whom you do not +love; and you don't love Arthur Newcome, I know you don't--it is all +vanity, and weakness, and imagination. Poor Austin, what a welcome for +him! A nice pill for me to have such a piece of news to tell--I, who +was going to do such wonders for the child! Well, well! this comes of +mixing oneself up in other people's affairs. She could have come to no +worse fate than this if I had left her to vegetate in Clearwater." + +There was no more rest for Miss Carr that afternoon. The magazine lay +neglected on the table, the cushions fell to the ground and lay +unnoticed as she fidgeted about, now rising and pacing angrily to and +fro, now throwing herself on a seat in weary despair. She alternately +longed for and dreaded Mr Bertrand's arrival, and it needed all her +self-control to keep up a semblance of cheerfulness while he drank his +tea and refreshed himself after the long journey. It was not easy, +however, to deceive such an intimate friend. Mr Bertrand studied her +face with critical eyes, and said kindly-- + +"You are not up to the mark, Helen; you look tired and worried! That +youngster of mine has not been misbehaving herself, I hope? What's the +trouble?" + +"Oh, Austin, the deluge! The most awful complication. I feel inclined +to whip her! Would you believe it, that wooden Arthur Newcome called +upon me this very afternoon, not two hours ago, to ask my consent to his +engagement to Lettice!" + +"Arthur Newcome? Oh, I know--the solemn person in the frock coat! What +preposterous nonsense! Lettice is a baby! We must not let the young +people at home hear of this, or they will tease the poor girl to death. +Young Newcome is a favourite butt, and they often mimic him for my +benefit. Well, I hope you let the poor fellow down gently, and saved me +a disagreeable task." + +"But--but, my dear Austin, you don't understand. He cannot be dismissed +in that easy fashion, for he says--it is inconceivable--I don't know +what to make of it--but he tells me that he has spoken to Lettice +herself, and that she has accepted him!" + +"What?" Mr Bertrand put down his cup and turned to confront Miss Carr +with a face from which every trace of laughter had disappeared. +"Accepted him? Lettice? This is serious indeed. Had you ever +suspected--or noticed any sign of an attachment growing up between +them?" + +Miss Carr wrung her hands in distress. + +"My dear Austin, how can you ask such a question? As if I would not +have consulted with you at once if that had been the case. You know +what Arthur Newcome is--the acme of all that is sober and stolid. I +have never seen a sign of emotion of any kind on his face until this +afternoon. He has seen a good deal of Lettice, for she and Madge are +great friends, but I never thought of anything more--never for one +moment! And as for Lettice herself, I am confident that the child never +thought of him in that light, and that she is as heart-whole as I am +myself." + +"Then why--why--?" + +"Oh, don't ask me! I am too miserable and disappointed to speak. I +thought I had guarded against this sort of thing; but you know what +Lettice is. He is very much in love, and no doubt she was pleased and +flattered." + +Mr Bertrand thrust his hands into his pockets and paced up and down the +room. His face looked drawn and anxious, but after five minutes had +passed he drew a long breath and made a determined effort at +cheerfulness. + +"Well, it's a bad business, but it has to be faced. I am humiliated and +disappointed that Lettice could have behaved so foolishly; but you must +not blame yourself, my dear old friend. No one could have done more for +the child for the last three years, and I am glad I am here to help you +through this difficulty. The young fellow will have to be told that +there has been a mistake. I am sorry for him, but it is better now than +later on. When did you say you expected Lettice?" + +"She may be here at any moment. She was to leave her friends at six +o'clock. I thought I heard the door open just now. Perhaps she has +arrived." + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +LETTICE IS OBSTINATE. + +Miss Carr's surmise proved correct, for even as she spoke the door +opened and Lettice appeared on the threshold. No longer the Lettice of +short skirts and flowing locks, but an elegant young lady who swept +forward with a rustle of silken skirts, and held up the sweetest pink +and white face in the world to receive her father's kiss of greeting. +"Lovely Lettice," indeed, lovelier than ever in the first bloom of +womanhood. As her father held her from him at arm's length, the slim +figure was almost as tall as his own, and the golden head dropped before +the grave, scrutinising glance. Lettice knew that her lover had called +during her absence, and Miss Carr's silence, her father's unusual +solemnity, added to her natural nervousness. The grey eyes roved from +one face to another with a scared, helpless look which they were quick +to understand. + +"Yes," said Mr Bertrand, "we know all about it by this time, Lettice. +Mr Newcome has interviewed Miss Carr. She was intensely surprised; I +also; but she has had more opportunity of seeing you together, and she +tells me that you have shown no special signs of interest in this young +fellow. Tell me, my dear--speak frankly, we are only thinking of your +happiness--have you allowed yourself to be persuaded against your own +judgment? It is a pity if that is the case, but it can be remedied. +There is no engagement as yet, and I can easily explain to Mr Newcome +that you have made a mistake." + +Lettice had seated herself opposite her father and busied herself +pulling off her long suede gloves. She avoided her father's glance, but +the answer came in a little, breathless gasp--"Oh, no, no! I don't +want--" + +"No--you say _no_? Lettice, this is a serious matter. Do you mean to +tell me that you love Arthur Newcome, and wish to marry him? Think +well, my dear. You know what it means--that you are content to spend +your life with this man, to give up everything for him, to say good-bye +to friends and relations--" + +"Father, Miss Carr is here; you are all coming up for the winter; he +lives here. I should not have to leave you!" + +"You can't count on that, Lettice. Mr Newcome's business arrangements +might make it necessary for him to leave London at any time, and it +would be your duty to follow. Do you care for him enough to make such a +sacrifice? If you love him you will not hesitate; but _do_ you love +him? That is what I want to hear! Come, Lettice, speak; I am waiting +for your answer." + +"I--I--father, I do like him! I promised I would. I think he is very +kind!" + +The two elders exchanged glances of baffled helplessness. There was +silence for a few minutes, then Mr Bertrand seated himself by Lettice's +side and took her hand in his. + +"My dear little girl, let us understand each other. Of course he is +`kind'; of course you `like him,' but that is not enough; you must do +something more than `like' the man who is to be your husband. Do you +care for him more than for me and Miss Carr, and your sisters and +brothers all together? If he were on one side of the scale and we on +the other, which would you choose? That is the way to face the +question. You must not be satisfied with less. My dear, you are very +young yet; I think you had better let me tell Mr Newcome that he is not +to mention this matter again for the next two years, until you are +twenty-one. By that time you will know your own mind, and, if you still +wished it, I should have no more to say. You would be willing to leave +it in that way, wouldn't you, dear?" + +But Lettice did not look at all willing. She drew her hand away from +her father's grasp, and turned her shoulder on him with a pettish +gesture which was strangely unlike her usual sweet demeanour. + +"Why should I wait? There is nothing to wait for! I thought you would +be pleased. It's very unkind to spoil it all! Other girls are happy +when they are engaged, and people are kind to them. You might let me be +happy too--" + +Mr Bertrand sat bolt upright in his seat, staring at his daughter with +incredulous eyes. Could it be possible that the girl was in earnest +after all, that she was really attached to this most heavy and +unattractive young man? He looked appealingly at his old friend, who, +so far, had taken no part in the conversation, and she took pity on his +embarrassment and came to the rescue. Two years' constant companionship +with Lettice had shown her that there was a large amount of obstinacy +hidden beneath the sweetness of manner, and for the girl's sake, as well +as her father's, she thought the present interview had better come to an +end. + +"Suppose you go to the library and have a smoke, Austin, while Lettice +and I have a quiet talk together," she said soothingly, and Mr Bertrand +shrugged his shoulders with a gesture of nervous irritation, and strode +from the room. + +No sooner had the door closed behind him than Lettice produced a little +lace-edged handkerchief from her pocket, and began to sob and cry. + +"Father is cruel; why won't he believe me? Why may I not get engaged +like other girls? I am nineteen. I was so happy--and now I'm +miserable!" + +"Come here, Lettice, and for pity's sake, child, stop crying, and behave +like a reasonable creature. There are one or two questions I want to +ask you. How long have you known that Arthur Newcome was in love with +you?" + +"I don't know. At least, he was always nice. That summer at +Windermere, he always walked with me, and brought me flowers, and--" + +"That was three years ago--the summer you came to me. So long as that! +But, Lettice, whatever your feelings may be now, you have certainly not +cared for him up to a very recent period. I don't need to remind you of +the manner in which you have spoken about him. When you saw that lit; +was growing attached to you, did you try to show that you did not +appreciate his attentions?" + +Lettice bent her head and grew crimson over cheek and neck. + +"I was obliged to be polite! He was always with Madge, and I did +like--" + +Miss Carr shut her lips in tight displeasure. + +"Yes, my dear, you `liked' his attentions, and you were too vain and +selfish to put an end to them, though you did not care for the man +himself. Oh, Lettice, this is what I have feared! this is what I have +tried to prevent! My poor, foolish child, what trouble you have brought +upon us all! Arthur Newcome will have every reason to consider himself +badly treated; his people will take his part; you will have alienated +your best friends." + +"I am not going to treat him badly. You are very unkind. _He_ would +not be unkind to me. I wish he were here, I do! He would not let you +be so cruel." And Lettice went off into a paroxysm of sobbing, while +Miss Carr realised sorrowfully that she had made a false move. + +"My dear child, you know very well I don't mean to be cruel. I am too +anxious for your happiness. Lettice, Mr Newcome is very much in love +just now, and is excited and moved out of himself; but though he may not +be less devoted to you, in the course of time he will naturally fall +back into his old quiet ways. When you think of a life with him, you +must not imagine him as he was yesterday, but as you have seen him at +home any time during the last three years. You have mimicked him to me +many times over, my dear. Can you now feel content to spend your life +in his company?" + +It was of no use. Lettice would do nothing but sob and cry, reiterate +that everyone was unkind, that she was miserable, that it was a shame +that she could not be happy like other girls, until at last Miss Carr, +in despair, sent her upstairs to her bedroom, and went to rejoin Mr +Bertrand. + +"Well?" he said, stopping short in his pacings up and down, and +regarding her with an anxious gaze, "what luck?" + +Miss Carr gave a gesture of impatience. + +"Oh, none--none at all! She will do nothing but cry and make a martyr +of herself. She will not acknowledge that she has made a mistake, and +yet I know, I feel, it is not the right thing! You must speak to Arthur +Newcome yourself to-morrow, and try to make him consent to a few months' +delay." + +"I was thinking of that myself. I'll try for six, but he won't consent. +I can't say I should myself under the circumstances. When Lettice has +accepted him and cries her eyes out at the idea of giving him up, you +can hardly expect the young fellow to be patient. Heigho, these +daughters! A nice time of it I have before me, with four of them on my +hands." + +Punctually at eleven o'clock next morning Arthur Newcome arrived for his +interview with Mr Bertrand. They were shut up together for over half- +an-hour, then Mr Bertrand burst open the door of the room where Miss +Carr and his daughter were seated, and addressed the latter in tones of +irritation such as she had seldom heard from those kindly lips. + +"Lettice, go to the drawing-room and see Mr Newcome. He will tell you +what we have arranged. In ten minutes from now, come back to me here." + +Lettice dropped her work and glided out of the room, white and noiseless +as a ghost, and her father clapped his hands together in impatience. + +"Bah, what a man! He drives me distracted! To think that fate should +have been so perverse as to saddle me with a fellow like that for a son- +in-law! Oh dear, yes, perfectly polite, and all that was proper and +well-conducted, but I have no chance against him--none! I lose my head +and get excited, and he is so abominably cool. He will wait a month as +a concession to my wishes before making the engagement public, and +during that time she is to be left alone. He is neither to come here, +nor to write to her, and we will say nothing about it at home, so that +there may be as little unpleasantness as possible if it ends as we hope +it may. I had really no decent objection to make when he questioned me +on the subject. He is in a good position; his people are all we could +wish; his character irreproachable. He wishes to be married in the +autumn, and if he persists I shall have to give in; I know I shall--you +might as well try to fight with a stone wall." + +"Autumn!" echoed Miss Carr in dismay. "Autumn! Oh, my poor Lettice! my +poor, dear child! But we have a month, you say; a great deal may be +done in a month. Ah, well, Austin, we must just hope for the best, and +do everything in our power to prevent an engagement." + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +LETTICE DECIDES. + +For the next month, Lettice saw nothing of Arthur Newcome. He had +packed up his traps and gone to spend the weeks of probation in Norway, +where he would be out of the way of temptation, and have his mind +distracted by novel surroundings. + +No such change, however, fell to Lettice's share. Mr Bertrand would +not allow the ordinary summer visit to Clearwater to be anticipated. He +had forbidden Lettice to mention the proposed engagement to her sisters +as he was sanguine that a month's reflection would be more than enough +to convince the girl of her mistake, when the less that was known about +the matter the better for all concerned. As Arthur Newcome was out of +town he could see no objection to Lettice remaining where she was, and +Miss Carr agreed the more readily in this decision as she had made a +number of engagements which it would have been difficult to forego. +Both were thinking only of the girl's welfare; but alas! the best- +meaning people make mistakes at times, and this arrangement was the most +unfortunate which could have been made, considering the object which +they had in view. Lettice had nothing to distract her mind from the +past, no novelty of any kind to keep her from dwelling on the gratifying +remembrance of Arthur Newcome's devotion. On the contrary, her life was +less bright than usual, for the Newcomes were naturally displeased at +Mr Bertrand's objections to the engagement, and would not hold any +communication with Miss Carr's household until the matter was decided. +Thus Lettice was deprived of the society of her best friend, and was +forbidden the house in which she had been accustomed to spend her +happiest hours. + +Miss Carr did her best to provide interest and amusement, but there was +a constraint between the old lady and her ward, which was as new as it +was painful. Lettice was conscious that she was in disgrace. When her +father fumed and fidgeted about the room, she guessed, without being +told, that he was thinking of the proposed engagement; when Miss Carr +sighed, and screwed up her face until it looked nothing but a network of +wrinkles, she knew that the old lady was blaming herself for negligence +in the past, and pondering what could still be done to avert the +marriage, and a most unpleasant knowledge it was. Lettice had lived all +her life in the sunshine of approval. As a little child everyone had +petted and praised her because of her charming looks; as a schoolgirl +she had reigned supreme among her fellows; her short experience of +society had shown that she had no less power in the new sphere. Cold +looks and reproachful glances were a new experience, and instead of +moving her to repentance, they had the effect of making her think +constantly of her lover, and long more and more for his return. Miss +Carr thought she was vain and selfish--Arthur said she was the best and +sweetest of women; her father called her a "foolish little girl"--Arthur +called her his queen and goddess; Miss Carr sat silent the whole of the +afternoon, sighing as if her heart was broken--Arthur had walked across +London many times over for the chance of a passing word. Other people +were disappointed in her, but Arthur declared that she was perfect, +without possibility of improvement! Lettice would take refuge in the +solitude of her bedroom, cry to herself, and look out of the window +wondering in which direction Norway lay, what Arthur was doing, and if +he were half as miserable at being separated from her as she was at +being left alone in London. Then she would recall the afternoon on the +river, when he had asked her to be his wife. How terribly in earnest he +had seemed. She had tried to say no, because, though she enjoyed his +attentions, she had never really intended to marry him; but the sight of +his face had frightened her, and when he had said in that awful voice, +"Lettice, do you mean it? Is there no hope? Have you been making a +fool of me for all these years?"--she had been ready to promise anything +and everything in the world if he would only smile again. And he had +been very "kind." It was "nice" being engaged. She had been quite +happy until her father came, and was so cross. + +If Miss Carr could have been her own cheery, loving self, and talked to +the girl in a natural, kindly manner, still better, if she could have +had half-an-hour's conversation with outspoken Norah, all might have +been well; but Miss Carr was under the mistaken impression that it was +her duty to show her disapproval by every act and look, and the result +was disastrous. Every morning Lettice awoke with the doleful question, +"How am I to get through the day?" Every night she went to bed hugging +the thought that another milestone had been passed, and that the +probation was nearer to its end. By the end of the month her friends' +efforts had so nearly succeeded in making her honestly in love with +Arthur Newcome, that they marked the girl's bright eyes and happy +smiles, and told each other sadly that it was no use standing out +further. + +Arthur Newcome wrote to Mr Bertrand announcing his arrival in London, +and asking permission to call and receive his answer from Lettice's +lips, and there was nothing to do but to consent forthwith. An hour was +appointed for the next afternoon, and Lettice spent an unconscionable +time in her bedroom preparing for the great occasion, and trying to +decide in which of her dainty garments Arthur would like her best. Her +father had taken himself into the City after a conversation in which he +had come perilously near losing his temper, and when Lettice floated +into the drawing-room, all pale green muslin and valenciennes insertion, +looking more like an exquisite wood nymph than a creature of common +flesh and blood, there sat Miss Carr crying her eyes out on a corner of +the ottoman. + +"Oh, Lettice, Lettice! is it too late? Won't you listen to reason even +at the eleventh hour? It is the greatest folly to enter into this +engagement. Never were two people more unsuited to each other! You +will regret it all your life. My poor, dear child, you are wrecking +your own happiness..." + +It was too bad! For almost the first time in her life Lettice felt a +throb of actual anger. She had been docile and obedient, had consented +to be separated from Arthur for a whole month, and done all in her power +to satisfy these exacting people, and even now they would not believe +her--they would not allow her to be happy. She stood staring at Miss +Carr in silence, until the servant threw open the door and announced her +lover's arrival. + +"Mr Newcome, ma'am. I have shown him into the morning-room as you +desired." + +Lettice turned without a word and ran swiftly downstairs to the room +where Arthur Newcome was waiting for her in painful anxiety. For three +long years he had tried to win the girl's heart, and had failed to gain +a sign of affection. Her acceptance had been won after a struggle, and +he was racked with suspense as to the effect of this month's separation. +When the door opened, Lettice saw him standing opposite, his tall +figure drawn up to its full height, his handsome face pale with the +intensity of his emotion. + +She gave a quick glance, then rushed forward and nestled into his arms +with a little cry of joy. + +"Oh, Arthur, Arthur! you have come back! Take care of me! Take care of +me! I have been so miserable!" + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +THE SCATTERED NEST. + +Two days later a happy party were disporting themselves on the lawn at +Cloudsdale. Rex and Edna Freer had driven over to spend the afternoon +with their friends, and just as Mary placed the tea-tray on the wicker +table, the postman came marching up the drive, and delivered the only +thing which was necessary to complete the happiness of the party--a +letter from Lettice! + +"She has written so little lately, and her letters have been so unlike +herself, that I have been quite uneasy," said Hilary, turning the +envelope round and round, and feeling its proportions with undisguised +pleasure. "I'll give you each a cup of tea, and then I'll read it out, +while you listen in comfort." + +The three years which had passed since we saw her last had dealt very +kindly with Hilary. The consequential air had given place to an +expression of quiet serenity which was by no means unbecoming. Her +complexion was pink and white as of yore, and as she presided over the +tea-table, her blue cambric dress fitting closely to the line of her +neat little figure, her tiny feet crossed before her, and her shining +brown hair arranged in its usual fastidious order, it would have been +difficult to find a more favourable specimen of a young English girl. +Norah, seated opposite on the long hammock chair, was still very girlish +in appearance, despite the dignity of eighteen years. She was thin and +lanky, and her cheeks had none of Hilary's delicate bloom, but the heavy +eyebrows and expressive lips lent a charm to a face which was never the +same in expression for two minutes together, and though there could be +no question as to which was the prettier of the two, it was safe to +predict that few people who looked at Norah would be tempted to return +to the study of Hilary's more commonplace features. + +Edna was narrow-chested and delicate in appearance, but Rex had +developed into an imposing looking personage; broad-shouldered, +muscular, and with such a moustache as was unequalled by any young +fellow of his age in the country-side. He wore a white flannel suit, +and though there were several unoccupied seats at hand, chose to loll on +the grass, his long legs stretched out before him, his blue cap pushed +well back on his curly head. Nestled beside him sat Geraldine, a little +taller, a little older in appearance, but with the same grave, earnest +little face which had characterised her three years before. Perhaps the +member of the family who was the most changed, was the tall, young +fellow who sat beside Norah. Raymond had only lately returned from a +two years' sojourn in Germany, where he had acquired an extra four +inches, a pair of eye-glasses, and such "a man of the world" manner, +that it had been a shock to his sisters to find that his teasing +propensities were as vigorous as when he had been a schoolboy. Faithful +Bob hovered near, ready to obey his leader's commands, and take part in +any mischief which might be at hand, but for the moment all other +interests gave way to the hearing of the letter from London. + +Hilary handed the last cup to its owner, and opening the envelope, ran +her eye rapidly down the sheet. The next moment a loud "Oh!" of +amazement startled the hearers into eager curiosity. + +"What is the matter?" + +"Oh--oh! It can't be true--it can't! Lettice is engaged to be +married!" + +"_Engaged_!" A moment's breathless silence was succeeded by a very +babel of questioning. + +"Engaged?" "Who to?" "When?" "Where." "What does she say?" "Oh, +read it aloud. Let us hear every word she says!" + +But Hilary folded up the sheet with an air of determination. "Not yet. +I'll read it by-and-by; but first you must guess. I'll give you fifty +guesses who it is..." + +"The painter fellow who did her portrait!" + +"That what-do-you-call-him man--the Polish nobleman who sent her the +verses!" + +"The curate!" + +"Sir Neville Bruce!" + +"One of the men she met at Brighton!" + +"Wrong! wrong! wrong! Guess again. Nearer home this time. Someone you +know!" + +"Not Mr Rayner?" + +"Oh, dear me, no! I should think not. He and Lettice never get on well +together. Someone else." + +"Someone we know! But we know so few of her friends. Only Mr Neville, +and the Bewleys, and--_oh_! No, it can't--it can't possibly be--" + +"What? what? Who--who? Never mind if you are wrong. Say whom you are +thinking of." + +"It--_can't_ be Arthur Newcome!" + +"Arthur Newcome it is, my dear!" said Hilary tragically; whereupon +Raymond instantly dropped his teacup on the grass, and fell heavily on +Norah's shoulders. + +"Smelling salts! Brandy! I am going to faint! Oh, my heart!" + +But, for once, no one paid any attention. Even Norah sat motionless, +forgetting to push him away, forgetting everything but the appalling +nature of the news which she had just heard. + +"Lettice--is--engaged--to--Arthur Newcome?" + +"Lettice--is--engaged--to--Arthur Newcome!" + +"But--but--we knew that he admired her in his solemn way, but she never +seemed to like him! She used to make fun of him, and imitate the way he +talked!" + +Raymond sat up and passed in his cup for a fresh supply of tea. What +was the good of fainting if nobody took any notice! "I say," he cried +energetically, "fancy Arthur Newcome proposing! I'd give anything if I +could have overheard him. ... `Miss Bertrand!--Lettice!--may I call you +Lettice? Deign, oh deign--'" + +"Oh, be quiet, Raymond, and let us hear the letter," pleaded Norah, who +was on the verge of tears with agitation and distress. "I can't believe +it until I hear her own words. Read it, Hilary, from the very +beginning." + +Hilary opened out the dainty, scented sheet, and read aloud, with an +impressiveness worthy of the occasion:-- + +"My dearest old Hilary, and Norah, and every one of you,--I have a great +piece of news to tell. I am engaged to Arthur Newcome, and he wants to +be married some time this autumn. He proposed to me a month ago, on the +day of our water party, but father and Miss Carr wished us to wait a +month before it was settled, so that I should have time to make up my +mind. They think I am so young, but if we wait until September I shall +be twenty, and many girls are married at that age. I have a beautiful +ring--a big pearl in the centre, and diamonds all round, and Arthur has +given me a brooch as well, three dear little diamond swallows--it looks +so sweet at my neck! Madge is very pleased, of course, and Mr and Mrs +Newcome are very kind. Won't it be nice when I have a house of my own, +and you can come and stay with me? I shall have six bridesmaids--you +three, Madge, Edna, and either Mabel Bruce or Monica Bewley. You must +think of pretty dresses. I like a white wedding, but it doesn't show +the bride off so well--that's the great objection. We shall have a +great deal to talk about when I come home next month, and I am longing +for the time to come. It is so hot and close in town, and Cloudsdale +must be looking lovely just now. Father expects to leave on Tuesday. +He does not seem very pleased about my engagement. I suppose parents +never are! Good-bye, dear, darling girls. I wish I could be with you +now. + +"Your own loving Lettice. + +"PS--How surprised you will be. Tell me every word you said when you +read this letter!" + +"Humph I slightly awkward if we took her at her word!" It was Rex who +spoke, and there was the same expression of ill-concealed scorn in his +voice which had been noticeable on his face since the announcement of +the news. "Charming epistle, I must say. So much about `dear Arthur' +and her own happiness. One must excuse a little gush under the +circumstances, and Lettice was always demonstrative!" + +Hilary looked at him, puckering her forehead in anxious fashion. "You +mean that sarcastically! She says nothing about being happy. I noticed +that myself. There is something strange about the whole thing. I am +quite sure she did not care for him when I was there in spring. What +can have possessed her to accept him?" + +"Because he asked her nicely, and puts lots of treacle on the bread," +said Raymond, laughing. "You could always make Lettice do what you +wanted if you flattered her enough. She would accept any fellow who +went down on his knees and swore he worshipped her. Oh, I say I fancy +having Arthur Newcome as a brother-in-law! We used to call him `Child's +Guide to Knowledge' when he was at Windermere last summer, because he +would insist upon improving every occasion. We played some fine pranks +on him, didn't we, Norah? We'll give him a lively time of it again if +he comes to visit us, as I suppose he will, under the circumstances." + +"We can't," said Norah dolefully. "He is engaged to Lettice, and she +would be vexed. I don't feel as if I could ever play pranks again. I +was so looking forward to having Lettice with us again when we went up +to London, but now it will never be the same again. Even if she has a +house of her own, Arthur Newcome will be there, and I could never, never +get to like him as a brother." She put her cup on the table and walked +off by herself into the shrubbery which encircled the lawn, and though +the others looked after her in sympathetic silence, they did not attempt +to follow. As Lettice's special friend and companion, the news was even +more of a shock to her than to the rest, and it was understood that she +might prefer to be alone. + +Ten minutes later, however, when tea was finished, Rex rose lazily from +the ground, stretched his long arms, and strode off in the direction of +the shrubbery. Half-way down the path he met Norah marching along in +solitary state, white about the cheeks, suspiciously red and swollen +about the eyes. + +Rex clasped his hands behind his back, and blocked the narrow way. + +"Well, what are you doing here?" + +"Crying!" Norah flashed a defiant glance at him, then turned aside to +dab her face with her handkerchief and gulp in uncontrollable misery, +whereupon Rex looked distressed, uncomfortable, and irritated all at the +same moment. + +"Then please stop at once. What's the use of crying? You can't help it +now, better make the best of it, and be as jolly as you can. Norah-- +look here, I'm sorry to bother you any more to-day, but I came over +specially to have a chat. I have not had a chance of speaking to you +quietly until now, and my father is driving round for us at six o'clock. +Before he comes I wanted to tell you--" + +Norah put her handkerchief in her pocket, and faced him with steady +eyes. Her heart gave a leap of understanding, and a cold certainty of +misery settled upon her which seemed to dry up the fountain of tears, +and leave her still and rigid. + +"Yes?" + +"We had a big talk last night, Norah. The three years are up, you know, +and I have fulfilled my share of the bargain. I have known all the time +what my decision would be, and six months ago I wrote to all the men I +know abroad, asking them to look out for the sort of berth I wanted. On +Tuesday I had a letter from a man in India offering me a good opening. +You will be surprised to hear why he gives me the chance instead of all +the other fellows who are anxious to get it. It is because I am a good +musician! I don't mean in your sense of the word, of course, but I can +rattle away on the piano and play any air I happen to hear, and he says +the fellows up-country set no end of store by that sort of thing. If +other qualifications are equal, the post is given to the man who can +play, and make things cheerful in the evening. Rather a sarcasm, isn't +it, after all the money that has been spent on my education, that such a +trifle should decide my destiny? Well--I showed the letter to my +father, and he was terribly cut up about the whole thing. I had said +nothing about my plans for some time back, for it seemed no use to upset +him before it was necessary, but he has been hoping that I was `settling +down.' Norah, I can't do it! I hate leaving home, and shall be +wretched when the time comes; but I have roving blood in my veins, and +cannot settle down to a jog-trot, professional life in a small English +town. If I go out to this place I shall lie low until I have a +practical knowledge of the land and its possibilities, and then I'll buy +an estate, and work it in my own way. I have the money my uncle left +me, and can make my way without asking father for a penny. He is coming +over this afternoon, and I am sure he means to talk to you. We didn't +say anything to the mater and Edna, but he knows that you and I are +friends, and that I will listen to what you say. He means to ask you to +persuade me to stay at home. But--you understand how I feel, Norah?" + +"Yes, Rex. Don't be afraid! If your father speaks to me I shall advise +him to let you go. You have kept your share of the bargain: it is for +him to keep his," said Norah steadily. "And it appears that you _want_ +to go away and leave us." + +"You will live in London now for the greater part of the year. If I +were at home I should only see you at long intervals. I should not +settle in this neighbourhood. Our life would be quite different..." + +"Oh yes, quite different! Everything will be different now. You will +have gone, and--Lettice too! Rex! don't be angry if I ask you +something. I will try to persuade your father to give you your way, +but--tell me this before you go!-- Has the news about Lettice had +anything to do with your decision?" + +Rex stopped short, and stared at her in amazement. + +"This news about Lettice! Norah, what do you mean?" + +"About her engagement! I always thought that you liked her yourself. +You remember what you used to call her--`Lovely Lettice'?" + +"Well, and so she was lovely! Anybody might have seen that. Of course +I liked her, but if you mean that I am jealous of Arthur Newcome--no, +thank you! I should not care for a wife who would listen to the first +man who came along, as Lettice has done. She was a jolly little girl, +and I took a fancy to her at first sight, but--do you remember our +adventure in the old passage, Norah? Do you think Lettice would have +stuck to me, and been as brave, and plucky, and loyal as you were in the +midst of your fright? I never forgot that day. It was last night that +I spoke to my father, before I heard a word about Lettice, or her +matrimonial intentions." + +"So it was; I forgot that!" Norah smiled with recovered cheerfulness, +for Rex's words had lifted a load from her mind, and the future seemed +several shades less gloomy than it had done a few minutes before. + +"And if you went, how soon would you start?" + +"As soon as possible. I have wasted too much time already. The sooner +I go, the sooner I can make my way and come home again to see you all. +Three or five years, I suppose. You will be quite an old woman, Norah." + +"Yes; twenty-three! Lettice will be married; Hilary too, very likely. +The Mouse will be as big as I was when you first knew us, and Raymond a +doctor in practice. It will all be different!" Norah's voice was very +low as she spoke the last words, and her face twitched as if she were +about to break down once more. + +Rex looked at her with the same odd mingling of tenderness and vexation +which he had shown a few minutes earlier. + +"Of course it will be different! We are not children any longer, and +can't expect to go on as we have been doing. What was the Vicar's text +the other Sunday?--`As an eagle stirreth up her nest'--I liked that +sermon! It has been very happy and jolly, but it is time we stirred out +of the old nest, and began to work for ourselves, and prepare for nests +of our own. I am past twenty-one, my father need not be afraid to trust +me, for I can look after myself, and though the life will be very +different out there, I'll try to do nothing that I should be ashamed to +tell you, Norah, when I come home!" + +Norah turned round with a flush, and an eager, outstretched hand, but +only to behold Mr Rex marching along on the edge of the very +flowerbeds, with a head in the air, and a "touch me if you dare" +expression, at the sight of which his companion gave a dismal little +smile. + +That was Rex all over! In spite of his masterful ways, he was intensely +shy where his deeper feelings were concerned. To say an affectionate +word seemed to require as painful an effort as to drag out a tooth, and +if by chance he was betrayed into such an indiscretion, he protected +himself against its consequences by putting on his most "prickly" airs, +and freezing the astonished hearer by his frigid tones. Norah +understood that having shown her a glimpse of his heart in the last +remark, he was now overcome with remorse, and that she must be wise and +take no notice of the indiscretion. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +MORE CHANGES. + +For the next ten minutes conversation was of the most desultory +character; then the sound of wheels was heard in the distance, and Rex +became eager and excited once more. + +"There's my father! Go and meet him, Norah. Get hold of him before +Hilary comes with her everlasting chatter. He wants to speak to you. +Bring him along here, and I'll go into the house!" + +Norah sped off obediently, and met the Squire as the cart turned in at +the gate. He pulled up at once, handed the reins to the man, and jumped +down to join her. His ruddy face looked drawn and anxious, and the +first glance at the girl showed that she was, like himself, in a woe- +begone state of mind. + +"Oh, you know all about it! That boy of mine has been talking to you, I +can see!" he said, as they shook hands, and turned along the winding +path. "Well, well, this is a fine ending to all my hopes. The lad's as +obstinate as a mule--I am sure I don't know where he got his +disposition; if he once takes a thing in his head there's no moving him. +Now he wants to go and bury himself in the wilds of India! I've talked +until I am tired, and I can't make him see what mad folly it is. After +an expensive college education--" + +"Yes, but, Squire, I don't think that's a fair argument! Rex didn't +want to go to college; he went against his own wishes because you were +set on it. He said it would be waste of money." + +"Tut, tut! nonsense! Waste of money, indeed! I don't grudge a few +hundreds spent on my only son's education, I hope. Things would have +come to a pretty pass if that were the case," cried the Squire, turning +off at a tangent, as usual, the moment he found his position attacked by +the enemy. "I thought the boy would have come to his senses long before +the three years were over. I have told him--" And he launched off into +a lengthy account of the interview of the night before, repeating his +own arguments and his son's replies, while Norah listened with downcast +eyes. "There!" he cried in conclusion, "that is the matter in a +nutshell, and everyone must see that I am perfectly reasonable and +within my rights. Now, my dear, you talk to him; he thinks a great deal +of your opinion. Just tell him plainly that if he persists in his +folly, he is ruining his life, and behaving in a very wrong, undutiful +manner to his mother and to me. Talk to him plainly; don't spare your +words!" + +"I can't do that, Squire. I'm sorry, but I don't agree with you. Rex +has given in to your wishes for three whole years, though, from his +point of view, it was waste of time. He has worked hard and not +grumbled, so that he has kept every word of his promise. Now he asks +you to fulfil yours. I am sure you must feel sad and disappointed, but +I don't think you ought to be angry with Rex, or call him undutiful." + +"Eh--eh, what's this? Are you going to side against me? This is a +pretty state of affairs. I thought I could count upon your help, and +the boy would have listened to what you said. Well, well, I don't know +what is coming over the young folk nowadays! Do you mean to say that +you _approve_ of Rex going abroad?" + +"Yes, I do! It is better to be a good planter than a bad lawyer," said +Norah steadily; and the Squire pursed up his lips in silence. + +The girl's words had appealed to his pet theory, and done more to +silence objections than any amount of arguing. The Squire was always +lecturing other people on the necessity of doing the humblest work as +well as it was possible for it to be done, and had been known on +occasions to stand still in the middle of a country lane, brandishing +his stick while he treated a gang of stone-breakers to a dissertation on +the dignity of labour. The thought that his son might perform his +duties in an unsatisfactory manner was even more distasteful than the +prospect of separation. + +"Well, well," he sighed irritably, "no one need envy a man for having +children! They are nothing but trouble and anxiety from beginning to +end. It's better to be without them at all." + +"You don't mean what you say. You know quite well you would not give up +your son and daughter for all the money in the world. You love Edna all +the more because she needs so much care, and you are just as proud of +Rex as you can be. Of course he is self-willed and determined, but if +you could change him into a weak, undecided creature like the vicar's +son, you would be very sorry to do it!" + +"You seem to know a great deal about my sentiments, young lady," said +the Squire, trying hard to look ferocious. Then his shoulders heaved, +and he drew a long, weary sigh. "Well, my last hope has gone if you +range yourself against me. The boy must go and bury himself at the ends +of the earth. Goodness knows when he will come back, and I am getting +old. Ten to one I may never see him again!" + +"It will be your own fault if you don't. Westmoreland is sweet and +beautiful, but if I had no ties and plenty of money like you, I would +never be content to settle here for the rest of my life, while the +great, wide world lay beyond. If Rex goes to India, why should you not +all pack up some year and pay him a visit? You could sail down the +Mediterranean and see all the lovely places on the way--Gibraltar, and +Malta, and Naples, and Venice; stay a month or two in India, and come +home overland through Switzerland and France. Oh, how delightful it +would be! You would have so much to see and to talk about afterwards. +Edna would get fat and rosy, and you and Mrs Freer would be quite young +and skittish by the time you got home! If you went to see him between +each of his visits home, the time would seem quite short." + +"I daresay! I daresay! A very likely prospect. I am too old to begin +gadding about the world at my time of life," said the Squire; but he +straightened his back even as he spoke, and stepped out as if wishing to +disprove the truth of his own words. Norah saw his eyes brighten, and +the deep lines down his cheeks relax into a smile, and knew that her +suggestion had met a kindly welcome, "Well, there's no saying! If all +the young people go away and leave us, we shall be bound to make a move +in self-defence. You are off to London for the winter. It seems a year +of changes--" + +"Oh, it is, it is, and I am so miserable! Lettice--my own, dear +Lettice--is going to be married, and she will never come back to live +with us any more. I have been looking forward to London, just to be +with her, and now it is further off than ever. It will never come!" + +Norah had fought hard for the self-possession which she had shown during +the whole of the interview; but now her lips trembled, and the tears +rushed into her eyes. The future seemed dreary indeed, with Rex abroad, +Lettice appropriated by Arthur Newcome, and Edna at the other end of +England. She had hard work not to cry outright, to the great distress +of the Squire, who was the kindliest of men, despite his red face and +stentorian voice. + +"Ha, humph--humph! Sorry, I'm sure. Very sorry! Come, come, my dear, +cheer up! Things may turn out better than we expect. I didn't know you +had a trouble of your own, or I would not have intruded mine. Shall we +go up to the house? There, take my arm. What a great, big girl you +are, to be sure!" + +Norah found time for a whispered conference with Rex before he took his +seat behind his father and Edna in the dog-cart. + +"It's all right! I have spoken to him and he means to give in. Be as +kind and patient as possible, for he _does_ feel it, poor old man, and +he is very fond and proud of you!" + +"Humph!" said Rex shortly. He knitted his brows and looked anxiously at +the girl's face. "You are awfully white! Don't cry any more, Norah, +for pity's sake. We are not worth it, either Lettice or I." Then he +was off, and Raymond turned to his sister with a long, lazy yawn. + +"Well, and so Rex is bound for India! He has just been telling me about +it. Lucky beggar! When I take my degree I mean to ask father to let me +travel for a year or two before settling down to work." + +"Oh, dear, dear!" sighed Norah to herself, "what a stirring up of the +poor old nest! There will be no eagles left if this sort of thing goes +on much longer. And we were so happy! Why, oh, why did I ever wish for +a change?" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. + +LETTICE AT HOME. + +Lettice's annual summer visit was postponed this year until the middle +of August, for Arthur Newcome had gained his point, as Mr Bertrand had +prophesied, and the wedding was arranged to take place at the end of +September. Mr Bertrand had done his best to gain more time, but it was +difficult to fight against a man who was so quiet, so composed, and so +immovably determined as Arthur Newcome. He listened to what was said +with the utmost politeness, and replied to all argument with the +statement that he was twenty-eight, that he was in a good position, and +saw no reason for waiting indefinitely. After this performance had been +enacted four or five times, Mr Bertrand's patience gave way, and he +declared that he was powerless to stand out any longer, and that perhaps +it was a good thing to get the wedding over, since if he had much to do +with Arthur Newcome, he should certainly collapse, and fall into a +nervous decline. + +"His very presence oppresses me. It is all I can do not to yawn in his +face when he is telling those long-winded yarns. Poor little Lettice! +I wonder what sort of conversation he treats her to when they are alone. +I thought she looked very tired yesterday at dinner. Get her all the +pretty things she wants for this _trousseau_, Helen. I must do what I +can for the poor child, for I fear she has a dull time before her." + +Miss Carr sighed, and shook her head. As time went on she was more and +more distressed about her ward's engagement, for now that his time of +suspense was over, Arthur Newcome had lost his temporary gleam of +brightness and had settled down into the old solemn ways which made him +so different from other young men of his age. The previous night was +not the only occasion on which Lettice had seemed weary and dispirited +after a _tete-a-tete_ with her lover, but she showed plenty of interest +in the selection of her _trousseau_ and in the equipment of the handsome +house which Mr Newcome was preparing for his bride. + +By the middle of August dressmakers and upholsterers had received the +necessary instructions, and could be left to complete their work, while +the tired little bride-elect went north to recoup her energies. How +glad she was to escape from London only Lettice herself knew; while at +Cloudsdale, the whole house was turned upside down in excitement at the +prospect of her arrival. Lettice, as an engaged young lady, a bride on +the eve of her marriage, had assumed a position of vast importance in +her sisters' eyes, and the questions as to how she would look, how she +would bear herself, formed the subject of many lengthy discussions. + +The hour came at last. Lettice was once more among them. She came +rushing in, in the old impetuous way, kissing everyone in turns, and +exclaiming in delight at being once more at home. There had never been +any unpleasantness connected with Lettice's home-comings. Though she +had lived in the lap of luxury for the last three years, she was utterly +unspoiled by its influence, and so far from being dissatisfied with her +own home, seemed to take an affectionate delight in finding it unchanged +in every particular. Her sisters followed her from room to room, +listening with smiles to her ecstatic exclamations. + +"Oh, how nice it looks--the dear old place! What a sweet, sweet smell +of mignonette! Oh, look at the old red table-cloth, and the ink-stain +in the corner, where I upset the bottle. Oh, how lovely to see it all +again! And the dear old sofa where we used to camp out all together--I +have never found such a comfy sofa anywhere else. Tea! How pretty the +urn looks! I love that cheerful, hissing sound! And what cream! You +never see cream like that in London." + +She was all smiles and dimples, and though decidedly thinner, the flush +upon her cheeks made her look so bright and well that she was a picture +of a radiant young bride. Hilary and Norah watched her with fascinated +eyes as she flitted about the room, or lay back in the chintz-covered +chair. What a vision of elegance she was! The blue serge coat and +skirt was exactly like those which the village dressmaker had made for +their own wear--exactly like, and yet how different! The sailor hat was +of a shape unknown in northern regions; each little detail of her attire +was perfect in its unobtrusive beauty, and with every movement of the +hand came the flash of precious stones. If she had been a whit less +like herself Norah would have been awed by the presence of this elegant +young lady; but it was the old Lettice who flung her arms round her neck +the moment they were left alone together in their own room; the old +Lettice who kissed, and hugged, and caressed with a hundred loving +words. + +"Oh, Norah, I _have_ wanted you! I longed for you so, but father would +not let me write. It was a horrid, horrid time, and I was wretchedly +lonely. Dear, darling Norie! I am so glad to be back." + +"And, oh, Lettice, I am so glad to have you! I have a hundred questions +to ask. Let me look at your ring. It is a beauty, far nicer than the +ordinary row of diamonds. And are you awfully happy? I was very much +surprised, you know; but if you are happy, it doesn't matter what anyone +else thinks!" + +"N-no!" said Lettice slowly. "Yes, of course I am happy. It hasn't +been as nice as I expected, for Miss Carr has behaved so queerly, and +father was not pleased. But--oh yes, I am quite happy. Madge is +delighted about it, and Arthur does everything I like. He is very +kind!" + +"You funny old Lettice! Kind! of course he is kind!" cried Norah +laughing, and kissing the soft, fair cheek. The flush of excitement had +faded by this time, and the girl's face looked pale and wan, while the +blue shadows beneath her eyes gave a pathetic expression to the sweet +face. "Lettice," cried Norah anxiously, "how ill you look! You were +excited before, and I didn't notice it, but you are as white as a ghost, +and so thin! Aren't you well, dear? Have you a head-ache? Can I do +anything: for you?" + +"Oh, no, no!" Lettice stretched out her arms over her head with a long, +weary sigh. "I shall be quite well now that I am at home, and with you, +Norah. I have been tired to death in London lately. You have no idea +how tiring it is to be engaged. I have stood such hours and hours at +the dressmaker's being tried on, and Arthur and I were always going to +the house. The workmen are so stupid; they have no idea of colourings. +The drawing-room was painted three times over before Arthur was +satisfied. I was so tired that I would have left it as it was, but he +is so obs--, he likes to have things done exactly in his own way, and +worries on and on until he gets it. I thought it would be fun +furnishing a house, but it gets a little tiresome when people are so +very, very particular. We will have a nice lazy time, won't we, Norah? +Arthur is not coming up for three weeks, so we shall be alone and have +no one to bother us." + +"Ye-es!" stammered Norah confusedly. + +This novel way of regarding the presence of a lover was so amazing that +it took away her breath, and before she recovered, Miss Briggs entered +the room, and there was no more chance of private conversation for the +present. + +Nothing could have been sweeter or more amiable than Lettice's demeanour +during the first week at home. She seemed to revel in the simple +country life, and to cling to every member of the household with +pathetic affection. She went into the kitchen and sat on the fender +stool, talking to the cook and inquiring for "your aunt at Preston," +"the little niece Pollie," "your nephew at sea," with a kindly +remembrance which drew tears from the old soul's eyes. She made dresses +for Geraldine's dolls, trimmed Miss Briggs' caps, and hovered about her +father and sisters on the watch for an opportunity to serve them. +Everyone was charmed to have her at home once more, and fussed over her +in a manner which should have satisfied the most exacting of mortals; +but sweet and loving as she was, Lettice did not look satisfied. The +grey eyes seemed to grow larger and larger until her face appeared all +eyes, and her cheeks showed a faint hollow where the dimples used to +play. One miserable night, too, Norah woke to find Lettice sobbing with +her head buried in the pillow, and heard a pitiful repetition of the +words, "What shall I do? What shall I do?" But when she inquired what +was wrong, Lettice declared that a tooth was aching, and sat up in the +bed and rubbed her gums obediently with a lotion brought from the +medicine cupboard. Norah blamed herself for doubting her sisters word, +but she could not help noticing that the toothache yielded very rapidly +to the remedy, and the incident left a painful impression on her mind. + +Norah was not the only member of the household who was anxious about +Lettice's happiness. Mr Bertrand had a serious conversation on the +subject with his eldest daughter one morning when Lettice's pallor and +subdued voice had been more marked than usual. + +"I can't stand seeing the child going about like this. She looks the +ghost of what she was five or six months back, and seems to have no +spirit left. I shall have to speak to her. It is most painful and +awkward on the very eve of the marriage, but if she is not happy--" + +"Perhaps it is only that she is tired, and feels the prospect of leaving +home," said Hilary; and at that very moment the door was burst open and +in rushed Lettice herself, cheeks flushed, hair loose, eyes dancing with +merriment. She and Raymond had just played a trick upon unsuspecting +Miss Briggs with magnificent success. She was breathless with delight, +could hardly speak for bursts of laughter, and danced up and down the +room, looking so gay and blithe and like the Lettice of old, that her +father wont off to his study with a heartfelt sigh of relief. Hilary +was right. The child was happy enough. If she were a little quieter +than usual it was only natural and fitting under the circumstances. He +dismissed the subject from his mind, and settled contentedly to work. + +One thing was certain: Arthur Newcome was a most attentive lover. +Lettice contented herself with scribbling two or three short notes a +week, but every afternoon the postman brought a bulky envelope addressed +to her in the small neat handwriting which was getting familiar to every +member of the household. Norah had an insatiable passion for receiving +letters, and was inclined to envy her sister this part of her +engagement. + +"It must be so lovely to get long epistles everyday. Lettice, I don't +want to see them, of course, but what sort of letters does he write? +What does he talk about? Is it all affection, or does he tell you +interesting pieces of news?" + +Lettice gave the sheets a flick with her white fingers. + +"You can read it if you like. There is nothing private. I must say he +does not write exciting letters. He has been in Canterbury, and this +one is a sort of guide-book about the crypt. As if I wanted to hear +about crypts! I must say I did not think when I was engaged that I +should have letters all about tombs and stupid old monuments! Arthur is +so serious. I suppose he thinks he will `improve my mind,' but if I am +to be improved I would rather read a book at once and not be lectured in +my love letters." + +She had never spoken so openly before, and Norah dared not let the +opportunity pass. + +"Oh, Lettice, dear! aren't you happy? aren't you satisfied?" she cried +earnestly. "I have been afraid sometimes that you were not so fond of +Arthur as you should be. Do, do speak out, dear, if it is so, and put +an end to things while there is time!" + +"An end! What do you mean? I am to be married in less than a month-- +how could I put an end to it? Don't be foolish, Norah. Besides, I do +care for Arthur. I wish sometimes that he were a little younger and +less proper, but that is only because he is too clever and learned for a +stupid little thing like me. Don't talk like that again; it makes me +miserable. Wouldn't you like to have a house of your own and be able to +do whatever you liked? My little boudoir is so sweet, all blue and +white, and we will have such cosy times in it, you and I, and Edna must +come up and stay with me too. Oh, it will be lovely! I am sure it +will. I shall be quite happy. I am glad father insisted upon having +the wedding up here; it will be so much quieter than in a fashionable +London church with all the rabble at the doors. Dreadful to be stared +at by hundreds of people who don't know or care anything about you, and +only look at you as part of a show. Here all the people are interested +and care a little bit for `Miss Lettice.' If only Rex were to be here! +It seems hard that he should leave home just a fortnight before my +wedding." + +Norah sighed and relapsed into silence, for it was all settled about +Rex's departure by this time. The Squire had given way, Mrs Freer and +Edna had wept themselves dry, and were now busily occupied in preparing +what Rex insisted upon describing as his "_trousseau_." + +"I have one hundred and fifty `pieces' in my _trousseau_; how many have +you in yours?" he asked Lettice one day; and the girls were much +impressed at the extensiveness of his preparations, until it was +discovered that he counted each sock separately, and took a suit of +clothes as representing three of the aforesaid "pieces." Having once +given way, the Squire behaved in the most generous manner, and at his +suggestion, Rex was to travel overland to Brindisi, spending a month in +various places of interest on the Continent. In order to do this and +catch the appointed boat, it was necessary to leave Westmoreland at the +end of August. Ten days more, and then good-bye to Rex, good-bye to the +happy old day which could never come back again! Four days more, three +days, two days, one day--the last afternoon arrived, and with a sinking +heart Norah went to meet Rex in the drawing-room for the last time for +long years to come. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. + +GOOD BYE! + +It was a gloomy afternoon. The rain was felling in a persistent +drizzle; the clouds were low and grey. It seemed as if nature itself +shared in the depression which settled on the little party gathered +together in the drawing-room at Cloudsdale. What merry times they had +spent together in this room! What cosy chats there had been round the +fireside in winter! what refreshing hours of rest in summer, when the +sun blinds were lowered, and the windows stood open to the green lawn! +And now they were all over. A melancholy feeling of "last time" settled +on each of the beholders as they looked at Lettice with the betrothal +ring sparkling on her finger, at Rex, so tall and man-like in his +travelling suit of rough grey tweed. To make matters worse, the curate +had taken this opportunity to pay a call, so that they were not even +alone, and the rain prevented an adjournment to the garden. Norah sat +at the extreme end of the room from Rex, trifling with her teacup and +spoon, with a feeling of such helpless misery as she had never known +before in the course of her short life. The Mouse cried openly, Miss +Briggs whisked her handkerchief out of her pocket at intervals of every +few minutes and Hilary's forced cheerfulness was hardly less depressing. +As for Rex himself, he was perfectly quiet and composed, but his voice +had a hard, metallic ring, and his face looked drawn and old. Lettice +could not bear to look at him, for it seemed to her that there was more +evidence of suffering in his set composure than in all the demonstrative +grief of his companions. + +Conversation languished over tea, and at last Hilary suggested music as +a last resort. If there were music there would be a chance of moving +about, and putting an end to these death-like pauses, and Rex would also +have an opportunity of speaking to Norah, which no doubt he was longing +to do; but so soon as music was suggested, the curate begged eagerly to +hear Miss Norah play, and she rose to get her violin with the usual +ready acquiescence. Norah had made immense strides during the three +last years, and was now a performer of no mean attainments. It was +always a treat to hear her play, and this afternoon the wailing notes +seemed to have an added tenderness and longing. Lettice bit her lips to +keep back the tears, while she watched Rex's face with fascinated +attention. He had pushed his chair into the corner when Norah began to +play, and shaded his eyes with his hand, and beneath this shelter he +gazed at her with the unblinking, concentrated gaze of one who is +storing up a memory which must last through long years of separation. +How often in the bungalow home in India the scene in this English +drawing-room would rise before him, and he would see again the girlish +figure in the blue serge dress, the pale face leant lovingly against the +violin, the face which was generally so gay and full of life, but which +was now all sad and downcast! Lettice followed Rex's example and turned +to look at her sister. Dear Norie! there was no one in the world like +her! How sweet and gentle she looked! No wonder Rex hated to say good- +bye--he would never find another girl like Norah Bertrand. + +The curate was loud in his expression of delight when Norah laid down +her bow, but Rex neither spoke nor moved, and Hilary in despair called +for a song. The curate had a pleasant little tenor pipe of his own, and +could play accompaniments from memory, so that he was ready enough to +accede to the request. His selection, however, was not very large, and +chiefly of the ballad order, and this afternoon the sound of the opening +bars brought a flush of nervousness to Hilary's cheeks--"The Emigrant's +Farewell!" What in the world had induced the man to make such a choice? +An utter want of tact, or a mistaken idea of singing something +appropriate to the occasion? It was too late to stop him now, however, +and she sat playing with the fringe of the tea-cloth, hardly daring to +lift her eyes, as the words rang through the room-- + + "I'm bidding you a long farewell, + My Mary kind and true, + But I'll not forget you, darling, + In the land I'm going to. + They say there's bread and work for all, + And the son shines always there, + But I'll ne'er forget old Ireland, + Be it fifty times as fair!" + +Could anything be more painful--more disconcerting? As the last notes +rang out she darted a quick glance at Rex, and to her horror saw the +glimmer of tears in those "masterful" eyes, which had hitherto been so +scornfully free from signs of weakness. + +The next moment, before the choruses of "thank you's" had died away, Rex +was on his feet, holding out his hand with an air of defiant +indifference. + +"I must go; it is getting late. Good-bye, Hilary. Good luck!" + +"Oh, good-bye, Rex! I am so very, very sorry--" + +"Good-bye, Lettice. You will be an old married woman when I see you +again." + +"Good-bye, dear, dear Rex. Take care of yourself. Co-come back soon!" + +"Miss Briggs! Mr Barton! Thank you very much. Oh, yes, I shall get +on all right! Good-bye, little Mouse--give me a kiss!" + +"Good-bye, darling, darling Rex--and I've worked a book-marker for you +with `Forget-me-not' in red worsted. It's gone in the post to-day, and +you will get it in the morning." + +"Thank you, Mouse. I'll use it every day of my life. ... Good-bye, +Norah--!" + +"Good-bye, Rex!" + +That was all. A short grasp of the hand, and he was gone. The door +banged, footsteps went crunching down the gravel, and Norah stood like a +statue of despair in the dim, flagged hall. For one moment only, then +Lettice seized her by the arm, and dragged her hurriedly along the +passage. Such a flushed, determined Lettice, with sparkling eyes, and +quick, decisive tones! + +"Norah! You can't let him go away like that. You _can't_! It's +inhuman! The poor boy was crying when Mr Barton was singing. I saw +the tears in his eyes. He went away because he could not bear to stay +any longer. And you never said a word! Oh run, run!--go out of the +side door, and cut across the shrubbery to meet him at the gate. Oh, +Norah, quick! It is your last chance! Think! You may never see him +again!" + +The last words put an end to any hesitation which Norah may have felt. +Lettice held the door open, and she rushed out into the drizzling rain, +hatless, cloakless, as she was, forgetting everything but that awful +suggestion that she might never see Rex again. Down the narrow path, +where a few weeks before she and Rex had first discussed the journey to +India; across the plot of grass where Geraldine had her garden, and +there, at the opening into the carriage drive, stood Rex himself, +staring before him with a strained, expectant glance, which gave way to +a flash of joy as Norah's tall figure came in sight. + +"I thought you would come! I thought you would not let me go away +without a word!" he said, and Norah gave a little sob of emotion. + +"What can I say? You know all I feel. I shall think of you all the +time, and wish you good luck; and every night when I say my prayers--" + +"I know! Thank you, Norah." Rex turned his head aside quickly, but +Norah saw that he was trembling with emotion, and waited in awed +suspense for his next words. + +"Norah--it is a long time--three years--five years--I can't tell which +it may be. I shall think of you all the time. There never will be +anyone else for me; but it will be different with you. You will meet +new friends up in London. There will be other fellows--better than I +am--who will care for you too. Perhaps when I come back you may be +married too!" + +"No, Rex, don't be afraid. I am not like that. I never forget." + +He gripped her hand, but made no answer, and they stood together in a +silence which was sweet to both, despite the rain, the gloom, the coming +separation. Norah was the first to find her voice. + +"You will write home often; and we will send you all the news. The time +will soon pass, and you will enjoy the life and the strange new +country." She looked into his face with a flickering smile. ... "They +say there's bread and work for all, and the sun shines always there..." + +"But I'll not forget you, _darling_, be it fifty times as fair!" came +the answer, in a strained, hoarse whisper. Poor, shy Rex! Even at the +moment of parting it was agony to him to speak that word of endearment, +and having said it, he was consumed with embarrassment. Norah was still +tingling with delight, when her hand was seized in a painful grip, a +gruff "Good-bye, Norah!" sounded in her ears, and she was left alone in +the garden path. + +She put up her hands to her face and sobbed in helpless misery. + +"Oh, Rex, Rex! Five long, long years! Oh, God, be good to my boy--take +care of him! Bring him back safe and well!" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. + +A CONFESSION. + +"And so you are engaged too, Norah!" + +Half an hour had passed since Rex had left Cloudsdale, and Lettice and +Norah wore seated in the bedroom which they shared together, Norah still +trembling and tearful, Lettice full of wide-eyed interest. + +"And so you are engaged too!" + +"No, not engaged. There is nothing definite, but I know that he cares +for me, and I have promised to wait--" + +"It's the same thing, but--five years! It is a terribly long time! So +much may happen before then. You may change your mind!" + +"No! I can't explain, but I simply could not think of anyone else while +Rex was alive. It would be all the same if it were fifteen years. You +need not pity me, Lettice. I shall keep house for father after you and +Hilary are married, and I shall be quite happy. I don't think anything +could make me unhappy again, now that I know Rex cares for me, and that +when he comes back--" Norah stopped short, and Lettice drew in her +breath with a painful respiration. + +"Oh, Norie, I envy you! I wish I felt like that. I could never, never +marry Arthur if I had to go out to India, and leave you all behind. +Even now-- Norah! if I speak out to you, will you keep it to yourself? +Will you promise faithfully not to repeat a word to father or Hilary, or +anyone else? Will you? Answer, Norah, yes or no!" + +"I--I--yes, I promise, Lettice, if you wish it, but wouldn't it be +better--" + +"No! no! I can speak to no one else, and not even to you unless you +promise not to repeat a single word. Sometimes I am so miserable! I +never intended to marry Arthur--never for a moment; but he was very nice +to me--and I know you will be shocked, Norah, but I wanted him to go on +being attentive, and sometimes I did pretend I liked him a little bit, +when he seemed discouraged, or as if he were beginning to care less than +he used. Then that day on the river he asked me to marry him, and I +said No! I was horrified at the idea, and I tried to refuse him, I +really did, but he looked so miserable--I couldn't bear to see him. I +was quite happy for a little time after that, and when he was away I +longed for him to come back; but since then father and Miss Carr have +been so cross; there have been such worries with the house, and workmen, +and dressmakers, that I have felt sometimes as if I would give the world +to run away and hide, and never see any of them again!" + +Norah sat motionless, gazing at her sister in horrified silence. Her +heart beat in quick, painful throbs--even Rex himself was forgotten in +the shock of hearing her worst fears confirmed in Lettice's own words. +Unhappy! within three weeks of her marriage, with presents arriving by +every post, the wedding breakfast ordered, the guests bidden to the +church! It was some time before she could command her voice +sufficiently to speak. + +"But--Lettice! If you were happy at first, perhaps you are only +miserable now because you are tired and overdone. I think even if I +were going to marry Rex, I should feel sad the last few weeks when I +thought of leaving father and the old home, and all the rest of you. It +seems only natural. It would be rather heartless if one felt +differently." + +"Do you think so, Norah--do you?" queried Lettice eagerly. "Oh, I am so +glad to hear you say that! I have said so to myself over and over +again, but I thought I ought to be happy. I have been so wretched. +That night when you thought I had toothache--" + +"I know. But I was afraid it was that. But, Lettice, if you are not +satisfied it is not too late even now. You could tell Mr Newcome." + +But Lettice gave a shriek of dismay. "Oh, never, never! I daren't even +think of it, Norah. The house is ready--all the furniture--my dresses-- +the wedding presents! I could never, never break it off. Poor Arthur +would be broken-hearted, too, and his mother would be so angry; she +would never let Madge speak to me again. Oh, no! I feel better already +for talking to you. I get nervous, and imagine things that are not +true. I shall be very happy--of course I shall be happy. Arthur is so +kind--and the house is so pretty. Don't look so miserable, Norah dear; +indeed, indeed, I shall be all right." + +"I hope so; but, Lettice, do think well over it while there is time. It +would be terrible to have to break off your engagement now; but, at the +worst, all the gossip and upset would be over in two or three months, +and if you married it would be for your whole life. Father would be +angry, but I would help you. I would stay with you, Lettice, and help +you every minute of the time." + +"I know you would, I know you would." Lettice spoke in a quick, +breathless whisper; her eyes were fixed as if she were a prisoner +looking through the barred window and trying to summon up courage to +escape--then a shudder shook the slight shoulders, and she jumped up, +holding out her hands with a gesture of dismay. + +"Oh no, no! Don't talk of anything so dreadful. Arthur is coming on +Saturday, and I shall be quite happy. I am dull because I have not seen +him for so long, but you will see how bright I am when he is here! I +was very weak and foolish to speak as I did, but I can trust you, Norah. +You have promised not to tell." + +"Yes, I have promised." Poor Norah was only too willing to be +convinced, and surely what Lettice said was reasonable enough. She +would wait, at any rate, until Saturday before making any further +attempt to persuade her sister to a step which must bring so much +suffering and humiliation in its train. + +Two days later the bridegroom arrived. Lettice went to the station to +meet him. A very handsome couple they looked as they drove up to the +door, Mr Newcome immaculate as ever despite the long, dusty journey, +and so large and impressive, that Norah was quite embarrassed by the +suggestion that she should address him as "Arthur." Lettice was all +smiles and radiance, much delighted with a necklace of turquoise and +diamonds which her lover had brought as his wedding present, and which +she exhibited proudly to every member of the household. + +Father, brothers and sisters were alike so relieved to see her happiness +that they were prepared to welcome Arthur Newcome with open arms, and to +acknowledge that their prejudices were unfounded. They listened with +smiling faces to his tedious description of his journey north, of +previous journeys, or journeys still to come; they tried to show an +interest in the items of stale information which he offered in words of +studied length and elegance, and with the air of imparting a startling +novelty; but alas! it was all in vain. After three days' experience, +the unanimous verdict proclaimed that such a well-behaved and withal +tiresome and prosy young gentleman had never before worn frock coats, or +walked about country lanes in a tall hat and immaculate kid gloves. + +"He must be different with Lettice. She could never endure it if he +bored her as much as he does us," reiterated Hilary firmly, upon which +Raymond's eyes twinkled with mischievous intentions. + +"Well--do you know, I should like to feel certain about that!" he said, +and forthwith strolled out into the garden through the open doorway. + +Lettice and Arthur Newcome were pacing their favourite walk, the narrow +shrubbery path which encircled the lawn, and at intervals of every three +or four minutes the two figures came into sight as the path opened to +drive and tennis ground. Master Raymond strolled across to the first of +these openings, leant nonchalantly against a tree, and waited the +approach of footsteps. They came--a strong, steady crunching of the +gravel, a pattering of quick, uneven little steps, and the sound of a +deep bass voice struck on the ear. + +"...And further on, in the transept aisle, I came upon a particularly +heavy and unattractive cenotaph to the memory of--" + +Raymond gasped, and rolled his eyes; then, as the footsteps died away, +he sped lightly across the lawn, and ensconced himself at the next point +of vantage. The boom of Mr Newcome's big voice came again to his ear. +Poor little Lettice was evidently a good listener! + +"...The epitaph is in the inflated style of the period--bombastic in +character, and supposed to be written by--" + +"Bombastic!" echoed Raymond in despair. "I know someone else to whom +that epithet would apply uncommonly well. This is worse than I +expected! I'll give him one more chance, and then--" But at the third +hearing Mr Newcome was discoursing on "allegorical figures and pseudo- +classic statues," whereupon Raymond dashed off into the house and +horrified his sisters by an account of his experiences. + +"What a shame to listen like that! Lettice would be furious if she +knew." + +"It was for her own good. Poor little soul! I'm sorry for her. What +on earth made him choose tombstones as a topic of conversation." + +"I know. He has been staying in Canterbury. Lettice told me that he +had written to her about the Cathedral," said Norah dolefully. "I +wonder if I ought to go and join them! She asked me, and pinched my arm +to make me say yes, but I thought Arthur looked as if he didn't want me. +Can't we make an excuse and call her in? She looks _so_ tired." + +"Well, they are the funniest pair of lovers I have ever seen!" said +Raymond, nodding his head with a knowing look, as if he had had an +extensive knowledge of engaged couples, whereas he had never been in the +house with one before. And just at that moment in marched Lettice, her +fair face disfigured by a weary, irritable expression. + +"I think you are all very unkind! I asked you to come into the garden. +It's very mean to leave me all alone, when I have only a f-f-fortnight +more at home!" The last word in a burst of tears, and she ran hurriedly +upstairs to her own room. + +What was to be the end of it all? Her sisters stared at each other with +wide, frightened eyes, too miserable and uneasy to speak. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. + +BEFORE THE WEDDING. + +A week before the wedding Miss Carr came down from London, and with her +came also Mr Herbert Rayner, who had paid frequent visits to +Westmoreland during the last few years, and was now regarded as a family +friend who could not be spared on such an historical occasion. His +lameness was not any better for the lapse of time, but Hilary's +exhortations had taken effect, for he was much less sensitive about his +inability to do as the other men did, while as for the rest, he had +every reason to be cheerful nowadays, for his writings were so highly +praised that Mr Bertrand affected jealousy, and declared that his own +sun was eclipsed. There was a very warm friendship between the two men; +both declared that they gained inspiration from the other, and Raymond +dubbed them "The Mutual Admiration Society," because Mr Bertrand was +wont to declare that Rayner was an infinitely finer writer than himself, +while Mr Rayner in his turn despaired of accomplishing anything fit to +compare with the work of his friend. + +With Miss Carr arrived a cart-load of boxes containing bride and +bridesmaids' dresses, feathers and furbelows of all descriptions, and a +number of presents from acquaintances in London. + +The other girls were full of excitement over the opening of these +treasures, but Lettice herself was silent and indifferent, and hardly +troubled herself to look at the beautiful gifts which were showered upon +her. She excused herself on the plea of a chronic head-ache, and lay +half the day on a sofa in the schoolroom, while Miss Briggs fed her with +beef-tea, and fussed over her in kindly, motherly fashion. Everyone +petted her and treated her with consideration, but no one said a word to +suggest that she was unhappy in the thought of the coming marriage. It +was too late for that; she had determined to keep to her engagement, and +it was only natural to account for her indisposition on the ground of +excitement and fatigue. Circumstances combined, moreover, to keep +Lettice a good deal apart from the others during these last busy days. +Miss Carr's maid was employed making the alterations which were +requisite in the dresses from London, so that Lettice was continually +being summoned to the sewing-room, and when she was not being "tried on" +she had many letters to write acknowledging the gifts which arrived in +such numbers. + +Hilary was too busy to have any time for confidential talks, and when +Norah had a moment's leisure, her thoughts were far away from +Westmoreland, journeying over foreign lands with a certain tall young +Englishman with grey eyes and a crop of close-cut, curly hair. Even +Lettice herself was apt to be forgotten in this all-absorbing +occupation! + +The Newcome contingent, and those London friends who were to accompany +them, were to come down on the day before the wedding, and to put up at +an hotel in Windermere, and every day brought with it a host of +preparations which kept the little mistress of the house busy from +morning until night. + +Hilary showed to advantage under these circumstances. Always brisk, +alert and smiling, never worried or unduly anxious, she shared a good +deal of Rex's boasted "gift of management," and contrived to keep the +house comfortable for the visitors, despite the general disarrangement, +and the everlasting arrival of packing-chests and boxes. Hampers of +flowers, hampers of fruit, crates of china and glass, rolls of red +baize, boxes containing wedding-cake, confectionery, dresses, presents-- +in they came, one after another, in an unending stream, until to get +across from the front door into the dining-room was like running the +blockade, and wisps of straw were scattered all over the house. Norah +and Hilary swathed themselves in big white aprons and unpacked from +morning till night: a more interesting task than it sounds, for the +boxes were full of pleasant surprises, and Mr Rayner, Raymond, and +their father played the part of "dress circle," and kept everyone +laughing with their merry sallies. It was a cheery, bustling time, for +everyone was in good spirits and prepared to enjoy the happy-go-lucky, +picnic life. Lunch and dinner were movable feasts, held either in +dining- or morning-room, or in the garden itself, as proved most +convenient, and when afternoon tea was served three days before the +wedding, the cups were scattered about on the top of packing-chests in +the hall, the cake basket hung on the hat rail, and the teapot was +thrust out of reach of harm beneath the oak bench. Lettice was lying +down upstairs, but all the rest of the household were gathered together, +the visitors provided with chairs in honour of their position, Norah +seated on the stairs, Raymond straddle-leg over the banister, Mr +Bertrand and Geraldine lowly on buffets, while Hilary was perched on the +top of a huge packing chest, enveloped in a pink "pinafore," and looking +all the prettier because her brown hair was ruffled a little out of its +usual immaculate order. + +"I wish we could have tea like this every day!" cried the Mouse, drawing +a long breath of enjoyment. "May we have it like this every day, +father, instead of properly in the drawing-room?" + +"Ah, Mouse, I see you are a Bohemian at heart, for all your quiet ways! +I agree with you, my dear, that it would be quite delightful, but the +difficulty is that we could not persuade people to shower presents and +hampers upon us in the ordinary course of events. It takes a wedding, +or some celebration of the kind, to start such a flood of generosity." + +"Well, may we have tea like this when Hilary is married?" insisted +Geraldine, with a gravity which caused a hearty laugh. + +"Ask Hilary, my dear!" said Mr Bertrand mischievously; and Hilary +tossed her head and said that one wedding was enough at the time--she +had no strength to think of two. + +"Indeed, my dear, I wonder you are not laid up as it is," said Miss Carr +kindly. "You are on your feet from morning till night, and everyone +comes to you for directions; I am afraid you will break down when the +excitement is over. There is generally a collapse on these occasions. +Have you any idea what you are all going to do after the young couple +have departed?" + +"Get the house in order, and go to bed for a week," said Hilary +brightly, flushing with pleasure at Miss Carr's words of praise, and at +the murmur of assent which they had evoked from her companions; but it +appeared that other people were more energetically inclined than +herself, for both Miss Briggs and Raymond seized the opportunity to air +secret plans of their own. + +"I wanted to speak to you about that, Mr Bertrand! My sister in +Scarborough is most anxious that I should pay her a visit, and take +Geraldine with me, and I think the sea air would do us both good." + +"And I should like to have some shooting with Ferrars in Scotland. He +has asked me so often, and I could just fit it in this year." + +Mr Bertrand looked at his two daughters--at Hilary, bright and natty, +but with shadows under her eyes which spoke of the fatigue she would not +acknowledge; then, with an anxious tenderness at Norah, whose unusual +quietness for the last few days he understood better than she suspected. + +"Really," he said, "if all the world is going off pleasuring, I don't +see any reason why we should be left behind! What do you say, girls-- +shall we go off for a tour on our own account? I think we deserve a +holiday after our hard work and a run on the Continent would do us all +good. Helen, what do you say? Will you come and take care of the +girls? Rayner, I can't tackle three ladies unassisted. You had better +join us, and take care of me!" + +"I should certainly not leave the girls to your tender mercies, you +scatter-brained man," said Miss Carr, smiling, as though well pleased at +the suggestion. "You might forget all about them, as as you did on +another memorable occasion, and the consequences would be disastrous. +Yes!--if you take plenty of time, and don't rush about from place to +place, I should be glad of a change myself. This wedding--" + +"It is too good of you to include me. Wouldn't I like it!" cried Mr +Rayner, with a smile which made him look quite young and boyish. +"September is lovely in Switzerland. The rush of tourists is over, and +the autumn tints are wonderful. But we ought to get off as soon as +possible. You will have to give up your week in bed, Miss Hilary!" + +"I may as well give up bed altogether, I think, for I shall not sleep a +wink for thinking of it. Oh, father dear, you are good! I drink to +you!" And Hilary held up her teacup, bowing and smiling, and looking so +bright and pretty that it was a pleasure to see her. + +Well, it was a happy hour, and the memory of it remained all the more +vividly because of the contrast which it afforded to the dark days which +followed. At twelve o'clock the same evening, Mr Bertrand took up his +candle and went the usual tour of inspection through the house. He +peered into the drawing-room, fragrant with plants and cut blossoms, +into the dining-room, where the village carpenters were already putting +up the horse-shoe table; into the pantry, where the more valuable +presents were locked away in the great iron safe. All was quiet and +secure. He returned to his study, and was just settling down for a +quiet read, when the sound of footsteps smote on his ear. He opened the +door, and started back at the sight of a white figure which came +floating towards him, with flowing locks and outstretched hands. + +"What is it?--who is it? What is the matter?--_Lettice_!" + +The next moment two arms were clasped round his neck; he felt the +heaving of breathless sobs, and an agonised voice called on him by +name-- + +"Oh, father, father! save me! save me! I can't go on! I can't marry +him! My heart will break--!" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. + +BROKEN PLANS. + +The light was still dim the next morning when Hilary woke with a start +to find her father standing by her bedside. Even in the first sleepy +glance she was struck by the pale distress of his face, and sat up +hurriedly, pushing back the hair from her face, and murmuring a confused +"What--what--what?" + +"My dear, I am sorry to disturb you, but I need your help." Mr +Bertrand seated himself on the edge of the bed, and took the girl's +hands in his. "Hilary, a great trouble has come upon us. Lettice +wishes to break off her engagement. She cannot bear the idea of +marrying Arthur Newcome. There will be no wedding on Thursday as we +expected." + +Hilary stared at him with dazed eyes. Her awakening from sleep had been +so sudden, and the news was so overwhelming, that it was some moments +before she could grasp its full meaning. + +No wedding! But the preparations were made--everything was ready. It +could not be stopped at the very last moment. She drew in her breath +with a quick, frightened respiration: + +"Oh, father! is it true? Is she _sure_? Does she really mean it?" + +"I am afraid there is no doubt about that, Hilary. Now that she has +summoned up courage to speak, she acknowledges that she has been unhappy +all along. She is in great distress, as is only natural. Norah is with +her. I put off disturbing you as long as I could, for you have had too +much fatigue lately, but I need your help, dear. You must get up at +once. We have some painful duties before us." + +"Oh, father--Arthur! What will he--how will you--?" + +Mr Bertrand drew a sharp sigh. "I have wired to him to stop all +preparations, and come down himself by the early train. He will be here +this afternoon. Poor fellow! he has been cruelly used. I am bitterly +ashamed. I have told Mary to bring you up a breakfast tray at once, and +here she comes; so eat as much as you can before you get up, and then +come to me in my study. Be brave! Remember I rely on your help!" + +"Yes, father," said Hilary tremblingly; and the next moment Mary entered +the room, her rosy face awed and frightened, her ready tongue silenced +by the seriousness of the situation. + +That breakfast seemed like a hideous nightmare to Hilary. Every moment +brought a fresh pang of recollection. In every direction in which her +eyes glanced, they lighted upon some object which accentuated her +misery--the long dress box, in which the bridesmaids' finery lay ready +for use; the pile of letters on the table; the hundred and one etceteras +of preparation. Could it be possible that they were all for nothing-- +that she must now set to work to undo the labour of weeks? And the +misery of it all! the humiliation--the dreadful, dreadful publicity! +Hilary leapt out of bed in despair, unable to remain idle any longer, +dressed with feverish rapidity, and ran downstairs to join her father. +As she reached the foot of the staircase, Mr Rayner came forward to +meet her. Their hands met in a close, sympathetic grasp, but neither +spoke during the moment that it lasted. Then came the sound of a heavy +footstep on the tiled floor, and the village joiner crossed the hall on +his way to complete the erection of the tables in the dining-room. He +touched his cap to Hilary as he passed, and the girl drew back, growing +pale to her lips. + +"Oh, he must be stopped! I can't do it. It is too dreadful!" + +"Leave it to me. It's so seldom I can do anything--do let me help you +now. Go to your father, and leave all this to me." He led her forward, +unresisting, to the study, where her father greeted her with an +exclamation of relief. + +"Ah, here you are, dear! Sit down. We must get to work at once on this +wretched business. I have sent off notes already to the vicar and the +curate, who will stop preparations at the church; the domestic +arrangements I must leave to you; and there will be notes to write to +all invited guests. Rayner will help, and Raymond also. I will draw up +a form which you can copy, but the letters must go off by the afternoon +post, so the sooner they are written the better. Newcome will be with +us before many hours are over--" + +He broke off with a sigh, which Hilary echoed from the depths of an +aching heart. + +"I will go at once and speak to the servants. I will set them to work +to put the house in order, and hide all the preparations out of sight, +and then come back here, and get the writing done first of all." + +"That's my good girl!" said her father warmly; and they kissed each +other with sympathetic affection. + +Poor Hilary! She had need of all her courage to enable her to go +through that morning's work. The servants received her orders with +tears of distress and disappointment Norah came stealing out of the room +with the news that Lettice had cried all night long, could not be +induced to eat, and lay on her bed icy cold and trembling as if with an +ague. Miss Carr was too much upset to be able to leave her bed, and +Geraldine's straightforward questions were for once agonising to the +listeners. + +"Has Lettice been naughty?" she inquired. "Has Mr Newcome been +naughty? Will she never wear her pretty dresses? Shall I never wear my +dress? What shall we do with all the presents? Shall we have to send +back the cake?" + +"Oh, Mouse, be quiet, for pity's sake!" cried Hilary in desperation. +"If you ask any more questions you must go to bed. It's very naughty +and unkind;" at which unexpected reproof Geraldine's eyes filled with +tears. + +"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Hilary; I only thought if you +didn't want it, perhaps Miss Briggs's sister in Scarborough might like +some cake--" + +"Come along with me, Mouse, and I'll give you a swing in the garden," +said Mr Rayner, coming to the rescue for the twentieth time. His +presence was a comfort to every member of the household, and Hilary +could never think of that dreadful morning without recalling the quiet, +unobtrusive way in which he watched over her, and shielded her from +every possible aggravation. When afternoon came, he insisted upon +taking her to a quiet little coppice near the gates, so that she should +not be in the house at the time of Arthur Newcome's visit; but from +their seat among the trees they heard the sound of wheels as the fly +turned down the drive, and knew that the dreaded interview was at hand. + +"Lettice begged and prayed not to see him, father says, but he insisted +that she should go down. He said it was only due to Arthur. Fancy what +it must be to the poor, poor fellow, to lose her at the last moment, and +to have to go back to London and explain everything to his friends--when +the house is ready, and all preparations made. I feel so angry and +humiliated that I can't be sorry for Lettice. She deserves all she +suffers!" + +Mr Rayner did not answer; and they sat in silence for five or ten +minutes, at the expiration of which Hilary stole a glance at his face, +and ventured a timid question. + +"Are _you_ sorry?" + +"Sorry for your sister? Yes--intensely sorry!" + +"You think I am hard--unsympathetic?" + +"I think you are hardly in a fit state to understand your own feelings +to-day. It has been a great strain, and you have kept up bravely and +well." + +Hilary's lip trembled, and she covered her face with her hands. "Oh, I +don't want to be hard, but it does seem so dreadful! She had a whole +month to think over it--and then to bring all this misery upon him at +the last moment. I feel _ashamed_! Surely, surely, it is easy to know +whether one cares or not. If I were engaged--" + +"Yes?" + +"Oh, I don't know--I should never, never promise to marry anyone unless +I loved him with my whole heart; but when I did, I'd stick to him if the +whole world were against us." + +"I believe you would." Mr Rayner hesitated at the end of these words +as if he were about to say something further, but the hesitation ended +in silence, and presently Hilary leapt to her feet and began to pace up +and down. + +"Oh, let us walk about. I can't sit still. I am too nervous. If we go +along this path we shall not meet anybody, and it will pass the time. I +can't bear to think of what is going on inside the house." So for the +next hour they walked up and down trying in vain to talk upon outside +topics, and coming back again and again to the same painful theme. At +last the sound of wheels came to their ears again. The fly could be +seen wending its way down the country lane, and Hilary lost no time in +running home to rejoin her father in his study. + +He was standing with his arms resting upon the mantelpiece, his head +buried in his hands, and when he turned to meet her, it struck the girl +with a stab of pain that for the first time he looked old--an old man, +tired and worn with the battle of life. + +"Well?" she gasped; and he answered with a long-drawn sigh. + +"Well--it is over! The most painful scene I have ever gone through in +my life. He wouldn't believe me, poor fellow! Then Lettice came in. +He looked at her, and--the light died out of his face. It was very +pitiful. He was brave and manly; would not blame her, or hear her +blamed. I admired him more than I could have believed possible. He +said very little. Stricken to the heart, poor fellow, and I could do +nothing for him! He has gone back to town to stop preparations. I +would have given my right hand to help him." + +"Father dear! You look so ill! It has been too much strain. What can +I do for you now? Let me do something!" + +"Send in Rayner to have a smoke with me. How thankful I am that he is +here. He is a comfort and strength to us all!" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. + +THE SUNNY CLIMES. + +The sun was shining over the lake of Thun, and the little steamer was +puffing cheerily through the water. Behind lay the picturesque town, +with its rushing river, and quaint, old-world buildings; in front lay-- +ah! what a scene of beauty and grandeur! Surely, it were worth while to +travel from the ends of the earth to see this marvellous sight. The +blue waters, fringed with brilliant foliage; the trees in their autumn +glory, the rowan-berries making patches of scarlet here and there, the +solemn pines capping the mountain height, and at the head of the lake-- +beautiful, dazzling, majestic--the snow-clad range of Eiger, Monck, and +Jungfrau. + +In all the beautiful world there can be few spots so beautiful as the +lake of Thun, as seen upon a glorious September afternoon! + +The passengers on board the steamer displayed a special interest in an +English party who walked up and down the deck. A father and three +daughters; an elderly lady whose relationship it was difficult to guess, +and a young man with a clever, sensitive face, who managed his crutches +with marvellous agility, and who was obviously neither husband nor +brother. The girls themselves received a full share of admiration from +the French and German visitors who are in the majority in Switzerland in +autumn. The eldest was so neat and dainty, with her pretty English +complexion and trim little figure; the tall, dark girl was _spirituelle_ +and uncommon; while the third had an air _tres chic_, and would have +been quite _ravissante_ if she had been a trifle less pale and +_serieuse_, but even the surprising beauty of the scene seemed powerless +to bring a smile to her face. + +It was chiefly owing to Mr Rayner's persuasion that Mr Bertrand had +left Westmoreland on the very day after that fixed for his daughter's +marriage. The painful duty of returning the wedding presents had been +accomplished, and it was so distressing to all concerned to remain in a +place where they felt themselves to be the subject of continual gossip, +that they were thankful to get away to fresh surroundings. They had +travelled straight through to Thun, engaging sleeping-carriages in +advance, and had been ensconced for over a week in the hotel on the +shores of the lake, taking daily excursions, and resting beneath the +broad verandah, while, by common consent, no reference was made to the +painful events of the past week. + +"If we are going away, we must try to get as much good as we can from +the change. What is past, is past. There is no use fretting over it +any longer," Mr Bertrand had said; and Hilary found so little +difficulty in following his advice and being radiantly happy, that she +felt a pang of remorse when suddenly confronted by Lettice's pale face, +and reminded thereby of her sadness and Arthur Newcome's suffering. + +Lettice had ceased to cry, but she was very silent, and her eyes wore a +strained, frightened look which it was sad to see in so young a face. +Everyone was studiedly kind to her, but Lettice was sensitive enough to +feel the effort which lay behind the kindness. Norah alone was just as +loving and whole-hearted as ever. Dear Norah! she had been shocked and +distressed beyond measure, but how loyally she had kept her promise to +help "every moment of the time"! During those two first awful days, +what a comfort it had been to have her near; to clutch that strong, +faithful hand when the others came into the room, and looked on from +afar with cold, sad eyes! Norah was the same, but all the rest had +changed. They had been grieved, shocked, humiliated by her behaviour, +and though she was nominally forgiven, the chill ring of disapproval +sounded in every word they spoke, and Lettice faded like a flower +deprived of light and sunshine. Instead of gaining strength by the +change she grew every day paler, thinner, and more ghost-like, until at +last her father became alarmed, and questioned her closely as to her +health. + +"Does your head ache, Lettice?" + +"No, father." + +"Do you sleep well at night?" + +"I think--sometimes I do, father. Pretty well." + +"Have you any pain?" + +Lettice raised her eyes and looked at him--a look such as a wounded stag +might cast at its executioner. She trembled like a leaf, and clasped +her hands round his arm in an agony of appeal. + +"Oh, father, father! I am _all_ pain. I think of it day and night--it +never leaves me. I think I shall see it before me all my life." + +"See what, Lettice? What do you mean?" + +"_His face_!" quivered Lettice, and was silent. Mr Bertrand knew that +she was referring to the stricken look with which Arthur Newcome had +left the room where he had received the deathblow to his hopes, and the +remembrance brought a cloud across his own face. + +"Ay! I don't wonder at that; but it will only add to our trouble, +Lettice, if you fell ill--and we have had enough anxiety." + +He was conscious of not being very sympathetic, but his feeling was so +strong on the subject that he could not control his words, and when +Lettice spoke again it was with no reference to herself. + +"Father, do you think he will ever--forget?--get over it?" + +Mr Bertrand hesitated. "With most young men I should have said +unhesitatingly--yes! but I think Arthur Newcome will probably remember +longer than most, though I sincerely hope he will recover in time. But +at the best, Lettice, you have caused him bitter pain and humiliation, +and, what is worse, have shaken his faith in women for the rest of his +life." + +Lettice gave a little cry of pain. "Oh, father! I want to talk to you. +I want to tell you how I feel, but I can't, while you speak in that +hard, dry voice! Don't you see--don't you see that you are all killing +me with your coldness? I have made you miserable, and have been weak, +and foolish, and vain; but, father, father! I have not base wicked, and +I have suffered most of all! Why do you break my heart by treating me +like a stranger, and freezing me by your cruel, cruel kindness? You are +my father--if I have done wrong, won't you help me to be better in the +future? It isn't as if I were careless of what I have done. You see-- +you _see_ how I suffer!" And she held out her arms with a gesture so +wild and heart-broken that her father was startled, and caught her to +him with one of his old, fond gestures. + +"My poor child! My little Lettice! Heaven knows I have not intended to +be cruel to you, dear, but I have been so worried and distressed that I +have hardly known what I was about. You must forgive me, dear, and I +will help you in every way I can. I do indeed see that you are +miserable, poor child; but that I cannot help. It is only right that +you should realise--" + +"Father, I don't think you or anyone else can tell how intensely I feel +it all. You know I have been a coward all my life--afraid to grieve +anyone, always trying to avoid disagreeable things; and now to feel that +I have ruined Arthur's life and wrecked his happiness, goes through my +heart like a knife. And his poor, poor face! Father, I am too +miserable and ashamed to be sure of anything, but I do believe this will +be a lesson to me all my life. I can never, never be so cruel again! I +will never marry now, but I will try to be a comfort to you, father +dear, and do everything I can to make up for the misery I have caused-- +only do, do love me a little bit. Don't everybody stop loving me!" + +Mr Bertrand smiled to himself as he stroked the girl's soft hair. +Small fear that he or anyone else would cease caring for lovely, lovable +Lettice; but all the same, his smile was more sad than bright. + +"I shall always love you, dear," he said; "but, Lettice, try to think +less of people's love for you, and more of your own love for them. That +is the secret of happiness! This constant craving to receive love is +not far removed from selfishness, when you go down to the root of +things. Try to think of other people first--" + +"I will, father--I really will; but don't lecture me to-day, plea-se! I +feel so low and wretched that I can't stand anything more. I am not-- +all--all--altogether bad, am I?" + +Mr Bertrand laughed despite himself. "No, indeed. Very well, then--no +more lectures. We understand each other now, and there are to be no +more clouds between us. Off with you into the hotel! Put on your hat +and cloak, and we will go for a row on the lake before lunch." + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. + +A GLAD SURPRISE. + +The weather continued so warm and sunny that Mr Bertrand and his party +lingered in Thun, day after day, enjoying the Indian summer, and loath +to tear themselves away from the lovely surroundings. Lettice remained +silent and subdued, but there was no longer any coldness between her and +her companions, and her face had lost the strained, despairing +expression which had been so painful to behold. The news from London, +moreover, was as satisfactory as could be hoped for under the +circumstances. A friend of Arthur Newcome's, who was also engaged to be +married, had come forward and offered to take the house and furniture at +a valuation, while his father had recalled his business manager in +America and was sending Arthur to take his place for the next two or +three years. Everyone felt that the change would be the best cure which +the poor fellow could have, while it was an immense relief to know that +there would be no danger of painful encounters in London. Even with +this dread removed, Mr Bertrand was in ten minds about his plans for +the coming winter. There seemed many reasons why it would be better to +remain quietly in Westmoreland for another year. He puzzled over the +question in private, and finally confided his difficulty to Mr Rayner, +with startling and unexpected results. + +"You see, the boys could go on as they are for some time to come; Norah +is not over anxious for the change, and I cannot say I am willing to let +Lettice go much into society just now. She is so very lovely that she +is bound to attract attention, and after this painful business it would +be in better taste to keep out of the way until it is forgotten. All +things considered, I think I should be wise to give up the idea of +coming to town until next winter." + +Mr Rayner's face had clouded over while his friend was speaking, and +his answer came in dry, irritated tones. + +"When you say, `all things considered,' you forget, of course, that you +have entirely overlooked Miss Hilary's feelings in the matter. As your +eldest daughter, I should have thought that her wishes might have been +consulted; but it appears that all the others are put before her!" + +"Hallo, what's this? And pray when did you constitute yourself Hilary's +champion?" cried Mr Bertrand, turning round in his seat with a laugh, +and an amused expression on his face, which gave place to one of +blankest astonishment as he met the flash in his companion's eyes, and +heard the firm tone of the answer-- + +"How long ago? I don't know! But I _am_ her champion, now and for +ever, if she will have me!" + +"Rayner! What is this? You cannot possibly be in earnest?" + +Herbert Rayner laughed shortly. No one could look at him for a moment +and doubt that he was deeply in earnest, but there was a bitter ring in +his laughter which showed that he misunderstood the reason of his +friend's surprise. + +"I don't wonder that you are astonished! A fine lover I am--am I not, +to dare to aspire to a bright young girl?" + +"My dear fellow, you misunderstood me. I know to what you refer, but +that never even entered my mind. What I can't realise is that you can +possibly entertain any feeling of the kind for Hilary. You! If I ever +thought of your possible marriage it was always with some clever, +charming woman of the world who would help you with your work, and enter +into your plans. Hilary is a mere girl. She has no special ability of +any kind--" + +"No?" + +"Not the slightest literary gift!" + +"No." + +"Absolutely ignorant of your world." + +"Yes." + +"You are ten years older than she is." + +"Yes." + +"Well--well--well--" + +"Well, Bertrand, we can't argue about these things. There it is, and I +can't account for it. I want Hilary, and I don't want the `clever, +charming woman.' She satisfies me, and--" + +"Have you spoken to her?" + +"Certainly not! I don't know that I should have ever summoned up +courage to speak to you, if you had not taken me by surprise. It would +be different if I were now as I was ten years ago, but I feared you +might think my health an insuperable objection." + +"No--no! I can't say that--if you have really set your heart on it. +How long has this been going on?" + +Mr Rayner smiled--a quick, whimsical smile, which was like a flash of +sunshine. + +"Well, you have heard the story of the scarlet slippers? That evening, +after you left, I went to look for them behind the curtains, and +smuggled them downstairs beneath my coat. I don't know what possessed +me to do it, but I did, and I have them still!" + +Mr Bertrand threw back his head with a burst of laughter. + +"Oh, after that! If you have got the length of treasuring worsted +slippers, there is no more to be said. Rayner, my dear fellow, I +suppose I ought to be distressed, but I believe I am--uncommonly pleased +and proud! Little Hilary! It would be delightful to feel that you were +one of us. And have you any idea as to whether she cares for you in +return?" + +"We have always been great friends. I cannot say more. And do you +really give me permission to speak to her? Would you give her to me, in +spite of my weakness and infirmity? How can I ever express my thanks?" + +"If Hilary cares for you, I will put no hindrance in your way; but we +must have no more mistakes. I will not allow an engagement until I have +satisfied myself as to her feelings. There is one comfort: she knows +her own mind uncommonly well, as a rule. You can speak to her when you +will..." + +Although the conversation lasted for some time longer, the same things +were practically repeated over and over again, and when the two +gentlemen came in to lunch, the girls and Miss Carr all noticed the +unusual radiance of their expressions. The last few weeks had contained +so much trouble and worry, that it was quite inspiriting to see bright +faces again, and to hear genuine laughter take the place of the forced +"ha, ha!" which had done duty for so long. Even Lettice smiled once or +twice in the course of that meal, and Norah's eyes lost their dreamy, +far-away look and twinkled with the old merry expression, while Hilary +nodded gaily across the table in answer to her father's searching look, +and chattered away all unsuspecting of the great event which was so +close at hand. + +When Mr Rayner asked her to take her work to the seat overlooking the +lake, in the afternoon, she said, "Won't you come too, Lettice?" and +tripped after him, humming a lively air. + +It was a very different Hilary who returned to the hotel two hours +later, and went to join her father on the verandah. Her face was pale +and serious; she looked older and more womanlike; but there was a steady +light of happiness in her eyes which told its own tale. + +"Well, Hilary," he asked gravely, "and what is it to be?" + +"There is no doubt about that, father! It is to be as he wants--now and +always!" + +"I thought as much. But you must realise what you are doing, dear. +When most girls are married they look forward to having a strong man's +arm between them and the world; they expect to be shielded from trouble; +but if you marry Rayner, this will not be your lot. You will have to +watch over him, to spare him fatigue and anxiety, and take the burden on +your own shoulders, for he is a man who will require constant care." + +"I know that. It is what I long to do. I should be so happy looking +after him." + +"And perhaps--it seems brutal to mention it, but the possibility must be +faced--he might not be spared to you for many years! A delicate fellow +like that--" + +"Strong men die unexpectedly, father, as well as weakly ones. Everyone +has to run that risk. I would rather be his wife even for two or three +years than marry any other man. And I will nurse him so well--take such +good care--" + +"Ah, I see your mind is made up! Well, dear, some people would think I +was doing a foolish thing in consenting to this engagement, but I _do_ +consent. I do more than that, I rejoice with all my heart in your +happiness, and in my own happiness, for it will be a joy to every one of +us. Rayner will be a son-in-law worth having, and a husband of whom any +woman might be proud. Ah, well! this is something like an engagement! +That other unhappy affair was nothing but trouble from first to last. +You know your mind, my dear, and are not likely to change." + +"Never!" said Hilary. And her eyes flashed with a bright, determined +look, at which her father smiled. + +"That's good hearing! Well, dear, we will have another talk later on, +but now we had better go and join the others. They are curious to know +what we are whispering about over here." + +Miss Carr had come out of the hotel after her afternoon nap, and was +seated on the verandah beside the two younger girls. Mr Rayner had +joined them, and was listening with mischievous enjoyment to their +speculations about Hilary's conference with her father. + +"How interested they seem! Now he is kissing her. Why don't they come +over here and tell us all about it?" cried Norah; and, as if anxious to +gratify her curiosity, Mr Bertrand came towards the verandah at that +very moment, and presenting Hilary to them with a flourishing hand, +cried roguishly-- + +"Allow me to introduce to you the future Mrs Herbert Rayner!" + +The excitement, joy, and astonishment of the next few minutes can be +better imagined than described. Miss Carr shed tears into her teacup; +the girls repeated incoherently that they had always expected it, and +that they had never expected it; and Mr Bertrand was as mischievous in +his teasing ways as Raymond himself could have been under the +circumstances; but the lovers were too happy to be disturbed by his +sallies. It was both beautiful and touching to see Mr Rayner's quiet +radiance, and to watch how his eyes lightened whenever they lit on +Hilary's face, while to see that self-possessed young lady looking shy +and embarrassed was something new indeed in the annals of the family! +Shy she was, however, beyond possibility of doubt, hardly daring to look +in Mr Rayner's direction, and refusing outright to address him by his +Christian name for the edification of the listeners. + +"What is there to be frightened at? I am not frightened! Herbert, do +you take sugar, Herbert? Will you have two lumps, Herbert?" cried +Lettice saucily, and everyone smiled, pleased to see the lovely face +lighted up by the old merry smile, and to hear a joke from the lips +which had drooped so sadly. + +"Will you put me in a story, Herbert, if I'm very good, and promise not +to tease?" said Norah, determined not to be outdone; and the new brother +looked at her with admiring eyes. + +"I think I rather enjoy being teased, do you know; it is so very new and +satisfactory! But I shall certainly make a heroine of you some fine +day, Norah, when I have manufactured a hero worthy of the occasion!" + +Norah's laugh rang out merrily, but as she turned her head to look at +the distant mountains, a little film of moisture dimmed her eyes. +Impossible to see two people so happy together as Herbert and Hilary, +and not think of the long years which must pass before such a joy came +to herself. But Rex was true--he would not change; he was worth all the +waiting-- + +"Well, Helen," said Mr Bertrand to his faithful old friend as the young +people moved off at last and left them alone together. "Well, Helen, +and what do you think of this latest development? Are you satisfied? +Have I been wise?--Do you think he is the right man for her?" + +Miss Carr looked at him with a little flash of disdain. + +"I think," she said slowly, "that Hilary has improved so wonderfully +during the last few years, that there is now some chance of her being +_almost_ good enough for him! My dear Austin, he is a king among men! +Hilary may be a proud woman that his choice has fallen upon her. They +will be very happy." + +"I trust, I think they will! It seems strange that it should be Hilary, +who was always so careful of her own interests, who should have chosen +to marry a delicate, crippled fellow who must be more or less of a care +all his days; but I believe it will make a splendid woman of her, draw +out all the tenderness of her nature, and soften her as nothing else +could have done. Yes! I am thoroughly happy about it, more especially +as it has the honour of your distinguished approval. These engagements +come thick and fast upon us, Helen. Let us hope there will be a +breathing time now for some time to come. Lettice is bound to marry +sooner or later, but we will pray for `later,' and as for Norah, I +suppose her future is practically settled. Poor child! it will be a +long waiting, but Rex is a fine lad, and is bound to succeed. He knows +his own mind, too, and will not be likely to change; while Norah--" + +"Yes, she is one of the steadfast ones, but she is only a child, Austin, +and will be none the worse for the time of waiting." + +"And I cannot regret it, since through it I shall be able to keep one of +my little lasses with me for some years at least. I shall be a lonely +man when they all take flight! ... Come, it is getting chilly. Let us +go into the house." + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Sisters Three, by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SISTERS THREE *** + +***** This file should be named 21103.txt or 21103.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/1/0/21103/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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