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diff --git a/21110.txt b/21110.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a782b41 --- /dev/null +++ b/21110.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10107 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A College Girl, 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: A College Girl + +Author: Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey + +Illustrator: W.H.C. Groome + +Release Date: April 16, 2007 [EBook #21110] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COLLEGE GIRL *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + + +A College Girl + +By Mrs George de Horne Vaizey +________________________________________________________________________ +Here is a book about the young girl and her awakening to the world by +this talented author. Darsie, the heroine, is selected by an old aunt +to come and spend a year or so as her companion. The old woman tries +to coach Darsie in matters of deportment and behaviour. This would be +pretty odious if it were not for the presence locally of a young family +of boys and girls of Darsie's age, whom, being rich and living rather +grandly, the aunt allows Darsie to know. The first half of the book +describes the times they had. The old aunt promises Darsie that she +will make available the funds needed for Darsie to go up to Cambridge +as a student at Newnham, a girls' college. + +When the second half of the book begins the old aunt has just died, and +Darsie feels glad that the poor old lady will be relieved of all her +pains. The years of studentship are well described, and the friends +that Darsie made come and go through the story. Finally we reach the +last exams. Darsie does quite well, but is not in the First Class. She +has a Second, which will be enough for her to be able to go and teach at +some less distinguished school. But her friend Dan, one of those whom +we met in the first half of the book, has obtained a First Class Honours +degree, and the book ends with him asking her to marry him. What he +doesn't know, and I suppose the author didn't either, is that young men +going to teach at a top-rate boys' school are expected to spend their +spare time coaching sports, and not to be married. In fact they would +be better to have achieved a "Blue" at Oxford or Cambridge than a good +degree. + +I have had to make a slightly strange and annoying change to the name of +one of the girls in the story. I changed Vi Vernon to Vie Vernon. The +reason was that otherwise the speech generator always read her name as +"Six Vernon". What we have now sounds correct, but if you read the book +you will see this mis-spelling two dozen times. My apologies for doing +this, but you will understand why I did it. + +It is a good read, and as always I recommend making an audiobook of it, +so that you can listen to it. NH +________________________________________________________________________ + +A COLLEGE GIRL + +BY MRS GEORGE DE HORNE VAIZEY + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +BOYS AND GIRLS. + +This is the tale of two terraces, of two families who lived therein, of +several boys and many girls, and especially of one Darsie, her +education, adventures, and ultimate romance. + +Darsie was the second daughter in a family of six, and by reason of her +upsetting nature had won for herself that privilege of priority which by +all approved traditions should have belonged to Clemence, the elder +sister. Clemence was serene and blonde; in virtue of her seventeen +years her pigtail was now worn doubled up, and her skirts had reached +the discreet level of her ankles. She had a soft pink and white face, +and a pretty red mouth, the lips of which permanently fell apart, +disclosing two small white teeth in the centre of the upper gum, because +of which peculiarity her affectionate family had bestowed upon her the +nickname of "Bunnie." Perhaps the cognomen had something to do with her +subordinate position. It was impossible to imagine any one with the +name of "Bunnie" queening it over that will-o'-the-wisp, that electric +flash, that tantalising, audacious creature who is the heroine of these +pages. + +Darsie at fifteen! How shall one describe her to the unfortunates who +have never beheld her in the flesh? It is for most girls an awkward +age, an age of angles, of ungainly bulk, of awkward ways, self-conscious +speech, crass ignorance, and sublime conceit. Clemence had passed +through this stage with much suffering of spirits on her own part and +that of her relations; Lavender, the third daughter, showed at thirteen +preliminary symptoms of appalling violence; but Darsie remained as ever +that fascinating combination of a child and a woman of the world, which +had been her characteristic from earliest youth. Always graceful and +alert, she sailed triumphant through the trying years, with straight +back, graceful gait, and eyes a-shine with a happy self-confidence. "I +am here!" announced Darsie's eyes to an admiring world. "Let the band +strike up!" + +Some inherent quality in Darsie--some grace, some charm, some spell-- +which she wove over the eyes of beholders, caused them to credit her +with a beauty which she did not possess. Even her family shared in this +delusion, and set her up as the superlative in degree, so that "as +pretty as Darsie" had come to be regarded a climax of praise. The glint +of her chestnut hair, the wide, bright eyes, the little oval face set on +a long, slim throat smote the onlooker with instant delight, and so +blinded him that he had no sight left with which to behold the blemishes +which walked hand in hand. Photographs valiantly strove to demonstrate +the truth; pointed out with cruel truth the stretching mouth, the small, +inadequate nose, but even the testimony of sunlight could not convince +the blind. They sniffed, and said: "What a travesty! Never again to +_that_ photographer! Next time we'll try the man in C-- Street," and +Darsie's beauty lived on, an uncontroverted legend. + +By a triumph of bad management, which the Garnett girls never ceased to +deplore, their three brothers came at the end instead of the beginning +of the family. Three grown-up brothers would have been a grand asset; +big boys who would have shown a manly tenderness towards the weaknesses +of little sisters; who would have helped and amused; big boys going to +school, young men going to college, coming home in the vacations, +bringing their friends, acting as squires and escorts to the girls at +home. Later on brothers at business, wealthy brothers, generous +brothers; brothers who understood how _long_ quarter-day was in coming +round, and how astonishingly quickly a girl's allowance vanishes into +space! Clemence, Darsie, and Lavender had read of such brothers in +books, and would have gladly welcomed their good offices in the flesh, +but three noisy, quarrelsome, more or less grimy schoolboys, superbly +indifferent to "those girls"--this was another, and a very different +tale! Harry was twelve--a fair, blunt-featured lad with a yawning +cavity in the front of his mouth, the result of one of the many +accidents which had punctuated his life. On the top story of the +Garnett house there ran a narrow passage, halfway along which, for want +of a better site, a swing depended from two great iron hooks. Harry, as +champion swinger, ever striving after fresh flights, had one day in a +frenzy of enthusiasm swung the rings free from their hold, and +descended, swing and all, in a crash on the oil-clothed floor. The +crash, the shrieks of the victim and his attendant sprites, smote upon +Mrs Garnett's ears as she sat wrestling with the "stocking basket" in a +room below, and as she credibly avowed, took years from her life. +Almost the first objects which met her eye, when, in one bound, as it +seemed, she reached the scene of the disaster, was a selection of small +white teeth scattered over the oil-clothed floor. Henceforth for years +Harry pursued his way minus front teeth, and the nursery legend darkly +hinted that so injured had been the gums by his fall that no second +supply could be expected. Harry avowed a sincere aspiration that this +should be the case. "I can eat as much without them," he declared, "and +when I grow up I'll have them false, and be an explorer, and scare +savages like the man in Rider Haggard," so that teeth, or no teeth, +would appear to hold the secret of his destiny. + +Russell had adenoids, and snored. His peculiarities included a faculty +for breaking his bones, at frequent and inconvenient occasions, an +insatiable curiosity about matters with which he had no concern, and a +most engaging and delusive silkiness of manner. "Gentleman Russell," a +title bestowed by his elders, had an irritating effect on an elder +brother conscious of being condemned by the contrast, and when quoted +downstairs brought an unfailing echo of thumps in the seclusion of the +playroom. + +Tim played on his privileges as "littlest," and his mother's barely +concealed partiality, and was as irritating to his elders as a small +person can be, who is always present when he is not wanted, absent when +he is, in peace adopts the airs of a conqueror, and in warfare promptly +cries, and collapses into a curly-headed baby boy, whom the authorities +declare it is "cr-uel" to bully! + +For the rest, the house was of the high and narrow order common to town +terraces, inconveniently crowded by its many inmates, and viewed from +without, of a dark and grimy appearance. + +Sandon Terrace had no boast to make either from an architectural or a +luxurious point of view, and was so obviously inferior to its neighbour, +Napier Terrace, that it was lacerating to the Garnett pride to feel that +their sworn friends the Vernons were so much better domiciled than +themselves. Napier Terrace had a strip of garden between itself and the +rough outer world; big gateways stood at either end, and what Vie Vernon +grandiloquently spoke of as "a carriage sweep" curved broadly between. +Divided accurately among the houses in the terrace, the space of ground +apportioned to each was limited to a few square yards, but the Vernons +were chronically superior on the subject of "the grounds," and in +springtime when three hawthorns, a lilac, and one spindly laburnum-tree +struggled into bloom, their airs were beyond endurance. + +The Vernons had also a second claim to superiority over the Garnetts, +inasmuch as they were the proud possessors of an elder brother, a remote +and learned person who gained scholarships, and was going to be Prime +Minister when he was grown up. Dan at eighteen, coaching with a tutor +preparatory to going up to Cambridge, was removed by continents of +superiority from day-school juniors. Occasionally in their disguise of +the deadly jealousy which in truth consumed them, the Garnett family +endeavoured to make light of the personality of this envied person. To +begin with, his name! "Dan" was well enough. "Dan" sounded a boy-like +boy, a manly man; of a "Dan" much might be expected in the way of sport +and mischief, but--oh, my goodness--_Daniel_! The Garnetts discussed +the cognomen over the play-room fire. + +"It must be so _embarrassing_ to have a Bible name!" Lavender opined. +"Think of church! When they read about me I should be covered with +confusion, and imagine that every one was staring at our pew!" + +Clemence stared thoughtfully into space. "I, Clemence, take thee +Daniel," she recited slowly, and shuddered. "No--really, I couldn't!" + +"He wouldn't have you!" the three boys piped; even Tim, who plainly was +talking of matters he could not understand, added his note to the +chorus, but Darsie cocked her little head, and added eagerly-- + +"Couldn't you, really? What _could_ you, do you think?" + +Clemence stared again, more rapt than ever. + +"Lancelot, perhaps," she opined, "or Sigismund. Everard's nice too, or +Ronald or Guy--" + +"Bah! Sugary. _I_ couldn't! Daniel is _ugly_," Darsie admitted, "but +it's strong. Dan Vernon will fight lions like the Bible one; they'll +roar about him, and his enemies will cast him in, but they'll not manage +to kill him. He'll trample them under foot, and leave them behind, like +milestones on the road." Darsie was nothing if not inaccurate, but in +the bosom of one's own family romantic flights are not allowed to atone +for discrepancies, and the elder sister was quick to correct. + +"Daniel didn't fight the lions! What's the use of being high falutin' +and making similes that aren't correct?" + +"Dear Clemence, you _are_ so literal!" Darsie tilted her head with an +air of superiority which reduced the elder to silence, the while she +cogitated painfully why such a charge should be cast as a reproach. To +be literal was to be correct. Daniel had _not_ fought the lions! +Darsie had muddled up the fact in her usual scatterbrain fashion, and by +good right should have deplored her error. Darsie, however, was seldom +known to do anything so dull; she preferred by a nimble change of front +to put others in the wrong, and keep the honours to herself. Now, after +a momentary pause, she skimmed lightly on to another phase of the +subject. "What should you say was the character and life history of a +woman who could call her eldest child `Daniel,' the second `Viola +Imogen,' and the third and fourth `Hannah' and `John'?" + +Clemence had no inspiration on the subject. She said: "Don't be silly!" +sharply, and left it to Lavender to supply the necessary stimulus. + +"_Tell_ us, Darsie, tell us! You make it up--" + +"My dear, it is evident to the meanest intellect. She was the child of +a simple country household, who, on her marriage, went to live in a +town; and when her first-born son was born, she pined to have him +christened by her father's name in the grey old church beneath the ivy +tower; so they travelled there, and the white-haired sire held the +infant at the font, while the tears furrowed his aged cheeks. _But_--by +slow degrees the insidious effects of the great capital invaded the mind +of the sweet young wife, and the simple tastes of her girlhood turned to +vanity, so that when the second babe was born, and her husband wished to +call her Hannah after her sainted grandmother, she wept, and made an +awful fuss, and would not be consoled until he gave in to Viola Imogen, +and a christening cloak trimmed with plush. And she was christened in a +city church, and the organ pealed, and the godmothers wore rich array, +and the poor old father stayed at home and had a slice of christening +cake sent by the post. But the years passed on. Saddened and sobered +by the discipline of life, aged and worn, her thoughts turned once more +to her quiet youth, and when at last a third child--" + +"There's only two years between them!" + +Darsie frowned, but continued her narrative in a heightened voice-- + +"--Was laid in her arms, and her husband suggested `Ermyntrude'; she +shuddered, and murmured softly, `Hannah--_plain_ Hannah!' and plain +Hannah she has been ever since!" + +A splutter of laughter greeted this _denouement_, for in truth Hannah +Vernon was not distinguished for her beauty, being one of the plainest, +and at the same time the most good-natured of girls. + +Lavender cried eagerly-- + +"Go on! Make up some more," but Clemence from the dignity of seventeen +years felt bound to protest-- + +"I don't think you--_ought_! It's not your business. Mrs Vernon's a +friend, and she wouldn't be pleased. To talk behind her back--" + +"All right," agreed Darsie swiftly. "Let's crack nuts!" + +Positively she left one breathless! One moment poised on imaginary +flights, weaving stories from the baldest materials, drawing allegories +of the lives of her friends, the next--an irresponsible wisp, with no +thought in the world but the moment's frolic; but whatever might be the +fancy of the moment she drew her companions after her with the magnetism +of a born leader. + +In the twinkling of an eye the scene was changed, the Vernons with their +peculiarities were consigned to the limbo of forgotten things, while +boys and girls squatted on the rug scrambling for nuts out of a paper +bag, and cracking them with their teeth with monkey-like agility. + +"How many can you crack at a time? Bet you I can crack more than you!" +cried Darsie loudly. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +THE TELEGRAPH STATION. + +The Garnetts' house stood at the corner of Sandon Terrace, and possessed +at once the advantages and drawbacks of its position. The advantages +were represented by three bay windows, belonging severally to the +drawing-room, mother's bedroom, and the play-room on the third floor. +The bay windows at either end of the Terrace bestowed an architectural +finish to its flattened length, and from within allowed of extended +views up and down the street. The drawback lay in the position of the +front door, which stood round the corner in a side street, on which +abutted the gardens of the houses of its more aristocratic neighbour, +Napier Terrace. Once, in a moment of unbridled temper, Vie Vernon had +alluded to the Garnett residence as being located "at our back door," +and though she had speedily repented, and apologised, even with tears, +the sting remained. + +Apart from the point of inferiority, however, the position had its +charm. From the eerie of the top landing window one could get a bird's- +eye view of the Napier Terrace gardens with their miniature grass plots, +their smutty flower-beds, and the dividing walls with their clothing of +blackened ivy. Some people were ambitious, and lavished unrequited +affection on struggling rose-trees in a centre bed, others contented +themselves with a blaze of homely nasturtiums; others, again, abandoned +the effort after beauty, hoisted wooden poles, and on Monday mornings +floated the week's washing unashamed. In Number Two the tenant kept +pigeons; Number Four owned a real Persian cat, who basked majestic on +the top of the wall, scorning his tortoiseshell neighbours. + +When the lamps were lit, it was possible also to obtain glimpses into +the dining-rooms of the two end houses, if the maids were not in too +great a hurry to draw down the blinds. A newly married couple had +recently come to live in the corner house--a couple who wore evening +clothes every night, and dined in incredible splendour at half-past +seven. It was thrilling to behold them seated at opposite sides of the +gay little table, all a-sparkle with glass and silver, to watch course +after course being handed round, the final dallying over dessert. + +On one never-to-be-forgotten occasion, suddenly and without the +slightest warning, bride and bridegroom had leaped from their seats and +begun chasing each other wildly round the table. She flew, he flew; he +dodged, she screamed (one could _see_ her scream!) dodged again, and +flew wildly in an opposite direction. The chase continued for several +breathless moments, then, to the desolation of the beholders, swept out +of sight into the fastnesses of the front hall. + +Never--no, never--could the bitterness of that disappointment be +outlived. To have been shut out from beholding the _denouement_--it was +_too_ piteous! In vain Darsie expended herself on flights of +imagination, in vain rendered in detail the conversation which had led +up to the thrilling chase--the provocation, the threat, the defiance-- +nothing but the reality could have satisfied the thirst of curiosity of +the beholders. Would he kiss her? Would he beat her? Would she +triumph? Would she cry? Was it a frolic, or a fight? Would the morrow +find them smiling and happy as of yore, or driving off in separate cabs +to take refuge in the bosoms of their separate families? Darsie opined +that all would _seem_ the same on the surface, but darkly hinted at the +little rift within the lute, and somehow after that night the glamour +seemed to have departed from this honeymoon pair, and the fair seeming +was regarded with suspicion. + +As regards the matter of distance, it took an easy two minutes to cover +the space between the front doors of the two houses, and there seemed an +endless number of reasons why the members of the different families +should fly round to consult each other a dozen times a day. Darsie and +Lavender, Vie and plain Hannah attended the same High School; the +Garnett boys and John Vernon the same Royal Institute, but the fact that +they walked to and from school together, and spent the intervening hours +in the same class-rooms, by no means mitigated the necessity of meeting +again during luncheon and tea hours. In holiday times the necessity +naturally increased, and bells pealed incessantly in response to tugs +from youthful hands. + +Then came the time of the great servants' strike. That bell was a +perfect nuisance; ring, ring, ring the whole day long. Something else +to do than run about to open the door for a pack of children! + +The two mistresses, thus coerced, issued a fiat. Once a day, and no +oftener! All arrangements for the afternoon to be made in the morning +_seance_, the rendezvous to be _outside_, not _inside_ the house. + +After this came on the age of signals; whistlings outside the windows, +rattling of the railings, comes through letter-boxes and ventilation +grids, even--on occasions of special deafness--pebbles thrown against +the panes! A broken window, and a succession of whoops making the air +hideous during the progress of an extra special tea party, evoked the +displeasure of the mistresses in turns, and a second verdict went forth +against signals in all forms, whereupon the Garnetts and Vernons in +conclave deplored the hard-heartedness of grown-ups, and set their wits +to work to evolve a fresh means of communication. + +"S'pose," said Russell, snoring thoughtfully, "s'pose we had a +telegraph!" + +"S'pose we had an airship! One's just as easy as the other. Don't be a +juggins." + +But Russell snored on unperturbed. + +"I don't mean a _real_ telegraph, only a sort--of _pretend_! There's +our side window, and your back windows. If we could run a line across." + +"A line of _what_?" + +"String. Wire. Anything we like." + +"S'pose we _did_ fix it, what then?" + +"Send messages!" + +"How?" + +Russell pondered deeply. He was the member of the family who had a +natural aptitude for mechanism; the one who mended toys, and on occasion +was even consulted about mother's sewing-machine and escapes of gas, +therefore he filled the place of engineer-royal and was expected to take +all structural difficulties upon his own shoulders. He pondered, +blinking his pale blue eyes. + +"Can't send messages in the usual way--too difficult. If the cord were +double, we might have a bag and switch it across." + +Ha! the audience pricked its ears and sat alert, seeing in imagination +the tiny cord swung high in space above the dividing ground, stretching +from window to window, fastened securely on the sills, "somehow," +according to the girls, the boys critically debating the question of +ways and means, strong iron hoops, for choice, clamped into the +framework of the windows. + +"How would the messages be sent?" + +"In a bag, of course. Put the letter in the bag; then we'd pull and +pull, and it would work round and round, till it arrived at the opposite +end." + +A stealthy exchange of glances testified to the general realisation of +the fact that it would take a _long_ time to pull, a much longer time, +for instance, than to run round by the road, and deposit the missive in +the letter-box, a still unforbidden means of communication. Every one +realised the fact, but every one scorned to put it into words. What was +a mere matter of time, compared with the glory and _eclat_ of owning a +real live telegraph of one's own? + +The first stage of the proceedings was to obtain the parental consent, +and this was secured with an ease and celerity which was positively +disconcerting. When mothers said, "Oh, yes, dears, certainly--certainly +you may try!" with a smile in their eyes, a twist on their lips, and a +barely concealed incredulity oozing out of every pore, it put the +youngsters on their mettle to succeed, or perish in the attempt. The +mothers obviously congratulated themselves on a project which would +provide innocent amusement for holiday afternoons, while they inwardly +derided the idea of permanent success. + +"We'll show 'em!" cried Harry darkly. "We'll let 'em see!" + +The next point was to decide on the window in each house which should +act as telegraph station. In the case of the Vernons there was +obviously no alternative, for the third-floor landing window possessed +qualifications far in excess of any other, but with the Garnetts two +rival factions fought a wordy combat in favour of the boys' room and the +little eerie inhabited by Lavender, each of which occupied equally good +sites. + +"Stick to it! Stick to it!" were Harry's instructions to his younger +brother. "They can't put the thing up without us, so they're bound to +come round in the end, and if we've got the telegraph station, it will +give us the whip hand over them for ever. It's our room, and they've +jolly well got to behave if they want to come in. If they turn rusty, +we'll lock the door, and they'll have to be civil, or do without the +telegraph. Let 'em talk till they're tired, and then they'll give in, +and we'll go out and buy the cord." + +And in the end the girls succumbed as predicted. Lavender's pride in +owning the site of the great enterprise weakened before the tragic +picture drawn for her warning, in which she saw herself roused from +slumber at unearthly hours of the night, leaning out of an opened window +to draw a frozen cord through bleeding hands. She decided that on the +whole it would be more agreeable to lie snugly in bed and receive the +messages from the boys over a warm and leisurely breakfast. + +These two great points arranged, nothing now remained but the erection +of the line itself, and two strong iron hoops having been fixed into the +outer sills of the respective windows a fine Saturday afternoon +witnessed the first struggle with the cord. + +Vie Vernon and plain Hannah unrolled one heavy skein, threaded it +through their own hoop, and lowered the two ends into the garden, where +John stood at attention ready to throw them over the wall. Darsie and +Lavender dropped their ends straight into the street, and then chased +madly downstairs to join the boys and witness the junction of the lines. +Each line being long enough in itself to accomplish the double journey, +the plan was to pull the connected string into the Garnett station, cut +off the superfluous length, and tie the ends taut and firm. Nothing +could have seemed easier in theory, but in practice unexpected +difficulties presented themselves. The side street was as a rule +singularly free from traffic, but with the usual perversity of fate, +every tradesman's cart in the neighbourhood seemed bent on exercising +its horse up and down its length this Saturday afternoon. No sooner +were lines knotted together in the middle of the road than the +greengrocer came prancing round the corner, and they must needs be +hastily untied; secured a second time, the milkman appeared on +incredibly early rounds, reined his steed on its haunches, and scowled +fiercely around; before there was time to rally from his attack a +procession of coal-carts came trundling heavily past. By this time also +the frantic efforts of the two families had attracted the attention of +their enemies, a body of boys, scathingly designated "the Cads," who +inhabited the smaller streets around and waged an incessant war against +"the Softs," as they in return nicknamed their more luxurious +neighbours. + +The Cads rushed to the scene with hoots and howls of derision; white- +capped heads peered over bedroom blinds; even the tortoiseshell cats +stalked over the dividing walls to discover the cause of the unusual +excitement. Clemence, with the sensitiveness of seventeen years, +hurried round the corner, and walked hastily in an opposite direction, +striving to look as if she had no connection with the scrimmage in the +side street. Darsie read the Cads a lecture on nobility of conduct, +which they received with further hoots and sneers. Plain Hannah planked +herself squarely before the scene of action with intent to act as a +bulwark from the attack of the enemy. The three boys worked with +feverish energy, dreading the appearance of their parents and an edict +to cease operations forthwith. + +The first lull in the traffic was seized upon to secure the knots, when +presto! the line began to move, as Russell the nimble-minded hauled +vigorously from the upstairs station, whence he had been dispatched a +few moments before. The Cads yelled and booed as the first glimmering +knowledge of what was on foot penetrated their brains; they grouped +together and consulted as to means of frustration; but with every moment +that passed yards of line were disappearing from view, and the skeins in +the streets were rapidly diminishing in size. Presently there was not a +single coil left, and a cheer of delight burst from the onlookers as +they watched the cord rise slowly off the ground. Now with good luck +and the absence of vehicles for another two minutes the deed would be +done, and the Garnett-Vernon telegraph an accomplished fact; but alas! +at this all-important moment one line of string caught in an ivy stem at +the top of a garden wall, and refused to be dislodged by tuggings and +pullings from below. The Cads raised a derisive cheer, and to add to +the annoyances of the moment a cab rounded the corner, the driver of +which pulled up in scandalised amaze on finding the road barricaded by +two stout lines of string. + +His strictures were strong and to the point, and though he finally +consented to drive over the hastily lowered line, he departed shaking +his whip in an ominous manner, and murmuring darkly concerning police. + +"On to the wall, John. Quick! Climb up and ease it over. If we don't +get it up in a jiffy we shall have the bobbies after us!" cried Harry +frantically, whereupon John doubled back into his own garden, and by +perilous graspings of ivy trunks and projecting bricks scaled to the top +and eased the line from its grip. + +"Right-ho!" he cried, lifting his face to the opposite window. "Pull, +Russell! _pull_ for your life!" + +Russell pulled; a second time the double thread rose in the air. Darsie +jumped with excitement; Lavender clasped her hands, all white and tense +with suspense, plain Hannah ran to and fro, emitting short, staccato +croaks of delight; Harry stood in manly calm, arms akimbo, a beam of +satisfaction broadening his face. That smile, alas! gave the last touch +of exasperation to the watching Cads. To stand still and behold the +line vanishing into space had been in itself an ordeal, but Harry's +lordly air, his strut, his smile--these were beyond their endurance! +With a rallying shout of battle they plunged forward, grabbed at the +ascending cord, hung for a dizzy moment suspended on its length, then +with a final cheer felt it snap in twain and drag limply along the +ground. + +Alas for Harry and for John--what could they do, two men alone, against +a dozen? The girls screamed, declaimed, vowed shrill revenge, but in +the matter of practical force were worse than useless. Even with +Russell's aid the forces were hopelessly uneven. Harry stood looking on +gloomily while the Cads, chortling with triumph, galloped down the road, +trailing behind them the long lengths of cord; then, like a true +Englishman, being half-beaten, he set his teeth and vowed to conquer, or +to die. + +"They think we're sold, but they'll find their mistake! We'll get up at +five on Monday morning and have the thing in working trig before they +have opened their silly eyes." + +This programme being duly enacted, the telegraph stations remained for +years as an outward and visible sign of the only piece of work which +Harry Garnett was ever known to accomplish before the hour of his +belated breakfast. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +AUNT MARIA. + +Among the crowd of relations near and far most families possess one +relation _par excellence_, who stands out from all the rest by reason +either of generosity, aggravatingness, or strength of character. +Sometimes this relation is an uncle; more often it is an aunt; almost +invariably he or she is unmarried or widowed, because the single state +naturally allows more time and energy for interests beyond the personal +household. + +The Garnetts' relation _par excellence_ was Aunt Maria--_Lady_ Maria as +they erroneously called her, being unsophisticated in the niceties of +the peerage. Her rightful cognomen was Lady Hayes, and she was the +elderly, very elderly, widow of an estimable gentleman who had been +created a Baronet in recognition of services rendered to his political +party. The Garnetts felt that it was very stylish to possess an aunt +with a title, and introduced her name with an air when the Vernons grew +superior on the subject of "the grounds." Lady Hayes was an eccentric +individual who inhabited a beautiful old country house in the Midlands, +from which base she was given to suddenly swooping down upon her +relations, choosing by preference for these visits the times when +carpets had been sent away to be cleaned, or the maids granted days off +to visit relations in the country. Then Lady Hayes would appear, +announce her intention of staying a couple of nights, declare her +unwillingness to give the slightest trouble, and proceed to request that +her maid should be accommodated with a room next to her own, and that +they should both be supplied with a vegetarian diet, supplemented by +glasses of sterilised milk at intervals of every two hours. Sometimes +the vegetarianism gave place to a diet of minced beef, but whatever +might be the diet of the moment it was invariably something which no one +else wanted to eat, and which took about three times as long to prepare +as the entire rations for the household dinner of ten. + +It was at the close of the Midsummer term, when the Garnett family were +blissfully preparing for the yearly migration to the sea, that a letter +from Aunt Maria fell like a bombshell upon the peaceful scene. This +year the holiday promised to be even more blissful than usual, for the +Vernons had secured a second farmhouse, not ten minutes' walk from their +own, and connected with the sea by the same fascinating field-paths. A +farm and the sea! Could there possibly exist a more fascinating +combination? The young people sniffed in advance the two dear, +distinctive odours which, more than anything else, presented the scenes +before them--the soft, cowy-milky scent of the farm, the salt, sharp +whiff of the brine. From morn till night, at every available moment, +they discussed the day's programme--feeding animals, calling the cows, +bathing, picnicking on the sands, crab-hunting, mountain climbing. +Excitement grew until it really seemed impossible to exist through the +intervening days, and then the bombshell fell! A letter arrived by an +evening post, when Mr and Mrs Garnett were enjoying the one +undisturbed hour of the day. It bore the Hayes crest, and was written +in Aunt Maria's small, crabbed handwriting-- + +"My dear Emily,-- + +"I propose, all being well, to pay you a short visit from Tuesday to +Thursday next, twelfth to fifteenth instant. Please let me have the +same rooms as on my last visit. I am at present living on Benger's +food, and must ask you to see that it is made freshly for each meal, in +a _perfectly clean, enamelled saucepan_. + +"The chief object of my visit is to bring back one of your three +daughters to stay with me during the summer vacation. I have been +feeling somewhat lonely of late, and my doctor recommends young society, +so it has occurred to me that in obeying his instructions I might at the +same time afford pleasure and benefit to one of your family. Should I +become interested in the child it might be to her advantage hereafter, +but it must be understood that I can make no promises on this point. + +"The eighteen months which have elapsed since my last visit have +somewhat dimmed my remembrance of your girls, so that I must see them +again before deciding as to which of the three I should prefer as a +companion. + +"With love to William and yourself,-- + +"Believe me, my dear Emily,-- + +"Your affectionate Aunt,-- + +"Maria Hayes." + +Mrs Garnett read this communication in silence, handed it to her +husband, and watched him flush and frown over the perusal. + +"Does not even go through the form of asking our consent!" + +"No! That's Aunt Maria all over. You could hardly imagine that she +would. Oh dear! Oh dear! I'm afraid, Will--I'm _afraid_ she will have +to go!" + +"Poor little kiddie, yes! How she will hate it! Just at this moment +when they are all wild with joy at the thought of their holiday with the +Vernons. It seems positively brutal!" + +"Oh, it does. I am so sorry for her--whichever it may be--but one must +sometimes be cruel to be kind. We can't afford--I am not mercenary, as +you know--but with our means we _can't_ afford to refuse any possible +advantage for our girls! The sacrifice of a summer holiday ought not to +weigh against that." + +"No, you're right, quite right. So be it then. Write and tell her to +come, only I tell you plainly my holiday's spoiled... With Darsie +gone--" + +"Dear! she has not chosen yet." + +"Dear! you know perfectly well--" + +They looked at each other, smiling, rueful, half-ashamed. It seemed +like treason to the other girls, this mutual acknowledgment that Darsie +was the flower of the flock, the child of the six to whom all strangers +were attracted as by a magnet. Clarence and Lavender were equally as +dear to the parents' hearts, but there was no denying the existence of a +special and individual pride in the fascinations of Darsie. + +Mr Garnett turned aside with an impatient shrug. + +"There's one thing, Emily, _you_ must tell her when it is settled! +There'll be a tremendous scene. I flatly refuse--" + +"Very well, dear, very well; I'll do it. But it's not decided yet, +remember, and one can never be sure. I'd better break the idea to the +girls before Aunt Maria comes, and let them get over the first +excitement. To-night would be a good opportunity. You will be out +late, so would be spared the scene!" + +"Bless you, Emily! I'm a coward, I know, but I _should_ be grateful. I +can't answer for what I should do if Darsie cried, and begged my +protection. Women have twice the pluck of men in these affairs!" + +Nevertheless it was with a quaking heart that Mrs Garnett broached the +object of Aunt Maria's proposition over the schoolroom tea that +afternoon, and her nervousness was not decreased by the smilingly +unperturbed manner in which it was received. Never, never for a moment +did it appear possible to the three girls that such a proposition could +be seriously discussed. + +"_So_ likely!" sneered Clemence with a fine disdain. "Give up all the +fun and excitement of the sea with the Vernons, to _browse_ with Aunt +Maria. _So_ likely, to be sure!" + +"Poor dear old love! She _is_ deluded. Thinks it would be a pleasure +and benefit, does she. I wouldn't take a thousand pounds--" + +Thus Lavender. Darsie went a step farther in tragic declamation. + +"I'd drown myself first! To sit there--panting, in hot rooms, on +Benger's food, and know that all the others were bathing and running +wild on the shore--I'd burst! I'd run away in an hour--" + +"Dears, it's a beautiful old place. There are gardens, and lawns, and +horses, and dogs. Cows, too! I am sure there are cows--she used to +keep a herd of Jerseys. You could see them being milked." + +"Welsh cows are good enough for me. I don't need Jerseys. _Or_ lawns! +Give me the free, untrammelled countryside! + +"`And to see it reflected in eyes that I love.'" + +Darsie paraphrased a line of the sweet old ballad, singing it in a +clear, bell-like voice to a pantomime of clasped hands and rolling eyes. +"It would be bad enough in an ordinary year, but to rend us apart from +the Vernons--oh, no, it's unthinkable!" + +"You have the Vernons near you all the year, dear. Aunt Maria only asks +for eight weeks. There are occasions in life when it does not do to +think only of our own pleasure." + +Silence. A note in the mother's voice had startled her hearers into the +conviction that the invitation must be regarded seriously, and not +tossed aside as a joke. A lacerating suspicion that the authorities +were in favour of an acceptance pierced like a dart. + +"Mother! What do you mean? You couldn't _possibly_ be so cruel--" + +"Mother, you don't mean--." + +"Mother, what _do_ you mean?" + +"I mean that you ought to go, dears, which ever one of you is asked. +Aunt Maria is an old lady, and she is lonely. Her doctor has ordered +cheerful companionship. Moreover, she has been a kind friend to father +in the past, and has a right to expect some consideration in return. If +you went in the right spirit, you could be of real use and comfort, and +would have the satisfaction of doing a kind deed." + +Darsie set her lips in a straight line, and tilted her chin in the air. + +"Couldn't pretend to go in the right spirit! I'd be in a tearing rage. +Somebody else can have the `satisfaction,' and I'll go to the sea." + +"Darsie, dear, that's naughty!" + +"I _feel_ naughty, mother. `Naughty' is a mild word. _Savage_! I feel +savage. It's too appalling. What does father say? I'm sure he would +never--" + +"Father feels as I do; very disappointed for our own sakes and for yours +that our happy party should be disturbed, but he never shirks a +disagreeable duty himself, and he expects his children to follow his +example." + +Lavender instantly burst into tears. + +"It's always the way--always the way! It was too good to be true. We +might have known that it was. She'll choose me, and Hannah will go +without me. We'd planned every day--fishing, and bathing, and making +hay, and I shall be mewed up in a close carriage, and have meals of +nuts--and n-n-nobody to talk to. Oh, I can't--I can't bear it! I wish +I could die and be buried--I _cannot_ bear it--" + +"You won't have to bear it. She'll choose me. I'm the eldest, and the +most of a companion." Clemence spoke with the calmness of despair, her +plump cheeks whitening visibly, her pale eyes showing a flush of red +around the lids. "Of course, if it's my duty, I must go--but I'd as +soon be sent to prison! I'm feeling _very_ tired, and thought the +holiday would set me up. Now, of course, I shall be worse. Eight weeks +alone with Aunt Maria would try anybody's nerves. I shall be a wreck +all winter, and have neuralgia till I'm nearly mad." + +"Nonsense, darling! If you are so tired, the rest and quiet of The +Towers will be just what you need; and as we don't know yet which one of +you Aunt Maria will wish as a companion, it is a pity for you all to +make yourselves miserable at once. Why not try to forget, and hope for +the best! Surely that would be the wiser plan." + +The three girls looked at each other in eloquent silence. Easy to talk. +Forget, indeed. As if they _could_! Mother didn't really believe what +she said. She was making the best of it, and there were occasions when +making the best of it seemed just the most aggravating thing one could +do. + +It was a relief to the girls when Mrs Garnett was summoned from the +room on household business, and they were left to themselves. A craving +for sympathy was the predominant sensation, and prompted the suggestion, +"Let's wire to the Vernons," which was followed by a stampede upstairs. +The telegraph was a sufficiently new institution to appear a pleasure +rather than a toil, even though a message thus dispatched was an +infinitely longer and more laborious effort than a run round the +terrace, so to-day a leaf was torn from the note-book, a dramatic +announcement penned and placed in the hanging-bag, with its jingling +bell of warning, and the three girls took it in turns to pull at the +cord till the missive arrived at its destination. Attracted by the +sound of the bell, Vie and plain Hannah stood at the window awaiting the +communication, read over its contents, and stood silent and dismayed. +The Garnetts, watching from afar, realised the dramatic nature of that +pause, and thrilled in sympathy. + +"_One of us is going to be sent to prison instead of to the country_!" + +"_Prison_!" Vie and plain Hannah wagged their heads over the cipher, +hesitated long, pencil in hand, and, finally, in a frenzy of impatience, +which refused to be curbed even by loyalty to the telegraph itself, +dispatched an urgent summons to speech-- + +"_Come round and talk_!" + +The Garnetts flew. The Vernons, waiting upon the doorstep, escorted +them upstairs to the scantily furnished room which had first been a +nursery, then promoted to playroom, and, ultimately, when the more +juvenile name wounded the susceptibilities of its inmates, had become +definitely and proudly "the study." The bureau in the corner was Dan's +special property, and might not be touched by so much as a finger-tip. +The oak table with three sound legs and a halting fourth, supported by +an ancient volume of _Good Words_, was Vie's property; John and plain +Hannah shared the dining-table, covered with the shabby green baize +cloth, which stood in the centre of the room. There were a variety of +uncomfortable chairs, an ink-splashed drugget, and red walls covered +with pictures which had been banished from other rooms as they acquired +the requisite stage of decrepitude and grime. + +The five girls surged into the room, faced each other, and burst into +eager speech-- + +"_Who's_ going to prison?" + +"We don't know. Wish we did!" + +"What do you mean by prison?" + +"Aunt Maria's!" + +"Lady Maria's?" + +"Lady Maria's! One of us has to go and stay with her for eight weeks +instead of going with you to the sea." + +Vie Vernon collapsed on to the nearest chair, and gasped for breath. +"Stu-pendous!" she murmured beneath her breath. Vie had a new word each +season which she used to describe every situation, good and bad. The +season before it had been "Weird!" this season it was "Stupendous," and +she was thankful for the extra syllable in this moment of emotion. +"It's really true? You mean it in earnest? _Why_?" + +"Thinks it would be a pleasure to us, and that we should be cheery +companions. _So_ likely, isn't it?" + +"But--but surely your mother-- What does she say?" + +"Preaches! Oughtn't to think of ourselves. Ought to show a right +spirit and go." + +"Stu-pendous!" cried Vie once again. Plain Hannah hoisted herself on to +the corner of the table, and hunched herself in thought. She really was +extraordinarily plain. Looking at her critically, it seemed that +everything that should have been a line had turned into a curve, and +everything that should have been a curve into a line; she was thick-set, +clumsy, awkward in gait, her eyes were small, her mouth was large, she +had a meagre wisp of putty-coloured hair, and preposterously thick +eyebrows several shades darker in hue, and no eyelashes at all. Friends +and relations lavished much pity on poor dear Hannah's unfortunate +looks, but never a sigh did Hannah breathe for herself. She was strong +and healthy, her sturdy limbs stood her in good stead in the various +games and sports in which she delighted, and she would not have +exchanged her prowess therein for all the pink cheeks and golden locks +in the world. Hannah's manner, like her appearance, lacked grace and +charm; it was abrupt, forceful, and to the point. She spoke now, chin +sunk in her grey flannel blouse, arms wrapped round her knees-- + +"Is she coming to see you before she chooses, or will it be done by +post?" + +"She's coming! Two days next week. Isn't it too awful? We were so +happy--the telegraph up, and the weather jolly, and holidays nearly +here. `All unsuspecting of their doom the little victims played.' And +then--_this_! Holidays with Aunt Maria! Even the third of a chance +turns me cold with dismay. I couldn't bear--" + +"You won't need to. She won't have you. She'll choose Darsie." + +Darsie squealed in shrillest protest-- + +"No, no! It's not fair. She won't! She can't! It's always the eldest +or the youngest. I'm the middle--the insignificant middle. Why should +she choose me?" + +"You are not so modest as a rule! You know perfectly well that +strangers always _do_ take more notice of you than any one else. You +are always the one who is fussed over and praised." + +"Because I want to be! This time I shan't. I'll be just as sulky and +horrid as I can for the whole blessed time." + +"You'll be there anyway, and you can't alter your face." + +"My fatal beauty!" wailed Darsie, and wrung her hands in impassioned +fashion. Then she looked critically from one sister to another, and +proceeded to candid criticisms of their charms. + +"Clemence is not pretty, but she's _nice_! If she did her hair better, +and sat up, and had a colour, and didn't poke her chin, she'd look quite +decent. I should think it would be interesting to take some one who +_needed_ improving, and see what you could do. Lavender's gawky, of +course, girls _are_ gawky at her age, but I shouldn't wonder if she grew +quite decent-looking in time. Rest and quiet would do wonders!" + +"Thank you, indeed! You _are_ kind!" The sisters bridled and tossed +their heads, by no means appeased by such prognostications of their +future charms. "Certainly if she took _you_, she might teach you to be +modest!" + +"Oh, dear, oh, dear, I don't want _any_ of you to go!" Vie, the +peacemaker, rushed to the rescue. She was just sixteen, younger than +Clemence, older than Darsie, attached almost equally to the two. +Lavender, of course, was quite too young for a companion, but then +Lavender and Hannah paired together; if she were absent, Hannah at a +loose end would demand entrance into those three-sided conferences which +made the joy of life. The fear of such an incursion made Lavender at +that moment seem even more precious than her sisters. Vie continued her +lament with bitter emphasis-- + +"_Too_ bad--_too_ hard--stupendous! Spoil everything. Horrid +interfering old thing! If I were your parents I wouldn't--not for all +the money in the world, I wouldn't sacrifice a child to an old ogre like +that! I'd keep my own children and let them be happy while they could, +but, of course, if she talks of duty...! If there's one thing more +stupendous than another it's being put on one's honour! It gives one +_no_ chance. Well, you'll have to go, I suppose, and our holiday is +spoiled. I've never been so disappointed in my life." + +"Think of how _we_ feel!" croaked Clemence tragically, but this time the +tragedy did not ring so true, for since plain Hannah's verdict her +spirits had risen considerably. Hannah was the shrewdest and cleverest +of all five girls, and her prophecies were proverbially correct. +Clemence felt sufficiently reassured to reflect that as the eldest in +years, she would do well to show an example of resignation. She +lengthened her face, and added solemnly-- + +"I don't think you ought to talk like that about honour, Vie! It ought +to be an incentive. If I go, the only thing that will console me most +is the feeling that I am doing my duty!" + +Vie stared, and the younger girls coughed in derisive chorus. + +"Isn't it easy to be resigned for somebody else?" demanded plain Hannah +of the ceiling. "You are _not_ going, my dear, and you know it. Darsie +likes well enough to queen it as a rule, and now she's got to pay the +price. That's the cost of good looks. Thank goodness no one will ever +want to run off with _me_!--not even a staid old aunt. Tell us about +your aunt, by the way--you've talked enough about yourselves. Where +does she live, and what is she like, and what does she do, and what will +_you_ do when you're there? Have any of you ever seen the place?" + +"Not since we were old enough to remember, but mother has been and told +us all about it. It's big, with a lodge, two lodges, and a park all +round, very rich, and grand, and respectable, and dull. There are men- +servants to wait at table, and the windows are never open, and she +drives out every day in a closed carriage, and plays patience at night, +and wears two wigs, turn about, a week at a time. Her cheeks are red, +the sort of red that is made up of little red lines, and never gets +brighter or darker, and she likes to be quiet and avoid excitement. Oh, +imagine what it would be like to _choose_ to be quiet, and deliberately +run away from a fuss! Can you imagine if you lived a thousand years +ever reaching such a pitch as that?" + +Darsie held out both hands in dramatic appeal, and her hearers groaned +with unction. It was impossible, absolutely beyond the power of +imagination to picture such a plight. Each girl hugged to herself the +conviction that with her at least would remain immortal youth; that +happen what might to the rest of mankind, no length of years could numb +her own splendid vitality and _joie de vivre_. + +Not even, and at the thought the three Garnetts sighed in concert, not +even Aunt Maria! + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +A DOUBLE PICNIC. + +Only four days before Aunt Maria arrived to make her great decision! +The Garnetts were living in what Darsie graphically described as "the +hush before the storm," adored, condoned, and indulged by parents who +saw before them the pangs of separation, and by brothers shrewdly +expectant of parting spoils. + +Clemence, Darsie, and Lavender were acutely conscious of the rarified +atmosphere by which they were surrounded, and only regretted its +necessarily limited duration. + +"Let's take advantage of it!" cried Darsie, the diplomat. "It's our +chance; we should be noodles if we let it slip. Anything we ask now +they'll let us have. It's like prisoners who can order what they like +for supper the night before they're hanged. Let's think what we'd like, +and go in a body and petition mother. She won't have the heart to +refuse!" + +The sisters agreed enthusiastically, but were not rich in suggestions. +It is one of the curious things in life that whereas every day one is +brought up sharply against a dozen longings and ambitions, without the +fulfilment of which it seems impossible to live, yet if the sudden +question be put, "_What would you have_?" instantly the brain becomes a +blank, and not a single suggestion is forthcoming. The Garnetts stared +at one another in labouring silence. It was too late for parties; too +early for pantomimes, a definite gift, failed to meet the case, since +each girl thought with a pang, "What's the use? I might not be here to +enjoy it!" Extra indulgences, such as sitting up at night, or being +"let off" early morning practising, did not appear sufficiently +important, since, with a little scheming, these might be gained in +addition. It was Lavender who at last succeeded in hitting the popular +taste. + +"A picnic! A real whole-day one this time. Lunch in the woods at +Earley, tea in our old woman's cottage, walk over the fields to the +amphitheatre, and home by train from Oxholm. Whoever goes with Aunt +Maria will be cheated of her holiday, for the well-behaved country +doesn't count. If you have to wear gloves and walk properly, you might +as well be in town at once. For the victim's sake we ought to have one +more day in the woods!" + +Clemence and Darsie sparkled, for the programme was an opulent one, +combining as it did the two ordinary picnics into one. The yearly +programme was that--"if you are good"--the Garnett family should be +taken for two half-day excursions into the country on two summer +Saturday afternoons, but though the woods and the amphitheatre were only +separated by three short miles, never yet had the two places been +visited together. An all-day picnic seemed a regal entertainment, +worthy of the unique occasion. + +"Ourselves and the Vernons! Mrs Vernon to talk to mother, then they +won't have as much time to look after us. When they begin on carpets +and curtains they forget everything else, and we can do as we like. Do +you suppose Dan would come?" + +"Sure he wouldn't." + +"Why?" + +"My dear!" + +Clemence held out eloquent hands. "Does he ever come? He's a man, soon +going to college, and you are only `kids.' I'm older than he is really; +a woman is always older than a man, but he doesn't like me. We are not +_en rapport_." Clemence tried hard to suppress a smirk of self- +consciousness at the use of the French term, while the two younger +sisters jeered and booed with the callous brutality of their kind. + +"Ha, ha! aren't we fine? Roll your r's a little more next time, my +dear. It will sound miles better. Your accent leaves much to be +desired. Aren't we grown-up to-day? Aunt Maria _would_ be impressed! +A little stay in Paris just to put on the accent, and it's wonderful to +think of what you might do! _En rapport_! Bet you daren't say that to +Dan! Dare you to tell him that you are not _en rapport_!" + +Clemence was seized with agitation, discerning through the innocent +words a thinly veiled threat. If she didn't, Darsie _would_! + +"Darsie!" she cried loudly. "You mustn't tell; you must _not_! It's +mean. Only sneaky children repeat what is said in private. Promise +this minute that you won't say a word!" + +But Darsie, like her brothers, was keenly alive to the privilege of +holding a rod in pickle over an elder member of the family. So long as +Clemence lived in fear of humiliating disclosure, so long might she +herself walk in safety, free from rebuffs. She laid her head on one +side and smiled sweetly into her sister's face. + +"I shouldn't like exactly, positively, to _promise_, don't you know, for +I _am_ such a creature of impulse. If it rushed over me suddenly, it +might pop out, don't you know, bang! before I knew what I was about! Of +course, on the other hand, I _might_ not--" + +"Very well," snapped Clemence sharply, "then I stay at home! It would +be no fun for _me_ to go for a picnic with that sort of thing hanging +over my head all the time. I know very well how you'd behave--rolling +your eyes across the table, and beginning half-sentences, and +introducing `_en rapport_' every other moment. If I'm going to be made +miserable, I'll be miserable at home. You can go to our last picnic as +an undivided family without me, the eldest of the family, and I only +hope you'll enjoy it; that's all!" + +"Oh, Darsie!" pleaded Lavender tragically, moved almost to tears by the +pathos of those last words, and Darsie shrugged her shoulders, +philosophically accepting her defeat. + +"All right, I promise! I'll hug the remembrance secretly in my own +breast. It will cheer me through the dullest hours!" + +Clemence bridled, but made no further protest. To think of Darsie +chuckling in secret was not agreeable, but it was as nothing compared +with the humiliation of meeting Dan's grave stare, and seeing the curl +of his lip at the repetition of her high-sounding phrase. As the +quickest way of changing the conversation she suggested an adjournment +to the morning-room, where mother sat busy over the eternal mending- +basket, to broach the picnic project without delay. + +Mother agreed instantly, eagerly, indeed, so that there was something +almost uncanny in the unusualness of the situation. To every demand, +every suggestion came the unfailing, "Yes, darlings! Certainly, +darlings!" Even the audacity of the double programme aroused no more +notice than the remark that it was an admirable idea. Darsie, striking +while the iron was hot, went a step farther and attacked the subject of +lunch. + +"Could we--for once--have something substantialler than sandwiches? +Chickens?" She gasped at the audacity of the request, for chickens were +a state dish, reserved for occasions, and in summer for some inscrutable +reasons just because they were smaller cost more than ever. "Chickens +cut up are so easy to eat. We needn't have knives and forks. And +little cobby dinner-rolls from the confectioner's, with crisp, browny +crust, cut open and stuffed with butter and potted meat, and little +green pieces of lettuce. They had them that way at supper at the +Masons' party, and they were superb! And cakes and fruit! Do, mother, +let us have a real swagger lunch just for once!" + +And mother said, "Yes, darling!" like a lamb, swallowing as it were +spring chickens and cobby rolls at a gulp. It was impossible in giving +the invitation to the Vernons to refrain from a hint at the magnificence +of the preparations, though good manners would, of course, have prompted +silence on such a point. + +The Vernons accepted with acclamation, all except Dan, who rudely +declared that he "refused with pleasure," when Darsie bearded him in his +den and proffered the invitation. He was seated at his desk, for the +moment the only occupant of the workroom, and his manner was not +expressive of welcome to the new-comer. He was a big, heavily built +youth, with a face which was oddly attractive despite irregular features +and a dull complexion. Dark eyes looked at you straight and square +beneath bushy eyebrows; thin lips curved into the oddest, most +expressive of lines, the square chin had a fashion of projecting until +it seemed to become one of the most eloquent features in his face. + +Close observation showed that there was a shadow of his upper lip, and +rumour had it that he shaved, actually _shaved_ every morning of his +life. His huge hands had a grip of steel, but it was wonderful how deft +and gentle they could be on occasion. Every album and collection in the +house was labelled by Dan, indexed by Dan, embellished with ornamental +flourishes and headlines, which Dan's big fingers alone had the power to +produce. Now he leaned an elbow on the desk, turned round on his chair, +and tilted that eloquent chin in scorn. + +"Picnic? Not much. Hate 'em like poison! You don't want me!" + +"We _do_ want you! We shouldn't have asked you if we didn't. Don't be +unsociable, Dan. It's an extra special occasion, and it would be so +much jollier to be complete. The boys will behave better if you're +there." + +Dan's chin tilted still an inch higher. That was of course, but-- + +"I hate a family crowd!" he pronounced tersely. "If there were only one +or two, it wouldn't be so bad. Usual programme, I suppose--pick flowers +and eat biscuits? Not much in my line--thank you all the same. Hope +you'll have a good time!" + +"We're going to have a _real_ lunch--chickens and all sorts of good +things, and walk to Oxholm across the fields. It will be much more +exciting than the old picnics have been." + +"It might easily be that! No, thank you, I'm off. Some other day--" + +"But we want you, Dan! _I_ want you to come." + +"But _I_ don't, you see. There's the difference. Sorry to disoblige." + +Darsie regarded him silently, considered the point whether wrath or +pathos would be the most powerful weapon, decided rapidly in favour of +pathos, and sank with a sigh on to an opposite chair. + +"Very well. I _quite_ understand. We wanted you especially because +this may be the last, the very last time that one of us girls has any +fun this summer, so of course it feels important. But you are so much +older--it's natural that you shouldn't care. I think you've been very +nice to be as much with us as you have been... Dan!" + +"Yes!" + +"Hannah says it will be _me_! That Aunt Maria is sure to choose me when +she comes. Do you think she will?" + +"Ten to one, I should say." + +"Oh, but why? _Why_? How can you be so sure?" + +Dan's dark eyes surveyed the alert little head, poised on the stem of +the graceful throat, his thin lips lengthened in the long, straight line +which showed that he was trying not to smile. + +"Because--er, you appear to me the sort of girl that an erratic old +fossil would naturally prefer!" + +"Ah-h!"--Darsie's dejection was deep--"Daniel, how cruel!" It was a +comforting retaliation to address her tormentor by the name he so +cordially disliked, but she remembered her role, and looked dejected +rather than irate. "I suppose that's true. I _need_ discipline, and +she would naturally choose the worst of the three. No one wants to be +disciplined instead of having a good time, but it may be good for me in +the end. All the time you are at sea, happy and free, I shall be being +disciplined for my good... Wednesday may be my last, my very last, glad +day..." + +"Bah! Rubbish!" snapped Dan, but he looked at the curly head, and felt +a pang of distaste. The idea of Darsie Garnett sobered and disciplined +out of recognition was distinctly unpleasant. He wriggled in his chair, +and said tentatively: "It will take more than one old lady to tame +_you_, young woman! You'll have lots of fun yet--perhaps more than if +you'd stayed at home." + +Darsie smiled with angelic resignation. + +"Perhaps so, but it won't be the same _kind_ of fun. New friends can +never be like old. If she chooses me, I must go, because of my duty to +father and the rest, but it's going to _hurt_! I feel,"--she waved her +arms dramatically in the air--"like a flower that is being torn out by +the roots! I shall not live long in a strange soil... Well, goodbye, +Dan; I won't bother you any more! Thank you very much for all you've +done for me in the past." + +Done! Dan searched his memory, found therein inscribed a number of +snubs, rebuffs, and teasings, but nothing worthy of the thanks so +sweetly offered. + +He felt a stirring of reproach. Darsie was a decent kid--an amusing +kid; if she went away she would leave behind her a decided blank. +Looking back over the years, Darsie seemed to have played the leading +part in the historic exploits of the family. She was growing into quite +a big kid now. He glanced at her again quickly, furtively, and drummed +with his fingers on the desk--hardly a kid at all, almost grown up! + +"Oh, that's all right; don't worry about that," he mumbled vaguely. +"What a grandiloquent kid you are! I hope you'll have a better time +than you think, if you do go to visit your aunt." + +"Thanks so much; I hope I may; and if at any time--_any_ time--I can do +anything to help you, or give you the least--the _very_ least--pleasure, +please let me know, Dan! I can understand now how one feels when one +leaves home and faces the world!" said Darsie poignantly. "G-goodbye!" + +"Bye," said Dan coolly. He leaned back in his chair, still thudding +with his fingers on the desk. Darsie had reached the door and held it +open in her hands before he spoke again. "What time did you say that +blessed old picnic is to start?" + +"Wednesday. Ten o'clock," said Darsie, and, like a true daughter of +Eve, spoke not one more word, but shut the door and left him to his +thoughts. + +"Dan's coming! You're not to say a word till the time, but he _is_!" +she announced to her sisters that evening; but when they questioned and +cross-questioned concerning the means whereby the miracle had been +wrought, she steadfastly refused to satisfy their curiosity. That was +not their concern. An inherent loyalty to Dan forbade that she should +make public the wiles by which he had been beguiled. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +LEFT BEHIND! + +Wednesday dawned bright and fair; it had not seemed possible that it +could be wet, and the party of twelve, with their baskets and hampers, +drove economically and gaily to the ferry in a three-horse omnibus, so +ostentatiously treating it as their own vehicle that the few alien +passengers sat abashed, and plainly felt themselves _de trop_. Darsie's +prophecy had been fulfilled, for Dan appeared at the starting-point, +somewhat grim and sulky of demeanour, but obviously on picnic bent. He +was the only member of the party whose hands were free of basket or +bundle, and when the omnibus trundled into sight he walked forward to +meet it and swung himself up to a place on top as though anxious to +convince beholders that he had no connection with the noisy crowd at the +corner, whereupon the two mothers smiled at each other in amused +reminiscent fashion. + +The girls were dressed in white; the boys wore flannel trousers with +school blazers and caps. Clemence had put on a veil to protect her +complexion; plain Hannah's sailor hat left yards of forehead bleakly +exposed. Darsie wore her little Kodak swung across her shoulder in +jaunty military fashion. She invariably carried a camera on such +occasions, and never by any chance used it to take any photographs; the +programme was so unalterable that it had ceased to attract any attention +among her companions. + +The omnibus conveyed the party to the ferry, from whence an hourly boat +puffed several miles up the river to where the village of Earley stood +on the opposite bank. It was an ancient and by no means luxurious +barque, impregnated from bow to stern with a hot, oily, funnelly smell +from which it was impossible to escape, and as travellers to Earley were +almost invariably on pleasure bent, the usual satellites were in +attendance. There was an old man in a long coat who had played the same +ballads on the same old concertina with the same incredibly dirty +fingers for as long as memory could recall; there was an old woman with +a clean apron and a tray of gingerbread biscuits slung pendant from her +shoulders, who presented them to you for three a penny, and exclaimed, +"Bless yer little 'art!" when you paid for them yourself, because mother +said it was a pity to spoil your lunch. Deary me! one _would_ have to +be old to have one's appetite--and a picnic appetite at that!--spoiled +by three gingerbread biscuits! The sail to Earley would have been shorn +of one of its chief joys without these sticky sweets. The absence of +the clean, smiling old woman would have been resented as a positive +crime. + +The ferry at Earley was an old-fashioned affair, sloping over the muddy +shore to a little white pay-house with a clanky turnpike on either side. +Once past these turnpikes, the visitor found himself in the midst of +things with delightful suddenness. A wide green stretch of grass lay +along the river bank, bordered by shady trees. To the right stood a +stone hotel with gardens of brilliant flower-beds, and an array of +white-covered tables dotted down the length of the veranda. Grand and +luxurious visitors took their meals in the hotel, but such a possibility +of splendour had never dawned upon the minds of the Garnetts or their +friends--as well might a wayfarer in Hyde Park think of asking for a cup +of tea at Buckingham Palace! To-day a young girl stood in the porch of +the hotel and gazed at the procession as it passed. She was arrayed in +a white serge coat and skirt, and wore a white sailor hat with a blue +band. "Exactly like yours!" said Lavender easily, but Clemence shook +her head in sad denial. _Her_ coat and skirt had been bought ready-made +at a sale, was an inch too short in the waist, and cockled at the seams; +her hat was last year's shape, while the girl in the porch had +just--_the_--very--latest and most perfect specimen of both. + +"Horrid thing, lunching in hotels in clothes like that! Some people +have all the luck!" said Clemence grudgingly, as she moved the heavy +basket from one hand to the other to screen it from the gaze of the +aristocratic eyes; and the girl in the porch spied it all the same, and +sighed to herself wistfully: "They are going picnicking--all those boys +and girls! Oh, how lovely to be them. How I _wish_ I were a big +family..." after the manner of the ungrateful people of this world, who +are so much occupied in envying the possessions of others that they have +no time left in which to be thankful for their own! + +The woods lay not a hundred yards from the ferry itself--real, natural, +untrammelled woods, with grand old trunks standing up tall and straight +like the columns of a cathedral, and dear old gnarled roots which ran +along the ground, covered with lichens and soft green moss. To young +people who spent their lives in one red-brick terrace looking out on +another red-brick terrace across the road, it was like a voyage into +fairyland to step within the cool, green shadow of the woods, to smell +the sweet, sharp smell of the earth, and watch the dapplings of sunlight +through the leaves overhead. Even the boys succumbed to the spell, and +for the first half-hour asked nothing better than to roll about on the +grass, poke in the roots of trees, and speculate concerning rabbit-holes +and nests; but the half-hour over, one and all were convinced that +watches were wrong and they were right in deciding that it was beyond +all manner of doubt full time for lunch; so the cloth was spread on a +level piece of turf, and the good things were consumed with the +lingering enjoyment which they deserved. + +Every one felt that, as lunch marked what was perhaps the most enjoyable +epoch of the whole day, it was his or her bounden duty to eat slowly and +to go on demanding helpings so long as the supply endured; and a certain +feeling of blankness descended when there was no longer any excuse for +lingering, inasmuch as nothing remained to be eaten but a dozen jam +puffs, which, as mother said, had been _meant_ to be very nice, but had +somehow failed to achieve success! The paste, hard enough on top, was +inside of a damp and doughy consistence, and cook had used gooseberry +jam for the filling, thereby taking a mean advantage of absence from +home, when she _knew_ that the family detested gooseberry in tarts, and +steadily plumped for apricot instead. + +"We'll give them to the little boy at the ferry. _He_ won't be so +particular!" Mrs Garnett said as she laid the rejected dainties on one +side and proceeded to pack the oddments which had been required for the +meal in one small basket, placing layers of paper in those left empty. +The young people looked at each other with raised eyebrows as they +watched these proceedings, the meaning of which they knew only too well. +It was forbidden to gather roots from the woods, but no authority had +dreamt of forbidding visitors to carry away _soil_, and this was just +what Mrs Garnett invariably insisted upon doing. The red-brown earth, +rich with sweet fragments of leaf and twig, was too tempting to be +resisted when she thought of her poor pot-bound plants at home; +therefore, instead of swinging homewards with baskets light as air, the +boys were doomed to bear even heavier weights than on the outward +journey. + +"Mother!" cried Clemence in a deep tone of protest. "Not _yet_! +Remember the walk across the fields. Plenty of time to get soil in the +Amphitheatre!" And Mrs Garnett put down her trowel with quite a guilty +air and resigned herself to wait. + +"Well! Perhaps it would be best ... Mrs Vernon and I would like an +hour's rest before going on. What are _you_ going to do now?" + +Every one waited for every one else, and no suggestion was forthcoming. +The boys were once more beginning to roll about on the grass, poking and +pulling at each other in a manner which foretold the beginning of war. +Clemence and Vie were gazing sentimentally through the branches. Plain +Hannah, stretched flat along the ground, was barricading the movements +of a tiny beetle, and chuckling over its persistent efforts to outwit +her schemes. Dan sat with arms clasped around his knees, a picture of +patience on a monument. The sight of his twisted lips, his tilted, +disconsolate chin fired Darsie to action. It was her doing that he was +here at all; it was her duty to make the time pass as agreeably as +possible. + +"Sports!" she cried quickly. "Competitive sports. We'll each plan an +event, and take them in turns. Dan shall be judge, and the one who gets +most marks shall have a prize." + +"What prize?" + +That was a stumper. Darsie could suggest nothing better than a general +subscription. + +"If we each paid a penny entrance--" + +"Oh, be bothered the pennies! I'll give a prize!" cried Dan loftily. +Darsie saw with joy that he had brisked up at the prospect of sports and +was already beginning to cast his eye around in professional manner, +taking in the lie of the land, the outstanding features of the position. +As judge and manager he was in his element, and each suggestion of an +event was altered and amended with a lordly superiority. It is somewhat +difficult to introduce much variety into a programme of impromptu +sports, but one or two of this afternoon's events had the advantage of +novelty. A flower-gathering race, for instance, the object of which was +to see how many varieties of wild flowers each competitor could gather +in a given time, and a Roman water-carrier event, which consisted in +balancing the hot-water jug on one's head and seeing how far one could +walk without spilling its tepid contents over neck and shoulders. Plain +Hannah was the only one of the girls who took part in this event, and to +her joy succeeded in travelling a longer distance than any of the male +competitors. The final and most elaborate event was the obstacle race, +without which no competition of the kind is ever considered complete, +and the united wits of the company were put to work to devise traps for +their own undoing. Harry discovered two small trees whose trunks grew +so close together that it seemed impossible that any human creature +could squeeze between, and insisted upon it being done as a _sine qua +non_. Russell decreed that competitors should travel over a certain +route without touching the ground, swinging themselves from branch to +branch like so many monkeys, and as girls were plainly disqualified for +this feat an alternative test was invented which should score equally to +their credit. Hopping races, races complicated by arithmetical and +other such baffling problems, were also devised, and at the last moment +Darsie came forward with a thrilling novelty. + +"Run to the hamper, turn round three times, seize a jam puff, eat it in +two bites, and hop back to the goal!" + +"Good!" cried the judge approvingly, and after that the competitors +might storm and lament as they would; the event was fixed! + +The two mothers had retired from the scene of the fray and with backs +resting against two friendly trees were peacefully discoursing on +household trials; there was no one to preach concerning indigestion, and +the perils of rapid eating; hot and gasping from their previous trials, +the competitors ran, twirled, hopped and gobbled, and finally subsided +in paroxysms of laughter on the mossy bank. The sports were over; the +prize had fallen to Russell, as every one had known from the start that +it must inevitably do; he sat snoring with pride, waving aside Dan's +inquiries as to the nature of his prize in a gentlemanly manner worthy +of his reputation, until the two mothers, becoming conscious that the +afternoon was passing away, rose heavily from their seats and announced +that it was time to start on the second half of the day's expedition. + +The three-mile walk lay for three parts of the way through fields, which +to the town-livers afforded a refreshing change from noisy and dusty +streets, and when the little village was reached, "our old woman's +cottage" was found to be as clean and neat and hospitably attractive as +of yore. It was a tiny whitewashed cottage standing back from the lane +in a garden bright with old-fashioned flowers, and the stone-floored +kitchen boasted an old oak dresser and table which were the envy of all +beholders. + +"They're always after it!" our old woman would announce, chuckling. +"Titled gentry I've had, driving up in their own carriage, a-coaxing and +wheedling so as never was. `_No_,' I says, `they was my mother's afore +me, and her mother's afore that, and it's a poor tale if I can't have +the pleasure of them while _I_ live! If it's waluable to you, it's +waluable to me, too. That's only common sense...' And what's your +fancy today, lovies? boiled eggs and buttered toast, same as afore?" + +Boiled eggs and buttered toast it was, despite the protests of the +mothers, who thought that really, after such a lunch--! And after tea +our old woman provided buttonholes for each member of the party, and +hobbled to the gate to see them off, assuring them, as was her yearly +custom, that "the gamekeepers was getting very crusty of late, but you +leave the roots alone and nobody can't say nothing about a few bits of +flowers." That yearly threat of the gamekeeper lent a _soupcon_ of +excitement to the scramble over the sloping woods, which surrounded as +an amphitheatre a deep green meadow through which meandered a tiny +stream. + +At any moment, as it appeared, a stalwart figure in velveteen bearing a +gun over his shoulder might appear round the trunk of a tree, demanding +your licence or your life. It was interesting to discuss exactly what +you would do or say under the circumstances, and the very worst thing in +punishments which could possibly be your fate! + +To-day, however, no such interruption took place, and the dear old +playground looked, if possible, more beautiful than ever. The ground +was carpeted with buttercups, and when one stood on the top of the steep +banks and looked down on the green and the gold, and caught glimpses of +the blue sky beyond--well, it was as near an approach to fairyland as +one could hope to find within twenty miles of a big manufacturing town. + +Mrs Garnett packed her basket full of the soft, loamy soil; the girls +roamed up and down making up bouquets of wild roses, honeysuckle, and +fragrant meadowsweet; the boys were blissfully happy, risking life and +limb in an exciting endeavour to travel from top to bottom of the bank +without once touching grass. An occasional tree-trunk was permitted as +a foothold, otherwise you swung yourself from one branch to another, or +took flying leaps into space, and trusted to fate to catch hold of +something before you fell. + +Russell's hairbreadth escapes would have terrified his mother had she +been there to see, but the boys were wise in their generation and had +quietly worked their way round to the opposite bank before beginning +their experiments. It took a considerable time to call them back and +rally forces in time to catch the eight o'clock train, and it was a +dishevelled and by no means aristocratic-looking party which climbed +over the high stone stile leading into the high-road. + +It seemed hard luck that this last mile, when every one was feeling +tired and a trifle flat, should have to be traversed along a dusty, +uninteresting road, and the straggly line grew even farther and farther +apart as the distance to the station decreased. Dan led the way, +walking in the middle of the road, his head flung back with the old +proud air of detachment. The two mothers plodded steadily in the rear. +Russell, scratched and dusty, and looking more like a street arab than a +youth renowned for gentlemanly demeanour, scuffled in the gutter, +kicking up the gathered dust which enveloped him as in a cloud; Harry +and John bore the big hamper slung on a stick, the ends of which they +frequently released for the purpose of straightening their backs and +rubbing their tired hands. Plain Hannah limped on the sideway, being +afflicted with corns which, as she expressed it, always "came on" at the +end of a day's pleasuring. Vie and Clemence, arm-in-arm, were deep in +sentimental conclave. Darsie, the last of the line, hung back of intent +until a curve in the road hid the others from sight. A shadow of +melancholy had descended upon her spirit during the last hour; that fear +of "the last time" which at times makes cowards of us all, was strong +upon her; the possibility of separation suddenly became a terror which +gripped her breath and left her faint and weak. + +Mother--Father--Home! The dear delights of the sea. Could she--could +she _bear_ to give them up? Darsie whimpered miserably, and stopped +short in the middle of the road to pull out her handkerchief, and wipe a +threatening tear. She really did not think she could, and yet every one +seemed to take it for granted that Aunt Maria's choice would fall upon +herself. Was there nothing, nothing that she could do to lessen the +probability? Nothing to make herself look ugly, unattractive, unsuited +for the post of lady's companion? + +A stranger walking along the high-road at this moment would have been +amused to see a pretty, disconsolate-looking young girl deliberately +twisting her features into one grimace after another, and critically +examining the effect in the back of a small silver watch. Every new +grimace necessitated a pause for inspection, so that the distance +between Darsie and her companions increased more and more, until on +turning the next corner of the winding road she was surprised to find no +one in sight--surprised and a trifle startled, for the early dusk was +already casting its shadow over the landscape, and the solitude of a +country road has in it something eerie to a lifelong dweller in towns. +Darsie forgot her grimaces and set off at a trot to make up lost ground, +and even as she ran a sound came from afar which quickened the trot into +a run--the scream of an engine! the engine of the approaching train +which was to bear the picnickers back to town. + +The next turn of the road showed that the rest of the party had taken +alarm also, for the flying figures of Vie and Clemence could be seen +disappearing in the distance, evidently following hastily after those in +front. + +"They'll catch it--they'll rush down the steps just as it's going to +start, bundle in anyhow, into different carriages--never miss me--go +off, never know I'm not there till they get out!" These thoughts rushed +through Darsie's head as she ran gaspingly along the dusty road. It was +imperative that she must catch up to her friends--to be left behind, +without a penny in her pocket to buy a ticket, would be too awful for +words. The shriek of the engine had given place to a repeated snort +which was momentarily growing slower and less pronounced; the train was +slackening speed before drawing up at the platform. + +Faster! Faster! One rush to reach the goal! Darsie set her teeth and +put on a last desperate spurt, caught her foot on an outstanding stone +of the roadway, and fell heavily to the ground. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +DAN TO THE RESCUE. + +There were no bones broken; she was not seriously hurt; but one has to +try for oneself the experiment of running at full tilt, and while so +doing to pitch forward at full length on the ground, to realise how +extremely disagreeable and disconcerting it can be. Darsie dragged +herself slowly to a sitting position, and sat dazed and stupefied, a +forlorn, dust-encrusted figure, with hat tilted rakishly on one side, +and the palm of her right hand scratched to bleeding where it had +dragged along the stony ground. She blinked and stared, and +mechanically brushed at her blackened skirts, but it was several moments +before remembrance of her position returned to her brain, and with it +the realisation of the consequences of delay. She scrambled to her +feet, ran forward for a few paces, and stopped short with a sharp groan +of pain. She had bruised her knees as well as her hand, and the rapid +movement was quite startlingly painful; she fell into a limp, straining +her head upwards to peep over the hedgerow at the road beyond. And +then, clear and distinct after the interval of silence, came another +sharp whistle, another laborious puff, puff, puff. + +The train was leaving the station, and she was left behind! + +Darsie stopped short, and leaned against the hedge. There was no longer +any need to hurry. Either her absence had been discovered or it had +not, and a few minutes' time would settle that question once for all. +It soothed her to pretend that there was a chance that she might find +some one waiting her arrival on the platform, but at the bottom of her +heart she had little hope of such a possibility. As members of a large +family whose parents were not rich enough to pay for the modern plethora +of nurses and governesses, the Garnetts and Vernons had been brought up +to be independent, and to fend for themselves, hence the two mothers +would not be so anxious to count the number of their brood, to see that +each member was safe and sound, as would have been the parents of +smaller, more indulged families. + +There would be a rush for tickets, a hurried glance around on emerging +from the office, the signal of waving hands, and bobbing heads from half +a dozen windows, a quick leap into the nearest seats, and off they would +all steam, panting and puffing, congratulating themselves on their +escape. + +No, Darsie told herself, it was stupid to pretend; certainly, quite +certainly she was left behind; nevertheless, when two or three minutes +later she reached the top of the railway bridge and peered over the +stone wall, it was with quite a big pang of dismay that she beheld the +empty platform. Not a soul! Not a single soul except a cross-looking +porter sitting astride a barrow, with his hands thrust into his trousers +pockets. + +Anything less promising in the shape of a forlorn hope it would be +difficult to imagine, but the circumstances offered no alternative. +Darsie took her courage in both hands and marched boldly towards him. + +"Please will you tell me the time of the next train from town?" + +The porter rolled his eye sideways, surveyed her up and down, formed an +evidently poor opinion, and without a change of position muttered a curt +reply-- + +"Ten-thirty." + +"Ten-thirty!" Dismay at the lateness of the hour struggled with wounded +pride at the man's lack of respect. Half-past ten before any one could +come to the rescue; three long hours of chill and darkness, with no one +to speak to, and nowhere to go! Darsie threw the thought aside with the +impetuous incredulity of youth. + +"When's the next train to town?" + +"Nine-ten." + +That was better! Nine-ten. If she could manage to travel by that train +she would arrive at the terminus in abundance of time to prevent any one +starting by the next stopping train. It was all easy--perfectly easy, +except for the want of a miserable eightpence, but, alas! for the moment +eightpence seemed as inaccessible as eighty pounds. Darsie bent a +scrutinising glance upon the porter's downcast face. "He looks about as +disagreeable as he can be, but he's a human creature; he must have +_some_ heart! Perhaps he's in trouble, too, and it's soured his +disposition. It would mine! I just _hate_ it when things go wrong. I +don't in the least see why I shouldn't have a ticket on account! I'll +see what I can do." + +She coughed and ventured tentatively-- + +"I missed the last train." + +"Did ye!" said the porter coldly. It was not a question; there was no +flicker of the interest of a question in his voice, only a dreary +indifference which seemed to demand what in the world you were thinking +of to trouble him about a stupidity which had happened twenty times a +day throughout twenty years of his service on the line. Darsie drew +herself up with a feeling of affront. He was a rude, ill-mannered man, +who ought to be taught how to speak to ladies in distress. She would +ask her father to complain to the railway! + +What were porters paid for but to make themselves useful to passengers? +She drew herself up in haughty fashion, then as suddenly collapsed as +her eye rested on her dusty boots and blackened, bloodstained skirt. +Ridiculous to act the grand lady with such handicaps as these! She drew +a sharp breath, and said in a voice of childlike appeal-- + +"I'm left behind! My friends have gone on. It's very awkward!" + +"Are ye?" asked the porter indifferently. He took one hand out of his +pocket and pointed woodenly to the right. "Waiting-room first door. Ye +can sit there!" + +Of all the callous, cold-blooded--! Darsie turned with a swing and +marched forward into the bleak little cell which had the audacity to +call itself a first-class waiting-room, seated herself on a leather- +covered bench which seemed just the most inhospitable thing in the way +of furniture which the mind of man could conceive, and gave herself up +to thought. Never, never so long as she lived would she ever again +leave home without some money in her pocket! How in the name of all +that was mysterious could she contrive to possess herself of eightpence +within the next hour? "Our old woman" would lend it with pleasure, but +Darsie shrank from the idea of the darkening country road with the dread +of the town-dweller who in imagination sees a tramp lurking behind every +bush. No, this first and most obvious suggestion must be put on one +side, and even if she could have humbled herself to beg from the porter, +Darsie felt an absolute conviction that he would refuse. At the farther +side of the station there stretched a small straggling village. Surely +somehow in that village--! With a sudden inspiration Darsie leaped to +her feet and approached the porter once more. Into her mind had darted +the remembrance of the manner in which poor people in books possessed +themselves of money in critical moments of their history. + +"Porter, will you please tell me the way to the nearest pawnshop?" + +"P-p--!" Now, indeed, if she had wished to rouse the porter to +animation, she had succeeded beyond her wildest dreams! He spun round, +and gaped at her with a stupefaction of surprise. "Pawnshop, did ye +say? P-awn! What do _you_ want with a pawnshop, a slip of a girl like +you?" + +"That's my business!" returned Darsie loftily. Since he had been so +unsympathetic and rude, she was certainly not going to satisfy his +curiosity. Her dear little watch would provide her with money, and +somehow--she didn't understand why--pawnbrokers gave things back after +paying for them, in the most amiable and engaging of fashions. + +"That's my business! If you would kindly direct me--" + +"We haven't got no pawnshop," said the porter gruffly. He stared at her +slowly up and down, down and up, appeared to awake to a suspicious +interest, and opined gruffly, "You'd better go 'ome!" + +"Just what I'm trying to do," sighed poor Darsie to herself. She turned +and went slowly back to her leather seat, and a second disconsolate +review of the situation. In time to come this experience would rank as +an adventure, and became an oft-told tale. She would chill her +listeners with hints of The Tramp, evoke shrieks of laughter at her +imitation of the porter. Darsie realised the fact, but for the moment +it left her cold. Summer evenings have a trick of turning chill and +damp after the sun is set, and the vault-like waiting-room was dreary +enough to damp the highest spirits. _How was she going to obtain that +eightpence for a ticket_? + +The station clock struck nine; the porter took a turn along the platform +and peered curiously through the dusty window; a luggage train rattled +slowly past, an express whizzed by with thunderous din. The station +clock struck the quarter, and still the problem was as far as ever from +solution. + +"Well," sighed Darsie miserably, "I must just wait. I'm perished with +cold already. In two more hours I shall be frozen. Rheumatic fever, I +suppose, or galloping decline. It will settle Aunt Maria, that's _one_ +good thing! but it's hard all the same, in the flower of my youth! To +think of all that a human creature can suffer for the sake of a +miserable eightpence!" + +She got up stiffly and pressed her face against the pane. People were +beginning to assemble for the nine-ten. An old man with a satchel of +tools, two old women with baskets. "The poor are always generous to the +poor. Suppose I ask them? Twopence three farthings each would not kill +them!" But when one is not used to begging, it is extraordinary how +difficult it is to begin. Darsie tried to think of the words in which +she would proffer her request, and blushed in discomfort. No! she +_could_ not. Of the two disagreeables it really seemed easier to shiver +two hours, and retain one's pride intact, and then, suddenly, the door +of the waiting-room opened with a bang, and Dan's heavy figure stood on +the threshold! The cry of delight, of breathless incredulity with which +Darsie leaped to her feet, must have been heard to the end of the +platform. She rushed forward, clutched his arm, and hugged it fast in +the rapture of relief. + +"Oh, Dan--you angel--you angel! Have you dropped down straight from the +skies?" + +"Not I! Nothing so easy. Scorched along bad roads on a rickety +machine. Would you be kind enough to let go my arm and stop shrieking! +You'll have the whole village here in a moment. So _you're_ all right, +I see! Sitting quietly here, after scaring us half out of our wits--" + +"I think _I'm_ the one to be scared! You were all ready enough to go +on, and leave me stranded by myself. I've gone through a martyrdom. +Dan! tell me, when did you miss me first?" + +Dan gave an expressive grimace. He looked hot and dusty, and thankful +to sit down on the leather bench. + +"Well, it was too much of a scrimmage to think of anything for the first +few miles, but things have a way of printing themselves on one's brain, +and when I _did_ begin to think, there seemed something missing! I +remembered Vie's face--the colour of a beetroot, and Clemence limping in +the rear. I remembered John and Russell hauling up Hannah by her arms, +and the two mothers were safely in their carriage--I'd made sure of +that, but--I couldn't remember a thing about _you_! Then I asked Vie, +and she said you were a long way behind, and I began to guess what had +happened. At the first stop I did a rush round, and--there you weren't! +So of course I came back." + +"But how--how? There was no train. Did you cycle? Where did you get +your machine?" + +"Borrowed him from the stationmaster, and left my watch in exchange, in +case I never went back. Jolly good exchange for him, too. It's the +worst machine I ever rode, and that's saying a good deal. I told your +mother I'd bring you back all right, and persuaded her to go home. What +on earth possessed you to be such a muff?" + +Darsie tossed her head, gratitude giving place to wounded pride. + +"Muff, indeed! You don't know what you are talking about, or you +wouldn't be so unkind. I ran like the rest, but I fell--caught my foot +on something, and fell on my face. I believe I fainted." There was an +irrepressible note of pride in her voice as she made this last +statement, for fainting, being unknown in the healthy Garnett family, +was regarded as a most interesting and aristocratic accomplishment. "I +do believe I fainted, for for several minutes I didn't know where I was. +And I hurt myself, too; look at my hand!" + +Dan looked and whistled. + +"Skinned it properly, haven't you! Reminds me of the days of my youth. +Better sponge it clean with your handkerchief and some of that water. +And when you _did_ remember, the train had gone--." + +"Yes--and not another until after ten, and not a halfpenny in my pocket +to buy a ticket, and no one but a callous wretch of a porter to consult. +Oh, Dan, I _was_ wretched--I'll bless you all my life for coming back +like this!" + +"Rot!" said Dan briskly. "I was the only man. Couldn't do anything +else. I say, you know, it was your doing that I came to this blessed +old picnic at all, and you _have_ let me in for a day! Eleven to eleven +before we've done with it--twelve solid hours! I've had about as much +picnic as I want for the rest of my natural life." + +"I'm sorry. I thought it would be so nice. I'm sorry I bothered you, +Dan." Darsie was tired and cold, in a condition of physical depression +which made her peculiarly sensitive to a slighting mood. She leaned her +head against the ugly wall, and shut her lids over her smarting eyes. +Her cheeks were white. Her lips quivered like a wearied child's, but +she made a charming picture all the same, her inherent picturesqueness +showing itself even in this moment of collapse. + +Dan's gaze grew first sympathetic, then thoughtful, as he looked. In a +dim, abstract way he had been conscious that Darsie Garnett was what he +would have described as "a pretty kid," but the charm of her personality +had never appealed to him until this moment. Now, as he looked at the +dark eyelashes resting on the white cheek, the droop of the curved red +lips, the long, slim throat that seemed to-night almost too frail to +support the golden head, a feeling of tenderness stirred at his heart. +She was such a tiny scrap of a thing, and she had been tired and +frightened. What a brute he was to be so gruff and ungracious! "Buck +up, Darsie! Only ten minutes more to wait. I'll get you a cup of +coffee when we arrive. Your mother said we were to take a cab, so all +the worry's over and nothing but luxury ahead." + +But Darsie, quick to note the soothing effect of her prostration, +refused to "buck up," and looked only more worn and pathetic than +before. The opportunity of lording it over Dan was too precious to be +neglected, so she blinked at him with languid eyes, and said faintly-- + +"I'll try, but I'm so _very_ tired! Do you think you could talk to me, +Dan, and amuse me a little bit? That would pass the time. Tell me +about yourself, and all you are going to do when you go up to +Cambridge." + +And to his own astonishment Dan found himself responding to her request. +His was one of the silent, reserved natures which find it difficult to +speak of the subjects which lie nearest to the heart, but even silent +people have their moments of expansion, and when once Dan had broken the +ice, he found it unexpectedly easy to talk, with Darsie's big eyes fixed +on his in eloquent understanding. She was a capital little listener; +never interrupted at the wrong moment, indulged in senseless +ejaculations, or fidgety, irritating movement. Nothing about her moved, +hardly even the blue eyes, so fixed and absorbed was their gaze, while +Dan spoke in low, rapid tones of the course of work which lay ahead, of +the ambitions and dreams which were to crown his efforts. He must take +first-class honours at Cambridge; nothing less than first-class honours +would do--honours so distinguished that he would have no difficulty in +obtaining a good post as schoolmaster to tide him over the next few +years. "Teaching's the thing for me--for it leaves four months over for +my own work, the real work of my life--scientific study and research! +That's the only thing worth living for from my point of view, and I +shall plump for that. I don't care for money, I don't want to marry, +I'd be content to make enough to keep body and soul together, if I could +only help on the cause of humanity. I am not going up to Cambridge for +two years. I can do better grinding quietly at home, and the governor +doesn't mind. In fact, he is just as well pleased to think I shall have +more time to run when Hannah goes up to Newnham." + +Darsie drew her breath sharply. + +"Oh, Dan! how fortunate you are--how fortunate Hannah is, to be able to +do as you like! I would give my ears to go up to Newnham, too, but +father says it's impossible. He can't afford it with the boys' +education getting more expensive every year. I shall have to stay at +home, and turn into a miserable morning governess, teaching wretched +little kids to read, and taking them for a walk round the park. Oh, oh! +it makes me _ill_ to think about it." + +Dan laughed shortly. + +"Excuse me! it makes you well. You look quite like yourself again. +I'll give you a bit of advice if you like: don't believe that anything's +impossible in this world, because it isn't! Put the nursery governess +idea out of your mind, and fire ahead for Newnham. There's always the +chance of a scholarship, and even if that didn't come off, who can tell +what may happen in three years' time? The way may clear in a dozen +ways; it probably _will_ clear, if you get ready yourself. There are +precious few things one can't gain by steady slogging ahead." + +Darsie looked at him with a kindling glance, her lips set, a spot of red +showed on either cheek. + +"Right!" she said briefly, and at that moment the train steamed into the +station and the conference was at an end. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +AUNT MARIA'S CHOICE. + +Aunt Maria arrived on Tuesday night, bringing "my woman" in attendance. +She was more like a parrot than ever, for her face had grown narrower, +her nose bigger, and the roundness of her eyes was accentuated by gold- +rimmed spectacles. When a richly coloured Paisley shawl was drawn +tightly over her sloping shoulders the resemblance was positively +startling to behold, and the terrors of an eight-weeks visit loomed +larger than ever before the minds of the Garnett sisters. + +The extraordinary thing was that Aunt Maria seemed to take no notice of +the girls, whom, as everybody was aware, she had come to inspect. She +talked to father, she talked to mother, she cross-questioned the boys as +to their progress at school and expressed regret that they had not done +better; she displayed an intelligent interest in the neighbours, the +servants, and the new dining-room rug, but for the three daughters of +the house she had not a word, hardly, it was believed, a glance. + +In the presence of such utter indifference it was impossible to keep up +the various roles which each girl had privately practised with the view +of concealing her charms and diverting Aunt Maria's attention from +herself. Clemence had decided that rounded shoulders and a lurching +gait were defects which at seventeen threatened a painful permanence, +and had therefore lurched persistently throughout the first evening, +since which time she had slowly but steadily recovered her natural gait. + +After long practice before the mirror Darsie had decided that an open +mouth and falling under-jaw could work marvels in the way of stupidity +of expression, and had nerved herself to sit agape for the period of +forty-eight hours. Lavender had decided to sulk. "Every one hates +sulks! It would be better to live alone on a desert island than with a +person who sulks. I'll sulk, and she won't be paid to have me!" So one +sister had sulked and the other gaped the whole of that first long +evening, and then, becoming increasingly freed from their fears, began +to smile secretly across the table, to nod and to nudge, to telegraph +messages in the silent but eloquent fashions to which members of a large +family resort when visitors are present and talking is not allowed. And +Aunt Maria munched her food, and wrapped the Paisley shawl more closely +round her shoulders, and cast not a glance to right or left! A blissful +possibility was broached that she had changed her mind, and did not +desire a visitor after all. + +Wednesday and Thursday passed in increasing calm, but on Friday morning +certain alarming symptoms became visible. Mrs Garnett came to +breakfast with unmistakable signs of agitation upon her face. Mr +Garnett was silent and distrait, hid behind his newspaper, and answered +at random the remarks of his family. Late arrivals were allowed to pass +without reproach, and Tim's raids upon the marmalade received no further +protest than a flickering smile. + +The die was cast! The girls knew it without a word; in a stupor of +misery they sat, ears cocked, hearts in their boots, waiting for a sign +which should betray the truth, and decide once for all the identity of +the victim. + +It came at last, towards the end of the meal, in the midst of a ghastly +silence. + +"Darsie, darling," said Mrs Garnett fondly, "won't you have some more +coffee?" + +"_Darling_!" Never were Mrs Garnett's north-country lips known to use +that term except under stress of the most poignant emotion. To be +"darling" one was compelled to be very ill, very sad, angelically +repentant, or in an extremity of fear, and Darsie, who this morning was +not afflicted in any one of these three ways, realised in a flash the +awful significance of the term. She sat white and silent, too dazed for +speech, and to do them justice Clemence and Lavender looked almost as +perturbed as herself, relief on their own account being eclipsed for the +moment by a realisation of the loss which the holiday party was about to +sustain. With a sudden and uninvited humility each sister mentally +acknowledged that for the general good of the family it would have been +better had the choice fallen upon herself! + +Darsie braced her feet against a leg of the table, and struggled with a +lump in her throat. Coffee? she never wanted to drink any more coffee +so long as she lived! The sight, the smell of it would be for ever +associated with this ghastly moment. She turned big, woeful eyes on her +mother's face and stammered a breathless inquiry: + +"Mother, you have something to say! Please say it. Don't break it to +me, please; it's worse to wait. Say it bang out!" + +"Oh, Darsie, darling; yes, darling, it _is_ as you suppose! Aunt Maria +has chosen you. She wants you to start with her on Saturday morning, +but if it's too soon--if you would rather stay over Sunday, I will +arrange..." + +Darsie bit her lips in the desperate resolve not to cry, but to carry +off the situation with a high air. + +"If I'm to go at all, I'd rather go at once, and get it over. There's +nothing to be gained by delay. `Better to die by sudden shock than +perish piecemeal on the rock.'" + +"But you will want to say goodbye to your friends, dear; you will have +little arrangements to make..." Mrs Garnett was all nervousness and +anxiety to appease, but after the manner of victims Darsie felt a +perverse satisfaction in rejecting overtures, even when by so doing she +doubly punished herself. + +"I don't mean to say goodbye. I don't wish to see any one before I go. +I hate scenes." + +"Well, well! just as you please, dear. After all, it is for a very +short time. Eight weeks will soon pass." + +Silence. Every youthful face at the table was set in an eloquent +declaration that eight weeks was an eternity, a waste, a desert of +space. Mr Garnett put down his newspaper and hurriedly left the room. +He had the usual male horror of scenes, and, moreover, Darsie was his +special pet, and his own nerves were on edge at the thought of the +coming separation. If the child cried or appealed to him for +protection, he would not like to say what he might do. Flight appeared +to be his safest course, but Darsie felt a pang of disappointment and +wounded love at this desertion of her cause, and the smart did not help +to improve her temper. + +"Aunt Maria wishes to see you, dear, as soon as you have finished your +breakfast," continued Mrs Garnett, elaborately conciliatory. "Father +and I are very grateful to her for her interest in you, but you know, +dear, how we feel about losing you, how we sympathise with your +disappointment! We are convinced that in the end this chance will be +for your benefit; but in the meantime it is very hard. We are sorry for +you, dear." + +"And I," declared Darsie coldly, "am sorry for Aunt Maria!" + +She pushed back her chair and stalked out of the room, while her +brothers and sisters stared after her agape. Along the narrow oil- +clothed hall she went, up the steep, narrow staircase to the little +third-floor bedroom, the only place on earth which was her very own. +There was nothing luxurious about it, nothing of any intrinsic value or +beauty, but in the eyes of its occupant every separate article was a +pearl of price. All her treasures were here--her pictures, her +ornaments, her books, mementoes of journeyings, offerings of friends. +It was a shrine, a refuge from the cold outer world. Alone in "my room" +one lost the insignificance of a member of a large family, and became a +responsible human being face to face with personal trials and +responsibilities... + +Eight weeks out of a life! To the adult mind a sacrifice of so short a +period may be a disappointment, but can hardly be deemed a trial; to +schoolgirl fifteen it may seem a catastrophe which clouds the whole +horizon. To Darsie Garnett the change of plan was the first real sorrow +of her life, and these moments of reflection were full of a suffocating +misery. Anticipated joys rose before her with intolerable distinctness. +She saw her companions happily at play, and felt a stabbing dart of +jealousy. Yes, they would forget all about her and feel no loss from +her absence! Clemence and Vie would enjoy their _tete-a-tete_, would be +unwilling to admit a third into their conferences at her return. Dan +would take them for boating and fishing expeditions. Dan would grow to +like Clemence better than herself! Darsie gave a little sob of misery +at the thought. She had no sentimental feelings as regards Dan, or any +one else at this period of her life, but as the one _big_ boy, almost +man, of her acquaintance Dan stood on a pedestal by himself as a lofty +and superior being, whose favour was one of the prizes of life. That +Dan should become more intimate, more friendly with Clemence and +Lavender than with herself was a possibility fraught with dismay. + +Darsie sobbed again, but her eyes were dry; she was angry, too angry to +cry; her heart was seething with rebellion. Some one knocked at the +door and received no answer, knocked again and was curtly ordered to "go +away"; then Mr Garnett's voice spoke, in gentle and conciliatory +tones-- + +"It's father! Let me in, dear; I've just a minute..." + +It was impossible to refuse such a request. Darsie opened the door, and +there he stood, tall and thin, with the embarrassed _boy_ look upon his +face which always made him seem especially near to his children. It was +the look he wore when they were in trouble and he essayed to lecture and +advise, and it seemed to say, "I've been there myself; I understand! +Now it's my part to play the heavy father, but _I'm not nearly so much +shocked as I pretend_!" To-day his manner was frankly commiserating. + +"Well, Kiddie, dear! I was running off to town like a coward, but at +the last moment I was obliged to come up for a word. It's hard lines +for you, dear, and I want you to know that it's hard lines for me, too! +The country won't be half so jolly as if we'd all been together. I'll +miss you _badly_, little lass!" + +"_Don't_! I'll howl. _Don't_ make me howl!" pleaded Darsie hastily, +the tight feeling about her eyes and lips giving place to an alarming +weepiness at the sound of the tender words. "If you really care, +father, couldn't you--couldn't you possibly refuse?" + +Mr Garnett shook his head. + +"No! That's settled. We talked it over, mother and I, and agreed that +it must be done. It's a duty, dear, and we can't shelve duties in this +life. I'm sorry for you in your disappointment, and only wish I could +help, but in this matter no one can help but yourself. You can do a lot +if you try. Shall I tell you, Darsie, how you could get over your +regret, and turn your visit to Arden into something far more agreeable +than you can now imagine?" + +Darsie cocked an eye at him, suspicious and hesitating. He was going to +preach! She knew the symptoms of old, and by way of counter-action put +on her most dour and sullen expression. + +"Um!" + +"Very well, then, here it is! Turn your back on the might-have-been, +and try with all your might to like what _is_! Aunt Maria will, I know, +be all that is kind and indulgent--in her own way! It won't be _your_ +way, however, and that's the rub. If you begin your visit in a spirit +of irritation, I'm afraid you are going to have a pretty poor time, but +if you try to enjoy every little thing that comes along out of which +enjoyment can be squeezed and to _laugh_ at the rest, to laugh instead +of to cry--well, it's astonishing how the scene will change! Do you +think you could try?" + +Darsie pouted, sulky and unconvinced. "Were _you_ resigned when you +were fifteen?" + +"No, my lassie! I wasn't, indeed. Very far from it, I'm sorry to say. +But when one has travelled on for many years and come many a cropper on +the way one _does_ long to show one's children the short cuts! That's +_one_ short cut. Darsie; I wish you'd take it, and avoid the falls. If +you can't have what you like, try to like what you have. Expect good, +not evil. Say to yourself every morning: `This is going to be a good +day, a happy day, one of the happiest days of my life,' and then you are +half-way towards making it so. Poor little Kiddie! it sounds hard, but +try it--try it--and occasionally, just for a change, forget that you are +Darsie Garnett for five minutes or so at a time, and pretend instead +that you are Maria Hayes! Pretend that you are old and lonely and +ailing in health, and that there's a young girl staying with you from +whom you are hoping to enjoy some brightness and variety! Eh? The +other morning in church you were beside me when we were singing `Fight +the good fight!' You sang it heartily, Darsie; I enjoyed your +singing.--I thought you looked as if you really meant the words. Well, +here's the battlefield for you, dear! Are you going to play coward? I +don't believe it. I think better of my girl!" + +He laid his hand on her shoulder with a caressing touch. Darsie +wriggled and screwed up her little nose in eloquent grimace, but when +the hand crept up to her chin she lifted her face for the farewell kiss, +and even volunteered an extra one on her own account on the dear, thin +cheek. + +Mr Garnett smiled contentedly to himself as he descended the staircase. +Darsie had made no promises, but he was satisfied that his words had +not been in vain. And Darsie, left alone in her room, fell +instinctively to repeating the words of the grand old hymn-- + + "Run the straight race through God's good grace, + Lift up thine eyes, and seek His Face..." + +A little sob punctuated the lines. To the blind eyes of earth the +straight race appeared so very very crooked! + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +FIRST DAYS. + +Darsie left home on the following Thursday, and in company with Aunt +Maria and "my woman" took train for Arden, in Buckinghamshire. The +journey was a nightmare, for Lady Hayes disliked travelling, and was in +a condition of nervousness, which made her acutely susceptible to the +doings of her companions. Within an hour of starting Darsie had been +admonished not to sit facing the engine because of the draught, not to +look out of the window in case she got a cinder in her eye, not to read +in case she strained her eyes, not to rub her fingers on the pane, not +to cross her knees because it was unladylike, not to shout, not to +mumble, not to say "What?" not to yawn without putting her finger over +her mouth, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. + +Being called to account so frequently was an exhausting process, and +Darsie felt a thrill of joy at the announcement of lunch. A meal in a +train would be a novel and exciting experience which would go far +towards making up for the dullness of the preceding hour, but alas! +Aunt Maria refused with scorn to partake of food, cooked goodness knew +how, by goodness knew whom, and had supplied herself with a few Plasmon +biscuits, the which she handed round with the information that they +contained more nourishment than ounces of beefsteak. They were very +dull and very dry, however, and Darsie managed to get a crumb down the +wrong way, and coughed continuously for the next hour in a tickling, +aggravating manner, while Aunt Maria reiterated, "Really, my dear! +_Most_ unpleasant!" and seemed to consider herself personally aggrieved. + +When Arden was reached the position improved, for stationmaster and +porters alike flew to hover round the great lady of the neighbourhood, +and Darsie sunned herself in the novel consciousness of importance. +Outside the station a cart was waiting for luggage, and a large, old- +fashioned barouche with two fat brown horses, and with two brown- +liveried servants upon the box. The village children bobbed curtsies as +the carriage bowled through the village street, and Darsie smiled +benignly and bent her yellow head in gracious acknowledgment. As niece +and guest of the Lady of the Towers, these greetings were surely partly +intended for herself. She felt an exhilarating glow of complacence, and +determined to describe the scene to Vie Vernon on the earliest possible +opportunity. + +The Towers was a large, very ugly, stucco house, surrounded by a +beautiful rolling park. Inside, the rooms were huge and square, and one +and all characterised by a depressing pitch of orderliness, which made +it almost impossible to believe that they could be used as ordinary +human habitations! + +Darsie was escorted to a bedroom with ponderous mahogany furniture, so +complete a contrast from her own shabby, cheery little den that the +sight of it added the final touch to her depression. She refreshed +herself by a long splash in hot water, brushed out her tangled mane, put +on her Sunday dress, and descended in state to partake of dinner, which +was served an hour earlier than usual in consideration of the +travellers' hunger and fatigue. + +Despite her weariness and nervous exhaustion, Lady Hayes had made what +appeared to Darsie's unsophisticated eyes a magnificent toilette for the +meal, and she eyed the Sunday frock with a criticism which was anything +but approving. "But it's the best I've got, except the party one, and I +can't wear that for one old lady," said Darsie to herself as she +followed meekly behind the _moire antique_ train, and seated herself at +the end of the dining-table. Two men-servants stood at attention--two! +one for each diner, solemn, immovable-looking creatures who seemed to +move on wheels and who kept their eyes glued upon every mouthful you +ate, ready to pounce upon your plate and nip it swiftly and noiselessly +away. They were stricken with dumbness also, if you were to trust the +evidence of your senses, but had certainly ears, and could drink in +every word you said. + +For the rest, it might be soothing to one's pride to live in a big +country house, but it was certainly abnormally dull. The day's +programme never varied by a hair's breadth, and Aunt Maria, though kind, +possessed the failing of all others most trying to the youthful mind. +_She fussed_! She fussed about clothes, she fussed about food, she +fussed about draughts, she fussed about manners, deportment, speech, the +way you sat down, the way you got up, the way you laughed, yawned, +sneezed, crossed the room, and did your hair. From morning to night, +"My dear, _don't_!" or "My dear, _do_!" rang in Darsie's ears, till she +was almost beside herself with irritation. + +Honestly and laboriously she tried to practise her father's advice: to +put the thought of the seaside party aside, make the most of the good +points of her own position, and "fight the good fight," but the effort +seemed to exhaust her physically, as well as mentally, until by the end +of the day she looked white and drooping, pathetically unlike her +natural glowing self. Aunt Maria noticed the change, and fussed about +that, too, but with an underlying tenderness that was upsetting to the +girl's strained nerves. + +"You look very tired to-night, my dear! Are you not well? Is there +anything the matter?" + +"Quite well, thank you. Only--lonely!" replied Darsie, with a plaintive +accent on that last word which brought Lady Hayes's glance upon her in +quick inquiry-- + +"Lonely! But, my dear, you haven't been a minute alone all day long." + +"No," agreed Darsie meekly, and said no more, but the little +monosyllable was more eloquent than any disclaimer. Lady Hayes flushed, +and knitted her brows in thought. + +"I must ask some young people to meet you. I have some nice young +friends living about a mile away. They are visiting at present, but +will soon be home. I will write. Naturally you miss the young +society." + +She was so kind, so considerate, that it seemed mean to feel bored and +impatient; but, oh dear, how long the days _did_ seem, how dull and +monotonous the morning drive, the afternoon needlework, the evening game +of patience or bezique. + +The climax came one rainy afternoon when the ordinary two-hours drive +could not take place, and the hostess and her young guest had spent most +of the day together in the library. Now it is trying for an old lady as +well as for a young one to be deprived of the usual exercise, and if +Darsie's impatience and rebelliousness of spirit were more acute than +usual, Lady Hayes was also more nervous and exacting. In this instance +the weight of the old lady's displeasure seemed to fall upon Darsie's +unfortunate coiffure. Whatever turn the conversation might take, it +returned with relentless certainty to "Your hair, my dear! When _I_ was +young, young girls wore their hair neatly braided. I intensely dislike +all this purring and elaboration. You would look a different girl if +you brushed it smoothly." + +"I should," agreed Darsie coolly. "I should look a sight. _My_ +pompadour is the best pompadour in my class. The girls all say so. +They ask me how I do it. I've taught lots of them to do their own." + +"I'm sorry to hear it. Time enough when you come out to wear +`pompadours,' as you call them. And your bow! Ridiculous size! If it +were neat and small--" + +"They wear them twice as big in America. And in France. Sash ribbons! +I would, too, if I could afford. It's the fashion, Aunt Maria. Every +one wears them big." + +"Surely that is all the more reason why a sensible girl should set a +good example by being neat and moderate herself! I don't approve of +hair being allowed to grow long at your age, but if it _is_ long, it +ought certainly to be kept in bounds. Yours is hanging all over your +shoulders at this moment. Most untidy! I am speaking for your own +good." + +There was a moment's chilly silence, then Darsie asked in a tone of +extraordinary politeness-- + +"Just exactly _how_ would you do my hair, Aunt Maria, if you were in my +place to-day?" + +Lady Hayes straightened herself briskly. "I should _brush_ it," she +said emphatically. "It is naturally curly, no doubt, but I cannot +believe that a good brushing would not reduce it to order! I should +damp it and brush it well, and then tie it back so that it would not +hang loose over your shoulders like a mane. It would be pleasant to see +what a difference it would make. A neat head is one of the things which +every young gentlewoman should strive to possess." + +Darsie folded her needlework, put it neatly away in her bag, and, rising +from her seat, marched slowly from the room. It was nearing the hour +for tea, when she usually went upstairs to wash and tidy-up generally, +so that there was nothing unusual in her departure; it was only when she +was safe inside her room that the extraordinary nature of to-day's +preparations was revealed. + +She took off the lace collar and pretty bead necklace which gave an air +of lightness to her plain dark dress, wrapped a dressing-jacket round +her shoulders, and dipped her head deep into a basin of water. Then +with a comb the _wet_ hair was parted accurately in the centre, and +brushed to the ears till it had the air of being painted rather than +real, so smooth and plastered was the effect. The ends, plaited with +merciless tightness, were looped together with a fragment of a broken +shoelace, so tightly that from the front no sign of their presence could +be suspected. When all was finished and the dressing-jacket thrown +aside the effect was positively startling to behold. It did not seem +possible to believe that this prim, demure damsel could be the same +brilliant-looking creature who had entered the room but ten minutes +before, and Darsie herself was half-shocked, half-triumphant at the +completeness of the transformation. + +"'Spose I had a fever and lost my hair! How simply awful!" she said to +herself in terror. "If they could see me at home, they'd never call me +pretty again. I think even Aunt Maria will jump!" + +She skipped with delight at the possibility, and the gesture seemed so +singularly out of keeping with her appearance that she laughed again, +restored to good temper by the delightful experience of taking part in a +prank once more. + +Ten minutes later, accurately at the moment when the tea equipage would +be in course of arrangement in the drawing-room, Darsie composed her +face into a "prunes and prism" decorum, and slipped noiselessly into the +room. + +To a certain extent all was as she had expected. Mason stood +majestically over the tea-table; James, his satellite, approached with a +tray of cakes and sandwiches; Aunt Maria sat waiting in her high-backed +chair--so far all was just as she had planned; what she was all +unprepared for, however, was the presence of three youthful visitors, +two girls and a youth, who sat facing the door, staring at her in +stunned dismay. + +The Percivals! By all that was ill-timed and embarrassing, the +Percivals themselves, returned from their visit, choosing a wet +afternoon to drive over and pay their respects to Lady Hayes's young +guest! Sheer horror of the situation took away Darsie's breath; she +stood stock still in the middle of the floor, felt her lips gape apart, +the crimson rush to her face, saw in a mental flash a vision of the +country bumpkin she must appear--just for a moment, then Aunt Maria's +voice said, in even, equable tones-- + +"Ah, here she is! Darsie, these are my young friends of whom I have +spoken. I am pleased that you should become acquainted. My niece, +Darsie Garnett. Noreen, Ida, and Ralph Percival... Now we will have +tea!" + +The voice, the manner, were absolutely normal. Was it possible that she +had not _seen_? Darsie shot a quick glance at the old lady's face, met +an unconcerned smile, and for the first time in the history of their +acquaintance felt a thrill of admiration. Splendid to have such self- +control, to show _no_ sign of surprise or irritation! She shook hands +awkwardly with the three visitors, and sat down on the nearest chair. + +"So awfully pleased to meet you!" cried Noreen gushingly. She was a +smart-looking girl of sixteen, with brown eyes and a deeply dimpled +chin. Darsie knew exactly what she was thinking--understood that the +gushing manner had been adopted to disguise dismayed disappointment in +the aspect of a possible companion. Ralph was quite old--eighteen at +least, with well-cut features, thin lips, and small grey eyes, a dandy +wearing a fancy waistcoat and resplendent white spats. His whole aspect +breathed a loud, "I told you so! You _would_ drag me with you. _Told_ +you how it would be. Lady Hayes's grand-niece! What could you expect?" +Ida was bubbling over with curiosity. What a fine story she would have +to tell to the family party on her return! + +Conversation would have dragged pitifully if it had not been for Aunt +Maria's efforts, for the visitors seemed smitten with dumbness, and +beneath the fire of their glances Darsie's embarrassment increased +rather than diminished. She had no spirit left; a succession of +monosyllables and an occasional "Oh, really!" made up the sum of her +contributions to the conversation. It must have been a strong sense of +duty which nerved Noreen Percival to offer the invitation which +presumably was the object of her visit. + +"We want to know if you will come to lunch with us on Thursday, and stay +for the afternoon? If it's fine, we can have some tennis. We will +drive you back after tea." + +Darsie hesitated, but apparently the decision was not to be left to her. +Aunt Maria accepted with a gracious acknowledgment of Mrs Percival's +kindness, and in answer to a scowl from Ralph his sisters rose and made +a hasty adieu. + +"We came in the governess cart. The pony gets restless--mustn't keep +him waiting. Thank you _so_ much! Goodbye!" + +They were gone; the outer door was shut behind them. Darsie, standing +by the tea-table, caught a glimpse of her own reflection in a mirror at +the opposite end of the room, a stiff, Dutch-doll of a figure, with +plastered hair, crimson cheeks, and plain frock. She glanced at Aunt +Maria reseating herself in her high-backed chair, and taking up the +inevitable knitting. Now for it! now for the lecture! Well, after all, +she had only done what had been suggested, a trifle _more_ perhaps +than had been suggested, but that was erring on the right side, not the +wrong. Besides, if a naughty impulse to annoy and humiliate Aunt Maria +had really existed, in the end she had been a thousand times more +humiliated herself. And now, if you please, she was to be scolded and +lectured into the bargain! + +But Aunt Maria neither lectured nor scolded. All through that next hour +when pride kept Darsie chained to her place, the older lady talked in +her most natural manner, and even smiled at her companion across the +patience-board without a flicker of expression to betray that the figure +confronting her was in any way different from the one which she was +accustomed to see. + +Once more admiration vanquished irritation, and Darsie roused herself to +join in the problem of "building," and ended in actually feeling a +dawning of interest in what had hitherto appeared the dreariest of +problems. When seven o'clock struck, and the old lady closed the board, +and said, in her natural, every-day voice, "And now we must dress for +dinner!" Darsie walked slowly across the room, hesitated, and finally +retraced her steps and knelt down on a footstool by Lady Hayes' side. + +"Aunt Maria--_please_! I should like to thank you!" + +"Thank me, my dear. For what?" + +"For--for saying nothing! For not crowing over me as you might have +done!" + +The flushed, upturned face was very sweet--all the sweeter perhaps for +the plastered hair, which gave to it so quaint and old-world an air. +Lady Hayes laid a wrinkled hand on the girl's shoulder; her eyes +twinkled humorously through her spectacles. + +"No, I won't crow, my dear! That would be ungenerous. Circumstances +have been pretty hard on you already. This--this little exhibition was +not intended for an audience, but for my own private edification. It +was unfortunate that the Percivals should have chosen such a moment for +their first call. I was sorry for your discomfiture." + +"You oughtn't to have been! I _meant_ to be naughty. Oh, you've +scored--scored all the way. I apologise in dust and ashes, but please-- +if you will be very noble--_never_ speak of it again!" + +She reached the door once more, was about to make a bolt for the +staircase, when Lady Hayes's voice called to her to return-- + +"Darsie?" + +"Yes!" + +"Come here, child!" + +The thin hand was held out to meet hers, the kind old eyes looked +wonderfully soft and tender. + +"I think it is only fair to tell you that ... in your own language, you +have scored also! ... Oblige me by doing your hair in your ordinary +fashion for the future!" + +"Oh, Aunt Maria, you _duck_!" cried Darsie, and for the first time in +her life flung her arms voluntarily around the old lady's neck and gave +her a sounding kiss. + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +THE PERCIVALS. + +It was really rather fun dressing for the visit to the Percivals on +Thursday; trying to make oneself look one's _very_ best, and imagining +their surprise at the transformation! Aunt Maria, too, seemed quite to +enter into the spirit of the thing, inquired anxiously _which_ dress, +and gave special instructions that it should be ironed afresh, so that +it might appear at its freshest and best. + +"My woman" had evidently been instructed to take the young guest's +wardrobe under her care, since new ribbons and frilling now appeared +with engaging frequency, giving quite an air to half-worn garments. +Darsie in a blue muslin dress, with a white straw hat wreathed with +daisies, and her golden locks floating past her waist, made a charming +picture of youth and happiness as she sat in the old barouche, and when +the hall was reached Aunt Maria cast a keen glance around the grounds, +transparently eager to discover the young people and share in the fun of +the meeting. + +Ralph was nowhere to be seen, that was _not_ to be wondered at under the +circumstances, but the two girls were on duty on the tennis-lawn in +front of the house, ready to come forward and welcome their guest +immediately upon her arrival. + +The blank gapes of bewilderment with which they witnessed the alighting +of the radiant blue and gold apparition afforded keen delight both to +aunt and niece. They were literally incapable of speech, and even after +Aunt Maria had driven away, coughing in the most suspicious manner +behind a raised hand, even then conversation was of the most jerky and +spasmodic kind. It was amusing enough for a time, but for a whole +afternoon it would certainly pall, and Darsie _did_ want to enjoy +herself when she had a chance. She decided that it was time to put +matters on a right footing, and looked smilingly to right and left, at +her embarrassed, tongue-tied companions. + +"I think," said Darsie politely, "that I owe you an explanation!" + +She explained, and Noreen and Ida pealed with laughter, and danced up +and down on the gravel path, and slid their hands through her arm, +vowing undying friendship on the spot. + +"How per-fectly killing! I do _love_ a girl who is up to pranks. +_What_ a prank! How you _must_ have felt when you saw us sitting there! +And Lady Hayes--what _did_ she say? Was she per-fectly furious?" + +"Aunt Maria behaved like an angel, a dignified angel! I never liked her +so much. How did _you_ feel? Tell me just exactly your sentiments when +you saw me walking into that room?" + +"I certainly did feel upset, because we _had_ to ask you! Mother said +we must, and we asked each other what on _earth_ should we do with you +all day long. Ida did say that your eyes were pretty. She was the only +one who stuck up for you at all! I thought you looked too appalling for +words." + +"What did your brother say?" asked Darsie with natural feminine +curiosity, whereupon Noreen answered with unabashed candour-- + +"He said you were `a rummy little frump,' and that he would take very +good care to have an engagement for to-day as many miles as possible +away from home!" + +"Did he, indeed!" The colour rose in Darsie's cheeks. "Well, I'm very +glad he did. I like girls best, and I thought _he_ looked conceited and +proud. My best friend has a big brother, too, but he's not a bit like +yours. Rather shaggy, but _so_ clever and kind! He promised to write +to me while I was here, just because he knew I should be dull. It's +really an honour, you know, for he is terrifically clever. Every one +says he will be Prime Minister one day. He's going to Cambridge. Your +brother is, too, isn't he? I shouldn't think they would be at _all_ in +the same set!" + +The Percival girls looked at each other and smiled. + +"Poor old Ralph! Isn't she blighting? You don't know anything about +him, you know. It's only because he called you a frump, but never mind, +he has to be back to tea to look after some work for father, and then +he'll see! If you are going to be friends with us, you mustn't begin by +disliking our brother. He may be conceited, but he is certainly not +`shaggy,' and he is much nicer to his sisters than most big boys. He +thinks we are really nicer than other girls." + +Darsie regarded them critically. + +"Well, I think you are!" she conceded graciously. "Oh, how thankful I +am that there is some one _young_ in the neighbourhood. I was beginning +to feel so painfully middle-aged. Let's sit down and talk. Tell me +about yourselves. Do you go to school? Which school? Do you go in for +exams? What subjects do you like best?" + +Noreen laughed, and shook her head. + +"We have a governess. We are going for a year to a finishing school in +Paris, but mother doesn't approve of exams, for girls. She wants us to +be able to play, and sing, and draw, and speak German and French, and +she says that's enough. We don't bother about Latin or mathematics or +any of those dull old things." + +"They are not dull. They're glorious. I revel in them. But you're +rich, of course, and won't have to work. I shall have to earn money +myself, so I want to pass all the exams. I can." + +The Percivals stared in solemn surprise. The idea was so strange it +took some time to digest. All their friends were well off like +themselves; really, when they came to think of it, they had never met a +prospective _working_ girl before! They regarded Darsie with a +curiosity tinged with compassion. + +"Do you mean it--really? Tell us about yourself? Where do you live?" + +"In Birchester, Craven Street, Sandon terrace--the corner house in +Sandon Terrace." + +"Craven Street. Really!" The girls were plainly shocked, but Ida +rallied bravely, and said in her most courteous air: "It must be so +_interesting_ to live in a street! So much to see. And have you _very_ +interesting people living across the road?" + +"No. Rather dull. Husbands and wives, and one old bachelor with a +leg--lame leg, I mean. No one at all thrilling, but our friends--our +_best_ friends--live in a terrace at right angles with ours. We have +great times with them. I'll tell you about our latest craze." + +Noreen and Ida sat breathlessly listening to the history of the +telegraph, till it was time to go into the house for lunch, when Darsie +was introduced to Mrs Percival, a very smartly dressed lady, who looked +astonishingly young to be the mother of a grown-up family. After lunch +the three girls attempted tennis, but gave it up in deference to the +visitor's lack of skill, visited stables and kennels and conservatory, +and were again brought face to face with the different points of view +existing between the town and the country dweller. + +"Do all people who live in the country go and stare at their horses and +dogs every day of their lives?" demanded Darsie with an air of patient +resignation, as Noreen and Ida patted, and whistled, and rubbed the +noses of their four-footed friends, fed them with dainty morsels, and +pointed out good points in technical terms which were as Greek in the +listener's ears. "Aunt Maria goes every single day; it's a part of the +regular programme, like knitting in the afternoon and Patience at night. +I get--_so_ bored!" + +The shocked looks which the Percival sisters turned upon her seemed +ludicrously out of proportion with the circumstances. + +"Don't you--don't you _love_ animals?" + +"Certainly--in their place. But I _cannot_ see the interest in staring +in through a stable door at the same horses standing munching in the +same stalls day after day. It's no use pretending that I can," declared +Darsie obstinately. "And the dogs make such a noise, and drag at your +clothes. I'm always thankful to get away. Let's go back to the garden +and look at the flowers. I could stare at flowers for ages. It seems +too glorious to be true to be able to pick as many roses as you like. +At home mother buys a sixpenny bunch on Saturday, and cuts the stalks +every day, and puts them into fresh water to make them last as long as +possible, and we have nasturtiums for the rest of the week. I love the +fruit and vegetable garden, too. It's so amusing to see how things +grow! Especially,"--she laughed mischievously, showing a whole nest of +baby dimples in one pink cheek, "I warn you frankly that this is a +hint!--especially things you can _eat_!" + +Noreen and Ida chuckled sympathetically. + +"Come along! There is still a bed of late strawberries. We'll take +camp-stools from the summer-house, and you shall sit and feast until you +are tired, and we'll sit and watch you, and talk. We seem to have had +strawberries at every meal for weeks past, and are quite tired of the +sight, so you can have undisturbed possession." + +"And I," said Darsie with a sigh, "have never in my life had enough! It +will be quite an epoch to go on eating until I _want_ to stop. That's +the worst of a large family, the dainties divide into such tiny shares!" + +Ten minutes later the three girls had taken up their position in the +kitchen garden in a spot which to the town-bred girl seemed ideal for +comfort and beauty. The strawberry-bed ran along the base of an old +brick wall on which the branches of peach-trees stretched out in the +formal upward curves of great candelabra. An old apple-tree curved +obligingly over the gravel path to form a protection from the sun, and +it was the prettiest thing in the world to glance up through the +branches with their clusters of tiny green apples, and see the patches +of blue sky ahead. Darsie sat stretching out her hand to pluck one big +strawberry after another, an expression of beatific contentment on her +face. + +"Yes--it's scrumptious to live in the country--in summer! If it were +always like this I'd want to stay for ever, but it must be dreadfully +dull in winter, when everything is dead and still. I shouldn't like it +a bit." + +"No! No!" the Percival girls protested in chorus. "It's beautiful +always, and livelier than ever, for there's the hunting. Hunting is +just _the_ most delightful sport! We hunt once a week always, and often +twice--the most exciting runs. We are sorry, absolutely sorry when +spring comes to stop us." + +"Oh, do you hunt!" Darsie was quite quelled by the thought of such +splendour. In town it was rare even to see a girl on horseback; a hunt +was a thing which you read about, but never expected to behold with your +own eyes. The knowledge that her new friends actually participated in +this lordly sport raised them to a pinnacle of importance. She munched +strawberries in thoughtful silence for several moments before recovering +enough spirit to enter another plea in favour of town. + +"Well, anyway--if you _don't_ hunt, it must be dull. _And_ lonely! +Aren't you scared to death walking along dark lanes without a single +lamppost? I should live in terror of tramps and burglars, and never +dare to stir out of the house after three o'clock." + +"No you wouldn't, if you were accustomed to it. Our maids come home +quite happily at ten o'clock at night, but if they go to a city they are +nervous in the brightly lit streets. That's curious, but it's true. We +used to leave doors and windows open all day long, and hardly trouble to +lock up at night, until a few months ago when we had a scare which made +us more careful. Till then we trusted every one, and every one trusted +us." + +"A scare!" Darsie pricked her ears, scenting an excitement. "What +scare? Do tell me! I love gruesome stories. What was it? Thieves?" + +Noreen nodded solemnly. + +"Yes! It's gruesome enough. Simply horrid for us, for so many other +people lost their--but I'll tell you from the beginning. It was the +night of the Hunt Ball at Rakeham, and the house was crammed with +visitors. We were allowed to sit up to see them all start. They looked +so lovely--the men in their pink coats, and the ladies in their very +best dresses and jewels. Well, it was about half-past seven; the ladies +had gone upstairs to dress about half an hour before, when suddenly +there was a great noise and clamour, and some one shouted `Fire!' and +pealed an alarm on the gong. No one knew where it was, but you never +heard such a hubbub and excitement. Doors opened all down the +corridors, and the ladies rushed out in dressing-gowns and dressing- +jackets, with hair half done, or streaming down their backs, shrieking +and questioning, and clinging to one another, and rushing downstairs. +The men were more sensible; they took it quite calmly, and just set to +work to put the fire out. It was in a little room on the second floor, +and the strange thing was that it hadn't been used for months, and no +one could account for there being a fire there at all. After a little +time one of the men came out into the corridor, and said: `There's +something wrong about this--this is not the result of accident! I don't +like the look of it at all.' Then he turned to the ladies, who were all +huddled together, gasping and questioning, with their maids and the +other servants in the background, and said: `Ladies! I advise you to go +back to your rooms as quickly as possible. There is not the slightest +danger, but it might be just as well to look after your jewellery!' + +"You should have heard them shriek! They turned and rushed like +rabbits, and the maids rushed after them, shrieking too, but that was +nothing to the noise two minutes after, when they got back to their +rooms and found their jewels gone! They were laid out ready to be put +on, on the dressing-tables, and the alarm had been cleverly timed to +give the ladies enough time to get half dressed, but not enough to have +put on their jewellery. Only one out of all the party had put on her +necklace. She _was_ pleased! + +"Well, they shrieked, and shrieked, and some of the men left the fire +and came upstairs to the rescue. Captain Beverley was the smartest, and +he just tore along the corridor to a dressing-room over the billiard- +room, and there was a man letting himself drop out of the window, and +scrambling over the billiard-room roof to the ground! Captain Beverley +gave the alarm, and the servants rushed out to give chase. It was very +dark, and they could not tell how many men there were, for they kept +dodging in and out among the trees. Some people said there were only +two, and some said they saw four, but only one was caught that night--an +idle, loafing young fellow who had been staying at the village inn for a +few weeks, pretending to be a city clerk convalescing after an illness. +The worst of it was that he had only a few of the smaller things in his +pockets, none of the really big, valuable pieces." + +"Goodness!" Darsie's eyes sparkled with animation. "That _was_ an +excitement. I wish I'd been here. Go on! What happened after that?" + +"Oh, my dear, the most awful evening! The visitors had all brought +their very _best_ things, as the Hunt Ball is a great occasion, and they +almost all cried, and one poor lady went into hysterics. Her father had +been an ambassador and had all sorts of wonderful orders and things +which she had had made into brooches and pendants, and they could never +be replaced, no matter how much money she spent. Dinner was the most +weepy meal you can imagine, and only one or two of the sensible ones +went on to the ball. The others stayed at home and moped, and mother +had to stay, too. Poor dear! she had to keep calm, and comfort every +one else, when she'd lost all her own pet things. There was one string +of pearls which has been in our family for generations, and each new +owner adds a few more pearls, so that it gets longer and longer, and +more and more valuable. It would have belonged to Ralph's wife some +day. He was so funny about it, so disappointed! He kept saying: `Poor +little girl! it _is_ rough luck!' We said: `Why pity her, when you +haven't the least idea who she is?' He said: `Why not, when I know very +well that I _shall_ know some day!'" + +Darsie smiled with politely concealed impatience. She was not in the +least interested in Ralph's problematical wife, but she was devoured +with anxiety to hear further particulars of the exciting burglary. + +"Well, well! Go on! You said they only caught one man that night. +That means, I suppose--" + +"Yes!" Noreen sighed tragically. "That was the saddest part of it. +The next morning they found another man lying just outside the walled +garden. He had scrambled up, holding on to the fruit-trees, and had +then jumped down and broken his leg, and he was not a stranger, but one +of our very own men--an under-gardener whom we had all liked so much. +Father believed that he had been bribed and led away by the man from +London, and offered to let him off if he would tell all he knew, how +many thieves there had been, and give the names and descriptions of the +ones who had escaped, but he wouldn't. Nothing would make him speak. +We all tried in turns, and then the Vicar came and was shut up with him +for an age, but it was no use. They say `there's honour among thieves,' +and it's true. He wouldn't give the others away, so the two were sent +to prison together, and they are there still. Father says they won't +mind a few months' imprisonment, for when they come out they will get +their share of the money and be quite rich. They'll probably sail off +for America or Australia and buy land, and live in luxury ever after. +It _is_ a shame! Father and mother feel it awfully. Such a dreadful +thing to happen when you ask your friends to stay!" + +"Yes! it's a comfort to have nothing to lose. Mother has one diamond +ring, which she always wears above the wedding one, and there's nothing +else worth stealing in the house, except watches and silver spoons, so +that Aunt Maria need fear no qualms on account of her present visitor. +No one will set her house on fire on account of my jewels--a few glass +beads and a gold safety-pin, all told! You see them before you now!" +Darsie tossed her head and pointed towards her treasures with an air of +such radiant satisfaction that Noreen and Ida dropped the effort to be +polite, and pealed with delighted laughter. + +"You _are_ a funny girl! You do amuse us. It's so nice to have a new +friend. The girls near here are so deadly dull. You seem so full of +spirit." + +"Too full. It runs away with me. I act first and think afterwards. +_Not_ a good principle for a working life," pronounced Miss Darsie +sententiously as she searched among the green leaves for a strawberry +sufficiently large and red to suit her fastidious taste. The Percivals +watched her with fascinated gaze. An hour before they would have +professed the most profound pity for a girl who lived in a street, owned +neither horse nor dog, and looked forward to earning her own living, but +it was with something more closely resembling envy that they now +regarded Darsie Garnett, weighted as she was with all these drawbacks. +There was about her an air of breeziness, of adventure, which shook them +out of their self-complacence. It no longer seemed the all-important +thing in life to belong to a county family, attend the hunt, and look +forward to a presentation at Court; they felt suddenly countrified and +dull, restricted in aim and interest. + +It was while Darsie was still conversing in airy, discursive fashion, +and her companions listening with fascinated attention, that footsteps +were heard approaching, and Ralph's tall figure appeared at the end of +the path. He was evidently taking a short cut through the grounds, and +as Darsie was out of his line of vision, being planted well back among +the strawberry plants, he saw only his two sisters, and advanced to meet +them with cheerful unconcern. + +"Hulloa! Here's luck! Hasn't she come?" + +"Oh, yes! But it is luck all the same. Look for yourself!" cried +Noreen gleefully, pointing with outstretched hand to where Darsie sat, a +pale blue figure among a nest of greenery, her little, flushed, laughing +face tilted upward on the long white throat, her scattered locks ashine +in the sun. With the air of a queen she extended finger-tips crimson +with the strawberry juice towards the newcomer, and with the air of a +courtier Ralph Percival stooped to take them in his own. + +For a moment they stared full into each other's eyes, while the +bewilderment on the young man's face slowly gave place to recognition. + +"Glad to see you again, Princess Goldenlocks! Let me congratulate you +on the breaking of the spell. Who was the kind fairy who set you free +to appear among us in your rightful guise?" + +He spoke like a book; he looked tall and handsome enough to be a prince +himself. Darsie forgave him on the instant for his former lack of +respect, and bent upon him her most dimpling smile. + +"I freed myself. I wove my own spell, and when I was tired of it I +broke loose." + +Ralph looked down at her with a slow, quizzical smile. + +"You had better be careful! Spells are awkward things to move about. +They might alight, you know, on some other shoulders, and not be so +easily shaken off!" + +His eyes, his voice, added point to the words. It was the first, the +very first compliment which Darsie had ever received from masculine +lips, and compared with the blunt criticisms of Dan Vernon, she found it +wonderfully stimulating. + +"Come along, girls!" cried Ralph with a sudden return to a natural, +boyish manner. "There's a whole hour yet before tea, and we can't sit +here doing nothing. Let's go down to the river and punt. Do you punt, +Miss Garnett? I'll teach you! You look the sort of girl to be good at +sport. You'll pick it up in no time." + +The three girls rose obediently and followed Ralph's lead riverwards, +while Noreen and Ida, gesticulating and grimacing in the background, +gave the visitor to understand that a great honour had been bestowed +upon her, and that she might consider herself fortunate in being the +recipient of an unusual mark of attention. + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +A TREATY. + +If there were innumerable good points in an acquaintance with the +Percival family, there was certainly the inevitable drawback, for on the +days when she was alone with her great-aunt, Darsie was rendered +lonelier and more restless than before by the knowledge that a couple of +miles away were three agreeable young companions who would be only too +pleased to include her in their pastimes. The different points of view +held by youth and age were, as usual, painfully in evidence. Darsie +considered that it would be desirable to meet the Percivals "every +single day"; Aunt Maria was glad that you had enjoyed yourself; was +pleased that you should meet young friends, and suggested a return +invitation, "some day next week!" pending which far-off period you were +expected to be content with the usual routine of morning drive, +afternoon needlework, and evening patience. Really--really--really, to +have lived to that age, and to have no better understanding! Letters +from the seaside did not tend to soothe the exile's discontent. It +seemed callous of the girls to expatiate on the joys of bathing, +fishing, and generally running wild, to one who was practising a lady- +like decorum in the society of an old lady over seventy years of age, +and although Dan kept his promise to the extent of a letter of two whole +sheets, he gave no hint of deploring Darsie's own absence. It was in +truth a dull, guide-booky epistle, all about stupid "places of interest" +in the neighbourhood, in which Darsie was frankly uninterested. All the +Roman remains in the world could not have counted at that moment against +one little word of friendly regret, but that word was not forthcoming, +and the effect of the missive was depressing, rather than the reverse. +Mother's letters contained little news, but were unusually loving-- +wistfully, almost, as it were, _apologetically_ loving! The exile +realised that in moments of happy excitement, when brothers and sisters +were forgetful of her existence, a shadow would fall across mother's +face, and she would murmur softly, "_Poor_ little Darsie!" Darsie's own +eyes filled at the pathos of the thought. She was filled with +commiseration for her own hard plight... Father's letters were bracing. +No pity here; only encouragement and exhortation. "Remember, my dear, +a sacrifice grudgingly offered is no sacrifice at all. What is worth +doing, is worth doing well. I hope to hear that you are not only an +agreeable, but also a cheerful and cheering companion to your old aunt!" + +Darsie's shoulders hitched impatiently. "Oh! Oh! Sounds like a copy- +book. _I_ could make headlines, too! Easy to talk when you're not +tried. Can't put an old head on young shoulders. Callous youth, and +crabbed age..." + +Not that Aunt Maria was really crabbed. Irritable perhaps, peculiar +certainly, finicky and old-fashioned to a degree, yet with a certain +bedrock kindliness of nature which forbade the use of so hard a term as +_crabbed_. Since the date of the hair episode Darsie's admiration for +Lady Hayes's dignified self-control had been steadily on the increase. +She even admitted to her secret self that in time to come--far, far-off +time to come,--she would like to become like Aunt Maria in this respect +and cast aside her own impetuous, storm-tossed ways. At seventy one +_ought_ to be calm and slow to wrath, but at fifteen! Who could expect +a poor little flapper of fifteen to be anything but fire and flame! + +Wet days were the great trial--those drizzling, chilly days which have a +disagreeable habit of intruding into our English summers. Darsie, +shivering in a washing dress, "occupying herself quietly with her +needlework" in the big grim morning-room, was in her most prickly and +rebellious of moods. + +"Hateful to have such weather in summer! My fingers are so cold I can +hardly work." + +"It is certainly very chill." + +"Aunt Maria, couldn't we have a fire? It would be _something_ cheerful +to look at!" + +"My dear!" Lady Hayes was apparently transfixed with amazement. "A +fire! You forget, surely, the month! The month of August. We never +begin fires until the first of October." + +"You'd be much more comfortable if you did." + +There being no controverting the truth of this statement, Lady Hayes +made no reply. But after the lapse of a few minutes she volunteered a +suggestion. + +"There is a grey Shetland shawl folded up under the sofa rug. You had +better put it over your shoulders, since you feel so cold." + +"_I_?" Darsie gave an impatient laugh. "Fancy me wrapped up in a +Shetland shawl! I'd sooner freeze." + +Lady Hayes dropped her eyelids and tightened her lips. Her manner +pointed out more eloquently than words the fact that her guest was +wanting in respect, but as hostess it was her duty to consider the +comfort of her guest, so presently she rang the bell and gave +instructions that a cup of hot cocoa should be served at eleven o'clock +instead of the usual glass of milk. She herself was never guilty of the +enormity of eating between meals, so that the listener knew perfectly +well for whose benefit the order was given, but being at once cold, +lonely, and cross, her heart was hardened, and she spoke no word. + +Between that time and the appearance of James with the tray Aunt Maria +made three successive attempts to open new topics of conversation, which +were each time checkmated by monosyllabic replies. There was a tone of +relief in her voice, as of one hailing a much-needed assistance, as she +said briskly-- + +"Now, my dear, here is your cocoa! Drink it while it is hot. It will +warm you up." + +"Thank you, I don't drink cocoa. It makes me sick." + +There was a moment's silence. James stood at attention, tray in hand. +Lady Hayes tightened her lips, and the little red lines on her cheeks +turned a curious bluish shade. Then she cleared her throat, and said in +her most courteous tones-- + +"I am sorry. Would you kindly tell James what you would like instead. +Tea--coffee--soup? A warm drink would be better than milk this +morning." + +"Nothing, thank you." + +"Nothing, James! You may go." + +James departed. Aunt Maria went on with her knitting, the click-click +of the needles sounding startlingly distinct in the silent room. Darsie +sat shamed and miserable, now that her little ebullition of spleen was +over, acutely conscious of the rudeness of her behaviour. For five +minutes by the clock the silence lasted; but in penitence, as in fault, +there was no patience in Darsie's nature, and at the end of the five +minutes the needlework was thrown on the floor, and with a quick light +movement she was on her knees by Lady Hayes's side. + +"Aunt Maria, forgive me. I'm a pig!" + +"Excuse me, my dear, you are mistaken. You are a young gentlewoman who +has failed to behave as such." + +"Oh, Aunt Maria, don't, _don't_ be proper!" pleaded Darsie, half- +laughing, half in tears. "I _am_ a pig, and I behaved as much, and +you're a duchess and a queen, and I can't imagine how you put up with me +at all. I wonder you don't turn me out of doors, neck and crop!" + +Lady Hayes put down her knitting and rested her right hand lightly on +the girl's head, but she did not smile; her face looked very grave and +sad. + +"Indeed, Darsie, my dear," she said slowly, "that is just what I am +thinking of doing. Not `neck and crop'--that's an exaggerated manner of +speaking, but, during the last few days I have been coming to the +conclusion that I made a mistake in separating you from your family. I +thought too much of my own interests, and not enough of yours." She +smiled, a strained, pathetic little smile. "I think I hardly realised +how _young_ you were! One forgets. The years pass by; one falls deeper +and deeper into one's own ways, one's own habits, and becomes +unconscious of different views, different outlooks. It was a selfish +act to take a young thing away from her companions on the eve of a +summer holiday. I realise it now, my dear; rather late in the day, +perhaps, but not too late! I will arrange that you join your family at +the sea before the end of the week." + +Darsie gasped, and sat back on her heels, breathless with surprise and +dismay. Yes! dismay; extraordinary though it might appear, no spark of +joy or expectation lightened the shocked confusion of her mind. We can +never succeed in turning back the wheels of time so as to take up a +position as it would have been if the disturbing element had not +occurred. The holiday visit to the seaside would have been joy untold +_if_ Aunt Maria had never appeared and given her unwelcome invitation, +but now!--now a return to Seaview would be in the character of a truant +carrying within her heart the consciousness of failure and defeat. In +the moment's silence which followed Aunt Maria's startling announcement +the words of advice and exhortation spoken by her father passed one by +one through Darsie's brain. + +"If you cannot have what you like, try to like what you have... Put +yourself now and then in your aunt's place.--A sacrifice grudgingly +performed is no sacrifice at all... What is worth doing at all, is +worth doing well." + +Each word condemned her afresh; she stood as judge before the tribunal +of her own conscience, and the verdict was in every case the same. +Guilty! She had not tried; she had not imagined; everything that she +had done had been done with a grudge; the effort, the forbearance, the +courtesy, had been all on the other side... There fell upon her a panic +of shame and fear, a wild longing to begin again, and retrieve her +mistakes. She couldn't, she could _not_ be sent away and leave Aunt +Maria uncheered, unhelped, harassed rather than helped, as the result of +her visit. + +"Oh, Aunt Maria," she cried breathlessly, "give me another chance! +Don't, don't send me away! I'm sorry, I'm ashamed, I've behaved +horribly, but, I _want_ to stay. Give me another chance, and let me +begin again! Honestly, truly, I'll be good, I'll do all that you +want..." + +Lady Hayes stared at her earnestly. There was no mistaking the +sincerity of the eager voice, the wide, eloquent eyes, but the poor lady +was plainly puzzled as to what had wrought so speedy a change of front. +With her usual deliberation she waited for several moments before +replying, studying the girl's face with serious eyes. + +"My dear, don't imagine that I am thinking of sending you back in +disgrace. Not at all. I will take all responsibility upon myself, and +explain to your parents that I have come to the conclusion that it would +be a mistake to prolong your visit. It has been very dull for you alone +with an old woman, and I am sure that though you have not always +succeeded, you have at least had the intention of making yourself +pleasant and agreeable." + +"No!" Darsie shook her bright head in vigorous denial. "I haven't! I +can be fifty times nicer than that, when I really try. Let me stay, +Aunt Maria, and you'll see... It's quite true that I was cross at +first. I hated giving up the holiday with the Vernons, and there seemed +nothing to do; but I've changed my mind. I didn't know you, you see, +and now I do, and I--I would like you to be pleased with me before I +_go_! Please, _please_, Aunt Maria, let me stay!" + +"Certainly, my dear, I shall be most pleased." Lady Hayes still wore a +somewhat puzzled expression, but she was undoubtedly gratified by the +girl's appeal, and Darsie bent forward and kissed her cheek with the +feeling of one who has narrowly escaped a great danger. + +"That's settled, and now we are going to live happily ever after!" + +"Ah, my dear, I am afraid that is too much to expect! I have no +amusements to offer you to relieve the dullness. My health obliges me +to live a quiet life, and I have grown to dread change. Of course, +there are plenty of books to read--improving, well-written books, very +different from the rubbish published to-day. If you would like to have +a little reading aloud, or I could give you lessons in knitting and +crochet..." + +Darsie laughed, a bright, audacious laugh. + +"I wouldn't like it a bit! I've another plan to suggest, fifty times +nicer and more exciting. Suppose,"--she leaned her arms on the old +lady's knee and looked gaily into her spectacled eyes--"suppose, instead +of your trying to make me old with you, _I_ tried, for a time, to make +you young with _me_? Eh? What do you think? Wouldn't it be far more +fun!" + +"You ridiculous child!" But Lady Hayes laughed in her turn, and showed +no signs of dismay. "That would be too difficult an undertaking even +for you. To make me young again, ah, Darsie! that's an impossible +task." + +"Not a whit more impossible than to make me old!" cried Darsie quickly. +"Suppose we took turns? That would be only fair. Your day first, when +you would read aloud dull books with the blinds half down; and then my +day, when I'd read funny ones, with the blinds drawn up to the top, and +the sun streaming into the room; your day, when we drove the ordinary +round and came back to lunch; and mine when we went away over the hill +and took a picnic basket and drew up at the side of the road, and ate +it, and got milk from a cottage and drank it out of cups without +saucers! Your night, when we played Patience; and mine when I showed +you tricks and danced figure dances as we do at school. I'm _sure_ +you'd like to see me dance the Highland fling! Now--now--promise! I +_know_ you'll promise. I can see the softening in your eye!" + +"Ridiculous child!" protested Lady Hayes once more, but Darsie was +right; there was certainly a softening in her eye which bespoke a +disposition to yield. In truth it was not so much of Darsie as of +herself that Lady Hayes was thinking at that moment, for as the young +voice spoke the old heart quickened with quite an agreeable sense of +expectation. Years since she had read a "funny book," years since she +had partaken of a picnic meal; years--many, many years since she had +looked on while a young girl danced! Radical changes and innovations in +the routine of life she could not face at this late day, but Darsie's +girlish plan attempted nothing so ambitious. Let the child have her +way! It would be interesting, undoubtedly interesting, to see how she +behaved. + +So Darsie gained her point, and for the next week she and her hostess +played in turn the part of Mistress of the Ceremonies, to their mutual +benefit and satisfaction. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +A DANGEROUS ADVENTURE. + +One of the privileges gained by the alliance between aunt and niece was +that the former veto against bicycle riding was withdrawn, and that +Darsie was set free each afternoon for an hour's enjoyment of this +favourite exercise. + +In deference to Lady Hayes's nervousness and sense of responsibility the +high-road was avoided as much as possible, and detours taken through +quiet lanes, where traffic was reduced to a minimum; and it was along +one of these lanes that Darsie rode joyously some five or six days after +her visit to the Percivals, bearing in her pocket a return invitation to +her new friends. She had been longing to meet them again, had keenly +regretted a domestic upset which had delayed the invitation until now, +but all the same the last days had passed wonderfully quickly and +happily. Afire with resolution to "begin again" and show herself in the +light of a cheerful and cheering companion, she had neglected no +opportunity to make herself agreeable to her hostess, while Aunt Maria +in return had been sweetly considerate, and on occasions quite startling +in her divination of hidden wishes and desires. The eyes behind the +gold-rimmed spectacles would rest upon the girl's face with an intent +scrutiny which seemed to have the power to draw free confidences, till +to her own surprise Darsie found herself discussing fluently the all- +important subject of her own future, and setting forth her hopes and +fears in relation to a scholarship for Newnham. On this, as on almost +every topic which came up for discussion, the old woman and the girl +held almost diametrically opposite opinions, but so far Darsie had +contrived to subdue her impatience, and to listen with some appearance +of humility to Lady Hayes's somewhat sententious criticism. + +"But I wonder if it can last!" she was asking herself doubtfully this +afternoon, as she pedalled through the sweet-smelling lanes. "I wonder +if I can possibly go on being so unnaturally good without falling ill +from the strain! How I hope the Percival girls will be at home! If I +can let off steam for an hour, and make as much noise as I like, it will +be no end of a relief, and help me to last out without a relapse. I'd +hate to have a relapse and spoil it all, just when I'm trying so hard; +and she's really a dear, _quite_ an old dear! I love to please her. +Whenever I begin to feel scratchy I must make an excuse and get over to +the Percivals for an hour to be soothed down. I do _hope_ they are in +to-day!" + +But alas! the butler announced "Not at home," in reply to Darsie's +inquiry, then, seeing the blank disappointment on the young face, he +added graciously: "The young ladies are out for a ride. They will +probably be home about four o'clock. Will you not step in and wait?" + +Darsie brightened instantly. Four o'clock, and she had promised to be +back by five. Yes, she could enjoy half an hour's talk, and still leave +ample time for the ride home, but as it was now barely three o'clock she +did not feel tempted by the prospect of sitting cooped in the house for +so long a time. + +"Thank you," she said briskly. "I should like to wait, but I think I'll +stay in the garden. Perhaps you would be kind enough to tell them when +they return." + +The man bowed and withdrew, and Darsie strolled away in the direction of +the rose pergola, the beauty of which had attracted her so greatly on +her first visit. She wandered up and down the archways, sniffed at the +fragrance of the late blooms which still remained, indulged in a little +of the sentimental poetising which seems to flow so readily when one is +"alone among the roses," began to grow bored, wandered aimlessly ahead, +grew very bored indeed, and, consulting her watch, was dismayed to find +that only fifteen minutes had passed away. Fifteen! and there still +remained forty-five before her companions were likely to arrive! What +could she find to do to while away a whole forty-five minutes? As a +matter of prudence Darsie put the suggestion of the fruit garden +resolutely aside. It would not be _safe_ to put herself in proximity +with those tempting strawberries, since on a second visit to a house one +was, unfortunately, not on sufficiently intimate terms to take without +being asked. + +She was contemplating getting on her bicycle and taking a short ride +round the lanes, when the brilliant alternative of the river darted into +her mind. Of course, the river! Nothing could be more delightful. She +set off at a trot, taking in her inexperience many wrong turnings, but +arriving at last at the river, or rather the peaceful backwater of the +river which bordered the Percival grounds. To Darsie's mind the spot +was the most picturesque on the whole estate, and a good many people +could be found ready to agree with her in the conclusion; for the +backwater though narrow was bordered by banks rich in reeds and +bulrushes, while a hundred yards or so below the miniature jetty a pair +of ancient wooden gates spanned the stream, through whose decaying beams +could be seen fascinating peeps of a baby waterfall, and a great moss- +covered wheel which proclaimed the former use of the old grey building +of which it was a part. In olden times this quiet backwater had been a +busy centre of industry, but the modern inventions of machinery had left +it hopelessly in the rear. The mill-owner had been ruined long ago, and +the mill-house, with its great panelled rooms, was given up to the +occupancy of the rats, while the disused wheel was green with moss, and +the wooden gateway threatened every day to fall free of its hinges. + +The young Percivals could not remember the day when the mill had been +working, but from a personal point of view they deeply regretted its +cessation, for, deprived of the healthy action of the wheel, the little +backwater was becoming every year more choked with weeds, until at some +points it was difficult to navigate the punt. + +At long intervals strange men came to investigate the mill and its +machinery, and the Percivals were cheered by rumours of a certain "let," +but as one rumour after another died away without bringing any tangible +result their hopes had reached a vanishing point, and they paid little +attention to the occasional stirring into life of the dreamy backwater. + +Darsie walked to the end of the jetty, stepped lightly into the punt, +and sank down on the soft red cushions. One might not eat one's +neighbour's fruit, but one might sit in his punt, and arrange his +cushions to fit comfily into the crick in one's back, without infringing +the laws of hospitality. Darsie poked and wriggled, and finally lay at +ease, deliciously comfortable, blinking up at the sunshine overhead, and +congratulating herself on having hit on the spot of all others in which +to spend the time of waiting. She could lie here for hours without +feeling bored; it was the most deliciously lazy, drowsy sensation she +had ever experienced. At the end of five minutes, however, the drowsy +feeling threatened to become altogether too pronounced, and having no +wish either to be discovered fast asleep, or to sleep on undiscovered +till past the hour for her return. Darsie sat up hurriedly and began to +look around for fresh distractions. + +At the very first glimpse the usual temptation for idle hands stared her +in the face, for there on the jetty lay, not only the long punt-pole, +but also the dainty little paddle which she had handled under Ralph's +instructions the week before. It had been quite easy, ridiculously +easy; the girls declared that she took to it as to the manner born; she +had paddled the whole boatload for quite a considerable distance. +Naturally it would be much easier and lighter to paddle for oneself +alone. The chain holding the punt to the jetty could easily be slipped +from its ring; there was not, _could_ not be, any danger in paddling +peacefully along a quiet little backwater. Of course, prudent people +would say--Aunt Maria would say-- But then if you waited until all the +prudent people on earth approved of all that you did, you might sit with +your hands crossed in your lap for the rest of your life! + +Darsie tossed her head with the defiant little jerk which meant that she +was _going_ to do it, and she didn't care, and the consequences could +look after themselves. In another moment the punt was free from the +chain, and was being paddled slowly down the stream. Really, she told +herself, the solid old craft was as safe as a house; so big, so heavily +built was it that it seemed curious, not that its progress should be +slow but that it should move at all in response to the efforts of one +inexperienced girl! Glancing over, Darsie could see the weeds rising +from the bed of the stream, sometimes so high that they caught in the +paddle as it worked and greatly impeded its force; still she was +steadily moving along, and, fired with ambition, her eyes fell on a +willow-tree standing out from the bank some hundred yards ahead, and she +determined to persevere until the point should be reached. To declare +she had paddled "some way"--"quite a long way"--would probably be +discounted to mean but a few yards by the Percival sisters, but "to the +willow and back" was a definite feat which could not be gainsaid. So +Darsie worked and strained till her arms ached and her cheeks flamed, +till the punt, moving heavily through the weeds, ran at last beneath the +willow branches and found a natural anchorage. + +Well, it was good to lie back against the cushions and rest one's weary +arms and back! Darsie peeped at her watch, saw with relief that she had +still a good quarter of an hour to spare, and abandoned herself to a +lazy enjoyment of the situation. + +And then the inevitable happened, for the soothing influence of the +shaded light lulled the tired senses into deeper and deeper +unconsciousness, until at last the fringed eyelids ceased to flicker, +and remained peacefully closed, and, like a happy, tired child, Darsie +rested her cheek on her hand and slept. + +Subsequent comparisons proved that her doze might have lasted for half +an hour or more, before a sudden movement of the punt roused her with a +start. She sat up, blinked sleepily around, and discovered to her +surprise that the punt had moved from its anchorage and drifted into the +centre of the stream. It had appeared so safely moored against the tree +that she was puzzled to understand how this had come about, but as the +movement had roused her from sleep she was glad that it had occurred, +and, seating herself steadily, lifted her paddle to work her way back to +the jetty. + +As she settled herself, however, Darsie's attention was arrested by the +manner in which the banks seemed to be slipping past; she turned her +head over her shoulder, and discovered that in the minute which had +elapsed since she had awakened from sleep the willow-tree had been left +several yards behind. Some mysterious change seemed to have passed over +the surface of the still, almost stagnant, waters; they were flowing as +with a tide, the rippling movement stirring the weedy banks. Darsie +used her paddle automatically, but its puny force seemed superfluous, +for the punt was moving of itself, quickly and still more quickly, +swinging broadside to the stream in defiance of her efforts to keep it +straight. Darsie ceased to struggle and leaned forward on the paddle to +consider the situation. Then, for the first time, she became aware that +the former stillness of the stream was replaced by a harsh, continuous +noise, which seemed momentarily to increase in volume. What could it +be? She stared around with puzzled eyes, but there was no hint of alarm +in her bewilderment. A child of the city, she was inured to sudden and +inexplicable noises; it was only when the punt swung heavily round a +bend that she realised the seriousness of her position. The mill was +working! One of the infrequent experimental trials of which she had +heard was even now in process, the great moss-covered wheel was +revolving creakily on its axle, waking the sleeping river into life, and +the heavy punt was bearing down, more and more rapidly towards the crazy +wooden gates! + +In a second all that she had heard on this subject from the Percival +family flashed through Darsie's brain. The gates were frail, so eaten +by long action of water, that at the impact of a heavy mass they would +almost certainly burst apart, and then--what would happen to the punt +and to its hapless occupant? Would she be hurled against a broken +boulder, wedged helplessly beneath the debris, or rushed forward into +the swirl of the millpond itself? Whatever happened it seemed certain +that danger--and serious danger--loomed close at hand, unless she could +succeed in overmastering the current and landing the punt safely at the +little jetty. At this moment it was not fear but rather an exhilarating +tingling of excitement of which Darsie was most aware. Here was an +adventure--a full-fledged adventure, such as came but seldom to break +the monotony of life! + +For the sake of her future credit she must bear herself bravely, be +swift, resourceful, energetic. With all her strength she plied the +paddle to and fro, but for all the effect produced she might as well +have sat still upon her cushions. It would have required an experienced +hand to guide the heavy punt through the sweeping current, and under +Darsie's unpractised strokes it twisted, and turned, and revolved in +aimless and disconcerting circles... No matter! she was determined to +win; by hook or by crook she must make the left side of the stream and +gain an anchorage. The jetty or the millpond--that was the alternative, +and it was one to put power into the arm and give staying power to the +laboured breath! The moments were flying now, the banks seemed to be +flitting past more quickly than ever. Darsie tried to convert the +paddle into an oar, with which to steer more vigorously for the desired +bank; then came a breathless second of suspense, followed by a sickening +realisation of failure. The punt had swept past the jetty at a distance +just wide enough to make it impossible to grasp the chain, and was now +bearing straight for the wooden gates! + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +DARSIE'S SUGGESTION. + +With the passing of the jetty, fear awoke for the first time in Darsie's +breast--the fear which arises when the possibility of action is over and +nothing remains but to sit still and await the end. In one moment of +time an incredible number of thoughts flashed through her brain; she +thought of her father and mother, of their grief and pain at the +knowledge of her untimely end; she thought of her brothers and sisters, +of Vie Vernon and plain Hannah, and Dan; she saw a vision of them all +garbed in black, sitting round the study fire, enlarging upon her own +virtues and graces; she thought of Aunt Maria and her responsibility; +she saw a vision of herself, cold and still, being dragged out of the +millpond, with her hair floating like seaweed behind her, and at the +thought a wild rebellion rose in her heart, a determination to fight on, +to fight to the end for her precious life! One or two large trees stood +out from the bank. + +Darsie leaped to her feet and, raising the paddle so high above her head +that it caught against the branches, strove to delay the progress of the +punt. The result was to upset her own equilibrium, and as she fell +forward she screamed loudly, a shrill, penetrating scream of panic and +appeal. + +With almost startling quickness the answer came, in the form of an +answering cry, close at hand. Round the corner of the next clump of +bushes dashed the figure of Ralph Percival, bareheaded, eager-faced, +and, thank Heaven! unhesitating in action. Not for one fraction of a +second did he hesitate, but with the assurance of one who knows every +inch of the land rushed forward waist-deep into the river; halted there, +and called out a sharp command-- + +"Your paddle! Stretch out your paddle towards me! Hold hard! Lean out +as far as you can!" + +Darsie fell on her knees, and, leaning forward to the utmost extent of +her body, held out the paddle as directed. There was a moment of +sickening suspense, then came a halt, a jerk that seemed to pull her +arms half out of the sockets, and the punt swung heavily towards the +shore. The danger was over; she was helped on to the bank, where she +collapsed in a little heap, while Ralph worked the punt slowly along to +the jetty and fastened it to its chain. + +_The short_ breathing space had allowed Darsie to recover her self- +possession, to master the overpowering temptation to cry, and to swallow +the lump in her throat sufficiently to be able to say in a weak little +voice-- + +"You've saved my life!" + +"You've spoiled my trousers!" retorted Ralph in a matter-of-fact manner +calculated to put an instant check on sentimentality. He sat down on +the bank, unfastened his mud-soaked gaiters, and threw them on one side. +"The river's beastly dirty, and the mud sticks like the Dickens. A new +suit, too! It will never look the same again." + +"I'm sorry." + +"So you ought to be. Things are bad enough as they are, _but_... How +on earth did you come to be careering about alone in that punt?" + +"I was waiting to see your sisters. I wandered down here, and thought +I'd just sit in it for a rest, then I thought I could just paddle up and +down. I managed quite well going up the stream; I got as far as the +willow!" Even at that moment a faint note of pride crept into Darsie's +voice. "We grounded there, and I--I must have fallen asleep, I suppose, +and that hateful old mill must needs choose the opportunity to begin +working at that very moment... Just my luck!" + +Ralph pursed his lips in eloquent comment. + +"If it comes to that, I think you have had a fair amount of luck in +another way! I heard the noise of the mill and came down to look on. +If I hadn't been there, you'd have been pretty considerably in Queer +Street by this time. Nice thing it would have been for us to discover +your drowned body in the millpond, and have had to tell your aunt!" + +"I thought of that," agreed Darsie meekly. "It was one of my dying +thoughts. Don't scold me, please, for I feel so shaky, and you wouldn't +like it if I cried. It was my own fault, and I got what I deserved. I +wasn't a bit frightened till I missed the jetty, but that one moment was +like a hundred years. Did my yell sound very awful?" + +"Pretty middling blood-curdling!" replied Ralph, smiling. "Good thing +it did. Gave me a bit of a shock, I can tell you, to see the old punt +dashing down to the gates, with you sitting huddled up in the bottom, +with your hair hanging wild, and your face the colour of chalk. You +looked like a young Medusa." + +"Sounds attractive, I must say! Medusa froze _other_ people's blood, +not her own," declared Darsie, tilting her chin with a little air of +offence, at which her companion laughed triumphantly. + +"Oh, _you're_ better; you're coming round again all right! I was afraid +you were going to faint. I don't mind telling you that you were jolly +plucky. Most girls would have started screaming miles before, but you +held on like a Briton. How do the arms feel now? Rather rusty at the +hinges, I expect. The stiffness will probably spread to the back by to- +morrow, but it'll come all right in time. It is a pretty good weight, +that punt, and I had to pull for all I was worth... Don't you think +you'd better come up to the house and have some tea?" + +"Yes, please. And you can change your clothes, too. I should feel so +miserable if you caught cold." + +"No fear of that. I'm used to splashing in and out of the water half a +dozen times a day. You need have no anxiety about me." + +"But--the trousers?" + +"Oh, bother the trousers! I piled that on a bit, just to prevent you +from getting sentimental. _They're_ all right!" Ralph paused a moment, +then, "I say!" he cried anxiously, "is this going to get you into +trouble with the aunt? Need you say anything about it, do you think? +I'll swear to secrecy, if you say the word, and not a soul need know." + +Darsie debated the point thoughtfully while the two walked side by side +along the gravelled paths, and finally arrived at a conclusion. + +"I think, on the whole, I'll tell! Aunt Maria allowed me to go out +alone as a great concession, and it was mean to take advantage and run +risks. So upsetting for her if I were killed in her house! So I'm in +honour bound to confess, and promise not to do it again." + +"You might do something else just as bad! Probably she'll withdraw her +permission and keep you under her thumb as she did those first weeks." + +"She _may_; but I don't think she _will_! I think she will appreciate +my confidence," said Darsie, with a grandiloquent air, at which her +companion whistled softly, his face twitching with amusement. He was +much more natural and boyish in his manner than on either of the +previous occasions on which Darsie had met him, and the agitation of the +last few minutes seemed to have carried them in a bound past all the +formalities of early acquaintance. + +"Right you are!" he said briskly. "I like a straight girl. But if you +don't mind we won't speak of it before the mater. She's a bit nervous, +and would be always imagining that the girls were going to have the same +experience. You might warn Lady Hayes not to speak of it either. We'll +keep it a secret between us." + +"Just as you like! I _believe_," said Darsie shrewdly, "that you're +afraid of being praised and fussed over, as you would be if people knew +that you had saved my life! Men hate a fuss, but you can't escape my +gratitude. I didn't want to die. It came over me with a sort of +horror--the thought of leaving the flowers, and the trees, and the blue +sky, and all the people I love. Have you ever been so nearly dead to +know how it feels?" + +"Once--when I had enteric at school. It was a near squeak at the +crisis." + +"And how did you feel? What did you think?" + +"I didn't care a whit one way or another. I wanted to have the pillow +turned. That seemed a hundred times more important than life or death; +I was too ill to think... Well, thank goodness, you are _not_ dead! I +hope you'll live for many years to be a pride and glory to--er--er--the +ranks of women blue-stockings!" + +Darsie looked at him sharply. + +"The girls have been telling you of my ambitions! Mean of them! They +might have known you'd scoff. All boys do, but I fail to see why if a +girl has brains she should not use them as well as a man." + +"The inference being--" + +"Certainly! I'm unusually clever for my years!" returned Darsie +proudly, whereupon they simultaneously burst into a peal of laughter. + +"Well, you goaded me to it!" Darsie declared in self-vindication. "I +can't stand it when boys are superior. Why must they sneer and jeer +because a girl wants to go in for the same training as themselves, +especially when she has to make her own living afterwards? In our two +cases it's more important for me than for you, for you will be a rich +landowner, and I shall be a poor school marm. You ought to be kind and +sympathetic, and do all you can to cheer me on, instead of being lofty +and blighting." + +Ralph Percival looked down at her with his handsome, quizzical eyes-- + +"I don't mind betting that _you'll_ never be a school marm!" he said +calmly; and at that very moment, round a bend of the path, the two girls +came suddenly into view, trotting briskly towards the river. They waved +their hands, and tore down upon the visitor in lively welcome. + +"There you are! This _is_ nice. Bates said you were in the garden, so +we just flew and changed, and rushed off in pursuit. So glad you had +Ralph to amuse you. The mill's working! We guessed you'd be there +looking on..." + +"There's nothing to see but the old wheel creaking round. Tea is far +more to the point. I'm dying for some, and I'm sure--er--Miss--er-- +Garnett is, too! She's had a tiring afternoon." + +"Er--Miss--er--Garnett's name is Darsie. You can always call a girl by +her Christian name till her hair's up," said Darsie quickly, and Ralph +immediately availed himself of the permission. + +"All right, Darsie. It's a jolly little name. Much easier to say." + +Rather to Darsie's disappointment tea was served in the drawing-room in +formal, grown-up fashion, Mrs Percival presiding over the little table, +with its shining silver and fine old-world china. There were hot, brown +little scones, crisp buttered toast, iced cakes, thick cream, and other +indigestible luxuries, which came as an agreeable change from Lady +Hayes's careful dietary, and Darsie was acutely conscious of the beauty +and elegance of the room. How small and poky and drab the home drawing- +room would appear in comparison! How different the outlook on another +row of red-brick houses, from the sweep of green lawns, and the avenue +of great beech-trees seen through the four long French windows which +broke the side of this long, low room! + +How different her own life promised to be from those of the two girls by +her side--the girls who had just returned from a ride on their own +horses over their own land! ... They would never need to worry about +money; their role in life for the next few years would consist in being +pretty and agreeable, wearing charming frocks, visiting at friends' +houses, travelling in summer, hunting in winter, and, finally, making +suitable Carriages, settling down as mistresses of other luxurious +houses, and living happily ever after! + +She herself would study and cram for examination after examination; go +through agonies of suspense waiting for results, and as she passed or +failed, obtain a good or second-rate appointment in a suburban school. +Henceforth work, work, work--teaching by day, correcting exercises by +night, in a deserted schoolroom, with three months' holiday a year spent +at home among brothers and sisters whose interests had necessarily +drifted apart from her own! As the years passed by she would become +staid and prim; schoolmistressy manner; the girls would speak of her by +derisive nicknames... + +A knifelike pang of envy pierced Darsie's heart; she dropped the dainty +morsel of cake on to her plate with a feeling of actual physical nausea; +for the moment her old ambitions lost their savour, and appeared grey +and dead; she was pierced with an overpowering pity for her own hard +lot. + +The sensation was, perhaps, as much physical as mental, for no one can +pass through a moment of acute mental tension without suffering from a +corresponding nervous collapse, but being too young and inexperienced to +realise as much, Darsie mentally heaped ashes on her head, and shed +tears over her blighted life. The signs of her emotion were noticeable, +not only in an unusual silence but in whitening cheeks, which brought +upon her the quick attention of her friends. + +"Aren't you feeling quite well, dear?" Mrs Percival asked kindly. +"You look pale. Would you like to lie down?" + +"Darsie, you are _green_! What's the matter? You were all right a +moment ago." + +"I'm all right now. Please, please, take no notice. I'm perfectly all +right." + +Noreen was beginning to protest again, when Ralph called her sharply to +order-- + +"That's enough, Nora! Awfully bad form to fuss. Talk about something +else. What about that garden-party you were discussing? I thought you +wanted to ask suggestions." + +Instantly both sisters were sparkling with excitement and animation. + +"Oh, yes, yes. Of course! We must ask Darsie. She has such lovely +ideas. Darsie, we are going to have a garden-party. The invitations +are going out to-morrow. Hundreds of people are coming--mother's +friends, our friends, everybody's friends, every bowing acquaintance for +miles around. The question of the hour is--_What shall we do_? Garden- +parties are such monotonous occasions, always the same over and over +again--people sitting about in their best clothes, eating ices and +fruit, listening to a band, and quizzing each other's best clothes. We +want to hit on a brilliant novelty. What shall it be?" + +Darsie mused, her face lighting with pleasure and anticipation. + +"I know nothing about garden-parties. There aren't any in town. What +have you done before?" + +"Tennis, croquet, clock-golf, ping-pong, archery, yeomanry sports, blue +bands, red bands, black and yellow bands, glee-singers, Punch and Judy," +Ida counted off one item after another on the ringers of her left hand. +"And now we seem to have come to the end of our resources. We can't +think of anything else. Do, like a darling, give us an idea!" + +The darling deliberated once more, head on one side, lips pursed, eyes +on the ceiling, while the Percival family looked on, and exchanged +furtive glances of admiration. She _was_ pretty! prettier by far than +ordinary pretty people, by reason of some picturesque and piquant +quality more readily felt than denned. It didn't seem to matter one bit +that her nose turned up, and that her mouth was several sizes too large. +"If you described me on paper, I'd sound far nicer, but I look a wur-r- +rm beside her!" sighed Noreen mentally, just as Darsie lowered her eyes +to meet those of her hostess, and inquired gravely-- + +"How much may it cost?" + +It was the question which accompanied every home plan, and on which hung +a momentous importance, but the Percivals appeared quite taken aback by +the suggestion. The girls stared, and their mother smilingly waved it +aside. + +"Oh-h, I don't think we need trouble about that! It's only once a year, +and we must do the thing well. If you have a suggestion, dear, please +let us have it!" + +"I was thinking," said Darsie hesitatingly, "of a treasure hunt!" + +Instantly all four hearers acclaimed the idea with such unanimity and +fervour that the proposer thereof was quite overpowered by the thanks +lavished upon her. + +"The _very_ thing! Why did we never think of it ourselves? Every one +will like it, and it will keep them moving about, which is always the +great problem to solve. Presents, presents, lots of presents, stowed +away in odd corners..." + +"We'll each take a certain number and hide them in our _own_ pet corners +when no one else is in the garden. We'll make the parcels up in _green_ +paper, so as to be less easy to find..." + +"Every one must be told to bring them back to the lawn for a grand +public opening, so that the disappointed ones may join in the fun..." + +"We may take part ourselves, mother? We _must_ take part! Get lots and +lots of presents, and let us hunt with the rest!" + +"Certainly, dears, certainly. It is your party as much as mine; of +course you must hunt. I'll run up to town and buy the presents at the +stores. You must help me to think of suitable things. Bags, purses, +umbrellas, blotters, manicure-cases--" + +"Boxes of French bonbons, belts, scarfs--" + +"Cigarettes, brushes--" + +"Nice little bits of jewellery--" + +Suggestions poured in thick and fast, and Mrs Percival jotted them down +on a little gold and ivory tablet which hung by her side unperturbed by +what seemed to Darsie the reckless extravagance of their nature. It was +most exciting talking over the arrangements for the hunt; most agreeable +and soothing to be constantly referred to in the character of author and +praised for cleverness and originality. Darsie entirely forgot the wave +of depression which had threatened to upset her composure a few minutes +before, forgot for the time being the suspense and danger of the earlier +afternoon. + +Some one else, it appeared, however, was more remindful, for when she +prepared to depart the dog-cart stood at the door, and Ralph announced +in his most grand seigneur manner-- + +"We're going to drive you back, don't you know! Too awfully fagging to +bicycle on a hot afternoon. Put on your hats, girls, and hurry up." + +The girls obediently flew upstairs, and Darsie's protestation of "My +bicycle!" was silenced with a word. + +"The stable-boy shall ride it over to-morrow morning. You're a bit +jumpy still and can't be allowed to run any risks. I mean to see you +safely back in your aunt's charge." + +Darsie scrambled up to her high seat and leaned back thereon with an +agreeable sense of importance. + +"I feel like a cat that's been stroked," she said to herself, smiling. +"When you're one of a large family you are not used to fussing. It's +most invigorating! I'd like to go in for a long course!" + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +THE TREASURE HUNT. + +The invitations for the garden-party arrived in due course: one for Lady +Hayes, another for Miss Darsie Garnett, and in the corner of each, +beside the name of a celebrated military band, appeared the magic words +"_Treasure Hunt_." Darsie felt something of the proud interest of the +author who beholds in print the maiden effort of his brain, as she gazed +upon those words, and reflected that but for her own suggestion they +would never have appeared. Lady Hayes also seemed to feel a reflected +pride in her niece's ingenuity, which pride showed itself in a most +agreeable anxiety about the girl's toilette for the occasion. + +After a survey of the few simple dresses which composed Darsie's +wardrobe, it was pronounced that nothing was suitable for garden-party +wear, and a dressmaker was summoned from the country town to take +measurements for a dainty white dress and hat to match. The dress was +made to reach right down to the ankles, in deference to Lady Hayes's +ideas of propriety, and Darsie felt prodigiously fine and grown-up as +she peacocked about before the long glass of her bedroom wardrobe on the +day of the garden-party itself. Never in her life before had she +possessed a gown made by an expert dressmaker, and the result was +surprisingly flattering. She expatiated on the same with a candour +startling to the audience of aunt and her maid. + +"Don't I look s-weet? So slim! I'd no idea I was such a nice shape. I +don't know which looks nicest, the frock on me or me in the frock! +Aren't I tall? Isn't it graceful when I stand like this, and show the +pleats? The hat's a duck! I must say I do look most scrumptiously +nice!" + +"My dear!" Lady Hayes looked both shocked and alarmed. "My dear, how +_can_ you? I shall begin to regret my purchases if they encourage a +spirit of vanity. I was always taught to allow others to praise me and +to keep silent myself." + +"But you _thought_ all the time, Aunt Maria, you couldn't help thinking, +and it's worse to bottle it up. I'm always quite candid on the subject +of my appearance," returned Darsie calmly. "On principle! Why should +you speak the truth on every other subject, and humbug about that? When +I've a plain fit I know it, and grovel accordingly, and when I'm nice +I'm as pleased as Punch. I _am_ nice to-day, thanks to you and Mason, +and if other people admire me, why shouldn't I admire myself? I _like_ +to admire myself! It's like the cocoa advertisements, `grateful and +comforting.' Honest Ingin, Aunt Maria! Didn't _you_ admire yourself +when you saw yourself in the glass _in_ that ducky grey bonnet?" + +Evidently the question hit home, for Lady Hayes made a swift change of +front. + +"My dear, my dear, moderate your language! Your expressions are +unsuitable for a young gentlewoman. You are growing up. Try, I beg, to +cultivate a more ladylike demeanour!" + +Darsie made a little face at the charming reflection in the glass, the +which Lady Hayes wisely affected not to see, and presently aunt and +niece were seated side by side in the big old barouche, forming one of a +concourse of vehicles which were converging together out of every cross +road, and turning in a seemingly endless string in the direction of the +Hall. Shut carriages, open carriages, motors of different sizes and +makes, dog-carts, pony carriages, governess carts--on they came, one +after another, stirring up the dust of the road till the air seemed full +of a powdery mist, through which unhappy pedestrians ploughed along in +the shadow of the hedgerows, their skirts held high in white-gloved +hands. + +Darsie thought it inhuman of her aunt not to fill the carriage to +overflowing with these unfortunates, but she made no attempt to do so, +but sat up stiff and straight in her seat, a typical old lady of the +olden times, in her large bonnet, grey satin gown, and richly +embroidered China crape shawl. + +"If you're not proud of yourself, I'm proud of you!" the girl declared, +smoothing the satin folds with an approving hand. "You look just what +you are, a dear old fairy godmother who pretends to be proud and fierce, +and is really a lump of kindness and generosity. All the other old +ladies look dowds beside you." + +"Don't flatter me, my dear. I dislike it extremely," returned Lady +Hayes with such an obvious look of satisfaction the while that Darsie +laughed in her face, and laughed unreproved. + +Arrived at the Hall, the guests were escorted through the perilously +slippery hall, on which the mats seemed to turn into fresh pitfalls and +slide beneath the feet; then through a side-door on to a miniature lawn, +in the centre of which stood Mrs Percival, sweetly smiling, and +ejaculating endlessly: "Delighted to see you! _So_ nice of you to +come!" before passing the visitors on to her husband and children who +were ranged at discreet intervals along the sweep of the lawn. The +girls whispered dramatically to Darsie that for the time being they were +tied, literally tied by the heels, so she sat demurely by her aunt's +side under the shade of a great beech-tree, listened to the band, spilt +drops of hot tea down the front of her white dress, buttered the thumbs +of her white kid gloves, and discovered the unwelcome but no doubt +wholesome fact that there were other girls present who appeared just as +attractive, or even more so than herself! Then the band began to play +item number four on the programme, and Noreen Percival came forward with +a sigh of relief. + +"At last I am free! They've all come, or practically all, and we can't +wait for the laggards. The Hunt begins at three o'clock. Mother +thought we'd better have it early, as it would shake them up and make +them more lively and sociable. You'll have to search by yourself, +Darsie, for as we have all done some of the hiding, it wouldn't be fair +to us to go about in pairs. There are piles of presents, and your eyes +are so sharp that you are sure to find two or three. You mustn't open +them on the spot, but bring them up to the cedar lawn, where mother will +be waiting with the old fogies who are too old to run about, but who +would like to see the fun of opening. I _do hope_ I find the right +thing! There's the sweetest oxydised buckle with a cairngorm in the +centre that would be the making of my grey dress. I have set my heart +upon it, but I haven't the least notion where it's stowed. It may even +have been among my own parcels, and of course I can't go near those..." + +"If I get it, we'll swop! I wish I knew the garden better. I don't +know of _one_ good hiding-place except those I made myself... Perhaps I +shan't find anything at all." + +"Oh, nonsense! Keep your eyes open and poke about with your feet and +hands, and you can't go wrong. The paper's just a shade lighter than +the grass. Remember!" + +Noreen flew off again to move a chair for an old lady who wished to +escape the rays of the sun, and once more Darsie was left to her own +resources. By her side Lady Hayes was deep in conversation with another +old lady on the well-worn subject of a forthcoming agricultural show, +and the town-bred visitor, failing to take an intelligent interest in +prize carrots and potatoes, turned her attention to the group on the +right, where Ralph Percival was making himself agreeable to three +fashionable-looking girls of about her own age. + +He wore an immaculate grey suit and a Panama hat, and regarding him +critically, Darsie felt another shock of surprise at being compelled to +admire a _man_! Hitherto she had regarded the race as useful, +intelligent creatures, strictly utilitarian in looks, as in attire, but +to-day it was impossible to deny that the beauty was on Ralph's side +more than on that of his companions. The poise of the tall, slim figure +was so graceful and easy that it was a pleasure to behold; the perfect +lines of aquiline nose, and dented chin, the little kink and wave which +refused to be banished from the clipped hair, the long narrow eyes, and +well-shaped lips made up a whole which was quite startlingly handsome +and attractive. The three girls looked back at him with undisguised +admiration and vied with one another in animated conversation, in return +for which he drawled out slow replies in a tone of languid boredom. + +During the fortnight which had elapsed since the date of her +misadventure on the river, Darsie had had frequent meetings with the +Percivals, and now felt on the footing of a friend rather than an +acquaintance. Concerning the girls, there was no question in her mind. +They were dears, not dears of the same calibre as Vie and plain Hannah, +dears of a less interesting, more conventional description, but dears +all the same, lively, good-tempered, and affectionate. The only brother +was a far more complex character, with regard to whom Darsie changed her +mind a dozen times a day. At one time he was all that was delightful, +full of natural, boy-like good-comradeships at another he was a bored +and supercilious dandy, looking down on schoolgirls from an intolerable +height of patronage, and evidently priding himself on a _blase_ +indifference. The present moment showed him in the latter mood, and +Darsie's lips curled as she watched and listened, and in her eyes there +danced a mocking light. "Like a vain, affected girl!" was the mental +comment, as her thoughts flew back to Harry and Russell, uncompromising +and blunt, and to Dan Vernon in his shaggy strength. Even as the +thought passed through her mind Ralph turned, met the dancing light of +the grey eyes, and turned impatiently aside. He would not look at her, +but he could _feel_! Darsie watched with a malicious triumph the flush +creeping slowly over the smooth pale cheek, the hitch of the shoulders, +the restless movement of the hands which betrayed the hidden discomfort. +Presently some friends came forward to join the three ladies, when +Ralph immediately joined her with an invitation which sounded more like +a command-- + +"Come for a walk round the gardens!" + +Darsie rose, nothing loath, conscious that she was about to be reproved, +and finding an agreeable sense of support in her lengthened skirts, and +the semblance of grown-up-ness which they imparted. + +"What did you mean by staring at me like that?" + +"Like which?" + +"You know very well. You did it on purpose to annoy me, and make me +uncomfortable." + +"Oh no, I didn't! I didn't do anything. It did itself. It was just +the outward and visible expression of my inward and invisible thoughts." + +"Pretty middling disagreeable thoughts they must have been!" + +"Humph! Not disagreeable exactly. Hardly strong enough for that. Just +amused!" + +"Amused!" The flush deepened on the lad's cheek. Unwittingly Darsie +had hit upon the most scathing of all indictments. To be an object of +_amusement_ to others! What could be more lacerating to the dignity of +nineteen years. "I had no idea that I was being so funny. Will you +have the goodness to point out what you found so amusing?" + +"Your airs," replied Darsie bluntly. "And graces! You asked me, you +know, so I'm bound to tell you. It's so odd to see a boy like that. +But you needn't be cross. I'm speaking only for myself. Those other +girls liked it very much... You could see that for yourself." + +"Just so. We are talking of _your_ opinion at the moment, however, not +of theirs. What sort of--er--_boys_ are you accustomed to meet, if one +may ask?" + +The strong accent thrown on the word "boys" showed a fresh ground of +complaint. Darsie felt a twinge of compunction, remembering the episode +of the punt and her own great cause for gratitude. The answer came with +startling earnestness. + +"Not a bit braver than you, nor quicker and cleverer in an emergency. +Perhaps not so good. If you'd hesitated one moment I mightn't have been +here to criticise. But, just big, simple boys, not an ounce of +affectation between them. Of course, they are not handsome. That makes +a difference..." + +But Ralph was not to be mollified by a compliment on his good looks. He +was irritated, and considered that he had good reason for being so. +Darsie Garnett was an unusually pretty and attractive girl, and having +saved her from a perilous position but a fortnight earlier, it had been +an agreeable delusion to imagine himself ensconced for life in her +estimation as a gallant young rescuer, the object of her undying +gratitude and admiration--a delusion indeed, since the criticism of +those mocking eyes was more than equalled by the explicitness of her +explanations! + +Ralph looked injured and melancholy, and Darsie, with characteristic +softness of heart, was instantly seized with compunction. She was +finding out for herself what every one who came in contact with Ralph +Percival discovered sooner or later--that it was exceedingly difficult +to keep up a feeling of offence against any one who showed his +displeasure in so interesting and attractive a fashion. + +He was so handsome, so graceful in movement, he had the art of +concealing the most ordinary emotions behind a cloak of baffling +superiority. To-day, as he paced the garden paths by Darsie's side, +Ralph wore the air of a lovelorn poet, of a patriot sorrowing for his +country, an artist wrestling over a life's masterpiece, like anything or +everything, in fact, but just what he was--a sulky and empty-headed +young gentleman, wounded in his own conceit! + +To her own amazement Darsie presently found herself engaged in the +humble position of "making it up," and in taking back one after another +each disparaging remark which she had made, which, being done, Ralph +graciously consented to "think no more about it!" and strolled off to +speak to a friend, leaving her stranded by herself at the far end of the +garden. + +The position would have been an uncomfortable one had it not happened +that just at that moment a bell rang loudly, followed by a sudden +gathering together of the guests upon the cedar lawn. Mr Percival was +making some announcement which was greeted by bursts of approving +laughter. The words of the announcement were inaudible to Darsie's +ears, but the purport was unmistakable. The treasure hunt had begun! +With one accord the guests turned and streamed in the direction of the +gardens, turning to right and to left, peering beneath bushes, poking +delicately among the foliage of flower-beds with the ferules of walking- +sticks and parasols... + +Darsie turned and fled like a lapwing along the path leading past the +tennis-lawn and rose and vegetable gardens, to the shaded fern grotto +which formed one of the boundaries of the grounds. The idea had come to +her to begin, so to speak, at the end and have the field to herself, +but, as is usually the case, she was to discover that others were as +ingenious as herself, for she had soon quite a string of followers along +the narrow paths. + +The thickly growing ferns seemed to offer endless hiding-places, but a +printed notice to the effect that "It is not necessary to walk upon the +Beds!" seemed to limit the possible area to that within reach of hand or +stick. Darsie poked and peered, lifted the hanging fronds which fell +over the rockwork border of the lily pond, stood on tiptoe on the rustic +seat to peer between the branches of surrounding trees, but could +discover nothing in the semblance of a paper packet. It was the same +story in the rose garden, though the thick foliage on the pergolas +seemed to offer numberless hiding-places for dainty packets, containing +great gear in little bulk; it was the same story in the wide, herbaceous +border, though pathways on either side offered double opportunities for +search. For the first few minutes the search was pursued in almost +complete silence, but as time went on there came the sound of one +triumphant cry after another, as a busy searcher was rewarded by a +sudden sight of the longed-for paper wrapping. Darsie's envious eyes +beheld one young girl running gaily past, with no less than three +trophies carried bag-like in the folds of a chiffon scarf. _Three_! +And she herself had not yet discovered one! What would the Percivals +say if at the end of the hunt she returned empty-handed? The surprised +incredulity of the girls, the patronising condolences of Ralph, seemed +in prospect equally unwelcome. Desire for a present itself became +subservient to anxiety for the credit of her own sharp-sightedness and +intuition. She _must_ and would discover a parcel before the time limit +was past. + +The next half-hour passed in a search ever more eager and strenuous, as +with every moment that passed the chance of success diminished. So many +treasures had already been discovered that Darsie began to think with a +pang that perhaps there were no more to be found. Every third or fourth +visitor seemed to be carrying a trophy; some with airs of would-be +modesty were wending their way back to the cedar lawn carrying as many +as three or four, declaring that really and really they must not look +any more--it was altogether _too_ greedy! As they passed by the spot +where Darsie pursued her ceaseless search, they would pause with words +of maddening advice or condolence. + +"Not found anything yet? How unfortunate! Look beneath the leaves..." +Once Ralph passed by and arched his eyebrows in eloquent surprise. He +seemed on the point of offering advice, but Darsie whisked off in the +opposite direction, to take refuge in the least frequented portion of +the grounds, the orchard. + +Only ten minutes left! The bell of warning was pealing loudly from the +cedar lawn, she could hear the merry chatter of the returning guests. + +Darsie lifted her muslin skirts and ran quickly in and out between the +trees, searching for some hiding-place as yet undiscovered. The gnarled +branches seemed to offer endless convenient niches, but in none of them +could anything in the shape of a parcel be discovered. She was on the +point of abandoning the search and returning empty-handed, when, lifting +up a heavy branch, her eyes suddenly lit upon a cavity in the trunk of +one of the oldest trees. When the branch remained in its ordinary +position, the hollow was completely hidden from sight; moreover its +position facing the wall made it doubly invisible. It hardly seemed +possible that so very obscure a hiding-place would be chosen under the +circumstances, but at this last moment no chance could be neglected. + +Darsie rolled back her dainty net sleeve, plunged her hand deep into the +hollow trunk, and flushed with triumph as her fingers came in contact +with something loose and soft. It was not a paper parcel, it felt more +like cloth--cloth with knotted ends all ready to pull. Darsie pulled +with a will, found an unexpected weight, put up a second hand to aid the +first, and with a tug and a cloud of dust brought to light nothing more +exciting than a workman's handkerchief, knotted round a lumpy parcel +which seemed obviously a midday meal. + +It was a disappointment, but the next moment an inherent sense of humour +had discovered its possibilities of the position and gallantly accepted +a second best. + +Since she might not possess a proper present, she could at least be the +happy proprietor of a joke! Into the middle of the ring of guests she +would march, handkerchief bundle in hand, and to her credit would +remain, if not the greatest applause, at least the biggest laugh of the +afternoon! Darsie drew down her sleeve, brushed the top coating of dust +from the handkerchief, and hurried onwards towards the cedar lawn. + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +A TREASURE INDEED. + +Darsie was one of the last guests to arrive upon the final scene of the +treasure hunt, and already the merry process of parcel opening had +begun. The young girl who had captured three prizes was on her knees +before a garden seat, laying them out in a row to be seen and admired of +all. Gaily dressed women were running about appealing to their male +friends for the loan of penknives to cut the encircling string, and the +air was full of the sound of laughter and happy, triumphant voices. + +"How lovely! How beautiful! Isn't it charming? _Just_ what I wanted!" + +Darsie stood in the background, her hands clasping her bundle behind her +back, so as to screen it from view until the right moment arrived for +its production. The prize-winners were one and all in such a desperate +hurry to examine their "finds" that she would not have long to wait, and +meanwhile the scene was delightful to witness. + +Every one looked gay, and happy and smiling; the many-coloured frocks of +the women made charming flecks of colour against the sombre green of the +old cedar, as they moved to and fro with dazzling, kaleidoscopic effect. +Darsie had never even imagined such a scene; it seemed to her more like +fairyland than the dull work-a-day world. + +She looked on, absorbed in delighted admiration, while one after another +the coverings were torn from the dainty packages, and the brilliance of +the scene was enhanced by the glitter of silver, and glass, and dainty +patches of colour. It would take long, indeed, to write of the +treasures which Mrs Percival had amassed in that day in town; it seemed +to Darsie that nothing less than the contents of an entire shop window +could have supplied so bewildering a variety. Bags, purses, satchels, +brushes, manicure-cases, blotters, boxes, cigarette-cases, photograph +frames, fans, brooches, bracelets, buckles, studs, tie-pins, waistcoat +buttons--wherever the eye turned there seemed something fresh and +beautiful to admire. + +After such an Aladdin's feast, would not her workman's bundle fall very +flat? With a sudden access of humility Darsie was about to turn tail +and put the poor man's dinner back in its hiding-place, when from across +the lawn she met Ralph's eyes fixed upon her with an expression of +patronising commiseration. He was pitying her, because she had come +back empty-handed when sharper eyes had reaped so rich a harvest! That +touch of superiority made short work of Darsie's hesitation. She would +show that she was in no need of pity, that so far from being overpowered +by failure, she remained jaunty and self-confident enough to turn her +own disappointment into a joke for the amusement of others! With head +thrown back she marched dramatically forward to the spot where Mrs +Percival stood, the gracious mistress of the ceremonies, and held the +bundle towards her in extended hands. + +"Dear child, what have you there? A bundle--a workman's bundle! Where +in the world have you discovered that?" + +"In the trunk of an old tree, in the orchard near the wall." + +"In the orchard? It belongs most likely to one of the men. His dinner, +I should say, but what an odd place to hide it! So dirty!" She gave a +dainty little shake of distaste. "I should put it away, dear, really! +It is covered with dust." + +"It's a very _lumpy_ dinner," said Darsie, patting the surface of the +bundle with curious fingers. "I thought perhaps it was a treasure done +up in a different way from the others. It's heavy, too, far heavier +than bread and cheese. I can open it, can't I? Just to make sure!" + +"Oh, certainly, if you like--" assented Mrs Percival dubiously, and +Darsie waited for no further permission, but promptly knelt down on the +grass and set to work to untie the knotted ends of the checked +handkerchief. The surrounding guests gathered around in a laughing +circle, being in the gay and gratified frame of mind when any +distraction is met halfway, and ensured of a favourable reception. What +was this pretty girl about? What joke was hidden away in this +commonplace-looking bundle? + +The knot was strongly tied, but Darsie's fingers were strong also and in +a minute's time it was undone, and the corners of the handkerchief +dropped on the grass to reveal an inner bag of thick grey linen tied +again round the mouth. + +"It _is_ lumpy!" repeated Darsie again; then with a tug the string came +loose, and lifting the bag in her hands, she rained its contents over +the grass. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Was it a dream? Was it some fantasy of imagination--some wonderful +effect of sunshine shining upon hundreds and hundreds of dewdrops, and +turning them into scintillating balls of light, catching reflections +from the flowers in yonder beds, and sending dancing rays of red, blue, +and green across the grass? Red and blue and green the rainbow drops +gleamed upon the ground, vivid and clear as the loveliest among the +blossoms, but possessed of a radiance which no earth flower had +inherited before. + +Darsie sat back on her heels, her arms, falling slack by her sides, her +wide eyes fixed on the ground in a surprise too complete for speech. +Nobody spoke; the stupor in her own brain must surely have communicated +itself to the guests crowding around, for while one might have counted +fifty there was blank, utter silence upon the lawn. Then suddenly came +a dramatic interruption; a cry, almost a scream, in a high, feminine +voice, and a tall, fashionably dressed woman grasped wildly at a +dangling chain of stones. + +"My rubies! My rubies! My beautiful, beautiful rubies! Found again! +_Safe_! Oh, my rubies!" She burst into excited sobs, a gentleman came +forward and led her gently aside, but her place was immediately taken by +other women--white-faced, eager, trembling with anxiety. + +"Oh! Oh-h--let me look! It's the jewels, the lost jewels-- Are my +diamonds among them? Do you see a diamond necklace with an emerald +clasp? Oh, _do_, do look!" + +"My sapphires! They were taken, too. My sapphires!--" + +They fell on their knees, regardless of their filmy draperies, and +grasped at one shining treasure after another. The delicate chains were +knotted together; curved corners of gold had caught in other curved +corners, so that in some cases half a dozen different ornaments +presented the appearance of one big, bejewelled ball, and it was no easy +matter to disentangle one from the other. The different owners, +however, showed a marvellous quickness in recognising even a fragment of +their lost treasures, and their exultation was somewhat undignified as +they turned and twisted and coaxed the dainty threads, and finally +clasped their lost treasures, safe and sound, and all the time Darsie +sat back on her heels, with her golden hair hanging in heavy masses over +her shoulders, her eyes fixed upon this extraordinary scene, staring-- +staring! + +"Darsie, dear child, how can we thank you?" Mrs Percival's low voice +trembled with earnestness; she had lifted a long string of pearls from +the grass, and now held it between both hands, with a transparent +pleasure it was true, but without any of the hysteric excitement shown +by her guests. + +"Do you realise all that your workman's bundle contained, or the weight +you have taken off our minds? It was the thief's bundle, the bundle of +jewels which he stole from the house on the night of the Hunt Ball, +which we have tried so hard to recover! To think--to think that all +this time they have been hidden close at hand!" + +"Hidden with a purpose, too! Look at this, Evelyn!" interrupted Mr +Percival, holding out a corner of the checked handkerchief towards his +wife, with a stern look on his handsome face-- + +"`B.W.' That's Wilson's property! He was a worse offender than we +thought." + +"Wilson? That was the young gamekeeper, wasn't it?" asked another man-- +the husband of the lady who was still crooning over her recovered +diamonds. "You thought he had been led away by smart London thieves, +but this seems as if he had taken a leading part. Looks, too, as if +there may have been only himself and Forbes in the affair!" + +"Just so! No wonder Wilson refused to give the names of his colleagues. +When the chase grew too hot he hid the spoils in this tree--evidently +an old hiding-place--before climbing the wall. If he had made clear +away that night we should never have suspected his share in the theft. +He would have turned up as usual next morning, and expressed great +surprise at the news. As it is he and Forbes are no doubt patiently +waiting until their sentences are out, expecting to slip back some dark +night and secure their prey. From such point of view it is a small +business to serve a few months when there's a fortune waiting at the +end! Well, this takes ten years off my back. I can't tell you how the +whole business has preyed on our minds. My dear fellow, I am so +thankful that your diamonds have turned up!" + +"My dear fellow, it was fifteen times worse for you than for us! A most +uncomfortable position; I congratulate you a hundred times. Just in the +nick of time, too. In a month or so there would have been no bundle to +discover." + +A general gasp at once of dismay and relief passed round the little +inner circle of those most nearly interested in the recovered treasures, +and the first excitement of recovery having passed, every one seemed +bent on lavishing thanks and praises upon the girl through whom the +happy discovery had come about. + +"Who is she?" + +"What is her name?" + +"Where does she come from?" The questions buzzed on every side, and the +answer, "Lady Hayes's grand-niece," served only to enhance existing +attractions. Darsie found herself kissed, patted, embraced, called by a +dozen caressing names by half a dozen fine ladies in turn, during which +process every eye on the lawn was turned upon her blushing face. +Through a gap in the crowd she could see Lady Hayes holding as it were a +secondary court, being thanked effusively for possessing a grand-niece +with a faculty for recovering jewels, and bowing acknowledgments with a +bright patch of colour on either cheekbone. The position was so strange +and bewildering that even yet it seemed more like a dream than reality; +that sudden rain of jewels descending from the linen bag was the sort of +thing one might expect in an Arabian night adventure rather than in the +midst of a decorous English garden-party! It must surely be in +imagination that she, Darsie Garnett, has been hailed as a good fairy to +all these fashionably dressed men and women! + +The almost hysteric effusion of the women who kissed and gushed around +her must surely have something infectious in its nature, since she +herself was beginning to feel an insane inclination to burst into tears +or laughter, it was immaterial which of the two it should be. Darsie +turned a quick look around, searching for a way of escape, and at that +moment Noreen's hand pressed on her arm, and she found herself being led +gently towards the house. + +"Poor old Darsie, then! She looks quite dazed!" said Noreen's voice. +"No wonder, after all that fuss. You've been kissed to pieces, poor +dear, and howled over, too. Silly things! howling when things are lost, +and howling again when they are found! I've no patience with them; but, +oh, my dear, I _do_ bless you for what you've done! You've no idea how +relieved we shall be. It was such a _stigma_ to have your guests robbed +under your own roof, and by one of your own men, too. Mother has never +been the same since--worried herself into nerves, and fancied every one +blamed her, and thought she'd been careless. You can't think _how_ +happy she'll be writing to the people who aren't here to-day telling +them that their things are found. She'll feel a new creature." + +"I'm so glad. She's a dear. Wasn't she sweet and dignified among them +all? Oh, dear! I'm all churned up. I thought as I couldn't find a +treasure I'd have a little joke on my own account, and after all I found +the biggest treasure of all, Noreen! how much money were those things +worth?" + +"Oh, my dear, don't ask me! Mother's pearls alone are worth three +thousand, and that's nothing to the rest. Mrs Ferriers' rubies are the +most valuable, I believe. Altogether it must be a fortune--to say +nothing of the associations. Isn't it strange to think of? An hour ago +you were a stranger whom scarcely any one knew even by sight, and now in +a flash you have become a celebrity, a heroine--the pet of the county!" + +"Am I? Really? It sounds agreeable. I'll write to-night and tell Vie +Vernon, and sign myself `The Pet of the County.' She _will_ be +impressed. Pity it wasn't my own county, where it would be of more use. +I shall probably never see these good people again." + +"Fiddle!" cried Noreen derisively. "No chance of that. Whether you +like it or no, my dear, this day has settled your fate. You can never +be a mere acquaintance any more. You've done us a service which will +bind us together as long as we live. Henceforth a bit of you belongs to +us, and we'll see that we get it!" + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +A DREAM FULFILLED. + +The next week brought with it a succession of bewildering excitements. +From morn till night, as it seemed, the bell rang, and visitors were +ushered in to congratulate Lady Hayes and her niece on the happy episode +of the jewel-finding, and to repeat _ad infinitum_ the same questions, +ejaculations, and remarks. People who had no personal interest in the +theft seemed, strangely enough, quite as excited and curious as those +who had; and even when their curiosity was satisfied there still +remained the servants in the house, the tradesmen in the village, the +very children in the roads, who seemed one and all possessed with a +thirst to hear the romantic story from the lips of the heroine herself. + +Then letters from relations and friends! However minutely one might +retail every incident, there still seemed an endless number of details +which remained to be told to people who could not be satisfied without +knowing in each case what _he_ said, how _she_ looked, how _you_ +yourself felt and behaved! The first three days were spent in talk; on +the fourth began a second and still more exciting stage. The bell rang, +a small, daintily tied parcel was handed in for Miss Garnett, which +being unwrapped revealed a red velvet jeweller's box, and within that a +small heart-shaped pendant, slung on a gold chain, and composed of one +large and several small rubies, set transparently, so as to show to +advantage their glowing rosy light. An accompanying card bore the +inscription, "A small expression of gratitude from Mrs Eustace +Ferriers"; but even this proof was hardly sufficient to convince Darsie +that such splendour was really for her own possession. + +"Aunt Maria! Can she _mean_ it? Is it really to keep?" + +"Certainly, my dear. Why not? It is quite natural that Mrs Ferriers +should wish to give you some little remembrance as you were the means of +restoring a valuable heirloom. It is a good stone. You must be careful +not to lose it." + +"Is it valuable, Aunt Maria--worth a lot of money?" + +"It is a pretty ornament, my dear. Do not look a gift horse in the +mouth." + +It was all very well for Aunt Maria, a titled lady with a box full of +jewels of her own, to take things calmly, but for a member of a poor +large family to receive a ruby pendant was a petrifying experience, only +to be credited by a continual opening of the box and holding of it in +one's hand to gaze upon its splendours. And then the very next morning +the bell rang again, and in came another parcel, another jeweller's box, +and inside it a blue enamelled watch with an encircling glitter of light +where a family of tiny diamonds formed a border round the edge. There +was an enamel bow also to fasten it on to a dress, but Darsie fairly +quaked at the thought of the responsibility of wearing so gorgeous an +ornament. + +"That will do for mother," she announced decidedly. "It wouldn't be +_decent_ for me to flaunt about in enamel and diamonds when she has an +old gold thing that is always slow. Besides, if she wears it I can +watch the diamonds flash, and that is the best part of the fun. Aunt +Maria, that's two! Do you suppose, should you imagine, that they'll +_all_--" + +Lady Hayes looked shocked, as in duty bound. + +"My dear, I don't suppose anything about it. That is not our affair. +It is sufficient that these two friends have been most kind and +generous, and that you ought to be a very grateful girl. Surmises as to +future gifts are in the worst possible taste." + +Darsie wrinkled her nose and sat in silence for several moments, moving +the little watch to and fro to catch the play of light upon the stones. +Then suddenly she spoke again-- + +"Aunt Maria, what are your ideas with regard to _luck_?" + +"I have none, my dear. I don't believe in its existence!" + +"But you must, Aunt Maria. You must. It was the merest luck my seeing +that hole, and thinking of feeling inside, but it seems as if it were +going to have such big consequences. Just in a moment it has brought me +more influential friends than most girls meet with in the whole of their +lives. They are all grateful to me; they feel that I have helped them; +they want to help me in return; but after all there's no credit to me, +it was all done without one scrap of thought or trouble. It seems hard +to think that many people work and slave for years, and fail to gain a +quarter as much as I have done by just pure luck!" + +"Don't be so sweeping in your assertions, child. These are early days +yet to talk about results. When you come to my age, my dear, you will +look back and realise that those who go through life in the right spirit +are never left to the mercy of what you call `luck.' `Submit thy way +unto the Lord, and _He_ will direct thy path.' I am an old woman, +Darsie, but I can say from my heart that goodness and mercy have +followed me all the days of my life." + +Darsie sat gazing thoughtfully into her aunt's face. Within the last +weeks a degree of intimacy had developed between the old woman and the +girl, which made it possible for the latter to speak out more openly +than she would have believed possible a short month before. + +"Aunt Maria," she said slowly, "I wish you would explain... You talk of +goodness and mercy, but--don't be shocked!--it doesn't seem to me that +you have so _much_ to be thankful for! ... You are rich, of course, but +that doesn't count for much by itself, and your life must have been +hard... You are delicate, and your husband died, and you have no +children--no one to live with you in this big house. Now when you _are_ +old you are so lonely that you are glad to have me--a girl like me--for +a few weeks' visit! When I go away you will be lonely again..." + +A tremor passed over Lady Hayes's face; the thin fingers crossed and +uncrossed themselves on her lap, but she smiled, a brave and patient +smile. "You are right, Darsie. I have had bitter trials, nevertheless +I have gained the greatest treasure that is given to any one on this +earth." + +"What is that, Aunt Maria?" + +"Peace in my soul, child--`the peace of God, which passeth +understanding,'" said the old woman solemnly. + +There was silence in the room. Darsie bent her head, awed and touched +by the sound of those wondrous words. A month ago, at home with her +brothers and sisters, she would have scoffed at the idea of peace in +connection with Great-aunt Maria, but a closer intimacy had altered her +opinion. About the trifling affairs of every day Aunt Maria continued +to fuss. No one could deny for a moment that she fussed; but the big +demands of life found her calm, serene, prepared. On the surface the +waters might dash occasionally into foam, but the deep, strong current +bore steadily towards the sea! + +Darsie pondered, and as though divining the course of her thoughts, Lady +Hayes spoke once more. + +"Perhaps that appears to you a serious statement for me to make, since +there are times when I must appear a very unpeaceful person. I am apt +to be unduly concerned about trifles, to my own exhaustion and that of +others. I am aware of the fact, and also that to one of your impetuous +disposition such a failing must be particularly trying. Nevertheless, +Darsie,"--the old voice deepened impressively--"_the peace is there_!" + +Slowly, thoughtfully Darsie bowed her head. + +"Yes, I know. I've _felt_ it. It has made me ashamed. The human part +of you may get out of hand sometimes, but you are _very_ nearly an +angel, Aunt Maria. You haven't much more to learn!" + +Lady Hayes shook her head, but her hand fell on Darsie's head with a +tender touch, and a light shone in the tired eyes. The lonely heart was +grateful for those words of encouragement. + +Darsie's surmise that still more presents might arrive was justified by +the delivery of three more packets--a dainty little pearl necklace from +Mrs Percival, a turquoise and diamond ring (oh, the rapture of owning a +real ring of one's very own!) and a combination present of a jewelled +bangle from three other ladies who had benefited by the lucky find. +Thus in one short week had Darsie's jewellery risen from a total which +she herself described as consisting of "a few glass beads and a gold +safety-pin" to five separate articles of real beauty and value. + +She was fond of spreading her treasures in a row on the table and gazing +at them _en bulk_, moving her head from side to side to enjoy the +flashing colours of the stones, and as she did so Lady Hayes was more +than surprised by a mercenary element which seemed out of keeping with +the girl's natural character. + +"Rubies are the most valuable stones, aren't they, Aunt Maria--more +valuable than diamonds?" + +"If they are of the right colour and depth, and of sufficient size." + +"You said this was a good stone. It's a ripping colour. I should think +this must be a valuable stone, wouldn't you?" + +"I prefer not to speculate on the subject, child." + +Or again-- + +"I should think this watch was worth lots of money. I have just +counted, and there are forty diamonds, teenies, of course, but still-- +And the enamel is so fine. My bracelet has five _big_ diamonds, and a +whole heap of pearls; and there's the necklace, too. Should you think, +Aunt Maria, that they were worth a hundred pounds put together?" + +Lady Hayes laid down her knitting, and stared with stony eyes into the +girl's face. + +"I have told you before, Darsie, that I excessively dislike surmises as +to the value of presents. I am surprised and disappointed to discover +signs of an avaricious and grasping nature!" + +To her surprise and dismay the only reply to this serious aspersion was +a good-natured laugh. + +"Goodness gracious, mercy on us!" cried Darsie audaciously. "I'm bad +enough, in all conscience, but I'm not _that_! Not a grasp in me! You +ask any one at home, and they'll tell you I'm quite stupidly generous. +It's not the money for the money's sake, I think of, but for what it +will _do_! I've no use for jewels, Aunt Maria--shan't ever have a +chance of wearing them, like Noreen and Ida. Imagine a daily governess +glittering with gems! But if only--only I could turn them into money, +it might fulfil the big ambition of my life and send me to Newnham, +without troubling father for a penny! Can you wonder that I feel +impatient with watches and chains when I think of _that_?" + +"I am sorry, my dear. I did not understand. I apologise!" said Lady +Hayes promptly. It was this unfailing sense of justice, combined with +the dignity which never forsook her under any stress of excitement or +agitation, which had been most largely instrumental in attracting the +girl's admiration. From the impetuous standpoint of youth it seemed an +almost inhuman pinnacle of perfection, but Darsie was quite determined +that at some far-distant elderly epoch--say, in thirty years' time--she +would begin practising these virtues on her own account. They seemed +the only decorous accompaniment of white hair and spectacles. + +She stretched out a sunburnt hand and patted the old lady's shoulder +with an affectionate touch. + +"All right! Don't worry. It _did_ seem greedy, and of course you +couldn't guess. You see, it's particularly hard because plain Ha- +Hannah Vernon, I mean--is going up, and that seems to make it worse for +me. Her father is richer than ours, and he believes in higher +education, so it's all settled that she is to go to Newnham, and she +talks about it all the time, and pities me when she's in a good temper, +and brags when she's not. And Dan would be at Cambridge, too, and Ralph +Percival, and, oh dear, oh dear, we'd have such _sport_! Balls, and +picnics, and cocoa parties, and boating in summer--no end of lovely +exciting pranks!" + +"Excuse me, my dear,"--Lady Hayes was frosty again, staring stonily over +the rim of her spectacles--"excuse me, but would you kindly explain for +what reason you are anxious to go to Cambridge? I had imagined that it +was for education, now it appears that balls and picnics are the +attraction. Which of the two is it of which you are really thinking?" + +"Oh, Aunt Maria, I'm a human girl! Of _both_!" cried Darsie, laughing. +"Education first, of course, because of the result, and all it will mean +afterwards, but if you want the truth, I shouldn't be so keen if it +wasn't for the fun! We know a girl who's just come down, and it sounds +such a lovely life... I'd work hard; I love work, and when there is any +on hand there's no peace for me till it's done; but _wouldn't_ I just +play, too! It would be the time of my life. Oh, Aunt Maria, when I +look at the governesses at school, and think that I'm going to be like +that all my days, it _does_ seem hard that I shouldn't have just two or +three years _first_ of the life I want!" + +The words, the tone, both bore a touch of real pathos; nevertheless Lady +Hayes smiled, as if, so far from being pained by the sad prospect, she +found something amusing in the contemplation. + +"It is a mistake to look too far ahead in life, but of course if you +contemplate teaching, you ought to be thoroughly equipped." She was +silent for a moment, gazing thoughtfully through the window. Then in a +level, perfectly commonplace voice she continued: "I shall be pleased, +my dear, to defray the expenses of your course at Newnham..." + +The manner in which our great ambitions in life meet their realisation +is always and inevitably other than we have imagined. Sometimes so many +years have passed by since the dreaming of the cherished plans, that the +eager spirit is transformed into a wearied and dispirited being, to whom +fulfilment brings no joy; sometimes it comes freighted with +complications which rob it of half its zest; sometimes it brings no +charm at all, but only bitterness and disappointment; and again--oh, +often again, thank God for His mercies!--it comes at the moment of +hopelessness, of renunciation, dazzling the eyes and heart with a very +incredulity of joy. + +Those few quiet words in an old woman's voice transformed for Darsie +Garnett the whole path ahead, making what had seemed a far-away vision +become a solid, tangible fact. Quietly, prosaically, without any +nourish of trumpets, the great prize of life had been handed into her +grasp. + +She sat motionless, staring with distended eyes, while Lady Hayes +continued to speak in calm, even tones. + +"I should like to explain to you, my dear, that I am not as rich a woman +as I appear. It was my dear husband's wish that I should continue to +occupy this house for the term of my life, but after that it passes to +his relations. It is an expensive place to keep up, and leaves little +margin out of the income which goes with it. I cannot save as I should +have wished, and my own property is not large. When it is divided among +my various nephews and nieces, there will not be much for each. I +should like to have done more for your father, as he has a large family +to provide for, but it is impossible. In your case, however, you have +done me a kindness in spending these weeks with me when I needed +companionship--and, I think, we are good friends! I can spare a few +hundreds to give you your training _and_ your fun--and it will be a +pleasure to me to do so. I will make a formal arrangement in my will so +that in the case of my--so that in any case the money may be +forthcoming. So, my dear, you may look upon the matter as settled, and +make your arrangements accordingly." + +Darsie put her hands to her head. Her cheeks were white, but around her +eyes and nose an increasing pinkness of hue betrayed the inward struggle +of emotion. + +"I'm going to cry! I'm going to cry!" she cried. And when Lady Hayes +began a protest, "Oh, Aunt Maria, don't, _don't_ be proper!" she pleaded +piteously. "I can't bear it just now. Please, please let me thank you +in my own way! I must howl! I _must_! I'm all seething and churning +with emotion, and if I don't cry I shall burst; but oh, I _do_ love +you--I adore you--I shall worship you until my dying day... You'll be +like a saint to me. I'll put you up on a pedestal and burn incense to +you every day of my life. If you _knew_ what it meant! And I've been +so mean and hateful--such a contemptible little worm! Oh, if I lived a +hundred thousand years, I could never repay you for this!" + +"My dear, does it strike you that you are talking in a very wild, +exaggerated fashion?" + +"I am, I am! Girls _do_, Aunt Maria, when they are off their heads with +joy. Wild, I mean, not exaggerated--I mean it, every word. Oh, I +_must_ hug you. Never mind your cap; I must give you a bear hug, if I +die for it. Dear, dearest, kindest, best--" + +The old lady's stiff, upright figure disappeared bodily within the +swooping arms; she was squeezed, hugged, rocked to and fro, and pelted +with kisses until she was speechless and gasping for breath. When she +was released her cap was askew, and the muslin folds in the front of her +gown crumpled out of recognition; but for a marvel she spoke no word of +reproach, and Darsie saw, with a sobering thrill, a glitter as of tears +in the old eyes, and the mental question which arose at the sight was +answered with intuitive sharpness. It was so long since she had been +hugged before, so many, many years since anything more than a +conventional peck had been pressed upon her cheek! Old, stern, proper +as she was, Aunt Maria loved to be loved! + +For the rest of the morning Darsie was as subdued and gentle in manner +as she had hitherto been boisterous. The future was discussed in +detail, and plans made which revolutionised more and more her future +life, for Lady Hayes seemed to take for granted that in taking upon +herself the responsibility for the girl's education she had earned a +certain right to her society. Such phrases as "And in the holiday-time +we can discuss," "When you are here in the summer vacation," "I shall +look forward to hearing your descriptions," could not be misunderstood, +but for the moment the big gain outweighed the loss, and Darsie smiled +on unperturbed. In time to come the sacrifice of merry family holidays +would of a certainty demand its toll of suffering, but why encourage +trouble that lay ahead when the present was so blissfully full of +contentment? + +When lunch was over Darsie tucked her hostess on the sofa, and hailed +with delight the opportunity of a free hour in which to dream +uninterrupted over the wonderful development of the day. + +"I'll go out and walk it off. I'll rush down to the village and +telegraph home. I can't possibly wait to write. How can I put it so +that it will be plain enough and not too plain? `Newnham ahoy!' `I'm +off to Newnham College in the morning!' `Plans for Newnham +satisfactorily arranged. Break news to Hannah.' _Won't_ they stare! +It's a blessing that neither Clemence nor Lavender would care to go if +they had the chance, so they won't be jealous, but Hannah _will_ jump. +And Dan--what will Dan say? It is good luck knowing the boys so well. +We'll make them take us about. To think that I was so furious and +rebellious about this visit, and that it should have ended like this! +It will be a lesson to me for life!" + +It was very pleasant to ride through the sweet smelling lanes on this +bright summer afternoon; very pleasant work sending off that telegram to +the parents at the seaside, and drawing mental pictures of the +excitement and rejoicings which would follow its arrival; pleasant to +meet on every side kindly, interested glances, and to realise that if +she were, as Noreen had declared, "the pet of the county," she was +assuredly also "the heroine of the village." + +It was a temptation to linger in the quaint little streets; but on this +afternoon of all others Darsie was anxious not to be late for tea, so, +with a sigh of regret, she turned up a side lane leading to the field +path to the Manor, and in so doing came face to face with Ralph +Percival, who, in his lightest and most sporting attire, was escorting a +pack of dogs for an airing. There was the big silky-haired collie whom +Darsie loved, the splay-footed dachshund which she hated, the huge +mastiff which she feared, with one or two terriers of different breeds-- +alert, friendly, and gentle-eyed. One and all came sniffing round her +as their master stopped to shake hands, and she stood up stiff and +straight, trying to look at ease, and as if she were not really in +momentary terror of an attack upon her ankles and skirts. + +"Halloa!" + +"How are you? Still living in a shower of jewels?" + +"I _have_ been, but it's clearing off! The combination bracelet +finished the list. Now I'm beginning to live in fear of another +burglary, on myself. It will be a relief to get the things distributed. +Mother is to have the watch, Clemence the pendant, Lavender the brooch, +and I am going to be greedy and keep the bracelet and necklace and ring +for myself." + +"What a miser!" cried Ralph, laughing. His grey eyes looked very +handsome and agreeable lit up with the twinkling light of amusement, and +Darsie's spirits rose still a degree higher as he whistled to the dogs +and turned round with the evident intention of accompanying her home. + +"We'll come along with you. It doesn't matter where we go so long as we +have a run. Bound for the Manor, I suppose? How's the old lady? In a +good humour, I should say. You look particularly full of beams this +afternoon!" + +"I am--brimming over! You see before you, kind sir, the touching +spectacle of a young female who has not a single ungratified wish in the +world, and is so happy that she doesn't know how to preserve a decent +appearance of calm. It's the more extraordinary because she usually +wants quite a lot." + +Ralph's eyebrows went up in expressive disdain. + +"Re-al-ly! You don't say so! Glad to hear it, I'm shaw! The kind +donors would be much gratified to know of the magic effect of their +gifts. I wonder, under the circumstances, that you could bear to part +from any of them!" + +The words were spoken in his most drawling and superior voice, and +brought the blood rushing into Darsie's cheeks. She stood still in the +middle of the road, and glared at him with flashing eyes. + +"Horrible boy! What a disagreeable mind you must have, to think such +mean, contemptible thoughts! Bother the jewellery! It may go to +Jericho for all I care. I'm happy for a very different reason. Aunt +Maria has just promised to pay for me to go to Newnham, and that has +been the dream of my life. There's nothing to sneer at, you see, though +perhaps _you_ can manage to be superior even about that!" + +"Yes, easily. I hate blue-stockings," said Ralph calmly, but his eyes +twinkled as he spoke, and in spite of herself Darsie was obliged to +smile in response. + +"And I hate narrow-minded, prejudiced young men! Oh dear! you've put me +in a bad temper on this day of days, just when I felt that I could never +be cross again. I'll forgive you only because it's impossible to go +_on_ being cross. I've just been to the post-office to telegraph the +great news to my people at the seaside. They'll be wild with +excitement, especially my chum who will be going up at the same time, +Hannah Vernon--`plain Hannah' we call her. Funny nickname, isn't it?" + +"Sounds ingratiating!" Voice and expression were alike so expressive +that Darsie went off into a merry trill of laughter, as she hastened to +take up the cudgels in plain Hannah's defence. + +"She doesn't care a bit. Jokes about it with the rest. And she is so +funnily ugly that it's really rather dear. _And_ clever! She'll be a +first-class girl, you'll see if she isn't. I shall be nowhere beside +her, but I'm going to _grind_. Let me see: if we go up in three years' +time, when we're eighteen, how long will you have left of your course?" + +"Perhaps a year, perhaps two. Depends upon how soon I go up. It isn't +as if I had to go in for a profession or anything of that kind. I shall +spend my life looking after the property, and there's no particular need +to swot for that." + +"I hate loafers," said Darsie in her turn, then once more relented and +said genially, "But I don't believe you mean half that you say. Anyway, +I shall look forward to meeting you at Cambridge, and I hope you are +prepared to be kind, and to be ready to return the good offices which I +have been able to render to your respected family." + +"I am. What do you want me to do?" + +"To be nice to me at Cambridge! I shall be a shy, lone Fresher, and you +can make things much livelier for me if you like. I want you to like! +Dan Vernon will be there, too, but he's so serious and clever that he +won't be much good for the _fun_ part. I want you to promise not to be +superior and proud, but a real friend to take us about, and dance with +us at the balls, and get up picnics on the river. I can manage the work +part for myself, but I want some help for the fun!" + +She expected an instant response, but Ralph was too cautious to be drawn +into rash promises. + +"Er--what exactly do you mean by `we'?" + +"Myself and my chum, of course--Hannah Vernon." + +"Plain Hannah?" + +"Plain Hannah!" + +Ralph shook his handsome head. + +"I make no promise as regards plain Hannah. I'm not particularly +partial to plain Hannahs, but I'll do my level best for Darsie Garnett. +Like to! You can count upon me to do my best to give you a rattling +good time." + +Darsie regarded him doubtfully, reflected that it was wisdom to accept +what one could get, and smiled a gracious approval. + +"Thanks--so much! Then it's a promise?" + +"Certainly. A promise!" + +They laughed again. The dogs leaped in the air and barked with delight. +Everything and every one seemed happy to-day. Darsie felt that if she +lived to be a hundred she could never, by any possibility, reach a +higher pinnacle of content. + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +AFTER THREE YEARS. + +"Is your trunk ready, Darsie? Are you ready to come down? Lunch is on +the table and we're all waiting. Have you fitted everything in? Oh +dear, oh dear, how bleak and bare the room does look! I shall never +have the heart to enter it after you're gone." + +Clemence Garnett, aged twenty years, gave a pitiful glance round the +dismantled room, which a few hours before had been decorated with the +many and varied objects which were Darsie's treasures. She looked at +the wooden wardrobe, the doors of which swung wide, showing a row of +empty pegs, at the scattering of paper and rejected ends of ribbon and +lace which littered the floor, and finally back at the figure of Darsie +herself, kneeling before the great black trunk, with her golden hair +ruffling round a flushed, eager face. + +"Sit on it, Clemence, like a lamb. It's _got_ to meet, but it's inches +apart still. Sit down with a flop, and be your heaviest, while I fight +with the lock." + +"Better take something out. If you make it so full, it may burst half- +way. How would you like that?" + +"Not much; but better than leaving anything behind. It wouldn't dare to +burst after costing so much money. There! It's done. You're a pretty +substantial weight, my dear. Now then for lunch and a rest; I've had a +terrific morning." + +Darsie rose to her feet and stood for a moment before the mirror, +putting a tidying touch to hair and dress. She was a tall, slim girl, +nearly a head taller than the more substantial Clemence, and the easy +grace which characterised her movements was the first thing which +attracted an unaccustomed eye. Even Clemence, with perceptions dulled +by custom, felt dimly that it was an agreeable thing to watch Darsie +brush her hair and shake out her skirts, though in another person such +acts would be prosaic and tiresome. The crisp hair needed nothing but a +brush and a pat to settle itself into a becoming halo of waves, and the +small face on the long white neck had a quaint, kitten-like charm. +Clemence looked from the real Darsie to the reflected Darsie in the +glass, and felt a sudden knife-like pang. + +"Oh, how I _hate_ you going! How dull it will be. Why _couldn't_ you +be content to stay at home instead of taking up this Newnham craze? I +shall miss you hideously, Darsie!" + +Darsie smiled involuntarily, then nobly tried to look sad. + +"I expect you will, but one grown-up at home is as much as we can +afford, and there'll be lovely long vacs. You must think of those, and +the letters, and coming up to see me sometimes, and term time will pass +in a flash. I'll be back before you realise that I'm gone." + +Clemence pouted in sulky denial. + +"Nothing of the sort. It will seem an age. It's easy to talk! People +who go away have all the fun and excitement and novelty; it's the poor +stay-at-homes who are to be pitied. How would you like to be me, +sitting down to-morrow morning to darn the socks?" + +"Poor old Clem!" said Darsie lightly. A moment later, with relenting +candour, she added: "You'll like it a lot better than being examined by +a Cambridge coach! So don't grouse, my dear; we've both got the work we +like best--come down to lunch, and let's see what mother has provided +for my go-away meal!" + +Darsie slid a hand through Clemence's arm as she spoke and the two +sisters squeezed down the narrow staircase, glad in their English, +undemonstrative fashion of the close contact which an inherent shyness +would have forbidden except in this accidental fashion. Across the oil- +clothed passage they went, into the red-walled dining-room, where the +other members of the family waited their arrival. + +Mrs Garnett smiled at the traveller with a tinge of wistfulness on her +face; the four young people stared, with a curiosity oddly infused with +respect. A girl who was on the eve of starting for college had soared +high above the level of ordinary school. Lavender, at "nearly +seventeen," wore her fair locks tied back with a broad black ribbon; her +skirts reached to her ankles; she was thin and angular; her head was +perpetually thrust forward, and a pair of spectacles were worn +perpetually over the bridge of her pointed little nose. The description +does not sound attractive, yet in some mysterious manner, and despite +all drawbacks, Lavender _did_ manage to be attractive, and had a select +band of followers at school who practised stoops and poked-out heads out +of sheer admiration of her defects. + +Harry's voice was beginning to croak, which, taken together with a +dawning passion for socks, ties, and brilliantine, was an unmistakable +sign of growing up; Russell was preternaturally thin and looked all arms +and legs; while Tim had forsaken knickers for full-fledged trousers, and +resented any attempt at petting as an insufferable offence. + +One and all were on their best company manners on the occasion of +Darsie's last lunch, and the most honeyed replies took the place of the +usual somewhat stormy skirmish of wits; nevertheless, there was a +universal feeling of relief when the meal was over, and a peal at the +bell announced the arrival of the cab which was to convey Darsie and a +girl companion on the first stage of their journey. + +If anything could have added to Darsie's joy in the fulfilment of a +lifelong ambition, it would have been the fact that Hannah Vernon was to +be her companion at Newnham, as she had been through the earlier +schooldays. All the Vernon family were dears of the first water, and +might have been specially created to meet the needs of their neighbours, +the Garnetts. It is true that the Vernons possessed the enviable +advantage of a big grown-up brother, but when the Garnetts felt +particularly tried on this score, they sought comfort from the +reflection that a brother so solemn and scholarly, so reserved and +unresponsive, hardly counted as a brother at all. Dan was already in +the second year of his Cambridge course, and was expected to do great +things before he left. So far as such a sober person could be made +useful, Darsie Garnett intended to use him towards the furtherance of +her own enjoyment of the new life. + +For the rest, Vie, the eldest daughter of the Vernon household, was the +sworn ally and confidante of Clemence, and John, the younger son, was in +himself such a tower of mischievous strength that the Garnett trio sat +at his feet. Last, but certainly not least, came Hannah, and Hannah +was--Darsie would have found it an almost impossible task to describe +"plain Hannah" to an unfortunate who had not the honour of her +acquaintance. Hannah was Hannah, a being distinct by herself-- +absolutely different from any one else. To begin with, she was +extraordinarily plain; but, so far from grieving over the fact, Hannah +wore it proudly as the foremost feather in her cap. + +It was she herself who had originated and sanctioned the continued use +of the sobriquet, which had its origin in a juvenile answer given by +herself to a stranger who inquired her name. + +Now Hannah was the only member of the family who was limited to one +cognomen, so she answered unthinkingly, "Hannah; _plain_ Hannah!" and +instantly descrying the twinkling appreciation in that stranger's eyes, +she twinkled herself, and henceforth led the adoption of the title. +Long use had almost deadened its meaning in the ears of the family, but +strangers still suffered at the hearing. + +Plain Hannah's face peered cheerily out of the cab window, her little +eyes twinkled merrily, her preposterous eyebrows arched in derision of +the melancholy group upon the doorsteps. No one dared shed a tear when +she was so evidently on the watch for any sign of weakness, sentimental +farewells were checked upon the speaker's lips, and the whole business +of parting assumed a lighter, a more matter-of-fact air. + +A second big box was hoisted on to the cab roof, a few kisses +shamefacedly exchanged, and then the travellers were off, and nothing +remained to the watchers but to trail drearily back into a house from +which half the brightness seemed to have departed. + +Well might Clemence say that the worst pain of a parting fell on those +who were left behind! While the stay-at-homes struggled heavily through +a long afternoon, in every moment of which the feeling of loss became +even more acute, Darsie and plain Hannah were enjoying one of the most +exciting experiences of their lives. + +In spite of an almost lifelong interest in Cambridge, neither girl had +as yet visited the town itself, so that each incident of the journey was +full of interest and excitement. The station was disappointingly like +other stations, and they had abundant opportunity of examining it at +leisure, since the porters rushed in a body to attend to the male +students who had arrived at the same time, and who could be trusted to +give larger tips than their female companions. The drive through the +streets also fell short of expectations; but, after all, Cambridge meant +Newnham, and there could be no disappointment there! Peered at through +the cab window, the building appeared unexpectedly large and imposing. +It gave one a thrill of importance to realise that for the next three +years one would be part and parcel of its life, an inhabitant of its +great halls. + +The cabman descended from the box and rang a peal at the bell, and it +came as something as a shock to see an ordinary-looking maid throw open +the door, though what exactly they had imagined the girls would have +found it difficult to say. The maid inquired their names, led them +forward through a long corridor, and flung open the door of a sitting- +room where a lady sat before a desk. It was a pretty, cheerful-looking +apartment, full of flowers, books, pictures, and quaint old-world +furniture, and the lady herself looked so much like other middle-aged +ladies, that if you had not known it you would never have suspected her +of being the Vice-President of a Women's College. + +She was kind and agreeable. She shook hands, and hoped you were well; +hoped you had had a pleasant journey, hoped you would be happy in +College, hoped you would like your rooms; but there was a certain +mechanical quality in her voice which betrayed the fact that she had +said the same thing over and over again on innumerable occasions, would +say it twenty times or more this very afternoon, and that your own +personal arrival left her perfectly calm and cool. + +The girls stuttered and stammered in response, felt vaguely crestfallen, +and worried as to what they should do next, but the Vice herself was in +no doubt. "She hoped they were ready for tea," and with a wave of the +hand summoned the maid to lead them a stage forward on their journey. + +The second stage deposited the new-comers in the dining-hall, where tea +was already in progress, and about a dozen disconsolate-looking Freshers +were munching at bread-and-butter and cake in a silence which could be +felt. Apparently Darsie and Hannah were the only ones of the number +lucky enough to have come up in pairs, but even their tried powers of +speech were paralysed beneath the spell of that terrible silence, and +still more so by the relentless scrutiny of those twelve pairs of eyes. +And how those Freshers _did_ stare! The whites of their eyes positively +shone, as with one accord the pupils turned towards the opening door. +They had been stared at themselves, had come through the ordeal of being +the last arrival; now, with thanksgiving, they were revenging themselves +upon fresh victims! Darsie felt a horrible certainty that she would +drop her cup, and spill the tea over the floor; plain Hannah munched and +munched, and looked plainer than ever, with her shoulders half-way up to +her ears and her chin burrowed in her necktie. + +Presently the door opened again, and another Fresher entered, cast a +frightened glance around, and subsided on to the nearest chair, while +every eye turned to gaze upon her, in her turn. This programme was +enacted several times over before Darsie and Hannah had finished tea, +and were ready to be escorted to the upstairs apartments, which were to +act as bedroom and study combined. + +Mercifully the rooms were close together, so that, leaving Darsie half- +way along the corridor, the maid could point to a door near at hand, +where she could join her friend when her inspection was complete. She +entered with the feeling of one on the threshold of a new life, and +stood gazing around in mingled disappointment and delight. The first +impression was of bareness and severity, an effect caused by the absence +of picture or ornament of any kind. A small white bed stood in one +corner; a curtain draped another, acting as a substitute for a wardrobe; +a very inadequate screen essayed unsuccessfully to conceal a wooden +washstand, and a small square of glass discouraged vanity on the part of +an occupant. So far, bad! but, on the other hand, the room contained +inexpensive luxuries, in the shape of an old oak chest, a bureau, a +standing bookcase, and a really comfortable wicker chair. + +Darsie could hardly believe that these treasures were meant for her own +use; it seemed more likely that they had belonged to a former student, +who would presently demand their return. She was sorrowfully resigning +herself to this contingency when the door burst open, and in rushed +Hannah, aglow with excitement. + +"I've got a chest, and a bookcase, and a bu--" + +Her eyes rounded with surprise. "I say! So have you--I thought I _was_ +swag! Do you suppose it's the usual thing?" + +"Can't say. Topping for us if it is. But the screen's a wretch, and +the walls will need a _lot_ of covering. My few mites of pictures will +go nowhere. There's not _too_ much room for our clothes, either. We'd +better unpack, I suppose, and get out things for dinner. What are you +going to wear?" + +"Oh, something--whatever comes handy," replied plain Hannah in her most +casual manner. + +The subject seemed to her of infinitesimal importance; but Darsie went +through many agitations of mind before she decided on a high-necked +summer frock, and then suffered still keener pangs because, on +descending to Hall, several Freshers were discovered in full evening +dress, and, in her imagination at least, eyed her lace yoke with +disdain. + +Dinner was almost as silent as tea--an ordeal of curious, appraising +eyes, as each Fresher continued to stare at every other Fresher, +condemning her mentally for want of frankness and kindliness, while +utterly neglecting to practise these virtues on her own account. Then +one by one the girls slunk upstairs, tired, shy, and homesick, and crept +gratefully into their narrow beds. + +Sleep was long in coming to Darsie Garnett that night: she lay awake +hour after hour, living over again in thought the events of the last +three years. + +First and foremost her thoughts went back to the old great-aunt to whose +generosity she owed the present fulfilment of her ambition. Until Lady +Hayes's death, a year ago, Darsie had spent the major part of her +holidays at The Towers, and the friendship between the old woman and the +girl had developed into a very real affection. + +It had been a wonderful experience, Darsie reflected, to watch the +gradual mellowing of character, the patient endurance of suffering, the +peaceful death which was so truly a "falling asleep." Until that time +Darsie had felt all a girl's natural shrinking from death, but the sight +of Aunt Maria's peaceful face had dissipated that fear once for all. As +she knelt by the bedside looking at the still, majestic features, she +offered the most fervent prayer of her life--a prayer that she, too, +might be enabled to "submit her way," and so in the end find peace in +her soul! + +Her acquaintance with the Percival family had ripened into friendship, +so that, though Noreen and Ida could never by any chance supplant the +Vernon sisters, there were moments when she actually felt more at home +with Ralph than with queer, silent Dan. + +Ralph, at twenty-one, had outgrown many of his boyish failings--or +rather, as Darsie shrewdly surmised, had attained the art of screening +them from _view_. Instead of snubbing his sisters' friends and adopting +airs of haughty superiority, he was now all deference and attention, +transparently eager for her society. Dan, on the contrary, was absorbed +in work; he had taken the Longs in summer, so that Darsie had no chance +of meeting him before starting on her annual visits to Lady Hayes. In +the Easter vac. he had visited France and Germany to study languages, +while at Christmas-times he was at once too shy and too busy to take +part in the daily excursions indulged in by his brothers and sisters. +He was doing brilliantly at College, and as a better preparation for his +life's work had decided on a four-years course--taking the Tripos in two +parts, in both of which it was a foregone conclusion that he would take +a first-class. + +Ralph Percival was contentedly slacking it in preparation for a pass +degree. "What did it matter?" he demanded serenely. One came to +Cambridge, don't you know, because all one's people had been there, +because it was the thing to do, and a rattling old place for sport and +having a good time. He would be confoundedly sorry when it was over. +Only wished he could slack it out for twice as long! + +Darsie first frowned, and then smiled to herself in the dark as she +recalled those utterances, and the actions fitly symbolised her +sentiments towards the heir of the Percivals. Her head had no mercy for +such an utter want of ambition and energy, but the heart plays often a +bigger part than the head in an estimate of a fellow-creature, and +Darsie's heart had a way of making excuses for the handsome truant, who +smiled with such beguiling eyes, had such a pretty knack of compliment, +and was--generally!--ready to play knight-errant in her service. She +felt herself lucky in possessing so charming a friend to act the part of +gallant, and to be at her service when she chose to call. And then +quite suddenly she drew a sharp breath and said aloud in a trembling +voice, "Oh, Aunt Maria, dear Aunt Maria!" and her pillow was wet with +tears; for Aunt Maria was dead, had died too soon to hear of her grand- +niece's experiences at Newnham, to which she had looked forward with +such interest, but not before evoking a real love and gratitude in +Darsie's heart. How thankful the girl was to remember that she had been +able to cheer the last year of that lonely life, to recall every loving +word and action, every tiny scrap of self-denial on her own part which +had repaid in some small way the great gift to herself. Thankful and +grateful she would be to the end of her life, but she was not, and had +not even pretended to be, _sorry_ that Aunt Maria was dead. + +"She was old, and she was lonely, and she was ill. I'm _glad_, not +sorry," she had declared to the scandalised Lavender. "I'm glad she'll +never come hobbling downstairs again, and sit all the long, long day in +one chair, waiting for it to end. I'm _glad_ she's forgotten all about +her back, and her feet, and her head, and her joints, and all the +thousand parts that ached, and could not rest. I'm _glad_ she doesn't +need any more spectacles, and sticks, and false teeth, nor to have +people shouting into her ear to make her hear. I'm thankful! If I'd +hated her I might have liked her to live on here, but I loved her, so +I'm glad. She has gone somewhere else, where she is happy, and +cheerful, and _whole_, and I hope her husband has met her, and that they +are having a lovely, lovely time together..." + +Darsie was glad, too, in quite an open, unconcealed fashion, when a +legacy of a few thousand pounds lifted a little of the strain from her +father's busy shoulders, made it possible to send Harry and Russell to a +good boarding-school, continue Clemence's beloved music lessons, and +provide many needfuls for household use. It was not only pleasant but +absolutely thrilling to know that as long as she herself lived she +would, in addition, possess fifty pounds a year--practically a pound a +week--of her very, very own, so that even when she grew too old to +teach, she could retire to a tiny cottage in the country, and live the +simple life. In the meantime, however, she was young, and life +stretched ahead full of delicious possibilities and excitements. + +Her great ambition had been achieved. She was a student at Cambridge; +the historic colleges whose names had so long been familiar on her lips +lay but a few streets away, while in her own college, close at hand, +along the very same corridor, lay other girls with whom she must work, +with whom she must play, whose lives must of a surety touch her own. + +What would happen? How would she fare? When the last night of her +three-years course arrived, and she lay as now in this narrow white bed, +staring across the darkened room which had been her home, what would her +dreams be then? What pictures would arise in the gallery of her mind? +What faces smile at her out of the mist? + +"Oh, God," sighed Darsie in a soft, involuntary appeal, "help me to be +good!" + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +THE AUCTION. + +The next day Darsie and Hannah were interviewed by their several +coaches, male and female, received instructions as to their future work, +and had the excitement of witnessing the return of the second and third +year girls, whose manner was strikingly different from that of the +modest Freshers. Dinner that evening was more of an ordeal than ever, +with a galaxy of such assured, not to say aggressive, young women, +staring with all their eyes at their new companions, and, to judge from +the expressions on their faces, forming the meanest opinion of their +intelligence! + +Hannah Vernon was of all the Freshers the least upset by their scrutiny, +but then plain Hannah was proverbially thick-skinned about the opinion +of others. + +"Let 'em stare if it amuses 'em--_I_ don't mind! Long time since I've +been so much admired," she returned composedly to Darsie's indignant +whisper. "Every dog has its day. Wait till it's _our_ turn! I'll wear +specs for that day--if I never do again, and glare over them like our +friend in green. I've been taking notes, and her glare is worth all the +rest put together. I feel sure she sees into my pocket, and knows +exactly how much there is in my purse. Perhaps she's jealous of you. +You're the prettiest girl here--old or new!" + +"Oh, am I? _Nice_!" cried Darsie, dimpling. She peered around the +tables, examining the faces of the girls within sight with an appraising +eye, compared them with the reflection which looked back at her out of +her own mirror, and felt an agreeable sense of conviction. There was +one slim, dark-eyed girl with a bright rose flush on her cheeks, as to +whose claim she felt a moment's uncertainty, but when she turned her +head--lo, a nose was revealed soaring so unbecomingly skyward that +Darsie breathed again. Yes! she was the prettiest. Now if she could +just manage to be the most popular also, and, not the cleverest, of +course--that was _too_ much to expect--but well in the front rank, how +agreeable it would be, to be sure! + +The dining-hall looked much more cheery tonight, when the long table was +surrounded by over sixty students in their brightly coloured dresses; +the buzz of conversation rose steadily throughout the meal, and by the +time that coffee was served curiosity seemed satisfied, for the staring +had come to an end. + +"I think you must be Dan Vernon's sister. May I introduce myself? I am +Helen Ross." A tall girl, with brown hair brushed low over her ears, +stood beside Hannah's chair, holding out her hand with an air of +assurance which plainly intimated that the mention of her name was +expected to arouse instant recognition. Hannah, who had never heard it +before, and was not skilled in the art of pretence, stared back in blank +surprise. + +"Oh-h! Really? Yes, I'm Hannah Vernon. This is my friend Miss +Garnett." + +Helen Ross nicked her eyelashes at Darsie by way of a bow, but bestowed +no spoken greeting. + +"Rather beastly, the first day, isn't it?" she drawled, turning to +Hannah once more. "Feel such a pelican in the wilderness, wandering +about, not knowing what to be after next. Make me useful, do! I'd like +to be useful. Told your brother I'd show you the ropes. Did you get +your milk last night? Half a pint each is your allowance. You get it +from the pantry directly after dinner, and take it upstairs for cocoa. +Have you discovered your gyp-room yet?" + +Hannah stolidly shook her head, whereupon Miss Ross proceeded to further +explanations. The gyp-room was a species of pantry, one of which was to +be found on each corridor, whence cups, saucers, and other utensils for +the preparation of the famous ten o'clock "cocoas" could be obtained. +You helped yourself, don't you know, and you took the things back when +you had done with them, but you didn't wash them up. The gyp-room owned +a presiding dignitary of its own who was known as the "gyp-woman," who +obligingly performed that service. Then Miss Ross expressed a wish to +see Hannah's room, and the three girls ascended the stairs together, and +the two Freshers stood by meekly while the two-year girl indulged in +candid criticism. + +"Humph! Not so bad. Rather a barn at present, but it'll look all right +when you've fixed it up. Always takes a few days to settle down, but +one lives in one's room so much that it's worth taking pains. You can +get no end into the coffin, that's one blessing!" + +"Coffin!" Hannah and Darsie jerked at the ominous word, whereupon Miss +Ross smiled with complacent superiority. + +"Ah! of course, you don't know that name. The chest's the `coffin,' and +you keep hats in it, likewise odd boxes, and evening cloaks, and other +perishable splendours. Every one calls them coffins, so you'll have to +get used to it, I'm afraid; and the bureau's a `burry,' and the screen's +a `farce,' and a topply one at that. You'll have to buy another to take +its place. They never _do_ supply you with decent screens. By the way, +there's an auction on to-night! Did any one tell you? That's your +chance of picking up the things you want. It's held in the Gym. at ten +o'clock, and is not bad fun. I'll come along and take you, if you'd +care to go." + +"Thanks. Yes, I'd like to see everything that's going on. What sort of +things are for sale?" + +"All sorts of discards that have been left behind by other girls-- +screens, bed-covers, curtains, china flower-pots, chairs, kettles, +pictures. Sometimes there's quite a fine show." + +"Sounds attractive! And who is the auctioneer?" + +"A second-year girl--the one who is credited with the greatest amount of +wit." + +There was a moment's silence while the two Freshers each mentally leaped +a year ahead, and saw herself in this proud and enviable position. + +"Who's the one to-night?" + +"Margaret France." Miss Ross's lips curled expressively. "I hope you +won't judge us by her standard. She's certainly not the one whom _I_ +should have chosen to fill the position!" + +Silence again, while the Freshers reflected that they knew very well +whom Miss Helen Ross would have chosen if she had had the chance, and +were glad that she hadn't. + +"Well, I'll call round about ten. Make up your fire, and be +comfortable. You're allowed a scuttle of coals a day, and let me warn +you to _use_ it! If it's not all burnt, keep a few lumps in a +convenient cache--a box under the bed will do. It comes in handy for +another day, and when it gets really cold you can stoke up at night and +have a fire to dress by in the morning. The authorities don't approve +of that--they say it's bad for the stoves. Personally I consider myself +before any stoves." + +She nodded casually and strode from the room, leaving the two friends +divided between gratitude for her kindness and prejudice against her +personality. + +"Don't like her a bit, do you?" + +"Humph. So-so! Means well, I think. Wonder how she knows Dan? He +never mentioned her name." + +"Not at _all_ the sort of girl Dan would care for! Such a bumptious +manner. A good many of them have, I observe. Fearfully self-possessed. +Perhaps it's a special effort to impress the Freshers. She didn't take +much notice of me, but I'm coming with you all the same to buy fixings +for my room, and hear the second-year auctioneer. Call for me when +you're ready, like a dear. I'm off now to read until ten o'clock." + +Darsie shut herself in her room, and set to work at her burry with all +the ardour of a beginner, so that the hour and a half passed like a +flash, and it seemed as if she had scarcely begun before Hannah's solid +bang sounded at the door, and she went out into the corridor to follow +Helen Ross to the Gym. + +The auction had already begun, and the auctioneer, a fresh-looking girl +with grey eyes planted extraordinarily far apart, was engaged in +extolling the excellencies of an aged kettle to a laughing circle of +girls. She wore a black dress cut square at the neck, and a rose- +coloured ribbon twined round her head. She held out the kettle at the +length of a bare white arm, and raised her clear voice in delightful +imitation of the professional wheedle. + +"Friends and Freshers! We now come to Lot Three, one of the most +striking and interesting on the catalogue. A kettle, ladies, is always +a useful article, but this is no ordinary kettle. We have it on +unimpeachable authority that this kettle was the kettle in residence at +the establishment of our late colleague Miss Constantia Lawson, the +Senior Classic of her year! The kettle of a Senior Classic, Freshers! +The kettle which has ministered to her refreshment, which has been, in +the language of the poem, the fount of her inspiration! What price +shall I say, ladies, for the kettle of a Senior Classic? Sixpence! Did +somebody say sixpence! _For the kettle of a Senior Classic_! +Eightpence! Thank you, madam. For the kettle of a-- What advance on +eightpence? Freshers would do well to consider this opportunity before +it is too late. What an--an _inebriating_ effect, if I may use the word +without offence to the late lamented poet, would be added to the cup +that cheers by the thought that the same handle, the same spout, the +same--er--er--furry deposit in the inside, have ministered to the +refreshment of one of the master spirits of our day! Going at +eightpence--eightpence-halfpenny--I thank you, madam! At tenpence! No +advance on tenpence? Going--going--_gone_!" + +The hammer descended with a rap, the auctioneer leaned back with an air +of exhaustion, and handed the kettle to her clerk, in blue silk and +crystal beads. + +"Lady to the right. Tell the lady, Joshua, that the small hole in the +bottom can easily be soldered by an obliging ironmonger, or, if she +prefers, she can hang the kettle on the wall as an object of vertu!" + +Peals of laughter greeted this tragic disclosure. The lady to the right +refused for some minutes to hand over her tenpence, but finally +succumbed to the feeling of the meeting, when a crumpled cotton bed- +cover was next produced for sale. + +"Lot Four. Handsome Oriental bedspread--design of peacocks, vultures, +and pear-trees, in gorgeous colourings. Encircling border on a +background of blizzard white, and corner pieces complete. Eight feet by +three. Joshua! carry the bedspread round and allow the ladies to +examine it for themselves. It is excessively hurtful to our feelings +when purchasers imply that deception has been practised in order to +induce them to purchase our goods. Show the ladies the spread! Pure +cotton, ladies. Fast colours. Design by Alma Tadema, in his happiest +mood. You could not possibly purchase such a spread in any +establishment, ladies, under the sum of two-and-six. Fine Oriental +goods, warranted to impart an air of opulence to the humblest bedstead. +Any Fresher wishing to give the last touch of costly elegance to her +room should not neglect this opportunity. What am I to say, ladies, for +this handsome spread? Sixpence again! Thank you, madam! Sixpences +seem in the ascendant to-night. Let us hope the collections on Sunday +next will benefit from the ensuing dearth. Ninepence! _At_ ninepence. +Pardon, madam? The lady in the eyeglasses wishes to make a remark, +Joshua. The lady in the eyeglasses remarks that one side of the spread +has been torn. The lady is evidently unaware that that fact is a proof +positive of the authenticity of the spread. No Eastern article, as all +travellers are aware, is _ever_ even at both sides." Another burst of +laughter greeted this point. The auctioneer showed her pretty white +teeth in a complacent smile, her wide grey eyes roved round the room, +and met Darsie's eyes raised to her in beaming admiration. + +"One-and-six did you say, madam?" she cried instantly. "Did I +understand you to say one-and-six? The opportunity will never occur +again. At one-and-six for the lady in violet. Take the name and +address if you please, Joshua." And Darsie, with a shrug and a laugh, +paid out her one-and-six, and received in return the blizzard-white +cover, ornamented with a roughly mended tear all along one side. + +The next articles offered for sale were framed pictures of various sizes +which had evidently not been considered worth the trouble of removing. +Water-colour sketches by 'prentice hands, faded photographs, or pretty- +pretty prints evidently torn from the pages of magazines. The +auctioneer exerted all the blandishments to induce the Freshers to +purchase these masterpieces, and deplored their scant response with +pathetic reproaches. + +"_No_ bids for this tasty little picture? Ladies, ladies, this is a +great mistake! In the midst of your arduous brain toil, what could be +more soothing and refreshing than to gaze upon this charming pastoral +scene? This azure earth, this verdant sky, this lovely maid who +combined in her person all the simpering charms of youth, and never, for +one misguided moment, troubled her ochre head over the acquirement of +that higher knowledge which, as we all know, is the proud prerogative of +man! What price shall I say for `The Maiden's Dream'? _No_ bids! Put +it down if you please, Joshua. We have no art collectors with us to- +night. Let me have the Botticelli for a change." + +The clerk in blue silk handed up another picture in a rickety Oxford +frame, at which the auctioneer gazed rapturously for several moments +before turning it towards her audience. + +"Number Six on the catalogue. Genuine photograph of a Botticelli from +the collection of Miss Eva Dalgleish. Attention, Freshers, if you +please! This is an item of serious importance. The presence of a +Botticelli bestows at once the air of culture and refinement without +which no study is worthy of the name. A genuine photograph of a +Botticelli, purchased by the owner in the Italian city of Florence, and +borne home by her own fair hands, as the crack across the corner will +give proof. In an Oxford frame--a compliment to our sister University-- +glazed and complete, with hanging loops and fragment of wire. _What_ +offers for the Botticelli? Any Fresher who wishes to prove herself +endowed with refined and artistic--One shilling? Thank you, madam. +_And_ sixpence! One and nine. One and nine for this genuine +Botticelli. Ladies, ladies, this is a sad day for Newnham. And nine-- +and nine. Going. Going--_gone_!" + +It was Hannah who had testified to her own artistic qualities by +purchasing this photograph. She tucked it proudly under her arm, and +turned an envious eye on a brass flower-pot which was now engaging the +auctioneer's attention. A simultaneous movement of the audience showed +that this was an article on which many hopes had been set, and bidding +promised to be brisk. + +"Now, ladies, we come to one of the principal events of the evening, the +bidding for this very rich and magnificent brass, hand-beaten, richly- +chased, Oriental, ornamental flower-pot. We have several flower-pots in +our catalogue, but none to be compared for one moment to the very +superior article which you now see before you. It is safe to say that +no student, even in her third year, can boast of a flower-pot to equal +this lot in either quality or design. The possession of it will in +itself ensure fame for its fortunate owner. Let me have a handsome bid, +if you please, ladies, to start this valuable article. Half a crown!!! +A lady, whose ignorance we can only deplore, offers me half a crown for +a genuine antique brass! I am thankful that in such a large and +enlightened audience such an error is not likely to be repeated. Three +shillings. _Thank_ you, madam. And six. Four shillings--four +shillings. Freshers who neglect to take advantage of this opportunity +will be compelled to content themselves with one of these common china +articles to my left. A flowerpot is a necessary article of furniture +without which no room is complete. What is home without an aspidistra? +You laugh, ladies, but you can find no answer to that question. And +six! Five shillings! The raw material for this masterpiece must have +cost many times this sum. Five--five--no advance on five. The lady in +green, Joshua. Take the lady's address!" + +The auctioneer put up her hand to her head and patted the rose-coloured +ribbon into place. Inspired by the laughing appreciation of her +sallies, her cheeks had flushed to the same bright shade, and with her +sparkling eyes and alert, graceful movements she made a delightful and +attractive figure, at which the Freshers stared in undisguised delight. + +"I adore her!" whispered Darsie in her friend's ear. + +"Decent sort!" croaked Hannah the undemonstrative, and then by a common +impulse their glance passed on to rest on Helen Ross's set, supercilious +face. + +"I loathe her," came the second whisper. + +"Mean thing--jealousy!" croaked Hannah once more, and turned her +attention to the business in hand. + +After the china flower-pots had been disposed of, a trio of basket- +chairs gave an impetus to the bidding, as the truth of the auctioneer's +words went home to every heart. + +"`Three luxurious basket-chairs, cushioned complete in handsome +cretonne, stuffed pure wool. Condition--as new.' Ladies, in these +basket-chairs you see not only elegant articles of furniture, but a +solution of the dilemma which dogs every owner of a one-comfortable- +chair study. One question haunts her waking and sleeping hours; one +problem embitters the most social occasions--`_Shall I be comfortable or +polite_?' To this question, in this college of Newnham, there can, +ladies, be but one reply--and the wretched hostess sits on the coal-box +and gives her visitor the chair. After long hours of mental toil, after +the physical strain of the hockey-field, a quiet hour is vouchsafed +beside her own fireside, with the companionship of a beloved friend to +soothe and cheer, and that hour, ladies--that precious hour--I say it +with emotion almost too strong for words--that stolen hour of peace and +rest must needs be passed--_on the coal-box_! Ladies, I need say no +more. The remedy is in your own hands." + +So on, and so on. After the chairs came curtains; after the curtains, +bookcases, ornaments, and books. The auction flowed on, punctuated by +explosions of laughter, until the last item on the "catalogue" was +reached, and the auctioneer was crimson with exhaustion. + +Darsie and Hannah had amassed between them quite a stock of furnishings. +A screen apiece, chairs, Oriental window-curtains in stripes of +contrasting colours warm and comfortable to look upon, flower-pots, and +odd pictures and ornaments. One felt a proprietor, indeed, as one +looked over the spoils, and the inroads into capital had been agreeably +small. Darsie was folding up her damaged "spread" when a voice spoke in +her ear, and with a little jump of the heart she looked up to find +Margaret France standing by her side. + +"How do you do? I must thank you for your patronage. You chipped in +nobly. Hope you'll like 'em, when you've got 'em. Just up, aren't you? +What's your shop?" + +For a moment Darsie stared blankly, then a flash of intuition revealed +the meaning of the word. + +"Modern languages." + +"Good! So'm I. And your friend?" + +"Mathematics." + +"Humph! Well, good luck! I'm off to bed. We shall meet on the +Rialto!" + +She smiled, nodded, and was gone. With a sudden realisation of their +own fatigue the Freshers turned to follow her example. Helen Ross +joined them on their way along the corridors, and Darsie could not +resist expressing her appreciation of the auctioneer's wit. + +"She was delicious. I _have_ enjoyed it. She _is_ amusing and clever." + +"Think so?" said Helen coolly. "Really? Glad you were pleased. It's +usually _far_ better than that!" + +With a curt good-night she turned into her own room, and the two friends +made haste to follow her example. + +The banked-up fires burned warm and red; the scattered oddments had been +hidden from sight in the "coffin's" rapacious maw; photographs and +knick-knacks gave a homy look to the rooms which had looked so bare and +bleak twenty-four hours before. The Freshers tumbled into bed and fell +happily asleep. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +FIRST EXPERIENCES. + +During the first month at Newnham Darsie and Hannah fell gradually and +happily into the routine of college life. They grew to recognise their +companions by name, and to place them according to their several +"shops"; they entertained cocoa parties in their rooms; picked up slang +terms, and talked condescendingly of "townees"; they paid up +subscriptions to "Hall," "Games," "Flowers," and "Fic"; slept, played, +and laughed and talked, and, above all, _worked_, with heart and mind, +and with every day that passed were more convinced that to be a student +at Cambridge was the most glorious fate that any girl could desire. + +A week after the beginning of term Helen Ross, the fortunate possessor +of a double room, gave a tea-party, with one of the younger Dons as +chaperon, to which Dan Vernon and a companion were invited. Ostensibly +the party was given in Hannah's honour, but to her astonishment and +dismay Hannah's friend was not favoured with an invitation, and felt her +first real twinge of loneliness in the knowledge that two old friends +were making merry together but a few yards away, while she sat solitary +and alone. What she had done to incur Helen Ross's dislike Darsie could +not imagine, and, fortunately for herself, she was too large-hearted to +suspect that it arose simply from an unattractive girl's jealousy of one +whom all had combined to love and admire. Be that as it may, Darsie was +left out of the tea-party, and her subsequent cross-questionings of +Hannah were far from comforting. + +"Had a good time?" + +"Top hole." + +"Nice people there?" + +"Topping." + +"Good cakes?" + +"Scrum!" + +"Dan ask for me?" + +"No." + +"Then he ought to have done!" Darsie told herself indignantly, and her +thoughts flew off to Ralph Percival, wondering when she would see him +next, and recalling with pleasure his promise to "see her through." + +The approach of the Freshers' hockey match banished less important +topics, for Hannah was on edge with anxiety to be at her best, and +disport herself sufficiently well to be included in after-team +practices, while Darsie was scarcely less eager on her behalf. + +When the afternoon arrived and the match began, the second and third +year girls crowded to look on, while the Captain stood apart surrounded +by a few satellites from the Committee, as truly the monarch of all she +surveyed as any king who ever graced a throne. The thoughts of each +Fresher turned with an anguish of appeal towards this figure; a smile on +her face raised them to the seventh heaven; a frown laid them in the +dust! Extraordinary to think that two short years ago this oracle had +been a Fresher like themselves! Inconceivable to imagine that in two +years to come they themselves might occupy that same magnificent +altitude! + +The eyes of the Oracle fell upon Hannah and approved what she saw, and +henceforth Hannah took part in team practices, and lorded it over +Darsie, who in her turn affected a growing antagonism to the game. + +"You can have too much of a good thing--even of games--and I seem to +have _eaten_ hockey every meal since I arrived!" she announced +impatiently; and in truth, since an unwritten law forbade the discussion +of "shop" at table, the conversation was largely limited to +dissertations on this the most popular of games. + +On Sundays the two girls went together to King's College Chapel and +gazed with admiration at the vaulted stone roof, with its marvellous fan +tracery; at its towering stained-glass windows, and the screen bearing +the monogram of Anne Boleyn; at the delicate carving of the stalls. It +was so wonderfully different from the dreary town edifice in which they +had been accustomed to worship, with its painted walls, heavy gallery, +and wheezy organ played by an indifferent musician--so wonderfully, +gloriously different that Darsie felt a pricking at the back of her eyes +as though she were ready to cry for sheer pleasure and admiration. The +music and the sermon seemed alike perfect, and Darsie ardently followed +each stage of the service. + +Some people are inclined to grow frivolous and forgetful when the world +goes well with them and the desire of their hearts is accomplished; +others are filled with a passion of gratitude and thanksgiving, and +Darsie Garnett belonged to the latter category. Prosperity made her +more humble, more kindly, more overflowing with love to God and man. A +portrait of Lady Hayes stood on her study mantelpiece, and every morning +and evening she bent her sunny head to kiss the stern old face. Dear +old Aunt Maria! she had so loved being kissed--_really_ kissed, as if +one meant it. If in that higher life to which she had gone she knew +what was happening on earth, Darsie felt sure that she would like to +know that her portrait was still cherished. Her thoughts hovered +gratefully about the dead woman as she sat in this wonderful old church, +and pictured with awe the succeeding generations who had worshipped +within its walls. It was only when the sermon was at an end that, +turning her head, Darsie met the gaze of a girl sitting a few seats +away, and after a moment of bewilderment recognised the widely set eyes +and curling lips of Margaret France. + +In her dark hat and coat she looked less attractive than in evening +dress, but the fact made no difference in the thrill of pleasure with +which Darsie realised her presence. Some quality in this girl appealed +to the deep places of her heart; she realised instinctively that if the +attraction were mutual the tie between them would be close and firm, but +it must be all or nothing--she could never dally with friendship with +Margaret France! + +Walking home slowly along Silver Street, she found herself answering +absently to Hannah's remarks, her whole attention riveted on watching +the passers-by, wondering if by any possibility Margaret France would +stop to speak to her once more, and her heart leaped with exultation as +a footstep paused by her side, and the clear, crisp tones addressed her +by name. + +"Morning, Miss Garnett! Morning, Miss Vernon! Ripping day, isn't it? +Glad to see you in King's. Saw you long before you spotted me, and +enjoyed your enjoyment. Never forgot my first services. Good to be +there, isn't it?" + +"Oh-h!" Darsie's deep-drawn breath of rapture was an eloquent response. +"I _have_ been happy! I've never in my life seen anything so wonderful +before. It seems almost too good to be true that I can go there every +Sunday for years to come. Cambridge is wonderful. I am more enchanted +every day. Even to walk along the streets is a joy." + +"Good!" cried Margaret heartily. "Drop in to five o'clock service +sometimes when you're feeling tired, and tied up with your work. It's a +grand soother. How goes the work so far? Enjoying the lectures? +Finding the literature interesting?" + +The two Modern Languages discussed work together eagerly, while +mathematical Hannah marched on a few feet ahead. Darsie felt a pang of +remorse, because she could not help wishing that she would _stay_ ahead, +and so give the chance of a prolonged _tete-a-tete_ with Margaret +France. The feeling of attraction was so strong now that they were face +to face that it was only by an effort of will that she could resist +slipping her hand through the black serge arm, but the expression of her +face was eloquent, and Margaret smiled back well pleased. When they +parted a few minutes later to go to their different halls, the older +girl said casually, but in a lowered voice which showed that the +invitation was meant for Darsie alone-- + +"By the way, I'm at home for cocoa on Tuesday evenings at ten. Bring +your milk, and come along, will you! I'd like to have you." + +"Rather!" cried Darsie eloquently, and ran up to her room aglow with +delight and pride, which grew still deeper at lunch when a casual +reference to the invitation (it was really impossible to keep silent on +so thrilling a point!) evoked a wide stare of surprise. + +"To her Tuesdays! Are you sure? Nobody goes to those but her very boon +companions. You _are_ honoured!" + +"Didn't ask _me_, I notice!" sniffed Hannah huffily. "No twin soul +here. Recognised an affinity in you, I suppose." + +"Well, _I_ wasn't asked to play in team matches! Don't grudge me my +little score!" returned Darsie, knowing well that an honour in sport was +more to her companion than many cocoas. "Besides, you must remember you +have Helen Ross!" + +"Oh, ah, yes! Helen Ross dotes on me. Disinterested, of course. No +connection with the brother over the way!" commented Hannah with a grin. +"By the way, I hear from Dan that your friend Ralph Percival is in +trouble already, playing cards, getting into debt, and staying out after +hours. Seems to be a poor-spirited sort of fellow from all accounts!" + +"He saved my life, anyway, when I was a youngster, and very nearly +drowned myself, paddling up a mill-stream. There's no want of spirit +about Ralph. Life has been made too easy for him, that's the mischief!" +said Darsie in her most elderly and judicial manner. "It's difficult to +keep to the grind when you know that you will never need to work. He +needs an object in life. Until he finds that, he will be content to +drift." + +"He'll drift into being sent down at this rate. That will be the end of +him!" croaked Hannah gloomily; whereupon Darsie knitted her brows and +collapsed into silence for the rest of the meal. + +Poor, dear, handsome Ralph! At the bottom of her heart Darsie was +hardly surprised to hear Hannah's report. The indifference with which +he had entered upon his college life had not developed into any more +earnest spirit, as had been abundantly proved by his conversation when +the two had last met, during the long vacation, while the hesitating +manner of his mother and sisters seemed to hint at a hidden anxiety. In +the depths of her heart Darsie was feeling considerably piqued by the +fact that though she had now been over a month in Cambridge Ralph had +shown no anxiety to meet her, or to fulfil his promise of "showing the +ropes." Other girls had been invited to merry tea-parties in the +different colleges, and almost daily she had expected such an invitation +for herself, but neither of her two men friends had paid her this mark +of attention; but for the fact of an occasional meeting in the streets +they might as well have been at the other end of the land. Pride +forbade her commenting on the fact even to Hannah; but inwardly she had +determined to be very proud and haughty when the deferred meeting came +about. Dan was too wrapped up in himself to care for outsiders; Ralph +was a slacker--not worth a thought. Darsie dismissed them both with a +shrug. Margaret France was worth a dozen men put together! + +Ten o'clock on Tuesday evening seemed long in coming, but the moment +that the clock pointed to the hour Darsie hastened to her new friend's +study, and to her satisfaction found her still alone. The room looked +delightfully cosy with pink shades over the lights, a clear blaze upon +the grate, and Margaret herself, in a pink rest-gown curled up in a +wicker-chair, was the very embodiment of ease. She did not rise as +Darsie entered, but pointed to a chair close at hand, with an eagerness +which was in itself the best welcome. + +"That's right. Come along! I'm glad you're the first. Sit down and +look around. How do you like my den?" + +Darsie stared to right and left with curious eyes, and came to the +instant conclusion that Margaret's room was like herself. From floor to +ceiling, from window to door, there was not one single article which did +not give back a cheering impression. If the article were composed of +metal, it shone and glittered until it could shine no farther; if of +oak, every leaf and moulding spoke of elbow-grease, and clean, fresh- +smelling polish; if it were a fabric of wool or cotton, it was +invariably of some shade of rose, shedding, as it were, an aspect of +summer in the midst of November gloom. + +Over the fireplace was fastened a long brown-paper scroll, on which some +words were painted in big ornamental letters. Darsie read them with a +thrill of appreciation-- + + "Two men looked out through prison bars, + One saw mud, the other stars!" + +The eyes of the two girls met, and lingered. Then Darsie spoke-- + +"That's your motto in life! You look out for stars--" + +"Yes! So do you. That's why I wanted to be friends." + +"I wonder!" mused Darsie, and sat silent, gazing into the fire. "It is +beautiful, and I understand the drift, but--would you mind paraphrasing +it for my benefit?" + +"It's so simple. There _is_ mud, and there _are_ stars. It's just a +choice of where we choose to look." + +"Yes--I see. But don't you think there are times--when one is awfully +down on one's luck, for instance--when there's no one on earth so trying +as the persistent optimist who _will_ make the best of everything, and +take a cheerful view! You want to murder him in cold blood. I do, at +least. You feel ever so much more cheered by some one who acknowledges +the mud, and says how horrid it is, and pities you for sticking so +fast!" + +Margaret's ringing laugh showed all her pretty white teeth. She rubbed +her hands together in delighted appreciation. + +"Oh, I know, I know! I want to kill them, too. Vision's not a mite of +use without tact. But no bars can shut out the stars if we choose to +let them shine." + +Her own face was ashine as she spoke, but anything more unlike +"goodiness," abhorred by every normal girl, it would be impossible to +imagine. + +"Tell me about your work--how do you get on with your coach?" she asked +the next moment, switching off to ordinary subjects in the most easy and +natural of manners, and Darsie found herself laying bare all the little +hitches and difficulties which must needs enter into even the most +congenial course of study, and being alternately laughed at and +consoled, and directed towards a solution by brisk, apt words. + +"You're all right--you've got a head. You'll come through on top, if +you'll be content to go slow. Want to take the Tripos first year, and +honours at that--that's your style! Calm down, my dear, and be content +to jog. It pays better in the end." She flashed a radiant smile at +Darsie's reddening face, then jumped up to greet her other guests of the +evening, three in number, who appeared at that moment, each carrying her +own precious portion of milk. + +One was "Economics" and owned so square a jaw that the line of it (there +was no curve) seemed to run down straight with the ear; another was +"Science" and wore spectacles; a third was "Modern Languages," like the +host, but one and all shared an apparently unlimited appetite for Cocoa, +Conversation, and Chelsea buns, the which they proceeded to enjoy to the +full. "Modern Languages" being in the ascendant, indulged in a little +"shop" as a preliminary, accompanied by the sighs, groans, and +complaints incidental to the subject. + +"How's your drama getting on? Is it developing satisfactorily?" +Student Number Two inquired of Darsie, in reference to the paper given +out at the last lecture in Divinity Hall, and Darsie shrugged with a +plaintive air. + +"I've been struggling to develop it, to _trace_ its development, as he +said; but the tracings are decidedly dim! I get on much better with a +subject on which I can throw a little imagination. `The growth of the +novel,' for instance--I wove quite a fairy-tale out of that." + +The girls smiled, but with a dubious air. + +"Better be careful! That's a ruse which most of us have tried in our +day, and come wearily back to sober fact... How do you like the +Historical French Grammar?" + +The Fresher made a gesture as if to tear her hair, whereupon the second- +year girls groaned in chorus. + +"Hopeless! Piteous! In last year's Tripos the paper was positively +inhuman. The girls said it was impossible even to understand the +questions, much less to answer them." + +"Wicked! Waste of time, I call it. Most of us are training to teach, +but it's not one in a hundred who will be called upon to teach _that_ +erudite horror." + +Darsie looked at Margaret France as she spoke, and saw at once by the +expression of her companions that she had touched on a delicate subject. +There was a moment's silence, then-- + +"I am not going to teach," said Margaret, smiling. + +"Really! Then-- What are you going to do?" + +"Live at home." + +A future profession seemed so universal a prospect with the Newnham +students that Margaret's reply amazed Darsie as much as it appeared to +annoy her other hearers. + +Economics sniffed, and muttered beneath her breath; Science stared +fixedly at the ceiling through her glittering spectacles; Modern +Languages groaned aloud. + +"With your brain! With your spirit! After this training! Such wicked +waste..." + +Margaret laughed lightly. + +"Oh, Darsie Garnett, how mean of you, when I feed you with my best +Chelsea buns, to land me in this time-honoured discussion! I'm an only +child, and my parents have been perfect bricks in giving me my wish and +sparing me for three whole years! The least I can do is to go home and +do a turn for them. I fail to see where the waste comes in!" + +"All you have learned--all you have studied--all you have read--" + +"Just so! I hope it will make me a more interesting companion for them. +And for myself! I've got to live with myself all the days of my life, +remember, and I do _not_ wish to be bored!" + +"You have such power, such capacity! You might do some work for the +world!" + +"I intend to. What's the world made up of, after all, but a number of +separate homes? As a matter of ordinary common sense isn't it best to +work in one's _own_ home, rather than in a strange one?" + +Margaret threw out her hands with a pretty appealing gesture, and her +companions stared at her in silence, apparently too nonplussed to reply. +Before they had time to rally to the attack, however, a startling +interruption had occurred. + +With a suddenness and violence which made the cocoa-drinkers jump in +their seats the door burst open, and the figure of a girl in evening +dress precipitated herself into their midst. Her light skirt was thrown +over her shoulders, revealing an abbreviated white petticoat; her eyes +were fixed with a deadly determination; regardless of the occupants of +the room or of the articles of furniture scattered here and there, she +flew at lightning speed to the window, closed it with a resounding bang, +leaped like a cat at the ventilator overhead, banged that also, and with +one bound was out of the room, the door making a third bang in her wake. + +Darsie gasped in dismay. She herself had been transfixed with +astonishment, but her companions had displayed a marvellous self- +possession. Margaret had wrapped her arms round the cocoa-table to +protect it from upset, another girl had steadied the screen, a third had +obligingly lifted her chair out of the way; but no sign of alarm or +curiosity showed upon their faces, which fact did but heighten the +mystery of the situation. + +"Is she--is she _mad_?" + +The second-year girls laughed in chorus. From afar could be heard a +succession of bang, bang, bangs, as if in every study in the house the +same performance was being enacted. Margaret nodded at the Fresher with +kindly reassurance. + +"Only the fire drill! They've had an alarm, and she's told to shut off +draughts. Very good going! Not more than five or six seconds all +told!" + +"There isn't really--" + +"Oh, dear, no. No such luck! Poor fun having a fire brigade, and no +chance to show its mettle. But we live in hope. You ought to join. I +can imagine you making a magnificent captain." + +So here was another ambition. Darsie made a mental note to inquire into +the workings of the fire brigade, and to offer her name as a recruit +without delay. + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +THE FANCY BALL. + +It was somewhat of a shock to the Fresher contingency to receive one +morning the intimation of a Costume Ball, to be held in Clough Hall on +the following night; but their protests met with scant sympathy from the +elders. When Darsie plaintively declared that she hadn't got a fancy +dress, and would not have time to send home for it if she _had_, a +third-year girl silenced her by a stern counter-question: "And where, +pray, would be the fun if you _had_, and _could_? If at the cost of a +postcard you could be fitted up as the Lady of the Lake in green +draperies and water-lilies, it would no doubt be exceedingly becoming, +but it would be no sport. No, young woman, you've got to contrive +something out of nothing and an hour stolen from the night, and when +you've done it you'll be in the mood to appreciate other people's +contrivings into the bargain. Buck up! You're one of the dressy sort. +We'll expect wonders from you." + +But when Darsie repaired to the seclusion of her study and set herself +to the problem of evolving a fancy dress out of an ordinary college +outfit, ideas were remarkably slow in coming. She looked questioningly +at each piece of drapery in turns, wondered if she could be a ghost in +curtains, a statue in sheets, an eastern houri in the cotton quilt, a +Portia in the hearthrug, discarded each possibility in turn, and turned +her attention to her own wardrobe. + +Black serge, grey tweed, violet ninon; two evening frocks, and the one +white satin which was the _piece de resistance_ of the whole. A cloth +coat, a mackintosh, an art serge cloak for evening wear--how _could_ one +manufacture a fancy dress from garments so ordinary as these? + +In despair, Darsie betook herself to Margaret France's room and found +that young woman seated before her dressing-table engaged in staring +fixedly at her own reflection in the mirror. She betrayed no +embarrassment at being discovered in so compromising a position, but +smiled a broad smile of welcome out of the mirror, the while she +continued to turn and to twist, and hold up a hand-glass to scrutinise +more closely unknown aspects of face and head. + +"I know what you've come for! I've had two Freshers already. Bowled +over at the thought of inventing a costume--that's it, isn't it? Oh, +you'll rise to it yet. The only difficulty is to hit on an idea--the +rest's as easy as pie. That's what I'm doing now--studying my phiz to +see what it suggests. My nose, now! What d'you think of my nose? +Seems to me that nose wasn't given me for nothing. _And_ the width +between the eyes! It's borne in upon me that I must be either a turnip +lantern or a Dutch doll. The doll would probably be the most becoming, +so I'll plump for that. Don't breathe a word, for it must be a secret +to the last. As for you--it would be easy to suggest a dozen pretty- +pretties." + +Margaret wheeled round in her chair, and sat nursing her knees, +regarding Darsie with a twinkling eye. "Big eyes, long neck, neat +little feet--you'd make an adorable Alice in Wonderland, with ankle- +strap slippers, and a comb, and a dear little pinny over a blue frock! +And your friend can be the Mad Hatter. Look well, wouldn't she, with a +hat on one side? There are only the girls to see you, and the more +comic you can make yourself the better they'll be pleased. You are +about to be introduced to a new side of Newnham life, and will see how +mad the students can be when they let themselves go. You'll laugh +yourself ill before the evening's over. Well, think it over, and come +back to me if you want any properties. My dress will be easy enough-- +braided hair, short white frock (butter-muslin at a penny the yard), +white stockings with sandals, another pair of stockings to cover my +arms, chalked face and neck, with peaked eyebrows and neat little spots +of red on the cheekbones and tip of the chin. If you feel inclined to +be angelic, you might run up with your paint-box at the last minute, and +dab on my joints." + +"Joints!" + +Darsie gaped in bewilderment, whereupon Margaret cried resentfully-- + +"Well, I must _have_ joints, mustn't I? How do you expect me to move? +A paint-box is invaluable on these occasions, as you'll find before you +are through. Now, my love, I'll bid you a fond adieu, for work presses. +By the by, one word in your ear! Don't ask a third-year girl to dance +with you if you value your nose!" + +"What will happen to it if I do?" + +"Snapped off! Never mind I look pretty and meek, and perhaps she'll ask +_you_. Now be off--be off--I must to work!" + +Darsie descended to Hannah's study and proposed the idea of the Mad +Hatter, the which was instantly and scornfully declined. Hannah +explained at length that though her head might be plain, it yet +contained more brains than other heads she could mention, and that to +play the part of idiot for a whole night long was a feat beyond the +powers of a mathematical student reading for honours. She then +explained with a dignity which seemed somewhat misplaced that she had +set her heart upon representing a pillar-box, and was even now on the +point of sallying forth to purchase a trio of hat-boxes, which, being of +fashionable dimensions, would comfortably encircle her body. Fastened +together so as to form a tube, covered with red sateen, and supported by +scarlet-stockinged legs, the effect would be pleasingly true to life. + +"I'll have peep-holes for eyes, and the slit will outline my mouth. +Between the dances I'll kneel down in a corner so that the box touches +the ground, and I'll look so real, that I shall expect every one to drop +in _letters--chocolate_ letters, observe! You might buy some and set +the example!" + +For the next twenty-four hours an unusual air of excitement and bustle +pervaded the college, and the conversation at mealtime consisted for the +most part of fragmentary questions and answers bearing on the important +subject of costumes in making. + +"Lend me your boot brushes, like a lamb!" + +"Got an old pair of brown stockings you can't wear again?" + +"Be an angel and lend me your striped curtains just for the night!" + +"Spare _just_ ten minutes to sew up my back?" + +So on it went, and in truth it was a pleasant chance to hear the merry, +inconsequent chatter; for, like every other class of the community, girl +students have their besetting sins, and one of the most obvious of these +is an air of assurance, of dogmatism, of final knowledge of life, +against which there can be no appeal. Girls of nineteen and twenty will +settle a dispute of ages with a casual word; students of economy will +advance original schemes warranted to wipe the offence of poverty from +the globe; science students with unlowered voices will indulge across +the dinner-table in scathing criticisms on historic creeds which their +fathers hold in reverence; and on each young face, on each young tongue, +can be read the same story of certainty and self-esteem. + +This state of mind is either sad, amusing, or exasperating, according to +the mood of the hearer; but, whatever be his mood, he yet knows in his +heart that it is a transitory phase, and an almost inevitable result of +theoretical knowledge. A few years of personal grip with life and its +problems will make short work of that over-confidence, and replace it +with a gentler, sweeter touch. + +But to-night was a night of frolic, and one would have to travel far +indeed to find a more amusing spectacle than an impromptu costume dance +in Clough Hall. Beauty is a secondary consideration, and the girl who +has achieved the oddest and most ludicrous appearance is the heroine of +the hour. Darsie Garnett made a fascinating Alice in Wonderland in her +short blue frock, white pinny, and little ankle-strap slippers, her hair +fastened back by an old-fashioned round comb, and eyebrows painted into +an inquiring arch, but she received no attention in comparison with that +lavished upon Hannah, when she dashed nimbly in at the door, and, +kneeling down in a corner of the room, presented a really lifelike +appearance of a pillar-box, a white label bearing the hours of +"Chocolate deliveries" pasted conspicuously beneath the slit. Hannah's +prophecies proved correct, for it became one of the amusements of the +evening to feed that yawning cavity with chocolates and other dainties, +so that more than one sweet tooth in the assembly made a note of the +suggestion for a future day. + +The Dutch Doll was another huge success; for so dolly and so beyond all +things Dutch did she appear, standing within the doorway with jointed +arms and rigid back, with dark hair plastered over the forehead in the +well-known curve, and the three little spots of colour blazing out from +the whitened background, that it was almost impossible to believe that +she was living flesh and blood. Like a statue she stood until the +laughter and applause had lasted for several minutes, and then, stepping +jerkily on one side, made way for a new and even more startling +apparition. + +Topsy, by all that was wonderful and unexpected! A beaming, grinning +little nigger girl, with tightly curled hair, rolling eyes, and white +teeth showing to the gums. A short gown of brilliantly striped cotton +reached to the knees, brown-stockinged arms and legs were matched by +brown-painted face and neck; standing side by side with the Dutch Doll, +the respective whiteness and brownness became accentuated to a +positively dazzling extent, and the onlookers were jubilant with +delight. The climax was reached when the two waltzed off together round +the room, the doll sustaining a delightful stiffness and stoniness of +mien, while Topsy's grin threatened to reach to her very ears. + +Ordinary costumes fell somewhat flat after these triumphs, though to the +Freshers there was a continuing joy in beholding dignified students in +their third year pirouetting in childlike abandonment. There, for +instance, was the cleverest girl in college, of whom it was accepted as +a certainty that she would become a world-wide celebrity, an austere and +remote personage who was seldom seen to smile; there she stood, the +daintiest Christmas Cracker that one could wish to behold, in a sheath +of shimmery pink, tied in the middle by a golden string, finished at +either end with a froth of frills, and ornamented front and back with +immense bouquets of flowers. By an ingenious arrangement also, if you +pulled a string in a certain way, a mysterious cracking sound was heard, +and a motto made its appearance bearing an original couplet whose +reference was strictly and delightfully local. + +The run on these mottoes was great, and after their points were fully +enjoyed, they were folded carefully away, to be kept as souvenirs of the +great scholar of later years. + +The evening was half over, and the girls had settled down to the dance, +when suddenly, unexpectedly, the great excitement arrived. At a moment +when the music had ceased, and the various couples were preparing for +the usual promenade around the Hall, a loud roar was heard from without, +and into the middle of the floor there trotted nothing more nor less +than a tawny yellow lion, which, being confronted by a crowd of +spectators, drew back as if in fear, and crouched in threatening manner. +Its masked face showed a savage row of teeth; a mass of red hair, +shortened by that mysterious process known as "back combing," produced a +sufficiently convincing mane; a yellow skin hearthrug was wrapped round +the body, while paint and wadding combined had contrived a wonderfully +good imitation of claws. + +It was the colour of the hair alone which revealed the identity of the +Lion to her companions. "It's that wretched little ginger Georgie!" + +"That little ginger beast!" went the cry from lip to lip. But, abuse +her as they might, for the rest of the evening "Ginger Georgie" remained +the centre of attraction, as she persistently ambled after Topsy, and +gnawed at her brown feet, evidently recognising in her at once a +compatriot and a tit-bit. + +Well, well! _Il faut souffrire pour etre--celebre_! When supper-time +arrived, and the lion's mask was removed, behold a countenance so +magenta with heat that compared with it even the Letter Box herself was +pale. The two sufferers were waited upon with the most assiduous +attention, as was indeed only fair. When one has voluntarily endured a +condition of semi-suffocation throughout an evening's "pleasuring" for +the unselfish reason of providing amusement for others, it's a poor +thing if one cannot be assisted to lemonade in return. + +The Lion sat up well into the night combing out her mane; the Letter Box +had the first bad headache in her life, but both tumbled into bed at +last, proud and happy in the remembrance of an historic success. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +UNDERGRADUATE FRIENDS. + +Hannah strolled into Darsie's study, open letter in hand. "Here's +games!" she announced. "An invitation from Mrs Hoare for myself and +friend--that's you--to go to tea on Sunday afternoon. That's because +I'm Dan's sister, of course. He'll be there, too, I expect, and the +handsome Percival, and lots more men. The question is, shall we go?" + +Now Mrs Hoare was the wife of the head of that well-known college of +which Dan and Ralph were members, and the invitation was therefore the +fulfilment of one of Darsie's dreams. + +"Of course we'll go!" she cried ardently. "Sunday tea at a man's +college is part of the Cambridge programme, and we want to see all that +we can. Personally, I consider that they might have asked us before." +She lay back in her seat, and stared dreamily at the wall, puckering her +brow in thought, the while Hannah chuckled in the background. + +"I know what you are thinking about!" + +"You don't!" cried Darsie, and blushed, a deep guilty blush. + +"I _do_! Costume for Sunday, and the question of possibly squeezing out +three or four shillings to buy an extra bit of frippery to add to your +charms!" + +"Boo!" cried Darsie impatiently; then with a sudden change of front: +"And if I _was_, I was perfectly right! Newnham girls are not half +careful enough about their appearance, and it tells against the cause. +A perfect woman, nobly planned, ought to be as clever as she is--er-- +dainty, and as dainty as she is clever." + +"Thank you for the concession! Very considerate of you, I'm sure. If +you had stuck to `beautiful,' I should have been hopelessly left out. +Even `dainty' is beyond me, I'm afraid; but I'll promise you to be neat +and tidy, and saints can do no more--if they happen to have been born +_plain_ saints, that's to say!" + +Hannah stood in front of the mirror, staring back at her flat, square +face with an expression of serenely detached criticism. + +"If you are the beauty of this college, I run a close race for the booby +prize! Bit of a handicap that, if you care about popularity. This +Sunday afternoon now! they'll all be buzzing round you like so many +flies, while I do wallflower in a corner. Nonsense to say that looks +don't count! So far as I can see, the difference between your face and +mine will probably make the difference in our lives. You'll marry a +lord of high degree, and I'll school marm and be maiden aunt." + +"Oh, Hannah!" Darsie was acutely discomfited by such words from +Hannah's lips. True they were spoken in matter-of-fact tones, and +without the suspicion of a whine, but as the first instance of anything +approaching a lament, the occasion was historic. "Oh, Hannah, dear-- +it's only at first! After the first no one cares a rap _what_ you look +like, so long as you're nice." + +"Fal-de-ral!" cried Hannah scornfully. "Of course they care! Any one +would--should myself, but you needn't look so hang-dog, my dear. It's +not _your_ fault, and I am quite comfortable, thank you. If any man +ever wants to marry me, I'll know jolly well that it's for myself, and +that he really loves me through and through. There isn't any of the +glamour business about this child to make him imagine that he cares, +when it's only a passing phase. And if it's my lot to live alone, I'll +back myself to be as happy as most wives I come across. It's my own +big, splendid life, and I'm going to _make_ it splendid, or know the +reason why!" Hannah struck a dramatic gesture, danced a few fancy steps +in an elephantine manner, and stumped towards, the door. "So be it, +then! We accept with pleasure, and I'll leave you to trim your hat." + +Whether or no any such embellishment did take place history sayeth not, +but it is certain that Darsie Garnett made a very charming picture on +the following Sunday afternoon, and that her dainty style of beauty +showed to peculiar advantage against the oak panelling of the stately +old room in which the head of --- College and his gracious, fragile- +looking wife dispensed tea to their guests. + +The first few minutes after their arrival were rather an ordeal to the +two Freshers, who had never before been present at such a gathering, and +felt themselves the cynosure of every eye; but the kindness of host and +hostess soon put them at their ease. + +A fair sprinkling of college men were in the room, handing round tea and +cakes to the guests. Dan Vernon greeted Darsie with an illuminating +"Halloa!" and his sister with an even shorter grunt; but it was only +when she was comfortably settled down to tea that Darsie caught sight of +Ralph Percival's fair, close-clipped head at the far side of the table. +He seemed in no hurry to speak to her--a fact duly scored against him in +Miss Darsie's mind, and this indifference served to pique her into a +more vivacious reception of the attentions of his companions. + +As Hannah had foretold, her pretty friend held quite a little court as +one man after another strolled up to join the animated group around her +chair. There were two other girls in that group, and a married woman +with a strikingly sweet face, who had been introduced as the sister of +the hostess. Mrs Reeves, as she was called, appeared to be on intimate +terms with the men, and her presence, instead of acting as a restraint, +only added to their enjoyment. Darsie thought that she was a charming +creature, was conscious that she herself was being scrutinised with +special attention, and sincerely hoped that the verdict was favourable. +It was a curious person who did not wish to stand well in Alicia +Reeves's estimation! + +Suddenly Ralph Percival edged in at the back of the group, and stationed +himself by Darsie with an air of possession. + +"Well, Miss Darsie Garnett, isn't it about time that you had some talk +with me?" + +"Quite time!" Darsie's tone was eloquent, and she looked Ralph in the +face with a quiet steadiness, at which he had the grace to blush. He +had been in no hurry to claim acquaintanceship until her social success +was assured; she was fully aware of the fact, but her pique died a rapid +death as she looked closely into the lad's face. Ralph at twenty-two +was as handsome as in his boyhood, handsomer, indeed, but there were +other changes, which the girl's eyes were quick to read; for though we +may keep silence with our tongue, the hand of Time imprints marks upon +our features which are unfailing guides to our spiritual progress or +decline. + +For many months past Ralph Vernon had persistently allowed himself to +fall short of his best, slacking in work, overstepping at play, +abandoning "straightness" for a gathering mesh of deceit. Attached to +his name was an unsavoury reputation of card-playing for high stakes, of +drinking too much, although not to the extent of actual drunkenness; and +the character had alienated from him the friendship of serious men, and +evoked a disapproving aloofness in the manner of his instructors. At +the moment when he most needed help those who were best fitted to give +it sedulously avoided his company, and in this first moment of meeting +Darsie was tempted to follow their example. + +Horrid to look like that! At his age to own those lines, those reddened +eyes, that dulled white skin! Up went the little head, the slender neck +reared itself proudly, the red lips curled over small white teeth. +Darsie intended to wither Ralph by the sight of such obvious distaste, +but with the easy vanity of his nature he attributed her airs to girlish +pique at his own neglect, and was correspondingly elated thereat. + +The little schoolgirl who had been his sister's friend had grown into a +"stunning girl," with whom the men were evidently greatly impressed. +Ralph decided that the hour had come to claim her as an old friend and +take her under his wing. He sat himself down by her side and +persistently monopolised her attention. + +"College life evidently suits you, Darsie. You are looking rippingly +well!" + +"Am I? Sorry to be unable to return the compliment!" + +"Oh!" Ralph moved impatiently. "Don't _you_ begin that tune! It is +dinned into my ears from morning till night. A fellow may swot himself +into a rag, and not a word will be said, but if he oversteps an inch for +his own amusement there's the dickens to pay. I said from the start +that I intended to have a good rag. College is one of the best times in +a man's life, and he's a fool if he doesn't make the most of his +chance." + +"It is also--incidentally--supposed to be a time for mental +improvement," returned Darsie in sententious tones, which brought upon +her an instant rebuke. + +"Oh, for pity's sake don't come the Newnham swag over me! Can't stand +those girls as a rule. Avoid 'em like poison. Take my advice as an old +friend and avoid that style as you would the plague. You're too jolly +pretty to come the strong-minded female. Far better stick to your old +style. Men like it a heap better." + +"It is a matter of perfect indifference to me _what_ men like!" declared +Darsie, not, it is to be feared, with absolute veracity. "I am proud to +be a Newnhamite, and if the girls do have a few mannerisms, they count +for precious little beside their virtues. They are up to work, and they +_do_ work with might and main, though there can be no place in the world +where there is no fun. We are always having some prank or other-- +politicals, and cocoa-parties and hockey matches, and dances--" + +"What's the fun of dances with no men to dance with? Wait till May +term, and see what a real ball is like. We'll have some river picnics, +too, and breakfasts at the Orchard. There's lots to be done in summer, +but just now there's nothing on but teas. You must come to tea in my +rooms. I've got a slap-up study." He turned towards Mrs Reeves and +addressed her with confident familiarity. "Mrs Reeves will play +chaperon, and I'll promise you the best cakes that Cambridge can +produce." + +"Oh, yes, I'll play chaperon." To Darsie's surprise the sweet-faced +woman smiled back into Ralph's face with friendly eyes, not appearing +even to notice the over-confidence of his manner. "Mr Percival gives +charming parties, and I can answer for it that his boast as to the cakes +is justified. I can never fathom where he gets them." + +She turned to Darsie with a little gesture of confidence, and slightly +lowered her voice. "I am known as `the Professional Chaperon.' I hope +you will engage my services if you are in need of such a personage, but +perhaps we ought to know one another a little better first. I should +like so much to know you! Will you come to see me one afternoon next +week when you are free, and feel inclined for a chat? I won't ask any +one else, so that we can have a real cosy time." + +Surprised and gratified, and more than a little flattered, Darsie +mentioned her free hours, and received in return Mrs Reeves's card +bearing an address in Grange Road, then once more Ralph engrossed her +attention. + +"I say! You might ask Ida up for a night or two, and bring her along. +They'll let you have a friend now and then, and she'd like it all right. +Awfully decent in writing to me, Ida is, and fights my battles at home. +Sensible girl! Understand it's no good to jaw. I'd like to have Ida +up for a bit." + +"So would I. I'll ask her with pleasure." One of Ralph's best points +had been his affection for his sisters, and the reminder thereof +softened Darsie's heart. She smiled at him with recovered friendliness. +"I'll ask Ida, and you must ask Dan and Hannah Vernon, and make a nice +family party. Do you see much of Dan? I don't expect _he_ makes a rag +of himself over amusement!" + +Ralph shrugged carelessly. "I've no use for Vernon! Good head for +routine work, but as a pal, dull as you make 'em! I'll ask him once as +you make a point of it, but I don't fancy you'll want him twice. As for +the sister--but perhaps I'd better not make any remarks?" + +"Much better!" Darsie said frostily. "Your manners have not improved, +Ralph. I think, if you please, that I would rather not talk to you any +more for the present. Would you tell Dan Vernon that I want him to take +your place?" + +It was the first, the very first time in her life that Darsie had +essayed the part of queening it over a member of the opposite sex, and +the success of the venture was startling even to herself. Ralph +flushed, flinched, rose without a word, and stalked across the room to +summon Dan as required; and Dan came meekly forward, seated himself in +the discarded chair, and faced her with an air of solemn expectation. +His rugged face looked plain and roughly hewn in contrast with Ralph's +classical features, but the dark eyes were eloquent as of yore, and the +sight of the tilted chin brought back a score of old-time memories. +Darsie looked at him with satisfaction, but with a disconcerting +blankness of mind as to what to say first. From the other side of the +room Ralph was looking on with cynical eyes; it was imperative that the +silence should be broken at once. + +"Dan, _please_ say something! I wanted Ralph to go, so I asked for you. +Do please find something to say." + +Dan smiled broadly. Each time that she saw him smile Darsie wondered +afresh how she could ever have thought him plain. His dark eyes glowed +upon her with the look she liked best to see. + +"What am I to say? It's good to see you here, Darsie. You are looking +very--well! Everything going all right? Sure there's nothing I can +do?" + +"No." Darsie beamed happily. At that moment there seemed nothing left +to wish. Dan's friendliness gave the finishing touch to her content, +and the world was _couleur de rose_. "I am loving it all more than I +expected. The work's glorious, and the play's glorious, and I'm just +absorbed in both. It's splendid, coming here to-day to see this lovely +old house and meet you again. I thought you had forgotten all about +me." + +But Dan had drawn back into his shell, and refused to be cajoled. He +glowered at the opposite wall for some minutes, then asked abruptly-- + +"Why did you send off Percival?" + +"Oh--!" Darsie hesitated, and then answered with discretion: "I had +talked to him as much as I cared about for the moment, and I shall see +him soon again. He is going to get up a tea-party for me, with that +sweet Mrs Reeves as chaperon. I told him to ask you and Hannah." + +"You should not have done that!" Dan spoke with sharp displeasure. "I +don't care to accept Percival's hospitality for myself, and certainly +not for my sister. I shall tell Hannah to refuse." + +Darsie glanced across to where Hannah sat, a typical plain Hannah at +that moment, with feet planted well apart, and on her face the +expression of dour determination which she adopted in moments of +boredom; from her to Ralph Percival, standing in graceful pose, his +fine, almost feminine, profile outlined clearly against the panelled +wall, and, glancing, laughed softly to herself. It seemed so ridiculous +to think of this girl needing protection from this man. + +"I fancy Hannah is quite capable of looking after herself." + +"I'm sure of it. She's a new-comer, however, and she doesn't get into +Percival's set if I can help it." + +"Dan! It can't be so bad if Mrs Reeves is willing to go. She accepted +in a minute. I heard her myself." + +"She goes everywhere, to the wildest fellows' rooms. She has her own +ideas, no doubt, but I don't profess to understand them." He hesitated, +puckering his brows, and looking at her with dark, questioning eyes. "I +have no authority over you, Darsie, but I wish--" + +"Ralph saved my life," interrupted Darsie simply. + +Dan looked at her sharply, stared with scrutinising attention at her +face, but spoke no further word of protest. He evidently realised, as +Darsie did herself, that it would be a mean act to reject the friendship +of a man who had wrought so great a service. + +Half an hour later the two girls slowly wended their way past the tower +gateway of Trinity, past Caius, with its twinkling lights, stately +King's, and modest Catherine's, to the homelike shelter of their own +dear Newnham. + +"Well!" cried Hannah, breaking a long silence, "you had a big success +and I had--_not_! But you're not a bit happier than I, that I can see. +Men are poor, blind bats. I prefer my own sex; they are much more +discriminating, and when they like you--they _like_ you, and there's no +more shilly-shally. Those men never know their own minds!" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. + +MRS. REEVES MAKES A PROPOSAL. + +Four days later Darsie went by appointment to her _tete-a-tete_ tea with +the professional chaperon with a pleasurable expectation which was +largely streaked with curiosity. + +If physiognomy counted for anything, Mrs Reeves must surely be a most +sweet and noble character. Her grey eyes looked into yours with a +straight, transparent gaze, her lips closed one upon another firmly +enough to debar all trace of weakness, yet not so firmly as to hint at +undue severity, her hair waved back from a broad white brow. It was, as +Dan had said, difficult to understand how such a woman could be the +willing companion of men whom even fellow-students were anxious to shun. +Darsie wondered if the afternoon's conversation would throw any light +on this knotty point. + +She was shown, not into the drawing-room but into a cosy little den on +the second floor, a sort of glorious edition of a college study, where +Mrs Reeves sat reading by the fire, clad in a loose velvet gown of a +curious reddish-brown, like the autumn tint of a leaf, which matched the +high lights of her chestnut hair. Darsie watched her with fascinated +attention as she presided over the tea-table, with lithe, graceful +movements which made a poem out of the every-day proceeding, and Mrs +Reeves studied her in return, as she chatted lightly about a dozen +casual subjects. Then the tea-things were carried away, and with the +drawing nearer to the fire conversation took a more intimate turn. + +"I hope your friend did not think me inhospitable for not including her +in my invitation to-day, but when I want to get to know a girl I prefer +to have her entirely to myself. Perhaps she will come another day. +Vernon's sister ought to be worth knowing." + +"You know Dan?" Darsie's smile was somewhat anxious, for Dan's own +manner with respect to her hostess was still a disturbing element. "You +know him well?" + +"No," Mrs Reeves smiled; "not well. But I like him well by repute! +Vernon has no need of my services. He is strong: enough to stand by +himself." + +"You mean tea-parties?" queried Darsie vaguely, whereat Mrs Reeves +subsided into a ripple of laughter. + +"No, I do _not_ mean tea-parties--something very much wider. I don't +fancy, however, that Vernon is sociably disposed, and the authorities +here are not inclined to encourage meetings between the men and girl +students. The head of his college is my brother-in-law, and one of your +Dons is a very old friend, so I hear the question discussed from both +sides, and then--like a wise woman--I gang my own gait! So long as men +are men, and girls are girls, they are bound to attract each other; it's +natural and right, and when they are bound to meet in any case, it is my +little hobby to help them to do so under the best conditions. I flatter +myself I am quite an expert in the art of being just chaperon enough, +and not too chaperon, and I never refuse to act if I can possibly +contrive to do so." + +"No! Dan said--" began Darsie involuntarily, and then stopped short +with a furious blush. Mrs Reeves, however, did not share her +discomfiture; she laughed, and said shrewdly-- + +"Oh, I have observed his disapproving eye. I can guess what he said. +Many people feel the same, who judge only from the surface, and don't +take the trouble to realise my motives. One doesn't explain such things +to the world in general, but I want _you_ to understand. If one man +less admirable than another; if his friends and his entertainments are +inclined to become rowdy and discreditable, does he need help _less_, or +more? Vernon and other men of his kind consider that they do their duty +by leaving such a man severely alone. I find mine in being with him-- +just--as much--as ever I can!" She emphasised the words by a series of +taps with the poker on the top of an obstinate coal, given in the most +delightfully school-girlish manner. "I chaperon his parties; I talk to +him and his friends; I make myself so agreeable that they love to have +me, and want to have me again. I try with every power I possess to +encourage all that is good, and kind, and honest, and cheering in +themselves and their conversation, and deftly, delicately, invisibly, as +it were, to fight against everything that is mean and unworthy. It's +difficult, Darsie!--I may call you Darsie, mayn't I? it's such a +beguiling little name!--one of the most difficult feats a woman could +set herself to accomplish, and though I've had a fair measure of +success, it's only a measure. It's such a great big work. Think of all +that it means, that it _may_ mean to England, if we can keep these men +from drifting, and give them a pull-up in time! I am constantly +looking, looking out for fellow-workers. That's why I invited you here +to-day--to ask _you_ to be on my side!" + +"I!" Darsie's gasp of amazement sounded throughout the room. "I! Oh, +you can't mean it! What could I do? I can do nothing--I'm only a +girl!" + +"Only a girl! But, dear child, that's your finest qualification! You +can do more than I can ever accomplish, just because you _are_ a girl, +and will be admitted to an intimacy which is impossible for me. +Besides, Darsie, you are a particularly pretty and attractive girl into +the bargain; you know that, don't you? You _ought_ to know it, and be +very, very thankful for a great weapon given into your hands. If you +will join the ranks with me, and act as my curate, you will immensely +increase my power for good." + +"But I can't! I can't! I'd love to if I could, but you don't know how +impossible it is. I couldn't preach to save my life." + +"I'm thankful to hear it. I don't want you to preach. You'd soon lose +your influence if you did. It's a case of _being_, Darsie, rather than +doing; being your truest, sweetest, highest self when you are with these +men, so that they may feel your influence through all the fun and +banter. Lots of fun, please; you can't have too much of that; a dull +girl is soon left to herself. People in general don't half realise the +influence of just right _thinking_--the atmosphere which surrounds a +person who is mentally fighting for good. The sunbeams fall on the dark +earth and soak up the poisoned waters, and so may our thoughts--our +prayers," She was silent for a few moments, her hand resting lightly on +Darsie's knees. "There is a girl in your house--Margaret France--I +expect you know her! She has been one of my best helpers these last +years. Wherever Margaret is there is fun and laughter; she is just +brimful of it, but--can you imagine any one going to Margaret with an +unworthy thought, an unworthy cause? I want you to follow in her +steps!" + +She paused again for a long minute, then said slowly and emphatically-- + +"Ralph Percival needs help, Darsie! He has not fallen very low as yet, +but he is drifting. He is in a bad set, and, like too many of our +richer men, he lacks purpose. They come up here because their fathers +have been before them, and it is the correct thing to do. There is no +real reason why they should work, or take a high place, but there seems +to themselves every reason why they should have a good time. Parents +sometimes seem to hold more or less the same opinion; at others they +seem distressed, but powerless. College authorities are regarded as +natural enemies; religious influences for the time beat on closed doors; +now, Darsie, here comes the chance for `only a girl!' A man like Ralph +Percival, at this stage of his life, will be more influenced by a girl +like you than by any power on earth. It's a law of Nature and of God, +and if every girl realised it, it would be a blessed thing for the race. +I once heard a preacher say that so long as one dealt with general +principles, and talked broadly of the human race, there was very little +done. We have to fine it down to _my next door neighbour_ before we +really set to work. Fine down what I have said to Ralph Percival, +Darsie, and help me with him! He's drifting. He needs you. Help me to +pull him back!" + +Darsie nodded dumbly. Mrs Reeves thought the expression on her +downcast face touchingly sweet and earnest, but even she missed the clue +to the girl's inmost thought. + +Years ago she herself had been drifting, drifting towards death, and +Ralph had stepped forward to save her; now, in an allegorical sense, the +positions were reversed, and she was summoned to the rescue. There was +no refusing a duty so obvious. Heavy and onerous as the responsibility +might be, it had been placed in her hands. Darsie braced herself to the +burden. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. + +CHRISTMAS DAY. + +It was Christmas Day; fifteen eventful months had passed by since Darsie +Garnett and Hannah Vernon had made their appearance in Clough in the +character of modest and diffident Freshers. Now, advanced to the +dignity of second-year girls, they patronised new-comers with the best, +and talked, thought, and behaved as though, deprived of their valuable +support, the historical centre of Cambridge must swiftly crumble to the +dust. + +The little air of assurance and self-esteem which seems inseparable from +a feminine student had laid its hand on Darsie's beauty, robbing it of +the old shy grace, and on each fresh return to the old home Clemence and +Lavender eloquently described themselves as "squelched flat" by the +dignified young woman who sailed about with her head in the air, and +delivered an ultimatum on every subject as it arose, with an air of "My +opinion is final. Let no dog bark!" + +These mannerisms, however, were only, after all, a veneer; and when two +or three days of merry, rollicking family life had passed by, the old +Darsie made her appearance once more, forgot to be learned and superior, +forbore to refer to college and college ways in every second or third +sentence, and showed a reviving interest in family affairs. + +Clemence was fatter than ever, a subject of intense mortification to +herself, though at each fresh meeting she confided in whispered asides +that she had "lost five pounds--ten pounds," as the case might be. No +one believed in these diminutions, but if one happened to be amiably +disposed, one murmured vaguely, and affected conviction; and if one were +not, one openly jeered and scoffed! Lavender was sentimental and wrote +poetry in which "pale roses died, in the garden wide, and the wind blew +drear, o'er the stricken mere." She had advanced to the dignity of long +skirts, and dressed her hair--badly!--in the latest eccentricity of +fashion. + +Vie Vernon, on the contrary, had developed into a most elegant person, +quite an accomplished woman of the world, darkly suspected of "going to +be engaged" to a young lawyer with a dark moustache, who had lately +developed a suspicious fondness for her father's company. + +It really gave one quite a shock to realise _how_ grown-up the old +companions had become even the brothers Harry and Russell were +transformed into tall striplings who bought newspapers on their own +account, and preferred, actually _preferred_, to be clean rather than +dirty! It was a positive relief to listen to Tim's loud voice, look at +his grimy paws, and reflect that one member of the family was still in +the enjoyment of youth. + +As usual, the postman's arrival was the first excitement of Christmas +morning. He brought with him an armful of letters and parcels, and +Darsie was quick to spy Ralph Percival's handwriting upon one of the +smallest and most attractive-looking of the packets. + +The colour came into her cheeks as she looked, but after holding the +parcel uncertainly for a moment, she laid it down again, and proceeded +to open other letters and boxes, leaving this particular one to the +last. An onlooker would have been puzzled to decide whether it was more +dread or expectation which prompted this decision; and perhaps Darsie +herself could hardly have answered the question. The table was soon +spread with envelopes and wrappings of paper which had enclosed +souvenirs from college friends, and the more costly offerings from Mrs +Percival and her girls, inscribed with the orthodox words of greeting. +Darsie ranged them in order, and then, still hesitating, turned to the +last packet of all. + +Inside was a note folded so as to act as additional wrapper for a small +white box. Ralph's writing, large and well-formed like himself, filled +the half-sheet. + +"Dear Darsie,--I hope you will accept the enclosed trifle which has been +made for you, from my own design. You will understand its meaning! I +am more than ever in need of pulling up! Don't fail a fellow, Darsie! + +"Yours,-- + +"Ralph B. Percival." + +Inside the box lay a small but beautifully modelled anchor brooch, with +a fine golden rope twined round the stock. Darsie looked at it with the +same mingling of joy and pain which seemed inseparable from each stage +of her friendship with this attractive but irresponsible young man. + +It was just like Ralph to have thought of this pretty and graceful way +of expressing his sentiments, and it was not in girl nature to resist a +glow of gratified vanity; but as she turned the golden anchor in her +hands and realised the significance of the symbol, an old impatience +stirred in Darsie's heart. A man who trusted to another for anchorage +in life, and who was ever in danger of breaking loose and drifting on to +the rocks, was not the strong knight of a young girl's dreams. There +were moments when the protecting tenderness which had prompted the last +year's efforts gave place to sudden intolerance and resentment. + +Inspired by Mrs Reeves's words in her first term at college, Darsie had +set gallantly to the task of influencing Ralph Percival for good, and +preventing his further deterioration. At first it had appeared a +forlorn hope; and she would have despaired many a time if it had not +been for the encouragement which she received from Mrs Reeves and her +"curate," Margaret France. Then gradually and surely her influence had +begun to make itself felt. It could not truthfully be said that she had +so inspired Ralph that he had turned over a new leaf, and abandoned bad +practices from a desire for the right itself. If the truth must be +told, desire for his pretty mentor's approbation and praise had been a +far stronger factor in the improvement which seemed to have been +effected. + +Ralph was emotional, and as his interest in Darsie deepened into the +sentimental attachment which seemed a natural development of their +intimacy, he grew increasingly anxious to stand well in her estimation. +During the May term there had been teas in the college gardens, +breakfast parties at the Orchard, picnics on the river, which had +afforded opportunities of _tete-a-tete_ conversations when, amidst the +flowers and the sunshine, it had been quite an agreeable sensation to +lament over one's weaknesses and shortcomings, and to receive in return +the wisest of counsels from Darsie's pretty lips. + +"To please _you_, Darsie!--I'm hanged if I care what other people think, +but if _you_ ask me--" The promises gained were all couched in this +personal vein. "If you chuck me, Darsie, I shan't worry any more." +This was the threat held out for the future. Unsatisfactory, if you +will, yet the fact remained that for the first part of the last term +Ralph _had_ appeared to show greater interest in work than he had before +manifested, and had been involved in a minimum of scrapes. + +There were moments when, remembering these facts, Darsie felt proudly +that she had not lived in vain; moments when Ralph's dependence on +herself and graceful acknowledgments of her help seemed the chief +interest in life. But there were also other moments when the bond +between them weighed heavy as a chain. In less than two years the +training days would be over, Ralph would be a man, and she herself a +woman on the threshold of life. Would she be expected to play the part +of permanent anchor, and, if so, could she, should she undertake the +task? + +For the last few weeks of the term Darsie had been so absorbed in her +own surroundings that she had had no time or thought to bestow on +outside interests, and Mrs Reeves being abroad, no college news came to +her ears from that source. + +Now since the beginning of the holidays Ralph's name had hardly been +mentioned, since family interests were predominant, and Darsie had +learned from experience that the subject of "Percival" was calculated to +send Dan Vernon into his most taciturn mood. + +On this Christmas morning, however, Darsie was in a mood of somewhat +reckless gaiety; let the future take care of itself. For to-day, at +least, she was young and happy and free; the Vernon family was coming +over in bulk to spend the evening, when the presence of one of Dan's +chums would supply an agreeable element of novelty to the occasion. Not +one single gloomy thought must be allowed to cloud the sunshine of this +Christmas Day! + +Dinner was served at seven o'clock, and was truly a festive occasion. +The dining-room table being unequal to the task of providing +accommodation for sixteen people, the schoolroom table had to be used as +a supplement. It was a good inch higher than the other, and supplied +with a preponderance of legs, but these small drawbacks could not weigh +against the magnificent effect of the combined length, covered, as it +was, with fruit, flowers, and a plethora of bright red bonbons and +crackers. The girls wore their prettiest evening frocks; the turkey, +the goose, the plum-pudding, and the mince-pies were all paragons of +their kind, while dessert was enlivened by the discovery of small +surprise presents cunningly hidden away within hollowed oranges, apples, +and nuts. Silver thimbles, pocket-calendars, stamp-cases, sleeve-links, +and miniature brooches, made their appearance with such extraordinary +unexpectedness that Darsie finally declared she was afraid to venture to +eat even a grape, lest she might swallow a diamond alive! + +When the hilarious meal had come to an end, the company adjourned into a +drawing-room illumined by firelight only, but such firelight! For over +a week those logs had been stacked by the kitchen grate so that they +might become "as dry as tinder." + +Placed in the big grate, they sent up a leaping, crackling flame which +was in itself an embodiment of cheer, and when the sixteen chairs were +filled and ranged in a circle round the blaze, there was a Christmas +picture complete, and as goodly and cheery a picture as one need wish to +see. A basket of fir-cones stood at either side of the grate, and the +order of proceedings was that each guest in turn should drop a cone into +the heart of the fire, and relate an amusing story or coincidence the +while it burned. Results proved that the amount of time so consumed +varied so strangely that suggestions of foul play were made by more than +one raconteur. + +"It's not fair! Some one has got at these cones! Some of them have +been soaked to make them damp!--" + +Be that as it may, no one could possibly have foretold who would happen +to hit on this particular cone, so that the charge of injustice fell +swiftly to the ground. + +Mrs Garnett opened the ball with a coincidence taken from her own life, +the cone burning bright and blue the while. + +"When I was a girl of twenty, living at home with my father and mother, +I had a curiously distinct dream one night about a certain Mr +Dalrymple. We knew no one of that name, but in my dream he appeared to +be a lifelong friend. He was a clergyman, about sixty years of age--not +handsome, but with a kind, clever face. He had grey hair, and heavy +black eyebrows almost meeting over his nose. I was particularly +interested in his appearance, because--this is the exciting part!--in +my dream I was engaged to him, and we were going to be married the +following month... Next morning, when I awoke, the impression left was +unusually distinct, and at breakfast I made them all laugh over my +matrimonial plans. My sisters called me `Mrs Dalrymple' for several +days, and then the joke faded away, and was replaced by something newer +and more exciting. Two years passed by, and then, in the summer +holidays, I went to Scotland to pay a visit. A slight accident on the +line delayed me at a small station for a couple of hours, and I strolled +through the village to pass the time by seeing what could be seen. It +was a dull little place, and the principal street was empty of every one +but a few children until, when I reached the end, a man in a black coat +came suddenly out of a house and walked towards me. He was tall and +elderly and thin, his hair was grey, his eyebrows were dark and met in a +peak over his nose. My heart gave a great big jump, for it was the face +of the man I had seen in my dream--the man who was to have been my +husband! You can imagine my surprise! It was many, many months since I +had given a thought to the silly old dream, but at the first glance at +that face the memory of it came back as clear and distinct as on the +morning after it had happened. I walked towards him quite dazed with +surprise, and then another extraordinary thing happened! He was +evidently short-sighted, and could not distinguish figures at a +distance, but presently, as we drew nearer together, he in his turn +started violently, stared in my face as if he could hardly believe his +eyes, and then rushed forward and seized me by the hand. `I _am_ glad +to see you--I _am_ glad! This _is_ a pleasure! When did you come?' +Poor old man! My blank face showed him his mistake, and he dropped my +hand and began to mumble out apologies. `I've made a mistake. I +thought you were--I thought you were--' He frowned, evidently searched +in vain for a clue, and added feebly, `I thought I knew you. _Your face +is so familiar_!' It was all over in a minute. He took off his hat, +and hurried on overcome with embarrassment, and I turned mechanically in +the direction of the church. It was closed, but by the gate stood a +board bearing the hours of services, and beneath them the name of the +minister of the parish. I read it with a thrill. The name was `_The +Rev. John Dalrymple_'!" + +Mrs Garnett lay back in her chair with the contented air of a +_raconteuse_ who has deftly led up to a _denouement_, and her audience +gasped in mingled surprise and curiosity. + +"How _thrilling_! How weird!" + +"What an extraordinary thing! Go on! Go on! And what happened next?" + +Mrs Garnett chuckled contentedly. + +"I met your father, married him, and lived happily ever after! As for +Mr Dalrymple, I never met him again nor heard his name mentioned. The +sequel is not at all exciting, but it was certainly an extraordinary +coincidence, and caused me much agitation at the time. I have timed +myself very well--my cone has just burned out. Who's turn comes next?" + +There followed a somewhat lengthened pause while every one nudged a +next-door neighbour, and disdained responsibility on his own account. +Then Mr Vernon stepped into the breach. + +"I heard a curious thing the other day. A friend of mine was taken +suddenly ill on a hillside in Switzerland, was carried into a chalet and +most kindly tended by the good woman. When, at the end of several +hours, he was well enough to leave, he wished to make her a present of +money. She refused to take it, but said that she had a daughter in +service in England, and that it would be a real pleasure to her, if, +upon his return, my friend would write to the girl telling her of his +visit to the old home. He asked for the address, and was told, `Mary +Smith, care of Mr Spencer, The Towers, Chestone.' He read it, looked +the old woman in the face and said, `_I_ am Mr Spencer! _I_ live at +The Towers, Chestone; and my children's nurse is called Mary Smith!' +There! I can vouch for the absolute truth of that coincidence, and I +think you will find it hard to beat." + +"And what did he say to the nurse?" asked literal Clemence, to the +delight of her brothers and sisters, whose imaginary dialogues between +master and maid filled the next few minutes with amusement. + +Dan's friend hailed from Oxford, and gave a highly coloured account of a +practical joke in several stages, which he had played on an irritating +acquaintance. The elder members of the party listened with awe, if +without approval, but Tim showed repeated signs of restlessness, and in +a final outburst corrected the narrator on an all-important point. + +"That's the way they had it in _Britain's Boys_!" he declared, whereupon +the Oxford man hid his head under an antimacassar, and exclaimed +tragically that all was discovered! "Now it's Darsie's turn! Tell us a +story, Darsie--an adventure, your own adventure when you went out in +that punt, and the mill began working--" + +"Why should I tell what you know by heart already? You'd only be +bored." + +"Oh, but you never tell a story twice over in the same way," persisted +Clemence with doubtful flattery. "And Mr Leslie has never heard it. +I'm sure he'd be interested. It really _was_ an adventure. So +romantic, too. Ralph Percival is _so_ good-looking!" + +"I fail to see what his looks have to do with it," said Darsie in her +most Newnham manner. "Strong arms were more to the purpose, and those +he certainly does possess." + +"Strong arms--stout heart!" murmured Lavender in sentimental aside. +"Well, then, tell about the treasure-hunt in the Percivals' garden--and +how you--you know! Go on--that's another _real_ adventure." + +"All Miss Darsie's adventures seem to have been in connection with the +Percival family!" remarked the Oxford man at this point. + +Darsie flushed with annoyance, and retired determinedly into her shell. +She was seated almost in the centre of the circle, between her father +and John Vernon, and the leaping light of the fire showed up her face +and figure in varying shades of colour. Now she was a rose-maiden, +dress, hair, and face glowing in a warm pink hue; anon, the rose changed +into a faint metallic blue, which gave a ghostlike effect to the slim +form; again, she was all white--a dazzling, unbroken white, in which the +little oval face assumed an air of childlike fragility and pathos. As +she sat with her hands folded on her knee, and her head resting against +the dark cushions of her chair, more than one of the company watched her +with admiration: but Darsie was too much occupied with her own thoughts +to be conscious of their scrutiny. + +As each story-teller began his narrative, she cast a momentary glance in +his direction, and then turned back to fire-gazing once more. Once or +twice she cast a curious glance towards the far corner where Dan Vernon +was seated, but he had drawn his chair so far back that nothing could be +distinguished but the white blur of shirt-front. Darsie wondered if Dan +were uninterested, bored, asleep--yet as her eyes questioned the +darkness she had the strangest impression of meeting other eyes--dark, +intent eyes, which stared, and stared-- + +Vie Vernon was telling "a _most interesting_ coincidence," her opening +sentence--"It was told to me by a friend--a lawyer,"--causing +surreptitious smiles and nudges among her younger hearers. "There was a +girl in his office--a typewriting girl. All the money had been lost--" + +"Whose money? The lawyer's or the office's?" + +"Neither! Don't be silly. The girl's father's, of course." + +"You never told us that she had a father!" + +"Russell, if you interrupt every minute, I won't play. Of course he'd +lost it, or the girl wouldn't have been a typist. Any one would know +that! Ed--the lawyer did sea-sort of business--what do you call it?-- +marine things--and the girl typed them. Years before a brother had +disappeared--" + +"The lawyer's brother?" + +"No! I'm sorry I began. You are so disagreeable, The _girl's_ uncle, +of course, and they often wanted to find him, because he was rich, and +might have helped them now they were poor. One day, when she was typing +out one of the depositions--" + +"Ha!" The unusual word evoked unanimous comment. "`De-pos-itions--if +you please'! How legal we are becoming, to be sure!" + +Vie flushed, and hurried on breathlessly-- + +"She came across the name of John H. Rose, and she wondered if the H. +meant Hesselwhaite, for that was her uncle's second name, and she looked +it up in the big document, and it _was_ him, and he was on the west +coast of South America, and they wrote to him, and he left them a lot of +money, and they lived happy ever after." + +Polite murmurs of astonishment from the elders, unconcealed sniggerings +from the juniors, greeted the conclusion of this thrilling tale, and +then once more Darsie was called upon for her contribution, and this +time consented without demur. + +"Very well! I've thought of a story. It's about a managing clerk who +was sent to Madrid on business for his firm. I didn't know him myself, +so don't ask questions! While he was in Madrid he went to the opera one +night, and sat in a box. Just opposite was another box, in which sat a +beauteous Spanish maid. He looked at her, and she looked at him. They +kept looking and looking. At last he thought that she smiled, and waved +her fan as if beckoning him to come and speak to her. So in the first +interval the eager youth made his way along the richly carpeted +corridors; but just as he reached the door of the box it opened, and a +man came out and put a letter into his hand. It was written in Spanish, +which the youth did not understand; but, being filled with a frenzy of +curiosity to know what the fair one had to say, he decided to run to his +hotel, and get the manager to translate it without delay. Well, he +went; but as soon as the manager had read the note he started violently, +and said in a manner of the utmost concern: `I exceedingly regret, sir, +to appear inhospitable or inconsiderate, but I find it my painful duty +to ask you to leave my hotel within an hour.' The clerk protested, +questioned, raged, and stormed, but all in vain. The manager refused +even to refer to the letter; he simply insisted that he could entertain +him no longer in the hotel, and added darkly: `It would be well for the +Senor to take the first train out of Spain.' + +"Alarmed by this mysterious warning, the unhappy youth accordingly shook +off the dust from his feet and returned to London, where he confided his +woes to his beloved and generous employer. The employer was a Spanish +merchant and understood the language, so he naturally offered to solve +the mystery. No sooner, however, had his eye scanned the brief lines, +than a cloud shadowed _his_ expressive countenance, and he addressed +himself to the youth more in sorrow than in anger. `It grieves me to +the heart, Mr--er--_Bumpas_,' he said, `to sever our connection after +your faithful service to the firm; but, after the perusal of this note, +I have unfortunately no choice. If you will apply to the cashier he +will hand you a cheque equal to six months' salary; but I must ask you +to understand that when you leave my office this morning it is for the +last time!'" + +A rustle of excitement from the audience, a momentary glimpse of Dan's +face in the flickering light, testified to the interest of this +extraordinary history. + +Darsie bent forward to encourage her fir-cone with a pat from the poker, +and continued dramatically-- + +"Bewildered, broken-hearted, almost demented, the unfortunate youth +betook him to an uncle in America (all uncles seem to live in America), +who received him with consideration, listened to his sad tale, and bade +him be of good cheer. `By a strange coincidence' (coincidence again!) +said the worthy man, `there sups with me to-night a learned professor of +languages, resident at our local college. He, without doubt, will make +plain the mysterious contents of the fatal note!' Punctual to his hour +the professor arrived, and the harassed youth hailed with joy the end of +his long suspense. Whatever might be the purport of the words written +in that fatal paper, the knowledge thereof could not be worse than the +fate which had dogged his footsteps ever since that tragic night when he +had first cast eyes on the baleful beauty of the Spanish maid. Yet +might it not be that once again the sight of these words would send him +wandering homeless o'er the world--that the stream of his uncle's +benevolence might be suddenly damned by a force mysterious as +inexorable? + +"Trembling with emotion, the young man thrust his hand into his pocket +to bring forth this mystic note--" + +Darsie paused dramatically. + +"And--and--and then--?" + +"He discovered that it was not there! In the course of his long +wanderings it had unfortunately been mislaid." + +The clamour of indignation which followed this _denouement_ can be +better imagined than described but the example having been set, +wonderful how many stories of the same baffling character were revived +by the different members of the company during the remainder of the +firelight _stance_. So wild and exaggerated did the narratives become, +indeed, that the meeting broke up in confusion, and took refuge in those +admittedly uproarious Christmas games which survived from the happy +nursery days, when "to make as much noise as we like" seemed the climax +of enjoyment. + +And so ended Christmas Day for the joint ranks of the Vernons and +Garnetts. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. + +THE MELODRAMA. + +On Boxing Day, Lavender excused herself from joining a rinking party, +and lay curled up on a sofa reading a Christmas number. + +The following morning she stayed in bed to breakfast, and complained of +a swollen face. On the third day, the sight of the huge cheeks and +doubled chin sent the family flying for the doctor, and the tragic +verdict of "mumps" was whispered from mouth to mouth. + +Mumps in the Christmas holidays! Isolation for the victim for days, +even weeks; the risk of infection for others; the terrible, unthinkable +possibility of "missing a term"! Mrs Vernon came nobly to the rescue, +and invited Darsie to spend the remainder of the holidays under her +roof, since, with a Tripos in prospect, every precaution must be taken +against infection. For the rest, Lavender's own little eyrie was +situated at the end of a long top passage, and might have been +originally designed for a sanatorium and there, in solitary state, the +poor mumpy poetess bewailed her fate, and besought the compassion of her +companions. Letters were not forbidden, and she therefore found a sad +satisfaction in pouring out her woes on paper, as a result of which +occupation the following poetical effusion presently found its way to +the schoolroom party-- + + "All gay and fair the scene appeared: + I was a gladsome maid; + When the dire hand of circumstance + Upon my life was laid. + Upon the eve of festal day + The first dread symptoms fell; + And those who should have sympathised, + Whose tender words I would have prized, + Did sneer, and jeer, and with loud cries, + Ascribe the reason to mince-pies! + + "What time I woke the third day morn, + By mirror was the sad truth borne; + Not alone exile, grief, and pain + Must fill my cup--but also _shame_! + Gone is my youthful glee and grace, + I have an elephantine face; + My cheeks are gross, which were so thin; + I have a loathsome pendant chin. + All who behold me smile aside, + And their derision barely hide. + Oh, cruel fate! instead of tears, + In my sad plight I get but jeers. + + "Friends, comrades, readers of this ditty, + If heart ye have, on me have pity. + Go not unthinking on your way, + Content to sing, content to play, + While I and mumps sit here alone + In an unending, drear `At home.' + Put wits to work, think out some way + To cheer the captive's lonely day, + Forget yourself, and think of me, + And doubly blessed you shall be. + For since the days of earliest youth + You have been brought up on this truth-- + To help the ailing by your side + Is the true work of Christmas-tide!" + +To disregard so touching an appeal being plainly an impossibility, an +impromptu committee meeting was held in the Vernons' study, when the +idea of an open-air melodrama was proposed, and carried with +acclamation. A melodrama acted in the back garden, underneath +Lavender's window, opened out prospects of amusement for the actors as +well as the audience, and a rainy afternoon was passed in the merriest +fashion discussing the plot, characters, and costume. + +Darsie sat on the hearthrug, and prodded the fire vigorously to mark +each point scored. Vie wrote from dictation at the centre table. Dan +sat chuckling in his own particular chair, and allowed himself to be +cast as hero with lamblike calm, and plain Hannah affected dire +displeasure at being passed over for the part of beauteous maid. It was +like the dear old days when they had all been young--_really_ young--in +pinafores and pigtails, with no dread of coming Tripos, no agitation +about youthful lawyers to chase away sleep at night! Looking back +through the years, that hour stood out in remembrance as one most +happily typical of the dear home life. + +The programme was delicious. Vie discovered a great sheet of white +paper, left over from the parcel wrappings of the week before; Dan +printed the words in his most dashing fashion; John nailed it on the lid +of a packing-chest, and the whole party escorted it round the terrace to +the Garnett dwelling, and waited in the street beneath until it was +conveyed upstairs, and Lavender, discreetly swathed in a shawl, appeared +at her lighted window and waved a towel in triumph. + +This was the programme-- + + On Wednesday Afternoon Next (_Weather permitting_) + In Aid of the Fund for Sick and Suffering Spinsters + A First Performance will be given of + The Blood-Curdling and Hair-Raising Melodrama entitled + The Blue Cabbage + by Allthelotofus. + + _Dramatis Personae_. + Efflorescence (A Guileless Maid)--Miss Darsie Garnett. + Meretricia (1st Villainess)--Mr Harry Garnett. + Mycrobe (2nd Villainess)--Mr Russell Garnett. + Elijah B. Higgins (Hero)--Mr Dan Vernon. + Sigismund La Bas (A False Caitiff)--Mr Percy Lister. + D. Spenser (Certificated Poisonmonger)--Mr John Vernon. + Endeavora (A Well-Meaner)--Miss Clemence Garnett. + The Greek Chorus--Miss Hannah Vernon. + + _N.B.--_There is no Cabbage! + +Imagine the feelings of a solitary invalid on receipt of such a +programme as the above--a programme of an entertainment organised, +composed, and designed wholly and solely for her own amusement! +Lavender's mumps were at a painful stage--so sore, so stiff, so heavy, +that she felt all face, had no spirit to read, craved for companionship, +and yet shrank sensitively from observing eyes. Let those jeer who may, +it _is_ an abominable thing to feel a martyr, and look a clown, and poor +Lavender's sensitive nature suffered acutely from the position. Then +oh! it was good to feel that to-morrow something exciting was going to +happen--that she would be amused, cheered, comforted; that her dear +companions would be near her, so near that once again she would feel one +of the merry throng. + +If only it were fine! Really and truly Lavender felt that she could not +support the blow if it were _wet_. Mumps seem to sap the constitution +of moral force; if she could not see the melodrama, she would weep like +a child! + +It _was_ fine, however. The very elements conspired in her behalf, and +produced a still, unshiny day, when the pageant of the melodrama +appeared to the best advantage, and the voices rose clear and distinct +to that upper window, before which Lavender stood, a muffled figure, in +a fur coat and cap, and a great wool shawl swathed round face and neck +after the fashion of an English veil. + +The melodrama proved even more thrilling than had been expected. On +his, or her, first appearance on the scene, each character advanced to a +spot directly in front of the upstairs window, and obligingly related +the salient points of his life, character, and ambitions, together with +a candid exposition of his intentions towards the other members of the +cast; the while Hannah, as Greek Chorus, interposed moral remarks and +reflections on the same. After an indulgent hearing of these +confessions, it would appear that two ambitions were common to the +actors--either they wished to elope with the hero or heroine, or to +poison the False Caitiff, and the Villainess Number One or Two, or such +a contingent of these worthies as excluded themselves. + +The Well-Meaner assiduously endeavoured to foil these intents, and +received the scant amount of encouragement which falls to well-meaning +interference in real life; the Certified Poisonmonger presided over +three tin pails of liquids, labelled respectively, "Lingering," +"Sudden," and "A highly superior article in writhes and coils. As +patronised by the Empress of China" and the demand for these wares was +naturally brisk in so quarrelsome a company: the False Caitiff chose a +sudden death for his rival, the Hero; Meretricia, the first Villainess, +poisoned the Caitiff by a more lingering means; Villainess Number Two, +under the false impression that the Hero had given his heart to +Meretricia, poisoned that good lady, sparing no money on the deed, +whereby Russell was afforded an admirable opportunity of exhibiting his +wriggling powers. The guileless maid poisoned herself with the dregs in +her lover's glass; and the Poisonmonger, fatigued with the rush of +Christmas business, fainted away, and, being revived by potions from his +own pails, survived only long enough to administer a forcible dose in +revenge. The Well-Meaner's fate differed from that of her companions in +that she was insidiously poisoned by each actor in turn, so that, +figuratively speaking, the curtain descended upon a row of corpses, in +the midst of which the Greek Chorus intoned exemplary precepts and +advice. + +Hannah, as Greek chorus, was by common consent pronounced the star of +the company, her interpolated reflections being so droll and to the +point that even the lingering victims found themselves overcome with +laughter. + +As for the audience, her joy, though great, was not unmixed with pain. +As the melodrama approached its critical point the actors could see her +at her window, holding up her mumps with either hand, and the piteous +plea--"Don't make me laugh! Don't make me laugh!" floated down on the +wintry air. + +Next day Lavender was worse, and melodramas were banned as a means of +recreation; but she sent a touching message of thanks to the troupe, in +which she declared that "the joy outweighed the pain," so that, all +things considered, "The Blue Cabbage" was voted a great success. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. + +DAN AND DARSIE. + +No sooner did the news of Lavender's illness, and Darsie's consequent +absence from home, reach the Percival household than three separate +letters were dispatched, insisting that at least a part of the remaining +holidays should be spent at the Manor. + +Pray why, the girls demanded, should Hannah Vernon be allowed to engross +Darsie, when she enjoyed her society practically the whole year round? +It was unjust, mean, contemptible. They were so dull and sad this +Christmas-time. Wouldn't Darsie come? + +Pray why, inquired Ralph ingenuously, did Darsie not come when she had +the chance? She knew that he would be glad to see her. It was quite +horribly dull. The parents were absurdly humped-- + +Mrs Percival's words were few but disturbing: "I want to consult with +you about Ralph. You have more influence over him than any one else. +Do come, dear child, if you possibly can." + +In face of the last letter it was impossible to say no. Darsie was not +sure that she wanted to say no; on the other hand, she was aggravatingly +uncertain if she wanted to say yes. At college and at home alike the +atmosphere was at once austere and bracing; it would be agreeable to +live for a time in the lap of luxury--to be regarded as a miracle of +cleverness and beauty; which treatment was invariably bestowed upon her +during her visits to The Manor. She would enjoy staying with the +Percivals, but she would be sad to miss the cosy hours when Dan and his +friend, Percy Lister, joined the little party in the old study, and they +all talked together round the fire. What talks they had; what themes +they discussed! What animated discussions sprang from a casual word, +and were pursued with a go and a spirit which seem to exist only on such +informal occasions. Sometimes they laughed and quipped, and beheld +everything from the comic point of view; anon, a sudden spirit of +earnestness would pass from one to the other, and as the fading light +hid their faces from view, tongues were set free, so that they talked of +the things which mattered, the towering realities which lay at the heart +of life! During these discussions Dan invariably seated himself in the +darkest corner, and Darsie, looking across, had again and again the +impression of deep eyes staring--staring! Vie Vernon considered the +Percivals "grasping creatures," and didn't care who knew it; Hannah was +placidly unconcerned; Dan made no remark; Percy Lister was leaving +himself, and considered that things "fitted in well." Altogether, in +comparison with the enthusiasm of the invitation, the opposition was +blightingly resigned. Darsie tossed her head, packed her boxes, and +prepared to depart a whole three days sooner than she had originally +intended. + +On the afternoon before her departure a party was made up for the rink, +but at the last moment Darsie excused herself, and declared a wish to +stay at home. There were several pieces of sewing and mending which +were necessary, there was a letter to be written to Margaret France, and +a farewell ode to cheer poor Lavender. A gas fire in her bedroom +allowed her to perform these tasks in solitude, but as soon as they were +satisfactorily accomplished she made her way downstairs to the study, +prepared to enjoy an hour over an interesting book. + +The gas was unlit, the usual large fire blazed in the grate; an arm- +chair was drawn up to the side, and within it sat Dan, head leaning on +hand, in an attitude which spoke of weariness and dejection. + +He raised his eyes and looked at her, and Darsie shut the door and came +forward eagerly. + +"Dan! Back again so soon? Is anything wrong?" + +"No!" + +"But you look strange. You--you didn't hurt yourself at the rink?" + +"No." + +"Quite, quite sure?" + +"Quite." + +Darsie subsided on to her favourite seat--the hearthrug--with a little +sigh of relief. + +"That's all right. You're very monosyllabic, Dan. Shall I disturb you +if I sit here for a time?" + +"No." + +"A hundred thanks! You are _too_ gracious. I can be quiet if you like. +I like staring into the fire and dreaming myself." + +Dan did not answer. Darsie peered at him, moving her little head from +side to side so as to get the clearest view. He looked very large--a +great shapeless mass of dark in the old red chair. + +She liked the bigness of him, felt the old satisfaction at sight of the +strong, rugged face, the old craving for confidence and approval. +Strange how different one felt in company with different people. _Tete- +a-tete_ with Ralph Percival, Darsie felt a giant of strength and +resource--assured, self-confident, a bulwark against which others might +lean. With Dan, well, with Dan she was just a slip of a girl, conscious +of nothing so much as her own weaknesses, mental and physical; her +difficult gropings, compared with his clear vision; her tiny hands and +wrists, compared with his big sinewy paw; her slim form, compared to the +bulk of the square-cut shoulders. Never--Darsie realised it with a +smile--never did she feel so humble and diffident as when in Dan's +society; yet, strangely enough, the sensation was far from disagreeable. + +"Dan!" + +"Darsie!" + +"Is anything the matter? Between you and me! You don't happen to be +snarkey, do you, about anything I've done?" + +"Why should you think I am `snarkey'?" + +"Because--you _are_! You're not a bit sociable and friendly--even +_your_ sort of sociability. I'm a guest in your mother's house if I'm +nothing else and it's your duty to be civil." + +"Haven't I always been civil to you, Darsie?" + +Darsie drew a quick breath of impatience and, seizing upon the poker, +beat at the unoffending coal as the best method of letting off steam. + +"You are so painfully literal. I can _feel_ what other people are +thinking, however much they try to disguise it." + +"How do _I_ feel, for example?" + +Darsie turned her head and stared curiously into Dan's face. The hand +on which it leaned shielded it somewhat from view, but, even so, there +was something in the intent gaze which filled her with a strange new +discomfort. She turned back to her poking once more. + +"I think--there's something that I don't understand--I think--there's +something you disapprove! I'm a very good girl, and I work very hard, +and I'm fond of my friends, and I expect them to be fond of me in +return. I don't _like_ you to disapprove, Dan!" + +"I can't help it, Darsie. I've hated that friendship from the +beginning, and I hate it more with every month that passes." + +"Oh! _that_ old story." Darsie's voice took a tone of impatience; for +it was annoying to find that Dan was harking back on the well-known +subject of dispute. "Well, I'm sorry to distress you, but I am +conceited enough to believe that I have taken no harm from my friendship +with Ralph Percival, and that he has reaped some little good from mine. +While that state of thing continues, I shall certainly refuse to give +him up--even to please you!" + +There was silence for several moments, then Dan said slowly-- + +"If I agreed with your conclusions, I should not try to persuade you, +Darsie; but I do not, and my opportunities of judging are better than +yours." + +"You are unfair, Dan. It is a pity to allow yourself to be so +prejudiced that you can't give a fair judgment. I should have imagined +that even you would be forced to admit that Ralph had done better this +term." + +Dan did not speak. He turned his head and looked Darsie full in the +eyes, and there was in his look a puzzled, questioning air, which she +found it difficult to understand. When he spoke again, it was not to +reply in any direct way to her accusation, but to ask a question on his +own account. + +"Darsie, do you mind telling me--is your position entirely +disinterested? Do you look upon the fellow merely as a man to be +helped, or do you care for him for his own personal sake?" + +Darsie deliberated. The firelight played on her downcast face, on the +long white throat rising from the low collar of her white blouse, on the +little hands clenched round the steel poker. Before her mind's eye +arose the memory of handsome, melancholy eyes; imagination conjured back +the sound of impassioned appeals. Her expression softened, her voice +took a deeper note. + +"He needs me, Dan!" + +That was her answer. Dan nodded in silence, accepting it as sufficient. +He rose from his chair, and paced up and down the room, hands thrust +deep into his trouser pockets, head held back with the characteristic +forward tilt of the chin. Darsie, watching him, thought involuntarily +of a caged animal striving restlessly against the bars. Her heart gave +a little throb of relief when he spoke again in his own natural voice. + +"All right, Darsie. Good luck to your efforts! I appreciate your +intentions, and am only sorry that I can't agree. According to my +belief no one can help a man who refuses to help himself. We've got to +fight our own battles, and to bear our own burdens! If some one steps +forward and offers to undertake for us, we may imagine for a time that +we are set free, but it's a mistake! Sooner or later the time comes +when we're bound to fight it out alone, and it doesn't get easier for +being deferred. Everything that is worth learning in life we have to +worry out for ourselves!" + +Darsie drew a long, trembling sigh. How puzzling life was, when the two +people on whose judgment you most relied delivered themselves of +directly opposing verdicts! Mrs Reeves believed that her help was all- +important to Ralph's progress; Dan insisted that her efforts were in +vain. + +Was he right? Was he wrong? Could she honestly assure herself that +Ralph was stronger, more self-reliant, more able to stand alone without +the stimulus of constant support and encouragement? Instinctively +Darsie's hand went up to touch the little golden brooch which fastened +the lace collar of her blouse. If the anchor were withdrawn, would +Ralph drift once more towards the rocks? The answer was difficult. She +pondered it aloud, speaking in low, anxious tones, with lengthened +pauses between the words. + +"We're both right, Dan. We've both got hold of _bits_ of the truth! In +the end we must win through for ourselves, but surely, in preparation +for the battle, we can give each other _some_ help. Some natures seem +made to stand, and others to lean. A prop is not of much account, but +it may serve to keep a plant straight while it is gathering strength. +The big oaks need no props; they are so strong that they can't +understand; they have no pity for weakness." + +Dan stopped short in his pacings. + +"That meant for me, Darsie?" + +"Humph! Just as you please! Oaks are nice things--big, and strong, and +restful, but just a little bit inclined to grow--_gnarled_!" + +Dan vouchsafed no reply, and Darsie sat, hands clasped round knees, +staring into the fire for five long, silent minutes. She was hoping +that Dan would never grow "gnarled" towards herself, longing for him to +speak and promise that he would not, but he still remained silent, and +presently the door burst open, the rinking party appeared on the +threshold, and the opportunity for quiet conclave was over. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. + +NEW YEAR'S EVE. + +Seated alone in the train, _en route_ for her visit to the Percivals, +Darsie had time to think in a more quiet and undisturbed fashion than +had been possible in the past bustling days, and a disagreeable feeling +of apprehension arose in her mind as she recalled the wording of the +three invitations. In each was present the same note of depression, the +same hint of trouble in connection with the son of the house. Could +anything have happened of which she was unaware? No letter from The +Manor had reached her for some weeks past, but letters were proverbially +scarce at Christmas-time, so that it would be foolish to argue ill from +that fact alone. Darsie braced herself physically and mentally, squared +her shoulders, and resolutely dismissed gloomy thoughts. + +Noreen and Ralph met her at the station, looking reassuringly cheerful +and at ease a magnificent new motor stood in waiting outside, with a +cart for the luggage. Inside the beautiful old house the atmosphere was +warmed by hot pipes, and scented with the fragrance of hothouse plants, +banked together in every corner. It was not the usual case of being +warm and cosy inside a room, and miserably chilled every time one +crossed a passage or ascended the stairs. Mrs Percival and the girls +were marvels of elegance in Parisian gowns, Ralph looked his handsomest +in knickerbocker suit and gaiters, and the servants moved noiselessly to +and fro, performing their tasks with machine-like accuracy. + +Extraordinary how complete a change of scene may take place between +lunch and tea! How swiftly a new atmosphere makes the old unreal! + +As Darsie sat drinking her tea in the old wainscoted hall, it seemed +impossible to realise that such things as poverty and struggle were in +existence; even the shabby bustle and squeeze of her own dear home +became incredible in the face of this spacious, well-ordered calm! + +Mrs Percival made no attempt at private conversation, and showed no +trace of "ulterior motive" in manner or conversation, which was a huge +relief to Darsie's mind. She was not in a mood for serious +conversation; what she wanted was the usual Percival offering of praise, +admiration, and petting, and this was bestowed upon her with even more +than the usual generosity. The grey-whiskered old Squire kissed her on +both cheeks; the girls assured her that she was prettier than ever, and +greeted her feeblest sallies with bursts of delighted laughter. Ralph +gazed at her with adoring eyes; it was all, as Darsie had been wont to +remark, most grateful and comforting! + +The first evening passed pleasantly enough, though there was a +noticeable effort on the part of each member of the family to keep the +conversation from touching upon the subject of Ralph's affairs. Any +reference to Cambridge was taboo, as Darsie swiftly discovered, but +there were many points of interest left, which were both pleasant and +amusing to discuss. + +The next morning--the last morning of the year--broke fine and bright, +and the view seen through the long windows of the dining-room was almost +as beautiful as in summer itself. The park showed the same stretch of +velvet green, a belt of evergreens and tall Scotch firs filled up the +far distance, while the leafless boughs of elms and beeches made a lace- +like tracery against the sky. To the right the old cedar stood calm and +unmoved, as it had stood while generations of Percivals had lived, and +loved, and sorrowed, and died. + +When breakfast was over--and breakfast in the country is a meal which +pursues a calm and leisurely course--the four young people strolled into +the porch to discuss the programme for the day. + +"Darsie is nerving herself to look at the horses' tails!" said Ida +laughingly. It was a Percival peculiarity, agreeable or irritating +according to the mood of the hearer, that they never by any chance +forgot a remark, but continually resurrected it in conversation for +years to come. Never a morning had Darsie spent at the Manor that she +had not been reminded of scathing comments on the habit of daily visits +to kennels and stables, as delivered by herself on the occasion of her +first visit. To-day, however, she had only time to grimace a reply, +before Ida continued cheerfully-- + +"You won't be asked, my dear! We have something far more important on +hand. You have walked right into the jaws of the tenants' annual New +Year's treat, and will have to tire your hands decorating all the +morning, and your gums smiling all the evening. It's an all-day-and- +night business, and we get home at cock-crow in a state of collapse--" + +"It's held in the village hall," Noreen took up the tale, slipping +unconsciously into what Darsie called her "squire's-eldest-daughter- +manner." + +"Quite a nice building. We make it look festive with wreaths and +bunting. They think so much of decorations!" ("They" in Percival +parlance alluded to the various tenants on the estate.) "We try to think +of something novel each year as a surprise. They like surprises. We've +arranged with half a dozen girls to be there to help. Quite nice girls, +daughters of the principal farmers. You must be _quite_ sweet to them, +Darsie, please! It is our principal meeting of the year, and we make a +point of being friendly." + +"Must I really?" Darsie assumed an expression of dejection. "What a +disappointment! It's so seldom I get an opportunity of being proud and +grand. What's the good of staying at a Manor House, and driving down +with `the family,' if I have to be meek and friendly like any one else? +Couldn't you introduce me as the Lady Claire, and let me put on airs for +a treat? It would act as a contrast to your `friendly ways,' and make +them all the more appreciated." + +The girls laughed as in duty bound, and declared that it _would_ be +sport, and wondered if they dared, but Ralph sharply called them to +order. + +"Rot! As if everybody in this neighbourhood didn't know Darsie by +heart! Put on your hats, and don't talk rubbish. It will take us all +our time to get through with the hall before lunch." + +Town-bred Darsie privately hoped that the motor would appear to carry +the helpers to the hall three miles away, but the Percivals themselves +never seemed to dream of such a possibility. In short skirts and thick +boots they plodded cheerfully across boggy meadows and muddy lanes, +climbed half a dozen stiles, and arrived at last in the High Street of +the little village, close to the entrance of the unpretentious wooden +building which called itself the Village Hall. + +Darsie thought that she had never beheld an interior which seemed so +thoroughly to need, and at the same time to defy, decoration! +Whitewashed walls, well splashed by damp; a double row of pegs all round +the walls at a level of some five or six feet from the ground; wooden +forms, and a small square platform, made up a whole which was bare and +ugly to a degree. + +A group of five or six girls stood beside a pile of evergreens; a youth +in shirt-sleeves was in process of unpacking crumpled flags and +flattened Japanese lanterns from an old tin box; two ladders stood +against the walls. + +The entrance of "the family" was marked by a general movement among the +little company, and Darsie watched the greetings which ensued with +twinkling amusement. + +Noreen and Ida were _so_ pleasant, _so_ full of gratitude for the +presence of each individual helper, _so_ anxious to be assured that they +could _really_ spare the time. Ralph was so laboriously polite, while +the girls themselves, pleasant, kindly, and well-educated, were either +happily unaware of the thinly disguised patronage, or had the good +manners to conceal their knowledge. There was no doubt which side +appeared to best advantage in the interview! + +"The first thing we must do is to decide upon a scheme of decoration," +Ida declared. "Darsie, suggest something! You have never done it +before, so your ideas ought to be novel. What can we do to make the +hall look pretty and cheerful?" + +"Rebuild it!" was Darsie's instant and daring reply, whereat the +farmers' daughters laughed _en masse_, and the Percivals looked +haughtily displeased. + +"Father built it!" + +"Awfully good of him! _And_ wicked of his architect. I shan't employ +him to build my house!" + +"I think," said Noreen loftily, "that we had better confine ourselves to +discovering the scheme of decoration. It is too late to interfere with +the structure of the hall. We generally make wreaths and fasten them to +the gas brackets, and drape the platform with flags." + +"Then we may take it as settled that we _won't_ do that to-day. What +happens to the pegs?" + +"They hang their things on them, of course--hats, and coats, and +mufflers--" + +"That _must_ be decorative! How would it be to make them leave their +wrappings at the entrance to-night, or put them under their own chairs, +and to arrange a broad band of holly round the room so as to hide the +pegs from view? It would be so easy to tie on the branches, and it +would have quite a fine frieze effect." + +"`Mrs Dick, you are invaluable!'" quoted Ralph gaily. "It's a ripping +idea. Let's set to at once, and try the effect." + +No sooner said than done; the little band of workers spread themselves +over the room, and began the task of trying prickly holly branches to +the line of pegs in such fashion as to form a band about two feet deep, +entirely round the room. Berries being unusually plentiful that year, +the effect was all the more cheery, and with the disappearance of the +utilitarian pegs the hall at once assumed an improved aspect. A second +committee meeting hit on the happy idea of transforming the platform +into a miniature bower, by means of green baize and miniature fir-trees, +plentifully sprinkled with glittering white powder. The flags were +relegated to the entrance-hall. The Japanese lanterns, instead of +hanging on strings, were so grouped as to form a wonderfully lifelike +pagoda in a corner of the hall, where--if mischievously disposed--they +might burn at their ease without endangering life or property. The +ironwork of the gas-brackets was tightly swathed with red paper, and the +bare jets fitted with paper shades to match. From an artistic point of +view Darsie strongly opposed the hanging of the timeworn mottoes, "A +Hearty Welcome to All," "A Happy New Year," and the like, but the +Squire's daughters insisted that they liked to see them, and the +farmers' daughters confirming this theory, up they went, above the +evergreen frieze, the white cotton letters standing out conspicuously +from their turkey-red background. + +It was one o'clock before the work was finished, and a tired and +distinctly grubby quartette started out on their three-mile return walk +across the fields. Certainly country-bred folk were regardless of +fatigue! "If I owned a motor I should _use_ it!" Darsie said to +herself with a distinct air of grievance as she climbed to her own room +after lunch, and laid herself wearily on her couch, the while the +Percival trio trotted gaily forth for "just a round" over their private +golf-links. + +The evening programme was to begin with a concert, alternate items of +which were to be given by the villagers and members of the surrounding +"families." + +At ten o'clock refreshments were to be served, in adjoining classrooms, +and during the progress of the informal supper chairs and forms were to +be lifted away, and the room cleared for an informal dance, to be +concluded by a general joining of hands and singing of "Auld Lang Syne" +as the clock struck twelve. + +The Percival ladies and their guests from the surrounding houses made +elaborate toilettes for the occasion. The villagers were resplendent in +Sunday blacks, "best frocks" and bead chains, the small girls and boys +appearing respectively in white muslins and velveteen Lord Fauntleroy +suits; the Squire opened proceedings with expressions of good wishes, +interspersed with nervous coughs, and Noreen and Ida led off the musical +proceedings with a lengthy classical duet, to which the audience +listened with politely concealed boredom. + +To Darsie's mind, the entire programme as supplied by "the families" was +dull to extinction, but to one possessing even her own slight knowledge +of the village, the contributions of its worthies were brimful of +interest and surprise. + +The red-faced butcher, who, on ordinary occasions, appeared to have no +mind above chops and steaks, was discovered to possess a tenor voice +infinitely superior in tone to that of his patron, the Hon. Ivor Bruce, +while his wife achieved a tricky accompaniment with a minimum of +mistakes; the sandy-haired assistant at the grocer's shop supplied a +flute obbligato, and the fishmonger and the young lady from the +stationer's repository assured each other ardently that their true loves +owned their hearts; two school-children with corkscrew curls held a +heated argument--in rhyme--on the benefits of temperance; and, most +surprising and thrilling of all, Mr Jevons, the butler from The Manor, +so far descended from his pedestal as to volunteer "a comic item" in the +shape of a recitation, bearing chiefly, it would appear, on the +execution of a pig. The last remnant of stiffness vanished before this +inspiring theme, and the audience roared applause as one man, whereupon +Mr Jevons bashfully hid his face, and skipped--literally skipped--from +the platform. + +"Who'd have thought it! Butlers are human beings, after all!" gasped +Darsie, wiping tears of merriment from her eyes. "Ralph, do you suppose +Jevons will dance with me to-night? I _should_ be proud!" + +"Certainly not. He has one square dance with the mater, and that +finishes it. You must dance with me instead. It's ages since we've had +a hop together--or a talk. I'm longing to have a talk, but I don't want +the others to see us at it, or they'd think I was priming you in my own +defence, and the mater wants to have the first innings herself. We'll +manage it somehow in the interval between the dances, and I know you'll +turn out trumps, as usual, Darsie, and take my part." + +Ralph spoke with cheerful confidence, and Darsie listened with a sinking +heart. The merry interlude of supper was robbed of its zest, as she +cudgelled her brains to imagine what she was about to hear. Ralph was +evidently in trouble of some sort, and his parents for once inclined to +take a serious stand. Yet anything more gay and debonair than the +manner with which the culprit handed round refreshments and waited on +his father's guests it would be impossible to imagine. Darsie watched +him across the room, and noted that wherever he passed faces brightened. +As he cracked jokes with the apple-cheeked farmers, waited assiduously +on their buxom wives, and made pretty speeches to the girls, no onlooker +could fail to be conscious of the fact that, in the estimation of the +tenants, "Master Ralph" was as a young prince who could do no wrong. + +For reasons of his own, Ralph was tonight bent on ingratiating himself +to the full. For the first half-hour of the dance he led out one +village belle after another, and it was not until waltz number five had +appeared on the board that he returned to Darsie's side. + +"At last I've a moment to myself! My last partner weighed a ton, at +least, and I'm fagged out. Got a scarf you can put round you if we go +and sit out?" + +Darsie nodded, showing a wisp of gauze, and, laying her hand on Ralph's +arm, passed with him out of the main room into the flag-decked entrance. +For the moment it was empty, the dancers having made _en masse_ in the +direction of the refreshment-tables. Ralph looked quickly from side to +side, and, finding himself unobserved, took a key from his pocket and +opened a small door leading into the patch of garden at the back of the +hall. The moonlight showed a wooden bench fitted into a recess in the +wall. Ralph flicked a handkerchief over its surface, and motioned +Darsie towards a seat. + +"It's clean enough. I gave it a rub this morning. You won't be cold?" + +"Oh, no; not a bit." Darsie wrapped the wisp of gauze round her +shoulders, and prepared to risk pneumonia with as little thought as +ninety-nine girls out of a hundred would do in a similar case. The hour +had come when she was to be told the nature of Ralph's trouble; she +would not dream of losing the opportunity for so slight a consideration +as a chill! + +Ralph seated himself by her side, rested an elbow on his knees, the +thumb and first finger of the uplifted hand supporting his chin. His +eyes searched Darsie's face with anxious scrutiny. + +"You didn't hear anything about me before you left Newnham?" + +"Hear what? No! What was there to hear?" + +Ralph averted his eyes, and looked across the patch of garden. The +moonlight shining on his face gave it an appearance of pallor and +strain. + +"Dan Vernon said nothing?" + +"No!" Darsie recalled Dan's keen glance of scrutiny, the silence which +had greeted her own remarks, and realised the reason which lay behind. +"Dan is not the sort to repeat disagreeable gossip." + +"It's not gossip this time; worse luck, it's solid, abominable fact. +You'll be disappointed, Darsie. I'm sorry! I _have_ tried. Beastly +bad luck being caught just at the end. I was sent down, Darsie! It was +just at the end of the term, so they sent me down for the last week. A +week is neither here nor there, but the parents took it hard. I'm +afraid you, too--" + +Yes! Darsie "took it hard." One look at her face proved as much, and +among many contending feelings, disappointment was predominant--bitter, +intense, most humiliating disappointment. + +"Oh, Ralph! What for? I hoped, I thought--you _promised_ me to be +careful!" + +"And so I was, Darsie! Give you my word, I was. For the first half of +the term I never got anything worse than three penny fines. It isn't a +deadly thing to stay out after ten. And I was so jolly careful--never +was so careful in my life. But just the night when it was most +important I must needs be caught. You can't expect a fellow to get away +from a big evening before twelve. But that's what it ended in--a big +jaw, throwing up all my past misdeeds, and being sent down. Now you can +slang away." + +But Darsie made no attempt to "slang." With every word that had been +uttered her feelings of helplessness had increased. Ralph had +apparently made little difference in his ways; he had only been more +careful not to be found out! At the very moment when she had been +congratulating herself, and boasting of the good results of her +friendship, this crowning disgrace had fallen upon him. No wonder Dan +had been silent; no wonder that he had looked upon her with that long, +questioning gaze! The thought of Dan was singularly comforting at this +moment--strong, silent, loyal Dan, going forth valiantly to the battle +of life. Darsie's little face took on a pinched look; she shivered, and +drew the thin scarf more tightly round her. Her silence, the suffering +written on her face, hit Ralph more hardly than any anger; for the first +time something deeper than embarrassment showed itself in face and +voice. + +"For pity's sake, Darsie, speak! Say something! Don't sit there and +look at me like that." + +"But, Ralph, what is there to say?" Darsie threw out her arms with a +gesture of hopelessness. "I've talked so often, been so eloquent, +believed so much! If this is the outcome, what more can be said?" + +"I _have_ tried! I _did_ want to please you!" + +"By not being found out! It's not much comfort, Ralph, to feel that +I've encouraged you in deception. And all those nights when you stayed +out late, were you betting as usual--getting into debt?" + +Ralph frowned. + +"I've been beastly unlucky, never knew such a persistent run. That's +the dickens of it, Darsie. I haven't dared to tell the Governor yet, +but I positively must get hold of the money before the tenth. I'm bound +to pay up by then. It's a debt of honour." + +Darsie's red lip curled over that word. She sat stiff and straight in +her seat, not deigning a reply. Ralph appeared to struggle with himself +for several moments, before he said urgently-- + +"The mater is going to talk to you. She knows that you have more +influence with me than any one else. It's true, Darsie, whatever you +may think--I should have drifted a lot deeper but for you. When she +does, do your best for a fellow! They'll be down on me for not having +told about this debt. The Governor asked if there was anything else, +but upon my word I hadn't the courage to own up at that moment." + +Still Darsie did not reply. She was wondering drearily what she could +find to say when the dreaded interview came about; shrinking from the +thought of adding to the mother's pain, feeling a paralysing sense of +defeat; yet, at this very moment of humiliation, a ray of light +illumined the darkness and showed the reason of her failure. + +Dan was right! no one could truly help a man without first implanting in +his heart the wish to help himself! She had been content to bribe +Ralph, as a spoiled child is bribed to be good; had felt a glow of +gratified vanity in the knowledge that her own favour was the prize to +be won. If the foundations of her buildings were unstable, what wonder +that the edifice had fallen to the ground? The thought softened her +heart towards the handsome culprit by her side, and when she spoke at +last it was in blame of herself rather than of him. + +"I'm sorry, too, Ralph. I might have helped you better. I rushed in +where angels fear to tread. I gave you a wrong motive. It should have +been more than a question of pleasing me--more even than pleasing your +parents... Oh, Ralph, dear, you know--you know there is something +higher than that!--Is religion nothing to you, Ralph? Don't you feel +that in wasting your life you are offending against God--against Christ! +Can't you try again with _that_ motive to help you?--I can't make light +of things to your people, but I can take part of the blame on myself. +If it is true that I have any influence over you, I have thrown it +away..." + +Ralph laid his hand over the gloved fingers clasped together on Darsie's +knee. + +"Don't say that! Don't think that, Darsie. I may be a rotter, but I'd +have been a hundred times worse if it hadn't been for you. And don't +exaggerate the position: it's a pity to do that. Every man isn't born a +Dan Vernon. Most fellows only reach that stage of sobriety when they +are middle-aged. It would be a pretty dull world if no one kicked over +the traces now and then in their youth. What have I done, after all? +Slacked my work, helped myself to a bit more play and come down on the +Governor for an extra cheque now and again. Lots of fellows come a +worse cropper than that--" + +Darsie wondered if a "worse cropper" might not possibly be a less +serious ill than persistent slacking and irresponsibility; but now that +the bad news was out, Ralph was fast regaining his composure. + +"I'll turn out all right yet, Darsie, you'll see. The tenants like me. +I'll settle down and make a first-rate squire when my time comes. And +I'll make up to you then for all this worry and bother." For a moment +his voice was significantly tender, then the recollection of his present +difficulty swept over him once more, and he added hastily: "You'll-- +you'll break it to the mater, won't you? About that money, I mean. +She'll take it best from you--" + +Darsie rose from her seat, and stood before him, tall and white in the +moonlight. + +"No!" she said clearly. "I will not. You must make your own +confession. Things have been made easy for you all your life, Ralph. +Now you must fight for yourself." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Ralph bore no malice; even his momentary irritation at finding himself, +as he considered, "left in the lurch," lasted but a few moments after +his return to the hall. Darsie would rather have had it last a little +longer. To see an unclouded face, to catch the echo of merry laughter +within ten minutes of a humiliating confession, seemed but another +instance of instability of character. It seemed literally impossible +for Ralph to feel deeply on any subject for more than a few moments at a +time; nevertheless, such was the charm of his personality that she felt +both pleased and flattered when twelve o'clock approached and he came +smilingly forward to lead her to her place in the great ring encircling +the whole room. "I must have you and mother--one on either side," he +said, and as they crossed the floor together Darsie was conscious that +every eye in the room followed them with a smiling significance. The +young Squire, and the pretty young lady who was his sister's friend--a +nice pair they made, to be sure! Every brain was busy with dreams of +the future, weaving romantic plans, seeing in imagination other scenes +like the present, with Darsie in the place of hostess. She knew it, +divined instinctively that Ralph knew it too, felt the recognition of it +in the grip of Noreen's hand, in the tender pathos of Mrs Percival's +smile. And once again Darsie wondered, and doubted, and feared and felt +the weight of invisible chains. There are moments, however, when doubts +and fears are apt to be swept away in a rush of overwhelming emotions, +and one of those is surely the beginning of a new year. To be young and +pretty; to be by general acceptance the queen of the evening--no normal +girl could help being carried away by such circumstances as these! When +the last chime of the twelve rang slowly out, and the audience with one +accord burst into the strains of "Auld Lang Syne," Darsie's eyes shone +with excitement, and she returned with unction the pressure of Ralph's +fingers. + + "Then here's a hand, my trusty friend, + And gie's a hand o' thine!" + +The volume of sound swelled and sank, here and there a voice took a +husky tone; here and there an eye grew dim, but these belonged as a rule +to the patriarchs among the guests, for whom the past was full of tender +memories, for whom but a few more New Years could dawn. Perhaps this +might be the last, the very last, they would live to see. The young +folks shed no tears; they were not unconscious of the prevailing +emotion, but with them it found vent in a tingling expectation. Life +lay ahead. Life was to come. What would life bring? + +When the song ceased, and the linked circle broke up into separate +groups, Darsie, glancing up into Ralph's face, was surprised to see it +white and tense. She smiled, half amused, half sad, bracing herself to +hear some emotional protest or vow for the future; but Ralph spake no +word. Instead, he led her to a seat, bowed formally before her, and, +still with that white, fixed look, marched straight across the room to +his father. + +Darsie's pulse quickened, her little teeth clenched on her lower lip, +she pressed her hands against her knee the while she watched the +eloquent scene. Father and son faced each other; handsome man, handsome +youth, strangely alike despite the quarter of a century between their +respective ages; the Squire's face, at first all genial welcome and +unconcern, showing rapidly a pained gravity. Ralph was speaking +rapidly, with an occasional eloquent gesture of the arm, obviously +recounting some facts of pressing importance to himself and his hearer, +as obviously pleading a cause. With a thrill of excitement Darsie +leaped to the true explanation of the situation. Fresh from the singing +of the New Year song, Ralph had not paused to consider conventions, but +then and there had hastened to make his confession in his father's ears. + +"Governor! I'm sorry! I was a coward, and wouldn't own up. I've been +playing the fool again, and have lost more money. I owe over fifty +pounds, and it has to be paid up by the tenth of this month." + +The Squire looked his son full in the face. + +"Is that all the truth, Ralph, or only a part?" he asked quietly. "Let +me hear the whole please, now that we are about it." + +"That is the whole, sir. There's nothing more to be told." + +"The money shall be paid, but you must do something for me in return. +We can't talk here. Come to my study when we get home!" + +The Squire laid his hand on his son's shoulder with a momentary pressure +as he turned aside to attend to his guests, but Ralph lopped crestfallen +and discomfited. It was one thing to blurt out a disagreeable +confession on the impulse of a moment, and another and very different +one to discuss it in cold blood in the privacy of a study. In the +middle of the night, too! Ralph shivered at the thought. Why on earth +couldn't the Governor be sensible, and wait till next morning? The +money would be paid--that was the main point--all the rest could wait. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. + +AT THE ORCHARD. + +Ralph Percival spent a long hour alone with his father in the chill dawn +of that New Year's morn, and during its passing heard more stern home- +truths than he had ever before listened to from those indulgent lips. +The Squire had not insisted on any arduous work on his son's part: in +his heart he shared Ralph's theory that a man whose life is to be spent +looking after his own land has no need of much scholarly lore. He must +be straight and manly, intelligent enough to understand and move with +the movements of the day, but not so intelligent as to grow discontented +with a circle of admirable, but somewhat humdrum, neighbours. He must +be possessed of courteous and agreeable manners, able on occasion to +take the chair at a meeting, possibly even on a Bench, with credit to +himself and his family. + +A 'Varsity education was obviously the best means of developing such +qualities, but who was going to bother his head as to the question of +honours or no honours? There was no reason why the boy should slave as +if he had his living to make by sheer brain effort. The Squire was +prepared to show the utmost leniency towards Ralph's scholastic efforts, +but that he should have persistently broken the rules, ignored warnings, +incurred gambling debts, and, crowning indignity of all, that he should +have been sent down, even for the last week of the term--that stabbed +the honest old countryman to his heart. + +He said very little on the subject of his own feelings; such men are not +given to talk of themselves, but the tone of his voice was eloquent, and +Ralph winced before it. It was a new experience for the spoilt son and +heir to hear any accents but those of love and appreciation from a +member of his own family, and the experience was unexpectedly bitter. +Who could have believed that the Governor would cut up so rough--could +deliver himself of such sledge-hammer judgments? The card debts would +be paid, there was no question of that--every debt should be paid--and +Ralph should return to college with a clean sheet so far as money was +concerned, and with his handsome allowance undiminished--_for the +present_. He himself must decide what would happen in the future. The +Squire asked for no promises; he had had experience of the uselessness +of promises (the listener winced again at the significance of those +words); but Ralph must understand that any debts would be subtracted +from his own future allowance. He must also understand that he was +expected to take his pass the following May. There had been too much +shirking and running loose--now he must work for a change. For his +parents' sake, his sisters' sake, he must make amends for the pain and +shame of the last weeks. + +It was a painful scene for both father and son, but the charm of manner +which was the great secret of Ralph's popularity did not forsake him, +even in this hour of humiliation. He made an ideal penitent--abashed, +yet manly, subdued and silenced, yet when the right moment came ready +with a few apt, quietly spoken words. + +"Thank you, sir. You are always generous. I've made a beastly poor +return. I hope this year may end better than it has begun." + +Poor Ralph! How little he guessed at that moment all that the year held +in store! How little the father dreamed of the altered conditions with +which he would face another New Year's Day! But so long as they both +lived it was good to remember that the interview had ended peacefully +and with a renewed sense of harmony, with a firm hand-grip and an +affectionate glance. + +Ralph took his candle from a table in the hall and made his way quietly +up the oak staircase, and his father stood below and watched him go, +while his heart waxed tender within him. + +His son--his only son! He would give his heart's blood for the lad. +Had he been just, wise, prudent, in the words which he had said? Had he +been stern enough?--too stern? He was in a thousand minds about his own +conduct, but in only one as regards Ralph's. The boy had taken his +dressing like a man. How handsome he had looked as he stood to listen, +not flinching or hanging his head as an ordinary culprit would have +done, but drawn to his full height, with straight, fearless gaze. With +what a frank air he had held out his hand for that farewell grasp! +Bless the boy! his heart was in the right place. He would settle down, +and make a fine man yet. Patience! Patience! + +And so when the family met again for a late breakfast that New Year's +morning there was no shadow visible on the horizon, and throughout the +remainder of Darsie's visit every day seemed given up to enjoyment, and +brought with it some fresh festivity. + +Contrary to her expectation, the subject of Ralph's troubles was avoided +rather than sought, and it was only on the eve of her departure to +Newnham that mother and sisters broke the silence to urge in each case +the same request-- + +"See as much of Ralph as you can during these next six months! Have a +little talk with Ralph now and again! Show an interest in his work. +Let him see that you care. We must all do our best to encourage him to +work!" + +By all the members of the family it was taken for granted that Darsie's +interest in Ralph's future was equal to, if not greater than, their own; +they made no secret of their belief that her influence had the more +weight. If Darsie had known a passing temptation to abandon her +efforts, it would have been impossible to do so in the face of such +unanimous appeals. + +Well, it was good to be back in Newnham once more, to get to work again +after the lazy weeks, to wake up one's brains with tussles over Anglo- +Saxon texts, to wrestle with philology, instead of browsing over novels +and magazine tales. The Divinity Schools were stuffy as ever, the men +on one side shutting up the windows with their usual persistence, while +the girls on theirs frowned and fumed; but the Chaucer lectures were +full of interest, and coaching assumed a keener interest as spring +advanced and the prospect of "Mays" drew near. Last year both Darsie +and Hannah had gained second-class honours; this year they had +determined to gain firsts, or perish in the attempt. With a second and +a first record for Mays there was a possibility--a dazzling +possibility--of firsts in the final Tripos. When one thought of that it +seemed impossible to work too hard, to put _too_ much energy into one's +studies. But the happy blending of work and play which characterises +Newnham life prevented industry from being carried to an exaggerated +extent. The hour's informal dancing after dinner on Wednesday and +Saturday evenings seemed to quicken circulation and brain alike, and the +great Shakespeare Ball was a distinct fillip, although--or was it +_because_?--it involved some slackness for the preparation of costumes. + +The short Easter vac. served but as a breathing-space, and then another +May term began with an unparalleled succession of fine and sunny days. +Everything seemed early this spring; trees and shrubs rushed into leaf, +a wealth of blossom gave a fairy-like beauty to the old-world gardens, +and in every youth and maid the spirit of the spring awoke also, and +called to them to come out to play. This was the season for picnics, +for walks along the fields by the riverside, for boating, for bathing, +for garden teas, for breakfast parties at the Orchard, amidst the pink +and white wonder of the apple-blossom. + +Darsie Garnett was fired with a desire to give an Orchard party on her +own account, the guests to be Hannah, Margaret France, her special +Fresher adorer (Marian White by name), Ralph Percival, Dan Vernon, two +agreeable Classics from King's; Mrs Reeves to play chaperon--just a +cheery little party of nine. What could you wish for more? + +Margaret, preternaturally solemn, opined that _ten_ would be a more +desirable number. "Poor Mrs Reeves! What has _she_ done? Why not ask +some one to play about with _her_? I can't bear to see a Lonely at a +picnic or to be interrupted myself!" + +"It _might_ be judicious to invite Minerva!" agreed Darsie, twinkling, +and alluding to the Don who enjoyed the privilege of Mrs Reeves's +special friendship. "Two chaperons! What a character for propriety I +shall gain, to be sure! They little know." + +"They know perfectly well, but they are human creatures after all. +They've been young themselves, and they enjoy the Orchard! Set to work +at once, my dear, and get out your invitations. This weather can't +possibly last, and it's going to break my heart if it is wet." + +But there was no sign of rain on that exquisite morning when at the +striking of six o'clock Darsie leaped out of bed, and thrust her ruffled +golden head out of the opened window. A few feathery white clouds +served but to intensify the blueness of the sky; the air was soft and +sweet, the garden beneath was already bathed in sunlight. Darsie gave a +little caper of delight. Sunshine, a picnic, a pretty frock and hat +waiting to be worn, and one's very best friends to admire the result-- +what healthy girl of twenty could fail to be happy under such +circumstances as these? + +She sang as she dressed; she made little fancy steps, and three separate +pirouettes which would have delighted the heart of a terpsichorean +mistress. One pirouette greeted the effect of the white dress; the +second, that of the wide straw hat, with its appropriate garland of +blossom; the third was partly in celebration of the combined effect, and +partly out of sheer inability to keep still. + +Her toilette completed, Darsie repaired to Hannah's room and surprised +that tasteless young woman engaged in putting the final touches to her +own costume, in the shape of an abomination designated "a neck +arrangement," composed of the cheapest of machine lace and papery satin +ribbon. Hannah jumped with dismay as a hand descended suddenly over her +shoulder, and tore this treasure from her grasp. + +"No!" cried Darsie firmly. "You are my childhood's friend, and I love +you dearly, but wear lace frills with a linen collar at my Orchard party +you--_shall not_! Miserable woman! Will you never learn how to dress?" + +"I paid eleven-three for it, near the end of a term. Thought I _would_ +please you this time! Hate the tickling stuff myself. Some people are +never satisfied," grumbled Hannah, rummaging in her tie-box, but it +never occurred to her to dispute the decree. On questions of toilette +Darsie's word was absolute. + +The two girls descended the stairs together, and found the other three +members of the party awaiting them at the door, Margaret and the little +Fresher abeam with smiles, and even Minerva herself looking quite young +and skittish. At moments like these it dawned upon the student mind +that even a don herself could occasionally enjoy a mixture of play with +her work. + +At the river Mrs Reeves and the four men came forward to meet the +Newnham party, the canaders were ranged ready for the embarkment, and +Darsie felt the honours of her position press heavily, as the other +members of the party stood silently waiting for her to apportion the +crews. The worst of it was that one felt obliged to take the least +desirable place oneself. Considered as a don, Minerva had many points, +but when bound for a river picnic one did not exactly hanker after her +society. Still, there it was. Every position has its drawbacks. The +row up the river on that exquisite morning was a joy independent of +society, and when the Orchard itself was reached it was undeniably +agreeable to sit at the head of the table, and play the gracious hostess +to one's guests. + +Orchard appetites are proverbial, but this particular party claimed to +have broken all previous records. Soon there was hardly a fragment of +food left on a plate. The pile of banana-skins was positively startling +to behold; tea and coffee pots were drained, and drained again; requests +for milk and more milk threatened the supply of later guests, and the +birds in the trees overhead chattered not a whit more gaily than the +company around the board. + +"Shop" was sternly forbidden as a subject of conversation, and the +remotest reference thereto was instantly booed into silence, for behind +all the lightsomeness of demeanour a weight of anxiety lay on each +heart. The critical time was approaching when the result of the year's +work would be put to the test. The two classics, as sons of a poor +clergyman, were acutely conscious of all that was involved by a first or +second class. Ralph Percival was realising painfully the difficulty of +making up for years of slacking, or even of keeping up a spurt beyond a +few days at a time; the little Fresher trembled at the thought of her +first Mays; even Margaret France herself showed signs of nerves before +the ordeal of the Tripos, and on one tragic occasion had even been +discovered weeping hysterically upon her bed. + +"C-c-couldn't remember a context," was her hiccoughing explanation of +the breakdown, and henceforth Darsie had taken her in hand, fagged for +her, petted her, scolded her, put her to bed, and ruthlessly carried off +notebooks to her own study, to frustrate disastrous attempts at midnight +toil. + +As for Dan, he was a giant among pigmies. Examinations had no terrors +for him; his place was assured. When strangers visited Cambridge, their +sons and brothers pointed out his big, lumbering form in the streets, +and bade them remember Vernon--Vernon would arrive! Darsie was +conscious that his presence lent distinction to her party, for Dan but +seldom appeared in the social world. + +And he was behaving so well, too! taking part in the conversation, even +telling stories and capping anecdotes of his own accord, and behaving +quite amiably to Ralph. Darsie beamed approval on him from the end of +the table, and deliberately singled him out as her companion for the +after-breakfast stroll. + +"Come down to the river, Dan! There's a tree with the most convenient +forked branch where one can sit hidden by the leaves and watch the +canaders come up. Last year I heard some quite thrilling fragments of +conversation." + +"I'll be wary of that tree," said Dan solemnly, but he helped Darsie to +her eyrie, and swung himself up beside her with an alacrity which showed +that the suggestion fell in well with his own wishes, and there they sat +like birds in a nest, smiling at each other with bright, friendly +glances. + +"Isn't this fine? No one saw us come, did they? They'll think we're +lost. I'm tired of being polite. Thank you for coming to my party, +Dan, and for being so jolly." + +"Thank you for asking me and for looking so--ripping!" Dan cast an +appreciative glance at the white dress and blossom-wreathed hat. "Glad +to see you're not knocking yourself up with too much work." + +Darsie bent her head with a dubious air. + +She wished to look well, but, on the other hand, a little sympathy would +not have been unwelcome. "I'm excited this morning, and that gives me a +colour," she explained. "If you could see me at the end of the day--I'm +so weak in my mediaeval French Grammar. It haunts me at night--" + +"Stop!" cried Dan warningly. "Don't let it haunt you here, at any +rate--it would be a crime among this blossom. Tell me a story as you +used to do in the old schoolroom days. I haven't heard you tell a story +since that Christmas night when we all sat round the fire and burnt fir- +cones, and the light shone on your face. You wore a white dress then. +You looked _all_ white." + +"And you sat in the corner and glowered--I could see nothing, but I +_felt_ eyes. That will be one of the times we shall remember, Dan, when +we look back on our young days--all together, and so happy and free. I +had a melancholy turn during that cone-burning, one of the shadows that +fall upon one causelessly in the midst of the sunshine, but that was +only a bit of the happiness, after all. It's rather wonderful to be +twenty, Dan, and never to have known a real big sorrow! Most of the +girls here have come through something, some of them a great deal. I +feel such a babe beside them. It isn't good for one, I suppose, to have +things _too_ smooth." + +"I hope they'll continue smooth for a long time to come. You're too +young for troubles, Darsie," said Dan hastily. He sat silent for a few +moments, his chin poking forward, his thin, expressive lips twitching as +if struggling with difficult speech. A canader came gliding slowly by, +the man and girl occupants chatting gaily together, unconscious of the +watchers in the tree on the bank. Their words fell absently on Darsie's +ear, she was waiting for what Dan had to say. + +"When they _do_ come, you know you can depend on me. I'm not much of a +hand at social life, so it's best to keep out of the way and let other +fellows chip in who can make a better show, but if there's anything +useful to be done, you might give me a turn. We're very old friends." + +Darsie gave him an affectionate glance. "Indeed I will. I should feel +you a tower of strength. Thank you, dear Oak-tree." + +"Thank you, Apple-blossom!" returned Dan quite gallantly, if you please, +and with a laugh which followed the passing seriousness vanished. + +For the next half-hour they laughed and sparred, capped stories, and +made merry, more like a couple of happy children than hard-worked +students on the verge of examinations; and then, alas! it was time to +return to work, and, sliding down from their perch, Dan and Darsie +walked forward to assemble the scattered members of the party. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. + +DISASTER. + +Cambridge May week is a function so well known, and so often described, +that it would be superfluous to enter in detail into its various +happenings. In their first year Darsie and Hannah had taken little part +in the festivities, but upon their second anniversary they looked +forward to a welcome spell of gaiety. Not only were the Percivals +coming up for the whole week, but Mr and Mrs Vernon and Vie were also +to be installed in rooms, and the Newnham students had received +permission to attend the two principal balls, being housed for the +nights by their own party. Throughout Newnham the subject of frocks +became, indeed, generally intermingled with the day's work. Cardboard +boxes arrived from home, cloaks and scarves were unearthed from the +recesses of "coffins," and placed to air before opened windows; +"burries" were strewn with ribbons, laces, and scraps of tinsel, instead +of the usual notebooks; third-year girls, reviving slowly from the +strain of the Tripos, consented languidly to have their hats re-trimmed +by second-year admirers, and so, despite themselves, were drawn into the +maelstrom. One enterprising Fresher offered items of her wardrobe on +hire, by the hour, day, or week, and reaped thereby quite a goodly sum +towards her summer holiday. A blue-silk parasol, in particular, was in +universal request, and appeared with _eclat_ and in different hands at +every outdoor function of the week. + +In after-years Darsie Garnett looked back upon the day of that year on +which the Masonic Ball was held with feelings of tender recollection, as +a piece of her girlhood which was altogether bright and unclouded. She +met the Percival party at one o'clock, and went with them to lunch in +Ralph's rooms, where two other men had been invited to make the party +complete. There was hardly room to stir in the overcrowded little +study, but the crush seemed but to add to the general hilarity. + +Ralph made the gayest and most genial of hosts, and the luncheon +provided for his guests was a typical specimen of the daring hospitality +of his kind! Iced soup, lobster mayonnaise, salmon and green peas, veal +cutlets and mushrooms, trifle, strawberries and cream, and strong +coffee, were pressed in turns upon the guests, who--be it acknowledged +at once--ate, drank, enjoyed, and went forth in peace. Later in the +afternoon the little party strolled down to the river, and in the +evening there was fresh feasting, leading up to the culminating +excitement of all--the ball itself. + +Beside the Percivals' Parisian creations, Darsie's simple dress made but +a poor show, but then Darsie's dresses were wont to take a secondary +place, and to appear but as a background to her fresh young beauty, +instead of--as is too often the case--a dress _par excellence_, with a +girl tightly laced inside. When she made her appearance in the sitting- +room of the lodgings, the verdict on her appearance was universally +approving-- + +"You look a _lamb_!" gushed Ida enthusiastically. + +"How do you manage it, dear? You _always_ seem to hit the right thing!" +exclaimed Mrs Percival in plaintive amaze; and as he helped her on with +her cloak, Ralph murmured significantly-- + +"As if it mattered what _you_ wore! No one will notice the frock." + +At the ball there was an appalling plethora of girls; wallflowers sat +waiting round the walls, and waited in vain. Darsie felt sorry for +them, tragically sorry; but the sight of their fixed smiles could not +but heighten the sense of her own good luck in having the chance of more +partners than she could accept. Ralph showed at his best that evening, +evincing as much care for his sisters' enjoyment as for that of their +friend. Not until the three programmes were filled to the last extra +did he rest from his efforts, and think of his own pleasure. It is true +that his pleasure consisted chiefly in dancing with Darsie, and their +steps went so well together that she was ready to give him the numbers +for which he asked. As for Dan Vernon, he did not dance, but out of +some mistaken sense of duty, felt it his duty to put in an appearance +and _glower_. + +"See old Vernon, glowering over there?" inquired Ralph, laughing, as he +whirled Darsie lightly by to the strains of an inspiriting two-step, and +for a moment a cloud shadowed the gaiety of her spirits. Dan ought +either to dance or stay away! She didn't _like_ to see him looking +glum! + +The dancing was carried on until four in the morning, when in the chill +grey light the company were ranged in rows, and photographed, apparently +to provide a demonstration of how elderly and plain even the youngest of +the number could look under such inauspicious circumstances. + +The three girls had breakfast in bed the next morning, somewhere about +twelve o'clock--a delightful occasion when all three talked at the same +time, relating thrilling experiences of the night before, comparing +notes, admiring, quizzing, shaking with laughter over a dozen innocent +drolleries. These after-conferences are perhaps the best part of the +festivities of our youth; and Noreen, Ida, and Darsie began that fine +June day as gaily, as happily, as unconscious of coming ill as any three +girls in the land. + +Ralph had been anxious that his people should again lunch in his rooms, +but Mrs Percival had prudently decided in favour of a simple meal at +home, and it was approaching tea-time when the party sallied forth to +witness the day's "bumping" on the river. The elders were frankly tired +after their late hours, but the three girls looked fresh as flowers in +their dainty white frocks, and enjoyed to the full the kaleidoscopic +beauty of the scene. + +The two Percivals' interest in the bumping was of the slightest +description--Ralph was not taking part this afternoon, and with Ralph +began and ended their concern. They stood on the crowded bank, rather +hot, rather bored, amusing themselves by scanning the people near at +hand. The Vernon party were but a few yards away, and Hannah attracted +special attention. + +"She _is_ plain!" exclaimed Noreen; whereat Darsie snapped her up in +double-quick time. + +"Of _course_ she is plain! She wouldn't dream, of being anything else!" + +Beloved plain Hannah! No features, however classic, could be as +eloquent as hers in her old friend's eyes. Darsie tossed her head, and +looked flusty and annoyed, whereat Noreen feebly apologised, emphasising +her offence by blundering explanations, and Ralph grew restless and +impatient. + +"I say! This is getting slow. Come along, girls; let's take the ferry +and cross to the other side. It's not half bad fun to see all the +shows. It will be a change, anyhow, and you can come back when you're +tired." + +"I'll stay with mother," Noreen decided dutifully. Ida surveyed the +crowd on the opposite bank with the dubious air of one who has lived all +her life within her own gates. "I don't _think_ I care to go into that +crush." + +"Oh, come along, Darsie. Thank goodness you're not so squeamish. Let's +get out of this." Ralph pushed impatiently forward, and Mrs Percival +turned to Darsie, with raised eyebrows, and said urgently-- + +"Do go, dear! Ralph will take care of you. We will wait for you here." + +Darsie smiled assent, the thought passing lightly through her mind that +Mrs Percival looked particularly sweet and gracious when she smiled. +She never dreamt that that particular smile, that little glance of +appeal, were to remain with her all heir life, to be her comfort in a +bitter grief. + +They passed the spot where Hannah and Dan were standing with their +friends, and acting on a sudden impulse, Darsie turned her head, with a +few laughing words of explanation: "We're going to look at the Punch and +Judies!" + +There was no definite response, but Hannah's exclamation had an envious +tone which made Ralph quicken his footsteps. It was rare good luck to +get Darsie to himself for an hour; he certainly did not wish to be +saddled with plain Hannah as an unwelcome third. + +The ferry-boat was on the point of starting, its flat surfaces crowded +with pleasure-seekers. Ralph and Darsie had to run the last few yards +in order to secure a bare space for standing. Ralph took the outside +with the nonchalance of the true boating-man, who would almost as soon +fall in the water as not. Darsie, standing close by his side, glanced +from one to the other of her companions, her never-failing interest in +_people_ discovering a story in each new group. + +They had reached the middle of the stream, when a movement of the deck +upset her balance, and sent her swaying against Ralph's arm. She looked +up with a laughing apology, and was startled by the sight of his face. +So far was he from sharing her amusement, that never in the course of +their acquaintance had she seen him so pale, so set. He seized the hand +she had laid on his arm, and held it in a vice-like grip, as he bent to +look at the deck. At that moment Darsie stumbled afresh, and felt the +lapping of water against her thinly clad feet. She exclaimed loudly, +but her voice was drowned in the chorus of cries, questions, and appeals +which arose from every side. + +How swiftly, with what incredible, paralysing speed a scene may change, +and seeming security give way to panic fear! Darsie, turning her head +to look at the crowd of faces which towered so strangely above her, met +but one expression in every eye--breathless, agonising dread. + +Looking back upon the scene in after-life, it seemed the nightmare of a +moment; then the grip upon her arm tightened, she felt herself being +pushed past Ralph towards the edge of the boat, heard his voice speaking +to her in crisp, firm tones which she had heard in dreams, but never, +never from his living lips. + +"Darsie! She's turning turtle! There's no danger, darling, if you jump +clear. The water's not deep. Some one will come. I'm going to throw +you in. Strike out for your life!" + +She was lifted like a doll in his strong arms; her wild eyes, searching +his, met a cheery smile in response, she felt herself swayed to and fro, +realised with a shudder the parting from the firm grasp--fell, splashed, +felt the water close over her head. + +When she rose to the surface the water near her seemed full of +struggling forms; she caught a terrified glimpse of a perpendicular +deck, of passengers falling like flies from their perch, and with the +instinct of despair struck out in the opposite direction. + +Like most Newnham girls, she was a fair swimmer--happy hours spent in +the swimming-tent had ensured so much; but it was her first experience +of fighting the water in all the crippling fineries of race-week attire. +Her shoes, her skirts, the floating ends of sash and scarf all held her +down; her soaking hat flopped over her eyes, her very gloves seemed to +lessen the force of her stroke; but breathless and spent as she was, she +could not pause while from behind arose that dread, continued cry. +Ralph had told her to strike out, that there was no danger if only she +kept clear. + +"All right, Darsie--all right! Keep calm--keep calm! I'm coming! I've +got you! Leave yourself to me." + +It was Dan's voice speaking in her ear, clear and distinct in the midst +of the clamour; she felt herself seized in scientific fashion--in the +way at which she herself had played at rescuing her companions from +imaginary death--and, relinquishing all effort, was towed numbly to the +shore. + +It seemed as if hundreds of people were waiting to rescue her; hundreds +of arms stretched out in welcome; hundreds of eyes grew suddenly moist +with tears. She was tired, and wet, and dazed, but she could stand on +her own feet, had no need of helping arms. Dan took her hand in his and +ran swiftly across the grass to the nearest tent, where already +preparations were in train for the restoration of the unfortunates. + +Darsie was the first of the crew to reach this shelter, and Mrs +Percival and the girls awaited her tearfully on the threshold. She +awoke to fuller consciousness at sight of their faces, smiled in +reassurement, and murmured disjointed phrases. + +"Quite all right--only wet! Ralph saved me! A second time! So calm +and brave!" + +"Yes, dear child; yes! Take off that wet hat!" replied Mrs Percival +urgently, the girl's praise of her son adding to her tender solicitude, +and she hovered around with tender touches, the while from around rose a +ceaseless string of suggestions. + +"Brandy! Hot tea!" "She ought to change at once!" "My house is just +at hand--do come to my house!" "My motor is waiting outside! Let me +drive you home!" + +So on, and so on, innate kindliness of heart bubbling to the surface as +it invariably does in moments of disaster. As each unfortunate entered +the tent the same programme was enacted, the same kind offices +volunteered. "My house is close at hand--do come to my house!" + +"My motor is waiting--do let me drive you back!" Each victim of the +immersion wore at first the same dazed, helpless expression, but the +presence of their companions, the kindly voices speaking in their ear, +the hot, reviving draughts soon brought about a change of mood, so that +they began to smile, to exchange remarks, to congratulate themselves on +escape. Darsie, with characteristic elasticity, was one of the first to +regain composure, and the Percivals hung delightedly on her description +of Ralph's composure and resource. + +"I was terrified. It was a dreadful sensation to feel the deck sinking +beneath your feet on one side, and to see it gradually rising above you +on the other. And all the bewildered, terrified faces! Ralph never +turned a hair. He told me that there was no danger so long as I kept +clear of the boat; he lifted me up in his arms as if I had been a doll." + +The colour mounted to Darsie's white cheeks as she spoke, and a thrill +of emotion tingled her blood. The first time she hears herself +addressed as "darling" in a man's deep voice is one that a girl cannot +lightly forget. She turned her head over her shoulder so as to be able +to see the entrance into the tent. + +"Where _is_ Ralph?" + +"He will be here presently. None of the men have come in yet. Ralph +will be so useful. He is as much at home in the water as on land. He +will be busy helping the others." + +Mrs Percival spoke with happy assurance; nevertheless, she left +Darsie's side and edged her way through the crowd towards the open +doorway, through which she ought now to be able to see her son's return. +As she was within a few yards of the entrance it was suddenly blocked +by a group of men--hatless, dripping, dishevelled, but in demeanour +composed and cheery, as if what had happened had been quite an enjoyable +experience. + +The foremost of the group greeted their friends with smiles and waving +of hands. + +"Hullo! Hullo! Here we are! How are you feeling? All serene now? +Every one comfortably on shore? Got any tea left?" + +"Is my son with you? Have you seen my son--Ralph Percival?" + +Mrs Percival spoke in a high, clear voice, at the sound of which a +young undergrad. wheeled round quickly towards his companions. + +"By Jove--yes! He was on board. I thought we were all here. Where's +Percival?" + +He dashed out of the tent, stood looking blankly around, turned a +blanched face towards the tent. + +Then from an inner corner of the tent another voice questioned sharply: +"Mary! Where's Mary--Mary Everard? She was with us--standing quite +near. _Mary's not here_!" + +No one answered. There was a breathless silence, while each man and +woman in that crowded tent was subtly, overpoweringly conscious of a new +presence filling the atmosphere around--the presence of _Fear_! Heavy +as a palpable presence it pressed upon them; it lapped them round; the +fumes of it mounted to their brains. + +Months before, Darsie had listened while a woman who had been near San +Francisco at the time of the earthquake and fire endeavoured to describe +what was in truth indescribable, how the very air itself was at that +time charged with a poignancy of agony--an impalpable spiritual agony, +apart from such physical cause as heat and fire, an agony which arose +from the grief of thousands of tortured hearts. + +She had listened--interested, curious, pleased to nestle in her easy- +chair, and ponder over a novel thought; but at this terrible moment she +had no need to ponder; realisation came sharp and sure. Tragedy was in +the air; she inhaled it with every breath, tasted it, felt its heavy +hand. + +With one accord the occupants of the tent streamed across the lawns +towards the waterside, where even now an informal inquiry was taking +place. The officials in charge of the ferry-boat were defending +themselves against their accusers. Overcrowded? The ferry-boat had +been as crowded on two previous days, and all had gone well. It was +impossible to account for the accident. Since no further harm than a +few minutes' ducking had happened to the passengers, the greater loss +was on their own side. + +To these officials, protesting, excusing, arrived in a mass a body of +white-faced men and women, demanding with one voice their lost--a young +man, an undergraduate; tall, fair, in a white flannel suit; last seen +standing on the side of the boat helping to lower the women into the +water; a young girl, in a boating-dress of blue and white. They were +not among the rescued. They had not been seen since the moment of the +accident. + +_Where were they_? + +As Darsie stood, ghastly and shuddering, by the water brink, she was +subconsciously aware of a strong arm in hers. Subconsciously also she +was aware that the arm belonged to Dan Vernon, but she had no time for +look or word; her whole being was strung to one agonising thought. Mr +Percival supported his half-fainting wife; the two sisters clung +together; the relations of Mary Everard paced wildly to and fro. On +shore all was tumult and confusion, on the river sunbeams sparkled, the +stream was quiet and undisturbed. + +"Percival was like a fish: Percival could have kept afloat for hours." + +A voice separated itself from the confused babel, and struck on Darsie's +ear, but even as her heart leaped upward another voice spoke. "It is +not a case of swimming. If he were not quick enough in getting away--if +he were caught beneath--penned!" + +The strong arm gripped her more firmly still, steadied her trembling. A +fierce voice issued an order for "Silence! Silence!" + +Margaret France came up with beautiful soft eyes and a beautiful soft +voice. She spoke wise, tender words. You were to come away--it was +better so. It would add to your friends' distress if you were ill. You +were wet, cold. You were to be sensible and come home. + +Darsie looked at her thoughtfully for a long moment. She was thinking +that she loved Margaret France, that she had taken a fancy to her the +first evening at Newnham. How droll and witty she had been as an +auctioneer! Of the purport of her present words she had no +comprehension. She sighed and turned her face to the river. + +"Leave her to me," said Dan's voice quietly. "I will take care of her." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +They found them at sundown; the two young, fair bodies--the tall, pale +lad, the slim, dark maid--two cold effigies of youth, and health, and +joy. On Ralph's forehead was a deep red mark, the mark of the blow +which had given him a prey to the waters; but Mary's brown locks floated +round a sweet, untroubled face. + +They bore them to the mortuary, and those who loved them sat and wept +alone. Darsie spent the two following days with the stricken family, +who found their one comfort in listening again and again to the story of +Ralph's brave end. Weak and unstable in life, in death he had shown a +gallant front, and more than one of the unfortunate crew came forward to +testify to his courageous and selfless efforts on their behalf. + +Mr Percival went about with a set face and shoulders bowed like those +of an old man. The girls wept helplessly from morn till night; Mrs +Percival lost in one night all lingering trace of youth; she kept up +bravely before her husband and daughters, but alone with Darsie her +anguish found vent. + +"My son, my son! He was so good to me--so loving and kind. His faults +were the faults of youth, and, oh, Darsie, my, faults also! We blamed +him for faults which we had not tried to check. If he had lived and had +been obliged to face life for himself he would have risen to it, as he +rose to that last great chance. It takes a brave man to face death +calmly. He was not weak or selfish then--my Ralph! No one dared call +him weak. Thank God! We were with him to the end, we were happy +together, and you were with him too. That is what he would have wished. +He loved you, Darsie. If he had lived, he would have wished you for +his wife." + +"Yes!" sighed Darsie, and laid her head gently on the other's knee. In +the silence which followed she was acutely aware of the unspoken +question which filled the air, acutely distressed that she could not +give the stricken mother the assurance for which she craved. + +In Ralph's lifetime his friendship had brought Darsie as much pain as +joy, and, though death had wiped away all but tender recollections, even +in this hour of grief and shock she did not delude herself that she +sorrowed for him with the deepest sorrow of all. The anxious, pitiful +affection which she had felt for the man who leaned so heavily upon her +was more that of a sister than a wife. + +Darsie stretched out her hand, found the chilly one of the poor mother, +and leaning her soft cheek over it, pressed it tenderly with her lips. + +"You must let me be your third daughter! We can talk about him +together. I can tell you about this last year--every little tiny thing +that he said and did. You'll never be anxious about him any more, dear, +never afraid! You will always be proud of your hero boy." + +Mrs Percival sighed. She was in too sensitive a mood not to realise +the meaning of the girl's lack of response, but the first pang of +disappointment was followed by a thought full of comfort to the sore +mother-heart. + +"I loved him best. He was mine to the end! No one loved him like his +mother!" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT. + +BRIGHTER DAYS. + +Six months passed by--months of grief and pain, and bitter, unavailing +regret; of work and play, of long summer days, and wintry fog and cold; +of reviving happiness also, since, thank God! joy returns like the +spring, bringing back hope and joy to a darkened world. There was a +place in Darsie's heart which would ever be consecrated to the memory of +Ralph; but _it_ was not a foremost place--that most crushing of sorrows +had been spared her; and when one not yet twenty-one is living the +healthiest and most congenial of lives, and is above all elevated to the +proud position of third-year girl, it would be as unnatural as wrong to +dwell continually upon a past grief. + +At first Darsie felt shocked and ashamed when the old gay mood swept her +off her balance, and she found herself dancing, singing, and making +merry as of yore, but her two mentors, Mrs Reeves and Hannah Vernon, +united to combat this impression. + +"To bear a sorrow _cheerfully_ is the only resignation worthy of the +name!" This was the older woman's verdict; the younger preached the +same precept in student vernacular-- + +"Why grizzle when you want to smile? Pray, what good can you do +yourself, or any one else, by going about with a face like a fiddle? +Remember Margaret France, and don't block up the window to shut out the +stars! Let them twinkle for all they are worth, the blessed little +things. They are _tired_ of hiding behind the clouds. You have a duty +to the living as well as to the dead; remember that!" + +Yes, it was true. Looking back over the last eight months Darsie +realised what a debt of gratitude she owed to relations and friends +alike for their tenderness and forbearance. It had been hard on the +home party to have the summer holidays clouded by the presence of a +mourner who shuddered at the sight of water, collapsed into tears at +unexpected moments, and lived in a condition of super-sensitiveness, +ready as it seemed to be hurt by the most innocent word; yet how gentle +and patient they had been, every single one of them, down to Tim +himself! Mother and father, of course, had been angels; one took it for +granted that they would be, but who could have believed in such +consideration from the boys and girls. Dear old Clemence! What a +comfort she had been! Darsie had often been inclined to think that, for +sheer rest and soothing, no one could compete with a plump, practical, +matter-of-fact sister, who had no thought for "ifs" or "whys," but was +full of care to ensure your present physical well-being. Then, if for a +moment Clemence seemed to fall short, there was Lavender, ready to pour +out floods of sympathy, to mingle her tears with yours, and listen to +endless reminiscences. As for the boys, Harry and Russell forbore to +tease, affected blindness to reddened eyes, and said, "Buck up, old +girl!" with real heartiness of feeling, while Tim was assiduous in the +offer of sticky sweets. + +The Vernons, lucky creatures! went off _en masse_ to Switzerland for +July and August. Darsie morbidly told herself that they were anxious to +avoid the depression of her own presence during the chief holiday of the +year. She was, as she expressed it, "too proud to say so," but the +inward soreness made her so cold and abrupt in manner that her friends +had good cause to reverse the accusation. + +With regard to Dan Vernon in especial there was a soreness at Darsie's +heart. During the first days after the tragic happening Dan had been a +tower of strength, always at hand to comfort, support, and take every +difficulty upon his own shoulders. To outward appearance Darsie had +appeared oblivious of his presence, but subconsciously she had leaned on +his strength with a profound relief. It was hard to have Dan withdraw +into his shell just as she was beginning to long for his presence; but +he _had_ withdrawn, and like most naturally shy and reticent people, +withdrawn farther than ever, as if in reaction from his unusual +demonstration. + +In hall itself the absence of Margaret France made a big blank. Having +passed her tripos with a first class, Margaret had placidly returned +home to help her mother in the house, and take part in an ordinary +social life. "What a waste!" cried her Newnham acquaintances, but +Margaret's friends, remembering her own words on the subject, believed +that she had chosen the better part. + +With October came the return to Newnham, and for the first few weeks an +access of grief and depression. It was hard to fall into the old life +shorn of its greatest interest, to be reminded of Ralph at every turn, +to see his friends pass by, laughing and gay, while his place was blank. + +Then it was that Darsie discovered the real tenderness of heart which +lies beneath the somewhat callous exterior of the college girl. +Freshers, second-year girls, even austere thirds themselves, combined to +surround her with an atmosphere of kindness and consideration. No +_word_ of sympathy was ever spoken, but almost every hour of the day +brought with it some fresh deed of comfort and cheer. Offerings of +flowers, tendered by a friend, or laid anonymously on "burry" or coffin; +bags of fruit and cake, invitations galore, surprise visits to her own +study, each in turn bringing a gleam of brightness to the day. Plain +Hannah, too, dear old plain Hannah! In the midst of her grief Darsie +was filled with amusement at Hannah's unique fashion of showing her +sympathy. Hot water evidently commended itself to her mind as the ideal +medium, for at a dozen hours of the day and night the door of Darsie's +study would open and Hannah would appear on the threshold, steaming can +in hand. Early morning, eleven o'clock, before lunch, before tea, +before dinner, before cocoa, before bed, Hannah and her can never failed +to appear. For the first half of the Michaelmas term Darsie might +literally have been described as never out of hot water. + +And now it was the Lent term; eight months had passed by since the date +of Ralph's death, and it surely behoved Darsie to rise above her +depression, and to throw herself once more into the full, happy life of +the house. She was thankful to do it, thankful to welcome dawnings of +the old zest, to feel her feet involuntarily quicken to a dance, to +discover herself singing as she moved to and fro. The winter had +passed; spring was in the air. It seemed right that it should be in her +heart also. + +As usual in the Lent term, hockey was the one absorbing subject outside +"shop," and Hannah Vernon, now advanced to the lofty position of +captain, had special reasons for welcoming her friend's reviving +spirits. + +One chilly day in February she entered Darsie's study with a somewhat +unusual request. + +"The girls are getting restive, and think that it's quite time we had +another fancy match. They want me to arrange one on the spot. It's so +blighting to be told that one is so clever, and looked to for +inspiration. Every idea forsakes one on the instant. You've been +hibernating for an age, you ought to have lots stored up!" + +"I haven't--I've grown hideously dull. What did we have last?" + +"Thicks against Thins! Never shall I forget it! To play forward padded +with three separate cushions, and with shawls wound round your limbs, is +the sort of thing one rises to _once_ in a lifetime, but never twice. I +made an adorable fat woman! The Thins had no spirit left in them when +they beheld my bulk. I vote that we don't have anything that involves +padding this time. One never knows one's luck." + +"No-o! I think we might hit on something more subtle," Darsie +ruminated, with her eyes on the ceiling. Her reputation of being the +Newnham belle remained unchallenged after two separate incursions of +Freshers. + +As she sat before a "burry," clad in a blue, pinafore-like garment, from +which emerged white silk sleeves to match the collar and yoke, her hand +absently turning over a pile of notebooks, bound in green and blue and +rose, she made a striking contrast to Hannah Vernon in a cinnamon coat +and skirt, built for wear by a cheap tailor on the principle of "there +or thereabouts." Even the notebooks reflected the personality of their +owners, for the one which Hannah carried was of the shiny black +persuasion which seemed to proclaim that, being made for good solid +work, it disdained the affectation of beauty. Plain Hannah's little +eyes twinkled affectionately at her old friend. She detached a pencil +from a chain which dangled by her side, and said tentatively-- + +"Subtle--yes! Good biz! Let's have a Subtler by all means." + +"I--was thinking--we might have something touching upon future +possibilities. I've not quite got it yet, but something about brides +and spinsters. Future brides--budding brides--beautiful brides." + +"Easy enough to have adjectives for the brides. Where do the spinsters +come in?" + +"Oh, one would have to infer--subtly, of course--that they _would_ be +spinsters! That would be adjective enough. Embryo spinsters-- +preparatory spinsters--p-p-probable spinsters. I have it! I have it! +`Possible Brides against Probable Spinsters!'" + +"Ha!" ejaculated Hannah, and drew her forefinger slowly down her nose. +"_Good_! Top hole. Amusin', but--injudicious? Shouldn't mind one rap +myself; lead off the Probables with a cheer. But, I fear me, there'd be +brickbats floating in the air. How much would you take in coin of the +realm to go up to Vera Ruskin and invite her to play for the spinsters? +Personally I'd rather be excused." + +"I'd volunteer as a start! Love to do it!" + +"Ye-es! Just so. Noble of you, no doubt; but unconvincing," returned +Hannah dryly. "No! It's a fine suggestion in theory, but in practice +I'm afraid it won't work. I don't want to imperil my popularity for +good. Think of something a trifle less searching! Er--er--Slackers +against--against what? Slackers against Swotters! How would that do +for a change?" + +Darsie curled her little nose. + +"Dull! No scope. How would you dress?" + +"Oh-h! The Swotters might have bandages round their heads, and study +notebooks between play. The Slackers would just--could just--" + +"Just so! `Could just'! Too feeble, my dear! It won't do. What about +worth and charm? Might make up something out of that. Worth, solid +worth, genuine worth--" + +"Moral worth!" + +"That's it! Moral Worth against Charm, personal charm! That'll do it. +That'll do it! _Moral Worth against Personal Charm_. Nobody can be +offended at being asked to represent Moral Worth." + +"They will, though! The female heart is desperately wicked," returned +Hannah shrewdly. "But if they do it's their own look-out. We'll +preserve a high and lofty tone, and be _surprised_! Thanks awfully, old +girl. It's an adorable idea. What price the Moral Worth costume--eh, +what?" + +The Hockey captain went off chuckling, and excitement ran high in the +hockey world when the thrilling announcement was posted that afternoon. +"For which side shall I be asked to play?" Forwards, Backs, and Goals +alike agitated themselves over these questions, and, sad to relate, +Hannah proved a true prophet, for while an invitation from the `Personal +Charm' captain aroused smiles of delight, the implication of `Moral +Worth' was but coldly received. + +Darsie Garnett herself was conscious of an electric shock of the most +unpleasant nature when, but half an hour after the posting of the +notice, the "Moral Worths" invited her to join their ranks! With all +the determination in the world, she found it impossible to repress a +start of surprise, and was acutely conscious of smothered giggles of +amusement from those around. She accepted, of course, with +protestations of delight, and ten minutes later found balm in the shape +of an invitation from the rival team. The "Personal Charms" deplored +Darsie's loss, but considered it a masterpiece of diplomacy on the part +of the "Moral Worth" captain to have headed her team with the name of +the Newnham Belle. "No one could be snarkey after that!" + +The two teams held committee meetings on the subject of costumes, which +were kept a dead secret until the hour for the match had arrived, when a +large body of spectators awaited their arrival on the ground, with +expectations pleasantly excited. The "Personal Charms" appeared first, +marching in pairs with heads erect, and stamped on each face that +brilliant, unalterable, toothy smile affected by actresses of inferior +rank. Each head was frizzed and tousled to about twice its natural +size, and crowned by an enormous topknot of blue ribbon. White blouses +and skirts, blue belts, ties, and hose completed an attractive costume, +and as a finishing touch, the handle of the hockey-stick was embellished +with a second huge blue bow. + +From a spectacular point of view the "Personal Charms" were certainly an +unusually attractive spectacle, but as regards popularity with the +"field," they fell far behind the rival team. The "Moral Worths" +allowed a judicious time to elapse after the appearance of the "Personal +Charms," and then, just as the spectators were beginning to wax +impatient, excitement was aroused by the appearance of a white banner, +borne proudly aloft in the arms of two brawny Forwards. Printed on the +banner were two lines of poetry, which at nearer view proved to be a +highly appropriate adaptation-- + + "Be good, sweet maid, + And let who will be charming!" + +Certainly the "Moral Worths" had been at pains to disguise any charm +they possessed! Even Darsie herself looked plain with her hair dragged +back into a tight little knot, her grey flannel shirt padded into the +similitude of stooping shoulders, her skirt turned carefully back to +front. With lumping gait and heavy footsteps the team marched round the +field, and drew up beside the beaming "Personal Charms," who despite the +blasts of easterly wind through summer muslin blouses, continued to +smile, and smile, and smile. + +Throughout the heated game which followed the "Moral Worths" were +distinctly the favourite team; nevertheless, it is the deplorable truth +that the "Personal Charms" won at a canter, despite the handicap of +their beribboned sticks. + +When, tired and muddy, Darsie reached her study again, it was to find a +postcard from Lavender which a kindly Fresher had laid upon her "burry." +It bore but a few words written in large characters, and plentifully +underlined-- + +"_Which team were you asked to play for_?" + +What a glow of satisfaction it gave one to be able to reply, truthfully +and accurately, with one short, illuminating--"_Both_!" + +Among the other joys of the last terms, one shone out pre-eminent in +Darsie Garnett's estimation. She was Prime Minister! It seemed almost +too splendid to be true! She, who three years before had made her first +appearance at Political as the bashful representative of Bootle-cum- +Linacre, to have advanced to this dizzy height of power! To be captain +of the Hockey Club paled into insignificance before this crowning +honour, but as Hannah was "Speaker," Darsie was unable to crow as loudly +as she would have done if her friend's place had been below the gangway. + +Political was held in College Hall on Monday evenings at eight o'clock, +and in old-fashioned style the members were divided into three parties, +Conservatives, Liberals, and Unionists, whose seats were so arranged as +to form three sides of a square. + +Viewed from afar there was a strong element of humour about this mock +Parliament. Prophetic it might be, but it was distinctly droll to hear +Honourable Members addressed as "Madam," while some of the statutes +embodied in the Constitution-book were quite deliciously unexpected, the +special one, which ran, "_Members occupying the front benches are +requested not to darn stockings during Political_" being a constant +source of delight to parents and friends. + +Darsie was a Liberal. Members of the Opposition accused her openly of +Socialism. _What! shall we sacrifice our brother man for the sake of +the demon gold_? she would declaim with waving hands and cheeks aflame, +whereat the Liberals would cheer as one girl, and even the Conservatives +themselves be moved to admiration. + +Debates relating to Education, Suffrage, and the House of Lords were +held during the winter months, but the crowning excitement followed a +daring Bill introduced by the Liberal party for the abolishment of the +Unionists _in toto_, on the ground that, being neither fish, flesh, nor +good red herring, they acted but as a drag on the wheels of progress. +The benches were crowded to their fullest capacity on the occasion of +this historic debate; even the Dons themselves came in to listen, and +the whips flew round the corridors, giving no quarter to the few +skulkers discovered at work in their studies, until they also were +forced into the breach. As a result, the Unionist party, supported by +Moderates on both sides, achieved a brilliant and decisive victory. + +So much for Political, but the Prime Minister occupied another proud +position, for Margaret France's prophecy had been fulfilled, and Darsie +was now captain of the Clough Fire Brigade. Beneath her were two +lieutenants, and two companies, each seven girls strong, and the duty of +choosing times of the utmost inconvenience and unpreparedness for drill +alarms rested entirely at her discretion. When the fire-bell rang, +every member of the brigade must leave whatever she happened to be +about, and dash pell-mell to the assembling-ground on an upper story. +There the force ranked up in order, the captain explained the locality +and nature of the supposed conflagration, and each "man" received "his" +own instruction--one to shut windows and ventilators, and so diminish +draughts, another to uncoil the hose, a third to affix the nozzle, and +so on. The work was accomplished, examined by the authorities, and the +"men" were back on the top landing, ranked up in their original order, +in an incredibly short space of time, when the captain gave a sharp +criticism of the performance, followed by a few questions to test the +general knowledge of the staff: Where was Mary Murray's study? What was +its aspect? What was the nearest water supply? Etcetera. + +One excuse for non-attendance, and one only, was allowed to pass +muster--a member who chanced to be in a hot bath what time the bell rang +forth the alarm might lie at ease and smile at the scurry without, +health and the risk of chill being considered before imaginary dangers. +If, however, the bath were _cold_, out she must get, dash into the coat +and skirt which, for members of the fire brigade, supplanted the +ordinary dressing-gown, and take her place with the rest. + +Nor--with Darsie Garnett as captain--was it any use to attempt +deception, as a tired little Fresher discovered to her cost, when she +naughtily turned a warm stream into her cold bath and refused to budge. +No sooner were lightning-like instructions rapped out upstairs than down +flew the irate captain, rapped at the door, demanded admission, and--in +the absence of steam upon the wall--sentenced the cringing truant to a +month's suspension of privileges. + +Nor was Darsie's own position free from anxiety, for once in a term it +was the prerogative of the brigade to surprise the captain, and woe +befall her prestige if, on that occasion, she were found wanting! Coat, +skirt, and slippers lay nightly on a chair by her bedside, together with +the inevitable pile of notebooks, and she felt a burden off her mind +when the alarm had come and gone. + +Deep, deep down in the recesses of Darsie's mind there slumbered a fell +ambition. If there could be a _real_ fire before her term of office +expired! Not a serious one, of course--nothing to imperil the safety of +the dear old house, but just sufficient to cause a _real_ alarm, and +give the brigade an opportunity of demonstrating its powers! It was +almost too aggravating to be borne, to hear one morning that a second- +year girl had indulged in a study fire, and had extinguished it of her +own accord. Extinguished by private effort, when a captain, two +lieutenants, and fourteen "men" were languishing for an opportunity to +exhibit their powers! The captain spoke sternly to the second-year +girl, and rebuked her. + +"How," she demanded, "can you _expect_ a reliable force, if precious +opportunities are to be wasted like this? Curtains ablaze, and the +bedclothes singeing. We may wait for _years_ for another such +opportunity!" + +"But where do _I_ come in?" cried the second-year girl. "I gave ten and +sixpence for that quilt. And a jug of water standing close at hand! It +was only human nature--" + +"I hope," returned the captain of the Fire Brigade icily--"I _hope_ that +is not the spirit in which you propose to go through life. It's a poor +thing if you cannot sacrifice a ten-and-sixpenny quilt in the interest +of the public good." And she stalked majestically from the room. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY NINE. + +TRIPOS WEEK. + +The Tripos week! Every third-year girl felt as if life and death +trembled in the balance during those eventful days. They woke on the +Monday morning with much the same feeling as that of a patient who +expects to have an arm amputated at eleven, and is morally convinced +that she will sink beneath the strain, and when at seven o'clock a +second-year friend crept into the study, tray in hand, and administered +sympathising cups of tea, the final touch was given to the illusion. + +Darsie quailed before the prospect of those three-hour papers. +Experience had proved that she was not at her best in examinations; +imaginative people rarely are, since at the critical moment the brain is +apt to wander off on dire excursions into the future, envisaging the +horrors of failing, instead of buckling to work in order to ensure +success. Historical French Grammar in especial loomed like a pall, and +she entered the Mission Room at Saint Columba's with the operation-like +feeling developed to its acutest point. + +For several minutes after taking the first paper in her hand Darsie +found it impossible to decipher the words. The type danced mistily +before her eyes; and when at last letters shaped themselves out of the +confusion, the last state was worse than the first, for she was +convinced--drearily, hopelessly convinced--that she could not answer a +single question out of the number. + +She laid down the paper, and steadied herself resolutely. All over the +room other girls were sitting on hard, uncomfortable chairs before +tables like her own, some motionless and stunned-looking like herself, +some already setting briskly to work. On the walls, among a number of +quotations, "_Help one another_!" stared her in the face with tragic +significance, and again: "How far high failure overleaps the bounds of +low successes." _Failure_! She lifted the paper again, and decided +with a glimmer of hope that she could answer at least _one_ question, +set to work, and scribbled for life until the last moment of the +prescribed three hours! What exhaustion! What collapse! Positively +one's legs wobbled beneath one as one trailed wearily Newnhamwards. +What a comfort to be fussed over and petted, treated as distinguished +invalids whom the College was privileged to tend! + +The Tripos girls "sat at High" at the head of the room, surrounded by +attentive Dons, with the V.C. herself smiling encouragement, and urging +them to second helpings of chicken (chicken!!). By the time that it was +necessary to start forth for the afternoon's ordeal they felt mentally +and physically braced, and the operation feeling lessened sensibly. + +At the afternoon's ordeal, however, the weariness and depression grew +more acute than ever, and on the walk home the comparing of answers had +anything but a cheering effect. No girl was satisfied; each was morally +convinced that her companions had done better than herself. Where she +had failed to answer a question, a reminder of the solution filled her +with despair. Of course! It was as simple as ABC. She had known it +off by heart. Nothing short of softening of the brain could explain +such idiotic forgetfulness. + +It was a kindly custom which separated the sufferers on their return to +College, each one being carried off by her special second-year adorer to +a cheery little tea-party, for which the most congenial spirits and the +most delectable fare were provided. Here the tired senior was soothed +and fed, and her self-esteem revived by an attitude of reverence on the +part of the audience. The second-year girls shuddered over the papers; +were convinced that never, no never, could they face the like, and +suggested that it would be a saving of time to go down at once. + +Later on that first evening, when Marian White appeared to put her +invalid to bed, she bore in her hand a letter from Margaret France, +which Darsie hailed with a cry of joy. + +"Ah! I _thought_ she would write to me. I wondered that I didn't have +a letter this morning, but she was right as usual. She knew I should +need it more to-night!" + +Margaret's letter was short and to the point-- + +"Dearest Darsie,--A year ago you were cheering me! How I wish I could +do the same for you in your need, but as I can't be present in the +flesh, here comes a little line to greet you, old dear, and to tell you +to be of good cheer. You are very tired, and very discouraged, and very +blue. I _know_! Every one is. It's part of the game. Do you remember +what a stern mentor I had, and how she bullied me, and packed me to bed, +and took away my books? Oh, the good old times! The good old times, +how happy we were--how I think of them now, and long to be back! But +the best part remains, for I have still my friend, and you and I, +Darsie, `belong' for our lives. + +"Cheer up, old dear! _You've done a lot better than you think_! + +"Margaret." + +"What's the matter now?" asked the second-year girl sharply, spying two +big tears course slowly down her patient's cheeks, and Darsie returned a +stammering reply-- + +"I've had such a ch-ch-cheering letter!" + +"Have you indeed! The less of _that_ sort of cheering you get this +week, the better for you!" snapped Marian once more. She was jealous of +Margaret France, as she was jealous of every girl in the College for +whom Darsie Garnett showed a preference, and she strongly resented any +interference with her own prerogative. "Hurry into your dressing-gown, +please, and I'll brush your hair," she said now in her most dictatorial +tones. "I'm a pro. at brushing hair--a hair-dresser taught me how to do +it. You hold the brush at the side to begin with, and work gradually +round to the flat. I let a Fresher brush mine one right when I'd a +headache, and she began in the middle of my cheek. There's been a +coldness between us ever since. There! isn't that good? Gets right +into the roots, doesn't it, and tingles them up! Nothing so soothing as +a smooth, hard brush." + +Darsie shut her eyes and purred like a sleek, lazy little cat. + +"De-lic-ious! Lovely! You _do_ brush well! I could sit here for +hours." + +"You won't get a chance. Ten minutes at most, and then off you go, and +not a peep at another book till to-morrow morning." + +"Marian--_really_--I _must_! Just for ten minutes, to revive my +memory." + +"I'll tell you a story!" said Marian quietly--"a _true_ story from my +own experience. It was when I was at school and going in for the +Cambridge Senior, the last week, when we were having the exams. We had +_slaved_ all the term, and were at the last gasp. The head girl was one +Annie Macdiarmid, a marvel of a creature, the most all-round scholar +I've ever met. She was invariably first in everything, and I usually +came in a bad third. Well, we'd had an arithmetic exam, one day, pretty +stiff, but not more so than usual, and on this particular morning at +eleven o'clock we were waiting to hear the result. The Mathematic +Master was a lamb--so keen, and humorous, and just--a _rageur_ at times, +but that was only to be expected. He came into the room, papers in +hand, his mouth screwed up, and his eyebrows nearly hidden under his +hair. We knew at a glance that something awful had happened. He +cleared his throat several times, and began to read aloud the arithmetic +results. `Total, a hundred. Bessie Smith, eighty-seven.' There was a +rustle of surprise. Not Annie Macdiarmid? Just Bessie--an ordinary +sort of creature, who wasn't going in for the Local at all. `Mary Ross, +eighty-two. Stella Bruce, seventy-four.' Where did _I_ come in? I'd +never been lower than that. `Kate Stevenson, sixty-four.' Some one +else fifty, some one else forty, _and_ thirty _and_ twenty, and still +not a mention of Annie Macdiarmid or of me. You should have _seen_ her +face! I shall never forget it. _Green_! and she laced her fingers in +and out, and chewed, and chewed. I was too stunned to feel. The world +seemed to have come to an end. Down it came--sixteen, fourteen, ten-- +and then at last--at bitter, long last--`Miss Marian White, _six_! Miss +Macdiar-mid, Two!'" + +Darsie stared beneath the brush, drawing a long breath of dismay. + +"What _did_ you do?" + +"Nothing! That was where he showed himself so wise. An ordinary master +would have raged and stormed, insisted upon our working for extra hours, +going over and over the old ground, but he knew better. He just banged +all the books together, tucked them under his arm, and called out: `No +more work! Put on your hats and run off home as fast as you can go, and +tell your mothers from me to take you to the Waxworks, or a Wild Beast +show. Don't dare to show yourselves in school again until Monday +morning. Read as many stories as you please, but open a school book at +your peril!'" + +Marian paused dramatically, Darsie peered at her through a mist of hair, +and queried weakly, "Well?" + +"Well--so we didn't! We just slacked and lazed, and amused ourselves +till the Monday morning, and then, like giants refreshed, we went down +to the fray and--" + +"And what?" + +"I've told you before! I got second-class honours, and the Macdiarmid +came out first in all England, distinction in a dozen subjects-- +arithmetic among them. So now, Miss Garnett, kindly take the moral to +heart, and let me hear no more nonsense about `reviving memories.' +_Your_ memory needs putting to sleep, so that it may wake up refreshed +and active after a good night's rest." + +And Darsie weakly, reluctantly obeyed. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY. + +FAREWELL TO NEWNHAM. + +May week followed hard on the Tripos that year, but Darsie took no part +in the festivities. The remembrance of the tragic event of last summer +made her shrink from witnessing the same scenes, and in her physically +exhausted condition she was thankful to stay quietly in college. +Moreover, a sad task lay before her in the packing up her belongings, +preparatory to bidding adieu to the beloved little room which had been +the scene of so many joys and sorrows during the last three years. + +Vie Vernon, as a publicly engaged young lady, was paying a round of +visits to her _fiance's_ relations, but Mr and Mrs Vernon had come up +as usual, arranging to keep on their rooms, so that they might have the +satisfaction of being in Cambridge when the Tripos List came out. With +a son like Dan and a daughter like Hannah, satisfaction was a foregone +conclusion; calm, level-headed creatures both of them, who were not to +be flurried or excited by the knowledge of a critical moment, but most +sanely and sensibly collected their full panoply of wits to turn them to +good account. + +Hannah considered it in the last degree futile to dread an exam. "What +else," she would demand in forceful manner--"what else are you working +for? For what other reason are you here?" But her arguments, though +unanswerable, continued to be entirely unconvincing to Darsie and other +nervously constituted students. + +The same difference of temperament showed itself in the manner of +waiting for results. Dan and Hannah, so to speak, wiped their pens +after the writing of the last word of the last paper, and there and then +resigned themselves to their fate. They had done their best; nothing +more was possible in the way of addition or alteration--for good or ill +the die was cast. Then why worry? Wait quietly, and take what came +along! + +Blessed faculty of common sense! A man who is born with such a +temperament escapes half the strain of life, though it is to be doubted +whether he can rise to the same height of joy as his more imaginative +neighbour, who lies awake shivering at the thought of possible ills, and +can no more "wait quietly" for a momentous decision than he could +breathe with comfort in a burning house. + +When the morning arrived on which the results of the Tripos were to be +posted on the door of the Senate House, Darsie and Hannah had taken a +last sad farewell of their beloved Newnham, and were ensconced with Mr +and Mrs Vernon in their comfortable rooms. The lists were expected to +appear early in the morning, and the confident parents had arranged a +picnic "celebration" party for the afternoon. + +Darsie never forgot that morning--the walk to the Senate House with Dan +and Hannah on either side, the sight of the waiting crowd, the strained +efforts at conversation, the dragging hours. + +At long last a list appeared--the men's list only: for the women's a +further wait would be necessary. But one glance at the paper showed +Dan's name proudly ensconced where every one had expected it would be, +and in a minute he was surrounded by an eager throng--congratulating, +cheering, shaking him by the hand. He looked quiet as ever, but his +eyes shone, and when Darsie held out her hand he gripped it with a +violence which almost brought the tears to her eyes. + +The crowd cleared away slowly, the women students retiring to refresh +themselves with luncheon before beginning a second wait. The Vernons +repaired to their rooms and feasted on the contents of the hamper +prepared for the picnic, the father and mother abeam with pride and +satisfaction, Dan obviously filled with content, and dear old Hannah +full of quips. Darsie felt ashamed of herself because she alone failed +to throw off anxiety; but her knees _would_ tremble, her throat _would_ +parch, and her eyes _would_ turn back restlessly to study the clock. + + "Better to die by sudden shock, + Than perish piecemeal on the rock!" + +The old couplet which as a child she had been used to quote darted back +into her mind with a torturing pang. How much longer of this agony +could she stand? Anything, anything would be better than this dragging +on in suspense, hour after hour. But when once again the little party +approached the Senate House, she experienced a swift change of front. +No, no, this was not suspense; it was hope! Hope was blessed and +kindly. Only certainty was to be dreaded, the grim, unalterable fact. + +The little crowd of girls pressed forward to read the lists. Darsie +peered with the rest, but saw nothing but a mist and blur. Then a voice +spoke loudly by her side; Hannah's voice: + +"First Class! _Hurrah_!" + +Whom did she mean? Darsie's heart soared upward with a dizzy hope, her +eyes cleared and flashed over the list of names. Hannah Vernon--Mary +Bates--Eva Murray--many names, but not her own. + +The mist and the blur hid the list once more, she felt an arm grip her +elbow, and Dan's voice cried cheerily-- + +"A Second Class! Good for you, Darsie! I thought you were going to +fail." + +It was a relief. Not a triumph; not the proud, glad moment of which she +had dreamed, but a relief from a great dread. The girls congratulated +her, wrung her hand, cried, "Well done!" and wished her luck; third- +class girls looked envious and subdued; first-class girls in other +"shops" whispered in her ear that it was an acknowledged fact that +Modern Languages had had an uncommonly stiff time this year. Modern +Languages who had themselves gained a first class, kept discreetly out +of the way. Hannah said, "See, I was right! Are you satisfied now?" +No one showed any sign of disappointment. Perhaps no one but herself +had believed in the possibility of a first class. + +The last band of students turned away from the gates with a strange +reluctance. It was the last, the very last incident of the dear old +life--the happiest years of life which they had ever known, the years +which from this moment would exist but as a memory. Even the most +successful felt a pang mingling with their joy, as they turned their +backs on the gates and walked quietly away. + +Later that afternoon Dan and Darsie found themselves strolling across +the meadows towards Grantchester. They were alone, for, the picnic +having fallen through, Mr and Mrs Vernon had elected to rest after the +day's excitement, and Hannah had settled herself down to the writing of +endless letters to relations and friends, bearing the good news of the +double honours. + +Darsie's few notes had been quickly accomplished, and had been more +apologetic than jubilant in tone, but she honestly tried to put her own +feelings in the background, and enter into Dan's happiness as he +confided to her his plans for the future. + +"I'm thankful I've come through all right--it means so much. I'm a +lucky fellow, Darsie. I've got a rattling opening, at the finest of the +public schools, the school I'd have chosen above all others. Jenson got +a mastership there two years ago--my old coach, you remember! He was +always good to me, thought more of me than I deserved, and he spoke of +me to the Head. There's a vacancy for a junior master next term. They +wrote to me about it. It was left open till the lists came out, but now! +now it will go through. I'm safe for it now." + +"Oh, Dan, I'm so glad; I'm so glad for you! You've worked so hard that +you deserve your reward. A mastership, and time to write--that's your +ambition still? You are still thinking of your book?" + +"Ah, my book!" Dan's dark eyes lightened, his rugged face shone. It +was easy to see how deeply that book of the future had entered into his +life's plans. He discussed it eagerly as they strolled across the +fields, pointing out the respects in which it differed from other +treatises of the kind; and Darsie listened, and sympathised, appreciated +to the extent of her abilities, and hated herself because, the more +absorbed and eager Dan grew, the more lonely and dejected became her own +mood. Then they talked of Hannah and her future. With so good a record +she would have little difficulty in obtaining her ambition in a post as +mathematical mistress at a girls' school. It would be hard on Mrs +Vernon to lose the society of both her daughters, but she was wise +enough to realise that Hannah's _metier_ was not for a domestic life, +and unselfish enough to wish her girls to choose the most congenial +_roles_. + +"And my mother will still have three at home, three big, incompetent +girls!" sighed Darsie in reply, and her heart swelled with a sudden +spasm of rebellion. "Oh, Dan, after all my dreams! I'm so bitterly +disappointed. Poor little second-class me!" + +"_Don't_, Darsie!" cried Dan sharply. He stood still, facing her in the +narrow path, but now the glow had gone from his face; it was twisted +with lines of pain and anxiety. "Darsie! it's the day of my life, but +it's all going to fall to pieces if you are sad! You've done your best, +and you've done well, and if you are a bit disappointed that you've +failed for a first yourself, can't you--can't you take any comfort out +of _mine_? It's more than half your own. I'd never have got there by +myself!" + +"Dan, dear, you're talking nonsense! What nonsense you talk! What have +_I_ done? What _could_ I do for a giant like you?" + +Dan brushed aside the word with a wave of the hand. + +"Do you remember when we were talking last year, beside the fire, in the +old study one afternoon, when all the others were out, talking about +poor Percival, and your answer to a question I asked? `_He needs me, +Dan_!' you said. I argued very loftily about the necessity of a man +standing alone and facing his difficulties by himself, and you said that +was true, but only a part of the truth. I've found that out for myself +since then. If that was true of Percival, it is fifty times truer of +me! _I_ need you, Darsie! I shall always need you. I've not a penny- +piece in the world, except what my father allows me. I shall probably +always be poor. For years to come I shall be grinding away as a junior +master. Even when the book is written it can never bring much return in +a monetary sense, but success will come in the end, I'll _make_ it come! +And when it does, it will belong to you as much as to me. You'll +remember that?" + +"Yes... Thank you, Dan!" The answer came in a breathless gasp. +Darsie's big eyes were fixed upon Dan's face in rapt, incredulous gaze. +The cramp of loneliness had loosened from her heart; the depression had +vanished; a marvellous new interest had entered into her life; she was +filled with a beatific content. + +"I'll remember! I'll be proud to remember. But--I don't understand!" + +"I don't understand myself," said Dan simply. "I only know it is true. +So don't get low, Darsie, and don't be discouraged. You're in a class +by yourself, and all the honours in the world couldn't improve you. And +now that's over, and we start afresh!" + +It was like Dan to hurry back with all speed to more practical talk. +Darsie understood, and was satisfied. They stood together for another +moment looking back on the massed towers and spires of Cambridge, then +slowly, reluctantly, turned away. + +A new life lay ahead, its outline vague and undefined like that of the +landscape around, but the sun was shining. It shone full on their young +faces, as they went forward, hand in hand. + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A College Girl, by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COLLEGE GIRL *** + +***** This file should be named 21110.txt or 21110.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/1/1/21110/ + +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. 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