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diff --git a/21117.txt b/21117.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef3f840 --- /dev/null +++ b/21117.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7591 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Betty Trevor, by Mrs. G. 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: Betty Trevor + +Author: Mrs. G. de Horne Vaizey + +Illustrator: Victor Prout + +Release Date: April 17, 2007 [EBook #21117] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BETTY TREVOR *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +Betty Trevor + +by Mrs George de Horne Vaizey (aka Jessie Mansergh) +________________________________________________________________ +This book concerns a family where the children consist of a couple of +boys, and a few more than that of girls. They live in a Square in +London, which bears the name of an existing London Square, but which is +placed, according to the story, in quite a different place to the real +one. The children are fascinated by the occupants of the various other +houses, some of whom they gradually get to know. + +The children grow up, the boys are away doing interesting things, and +the girls become interested in their own clothes and appearances. This +may be just a male's view of the story, but it seems like it to me, for +there doesn't seem to be nearly as much life as you find in the same +author's Pixie books. Well, I suppose that's not true: there is a +subtle undercurrent of old love affairs revived that runs right to the +very last page--and that is one of Mrs Vaizey's greatest skills. If you +haven't done so, do read the little biography we have written of her, as +it will help you to understand her writing rather better than if you +don't. + +Still, you read the book, and see what you think. You may well be +pleasantly surprised. +________________________________________________________________ +BETTY TREVOR + +BY MRS GEORGE DE HORNE VAIZEY (aka JESSIE MANSERGH) + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +THE "PAMPERED PET." + +"There goes the `Pampered Pet' again! Got its little keeper with it, as +usual. Why don't they lead her by a chain, and be done with it?" + +Miles stood by the schoolroom window, hands jingling in pockets, as he +surveyed a prospect, sufficiently grey and drear to make any diversity +doubly welcome, and at his words there came the sound of a general +pushing-back of chairs, as the four other occupants of the room dashed +forward to share in the view. + +They jostled each other with the scant courtesy which brothers and +sisters are apt to show each other in early days; five big boys and +girls, ranging between the ages of eight and nineteen. Miles kept his +central position by reason of superior strength, a vigorous dig of his +pointed elbow being enough to keep trespassers at a distance. Betty +darted before him and nimbly dropped on her knees, the twins stood on +either side of the window-sill, while poor Pam grumbled and fretted in +the background, dodging here and there to try all positions in turn, and +finding each as unsatisfactory as the last. + +The Square gardens looked grey and sodden with the desolation of autumn +in a city, and the road facing the window was empty, except for two +female figures--a lady, and a girl of sixteen, who were slowly +approaching the corner. The lady was dressed in black, the girl was +noticeably smart, in a pretty blue costume, with dainty boots on her +tiny feet, and a fur cap worn at the fashionable angle on her golden +head. + +"That's a new dress,--the fifth I've seen her in this month!" sighed +Betty enviously. "Wearing it on an afternoon like this, too. The idea! +Serve her right if it were soaked through!" + +"Look at her mincing over the puddles! She'd rather go a mile out of +her way than get a splash on those precious boots. I'm sure by the look +of them that they pinch her toes! I am glad you girls don't make +ninnies of yourselves by wearing such stupid things." + +"Can't! Feet too big!" mumbled Jill, each cheek bulging in turn with +the lump of toffee which she was mechanically moving from side to side, +so as to lengthen the enjoyment as much as possible. + +"Can't! Too poor! Only four shillings to last out till the end of the +quarter!" sighed Betty, dolorous again. + +"Boots! Boots! What boots? Let me see her boots. It's mean! You +won't let me see a thing!" cried Pam, pushing her shaggy head round +Miles' elbow, and craning forward on the tip of her toes. "I say! +She's grander than ever to-day, isn't she?" + +"Look at the umbrella! About as thick as a lead pencil!" scoffed Jill, +flattening her nose against the pane. "Aunt Amy had one like that when +she came to stay, and I opened it, because mother says it spoils them to +be left squeezed up, and she was as mad as a hatter. She twisted at it +a good ten minutes before she would take it out again. She'd never get +_mine_ straight! I've carried things in it till the wires bulge out +like hoops. An umbrella is made for use; it's bosh pretending it's an +ornament. ... They are going a toddle round the Square between the +showers for the benefit of the Pet's complexion. I'm glad I haven't got +one to bother about!" + +"True for you!" agreed Miles, with brotherly candour. "You are as brown +as a nigger, and the Pet is like a big wax-doll--yellow hair, blue eyes, +pink cheeks, all complete. Not a bad-looking doll, either. I passed +quite close to her one day, and she looked rattling. She'll be a jolly +pretty girl one of these days." + +"Oh, if you admire that type. Personally, I don't care for niminy- +piminies. You never see her speaking, but I daresay if you poked her in +the right places she would bleat out `Mam-ma! Pa-pa!' ... Now watch!" +cried Betty dramatically. "When she gets to the corner, she will peer +up at this window beneath her eyelashes, and mince worse than ever when +she sees us watching. Don't shove so, Pam! You can see quite well +where you are. Now _look_! She's going to raise her head." + +The five heads pressed still more curiously against the pane, and five +pairs of eyes were fixed unblinkingly upon the young girl who was +daintily picking her way round the corner of the Square. The fur cap +left her face fully exposed to view, and, true to Betty's prophecy, as +she reached a certain point in the road she turned her head over her +shoulder and shot a quick glance at the window overhead. Quicker than +lightning the pretty head went round again, and the pink cheeks grew +crimson at the sight of those five eager faces watching her every +movement. + +Jack and Jill burst into loud laughter, Betty's upper lip curled +derisively, but Miles' thin face showed an answering flush of colour, +and he backed into the room, exclaiming angrily-- + +"I say, this is too much of a good thing! I don't know what you all +mean by swarming round me wherever I go! Why can't you leave a fellow +alone? Can't I even look out of the window without having you all on my +back? A nice effect it must have to see the whole place blocked up, as +if we were staring at a Lord Mayor's show!" + +Betty sat down by the table and took up the blouse on which she had been +working for the last three months. The sleeves had been taken out and +replaced twice over, and the collar-band obstinately refused to come +right. By the time it was finished it would be hopelessly out of date, +which Betty considered as one of the many contrary circumstances of life +which continually thwarted her good endeavours. + +"Don't worry yourself. She will enjoy being stared at!" she said +coldly. "She knows we watch her coming in and out, and shows off all +her little tricks for our benefit. She's the most conceited, stuck-up, +affected little wretch I ever saw, without a thought in her head but her +clothes, and her own importance. I wouldn't have anything to do with +her for the world!" + +"Jolly good thing then that you are never likely to get a chance! Her +people will never trouble to call upon us; they are much too high and +mighty. That's no reason, though, why you should be so down on the poor +little soul. I should have thought that you would have felt sorry for +her, cooped up with that old governess all her time, with not a soul to +keep her company! But girls are such cads--they never play fair." + +Miles strode out of the room in a fume, and Betty's lips compressed +themselves into a thin straight line, the meaning of which the others +knew full well. To incur Miles' displeasure was Betty's bitterest +punishment, and the "Pampered Pet" was not likely to fare any better at +her hands in consequence of his denouncement. Jill beckoned furtively +to Jack. There was no chance of any more fun in the schoolroom now that +Miles had departed, and Betty was in the sulks; it would be wise to go +and disport themselves elsewhere. They left the room arm-in-arm, heads +almost touching, as they whispered and giggled together, the most +devoted pair of twins that ever existed, and eight-year-old Pam leant +her elbows on the table and stared fixedly at her big sister. + +Betty was seventeen, nearly grown-up, inasmuch as she had left school, +and now took classes to complete her education. Her blue serge dress +came down to her ankles, and she made a gallant attempt to "do up" her +hair in the style of the period. Mrs Trevor considered the style too +elaborate for such a young girl, but after all it did not much matter +what was aimed at, since every morning someone exclaimed innocently, +"You've done your hair a new way, Betty!" and was fully justified in the +remark. One day Betty's ambition ran to curls and waves, and she +appeared at the breakfast-table with a fuzz worthy of a negress. The +next day better judgment prevailed, when she brushed hard for ten +minutes, and then pinned on a hair-net, with the result that she looked +a veritable little Puritan; and between these extremes ranged a variety +of effects, only possible of achievement to an amateur with no +experience, but boundless ambition. + +If you could have honestly pronounced Betty pretty, you would have +satisfied the deepest longing of her heart. She gazed in the glass +every morning, twisting her head from side to side, and deciding +irrevocably that she was hideous, a fright, a perfect freak, while all +the time an obstinate little hope lingered that perhaps after all, in +becoming clothes, and when she was in a good temper, she might look +rather ... nice! Chestnut hair, such a pretty colour, but so little of +it that it would not "go" like other girls'; dark grey eyes with curly +black lashes; an impertinent little nose, and a mouth just about twice +as big as those possessed by the ladies in mother's _Book of Beauty_ +downstairs. At the best she could only be "pretty" or a "sweet-looking +girl," and she pined to be beautiful and stately, and to reign as a +queen over the hearts of men. + +Poor Betty! Many a girl of seventeen lives through the same tragedy in +secret, but they are not all fortunate enough to possess an adoring +younger sister who thinks her all that she fain would be. + +Pam put out a little ink-stained hand, and stroked the half-finished +blouse admiringly. + +"It's going to be lubly, Bet! It hardly shows a bit where you joined +it. You'll soon have finished it now." + +"No, I shan't," snapped Betty. "There's heaps to do still, and it's +getting too cold for cottons. Just my luck! I always seem to be making +mistakes. It wasn't my fault that that stupid girl looked up and caught +us watching." + +The underlying thought showed itself in the sudden change of subject, +but Pam was not surprised, for in her quiet, shrewd little way she had +divined it long ago. + +"But you said she'd look up, so you could have moved if you liked. I +don't think it was very perlite," she said solemnly. "There were all +four of you at the window, and my eyes peeping round Miles' back. I +expect it looked pretty fearful. She went purple, didn't she? It's +horrid to blush! I did once when I got a prize before people, and I +hated it." + +"Oh, you! You are a modest little mouse. The Pet is quite different. +Nasty thing, she might have been satisfied without making mischief +between Miles and me! She has everything that she wants, and that _I_ +want, and haven't got. She's pretty, and rich, and has a lovely big +house and heaps of people to wait upon her, and nice things, and-- +everything! You can't think how I hate her!" + +Pam leant her thin arms on the table, and meditated for a long, +thoughtful moment. When she spoke, it was, as usual, to deliver herself +of the unexpected. + +"That's what you call `envy, hatred, and malice,' I s'pose," she said +thoughtfully, and Betty's head came up with a jerk to turn upon her a +glance of suspicious inquiry. + +No! The round, grey eyes were as clear, as innocent, as guilelessly +adoring as she had ever seen them. They gazed into her own without a +shadow of self-consciousness, and as she met that gaze Betty flushed, +and the irritable lines disappeared from her face as if wiped out by a +sponge. + +"One for you, Pam," she cried, laughing. "I _am_ a pig! A nice big +elder sister I am, to set you such an example! I'm cross, dear. +Everything has gone wrong the whole day long. You had better run off +and leave me alone, or I'll snap again. I feel all churned up inside! +This is only a temporary lapse." + +"There's scones for tea; I saw the bag in the pantry. S'pose I went +downstairs and coaxed cook to toast them? You said yourself toasted +scones were soothing. If Miles smells them he's sure to come," said Pam +shrewdly, and Betty leant forward and kissed her impetuously on the +cheek. + +"There's one comfort," she cried; "I've got you, and the Pet hasn't! +You are the comfort of my old age, Pamela, my child. Yes, toasted! And +lots of butter, and leave the door wide open, so that the smell may get +out, and lure Miles back." + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +THE PEOPLE OF THE SQUARE. + +Brompton Square is situated on the north side of Hyde Park, between the +Marble Arch and Lancaster Gate, and is as stiff and, for the greater +portion of the year, as gloomy in appearance as most of the regions in +the neighbourhood. The different sides of the Square differ widely in +social status, the northern side being the most, and the eastern side +the least, aristocratic and roomy. The largest house of all was a great +grey stone edifice, having a stretch of three windows on either side of +the heavy oak door. The smallest and shabbiest stood at right angles to +it, showing a shabby frontage of two windows to the gardens, and having +its front entrance in a side street. Really and truly it could barely +claim to belong to the Square at all, though the landlord claimed, and +the doctor tenant felt it worth while to pay, a heavy rent for the +privilege of printing a fashionable address upon his cards. + +Behind the silken curtains and _brise-bise_ of Number 14, the "Pampered +Pet" had her residence. At Number 1 the doctor's big family was so +crowded together that Betty was thankful to appropriate a front attic as +the only chance of possessing that luxury dear to every girlish +heart--"a bedroom to herself!" It was not a luxurious apartment, but it +was pretty, as every girl's bedroom may easily be, if she has the will +to make it so. The hemp carpet had long since faded to a nondescript +grey, but the pink-washed walls were hung with pictures and photographs, +and the owner's love of beauty and order showed itself in the +arrangement of the furniture, and the careful setting out of a few +treasured ornaments. + +There was no gas in the room, so that Betty was obliged to do her simple +dressing for dinner by the aid of a candle, whose flickering beams +seemed intent on lighting every corner of the room, and leaving the +mirror in inky darkness. It was only within the last three months that +Dr Trevor had left his old-fashioned house in Bloomsbury, hoping that +the change of residence would help him in his ambition to extend his +practice among a better class of patients. The neighbourhood was new to +his family, and none of the residents of the Square had so far taken any +notice of their presence. Calling is not usual in London unless there +is some personal interest involved, and no doubt the occupants of more +aristocratic houses looked down with contempt on the sandwiched row of +shabby windows which belonged to them only on sufferance. If the +neighbours showed no interest in the doctor's family, the Trevors, on +the contrary, felt a devouring interest in everyone around them. They +had invented nicknames for all the residents in the northern row, of +which the schoolroom possessed the best view, before they had been a +week in their new quarters. A glance at the Directory in their father's +consulting-room would have solved the problem at once, but that was a +practical and commonplace method of procedure which made no appeal to +their imaginations. Nicknames were a thousand times better, because you +could manufacture them to suit! + +The two old maiden ladies who lived in Number 15 were Emily and Hannah. +Emily was dressy, wore a false front, and always took precedence of her +sister, who was small and mousy in demeanour. It was apparent to the +meanest intellect that a godmother had bequeathed her fortune to Emily, +and that she gave her sister a home and generally supported her, for +which generosity Hannah was duly thankful. The two old ladies +breakfasted in bed every morning, went out for drives at eleven and +three o'clock, ("ambles," Miles called them in scornful reference to the +pace of the sleek old horses), retired to their rooms for naps after +lunch, ate a hearty dinner at eight, and settled down for the night at +ten o'clock. + +It does not require the skill of a Sherlock Holmes to discover such +proceedings on the part of our neighbours. The study of electric lights +on gloomy autumn days is wonderfully informing! Number 16 was +uninteresting,--only a stupid man and his wife, who looked like a +hundred other men and their wives; and who had tiresome silk curtains +drawn across the lower panes of their windows, so that it was impossible +to obtain a glimpse of the rooms. Number 17, however, more than ever +made up for this disappointment, for there lived "The Pretty Lady" +beloved by one and all. She was tall, and dark, and young; almost like +a girl, and Betty darkly suspected her of being engaged, for she looked +so beamingly happy, and was often seen walking about with a tall, +handsome man in the shiniest of top-hats. The door of Number 17 was +somewhat out of the line of vision, so that it was not always easy to +see who went in and out, but the young couple often passed the corner of +the Square, and always seemed to be in radiant spirits. Once when the +pretty lady was wearing a new coat, Edwin (of course he was Edwin!) fell +behind a pace or two to study the effect, and softly clapped his hands +in approval. It must be nice, Betty thought wistfully, to be engaged, +and have someone who liked you the best of all, and brought you home +chocolates and flowers! She was anxious to know who formed the other +members of the household, but Jill said there was only an invalid +mother, who said, "Go about as much as ever you can, my darling. Don't +think about me! The young should always be happy;" and this was +accepted by all as a natural and satisfactory explanation. + +There were no children to be found in the whole length of the terrace. +The landlords, no doubt, had too much regard for their white enamel and +costly wall-papers to welcome tenants with large families. The +"Pampered Pet" in Number 14 was the nearest approach to a child, and she +must have been sixteen at least. Her father was a General Somebody out +in India, and her mother remained in England to superintend the +Darling's education, and see that she did not get her feet wet. As soon +as she was eighteen she would be presented at Court, taken out to India, +and married to the Viceroy at the end of her first season. + +The Pet's bedroom was on the third storey of the house, and as its +windows faced the gardens of the Square, she had a fancy for leaving +them undraped, except for the narrow _brise-bise_ over the lower panes. +It probably never occurred to her to remember one little dormer window +perched high in the corner house, which of late days had constituted +Betty Trevor's domain, and she would have been greatly surprised to know +how good a view of her sanctum could be obtained from this vantage- +ground, or how much time its mistress gave to enjoying the same. + +All alone in the dark Betty would kneel on a chair and press her face +against the cold panes, staring, staring, muttering to herself-- + +"She has a fire to dress by--I can see the flames flickering up and +down. What stupid indulgence for a child like that! Electric lights in +pink shades. It does look cosy! The maid is brushing her hair. I can +see her arm going up and down like a machine. Goodness! How long is +she going to keep on? No wonder it shines! I'll brush mine, too. Ten +minutes regularly every night and morning; but I'm always late in the +morning, and too tired at night, so I know I won't. I do hope they come +over here to fasten her dress. It was white last night; on Tuesday it +was blue. What a fuss to make, when there is only Mrs General and the +governess! The Pet plays and sings to them in the drawing-room after +dinner. That hot night when the windows were open we could hear her +distinctly, and it was such a funny little squeak. Jill can imitate it +beautifully. If I couldn't sing better than that I wouldn't sing at +all. ... There! She Is getting up--_pink_ this time! I can see the +maid lacing it up. Well, what next!" + +Betty crouched back on her knees and sighed dolorously. It must be nice +to be rich like that and have everything one wanted,--the only adored +darling of the household. It did seem hard that one girl should have +everything she wanted, and another want so much. The furnishing of this +attic bedroom, for instance--everything was a makeshift for something +else which was what she really wanted, and had been unable to get, and +it was the same all through the house. When mother had pleaded for a +new paper for the drawing-room, father had said-- + +"Not just yet, I'm afraid, dear. There are so many necessities which +must be met." That was the worst of it; there never was money enough +for the nice ornamental things which were so much more interesting than +stodgy old usefuls! + +Betty sighed again, and shrugged her shoulders impatiently. The +Pampered Pet had finished her toilet by this time; she crossed the room +and stood by the window for a moment, a slim pink figure in the soft +pink light. + +"Horrid, horrid thing!" cried Betty fretfully. "How I do--" And then at +the very moment of repeating her protestations of dislike, Pam's serious +childish face rose before her sight, and she heard the sweet shrill +voice saying once again-- + +"I suppose that's what they call `envy, hatred, and malice.'" ... + +"She's right, quite right," Betty acknowledged to herself. "It _is_, or +just as near it as is possible for a girl to get who is surrounded by +good influences. How hateful it sounds! I did feel ashamed of myself. +I'm the eldest girl, and I ought to set a good example. If I were quiet +and gentle and resigned, they would all look up to me, and Miles +wouldn't snub me any more. I'll turn over a new leaf from this very +hour, and remember my blessings, and never grumble any more, or be +cross, or snappy, and be glad, absolutely glad, when other people are +better off than myself. After all, I'm seventeen. It's time I was +growing resigned. I won't envy anybody any more." + +Betty jumped up from her seat, lighted her candles, and began to make +her modest toilet for dinner with an air of satisfied finality. It was +characteristic of her that she was never satisfied with half-measures, +and was always supremely confident of her ability to carry out new +resolutions. The determination to become a perfect character was taken +as easily as if it had been a choice between a couple of ribbons, and +she put on her quietest blouse, and parted her hair in the middle, +brushing it smoothly over her ears, with an artistic satisfaction in +dressing for a part. The resolution held good exactly a quarter of an +hour, at the expiration of which time Jack and Jill dashed suddenly out +of the schoolroom as their elder sister was pursuing a staid course +downstairs, when Jill promptly seized hold of her silk sleeves with +sticky fingers, and Jack exclaimed, "I say! What a fright!" with +brotherly candour. + +Betty snapped, of course, and snapped vigorously. It was not her fault, +she reflected. No one could be expected to be patient if other people +would insist on being so horrid and exasperating! + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +THE TREVOR FAMILY. + +The family dinner was served at seven o'clock, and all the children, +down to Pam herself, appeared at table, for Dr Trevor liked to have his +family round him at the close of the day, and, thanks to his wife's good +management, the meal was always a bright and cheery occasion. + +Mrs Trevor was a devoted mother to every one of her flock, but the +person in the house whom she mothered most of all was her hard-working +husband, whose life was so devoted to others that he had little time to +consider himself. From the children's earliest years they had been +taught that to "worry father" was one of the most serious offences which +they could commit. + +"Father spends his life going about from one sickroom to another; all +day long he is meeting people who are ill, and anxious, in fear, and in +pain, and when he comes home he must have a cheery welcome. If you want +to grumble about anything, grumble to yourselves or to me; if you have +anything disagreeable to tell, let it wait until we are alone. Meal- +times with father must be devoted to pleasant subjects alone." Such +were Mrs Trevor's instructions, instilled into her children's minds +with such persistent firmness that they were never disobeyed, with the +result that the tired doctor came home with the happy certainty of +enjoying a cheery, harmonious hour, and the young people themselves +learnt a lesson in self-restraint which was of infinite value in after +life. + +Betty might grumble and tirade outside the schoolroom door, but as she +approached the dining-room she mechanically smoothed her brow and +adopted a cheerful expression. To-night Dr Trevor was already seated +in his place at the end of the long table, for his wife took the head, +to save him the fatigue of carving for so large a party. He was a tall, +thin man, with a lined face lit by the keen, thoughtful eyes of the true +physician. He looked up as his eldest daughter entered the room, and +held out his hand to her in a mute caress. She bent to kiss his +forehead, and stood holding his hand to chat for a few minutes until the +other members of the family made their appearance. He noticed the +Puritan-like coiffure--there were few things that those shrewd eyes did +not notice--but made no comment thereon, for, as he frequently observed +to his wife when she confided to him her troubles over Betty's +eccentricities, boys and girls who are in the transition stage between +childhood and maturity are apt to become a trifle restless and +eccentric, and it was wisdom to be for the most part judiciously blind, +interfering only in cases of right and wrong. Let the little maid run +with a loose rein for a time. She would soon settle down, and be the +first to laugh at her own foibles. + +Mrs Trevor took her place, looking round on her assembled children with +the pretty, half-appealing little smile which was her greatest charm. +She was slight and graceful, not stout and elderly, like other people's +mothers. In the morning light she often looked wan and tired, but in +the kindly lamplight she seemed more like Betty's sister than the mother +of a rapidly growing up family. + +Miles sat at her right hand, a tall, somewhat heavy-looking youth, with +enormous hands and feet, a square, determined jaw, and deep-set brown +eyes. Even a casual glance at him was sufficient to show that he was +going to make a man of power and determination, but, like Betty, he was +passing through his awkward stage, and was often neither easy nor +agreeable to live with. + +Jack was just a mischievous schoolboy, with protruding ears and +twinkling eyes. One can see a score like him any day, marching, +marching along the street with satchels of books; but his twin sister +had a more striking personality. Jill was a mystery to her relations +and friends. She had ordinary brown hair, and not too much of that, +light blue eyes with indifferent lashes, a nose a shade more impertinent +than Betty's own, a big mouth, and a powdering of freckles under her +eyes; yet with those very ordinary equipments she managed to rank as a +beauty among her schoolmates, and to attract more admiration than is +vouchsafed to many people whose features might have been turned out of a +classic mould. Betty used to ponder wistfully over the secret of Jill's +charm, and think it hard lines that it had not been given to herself, +who would have cared for it so much more. Jill didn't care a pin how +she looked. She wanted to "have fun," to invite Nora Bruce to tea as +often as possible, to buy a constant supply of a special sort of almond +toffee which was offered for sale at a shop which she passed on the way +to school, to be a first-form girl and have one of the new desks, and, +incidentally, to pass the Cambridge examination if it could be done +without too much "fag." She put on her clothes any way, did her hair in +the twinkling of an eye, and the effect was uniformly charming. + +"If she's untidy, she's picturesque; if I'm untidy, I'm a fright. It's +mean!" soliloquised Betty discontentedly. Every day she lived she was +the more convinced that the world was topsy-turvy, and that she herself +was the only person who was competent to set it to rights. + +Pam was just Pam; like herself, and no one else in the world. A dear +little, wide-eyed, pointed-chinned kitten, everybody's tease, and pet, +and conscience all in one, for those clear child eyes seemed to see +through all pretences, and what she thought she put into words without a +shadow of fear or hesitation. + +It was a very plain, almost a frugal, repast, but the table looked +cheerful and pretty with the pink-shaded lamp in the centre, surrounded +by the four little bowls of flowers which it was one of Betty's duties +to keep fresh, and there was no lack of lively conversation. + +Mrs Trevor had had a trying day, and several of her worries must of +necessity be discussed with her husband later on, but she would allow no +hint of them to escape until he had been fed and rested, and in the same +manner all the children searched their memories for the pleasantest +event which they had experienced to retail for his benefit. + +"I was top to-day, father," Jack announced proudly; "answered every +single question in Latin, and read off my translation like a book. If I +liked to stew, I believe I could lick Johnston all the time. He was +pretty sick at having to go down; looked as glum as an old owl for the +rest of the morning." + +"He takes his work more seriously than you do, my boy. You say you +could be top if you liked: I am glad to hear it; but why don't you like? +You can't surely prefer a lower place?" + +"Oh, well, there's reason in all things!" returned Jack, with a +vagueness which his brothers and sisters had apparently little +difficulty in understanding, for they laughed, and sniggered meaningly +to each other. + +"Such a waste of time, when there is football to be played!" + +"A full back has to keep his energy for his work, and not fritter it +away over stupid books. That's about it, isn't it, Jack?" they teased, +while Dr Trevor said between a sigh and a smile-- + +"Ah, well, my boy, you are old enough to judge for yourself how your +time should be spent! If you win a scholarship, I'll manage to help you +through a 'Varsity course, but I can't afford to keep you there +unassisted. Remember it is your whole career which is at stake." + +"All right, father, I _will_ work," said Jack easily. + +He was an affectionate boy, who disliked disappointing his parents, but +unfortunately he disliked work even more. He was rather sorry now that +he had mentioned his easy victory over the redoubtable Johnston. The +pater would expect him to be top every day, whereas he had only just put +on a spurt to show what he could do if he chose. Suppose he did lose +the scholarship, it wouldn't be so bad after all, he could still play +footer on Saturday afternoons! + +The doctor's glance had wandered, as if for consolation, to his elder +son--Miles the strenuous, the indefatigable, who had a passion for work +for work's sake. He was going through the practical stage of an +engineer's training, and left the house at six o'clock each morning, to +return in the afternoon clad in workman's clothes, incredibly greasy and +dirty. Betty suffered agonies in case "they"--that wonderful impersonal +"they" who overclouded her life--should think he was really and truly an +ordinary workman! On one occasion Miles had joined her on the doorstep +as she was returning from an afternoon walk, and she had distinctly seen +the curtains of the Pampered Pet's drawing-room move, as if someone were +peeping out from behind, when, as she confided to Jill later on, "her +cheeks turned k-r-rimson with mortification!" + +"Well, Miles, my boy, did you take your little invention with you to- +day, and were you able to show it to the manager?" + +"Yes, I took it all right." + +"And what did he say?" + +"He said it was all right." + +"Does that mean that he acknowledged that it was an improvement on the +present method? Did he feel inclined to give it a trial?" + +"Oh yes, it went all right. He said it would do." + +"But that's capital! Capital! I congratulate you heartily! Didn't Mr +Davidson seem pleased that you should have hit on such a bright idea?" + +"Oh, he said it was all right." + +Miles made a determined attack on his plate, as if pleading to be left +alone to enjoy his dinner in peace. Since the days of his babyhood he +had shown a strong inventive genius, and now it was his delight to spend +his spare moments working in his little cupboard sanctum at home, +striving to improve on any bit of machinery which struck him as falling +short of perfection. It was a very simple thing which he had attempted, +but in machinery, as in many other things, trifles are all-important, +and it was a triumph indeed that a lad of nineteen should have hit on an +improvement which was considered worth a trial. + +Dr Trevor and his wife exchanged smiles of happy satisfaction. They +yearned to ask a dozen more questions, but refrained out of sympathy +with that natural masculine reserve which they understood so well. +Betty, however, was less considerate. + +"I do think you might tell us a little more about it, Miles!" she cried +resentfully. "You know we are all dying of curiosity. I can't think +why it is that boys can never give a decent account of anything that has +happened! Now, if it had been me, I should have begun at the very +beginning, from the moment I entered the works, and told you how I felt +as I went upstairs, and how I began to speak to the manager, and what he +said, and how he looked, and--" + +"What colour of necktie he wore--" + +Betty tossed her head in scornful contempt of the burst of laughter +evoked by Miles' words. + +"And what he did with the screw, or whatever you call it, when you +showed it to him, and what the other men said, and-- Oh, dozens of +interesting things; but you can say nothing but `all right' to every +single question. It _is_ dull!" + +"You must allow for diversities of talent, Betty," said Mrs Trevor, +laughing. "We do not all possess your powers of description. Miles is +very modest over his success, and I, like you, want to hear more +details. You must be sure to tell us how the trial works, Son; and if +your improvement is permanently adopted, I shall be proud!" + +"Nothing to be proud of!" muttered Miles into his plate. + +If there was one thing he loathed more than another, it was to be +praised and petted, and made the centre of attention. His roughened +fingers clenched themselves tightly round the knife and fork, and he cut +his beef into pieces with savage energy. + +Why couldn't they leave a fellow alone? All this fuss about a bit of a +cog! + +Betty divined his discomfiture, as she divined all that concerned her +beloved brother, but she had not the tact to come to the rescue, and it +was Jill who turned the conversation by a casual question which yet was +of interest to all the family. + +"Father, is there a father at the big house at the corner? We can't +decide what's the matter with him. There must have been one, of course, +because of the Pet. Jack says he's dead, but she is not in mourning, +and the mother doesn't wear widow's things. I say he's gone a tour +round the world, and is buying presents at every port so as to pamper +her more than ever when he comes back." + +Dr Trevor looked a trifle mystified, but he was accustomed to his +children's mental flights, and, after a moment's consideration, he +replied smilingly-- + +"If you mean Number 14, the tenant is a certain Major Alliot, who is at +present, I believe, with his regiment in India. I don't know anything +about his household, or the identity of the `Pet,' as you are pleased to +call her." + +"I wish she'd fall downstairs, or have an accident of some sort +suddenly, so that they'd have to fly across for you in a hurry," sighed +Jill with frank brutality. "I wish all the people in that row would +have accidents, so that you could tell us all about them. We are dying +with curiosity!" + +"Wouldn't influenza do as well? There is no need to be quite so brutal, +Jill," her father reminded her. "Besides, it is hardly my usual custom +to tell you `all about' my cases, is it? I should be very glad to find +new patients nearer here for my own sake; which reminds me, dear, that I +have to go a long drive after dinner, and shan't be home for the +evening, as I hoped. It is unfortunate having so many late nights this +week." + +Mrs Trevor's brow shadowed for a moment, but she recovered herself, and +smiled bravely at her husband, while Betty cried emphatically-- + +"I shall never marry a doctor!" + +"Lucky beggar! He's had an escape anyway!" growled Miles beneath his +breath, quite unable to resist paying Betty back for her attack on him a +few moments before, and Betty laughed as merrily as the rest at the joke +against herself. + +"Well, I shall have an escape too! I don't like ill people or having +anything to do with them; it's not my vocation!" she announced +grandiloquently, and her face fell with dismay when her father said +cheerily-- + +"Oh, come, you don't do yourself justice, dear. I always find you a +very acceptable little nurse. Mrs Ewen was asking for you only to-day. +I should be glad if you would make a point of going to see her some +afternoon this week, and trying to amuse her for an hour or two. She +has had a very sharp attack, poor soul." + +"Yes, father," assented Betty meekly, but mentally she ground her teeth. + +Mrs Ewen was an old patient, a tiresome patient from Betty's point of +view, who never grew better, but was frequently worse, who spent all her +life in her bedroom and an upstairs sitting-room, her chief subject of +conversation being the misdemeanours of her hardly-worked nurses. She +had taken a fancy to the doctor's young daughter, and liked to be +visited by her as often as possible in convalescent periods; but Betty +did not return the liking. + +"She doesn't understand girls," she grumbled to herself. "I don't +believe she ever was a girl herself. She must have been born about +forty, with spectacles and a cap. I can't think why she wants to see +me. I do nothing but say `Yes' and `No' while she abuses other people, +and yawn my head off in that stifling room. And I did so want to get on +with my blouse. Seems as if I could never do as I like, somehow!" + +She sat looking such an image of meekness and resignation, with her +smoothly-braided locks and downcast lids, that her father's lips +twitched with amusement as he glanced at her, and quickly averted his +eyes. He knew just as well as she did how distasteful his request had +been, but he was none the less anxious to enforce it. Betty's horizon +was blocked with self at the present moment, and anything and everything +was of gain which forced her to think of something besides that all- +important personage Miss Elizabeth Trevor. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +A PIECE OF LOOKING-GLASS. + +"Such a joke, Jill! The sun is shining, and the Pet is sitting reading, +in the drawing-room window, and I've found a broken piece of looking- +glass in the street.--There's luck! Let's hide behind the curtains and +flash it in her eyes!" + +Jill's book fell down with a crash, and she leapt to her feet, abeam +with anticipation. It was Saturday, and she had announced her intention +of "stewing hard" all the afternoon, but the claims of examinations sank +into the background before the thrilling prospect held out by her twin. + +"Break it in two! Fair does, Jack! Give me a bit, and let us flash in +turns!" she cried eagerly; but Jack would not consent to anything so +rash. + +"How can I divide it, silly?" he replied. "I haven't a diamond _to cut +it_, and if I crunch it with my foot it may all go to smithereens, and +there will be nothing left. I'll lend it to you for a bit now and then, +but you won't aim straight. Girls never do!" + +"I do! I do!" Jill maintained loudly. "I will! I will! Come along, +be quick! She might move away, and it would be such a sell. I'll kneel +down here and keep the curtains round me. I wonder what she's reading. +Something awfully dry and proper, I expect! What heaps of hair! It +hangs over her face, so that we shan't be able to dazzle her a bit." + +"Yes, we will," contradicted Jack. "She'll see the light dancing about +on the page, and look up to see what's the matter! You watch, but mind +you don't bob up your head and let her see you!" + +"Mind you don't let her see your hand! It's sticking right out. You +ought to put on a dark glove, which she wouldn't notice against the +pane." + +Jack was pleased to approve of the glove proposition, and an adjournment +was made to the doctor's dressing-room, where a pair of `funeral gloves' +were discovered which seemed exactly what was desired. Jack drew one on +his right hand, Jill drew the other on her left, and thus equipped they +crept back to their hiding-place behind the shabby red curtains, and +proceeded to work. + +It was rather difficult to move the glass so as to throw the reflection +on one exact spot, as the conspirators could only peep out for a moment +at a time. The little white circle of light danced all over the big +grey house before it found the window above the porch, and, moving +slowly up and down, eventually alighted on the page of the open book. +Jill giggled, Jack snored loudly, as was his habit when excited; the Pet +gave a little hitch round in her chair, and read on stolidly. + +"My turn! My turn!" cried Jill excitedly. "You've had your innings, +now give me mine. Hand it over!" and the two black gloved hands met in +the middle of the window. + +"You moved it away too quickly! You must follow her about, and bob it +g-ently up and down. Wait till I get it right. There it is! I've got +it better than you, Jack, ever so much better!" + +"That's because the sun's so much brighter. Be careful now. That's +enough! If you go on too long at a time, she'll move away into the room +and it will be all up. Let her settle down again, and imagine she's all +right, then we'll give her another treat!" + +It was wonderful how expert one grew with practice! The light now +danced direct to its destination, and move her book as she would, the +Pet could not escape. At last she grew impatient, tossed back her mane +of hair and turned to stare curiously out of the window. This was the +longed-for opportunity, and Jack snored louder than ever with relief +that it had come about when it was his turn to hold the treasured glass. +Quick as thought he waved it to and fro, and the Pet threw up her +hands, unable to withstand the glare. Safe in the seclusion of their +distant room, the twins shrieked with exultation, and had much ado to +keep their position behind the curtains. Jill kept endeavouring to +snatch the glass from her brother, but Jack was too intent on his work +to take any notice of her efforts. + +The Pet lifted one hand from her eyes and cautiously peeped out. The +sun was shining with unusual brilliancy for an October morning, but +there was not the slightest difficulty in viewing the landscape as fully +as she liked. She turned her head from side to side in a curious +inquiring fashion, and Jack, with an artist's appreciation of the right +moment, waited until she had abandoned the search, and was about to +settle down again, when another blinding flash of light fell full on her +face, and she shrank back into the shade with a startled gesture. + +Seated in this last position, she exactly faced the schoolroom, and the +twins had a moment's horrified fear that she had caught a glimpse of +their peeping faces, but her next movement put an end to suspicion, for +she took up her book and settled down again to her reading exactly as if +she had never been interrupted. + +And then an extraordinary thing happened! The mane of golden hair was +tossed back, leaving the face fully exposed, yet though the twins +flashed the light on both eyes and book, the Pet read on stolidly, +turning over the pages with leisurely enjoyment, apparently no whit +disturbed. + +"What's the matter with her all of a sudden? Is she blind?" Jill +queried impatiently. + +Jack grunted, and flashed more vigorously than ever, but the Pet might +have been a hundred miles away for all the effect produced. It was most +mysterious and perplexing, not to say exasperating to the last degree. +After ten minutes' fruitless effort, Jack went off in search of fresh +victims, and Jill sorrowfully returned to her lessons. + +How interested they would have been if they could have overheard a +conversation which was even then taking place across the road! + +"Dear child!" cried a lady lying on a sofa at the far end of a +beautifully-furnished drawing-room. "Dear child, what are you doing? +For the last five minutes I have been watching you pretending to read +with your eyes shut. It's not a lesson book, and Miss Mason is not +here, so what can you be thinking about, dear wee goose?" + +The fair head turned round, and the book dropped to the floor. + +"I'm thinking," said a very sweet, sad little voice, "I'm thinking that +I wish I were a large family, mother. I'm so tired of being only one!" + +"Oh, Cynthia!" cried the lady--and there was a world of mother-yearning +in her voice--"is it that old trouble again? Poor child, it is dull for +you, but I do all I can for you, darling. I stayed at home especially +to be near you, and I do my best to be a companion, and to sympathise in +all your interests. Don't tell me that I have failed altogether!" + +Cynthia crossed the room, knelt down on the floor by her mother's couch +and laid both hands on her knee. The two faces that confronted each +other were as much alike as was possible, given a difference in age of +twenty-five years. Cynthia was a beautiful girl, and her mother was a +beautiful woman, and the beauty lay as much in expression as in feature. +Miles Trevor had been entirely mistaken when he compared the girl to a +doll, for the direct glance of the eye, the sweet, firm lips and well- +formed chin, belonged to no puppet, but showed unusual strength of +character. + +"You are a darling, and I adore you!" cried Cynthia fondly. "But you +are old, you know, and I am so dreadfully young. There's something all +fizzling inside me for want of a vent. I'm just desperate sometimes to +do something wild, and exciting, and hilarious; it doesn't matter how +silly it is; the sillier the better! I'm so dreadfully well-regulated, +mother, considering I'm only sixteen. Lessons--`studies,' as Miss Mason +calls them--musical exercises, constitutional, luncheon, more studies, +dinner, polite conversation, performances upon the piano, that's my +daily round, and I get _so_ tired! Don't think I don't appreciate you, +mother. You know I do. We are the best friends in the world, but +still--" + +"I know," said Mrs Alliot, and sighed once more. She stroked her +daughter's golden head in thoughtful silence, then asked curiously, +"What made you feel your loneliness especially to-day, dear?" + +A flicker of laughter passed over Cynthia's pink-and-white face. + +"The boy and girl in Number 1, the corner house, were playing tricks on +me, trying to dazzle my eyes with something--a piece of old looking- +glass, I suppose. I could not understand what caused the sudden glare +until I caught a glimpse of their faces peering out from behind the +curtains." + +"Trying to dazzle you! That doctor's children? How exceedingly rude! +They must be very badly brought up. And you were sitting with your eyes +shut pretending to go on reading. You curious child! Why?" + +"It was their joke; they enjoyed it. It would have been mean to cut it +short. Besides," added Cynthia, with a twinkle, "it was my joke too! +They must have been so puzzled when I seemed to go on reading, for they +couldn't see that my eyes were shut, and I went on turning over the +pages at regular intervals, as if I were perfectly comfortable and +happy. Oh no, I don't think they are rude, mother; only frisky, and I +love frisky people! There are such a lot of them, and they do have such +a good time. Schoolroom tea all together, and the big girl pours out. +I could see them quite well when they first came, and the afternoons +were light. They go in pairs--a big boy and a big girl, a middling boy +and a middling girl, and then a dear little girl with a face like a +kitten. I like them all so much, but--" and her voice died away in a +plaintive cadence, "they don't like me!" + +"And how have you found that out, may I ask?" + +"I--I feel they don't," sighed Cynthia sadly. "They watch me out of the +windows, and talk and laugh, and make remarks among themselves. The +window seemed full of faces the other day..." + +Mrs Alliot's delicate face flushed resentfully. + +"Abominably rude! Really, dear, I don't think you need worry yourself +what such people think. There can be no possible excuse for such +behaviour!" + +"Oh yes, dear, there is, for they don't intend me to see! It was quite +extraordinary how they all vanished into space the very instant I raised +my eyes. You might just as well say it is rude of me to stare into +their windows, and I do, for I can't help it. It's a sort of magnet to +me every time I pass. I do so wish I knew them, mother dear!" + +Mrs Alliot smiled and stroked her daughter's head once more. She was +thinking that for Cynthia's sake she must really manage to cultivate +some friends with large families; but she had not the least intention of +introducing her daughter to the strange doctor's mischievous, +unconventional children. + +In many cases, however, there is something stronger than the will of +parents and guardians. Some people call it fate, some by a higher name. +In later years Cynthia Alliot considered her friendship with the Trevor +family as one of the greatest providences of her life. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +AN OLD TRICK. + +It was very dull and dreary for the remainder of the month, typical +November weather, with what the Trevors called a "pea-soup" atmosphere, +deepening now and then into a regular fog. The Square gardens were +soaking with moisture, the surrounding houses looked greyer and gloomier +than ever, until it seemed impossible to believe that the sky had ever +been blue, or that gay-coloured spring flowers had flourished in those +black-looking beds. + +Jack and Jill had the bad taste to approve of fogs. They were +"ripping," they declared. "So adventurous and jolly! Yesterday, when I +was walking to school, a hansom drove on the pavement beside me. Think +of that!" cried Jill in a tone of triumph. "The horse's nose nearly +touched my shoulder, and an old lady near me shrieked like anything. It +_was_ sport!" + +Jack was rather envious of the hansom episode, but had had his own share +of amusement. "I followed Johnston all the way home, and chaffed him +with a pebble in my mouth to disguise my voice. He was nearly mad with +rage, and whenever he turned round I simply bent double, and he went for +another fellow, and there was no end of a game." + +"But how did it happen that you could see him when he couldn't see you?" +queried Jill, when Jack was forced to admit that he _had_ made mistakes +more than once; but it only added to the sport to see the consternation +of innocent pedestrians when an accusing voice suddenly hissed in their +ears, "Who sneaked the indiarubber from Smith's desk?" + +The twins were happily constituted to enjoy all things, and from their +conversation it would have appeared that to be hopelessly lost in a fog +would be the climax of earthly joy; but Betty hated the gloom of the +long days, when the gas burned steadily from breakfast to bedtime, and +was nervous about trusting herself alone in the streets. In her leisure +moments she devoted herself to the preparation of Christmas presents, +and turned over the contents of her scrap-drawers, debating how to make +a dozen handsome articles with the least possible expenditure. It is to +be feared that Betty's gifts were arranged more to suit her own +convenience than the tastes of the recipients. "This will make a book- +cover for Jill. I don't suppose she'll ever use it, but it's not big +enough for anything else, so she'll just have to like it!" This was the +spirit in which she assorted her materials, and set to work thereon. +Not the ideal attitude by any means, but one must make allowances for a +girl with a small allowance and a large family connection, and must also +enter it to the credit of this particular damsel that she grudged no +work which could beautify the simple background. Poor Betty! For two +whole gloomy afternoons did she work at a spray of roses on a linen +work-bag, and on the third day a feeble gleam of sunlight showed itself, +and lo, the roses were a harlequin study in pinks and orange! + +"Is it at all trying? Is it enough to make you pitch the whole thing +into the fire?" she demanded dramatically of the chairs and tables, as +the horrible discovery burst upon her, and she proceeded to snap at the +silk with her sharp little scissors, and viciously tear away the +stitches. "Shan't bother to fill them in any more! They'll just have +to do in outline, and if she doesn't like it she can do the other +thing!" she grunted under her breath; but that was only the impulse of +the moment, and when it came to action each stitch was put in as +carefully as before. + +"What are you sewing away at those old things for?" Jill demanded, +coming into the room and seating herself easily on the edge of the +table. "It's much easier to buy match-boxes and needle-books. You can +get beauties for sixpence three-farthings at the Christmas bazaars, and +it saves no end of fag. You can give me safety-pins if you like, for my +clothes are all coming to pieces, and my pins disappear like smoke. +Mary eats them, I believe! What are you going to give mother?" + +"Can't think! She wants a palm for the drawing-room, but a nice one +costs half a guinea, and I couldn't possibly scrape together more than +three and six." + +Jill pondered, swinging her feet to and fro. "Five more Saturdays at +fourpence each,--one and eight-pence, and I've got about two shillings +in hand. No! I couldn't possibly offer to join. I wish we could have +managed it, for the drawing-room doesn't look half furnished, and a big +palm would have made a fine effect, but we can't, so there's an end of +that!" + +A gasp of suppressed nervousness sounded from the end of the room, and +Pam's voice said with the usual funny little squeak, "I've got sixpence +with a hole in it. I'll join, Betty! Do get mother a palm! She wants +it so badly. We saw one in a shop window yesterday, and she said it was +just the thing for our room!" + +"Sorry, Pam, but it can't be done. They are a frightful price in the +shops, and even old `All a-growing all a-blowing' has none under seven +and six. Perhaps when her birthday comes round we can manage it, but at +Christmas there are so many presents to buy that one can't afford big +things." + +"I want to get it now," squeaked Pam obstinately, while Jill jumped down +from the table and turned to the door. + +"I'm going out! Can't afford to waste holiday afternoons. Why don't +you put away that stupid work and come too?" + +"Where are you going? A walk?" + +"Rather not! Am I a Pampered Pet to promenade up and down? Jack and I +are going to have some fun in the Square. I'm not going to tell you +what it is, but you can come too if you like." + +Betty raised her head and peered out of the window. Black railings, +black trees, sodden grass, paths strewn with decaying leaves, a fast- +failing light. She gave a shudder of distaste and sank back in her +chair. + +"Thanks! I prefer the fire. I can't understand you, Jill, going in for +an exam, and wasting every spare moment you get! When I went in, I +stewed every Saturday afternoon the whole term, and never dreamed of +going out." + +"Yes, and got plucked for your pains!" retorted Jill brutally. Poor +Betty! She had passed so well in everything but that fatal arithmetic, +which made all the difference between success and failure. The figures +would not add up, the lines danced before her eyes, she could not +remember the simplest table. It was cruel to rake up that old sore. +She pressed her lips together and sat in offended dignity, while Jill +skipped to the door, tossing her pretty pert head. + +"I shall take care of my health and my nerves, and not have them +breaking down just when I need them most. If the worst comes to the +worst, I shall be no worse off than you were yourself, and I shall have +had my fun!" + +She ran downstairs into the hall, where Jack was awaiting her with a +brown-paper parcel tucked under his arm, and together they crossed the +road to the nearest gate, and let themselves into the garden with a +heavy key. + +"The other corner is the best," Jack cried, leading the way forward at +an eager pace, "more traffic, and thicker bushes. I spotted the exact +place yesterday. Have you got the reel in your pocket all right?" + +"Yes, yes! And you must give me my turn, Jack. It's only fair, because +you wouldn't let me have a parcel of my own on the other side." + +"Of course not! You wouldn't expect to find two lost parcels within a +few yards of each other, would you? You want to give the whole show +away!" cried Jack in indignant schoolboy fashion. "Now don't talk so +much, but creep between these bushes when nobody is passing. There's +room for us both, and I can get a pull at the string between these +branches. We'll have a rehearsal now, and see how it works." He +crawled forward on the dank earth, in easy unconcern for the knees of +his trousers, dropped the daintily-wrapped parcel on to the centre of +the pavement, and crept back to his place, holding in his hand the end +of a long black thread. + +They crouched together behind the bushes, as mischievous a Jack and Jill +as have been known since the world began, giggling with anticipated +glee, nudging each other violently at the sound of approaching +footsteps, and peering eagerly through their loopholes to see what +manner of prey was about to fall into their hands. + +First, a fine lady walking gingerly along, both hands occupied in +keeping her skirt from contact with the greasy pavement. She looked at +the parcel with blank indifference, and passed quietly on her way. The +twins gasped with stupefaction. Could such things be? Was it possible +that a human creature could be so surfeited with the good things of this +world, that she could behold an unopened parcel lying on the ground, and +feel no curiosity to discover what was inside? Imagination refused to +picture such a position! + +"Mad!" was Jack's scornful explanation. "Mad as a March hare! Ought to +be shut up out of the way. Walked straight over the string too. Hope +to goodness she hasn't broken it!" + +A flick to the end of the string proved that this fear was unfounded, +and the twins composed themselves for another period of waiting. +Pedestrians seemed to prefer the pavement by the houses instead of that +darker one overshadowed by the trees of the gardens, and several moments +elapsed before a brisk footstep announced the approach of a tall, well +set-up man clad in a light overcoat. His eye lit on the parcel, he bent +his head and stretched out a hand to raise it up. Instantly Jack gave a +flick to the string, to which the parcel responded by jumping an inch or +two farther along the pavement. The brown-coated man straightened +himself, gave a funny little grunt, half amused, half-angry, and strode +on his way. He had been a boy himself! + +The next victim was an old woman carrying a pile of parcels, and +breathing heavily from fatigue, but although over-laden, she was +evidently nothing loath to add to her burden. The twins could hear her +surprised exclamation, and see the hitch of the shoulders with which she +freed her right arm for the attack. Down she bent, panting louder than +before, until, even as her envious fingers approached the prize, it +leapt into the air, and as by some magic process disappeared from sight. +Jack was bursting with pride at his own adroitness, and Jill nudged in +enthusiastic approval. This came of fishing by the river-banks in the +last summer holidays, and gaining dexterity in the art of casting lines! +It was wonderful how useful such accomplishments were at times. The +bewildered face of the disappointed treasure-seeker was almost too much +for the conspirators, and had she not been too much engrossed in her own +thoughts she must certainly have heard the splutterings which not even +the handkerchief stuffed between Jill's lips could entirely drown. With +a sigh she went on her way, wondering if eyesight were about to fail, as +the culmination of her troubles. + +After this came an errand-boy, whistling as he walked. He made a pounce +at the parcel, and when it disappeared had no difficulty in +understanding the phenomenon. + +"Ho, you would, would you?" he cried, and picking up a handful of +stones, sent them flying in among the bushes with such force that the +twins congratulated themselves on escaping without injury. + +They learnt a lesson from this experience, and henceforth made a rule of +allowing all boys to pass by when they practised this particular +pastime. By this time Jill was shivering in her shabby coat, and +beginning to cast longing glances across the Square to the lighted +schoolroom window. Anticipations of tea and hot buttered toast--the +Saturday afternoon treat of years' standing--made her present position +seem unattractive, and she proposed an immediate adjournment home. + +Jack, however, was not yet satisfied with his achievements. + +"We haven't had what I call a real proper rise out of anyone yet. Just +once more, and then we'll run for it," he protested, and Jill shivered, +and yielded to his superior will. + +She had not long to wait. In less than five minutes a slow, measured +tread was heard in the distance, and presently an elderly gentleman hove +in sight, portly, well-dressed, and walking with a certain stiffness and +deliberation which would have secured for him the sympathetic +consideration of people of his own age. Jack and Jill, however, had no +thought for such uninteresting subjects as rheumatism; they nudged each +other delightedly, and waited in breathless silence to see what would +happen next. + +Tramp, tramp, tramp came the slow approach, and then a sudden halt--the +halt they knew so well--followed by something like a stifled groan as +the victim stiffly bent forward to examine the treasure-trove. His +gloved hand had nearly closed on the parcel when Jack adroitly flicked +it a few inches away. He bent still farther, with another gasping +effort, and then, even as the parcel again moved onward, there came a +loud, startled cry, and the horrified twins beheld their victim fall +forward on his face, and lie helpless on the ground. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +WHAT CAME OF THE TRICK. + +A moment Jack and Jill stared at each other in horrified silence, then +the same words burst from both lips-- + +"We must help him! We must see if he is hurt!" Out from behind the +bushes they flew, raced for the nearest gate, and ran panting to the +scene of the accident. + +The rays from the lamp near at hand lighted up the pavement, and showed +the old gentleman already dragging himself to his feet, assisted by a +lady whom Jill recognised in the flash of an eye as the much-admired +occupant of Number 17. There she stood in her smart fur coat, a little +red velvet toque perched on her dark locks, supporting the old gentleman +by the arm, and so evidently overpowered by his weight that she was +overjoyed to welcome further assistance. + +No words were spoken, but quick as light Jack darted forward and pulled +with all his force, while Jill placed both hands against the blue +broadcloth back and vigorously pushed forward. As a result of these +united efforts, the old gentleman was hoisted to an upright position, +with a celerity which appeared to startle him almost as much as the +preceding fall. He leant against the railings, puffed and panted, +groaned and grumbled, while the onlookers listened with sympathy and +self-reproach. + +"Injured for life--strained in every muscle--nervous shock--police-- +disgraceful--much obliged--advice at once--no time for delay." The +different phrases detached themselves from attacks of groanings and +sighings, and, hearing the last words, Jack was blessed with a brilliant +inspiration. + +"There's a doctor at the corner, sir. Would you like me to help you to +the house?" he said in his politest manner. + +It seemed as if, after all, good might arise out of evil if the accident +were the means of providing his father with a new patient. There was +not much wrong with the old fellow--anyone could see that--but he was +fidgety and nervous about himself, which, of course, would make him the +more valuable from a doctor's point of view. Later on the boy would be +obliged to confess his own responsibility in the accident. He would +feel a sneak if he did not, but the present was the time for action, not +confession. + +"Doctor at the corner, eh? Well, well, get me to him as quickly as +possible. Shattered! Quite shattered! Must have a rest, and drive +home! Bad day's work! Never the same again!" + +The old gentleman laid his hand on Jack's shoulder and hobbled stiffly +away, pausing just one moment to lift his hat and say courteously-- + +"My best thanks to you, madam, for your assistance." Jill and the +pretty lady were left standing in the middle of the pavement, staring +curiously into each other's faces. + +The pretty lady was dark, and quite young, astonishingly young, like a +big girl dressed in important clothes. Her eyes were very bright and +happy-looking, and her lips looked as though they were made for +laughter. Jill's pert little face was left fully exposed by the cloth +cap which was perched at the top of her curly locks; her expression was +divided between triumph and consternation. + +"Do you think he is hurt, really hurt?" she asked eagerly. "He made a +great fuss, but men generally do, and he walks nearly as well as before. +He can't have broken anything, can he?" + +"Oh no!" cried the pretty lady. "I think you can be quite sure of that, +but at such an age any shock of this kind may be serious. He is a very +heavy old man." + +She paused, looking at the girl with an inquiring expression, as if +waiting for something which had not yet been said, and to her own +astonishment Jill found herself answering the unspoken question. + +"It was our fault that he fell at all. We did it. We were in the +Square hiding behind the bushes, and we had a parcel just the right size +to hold something nice and pretty--it was cotton-wool really!--very +neatly tied up. We dropped it out through the railings and waited till +people came along, and then we twitched it away by the end of a long +black thread." + +The pretty lady's expression changed suddenly. Up till now she had been +all interest and vivacity, almost one might have imagined of approval, +but at the last word she frowned and shook her head. Jill expected a +vigorous remonstrance, but the words, when they came, were not in the +least what she had expected. + +"Thread!" echoed the pretty lady shrilly. "But how stupid! Elastic is +far better. It jerks ever so much bet--" She stopped suddenly with a +gasp of recollection, and continued in a stiff, mincing voice, "It is +very unwise to play practical jokes. One can never tell what the +consequence may be." + +Jill laughed gaily, being much too sharp to be put off with so +transparent a pretence. She drew a step nearer to the pretty lady, and +looked up in her face with twinkling eyes. + +"Oh, it's no use pretending! You weren't shocked a bit! I believe"-- +she gave a little gasp at the audacity of the idea, but her courage did +not fail--"I believe you have even--done it yourself. However did you +manage to think of elastic? It's a lovely idea!" + +The pretty lady wrinkled her brows in a funny, apologetic fashion. + +"It doesn't follow because I did a thing that it is not foolish and +rash. I am afraid I was known for my foolish tricks. I was one of a +big family--such a lot of sisters that people used to call us `the +houseful of girls,' and I was the most mischievous of all. I don't want +to preach to you--it wouldn't be fair, would it, when I have done far +sillier things myself?--but next time you try the parcel trick, get it +out of the way when old people come along. Don't let them run the risk +of a fall, like this poor old gentleman, or even have the trouble of +stooping for nothing. Try to remember, won't you? And,"--eyes and +teeth flashed in an irresistible smile,--"_try the elastic_!" + +Jill's merry trill rang out again, and the pretty lady looked at her +with smiling approval. The girl's natural attractiveness was as +conspicuous as ever, despite the disadvantageous circumstances, and it +would have been a cold heart that did not warm towards her, as she stood +with hands thrust deep into her pockets, fresh, wholesome, and bonnie, +like a bit of summer in the midst of the grey London gloom. + +The pretty lady had heard high praise of the skill of the new doctor who +had come to live in the Square, and also of the personal character of +himself and his wife, but at this moment it is to be feared that she +felt little interested in them as individuals, but regarded them solely +as the parents of their daughter. + +"It is getting rather dusk for you to be out alone. I will walk with +you to the corner. You are one of the doctor's daughters, aren't you? +I have watched you and your sisters from my windows, and envied you for +being together. I do so miss my own sisters. I have five--think of +that!--and only one married besides myself. You can think what a lively +time of it we used to have!" + +But Jill was too busy thinking of something else to have any thought to +spare for the lively times of the past. + +"Are you married?" she inquired breathlessly. "Truly and really? You +look much too young. We thought you were engaged, and had an invalid +mother in the house. I suppose he is the husband?" + +"Yes, he is the husband, sure enough, and we keep no invalids nor +skeletons of any sort in the cupboards, only such a lot of big, empty +rooms, waiting for girls to fill them. I do love girls. I can't be +happy without girls. We have been away constantly the last few months, +but now that we are settled at home I must call on your mother, and ask +if she will spare you to come and have tea with me sometimes. Would you +like to come?" + +"Rather!" replied Jill in expressive, schoolgirl fashion, and the pretty +lady laughed again. + +"That's all right! We must arrange a day quite soon, and I must ask +Cynthia Alliot to meet you. She is a lonely little soul who needs +livening. There now, here we are at your door, and I am sure you are +longing to see how the old gentleman is getting on. Good-bye! We shall +meet soon again." + +She waved her hand, and hurried homewards, the red toque gleaming out +brightly as she passed under the lamp-post, and Jill gazed after her +with adoring eyes. Young girls often cherish a romantic affection for +women older than themselves, and where could there be a more fitting +object on which to lavish one's devotion--so young, so pretty, so +friendly, so--so understanding! She had not preached a bit, only just +thought it would be better to leave old people alone; and then that +suggestion of elastic! In itself it was sufficient to establish her as +a miracle of good sense and ingenuity! + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +WHAT THE VICTIM SAID. + +Jill entered the house to hear from the servant that the doctor had not +yet returned from his rounds, that Mrs Trevor was also out, and that +Miss Betty and Master Jack were looking after the old gentleman in the +dining-room. + +Listening outside the door, she caught a sound of puffing and groaning, +and, unable to resist the promptings of anxiety and curiosity, turned +the handle and entered the room. + +The victim was seated in the doctor's big leather arm-chair, looking +very perturbed and sorry for himself, while Jack and Betty hovered near, +alternately offering suggestions for his relief. + +"If you would lie down on the sofa--" + +"Or have a cushion to your back--" + +"Or a cup of tea--" + +"Or wine--" + +"Or sal-volatile--" + +"Shall I bathe your head with eau de Cologne?" + +"Would you put up your feet on a chair?" + +The victim had apparently been too much engrossed in his own self-pity +to take any notice of the separate suggestions, but now their +reiteration had an irritating effect, for with startling unexpectedness +he thrust forward his big, flushed face, and shouted a loud refusal. + +"No, no, no, no! Do you want to kill me at once? I only want rest and +a chance to get my breath again. Tea? Wine? Faugh! I hope I know +better than that after the agonies I have had to go through. Sal- +volatile! Do you take me for an hysterical old woman? Feet up? Ay, +young sir, I expect I shall have a longer dose of that position than I +care for after this adventure! As if I had not had enough of it +already--five weeks on my chair in the summer, three in the spring, two +months last winter." + +From his own account he was evidently a great sufferer, yet in +appearance he was stout and healthy enough. Jack made a swift +diagnosis, and said politely-- + +"Gout, I suppose, sir? Gout in your feet?" + +"And what makes you suppose anything of the kind, sir? I don't carry a +label to advertise my ailments that I am aware of!" cried the old +gentleman, with an irascibility which convinced his audience that he was +on the point of another attack. Then suddenly he looked past his two +questioners, saw Jill's peering face, and went off at another tangent. + +"Oh ho! What's this? I saw you outside in the street. What are you +doing here, may I ask? Come in for a treat to see the rest of the +show?" + +"It's my house! I live here!" replied Jill grandiloquently. "I am +sorry you are not well. Would you like us to whistle for a cab to take +you home? It's always nicest to be at home when one is ill." + +It was all very well for Jack to frown dissent. Jill was inclined to +think that the truest wisdom lay in getting the old gentleman out of the +way before her father's return, and so escape with one scolding instead +of two. She raised her eyebrows, and mouthed the dumb question, "Will +you tell?" while the victim continued his groans and lamentations. + +"Great mistake ever to leave home in these days. Can't think what I am +coming to next. I merely stooped down to pick up a parcel--simplest +thing in the world; done it a score of times before--and over I went +full on my face. Terrible crash! Terrible crash! Paralysis now, I +expect, in addition to everything else. Just my luck! A wreck, sir--a +wreck! And I used to be the strongest man in the regiment. Ah, well, +well, that's all over! I must be content to be on the shelf now." + +Betty turned towards the twins with a scrutinising gaze, but they had no +eyes for her. A note of real pathos had sounded in the victim's voice +as he bemoaned his lost strength, and their hearts melted before it. +Jack stepped boldly forward to make his confession. + +"It was not paralysis, sir. It was--the parcel! We're sorry,--I'm +sorry, but it was only a joke, and we never thought you would fall. No +one else fell. We kept pulling it away by the string, you know, a _few_ +inches at a time, so that you did not notice, but you had really farther +and farther to stretch, and it was that that made you topple over." + +He paused, and the old gentleman stopped groaning and stared at him with +eyes of crab-like protuberance. The crimson flush deepened on his +cheeks, and his white whiskers appeared to bristle with wrath. He was +truly an awe-inspiring object. + +"It was your doing, was it? You pulled away the parcel, did you? I +`toppled over,' did I?" he repeated with awful deliberation. That was +the lull before the storm, and then it broke in all its fury, and roared +over their heads, so that they gasped and trembled before it. + +The victim went back to his earliest childhood, and thanked Providence +that he at least had known how to behave himself, and desist from silly, +idiotic, ridiculous, tom-fool tricks, which would disgrace a monkey on +an organ. He projected himself into the future, and prophesied ruin and +destruction for a race which produced popinjays and clowns. He +announced his intention of dying that very night, so that the crime +which his hearers had committed might be duly avenged, and in the same +breath would have them to know that he was not the sort of man to be +affected by the tricks of unmannerly cubs, and that General Terence +Digby was match for a hundred such as they, gout or no gout. Gout, +indeed! Toppled, forsooth! The world was coming to a pretty pass! Was +it part of the plot, might he ask, to cajole him into the house and +poison him with their sal-volatile tea? This was a case for the police! + +Betty gave a little shriek of dismay, but the twins exchanged glances of +subdued admiration. They liked to hear a thing done really well, and +the General's denunciation was a triumph of its kind. But when asked if +he were not thoroughly ashamed of himself, Jack showed the courage of +his opinion. + +"Sorry!" he declared. "I said so before, sir, but not ashamed. We +wouldn't have been bribed to hurt you, and I'll apologise as much as you +like, but we were doing nothing wrong. It was only a joke." + +"Joke!" screamed the old gentleman. "Joke!" He rolled his protruding +eyes towards the ceiling, and gasped and spluttered in disgust. "Is +that what you call a joke? I don't know what this country is coming to! +Have you nothing better to do with your time, young sir, than to prowl +about the streets playing monkey tricks on innocent passers-by? I am +sorry for you if that is your best idea of enjoyment." + +"Boys will be boys!" said Jack, in his quaint, sententious fashion. "We +can only be young once, sir, so we might as well make the most of it +while we can." + +"Besides, we weren't prowling about in the street!" cried Jill, suddenly +bursting into the conversation, her determination to keep silent melting +away before what she was pleased to consider a slight on her dignity. +"Mother wouldn't allow such a thing. The Square is private property. +We have a key, and she knows we are perfectly safe when we are there." + +"But, by Jove, other people are not! You manage to get into mischief +though you are railed up!" cried the victim, and a sort of spasm passed +over his face, as of a smile violently suppressed. He glared at Jill, +from her to Betty, from Betty to Jack, and then let his glance wander +round the room--the big, handsome apartment so sparsely filled with the +furniture of a smaller house. The sideboard looked poor and +insignificant in the recess designed for one twice the size; the few +pictures entirely failed to hide the marks of the places where the last +tenant had hung his more generous supply. The carpet covered only two- +thirds of the floor, and was eked out by linoleum. To the most +unobservant eye it must have been evident that the owner of this house +was a man whose means were so limited that the strictest economy was +necessary in the management of his household. + +"Ha--ho--hum!" coughed the old gentleman suddenly. "Have you ever heard +of such a thing as the Employers' Liability Act?" + +The girls shook their heads. Jack had glimmering ideas on the subject. + +"It's a sort of--er--of insurance, isn't it? If a workman fellow drops +a sack on your head, the other fellow has to pay up, so he pays the +insurance fellow to do it for him. That's the sort of thing, isn't it, +sir?" + +"That is the sort of thing, sir, expressed with your natural elegance of +diction. Does your father contract with an `insurance fellow,' may I +ask?" + +"No--why should he? He doesn't employ any workmen." + +"He is responsible for his children, however, who are a hundred times +more dangerous. How will he like it, do you think, when I send him in a +bill for my expenses, and the loss of time caused by this accident? I +put a high price on my time, let me tell you. It is of value to other +people besides myself--of value to my country, sir, I am proud to think! +If I am laid aside by the hand of Providence, that is one matter. It's +a very different thing when it is done of malice intent. What should +you say to a hundred pounds a week, eh, what?" + +Jill gave a squeal of dismay. Betty set her lips tight, and tried to +look composed and haughty, but she felt a trifle sick. She could hardly +bring herself to believe that such a proceeding would be legally +possible, yet the old gentleman had distinctly said that such a law +existed, and Jack appeared to know something about it. Beneath his air +of bravado she could see that the boy shared in her own nervousness, and +a wild idea of flinging herself at the stranger's feet and imploring his +clemency was beginning to take shape in her brain, when a sound from +without attracted the attention of all. + +It was the click of the doctor's key in the latch, and a moment later he +entered the hall, and paused, as his custom was, to read the messages +which had been pencilled for him on a slate. Then came the rustle of +Mary's skirt, a few low-toned words, and the sound of quick steps +approaching the dining-room door. It was a thrilling moment! + +There sat the victim, scarlet-faced, glassy-eyed, scowling more fiercely +than ever, as if in anticipation of the coming conflict. There in a row +stood the three young people, shivering in their respective shoes, for +was it not the greatest of offences to "worry father," and involve him +in needless expenses? + +"Sorry to have been out, sir," cried the doctor, entering the room, and +rubbing his hands in brisk, professional manner. "My maid tells me that +you have had a fall. I hope my young people have looked after you in my +absence. Now, would you prefer to have a talk here, or shall I assist +you into my consulting-room?" + +The critical moment had arrived, and with it came a rapturous surprise, +for even as the young people gazed, the anger faded out of the +stranger's face, the gleaming eyes softened, the lips relaxed, and, as +by the waving of a magician's wand, he was suddenly changed into a +kindly, benevolent old gentleman, who would never condescend to such an +indignity as a fit of temper. + +"Thank you, sir, thank you, sir! I fancy I am pretty nearly my own man +again. Your son very kindly brought me in, and gave me the opportunity +of resting, which was really all I required. And your daughter offered +me refreshments. I--ah--happened to slip,"--the protruding eyes met +Jack's with a flicker, which, if such a thing could be imagined, was +almost a wink!--"to slip on the pavement, and a man of my weight feels +these things more than a boy. Gout, sir, gout in the feet! Your good +son has already diagnosed my complaint, and, no doubt, you will be +equally ready. Now, if you could make up a prescription which would +give me back my powers of twenty years ago--" + +Dr Trevor laughed, while Betty, Jack, and Jill mentally erected a +monument, and placed the figure of the victim upon it in everlasting +gratitude and affection. + +"I am afraid I can hardly do that, but if you will allow me I will give +you a draught which will steady your nerves after the shock. How did +you come to fall? Was the pavement slippery with the mud?" + +"The London pavements, sir," answered the old man pompously, "the London +pavements are a disgrace to civilisation! Don't tell me that I am +crazy. Don't tell me it is the best-paved city in the world. I've +heard that statement before, and I stick to my own opinion. My opinion, +I trust, sir, is worth as much as any other man's. It is a wonder there +are not many more accidents. I fell, sir, I would have you know, in +consequence of my own selfish and avaricious instincts, and I attach no +blame to anyone but myself!" + +"Ah!" exclaimed the doctor significantly. He glanced towards his son, +caught his air of embarrassment, and hesitated between amusement and +indignation. "Jack--at your old parcel trick again?" + +"Boys will be boys, sir, as I have just been reminded. Perhaps we can +remember the day when we also-- But what about that draught? Five +minutes in your consulting-room, if you please, and then Master Jack can +kindly get me a cab. I will not trust myself in the streets again to- +day." + +Another twinkling glance at the twins, and the old gentleman raised +himself slowly from his chair, and followed the doctor from the room, +leaving the three young people staring at each other breathlessly. + +"This _is_ a day!" cried Jill, with a caper of delight. "We've made two +new friends! The pretty lady says she is coming to call, and we must go +to tea, and then this jolly old man... What a brick he is! He didn't +mind scolding us himself, but he wouldn't let anyone else do it. Jack, +do be awfully nice when you get the cab, and offer to see him home. +Tell him how grateful we are. Hint like anything to make him invite us +there!" + +"Trust me for that!" cried Jack. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +MRS. VANBURGH'S PLANS. + +The pretty lady came to call the very next week. Mrs Trevor and Betty +were busy sewing in the upstairs workroom when the maid brought up the +card, and the first sight of it brought no enlightenment. + +"Mrs Gervase Vanburgh! Goodness! What a fine name! Who can she be? +Do you know who it is, mother?" + +"Not in the least, dear. One of the neighbours, perhaps. We will go +down and see." + +Betty smoothed her hair before the looking-glass, and then as carefully +fluffed it out, shook her skirt free from the little ends of thread +which would stick to the rough blue cloth, and followed her mother to +the drawing-room, for now that she was over seventeen it was Mrs +Trevor's wish that she should learn to help in social duties. Half-way +downstairs inspiration dawned. "I believe it's the pretty lady! Jill +said she was coming!" she whispered breathlessly. The pleasant +expectation brought a flush into her cheeks, and an added animation into +her eyes, so that it was in her most attractive guise that she entered +the drawing-room in her mother's train. + +Yes! It was the pretty lady and no one else, prettier than ever in her +very smartest clothes, sitting in orthodox fashion, on a stiff upright +chair, card-case in hand, and discussing the weather and the advantages +and disadvantages of the neighbourhood with the sedateness of an old +married woman; yet ever and anon as she glanced at Betty there was a +something in her face,--a smile, a tremble, a momentary uplifting of the +eyebrow,--which bespoke an unspoken sympathy. "We understand each +other, you and I!" it seemed to say. "This is only a pretence. The +_real_ business will begin when we are alone, but--_don't I do it +well_?" Betty twinkled back, and was content to wait her turn, knowing +that it would surely come. + +Yes, Mrs Vanburgh said, she and her husband had only lately returned to +their town house. They had a little place in the country, and spent a +great deal of time with an old uncle who was an invalid, and very fond +of young society. No! She did not care for town life, but for her +husband's sake she made the best of it for a few months in the year. +The days seemed very long when one was obliged to turn on the lights +before four o'clock. Oh yes, she was fond of reading--sometimes! But +one seemed to need some more active occupation. She did a good deal of +wood-carving. Did Miss Trevor go in for wood-carving? Would she care +to take it up? It would be so very nice to have a companion, and all +the tools were lying in readiness just across the road. + +"Thank you so much. I'd love it!" cried Betty, all pink with excitement +and pleasure. "I take a few classes still--music and French--but my +afternoons are mostly free. I could come any time." + +"To-day?" queried the pretty lady, raising her pretty eyebrows eagerly. +"Now? Come back with me and have tea, and I'll show you my carvings, +and you can decide what you will try first." + +It was all very irregular and unconventional, because, of course, the +proper thing would have been for Mrs Vanburgh to have waited quietly +until Mrs Trevor had returned her call, and even for a judicious period +after that, before sending a formal invitation. Nevertheless Mrs +Trevor had not the heart to interfere. She remembered her own youth, +and the rapture which it had then afforded her to be able to do things +_at once_; she saw the radiance in Betty's face, and realised that her +visitor was only a girl herself, so that when Betty turned towards her a +flushed, appealing face, she smiled indulgently, and said, "Certainly, +dear! It is very kind of Mrs Vanburgh to ask you. Run upstairs and +put on your hat." + +Betty lost no time in taking advantage of this permission, and in ten +minutes' time the extraordinary thing came to pass, that she and the +pretty lady were walking along the Square, chatting together as if they +had been friends of years' standing. + +Mrs Vanburgh paused upon the threshold to give some instructions to the +servant, then escorted Betty straight upstairs to a big, bare room on +the third floor, which she described as her "lair." + +"No one ever sits here but myself, and I can make as much mess as I +like. It's lovely!" she explained, and forthwith turned on the electric +light, and poked up the fire, for the atmosphere was distinctly chilly. +It was certainly not a tidy apartment, no one could have said that for +it, but it was extremely interesting from a girl's point of view. The +wood-carving bench occupied the place of honour before the window; but +there were evidences that the owner possessed more hobbies than one, for +a piece of copper was in process of being beaten into a pattern of +pomegranates and leaves, a work-table was littered with odds and ends, +and on an old black tray was a weird medallion portrait of a gentleman, +manufactured out of plasticine, a lump of which lay by its side. + +Young Mrs Vanburgh held out the tray towards Betty with a dramatic +gesture. + +"That's my husband! Let me introduce you--Mr Gervase Vanburgh--Miss +Trevor! Would you believe, to look at him there, that he is quite the +handsomest man you ever beheld?" + +Betty looked at the grey profile, and sniggered helplessly. + +"I'm afraid I never should!" + +"No, it's horrid! I'm just beginning modelling, and it's not a success. +I suppose it's because I can't draw well enough. What _is wrong_, do +you think?" + +"Everything!" Betty felt inclined to say, but politely compromised by +pointing out the most flagrant offences. + +"The ear is on a level with the mouth. The eye is perched upon a mound, +instead of being in a hollow; he has no nostril, and oh! Water on the +brain! He must have, with all that bump in front!" + +"Goodness! What a critic! You might be one of my very own sisters!" +cried Mrs Vanburgh, laughing. She looked at the profile +scrutinisingly. "There's one comfort--it can soon be altered. There! +I'll take a bit off his head. It's the neatest shape in the world +really. I don't think I am born to be a sculptor. For one thing, I +should never have the patience to clean my nails. This plasticine gets +into all the nooks and crannies, and simply _won't_ come out!" + +Betty had no sympathy to spare for nails. She was too much occupied in +considering another problem. Mrs Vanburgh looked almost as young as +herself, and was far more spontaneous and lively in manner; it seemed +impossible to imagine her the mistress of this stately house, and the +wife of the handsomest man in the world! There was all the natural awe +of the unmarried for the married girl in her voice as she said-- + +"It is so strange to hear you talk of your husband. You don't look a +bit married. Doesn't it feel very--queer?" + +Mrs Vanburgh laughed happily. + +"It feels very--nice! I have only one trouble in life, and that is that +I am too happy. Yes, seriously, it does trouble me! It's so difficult +not to grow selfish when one is always petted, and praised, and +considered first of all. I want to be of some use in the world. My +husband says I am of use to him, and of course that's my first duty, but +it's not enough. When I was married a dear old lady wrote me a letter, +and said that marriage often became `the selfishness of two,' and I do +feel that it is true. It's no credit to be good to someone who is +dearer than yourself, and giving a few subscriptions is no credit either +when you are rich; it was a very different matter when you scraped them +out of your dress allowance. I've thought over heaps of things that I +could do, and at last I've decided--sit down, and I'll tell you all +about it! This is the comfiest chair. It's so nice getting to know you +first, because you can help. Ages ago I read a story by Sir Walter +Besant, _Katherine Regina_ was the name, I think. I forget what it was +about, and all about it, except that one character was a poor governess +living in a dreary London `Home,' knowing nobody, and having absolutely +nowhere to go in her leisure hours, because of course she could not +afford entertainments. One day she had a desperately miserable fit, and +said to one of her companions--I always remembered those words--`Is +there no woman in all the length and breadth of this great city who has +a thought for us, or who cares enough for us to open the house to us for +a few hours a week?' I made up my mind then and there, that if I ever +lived in a city and had a home of my own, I would share it with homeless +people. I asked my husband if I might have an `At Home' every Saturday +afternoon, and he said I could ask everyone I liked, so long as I did +not expect him to put in an appearance. So!"--she clasped her hands +excitedly, and her eyes flashed--"this very week I drove round to three +separate Governesses' Homes and left cards of invitation--`Mrs Gervase +Vanburgh will be at home every Saturday afternoon between November 12 +and December 20 from three to seven o'clock, and will be pleased to see +any ladies who may care to call upon her.' What do you think of that +for a start?" + +Betty stared in amazement. "Governesses! Three Homes! Three to seven! +How _dreadful_! What will you do with them?" + +"Oh! I've lots of plans. I'll have a scrumptious light, cakey tea in +the drawing-room, and in the dining-room a sort of cold high-tea as they +have in the North, with chickens, and ham, and potted shrimps, and +sandwiches, and all sorts of good things for those who can stay until +six, and sit down to a regular meal. And I'll have nice books and +magazines in the library, and easy-chairs drawn up to the fire; and up +here, anyone who likes can practise wood-carving, or copper beating, or +any of my little hobbies. I'll throw open the whole house, and let each +one do what she likes best; and you shall help me! I've got another +girl coming on Saturday, and between the three of us we ought to be able +to manage. I don't ask you to come, you see,--I command! I need your +help." + +Betty hesitated between pride and dismay. + +"I can't imagine myself entertaining a party of govies! I am still +under their thrall, remember. You are emancipated, so it's different +for you. But I'll come, of course I'll come. How many visitors do you +expect?" + +"That's just what cook asked, and I hadn't a notion what to say. I +don't suppose we shall have many the first time. Only the enterprising +spirits will come, but when they go back and say what a good time they +have had, the numbers will increase. Do you think perhaps--twenty +altogether?" + +"Say a dozen!" said Betty, and Nan's face lengthened with +disappointment. + +"Only a dozen? Oh, surely there must be more than that! Just think; +there are three Homes, and I expect forty or fifty living in each. I am +quite sure there will be twenty. I shall provide for twenty-five, to be +on the safe side." + +She bent forward to poke the fire once more, and Betty's eyes roamed to +the white overmantel, which was divided into five panels, each of which +contained a vignette portrait of a girl's head, printed in a delicate +shade of brown. She had seen much the same kind of thing in furniture +warehouses again and again, but in this case the pictured faces lacked +the pretty prettiness which was the usual characteristic, and were +unmistakably portraits of living people. She looked at her hostess with +an eager question. + +"Your sisters?" + +"Yes; isn't it lovely? They clubbed together and gave it to me for a +wedding present. It feels a little bit as if they were here, to look up +from my work and see their faces. That's the eldest--Maud; my Maud! +She and I were always together. She is married, and has a dear little +girl. That's Lilias, the next eldest--the beauty of the family." + +"Ah!" sighed Betty enviously, "she _is_ pretty. How lovely to be like +that! Is she married too?" + +"No." + +"Engaged?" + +"No." + +"How funny! I should have thought she would have been married the first +of all. Didn't everyone fall in love with her at first sight?" + +"Yes, I think they did, but at second sight they seem to have preferred +Maud and--me?" + +Mrs Vanburgh did not seem disposed to discuss her sister's love +affairs. She pointed to the next portrait, that of a dark, interesting- +looking girl with hair parted down the middle and smoothed plainly down, +in marked contrast to her sister's curls and pompadours. + +"That's Elsie! She has views, and objects to being like the common +herd. She writes articles _for_ papers, not _in_ them, abusing +everything that is, and praising up everything that isn't. Gervase, my +husband, says she will do very well when she learns sense. She is a +dear old raven, and I miss her croak more than you would believe. +That's Agatha. She's just--Agatha! A good-natured dear, always +terribly in earnest about the smallest thing. Christabel is the baby, +which means the head of the family. She is coming out next year, and +means to outshine us all. I will tell you lots of stories about the +girls and the jolly times we had at home, and soon I hope you will meet +some of them here. Sisters are such comforts, aren't they?" + +Betty mumbled an inarticulate something which might have been an assent +or the reverse, and a servant entering with a tea-tray, the conversation +turned to less personal topics. There was never any lack of anything to +say, however, for, strangers as they were, the two girls chattered away +without a break until the clock struck six, at which sound Betty leapt +from her seat like another Cinderella, and turned hastily towards the +door. + +"Six! Oh, and I had Pam's music-lesson at half-past five! How awful of +me to forget! You were so interesting, and I was enjoying myself so +much. I must fly!" + +"It's no use, I'm afraid. You can't put the clock back. There's one +comfort--Pam will forgive you! That's the little one, I suppose, with +the kitten face. I must get to know her soon." + +Mrs Vanburgh tripped downstairs by Betty's side, and shook hands with +the geniality of a lifelong friendship. + +"Remember Saturday!" she cried. "Three o'clock punctually, and bring +all your stores of small talk with you, for the first half-hour." + +Betty ran across the darkened street and let herself into her own house, +aglow with pleasurable excitement. Life looked quite a different thing +in the last few hours, wherein a friend and a vocation had alike sprung +into being. After all, it was a delightful old world! She would never +grumble again, since at any moment such delightful surprises might +arise. + +The door swung open. How cold and grey the hall appeared after the +glowing richness of Mrs Vanburgh's carpets and hangings! Betty made a +little grimace at the linoleum, and lifting her eyes was suddenly aware +of a wrathful figure confronting her from the threshold of the dining- +room--Jill, standing with arms akimbo, flushed cheeks, and flashing +eyes. + +"So you have deigned to come back, have you? What business had you to +go to tea with her at all, I should like to know? She's my friend! I +knew her first! What right had you to go poking yourself forward?" + +"I didn't poke. She asked me! Mother can tell you that she did. I'm +going again on Saturday." + +Jill's wrath gave way to an overwhelming anxiety. + +"And me? And me? I am sure she asked me too." + +"No, she didn't. It's a grown-up party. She'll ask you another time +with Pam. She said she wanted to know Pam." + +It was the last straw to be classed with Pam, a child of eight summers! +Jill stuttered with mortified rage. + +"S-neak! Just like you! Mark my word, Elizabeth Trevor, _I'll be even +with you about this_!" + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +A VISIT TO THE VICTIM. + +During the next week Betty's thoughts were continually winging across +the Square to her new friend, Mrs Vanburgh, though her own time was so +fully occupied, that, with the exception of a sudden encounter in the +street, they did not see anything of each other until the great Saturday +arrived. + +Meantime it rankled in Jill's mind that she had been unfairly treated, +and, in consequence, she was constantly endeavouring to hit on some +scheme which would at once vindicate her own importance and put Betty's +adventure in the shade. General Digby, as a new and striking +personality in her small circle of acquaintances, naturally suggested +himself as a fitting object for the enterprise, and she lost no time in +consulting her ally. + +"I say, Jack, when you saw the `Victim' home the other night, did you +notice the address?" + +"What do you take me for, silly? I have eyes, haven't I? Of course I +noticed it." + +"You may have eyes, but you certainly haven't a memory. Do you happen +to remember where it was?" + +"No, I don't, but I wrote it down in my pocket-book, so I could soon +find out if I wanted to. Why?" + +"Because I think we ought to call and ask how he is." + +"Father says he's all right except for his gout." + +"I know--but it would be polite to call. Mother always does, even when +she knows they are better. And as we were the--er--what do you call +it?--cause of the accident--" + +"Innocent?" + +"No, that's not it! A much finer word--un--un--_unwitting_!--that's it, +so it's all the more proper that we should inquire. How far off is it? +Could we meet and go together after school this afternoon?" + +"It's near enough, as far as that goes--one of those swagger flats in +Prince's Square. I suppose we could manage all right. Will you tell +mother about it?" + +"Not till we get back. I am sure she would think it very nice and kind +of us, but she'd want me to put on best things, and worry about my hair. +I wish I'd been born a savage! I do so loathe being bothered about +clothes." + +"Never mind. No one would think to look at you that you ever bothered +about them at all," quoth Jack, with somewhat unflattering sympathy. +"I'll wait for you at the corner of Prince's Square. I'm not going to +meet all those sniggering girls if I know it." + +So it was arranged, and Jill swelled with importance for the rest of the +day, longing for four o'clock to arrive, and set her free from her +duties. + +Pam went to the door with her sister after lunch, and stood shivering +upon the top step while they exchanged farewells. She herself attended +only the morning school, and was apt to find the afternoons rather +lonely when the twins were out, and Betty was absorbed in her studies. + +"Come back quickly," she pleaded. "Do come back quickly, and 'muse me!" +and Jill nodded a bright assent. + +"I'll amuse you finely--when I come!" + +She pranced off, tossing back her hair, and swinging her satchel to and +fro, while Pam looked after her with admiring envy. How lovely to be +old like that--quite old--old enough to do your own hair, and walk to +school by yourself! Pam heaved another sigh, and glanced wistfully up +and down the Square--the look of a captive who longs to escape. A +policeman was strolling along his beat. Emily and Hannah were taking +their places in the old-fashioned barouche preparatory to starting on +their afternoon amble. Just across the road old "All a-growing all a- +blowing" was standing by his barrow, loudly urging a passer-by to +purchase one of his plants. + +Pam looked longingly at the branching palms as his guttural accents came +to her ear-- + +"Buy a palm, lidy, won't you, lidy? Very cheap--cheaper than you could +buy 'em anywhere in the City. If you've got such a thing as an old +dress or a pair of trousers, of the master's, I'd allow you 'ansome for +them. I'd rather have clothes nor money. I'm a married man, lidy, with +a fam'ly of children--" + +"Pam, Pam," cried Mrs Trevor's voice, "don't stand out there, darling. +It's far too cold. Come in here to me." + +Pam obediently shut the door, and settled down to the afternoon duties +of plain sewing and practice, which her soul abhorred. It was +characteristic of her that she never rebelled against authority, nor +expressed her distaste in words. A meek, uncomplaining little martyr, +she sat perched on the piano-stool, wrestling with the "Blue Bells of +Scotland," the while the wildest rebellion surged within her soul. + +"I wish pianos had never been born! I wish I'd been made a boy. When +I'm a lidy," (unconscious intonation of "All a-blowing!") "I'll have no +pianos in the house, nor no needles, and my little girls shall 'muse +themselves however they like. The--Blue--Bells--of--Scot--land... It +doesn't go a bit nice in the bass! Don't believe I shall ever get it +right if I live a hundred thousand years?" + +The moment school was over Jill made a rush for the dressing-room, +scrambled into her outdoor clothes, and hurried to the appointed +meeting-place, where Jack found her a few minutes later. It was already +dusk, and they set off at a brisk trot towards the mansions in which +General Digby's flat was situated, in great hopes of finding that +gentleman at home and disengaged. + +"It's too damp for him to be out. Gout's a kind of rheumatism, and that +always has to be kept dry," Jill declared learnedly. "He's sure to be +in, but I've got a card, just in case. It's a correspondence one cut +down, and I've printed our names on it, and `Kind inquiries' in the +corner, like mother puts. It's fine! When I cough it will mean that I +don't know what to say next, so you must go on while I think. If he +asks us to stay to tea, we must say we can't, until he begs us again." + +"But suppose he didn't--that would be a pretty sell! I shan't do +anything so silly," said cautious Jack. "I'll accept at once." + +"Well--perhaps. But it's politer to make a fuss. Is it a man who opens +the door, or a woman?" + +"A man--looks like an old soldier himself." + +"What's the proper way to tell him our names?" + +"Jack and Mary Trevor, of course." + +"It isn't! Miss Mary Trevor and Master Jack Trevor, if you please!" + +"If you're miss, I'm mister. I'm not going to be called `master,' as if +I were a kid!" + +"All right, then--Miss and Mr Trevor. I'll speak, because I'm the +lady, and give him the card to carry up." + +Jack was not at all anxious to take the lead, so he assented by means of +the usual grunt, and when the door of the flat was reached, and the man- +servant appeared in response to a furious onslaught on the electric +bell, he stood by silently while Jill conducted operations. + +"Does a gentleman called General Digby live here?" + +"He does, madam." + +Jill gave a toss to her saucy head. She had never before been addressed +as "madam," and the sensation was distinctly agreeable. + +"We want to see him, please." + +The butler looked in hesitating fashion from one of the strange visitors +to the other--Jill with her elfin locks, shabby hat and thick woollen +gloves; Jack with his hands thrust deep into his pockets, his school cap +at the back of his head. + +"I am not sure, madam, that the General is receiving this afternoon." + +"Then please take in my card and inquire," returned Jill with a burst of +dignity, which surprised herself and rilled Jack with admiration. + +The butler also looked distinctly impressed, though the card itself, +when produced from the recesses of Jill's pocket, had somewhat lost its +first crispness and beauty. He placed it on a silver salver and +disappeared down the passage, while the twins peered curiously through +the doorway. + +Old guns, swords, and curious-looking Eastern weapons hung against the +wall; stags' heads peered over the different doorways; a great glass- +case of stuffed birds stood on a table. "Hidjus!" thought Jill. +"Ripping!" thought Jack, his mind turning longingly to the exciting +scenes of sport in which these trophies had been captured. He had time +to examine them pretty thoroughly before the servant returned, but when +he did make his appearance he brought with him the desired answer. The +General was "at home," and would be pleased to receive Miss and Mr +Trevor forthwith. + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +THE GENERAL'S STORY. + +Jill stepped forward, tossing her head, as though to imply that there +had never been any doubt about her welcome, and Jack followed closely +behind, while the servant led the way down two long passages running at +right angles to each other, and threw open a door at the end, announcing +the visitors' names in stentorian tones. + +A strong whiff of cigar smoke filled the air, and there sat the General +on a crimson velvet arm-chair, which was hardly redder than his own +complexion. His protruding eyes looked as glassy as ever, and his grey +locks were ruffled at the top until he bore a ludicrous likeness to a +paroquet. He held the crumpled card in his hand, and greeted his +visitors with a chuckle of amusement. + +"Well, sir. Well, ma'am--`kind enquiries,' eh? Come to see how the +poor old man is faring after his fall?" + +"Yes! We wanted to know. We thought it would be polite, as we were the +un--er--unwitting causers of your accident." + +Jill brought out the right word with fine effect, whereupon the General +made great play with his outstanding tufts of eyebrow, pretending to +frown, and look ferocious. + +"Un--witting, indeed! If that is your idea of unwitting, I should like +to know how you would define deliberate intent! I'll forgive you this +time, but let me catch you at any of your tricks again, and the fat will +be in the fire! Sit down--sit down. It's not often an old bachelor +like myself has the honour of entertaining a young lady visitor. No man +has had better friends, or more of them, than Terence Digby, but there +are precious few remaining nowadays. I've left them behind me in many a +lonely grave, without a stick or stone to show the resting-place of some +of the bravest fellows the world has ever known. It's lonely work to +outlive one's best friends." + +"Have you been in many wars, sir?" asked Jack, quick to scent a story of +adventure. He dropped his hat on the floor and wriggled back in his +chair, the rebellious locks of hair which his sisters christened +"Cetewayo," after the Zulu chief, sticking up rampantly at the back of +his head. "Have you been in any real, proper wars?" + +"I should think I have, sir. Many wars, and tough and serious wars at +that, though a whipper-snapper like you would not know their names, and +the English newspapers sandwich the news of them in a corner--with a +small headline of `Border War.' It's the Border Wars which keep the +Empire together, let me tell you, sir--the Border Wars which entail the +most self-sacrificing and thankless work. There's no honour and glory +about them. The people you are fighting for don't even take the trouble +to find out where you are, or what the trouble is about. Not that there +ought to be any hardship about that to the true soldier. He fights for +his King! That is enough for him!" + +A curious softening of expression came over the fierce old face as he +spoke the last sentence. The young people both noticed it, and dimly +suspected a deeper meaning to the words, but they were in no mood for +moralising. + +"I should prefer the honour and glory," Jill declared boldly. "I'd hate +to be sent to fight savages in pokey out-of-the-way places where nobody +was watching and saying, `England expects!' I could be most +terrifically brave, if I knew it would be in the papers in the morning, +and I should be a hero when I got home; but I'd be scared to death up +among great lonely mountains with the feeling that nobody cared. Were +you ever frightened, General Digby?" + +"Soldiers are never frightened. You are only a girl," interrupted Jack +indignantly, but his host did not agree with his conclusions. + +"She may be a girl, but she knows what she is talking about. She +understands, because she is a girl, perhaps. Women have that faculty +born in them. Banners and flags, and bands playing patriotic airs, and +the feeling that the world is watching, have an inspiring effect on the +most timid of men. Who told you that a soldier was never afraid, young +sir? Whoever it was did not know what he was talking about. Yes, I +have been afraid, deadly afraid, many times over, and no man dared to +call Terence Digby a coward. To camp with a handful of men among the +great lonely mountains, as your sister so aptly puts it, never knowing +when or how the attack may fall--an attack of devils rather than men; to +know that if you are taken torture will be your portion, not death,-- +there is nothing to dread in dying for one's country,--that shakes the +nerves of the strongest man! I hear people talking about modern +warfare, and saying it is the hardest trial of bravery to fight an +unseen foe three or four miles away. Well, well! I wonder if they have +ever seen a rush of one of those warlike hill-tribes, and stood waiting +to receive it as I have had to do times and again!" + +"Did you kill lots of men--yourself? How many have you killed?" Jack +inquired eagerly, but the General refused to be specific. + +"I prefer not to think. It's not a pleasant recollection. When the +world is a little older, let us hope we shall find some better way of +settling a quarrel than seeing who can kill off the most men. What are +you going to be when you are a man, Mr Jack? Going in for a +profession?" + +Jack's face fell. For personal questions, especially questions +referring to his studies, he had a strong distaste. He wriggled on his +chair, and mumbled between his lips-- + +"Trying for a scholarship. Half fees for the next three years. If I +get it father will send me on to Cambridge. He wants me to be a doctor, +and help him in the practice when he gets old." + +"And you?" + +Jack shrugged his shoulders. + +"I'd like to be a surgeon. It would be fine patching people up, setting +their bones, and trying things no one had dared to do before; but I +couldn't stand driving round every day to look after their wretched +colds, and vaccinate the babies. I'd like to be an army doctor best of +all." + +"Humph! Would you! Much you know about it. I fancy you'd soon be +thankful to take on the babies in exchange. Well, I've only one piece +of advice to give you, my boy: never be persuaded to take up a career +into which you cannot throw your whole heart and soul. You are +responsible for your life's work, and will have to account for it some +day. Don't make things harder by drifting into uncongenial +surroundings. You look to me like a young fellow who might drift. Too +easy-going by half!" + +Jack flushed uncomfortably. He hated being criticised, especially when +the criticism was true, as conscience proclaimed the present indictment +to be. There came to him every now and then moments of illumination, +when, as if a flashlight was suddenly played over the future, he +realised that he would soon be a man, with a man's duties and +responsibilities to himself and to others, and that these years of +preparation were his training-ground for the fight, concerning the +spending of which he would either rejoice or sorrow all his life long. +At such moments the blood tingled in his veins, and he felt strong to do +all things, and deny himself all things, if only the goal could be +reached; but the vision soon faded, and he relapsed once more into +careless, happy-go-lucky ways, caring more for a "lark" than for any +solid gain, present or to come. + +The old man stared at the boy for a moment,--seemed as if about to add +something to his denunciation, but changed his mind, and addressed Jill +instead. + +"And you, missy? Girls have professions nowadays as well as their +brothers. Have you any special vocation in view?" + +Jill shook her pretty shaggy head. + +"Oh no, I'm just going to be a plain lady!" whereat the General threw +himself back in his chair with a stentorian laugh. + +"No, that you never will! That is, fortunately, out of your own hands. +You will have to make another choice, my dear." + +Jill showed her white teeth in a smile, wholly unembarrassed by the +compliment. + +"I mean, I shall get married as soon as I leave school. I should hate +to have to make money for myself. I'll marry a rich man with lots of +dogs and horses, and then I can enjoy myself without any bother." + +The General drew his eyebrows together and stared scrutinisingly at the +girlish figure seated on the high-backed oak chair. Flowing locks, +short petticoats, heavy boots, woollen gloves--just a bit of a +schoolgirl in the hobbledehoy stage in which feminine instincts seem +dormant--and the ambitions are more those of a boy than a girl. But +Jill was going to be a woman some day, and a fascinating woman into the +bargain, with all the power for good or evil over the lives of others +which such fascination brings. The General shook his head in warning +fashion. + +"Don't say that, my girl. Never say or think a thing like that again! +You are only a child, but you'll grow up. It's wonderful how quickly +you young things spring up. You'll be a woman before you can say, `Jack +Robinson!' and there's no worse sin a woman can commit than to look upon +marriage as a mere profession, an easy way of securing board and +lodging. It's not only ruining her own life--it's ten times worse--for +it ruins another into the bargain. When I was a young fellow I asked a +girl to marry me--the only girl I ever did ask--and she wouldn't look at +me. She was a poor girl, and I had lots of money, but she was honest +with me all the same, and I've been grateful to her all my life. I've +been a lonely old fellow, but it would have been a thousand times worse +to have had a wife who did not love me! You put it out of your head, +little girl, that you are going to sell yourself for all the horses and +dogs in creation." + +"Um--" said Jill vaguely. + +She had scented a love--story, and with the inherent curiosity of her +sex was dying to hear more about it. + +"And what became of the girl? Did she marry--someone else?" + +"Which girl? Oh--I suppose so! I went out to India and lost sight of +her. I did not want to see her again. I hope she settled down with a +good fellow who could take care of her. Hullo, what's this?" + +The man-servant had entered the room with a tray, which he proceeded to +place on a table by Jill's side. It contained the usual paraphernalia +for afternoon tea, but it appeared that the General did not as a rule +indulge in this meal, hence his astonishment at its appearance. + +"Thought the young lady would like some, eh? Quite right--quite right. +You keep me up to my duties as usual! Johnson has been with me for the +last thirty years!" he explained to his guests. "We fought together in +the East, and I should get on badly without him nowadays. Now, my dear, +help yourself. You are the lady of the party, so you must preside." + +Jill pulled off her gloves, gave a surreptitious lick to an ink-stain on +the second finger of her right hand, rubbed it dry on the side of her +dress, and proceeded to do the honours with equal self-possession and +enjoyment. If Betty could see her now! A real General with a man- +servant to wait upon him! It was a hundred times more important and +exciting than Mrs Vanburgh and her governesses! + +"Have you got any medals--Victoria Crosses and things?" she asked, with +a view to adding point to her account of the interview, and the General +gave a loud guffaw of amusement. + +"A selection of Victoria Crosses! Eh, what? No, I am sorry to say I +have not; only one or two medals, such as any man might possess who has +served the same number of years. Where are they? In a drawer in my +bedroom, of course! You don't expect me to hang them up on the wall, do +you?" + +"Yes, I do. I should! Where everyone would see and ask questions about +them. I'd wear them, too, whenever I possibly could!" cried Jill, +unabashed, and once more the General shook his head and exclaimed-- + +"Woman, woman!" in a tone of tragic significance. + +When the meal was over, however, he yielded to Jack's entreaties, and +escorted his visitors into the adjoining bedroom, where various warlike +trophies reposed with the medals in the drawers of an old cabinet. The +boy's interest was intense, but Jill soon wearied and turned to inspect +the general furnishing of the room. It was very bare and plain--a +narrow camp bed, a few chairs, and a dressing-table--bare of everything +but the absolute necessities of toilet, and those of the simplest +description. One saw the old soldier in every arrangement, but it was +on the opposite corner of the room that Jill's eyes rested with the +greatest astonishment. + +On the wall hung a picture which she did not remember having seen +before, representing a group of Eastern beggars, and in the foreground +the figure of Christ with a beautiful, earnest face--a _young_ face, not +the worn and haggard representation so often seen--talking to one whose +handsome robes showed him to be a person of position, who stood with +hanging head and pained, disappointed expression. Beneath the picture +stood a kneeling-chair with a pile of devotional books on the ledge. +The whole effect was that of a quiet corner or "closet," as the Apostle +calls it, and Jill was still staring at it with distended eyes when the +General turned round and discovered her. + +"You appear to be astonished by the sight of my corner! Why?" he +inquired, and a more observant listener might have discovered a certain +tension and anxiety in his tone, but Jill noticed nothing, and answered +with the brutal candour of youth-- + +"I--I did not think you were--like that!" + +"Ah! Why not? Because I lost my temper, and railed at you the other +day. Eh, what?" + +Jack and Jill gave a simultaneous exclamation of denial, for there had +been a note of real pain and shame in the old man's voice which was +quick to reach their hearts. In truth, they had thought no less of the +General for his expression of temper. It was only what was to be +expected under the circumstances, and he had been a brick in defending +them from their father's anger. It was difficult to explain the real +reason of their surprise at the discovery of his Christianity. One +could not say, for instance, "because your face is so red, and your eyes +are so fierce, and your voice is so loud, and your manner of +conversation so abrupt and startling; because you have been a slayer of +men, and have lived a life of storm and adventure," yet it was in truth +the contrast to the pale, anaemic type which young people instinctively +picture in a devotee which caused the astonishment in their minds. They +remained silent, hanging their heads, while the General continued +sadly-- + +"Well, well, I don't wonder! That tongue of mine has dishonoured me a +hundred times before now, but, bad specimen as I am, I should be a +hundred times worse but for the time spent in that corner. Have you +seen that picture before?" + +Jill shook her head. + +"No, it is not half so well-known as it deserves to be! `Christ and the +Young Ruler,' who went away sorrowful `because he had great +possessions.' It has never entered your head, I suppose, to pray to be +preserved from prosperity, or _in_ prosperity, if you like that better? +Of course not! Precious few people ever do, yet the temptations of +prosperity are fifty times more subtle, if they are less pressing, than +those of poverty. I tell you, sir, when a man is young and strong, and +feels the blood coursing in his veins, and when his balance at the +banker's allows him to do pretty well as he chooses, it is precious +difficult to realise that he needs any help, human or Divine. Even +now--selfish old beggar that I am!--I have no one's convenience but my +own to consider, and if I want a thing there's no end of a fuss if I +don't get it in the twinkling of an eye. So I keep that picture there +to remind me that my money is only lent to me to use for the good of +others. Christ, the Captain! I am here to obey His orders!" + +As he spoke he lifted his hand to his brow in stiff military salute, and +over the fierce old face came the same wonderful softening which the +twins had noticed a few minutes before. + +They were speechless with embarrassment, as young things often are when +a conversation suddenly takes a serious turn; but when they had taken +their leave, with many invitations to repeat their visit, the same +thought lingered in the mind of each as they made their way homeward. + +"Fancy him turning out so--good!" cried Jill wonderingly. "He really +almost--preached. I _was_ surprised!" + +"Humph!" returned Jack vaguely, for the figure of the old soldier +saluting his Captain had made too deep an impression on his heart to be +lightly discussed. "Christ, the Captain!" The idea appealed to his +boyish instincts, and awoke a new ambition. Hitherto he had looked upon +religion as a thing apart from his own life, the monopoly of women and +clergymen, whose business it was; now for the first time it appealed to +him as a fine and manly virtue. + +Sitting by his lonely fireside, General Digby reproached himself for his +lack of influence on his new friends. He would have been a happy man if +he had known that by God's grace he had that afternoon planted a seed +for God in Jack Trevor's careless heart. "Christ, the Captain!" To the +last day of the boy's life he never forgot those words, nor the picture +of the old soldier with his hand raised to the salute. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +BETTY AND CYNTHIA MEET. + +"Jill, do you know where my green check blouse has gone? I can't find +it anywhere." + +"How should I know? I haven't taken it--wouldn't be seen in the horrid +old thing! Why are you worrying if it has disappeared? I thought you +said the other day that it was too shabby to wear any more?" + +"So I did, but I want the buttons to put on a new blouse. It was +hanging up in my cupboard last week." + +"I expect it's there still, only you can't see it because it's hidden +away behind your dresses. What is far more important is my umbrella. +Somebody has eaten it, I believe--it's simply _gone_!" + +"You have left it at school again. You are always losing your +umbrellas." + +"People steal them, I suppose, because they are so beautiful! Alpaca-- +three and eleven! Mother says it's no use giving me a silk because I'm +not careful. That's bad reasoning! I should be careful if I had a +silk. But it's not my fault this time. I know I brought it home, +because there was an apple inside it which Norah gave me in prep. I ate +it last night, and this morning the brolley has vanished. It's hard +lines, for I shall get a rowing if it doesn't turn up, and it isn't my +fault a bit." + +"Oh, I expect you'll find it all right. It's so tiresome, because the +buttons exactly match this blouse, and I want it for Saturday," returned +Betty, too much absorbed in her own affairs to have any sympathy to +spare for Jill's loss. All the week long she lived in the thought of +Saturday, and when at long last the day arrived she could hardly wait +until three o'clock, so anxious was she to be at her post. + +Mrs Vanburgh came to meet her at the door of the dining-room, looking +flushed and excited. + +"Come in here!" she said. "We are beginning to set out the table, so +you are just in time. I want to have everything ready by the half- +hour." + +"Who are `we,' I wonder?" was Betty's mental question as she crossed the +threshold, and the next moment brought with it a shock of surprise, for, +standing in the middle of the room, her hair shining like an aureola +round her head, stood no less a person than the Pampered Pet herself. A +plate of cakes was held in one hand, and a plate of bread-and-butter in +the other, and she stood stock still, staring at the new-comer, +apparently as much surprised to recognise Betty as Betty was to +recognise herself. + +"This is my friend Cynthia Alliot; this is my friend Betty Trevor!" +cried Mrs Vanburgh, introducing the two girls with an easy wave of the +hand. "She can't shake hands, poor dear, so you'll have to take the +will for the deed. Where shall we put those plates? There doesn't seem +much room left." + +There did not, indeed! Betty stared in amazement at the noble feast +which had been provided for the expected guests. The dining-table was +profusely decorated with flowers, which looked especially beautiful at +this dull, wintry season. Dishes of cold fowls, ham, and tongue, were +flanked by every imaginable description of cakes, both small and large. +Different sorts of jam were dotted here and there among the larger +dishes; tea and coffee cups were ranged at the farther end. It was, in +fact, a North Country high-tea of the most complete and tempting +description. + +"Light refreshments are to be served in the drawing-room. This is for +those who can stay on for several hours. My husband is going to dine at +his club, so we can keep the dear things as long as they are happy," +said Nan with a gush, while the two girls smiled at each other with shy +friendliness. + +"Now I shall get to know them! Now they may get to like me, and ask me +to sit with them in their schoolroom," thought lonely Cynthia longingly. + +"The Pet herself! She _is_ pretty! Miles would admire her more than +ever; and oh, what a blouse, and I thought mine was quite nice!" sighed +Betty dolorously. + +Both Mrs Vanburgh and her friend were very simply attired, but with a +dainty finish and elegance from which Betty's home-made garment was very +far removed. She felt plain and dowdy beside them, and her spirits +suffered in consequence. Superior people may despise her for so doing, +but they don't understand how a girl feels, so their opinion is not +worth having. At seventeen it takes real grace to be a contented +Cinderella, and poor Betty did not at all enjoy the position. + +It was difficult, however, for any companions of Nan Vanburgh to be +depressed for long together, so bright was she, so radiant, so brisk, +friendly, and confidential. The girls were sent flying hither and +thither until all the preparations were finished, then-- + +"Let's go out into the hall, and pretend to be governesses, and walk in +again, to see how the effect strikes us," she cried; and out they +rushed, like a trio of merry schoolgirls, drawing their faces into +expressions of abnormal gravity, to march back again solemn and slow. + +"Pray be seated. You must be exhausted after your long walk. To what +can I assist you?" + +"The breast of a fowl, please, and a portion of ham; a cup of tea and a +few hot muffins-- Goodness me, are you going to talk to the poor +creatures like that? They _will_ be daunted!" replied Cynthia, all in a +breath. She was not at all proper, Betty was glad to see, but as full +of fun as an ordinary commonplace girl. "What are you going to talk to +them about?" she demanded of her hostess, who shook her head in somewhat +helpless fashion, and replied-- + +"I don't know! I'm hoping for inspiration at the last moment, and +eating is a grand resource! Ply them well with muffins till the ice is +broken--" + +At this moment the conversation was interrupted by the sound of an +electric bell, upon hearing which Mrs Vanburgh uttered a sharp +exclamation of dismay, and rushed for the hall. Her two assistants +followed, but even they in their schoolgirl stage could not keep up with +the pace at which she literally flew up the staircase. Her feet seemed +hardly to touch the ground; she sprang up two steps at a time, crying +continuously, "Quick, quick!" until, just as the head of the staircase +was reached, cr-r-r-ur! Came the sounds of ripping seams, and a long +dangle of silk flounce showed underneath her skirt. + +"Just my luck!" she cried disconsolately. "It never seems as if I could +get upstairs like anyone else. Now they'll think I'm an untidy wretch, +and it will all be spoiled. What's the use of silk flounces anyway? +I'll never have another--I vow I won't! There! I'll pin it up with a +brooch till they've gone. We must be in the drawing-room ready to +receive. Cynthia, sit over there, and pretend to be reading. Miss +Trevor, you might be casually poking the fire. Whatever we do, we +mustn't alarm the poor dears by looking formal." + +"I am a great deal more alarmed of the poor dears than they will be of +me! My sister Jill pretended to swoon at the idea of a room full of +governesses. She said it was more like a nightmare than a piece of real +life." + +"Hush!" whispered Mrs Vanburgh tragically. "They come!" for footsteps +were heard ascending the staircase, and the assistants flew to their +posts, while the hostess endeavoured to hum a tune in a light and jaunty +manner. + +Another moment and the door was thrown open to disclose--a servant, +bearing a note upon a silver salver. It was not a governess after all! + +The two girls came forward into the room, divided between relief and +disappointment. + +Mrs Vanburgh tossed the note impatiently aside, and said resignedly-- + +"Ah, well, it gives us all the longer to prepare! I'll run into my room +and mend this horrid dress, and you might arrange these books of +photographs. They are really awfully interesting, and of almost every +country you can imagine. Old Mr Vanburgh collected them on his +travels, so you have only to find out which country interests your +special governess most, and--there you are! It will save no end of +exertion!" + +She ran out of the room, and the two girls stood together, seized with a +sudden shyness at finding themselves alone. + +"I--I think we know each other very well by sight," said Cynthia, and +Betty blushed and blinked, remembering the crowded schoolroom window and +her own scathing criticisms. + +"Yes--I'm afraid we have stared a great deal. We are so interested in +our neighbours, but they are almost all old--you were the only young one +like ourselves. We were frightfully anxious to know all about you." + +Cynthia gave a pathetic little sigh. + +"There's so little to know! There's just mother and me--and father at +the other end of the world. It isn't half so exciting as having +brothers and sisters, and going to school, and having good times all +together. I have envied you so!" + +"Me!" cried Betty, aghast. "You envied _me_! How extraordinary! I've +perfectly ached with envying you sometimes." + +"Oh, why?" asked Cynthia; and as Betty looked into her wide earnest eyes +she felt of a sudden shamed and silenced. How could she acknowledge +that she had envied the greater luxury, the cosy fire in the bedroom, +the pink evening dress, the monopoly of attention, she who was so rich +in the dear human companionship which the other lacked! + +"There are drawbacks to a large family, you know," she exclaimed. "We +don't _always_ have good times. Sometimes we all get cross together and +quarrel like cats, and then it feels as if it would be so nice and +peaceful to be the only one. You have no one to quarrel with." + +"I have myself. I quarrel fearfully with myself," said Cynthia. + +She perched herself on the arm of a high chair and stared at Betty with +her grave grey eyes. She wore an enamel buckle on her belt, a gold +bangle encircled her wrist, her shoes, her stockings, her ribbons were +all in the perfection of taste. Betty felt another twinge of envy at +the sight, and wondered what in the world such a lucky person could find +to quarrel about! In manner Cynthia was as simple and direct as Pam +herself. A Pet she might be, but there was nothing pampered or self- +satisfied for the most carping critic to discover. + +"I do get so bored with myself," she said plaintively. "My mother has +stayed in England on purpose to look after me and my education, and it +is always a case of `This would be good for Cynthia,' `That would be bad +for Cynthia,' `What would be best for Cynthia?'--there is altogether too +much Cynthia in my life, and I am sick of her. In a big family one +would have so many people to think of that there would be no room for +self." + +"No--o!" said Betty doubtfully. Her conscience told her that despite +father and mother, and Miles and Jack, and Jill and Pamela, Betty loomed +very large on her own horizon, but she was ashamed to confess the fact +in so many words, and it was a relief when Mrs Vanburgh came bustling +back in her quick energetic fashion. + +"There!" she cried. "I've put in a row of safety-pins. I couldn't +spare the time to sew it up just now. It's half-past three, and they +may be arriving any moment. I'll talk to each one as she comes in, and +artlessly find out how long she can stay, then I'll hand her over to you +to be treated accordingly. Tea and cake if it's a call, photographs and +light conversation if it's a visit. Sister Anne, Sister Anne, do you +see anyone coming?" + +Cynthia looked round from the window and shook her head. + +"Nary a governess! They wouldn't like to come exactly at the hour you +mention. Perhaps they are prowling round the Square, whiling away the +time until it is polite to appear." + +"Oh dear, I wish they wouldn't! I like things to happen at once! I get +fidgety and nervous if I have to wait," cried Mrs Vanburgh, poking the +fire with such violence that the ashes were strewn all over the grate. + +"Let's pretend that you are the first-comers, and rehearse the +conversation! Now then, go out of the room and come in, and I'll +welcome you." + +Cynthia and Betty dutifully retreated to the hall, whence came a sound +of subdued giggling and whispering, lasting for several minutes, at the +expiration of which the door was thrown open and "Miss Perks" announced +in a voice shaken by laughter, whereupon Cynthia bounced into the room, +transformed almost out of recognition by a few touches accomplished by +Betty's nimble fingers. + +Her long mane of hair was twisted into an exaggerated "door-knocker," at +the top of which, with all the appearance of a very fly-away toque, was +perched one of the frilled pink shades which covered the electric +lights; a piece of Eastern drapery was folded scarf-like round her +shoulders. Perk by name and Perk by nature did she appear as she minced +across the room, while hostess and maid alike looked on in helpless +convulsions of laughter. No rehearsal was possible under the +circumstances, though Cynthia persisted in acting her part, and sat on +the edge of the sofa tossing her head, and delivering herself of +staccato little sentences in reply to imaginary questions suitable to +the occasion. + +"Oh, really! No indeed! Unusually cold for the time of year. Most +kind of you, I'm sure. Charming opportunity?" + +"You impertinent girl; go and put back those things this minute! How +dare you make fun of me and spoil the look of my hall!" cried Nan, +wiping the tears from her eyes; then she turned towards the clock, and +her face fell. + +"Ten minutes to four! They ought to be coming! Why don't they come?-- +Now then, I _told_ you how it would be! There's the bell, and +everything upset!" + +With a bound Miss Perks was in the middle of the floor, tearing the +scarf from her shoulders, and shaking her hair loose from its +fastenings. Betty jumped on a chair to put the shade back in its place, +Nan threw the drapery over the easel, which being done, all three rushed +to the head of the staircase, and peered curiously into the hall +beneath. + +Once more disappointment awaited them, for a brown-paper parcel was the +nearest approach to a governess which met their gaze, and the return to +the drawing-room was conducted in a much more leisurely and dignified +manner than the exit. For the first time the awful possibility of +failure seemed to dawn on the hostess's heart. + +"Suppose," she said blankly, "suppose Nobody comes! It would be a +terrible disappointment, but the worst of all would be Gervase--my +husband! He laughed so at the preparations. I've provided enough for +twenty. He would tease me to death if it were all left." + +"It won't be!" cried Betty stoutly. "If the worst comes to the worst, I +shall be so ravenous with disappointment and nervous strain by six +o'clock, that I shall be able to demolish enough for ten." + +"And you can't say you have had nobody. You have had Miss Perks," added +Cynthia slyly; but Mrs Vanburgh refused to be comforted, and wandered +disconsolately up and down the room, peering out of each of the three +windows in succession, and watching the clock with anxious dismay. + +"Half-past four, and not one here! What can it mean? Three big Homes I +went to, and there must have been at least a score of inmates in each; +it isn't _possible_ that nobody will come!" + +"In all the length and breadth of this great city, is there not _one_ +governess who will take pity upon a hospitable lady!" quoted Cynthia +mischievously. It was evident that she also knew the source from which +had sprung the inspiration of these Saturday gatherings; but though Nan +laughed, it was with a somewhat uncertain sound, and her brown eyes +looked suspiciously moist. The two girls were quick to realise that it +was not a time for teasing, and hastened to give a safer turn to the +conversation. + +In truth, Nan's heart was very deeply in her enterprise. Hers was one +of those sweet, generous natures which expand, instead of shrivelling +under the influence of prosperity. Just in proportion as her own life +was beautiful and hedged round with all the sweet fences of love, so did +she yearn more and more over her sisters whose lots were cast in such +different places--which is the true spirit of Christ, who left the very +heavens for our sakes. She had woven many happy dreams about these +afternoon meetings, seeing the radiance of her own happiness lighting up +dark places, and the power of love and sympathy cheering starved and +lonely lives, and was it all to end like this--in a joke for her husband +and these two girls? Would Gervase come home, and laugh his tender, +happy laugh, and stroke her hair, and call her "Poor little pet!" as if +she, and not the missing guests, was the real object of compassion? + +Nan blinked the tears from her eyes, but they rose again and again-- +tears of bitter disappointment; and then, just as the clock was about to +strike the quarter, there came another quick whirr of the electric bell, +and Cynthia, running out into the hall, came back aglow with excitement. + +"It is! It _is_!" she hissed in an excited whisper. "I saw her. She's +coming upstairs. Quick! Quick! To your posts!" + +Betty rushed to the fire, Nan stood in the middle of the floor radiant +with expectation. The servant threw open the door, and announced in +solemn tones-- + +"Miss Beveridge." + +The first governess had arrived! + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +MISS BEVERIDGE. + +She was small and thin, with a bleached, joyless face, which seemed all +of the same dull grey tint. Grey hair, grey eyes, grey complexion, a +pinched-in mouth and deeply-furrowed forehead. She was dressed in +black--shabby black, which is the shabbiest of all shabbies--and, +looking at her, it seemed impossible to believe that there had ever been +a time when she was young and happy, and had frisked and frolicked, and +liked pretty things like any ordinary girl. Cynthia and Betty felt a +chill of dismay, but Nan's heart gave a throb of delight. This was one +of the very starved, joyless lives which she longed to brighten; it +would have been difficult to find a better type of the class. She +walked quickly forward, and held out a warm, welcoming hand. + +"How do you do? I am so pleased you have come?" + +Miss Beveridge looked at her coldly, then cast an inquiring glance +around the room; at the luxurious hangings and furniture, at the glowing +fire, at Betty slim and childish in her simple blue frock, at Cynthia +with her flowing locks. + +"Is--is Mrs Vanburgh not at home?" she inquired, drawing up her thin +figure with an air of wounded dignity. "I understood that the hours +mentioned were from three to seven, but if she is engaged--" + +Nan smiled in the merry, radiant manner which made her look even younger +than her years. + +"I am Mrs Vanburgh!" + +"Oh, indeed!" said Miss Beveridge coldly. + +Why she should have taken the announcement as a personal insult the +girls could not understand, but that she did receive it in such, a +spirit was proved by the sudden stiffening which passed over her +features even as she spoke. She seated herself on the edge of the chair +to which Nan escorted her, sternly refused an offer of tea, and +vouchsafed only monosyllabic replies when spoken to. It was a terrible +occasion! Nan took refuge in the resort of the destitute, and exhausted +the subject of the weather in all its branches. + +"It is a very chilly afternoon." + +"Very chilly." + +"It seemed in the morning as if it were going to clear up." + +"It did." + +"The forecast says it will rain before night." + +"Indeed!" + +"November always _is_ a dreary month." + +No reply. + +"In London there are so many fogs, but in the country the fallen leaves +are almost as depressing." + +"Perhaps so." + +Nan looked across the room and made a desperate grimace at her +companions. Before doing so she made sure that Miss Beveridge was not +looking, but she forgot that in turning her head in the opposite +direction she was naturally _vis-a-vis_ with Cynthia and Betty, and +they--silly things!--simultaneously jerked with surprise, flushed and +struggled after speech, thereby hopelessly giving away the situation. + +"Er--are you _quite_ sure you will not have a cup of tea? Or--er, +coffee? We have both ready. Or a high-tea downstairs, if you care for +anything more solid." + +"I have had luncheon, thank you. I am not in the least in need of +food," replied Miss Beveridge in tones of scathing coldness. There was +a ghastly silence. + +"Horrid thing! Always did hate 'em!" soliloquised Betty. + +"How dare she? Ungrateful wretch!" queried Cynthia. + +"She's cross because she's miserable; she's just as miserable as she can +be! Somebody else could comfort her, but I can't. She thinks I am a +presumptuous chit. Perhaps I am, trying to do work that is far beyond +me!" sighed Nan, with a heavy sinking of the heart. She could not +attempt to speak, and the silence lasted several minutes, until at last +Miss Beveridge roused herself to inquire hesitatingly, yet with a +certain suppressed eagerness-- + +"Were you perhaps wishing to--er--to organise some classes? My time is +disengaged on Saturday afternoons. My special subject is music, but I +hold very high certificates, and am of course competent to take up other +subjects." + +Nan gasped with dismay! Here was a situation, to be treated as a +schoolgirl whose education required finishing! She could hear Gervase's +derisive laughter, the amused chuckle with which he would say, "Silly +girl, serve you right!" Across the room Cynthia and Betty were +sniggering, and biting their lips. This was indeed a travesty of what +she had expected. The blood flamed in her cheeks, but she answered +steadily enough-- + +"Oh no, I was not thinking of anything for myself. It occurred to me +that it might be dull in those `Homes' on holiday afternoons, especially +for ladies who are strangers in London, and I hoped it might make a +little change for them to come out to tea. It would certainly be a +pleasure to me to receive them." + +"Indeed!" said Miss Beveridge coldly. + +The momentary animation which had flickered in her face at the thought +of the possibility of classes died away, leaving her looking even more +bleached and hopeless than before. She pressed her thin lips together, +looked at the clock, and inquired suddenly-- + +"Can you tell me the nearest way from here to Maida Vale?" + +It was a direct intimation of departure, and Nan accepted it as such, +giving the desired information, without protest, it is true, but in a +manner absolutely devoid of offence. It was raining heavily by this +time, and she would fain have offered to whistle for a hansom, but she +felt that such a proceeding would have been interpreted as an additional +offence. When the visitor rose, however, she insisted upon accompanying +her downstairs, where in the privacy of the vestibule she allowed +herself the luxury of a farewell appeal. + +"I am so sorry that it has been a failure! You are vexed with me for +having brought you here for nothing, and on such a terrible afternoon +too, but I _meant_ well! I'm young, and foolish, and don't know how to +do things properly, but I couldn't bear to keep everything to myself, +and I could think of no better way. You'll forgive me, won't you? I'm +so sorry you've been bored!" + +Miss Beveridge looked at her swiftly, and as she looked her thin +features twitched beneath her veil, and two little patches of colour +showed themselves on her cheeks. + +"There is nothing to forgive," she said hurriedly. "Nothing on your +side, at least. I was taken by surprise and did not quite understand. +If you will allow me I will come again another time." + +"Will you--will you really? Oh, it would make me so happy!" cried Nan +rapturously. "Thank you so much! Next Saturday, perhaps? I shall look +forward to it all the week." + +She motioned the servant aside, and, accompanying her visitor to the +door, insisted upon opening her umbrella and helping to tuck up the +well-worn skirt. Her bonnie face shone out under the light as she waved +her hand and cried out eagerly, "Come soon! Come soon!" Miss Beveridge +shut her lips tightly and did not reply in words, but she did something +which was more expressive--she dropped her skirt into the mud on purpose +to wave a response! The November evening was dark and cheerless enough +to strike a chill to the stoutest heart, but one solitary woman walked +through it with a new glow at her heart. The warm light streaming out +into the darkness, the sweet welcoming voice, were as meat and drink to +her starved soul. + +In the drawing-room the girls awaited Nan's return with some anxiety, +but, to their amazement, she came bounding upstairs two steps at a time, +all abeam with complacent delight. What a comfort it was that she had +so soon returned to her senses! + +"Has she gone? Really gone! What a relief!" + +"She's coming again! She said she would. Thank goodness for that!" + +"Mrs Vanburgh, you--you can't mean it! She was a horror! You can't +possibly want to see her again! She was as cross as two sticks because +she had come once, so why should she try it a second time?" + +"She didn't understand, and it was a shock to find us all so young. +Yes, of course I want her! She's just the sort I do want; the happy, +prosperous ones have no need of me. Oh, did you see her poor grey +face?" + +Betty shivered dramatically. + +"I did! It made me think of vinegar and, lemon-juice, and all the sour +things you can think of mixed together. Her lips were so thin you could +hardly see them at all, and they turned right down at the corners." + +"She was pretty once, prettier than any of us--her features are perfect +still. She's worried, and ill, and badly dressed. Did you see her +blouse?" + +"Yes!" Betty sighed sententiously. "It was such a comfort to me. I'd +been feeling so grumpy because my own was horrid compared to yours, but +when I saw that grey flannel atrocity I felt I ought to be thankful +instead?" + +Nan laughed happily. + +"Then she did you good too? That's all right. Girls, I'm hungry. This +has been a most exhausting afternoon. I don't think there is a chance +of anyone else coming, so hadn't we better go downstairs and eat up some +of the good things ourselves? How do you feel?" + +There was no doubt about the girls' feelings. They might have been +starving, from the alacrity with which they sprang from their seats, +followed their hostess downstairs, and seated themselves at the dining- +table. + +"We will not wait any longer, Johnson. Bring in fresh tea and coffee, +and then you can leave us. We will attend to ourselves," said Nan to +the solemn-faced butler; and, as soon as he had departed, "Isn't it just +wonderful how servants contrive to keep their faces straight?" she cried +laughingly. "I've no doubt they are all laughing themselves ill +downstairs at the collapse of my great `At Home,' but Johnson looks as +if it were the most correct thing in the world for three people to sit +down to a table laid for a dozen! I'll carve, and you can pour out. +Now for the chicken and ham--now for the gay Sally Lunn! Eat, my +darlings, eat! Do without dinner for one night, and save a friend's +reputation! I shall never hear the last of it from Gervase, unless I +can tell him that some of the things were used." + +It was a merry meal, and lasted for an inordinately long time, and when +it was over the three girls felt that their mutual acquaintance had +progressed by giant strides. + +Cynthia went home to give a graphic description of Betty's charms, and +to cry-- + +"You must, you really must, call upon Mrs Trevor, mother, for I can't +be happy till I know the whole family." + +Betty burst into the dining-room in a flutter of excitement, exclaiming +all in a breath-- + +"She's a darling, a perfect darling; and the Pet was there, and her name +is Cynthia, and she's not pampered a bit. We are awfully good friends; +and what do you think?--only one governess turned up, and there are +heaps and heaps of cakes left. And may Jill and Pam go to tea on Monday +to eat them up?" + +As for Nan, she laid her pretty head on her husband's shoulder, and +refused to be comforted. + +"No, it was not a failure! I'm not disappointed a bit. I was silly, +and expected too much, but the one who came--oh, Gervase, she was the +very incarnation of homelessness. If she will let me help her, I shall +be quite, quite satisfied?" + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +LETTERS. + +Christmas approached. Cynthia drove from one big shop to another, +accompanied by mother or governess, and selected costly remembrances for +her friends, Betty Trevor among the rest, for Mrs Alliot had at last +been induced to call on the doctor's wife, and so formally sanction the +girls' friendship. Nan Vanburgh crossed out every day as it passed on +the calendar, and danced for joy at the thought of going "home" for the +festival. + +"It's rather rough on me. I flattered myself that I was sufficient for +your happiness," her husband told her, "and--" + +"So you are, you darling!" Nan assured him gushingly. "I don't want +anyone else in the world but just you, and father, and mother, and Jim, +and the girls, and Kitty, and Ned, and your old uncle, and Maud's baby-- +and--" + +"And Cynthia Alliot, and this newly-discovered family at Number 14, and +twenty governesses rolled into one as exemplified by Miss Beveridge, and +a few score of friends scattered up and down the country! What it is to +have married a little soul with a big heart!" cried Gervase, shrugging +his shoulders with an air of martyrdom, though, as a matter of fact, he +was well satisfied with his place in his wife's affection, and loved her +all the more for remaining faithful to old claims. + +As for Betty Trevor, she shivered up in her attic bedroom, putting in +last stitches to the presents which had been manufactured at the cost of +much trouble and self-denial. The table-centre for mother had cost only +one and threepence, but looked every bit as nice as those displayed in +the shop-windows for six and nine. The shield of white wadded satin +seemed an ideal protector for a dress shirt, and if father did not use +it as such when he went out in the evening, it would be his fault, not +hers! The blotters for Miles and Jack, the work and shoe bags for the +girls, to say nothing of endless odds and ends for cousins and aunts, +made quite a brave show when she laid them all out on the bed +preparatory to wrapping them up in paper. Jill was invited to the +private view, her own present being discreetly hidden away for the +occasion, and expressed an admiration tempered by pity. + +"Such a fag!" she declared. "Look at me, I've done the whole thing in +one afternoon! Sallied out with my savings in my purse--two shillings +pocket-money, one and three for waking Miles in the morning, sixpence +from mother--reward of merit for not biting my nails for a week-- +ninepence from Norah for my pink silk tie (it cost half-a-crown, and I +hated the old thing), four and sixpence altogether--and I got fifteen +really handsome presents." + +"Jill, you haven't! It isn't possible!" + +"It is then; it only needs management. I've kept all the chocolate +boxes we have had given to us by grateful patients during the year--six +of them--and they look ripping filled with sweets at sixpence a pound. +I collected mother's old scent-bottles too, with cut-glass stoppers, and +bought a shilling's worth of eau-de-Cologne to fill them. Such a joke! +It didn't quite go round, so I put some water in the last, and it's +turned quite milky. I'll have to give that to Pam. She'll think it +something new and superior. I've got sticking--plaster for the boys-- +they are sure to cut their fingers some day--and a beautiful needle-book +for mother--ninepence halfpenny--and it looks worth it, every penny. +Oh, I say, while I remember, I don't mind lending you my snow-shoes, but +you might take the trouble to put them back when you've done with them! +I wanted them badly this morning." + +"I haven't got your old snow-shoes. I don't know what has come to this +house. Everyone is accusing me of stealing! Mother was on the rampage +about her gloves this morning, and father's old smoking-jacket is +missing. Mother says it's a good thing, for it was disgracefully +shabby, but he loved it because it was so comfy, and we had such a fuss +searching all over the house. Christmas seems to put everything out of +gear." + +"Oh, well, it's worth it! Think of the presents!" cried Jill gleefully. +She skipped downstairs, and, sitting down before the writing-table in +the drawing-room, pulled out a number of sheets of her mother's writing- +paper, on which she proceeded to indite a number of epistles, in which +words and spaces were curiously mingled. + + "Dear Aunt Margaret,--Thank you so much for the beautiful ... It is + just what I wanted. It was so nice of you to send it to me. I think + it is ... I hope you are quite well, and not having asthma any + more,--Your loving niece,-- + + "Margaret." + + "Darling Cousin Flo,--I am so awfully obliged to you for the lovely + ... It is just what I wanted. I am so pleased to have it. It will + just do for ... I think Christmas is ripping, don't you? Please + write soon to Jill." + + "Dear Mrs Gregory,--It is most kind of you to remember me with such a + nice present. The ... is just what I wanted. I am much obliged to + you for remembering me. Has not Christmas Day been ... this year?--I + am your loving little friend, Margaret Meredith Trevor." + + "My own dear, darling Norah,--What an angel you are to send me that + perfectly ripping ... It is just exactly what I wanted, and I am so + proud to have it. Come round to-morrow and see my things. I've got + ... altogether. Isn't that a lot? Don't you call this weather ...?-- + Your own Jill." + +She was scribbling away--the table littered with the finished +productions--when a hand fell on her shoulder and a stentorian voice +cried-- + +"Eh, what? Too busy to hear me come in, were you? What's the meaning +of this sudden industry?" and, starting up, she beheld the red, parrot- +like visage of General Digby bending over her. This was not by any +means the first visit which the General had paid in return for the "kind +enquiries." He was a lonely old man, and to spend a few minutes in the +cheery atmosphere of a family made a pleasant break in his daily +constitutional. Mrs Trevor was always pleased to welcome him, but as +she was aware that it was not herself but the children who were the +attraction, she did not hurry downstairs on occasions like the present. + +"Writing Christmas letters, eh?" boomed the General loudly. "Sending +off your presents, I suppose. Eh, what? _Thanking_ people for +presents, do you say? That's a bit previous, isn't it? What's the +hurry?" + +"Oh, there's always so much going on after Christmas, when the boys are +at home, and it's such a bore sticking in the house writing letters. I +use up the odd times before, in getting them as ready as I can, and then +it only takes a minute to fill in the spaces." + +She held out a specimen letter as she spoke, and, looking at it, General +Digby went off into such a convulsion of laughter, coughing, and panting +for breath, that he presented a truly alarming spectacle. The +protuberant eyes protruded farther and farther, the tuft of grey hair +seemed to rear itself more stiffly erect, his cheeks changed from red to +purple. It was not a time for ceremony, and Jill promptly pounded him +on the back until he recovered himself sufficiently to shake her off, +declaring forcibly that the cure was worse than the disease. Then he +subsided into a chair, and wiped his eyes elaborately with a bandana +handkerchief. + +"Where's my letter?" he inquired. "I suppose there's one addressed to +me among all that number. Was I as fortunate as the rest in sending +just what was wanted? You are a young woman of a great many wants, it +seems to me. Tell you what now: I'll strike a bargain! Fill up the +blanks, and I'll see if I can come up to expectation! Eh, what?" + +"Oh no!" cried Jill, blushing with an embarrassment which yet had in it +a fearful joy, for who would have thought that such a new friend would +enrol himself in the blessed ranks of present-givers? "There is no +letter for you. I truly never thought you would give us anything," she +explained hesitatingly. "I couldn't possibly choose myself. It's +awfully good of you to think of it, but, really, anything--It's like +this, you see; I want everything I can get!" + +"Oh, you do, do you?" cried the General, beginning to shake again in the +old, alarming, jelly-like fashion. "Nothing like honesty in this world, +my dear. Well, well, we must see what we can do! I'll bend my great +mind to the question, and you shall know the result on Christmas Day." + +Jill smiled uncertainly. Already she was beginning to repent her +modesty. Suppose she had taken her courage into her hands, and had said +boldly, "A gold watch," could it possibly have been true that the +ambition of a lifetime would have been gratified, as by the stroke of a +magician's wand? Really and truly the General had tumbled (literally +tumbled) into their lives in the most unexpected fashion, and to begin +talking of presents upon an acquaintance of a month's standing proved +him to be something far superior to ordinary mortals. Jill made up her +mind to change the nickname of Victim for that of Magician from this +time forward. + +Presently Betty appeared, a pensive, melancholy Betty, chilly about the +fingers, and nippy about the nose, much oppressed by the feeling that +she worked while others played, and had no thanks for her pains, and was +altogether too good for a world in which her excellencies were +unappreciated. As usual, her hair was dressed in accordance with her +mood, a brush dipped in water having been employed to flatten out the +curls which had been painfully achieved a few hours before. + +The General looked at the dismal little figure with a twinkling eye. +Already he had been introduced to three separate Betty Trevors, and it +would be interesting to ascertain which of the various representations +approached nearest to the reality. Judging from Miss Betty's +conversation this afternoon, Christmas would appear to be her _bete +noire_ throughout the year, and she could see no bright spot in the +horizon. The presents which she had prepared were all failures; unlike +Jill, she wanted nothing in return; it was dull having "no one but +ourselves" in the house on the great day, while, on the other hand, it +would be horrid to have strangers. Mrs Vanburgh had gone off home to +enjoy herself, and had left the "Govies" in the charge of herself and +Cynthia Alliot to "cheer up and entertain," and how could they do it, +pray, a couple of girls like themselves? She scowled quite fiercely at +the General as she put the question, but he only chuckled in reply, +having already been treated to the history of Nan's first `At Home' from +the lips of an historian more sceptical than sympathetic. + +"Aha! Those governesses! How many may they be? Do you still entertain +the few to conversation, and yourselves to the good things provided for +the many?" he cried teasingly, whereupon Betty assumed what she +conceived to be an air of haughty reproach, and replied coldly-- + +"We had four at our last reception. They all want to come again, and +were most agreeable. Two of them have gone home for the holidays, but +the others have no homes to go to. They are the ones we have to +entertain, and it's silly, because they are so tired of girls that we +are the last people they wish to see. Mrs Vanburgh is different--she's +married, and is more interesting. Mother says she's sorry, but there +are a dozen poor ladies who have a greater claim on us--father's +patients, and so on--and what can I do by myself?" She sighed, and +raised her eyes in a meek, resigned fashion to the cornet of the +ceiling. "It's not for want of will, or want of thought I lay awake for +quite half an hour worrying about it one night!" + +"Send them a Christmas card, and be done with it," cried Jill callously. +"You can get beauties for a halfpenny at the little sweet shop round +the corner. I'll sell you one I bought yesterday. Convolvulus, and +`May all your hours be filled with joy.' Just the thing you want!" + +Betty's lip curled in disdain. + +"So appropriate, isn't it? So likely to be true!" + +"All the more reason to wish for it," maintained Jill pertly. "What's +the good of wishing if you don't wish something nice? You don't want to +take for granted that she is going on mumping and grumping all next +year. Something nice might happen to her, as well as to anyone else." + +"Quite right, quite right! Always expect the best, and prepare for the +worst," cried the General heartily. "Now, I've a suggestion to make! +There's a big concert advertised to take place in the Albert Hall on the +afternoon of Boxing Day. Some friends of mine who are wandering abroad +have a box there which is at my disposal when I choose to use it. I'm +not going with you, mind--none of your governesses for me!--but I'll +give you the tickets, and you can make up a happy party, and get rid of +some of your responsibilities, at least. How does that idea strike you, +Miss Betty--eh, what?" + +"Oh, I--I love it! You _are_ sweet!" gushed Betty fervently. A box! +The Albert Hall! Herself the head of the party, the gracious dispenser +of favours--it was almost too ecstatic to be believed! "The two +governesses, Cynthia and myself, Miles, because he loves music, and we +want someone to bring us home, and father, if he has time, for Miles +won't come if he is the only male. That would be a delightful party!" +she decided. There were points, after all, about being left "in +charge?" + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +CHRISTMAS PRESENTS. + +The Trevors' programme on Christmas Day differed from those of their +friends, and possessed in their opinion many striking advantages. No +presents were given in the morning; it was enough excitement to know +that it was Christmas Day, and to linger over a late and luxurious +breakfast before going to church. There was something particularly +inspiring about the moment when the great congregation rose in the ivy- +decked church and burst into song-- + + "Hark, the herald angels sing, + Glory to the new-born King!" + +Even Jill had a fleeting realisation that the true meaning of Christmas +was something quite apart from presents, and turkey, and plum-puddings, +while Betty's thoughts flew back to the day of her confirmation, and she +vowed herself anew to the service of the King. Jack sang the well-known +words with a new attention--"Christ the everlasting Lord;" this was the +same Christ who was General Digby's "Captain." "I am here to obey my +Captain's orders,"--the words rang in his ears, and he saw once more the +wonderful softening of the fierce old face. Miles did not sing at all; +his voice was still hoarse and broken, and his set expression gave +little clue to his feelings, but Pam's treble was clear and sweet, and +her little face shone with innocent fervour. + +After church came a walk through the--well! It should have been "the +crisp cold air," but unfortunately the weather showed no sense of +propriety, and in reality it was as dank and cheerless a day as even +London itself can produce in mid-winter. As the advance guard in the +shape of Miles and Betty neared their own doorway, a dainty figure ran +down the steps, and there was Cynthia Alliot, blooming like a delicate +pink rose in the midst of the fog. + +"You!" cried Betty in surprise, and then awkwardly attempted the +difficult task of introduction. "Er--this is my brother Miles! Miles-- +this is--" + +"The Pampered Pet!" interrupted Cynthia, laughing. Miles knit his brows +in the fashion he had when ill at ease, and mumbled an unintelligible +greeting, but Cynthia was not in the least embarrassed. She smiled at +him as frankly as if he had been another Betty, yet with a little air of +gracious dignity which is rarely found in girls of her age. She was +quite simple and unaffected, but one could never imagine her taking part +in the free-and-easy, slangy, unchivalrous intercourse which so often +prevails nowadays between girls and boys. She held herself like a +Queen, and silent Miles looked at her, and in the depths of his honest +heart vowed himself to her service. + +"What did you call for?" Betty queried. "Did you want to see me? Was +it about to-morrow? We are going to call for you at half-past two. We +can walk, I suppose, unless it is wet?" + +"Oh yes, it will be far nicer. I do hope it will be fine. This is not +at all a cheerful Christmas, is it? Good-bye! I do hope you'll have a +lovely time!" returned Cynthia, waving her hand and crossing the road +towards her own doorway. It was too late to remind her that she had not +answered the last question, and the first sight of the hall table +banished every other thought, for on it lay the pile of Christmas cards +whose advent had been so eagerly expected. Betty seized the bundle and +began doling them out, while her brothers and sisters clustered round, +and clamoured for their share. + +"Miss Trevor--Miss Trevor--Miss Trevor--(Betty, it's not fair, you are +taking them all!) Miss Jill Trevor, Miss JM Trevor, Mrs Trevor, James +Trevor, Esquire, MD--(Looks like a bill! How mean to send a bill on +Christmas day!) Miss Trevor, Miss Pamela Trevor," so it went on, the +major share falling to the three girls, the boys coming in only for an +occasional missive from an aunt or some such kindly relation, who +suddenly awoke to the fact of their existence at Christmas time. When +the cards were dealt out there still remained a little pile of envelopes +which had apparently been delivered by hand, as no stamps appeared +beside the addresses. Betty pounced on them, and gave a shout of +delight. + +"There's money inside! There is, I can feel it. Mine's quite small-- +like a--a--" She dropped the remaining envelopes to open her own in a +flutter of excitement. Inside there was a folded piece of paper +enclosing a second envelope--one of those tiny, dainty affairs in which +some old-fashioned tradesmen still deliver change to their customers. +In her haste Betty ripped it open, and held up to view a brand new +sovereign. + +"It is! It is! How s-imply lovely! I was so hard up--and now! What +perfect angel can have sent it?" + +She picked up the piece of paper which she had dropped in her haste, and +read aloud, "With the best wishes of Terence Digby," the while her +brothers and sisters made short work of their own envelopes. Jack and +Jill had each a new ten-shilling piece, and Pam a magnificent silver +crown, the size of which delighted her even more than the value. + +"He said he would send me something, but I never thought it would be +money. It's what I like better than anything else, to be rich in the +Christmas holidays!" Jill cried rapturously, and Mrs Trevor smiled and +said-- + +"So he seemed to think. He asked my permission before sending his +presents in this form, and said he would like to give you money, because +when he was a boy an old lady used to send new coins to himself and his +brothers every Christmas in these same little envelopes, and he had +never forgotten the pleasure they gave him. Yes! You will feel rich, +but don't be in too great a hurry to spend your fortunes, for the +General may wish to speak to you on that point." + +Jill shrugged her shoulders disgustedly. + +"Bother! I hope he won't want us to spend it sensibly! That would take +away all the fun. I want to keep it in my purse, and fritter it away +just as I like. What's the good of giving presents, and not letting you +use them as you like?" + +"Well, well, what's the use of grumbling before you know if there is +anything to grumble about?" returned Mrs Trevor, laughing. She moved +away, carrying her bundle of letters, and the children followed her +example, and spent a happy half-hour examining, displaying, and +comparing cards and calendars. + +Then came lunch, a glorified lunch with "party" sweets, and dessert, +finishing up with a big dish of chestnuts to roast over the fire. The +doctor was at home for the afternoon, having made the round of his +serious patients in the morning (abominably selfish of anyone to be ill +on Christmas Day!), and that fact alone gave a festivity to the +afternoon tea, while ever in the background lurked the delightful +anticipation of presents--presents to come! + +Other people had done with all their excitement before now, and had even +grown accustomed to their new possessions, but Betty and Jill donned +last year's party dresses for dinner in a flutter of anticipation, and +then hurried downstairs, each with an armful of parcels to add to the +store which had been accumulating in the library all day long. + +The sofa was full of them--neat brown--paper parcels, bulky parcels, +shapeless parcels, tissue-paper parcels, large and small, dainty and the +reverse, boxes, envelopes, and a mysterious pyramid covered with a +sheet, over which Pam mounted jealous guard. Betty had just time to +arrange the parcels on two large trays, and see the larger articles +conveyed into the dining-room and hidden behind a screen, before the +gong rang, and dinner began. + +There was the orthodox turkey and roast beef, plum-pudding and mince- +pies, but when dessert was over there came a moment of thrilling +excitement, as the servants placed one heaped trayful of presents on the +table before Dr Trevor, and another at the bottom before his wife. The +long-looked-for moment had come at last! + +Well, it was a pleasant sight to see the twinkle in the doctor's tired +eyes as he looked round the table at his five children, and exchanged a +smile of comradeship with his pretty wife. His long delicate hand, the +true doctor's hand, lifted the topmost parcel from the tray, and held it +aloft while he read aloud the laborious inscription--"`To Miles, hopping +he will like it, from Pam.' Here you are, Miles!" and down the table it +went, from one eager pair of hands to another, while Pam blushed a vivid +red, and wriggled bashfully on her chair. + +There were a great many wrappings, and the dimensions of the parcel +diminished so rapidly as to excuse serious fears that it contained +nothing more substantial than a joke, but such an idea was an insult to +Pam's generosity. She had bestowed much thought on the choice of this +special present, and could not in the least understand the roar of +laughter which rose from every side as the last paper fell away to +disclose a magnificent sixpenny tooth-brush in all its creamy splendour. + +Miles' face was a study as he gazed upon it, and turned it speculatively +to and fro. + +"Anything personal meant, Pam?" he inquired, and, "Yes, please, Miles!" +replied innocent Pam, and blushed again to the verge of tears at the +second shout of merriment. + +"It's a very useful present, dear," Mrs Trevor said consolingly, and +hastened to give the conversation a turn by doling out another parcel +from her own tray. + +"`Betty, with love from Jill.'" + +It was a very small parcel, and Betty looked at it with suspicion, +remembering the sticking-plaster and watered eau de Cologne, but things +turned out better than she expected, the enclosure being quite a pretty +hat-pin, of a colour to match her best hat. + +"Just what I wanted!" was both the true and the gracious manner of +acknowledging this trophy, as also the book from Jack, and the gloves +from Miles, which presently fell to her share. Then it was the doctor's +turn, his wife having retired behind the screen to bring forth an +enormous parcel, which could only be laid on a chair by his side, since +it was far too big to place on the table itself. + +"For me? Why, what can this be? It feels like a blanket!" he cried in +astonishment, and his face was a picture of mingled surprise, pleasure, +and consternation, as a handsome fur-lined carriage rug was presently +revealed to view. "Oh, this is too much! This won't do! Edith, what +reckless extravagance!" + +"Not extravagance at all," his wife answered sturdily. "You must be +kept warm, driving about from morning till night. It is nothing less +than a necessity which you ought to have had years ago. Besides, it's +not my gift alone--it's a joint affair. The children all contributed-- +it's from all six of us, with our best love to you, dearest." + +"I gave threepence," announced Pam proudly, thereby bringing a smile to +her father's face, though his voice had a suspicious quiver in it as he +said-- + +"Thank you, my six darlings!" and smoothed the rug with a loving touch. +Its presence would keep not only his body but his heart warm on many a +wintry day to come. + +After this, the parcel-opening went on fast and furious. Pam received a +young lady doll, and had barely recovered from the rapture of her +arrival when, presto! There appeared a miniature travelling-box, +covered with leather, provided with straps, and a white PT painted at +the sides, just like a real true grown-up box! And inside--a veritable +trousseau! The work of loving mother hands on many a winter evening--a +blue serge coat and skirt, a party frock of pale pink silk, a long white +cloak; a straw hat for ordinary wear, and--could you believe it?--a +toque, boa, and muff of real fur, just like that old muff of mother's +that she wore before the new one arrived. Beneath these treasures a +supply of under garments, including a dear little flannel dressing- +jacket, and bedroom slippers to match. Never, no, never since the +creation of the world did a little girl of eight years receive a more +all-satisfying and delightful offering! In her parents' eyes at least, +Pam's little face, aglow with innocent rapture, was the most beautiful +sight of that happy Christmas Day. + +Jack had a book from his father, a knitted tie from Betty, skates from +his mother--oh, for a good hard frost!--some cast-off tools from Miles, +and a packet of black sticking-plaster from Jill. He grinned broadly +over this last offering, and while the parcel-opening went on on both +sides fumbled mysteriously beneath the tablecloth. Five minutes later, +as he joined the others in a burst of laughter, his mother started +violently, and cried, "Jack! What _has_ happened!" in a tone of dismay +which brought every eye upon him. Freckled nose, twinkling eyes, +outstanding ears--no change to be seen in these well-known features, but +the teeth--the teeth! Between lips extended in broadest of smiles +appeared horrible, isolated tusks standing out conspicuously from the +black gaps on either side. What in the name of all that was mysterious +and perplexing had happened to those rows of sound regular ivories which +had been his chief beauty five minutes before? And what an alteration +in his whole appearance! Extraordinary to think of the change which was +effected by the loss of half a dozen little teeth! + +After the first start of surprise, understanding dawned quickly enough. +Jill's present had been short-lived, but it had served its purpose, both +in her eyes and Jack's, in causing the sensation of the evening, and the +mother's pitiful, "Take them off, Jack dear, do! You look _so_ +dreadful!" could not persuade Jack to peel off the disfiguring black +squares. It was too dear a triumph to a schoolboy's heart to create +shudders of disgust every time he opened his mouth! + +The pile of presents on the trays waxed rapidly less and less, the last +parcel of all being of exceptional daintiness,--tissue-paper, tied round +with a narrow blue ribbon. It was addressed to Betty, and to her +rapturous surprise contained a line of congratulation from Cynthia +Alliot, and the exact duplicate of an artistic silver and enamel buckle +which she had admired on her friend's belt a few days before. She was +so entirely occupied crooning over this treasure, that she did not +notice that Pam had suddenly slipped from her chair and pushed the +screen aside, leaving the tall draped mystery fully exposed to view. + +"It's my present," she explained proudly. "For mother. Just what she +wanted! Cook hid it for me, and covered it with these clothes." She +stood on tiptoe as she spoke, taking out the pins which held the +coverings together. They fell to the ground, and revealed a handsome +branching palm, standing four or five feet from the ground. Mrs Trevor +uttered an exclamation of incredulous surprise, and indeed every face +round the table expressed the same sentiment, for the plant was +obviously expensive, and how in the world could Pam have purchased it +out of an income of a penny a week? + +"My darling! For me? That is indeed a magnificent present. Where did +it come from, dear? Has someone joined with you to give a present to +mother?" + +Before now it had happened that a friend of the family had consulted the +children as to their mother's wishes in the matter of Christmas +presents, and it seemed the most likely solution of the mystery that +this had occurred once again, Pam contributing in the same proportion as +she had done to her father's rug. But no! Pam proudly denied the +insinuation, and repeated-- + +"It's my very own present I bought it myself." + +"But, my sweetheart--" began Mrs Trevor anxiously, and then checked +herself at the thought of another possible explanation. "Did someone +give you some money, dear, that I knew nothing about?" + +"Oh no! I haven't had any money, only General Digby's to-day." + +"Then how-- I am very pleased and delighted to have the palm, but I +can't enjoy it properly until I know a little more about how it came +into your possession. It is such a very big present for a little girl. +How did you get all the money, dear?" + +Pam smiled with an air of innocent pride. + +"It wasn't--all--money!" she said, smiling. + +"Not all money? What do you mean? If it was not all money, what was +the rest?" + +"Clothes!" + +"Clothes!" cried Mrs Trevor vaguely. + +"Clothes!" echoed her husband. + +"Clothes!" shrieked Betty in a shrill treble. + +"Cl-othes!" repeated the boys curiously. Only Jill's face lit up with +comprehension, mingled with a spice of resentment. + +"I know--I know! _Old_ clothes, she means! She has been selling old +clothes--our old clothes, if you please--to `All a-growing all a- +blowing' in exchange for the palm! He likes them better than money. I +heard him say so one day when Pam was seeing me off at the door. That's +where dad's old coat has gone to, that's where your blouse is, Betty, +not to mention some of the boys' ties, and gloves, and my umbrella. Oh, +you wretched child! The hours I've spent searching for it! That's +where everything has gone that we have been searching for for the last +month. She has been gathering them together for the palm!" + +Mrs Trevor's face was a study of complex emotion as she looked at her +baby, but Pam's triumphant satisfaction did not waver for a moment. She +nodded her head, and cried cheerfully-- + +"Oh, lots more things than that! He wanted so much, because palms is +most expensive of all before Christmas, and I bought it when you were +all out, and cook hid it, and we sprayed its leaves to make them bright. +In her last place Miss Bella did them every week with milk-and-water to +make them shine!" + +She had not the least idea that there was anything to be ashamed of in +her action; on the contrary, she was full of pride in her own +cleverness. But it was impossible to allow such an occasion to pass, +even on Christmas evening, when discipline is necessarily relaxed. Mrs +Trevor's face was an eloquent mingling of tenderness and distress as she +said-- + +"But did it never strike you, Pam dear, that these things were not your +own to sell? That you had no right to sell them?" + +"They were no use. You said to father, `That coat is too disgraceful to +be worn,' and Betty said the blouse mortified her pride, and Jill made +fun of her umbrella because it was three and eleven-pence, and the wires +bulged out. She said, `I can't think why it is that I always lose silk +ones, and I can't get rid of this wretched thing, do what I will!' I +thought,"--Pam's voice sounded a tremulous note of disappointment--"I +thought you would all be pleased with me for clearing them away." + +"It would have been different, dear, if you had asked our permission, +though we all have to put up with shabby things sometimes. As it was, +it was both wrong and dishonest to take things which belonged to other +people, and sell them without permission." + +"But I sold my own too! My blue coat and hat, because you said yourself +they didn't suit me, and you couldn't bear to see them on. I heard you +speaking to Betty, and saying those very words. I thought you'd be +pleased if you never did see them again!" + +Mrs Trevor gasped in consternation. + +"Oh, Pam, Pam, what am I to say to you? This is worse than I imagined! +Your blue coat--and it was quite good still! I can't possibly accept a +present obtained in such a way!" + +She cast an appealing glance at her husband, who had been sitting +covering his mouth with his hand, and trying in vain to subdue the +twinkle in his eyes as he listened to Pam's extraordinary confession. +Now he looked at the child's frightened, shrinking face, and said +kindly-- + +"I think Pam and I will have a quiet talk together while you adjourn to +the drawing-room. She did not mean to do wrong, and I am sure she will +never offend again in the same way when she understands things in their +right light." + +So Mrs Trevor and the elder children went to the drawing-room, and, ten +minutes later, a subdued little Pam crept up to her mother's side, +holding out a bright crown-piece on her palm. + +"Father says General Digby would like me best to pay my debts. Will you +please give some to the others to pay for the things I took?" + +"Thank you, Pam. I shall be very pleased to do so," said Mrs Trevor +quietly. Her heart ached at being obliged to take the child's fortune +from her, but she knew it was the right thing to do, and would not allow +herself to hesitate. "And now, darling, I shall be delighted to have +the palm. It is indeed the very thing I wanted." + +Pam tried to smile, but her lips quivered. A whole crown-piece, and a +new one into the bargain! A Vanderbilt deprived of his millions could +not have felt his poverty more bitterly than she did at that moment! + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +THE CONCERT. + +Next afternoon Betty left Jill engaged in filling up the blanks in her +Christmas letters, and Pam lovingly dressing up Pamela junior in her +various costumes, and, accompanied by her father and Miles, called for +Cynthia and set out to walk across the Park to the Albert Hall, where +Miss Beveridge and a friend had arranged to meet them in the box. + +Cynthia looked delightfully graceful and pretty in a blue costume and +hat, which had already caused Betty many pangs of envy, and perhaps it +was a remembrance of his own youth which made Dr Trevor pass his hand +through Betty's arm and lead her ahead, so that his son should have the +pleasure of a talk with this very charming little lady. Miles was the +best of good fellows, all solid goodness and worth, but he was still in +the boorish stage, and it would do him good to be drawn out of himself, +and forced to play the gallant. + +Miles himself was by no means sure that he approved of the arrangement. +He would have preferred to walk behind Cynthia, and admire her pretty +hair, her tiny feet, and the general air of daintiness which was to him +the greatest charm of all, but he had not the slightest idea what to +say, and thought of the long walk before him with something approaching +consternation. Fortunately for him Cynthia was not in the least shy, +and had so seldom an opportunity of talking to anyone of her own age, +that she could have chattered away the whole afternoon without the +slightest difficulty. + +"It isn't often _you_ have a holiday, is it?" she said, smiling at him +in her bright, friendly manner. "Once when I was up very early I saw +you going out before six o'clock, and now if I'm awake I hear the door +slam--you do slam it very loudly, you know!--and know it is you going +out to your work. It makes me feel so lazy, because I am supposed to do +half an hour's practising before nine o'clock breakfast, and I do feel +it such a penance." + +Miles laughed shortly. + +"Did you ever see me coming back?" he inquired, and when Cynthia nodded, +with a twinkle in her eye--"Betty was afraid you would believe I was a +_real_ workman," he told her. "She thought you would put us down as +quite impossible people, having a workman living in the house!" + +"Betty is a goose," said Betty's new friend cheerily, "but she is a nice +goose. I like her. I guessed you were learning to be an engineer, +because I have a cousin who did the same. I like a man to do manly +work. I suppose you are dreadfully interested in all those noisy +engines and things. Tell me about them." + +It was rather a large order, and Miles would have answered shortly +enough if an ordinary acquaintance had put such a question, but there +was a magnetism about Cynthia which broke down reserve, and to his own +astonishment he found himself answering quite easily and naturally. + +"I am not studying for railway engineering--I am going in for mines. +It's a different course altogether, and in some ways much more +difficult. There seems nothing that a mining engineer ought not to +know--assaying, and surveying, and everything to do with minerals, and, +of course, a thorough understanding of pumps, and all the machinery +employed. Then he ought to know something about doctoring, and even +cooking, if he wants to be an all-round success, for ten to one he will +be sent to some out-of-the-way wilderness where there is no one else to +look after the comfort of his men--" + +"Is that what you intend to do? Go and bury yourself at the end of the +world?" + +"I expect so--any time after the next six months. I shall have finished +my course by that time, and be on the look-out for the first opening +that comes!" + +"What will Betty do without you?" + +Betty's brother shrugged his shoulders with the unconcern with which, it +is to be feared, most lads regard their sisters' feelings. + +"Oh, she'll get used to it! It's no use sticking at home if one wants +to get on in the world. I should never be content to jog along in a +secondary position all my life, as some fellows do. I don't care how +hard I work, but I mean to get to the very top of the tree!" + +"Wish I'd been born a boy! It must be delicious to rough it in the +wilds," sighed Cynthia, stepping daintily over a puddle, and looking +down with concern to see if perchance there was a splash on her boots. +"Boys have much the best of it; they have a chance of doing something +great in the world, while girls have to stay at home and--darn their +socks! All the great things are done by men--in war, in science, in +discovery, even in art and literature, though a few women may equal them +there. All the great things are made by men, too, the wonderful +cathedrals and buildings, and the great bridges and battleships--all the +big things. There's so little left for us." + +Miles looked at her beneath drawn brows, his rugged face softening with +the smile that Betty loved to see. + +"And who makes the men?" he asked simply, and Cynthia peered at him in +startled, eager fashion, and cried-- + +"You mean--_we_ do? Women, mothers and sisters and wives? Is _that_ +what you mean? Oh, I _do_ think you say nice things!" (Shy, silent old +Miles being accused of saying "nice things" to a member of the opposite +sex! Wonders will never cease!) "I shall remember that, next time I see +a lucky boy pass by rattling the railings, and looking as if the world +belonged to him, while I must stand behind the curtains, because it's +not `lady-like' to stare out of the windows! I do ramp and rage +sometimes!" + +Miles' laugh rang out so merrily that Betty turned to stare in +amazement. The idea of Cynthia doing anything so violent as "ramp and +rage" seemed impossible to realise, as one looked at her dainty figure +and sweet pink-and-white face. All the same it was a pleasure to find +that she did not belong to the wax-doll type of girl, but had a will and +a temper of her own. + +"Yes, you may laugh," she cried, laughing herself, "but it's quite true. +Or perhaps it would be more `lady-like' to say that I feel like `a +caged bird,' as people do in books. In future I shall console myself +with the thought that I may be the lever which supplies the force. Is +that simile right, or ridiculously wrong? It's rash of me to use +engineering terms before you. I mean that I'll try to be a good +influence to some man, and so inspire work, if I can't do it myself. +The worst is, I know so few men! Father is abroad, all our relations +are far away, and until I come out I seem to meet nothing but girls, old +and young. Of course, if I got to know you better, I might influence +_you_!" + +She turned her laughing face upon him, the face of a frank, innocent +child, for, though she was nearly seventeen years old, Cynthia was +absolutely innocent of the flirtatious instinct which is strong in some +little girls in the coral and pinafore stage. She offered her +friendship to Betty's brother as composedly as she had done to Betty +herself; it was Miles who blushed, and stared at the pavement, and his +voice sounded hoarse and difficult as he mumbled his reply-- + +"I wish you--I'm sure I should--awfully good thing for me if you did!" + +"Very well; but you will have to do great things, remember! I shan't be +satisfied with anything less. It will be good for me too, for I shall +have to be very stern with myself, if I am to influence someone else. +What are your chief faults? I ought to know, oughtn't I, so as to be +able to set to work the right way?" + +She was so deliciously naive and outspoken, that once again Miles' rare +laugh rang out, and once again Betty marvelled, and felt a thrill of +envy. + +By the time that the Albert Hall was reached, the two young people had +progressed so far towards intimacy that Miles had forgotten his shyness, +and confided to his new mentor some of the trials and grievances which +beset him in his work, the which he had never before confided in a human +being. The attraction of one sex to another is a natural and beautiful +thing. God designed it as one of the great forces in His universe, and +an almost omnipotent power it is, either for good or evil. Do the girls +who jest and frivol with the young men with whom they are brought in +contact, realise their responsibility in all they say and do? Do they +ever reflect that the beauty and charm which they possess are weapons +with which God has endowed them,--weapons which may have more power in +the battle of life than a two-edged sword? Laugh and be merry--enjoy +the sunshine of your youth; it is a sin to see a young thing sad; but +never, never, as you value your womanhood, speak a slighting or +irreverent word against God's great laws of righteousness, nor allow +such a word to pass unreproved in your presence. Remember in the midst +of your merry-making to preserve your dignity as women, knowing that by +so doing you will not lose, but trebly strengthen your hold on any man +worthy of the name. Say to yourself, dear girls--"With God's help I +will be a good angel to this man, who has to meet trials and temptations +from which I am exempt. So far as in me lies I will make him respect +all women, and help, not hinder him in his work." It isn't necessary to +be prim and proper--don't think that! The Misses Prunes and Prisms, who +are always preaching, weary rather than help, but when the bright, +sweet-natured girl, who loves a joke, and can be the whole-hearted +companion of a summer day, speaks a word of reproof, or draws back from +a proposed enterprise, her action carries with it a treble weight of +influence. + +When the whole party were seated in the box--Miss Beveridge and Betty in +the front row, Cynthia and governess number two in the second, and the +two "men" at the back--Miles had little attention to spare for the +music, so absorbed was he in gazing at Cynthia's delicately-cut profile, +and in weaving about her the halo of a young man's first romance. There +was no romance in the two girls; they were absorbed in admiration of the +wonderful building itself, in enjoyment of the music, and in anxiety to +do their duty to dear Mrs Vanburgh's "Govies," as they irreverently +termed Miss Beveridge and her companion. Even when on pleasure bent, +the former could not be called "responsive." When asked, "Do you like +music?" she replied curtly, "No! I teach it!" which reduced the +questioner to stupid silence, though her thoughts were active enough. + +"Oh, indeed! That's one for me, as I am a pupil still! It's the +stupidity of pupils which has made her dislike music, but then--why does +she come to a concert? Why couldn't she have had the decency to refuse, +and let someone else have the ticket? Oh, I do dislike you--you cold,-- +cutting, disagreeable, ungrateful, snappy old thing!" + +Betty sat back in her chair and let her eyes rest on Miss Beveridge's +profile, as that lady in her turn stared fixedly at the orchestra. She +was wearing quite "a decent little toque," and had taken pains with the +arrangement of her hair. Betty was at the stage when she imagined that +it was impossible that life could retain any interest after the age of +thirty, but it dawned upon her now that, at some far-off, prehistoric +period, Miss Beveridge had been handsome--even very handsome, which made +her present condition all the more pitiable. Suppose, just suppose for +a moment, that one became old and lonely, and poor and plain and snappy, +oneself! It was too horrible a prospect to be believed; much more +satisfactory to take refuge in the usual rose-coloured dreams! + +The Royal Box was close at hand--empty, unfortunately, of interesting +occupants. How would it feel to be a princess, and loll back in one's +chair, conscious of being the cynosure of every eye? Betty lolled, and +tried to project herself into the position, pleasingly conscious of a +new blouse, quite immaculate suede gloves, and Cynthia's buckle showing +its dull blues and reds at the front of her belt. She turned her head +slowly from side to side, and cultivated a charming smile.--"Princess +Elizabeth appeared in the Royal Box, looking as fascinating as ever in a +costume of her favourite grey.--" + +The musical programme was interesting and varied, but during the second +half of the concert the cheerfulness of the scene was sadly marred by +the ever-increasing fog which crept in from without, filling the vast +interior with a gloom against which the many lights seemed powerless to +contend. Dr Trevor began to feel a little nervous about the safety of +his party, and suggested making a move before the end of the concert, +but Miss Beveridge insisted that she and her friend needed no escort +home. + +"It would have to be a very bad fog to frighten us. We are accustomed +to going about town in all weathers," she declared, and this was so +obviously the case that it seemed affectation to protest. The doctor +therefore explained that as he was in charge of Cynthia he wished to +allay her mother's natural anxiety as soon as possible, and the young +people bade farewell to their guests of the afternoon and hurried +downstairs. + +Early though it was, hundreds of people seemed to have been inspired by +the same fears, for the stairway was thronged and the passages +downstairs were becoming momentarily blocked. Dr Trevor tucked +Cynthia's hand through his arm. + +"Look after your sister, Miles," he cried, turning a quick glance over +his shoulder. "I'm afraid it's very thick. Keep close behind me if you +can. In any case make the best of your way home." + +A moment later they passed through the doorway into a world of black +gloom, in which phantom shapes at one moment pressed against one, and at +the next vanished utterly from sight. + +Betty gave a little cry of dismay, for, London-bred as she was, never +before had she been out of doors in such an impenetrable fog. She put +out her hand towards the spot where Miles had stood a moment before, but +her fingers gripped nothing more substantial than air. She gave a quick +leap forward, and clutching at a shadowy coat-sleeve shook it violently, +calling out in accents half-frightened, half-angry-- + +"Miles, how horrid of you! You must not stalk on ahead like that! I +shall be lost, and then what will become of me? For pity's sake keep +hold of my arm!" + +She had walked a few paces forward as she spoke, but now she stopped +short, in response to a determined movement of the arm to which she +clung. Betty glanced upwards in surprise; she could not see the face so +near to her arm, but the blood chilled in her veins as a strange voice +answered slowly-- + +"But--I'm sorry, but I do not happen to be Miles!" + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +LOST IN THE FOG. + +The feeling of despair, of helplessness, of desolation, which overcame +Betty at that moment, remained with her as a poignant memory to the end +of her life. She was lost, as hopelessly lost as if she had been in the +midst of a solitary waste, though close at hand, perhaps only a few +yards away, were her own father and brother, the latter no doubt +desperately searching for her. Dr Trevor would make the best of his +way home with Cynthia, knowing his son to be as good a guide as himself. +Poor old Miles! He would have a bad time of it when he arrived home +alone;--yet he had not been to blame, for she herself had refused to +take his arm before leaving the Hall. "It looked so silly!" She had +intended to take it the moment they were in the street, but even that +one moment had been too long. As she heard the stranger's voice she +turned in a panic of fear, and tried to drag her hand from his arm, but +he held her tightly, saying, with an odd mixture of weariness and +impatience-- + +"Don't be foolish! You can do no good by running away. You can never +find your friends again in this blackness. Tell me where you want to +go, and I'll try to help you." + +Betty trembled helplessly. + +"But I must--I must try! It's a long way off--across the Park. Father +is here, and my brother, and some friends. I'll go back to the Hall-- +they may go there to look for me." + +"Look round!" said the strange voice, and Betty turned her head and +stared in amazement, for the great building had vanished as completely +as had Miles himself, and nothing was to be seen but a wall of darkness. +On every side she heard the movement of invisible forms, but their very +unreality added to the sense of desolation which possessed her. It was +terrible even to think of venturing alone through the ghost-like ranks. + +Instinctively she clung more closely to her companion's arm, and, as if +recognising her feelings, his voice took a gentler, more reassuring +tone. + +"Don't be afraid. I had a sister of my own once. You can trust me to +see you safely home. I am afraid it is no earthly use trying to find +your friends among all the thousands who are leaving the Hall. Better +tell me where you live, so that we can get there as soon as the rest of +your party, and save them needless alarm. Across the Park, you said? +The gates will be closed, of course, and in any case that would be the +last route to take. Tell me your exact address." + +"Brompton Square--we turn off at Stanhope Terrace, just past the +Lancaster Gate Station. It is one of those squares lying between the +Park and Edgware Road." + +"I know, I know. Its a long walk, but perhaps it will get lighter as we +go on. These dense fogs are often very local. Keep tight hold of my +arm, please. If we are once separated, it might not be easy to meet +again." + +"No, indeed! I could not have believed it was so easy to get lost. My +brother was beside me one instant, the next--it was your coat-sleeve! I +hope I did not shake it too violently! I was so nervous and frightened +I did not think what I was doing." + +She laughed as she spoke, her youthful spirits beginning to assert +themselves again, as her confidence was assured. The face of her +companion was unknown, but the tone of that quite, "Don't be afraid, I +had a sister of my own," had put an end to her fears. Here was an +adventure indeed--a full-fledged adventure! In anticipation she felt +the joys of relating her experiences to a breathless audience in the +schoolroom, and thrilled with importance. The stranger did not echo her +laugh, however, but merely murmured a few words of conventional +disclaimer and relapsed into silence. Betty could hear him sigh now and +then as they made their way onward--slowly feeling the way from point to +point through the eerie, all-enveloping gloom. Sometimes a brief +question to a link-boy would assure them that they were still on the +right road; sometimes they wandered off the pavement and were suddenly +aware of the champing of horses dangerously near at hand; sometimes for +a minute or two they stood still, waiting to find a clue to their +position; but through all the strange man preserved an unbroken silence, +until Betty's nerve gave way again, and she cried in plaintive, child- +like fashion-- + +"Oh, please would you mind talking a little bit! I'm frightened. It's +like a dreadful nightmare, feeling one's way through this darkness--and +when you are so silent, I feel as if you were a ghost like all the rest, +instead of a real live man." + +"I wish I were!" returned the stranger bitterly. Then recovering +himself with an effort, "I beg your pardon," he said. "I am afraid I +have been very remiss. To tell the truth, I was lost in my own thoughts +when you came to me a few minutes ago, and I am afraid I had gone back +to them, and forgotten that I had a companion!" + +Forgotten! Forgotten her very existence! A young man rescues a +beauteous maid--really and truly she had looked unusually well in all +her smart Christmas farings--from a position of deadly peril, and +straightway forgets her very existence! This part of the story, at +least, must be omitted from the home recital. Betty pursed her lips in +offended dignity, but in the end curiosity got the better of her +annoyance, and she said tentatively-- + +"They must have been very nice thoughts!" + +"Nice!" + +The foolish girl's word was repeated in a tone of bitterest satire. + +"Interesting, then?" + +"In so far as the last of anything is interesting, be the beginning what +it may!" + +"The last!" It was Betty's turn to play the part of echo, as she stared +in amazement at the shadowy form by her side. "How could they be your +last thoughts? You seem quite well and strong. It isn't possible to go +on living and not to think." + +"No, it is not, and therefore when thoughts become unbearable--" + +He stopped short, and Betty felt a thrill of foreboding. The strange +silence, followed by the hopeless bitterness in the stranger's voice, +seemed to bespeak some trouble of overwhelming magnitude, and, viewed in +that light, his last words admitted of only one conclusion. Life had +become unbearable, and therefore he had decided to end it. Hitherto +Betty had carelessly classed all suicides as mad; but this man was not +mad; he was, on the contrary, remarkably sane and quiet in manner! He +was only so hopelessly, helplessly miserable that it did not seem +possible to endure another day's existence. Betty thrilled with a +strange new feeling of awe and responsibility. The hidden strength of +her nature, which had come to her as the result of being brought up to +womanhood in a household dedicated to God and His Christ, broke through +the veneer of youthful folly, and came triumphantly to the surface. + +Her nervous fear dropped from her like a mantle, and she was possessed +by a burning longing to comfort and save. In the midst of the fog and +darkness God had sent to her a great opportunity. She rose to it with a +dignity which seemed to set the restless, self-centred Betty of an hour +ago years behind. Her fingers tightened on the stranger's arm; she +spoke in firm, quiet tones. + +"I can guess what you mean! Forgive me for teasing you with my silly +questions when you are in such trouble. Do you think you could tell me +what it is? It seems a strange thing to ask, but I am no real person +to-night. I am just a shadow that has come out of the fog. I have not +even a face or a name. You might speak to me as safely as to the air +itself, and it might be a relief to put it into words. It is so +sometimes when one is in trouble." + +There was a moment's silence, then-- + +"Thank you," he said in a softened voice. "It's kind of you to think of +it. You might have condemned me at once, as not fit to speak to a girl +like you. You are only a girl, aren't you? Your voice sounds very +young." + +"Yes, only eighteen--nearly eighteen. But my father is a doctor, so I +am always being brought near to sad things, and sometimes I feel quite +old. I think I could understand if you told me your trouble." + +"Suppose it was not so much sorrow as sin? What then? What can you at +eighteen--`nearly eighteen'--know of that? You could not understand if +I did speak." + +"Oh yes, I could. I sin myself--often!" cried Betty, with a swift +remembrance of all those little things done or left undone which made +the failure of her home life. "A girl living at home, with a father and +a mother to look after her, has no temptation to any big thing, but it's +just as bad, if she is idle and selfish and ungrateful, and I am all +three together many times over. I'd be too proud to say that to you if +I saw your face and knew your name; but, as I said before, we are only +shadows in a dream to-night. It doesn't matter what we say. Tell me +your trouble, and let me try to understand. It isn't because I am +curious--it isn't really! Do you believe that?" + +"Yes," he said instantly, "I do! Poor child, you want to help; but I am +past that. I have ruined my own life and the life of the man who has +been my best friend. I have had my chance--a better chance than is +given to most men--and I have made an utter failure of it. If I--went +on, it would mean starting again from the very beginning, with the +stigma of failure to hinder me at every turn--a hopeless fight." + +"But,"--Betty's voice faltered nervously--"isn't it cowardly to run away +just when the fight is hardest? A soldier would be called a traitor if +he did that. And what would come afterwards? Do you believe that you +have a right to take your own life?" + +"You mean from a religious point of view. I'm afraid that's out of my +line. I have lost what little faith I had in these last few years. You +believe in it all, of course--it's natural for a girl--but to me the +idea of a personal God is as unreal as a fairy tale. It does not touch +my position." + +"But just suppose for a moment that it _were_ true. Suppose He does +exist, and has been longing to help you all this time--what then?" cried +Betty earnestly, and her companion gave a short, derisive laugh. + +"It would have been easy enough for Him to have prevented all this +trouble! I can see no help in the story of the last few years. +Everything has gone against me. In the beginning I borrowed some +money--of course, it's a case of money--to help a friend who was in a +tight fix. That was innocent enough. But when the time came round I +could not repay the debt, and in my position it was fatally easy to help +myself to what I needed. I called it just another loan. I was sure of +repaying it before anything was discovered, but again it was impossible, +for there were calls upon me which I had not expected. If I had been +short in my accounts I should have lost my situation, and it was a +handsome one for a man of my age. You won't understand the details, but +I began to speculate, to put off the evil hour, always hoping for a +_coup_ which would put everything right; but it never came. I was not +helped, you see! Things went from bad to worse, until I could go on no +longer. Then in despair I confessed the whole story to my friend--he is +a near relation also, but that is by the way. He would not allow the +family name to be disgraced; he paid up all that was due, and saved me +the shame of prosecution, but even he could do no more. I am sent about +my business--a felon in deed, though not in name. Incidentally, too, he +is ruined. He must give up his house, remove his children to cheap +schools, live in poverty instead of ease. Naturally enough he will have +no more to do with me. There is not a soul on earth who would regret me +if I passed out of being to-night." + +There was a long silence while the strangely-matched couple wended their +way slowly along the bisecting roads which lead from Kensington High +Street to Bayswater Road. The fog had slightly lessened by this time, +but it was still too dense to show anything but a dim outline of +passers-by, and the face of the stranger was but a blur against the +darkness to Betty's searching eyes. Her heart was beating rapidly; she +was praying with a whole-hearted earnestness unknown to her usual +morning and evening supplications--praying to be guided to say the right +thing to save this man's soul from despair. At last-- + +"You say you were not helped," she began timidly; "but if your +speculations had succeeded as you hoped, it might not have been really +good for you. It would have been easier, of course, but if all had gone +smoothly you might have been tempted to do the same thing another time. +Perhaps God knew that, and that there was no way of bringing you back to +Himself except through trouble." + +The stranger laughed again--his hard, mirthless little laugh. + +"I am afraid I can hardly believe in that theory. I can see no reason +for believing that my doings are the slightest interest to Him, or that +He cares in the least what becomes of me." + +"Can't you!" cried Betty eagerly. "Oh, I can! Just think more +carefully, and you will remember many, many things which you have not +stopped to notice at the time. To-night, for instance! Do you think it +chance that I missed my brother, and came to you out of all the hundreds +of people who were around? _I_ don't! I believe God sent me to you +because you would not speak to anyone you knew; because you needed help +so badly--and I need it, too--and we could help each other." + +The shadowy head bent nearer to hers, and the arm pressed against her +hand. + +"Thank you," said the voice in a softened key; "that is a kind thought! +It is quite true that I could not have spoken as I have done under +ordinary circumstances. When I met you I was going straight for the +nearest water. There are many places where an accident might easily +occur on a night like this. I do not wish to make any scandal, only to +disappear." + +Betty drew in her breath sharply. The sound of that one word "water" +gave a definite touch to the situation, and thereby trebly increased its +tragedy, but the gentleness of the voice gave her increased hope, and +she cried eagerly-- + +"Disappear, yes! I can understand it would be difficult to stay among +the old surroundings, but why not disappear _to come back_ another day, +when you can redeem the past? Suppose you went away to a strange place, +and worked hard, oh, very hard, and denied yourself every possible +thing, so as to save up money. Suppose you succeeded--when people are +terribly in earnest about a thing, they generally _do_ succeed--and in +some years' time could pay off what you owe! That would be braver than +killing yourself, wouldn't it? That would be worth living for. Or if +it took too long to pay it back in your friend's lifetime, he has +children, and you could help them as their father has helped you. That +would be paying back the debt in the way he would like best. Think of +it! They would imagine you dead, or perhaps worse than dead, but they +wouldn't be angry with you any more; people don't go on being angry for +years and years, especially if they are good and kind, as your friends +must be. But some day it might happen that they were in trouble, or +getting old and tired, and feeling it was hard to go on working, and a +letter would come in-- from you--and inside that letter there would be a +cheque, and they would be so happy, and so thankful, and so _helped_! +And they would send for you to come back, and the old trouble would be +wiped away, and they would honour you for your brave fight. Oh, you +will--you _will_! You must do it! Promise, promise that you will!" + +Her voice broke into a sob, and something like a faint echo of the sound +came to her ears through the darkness. It seemed the most promising +answer she could have had, in its contrast from the biting self- +possession of a few minutes before. Her heart beat high with hope. + +"Is there any place to which you could go? Have you enough money left +to take you there?" she questioned, as if the matter were already +settled, and, consciously or unconsciously, the stranger replied in the +same vein. + +"I have an old friend in America; he would help me to a start. I have a +good many possessions left; they would bring in enough to pay the +passage if--" + +"No, there is no `if'! Don't let yourself say it! Sell the things to- +morrow, and begin again in a new world, in a new way. Believe that God +_does_ care, and that it is a chance that He has given you, and every +night and every morning, oh, and so often through the day, I shall +remember you, and pray that you may be helped! Sometimes when you feel +lonely you may be glad to know that one person in the Old Country knows +all about you, and is waiting to see the reward of your work. You must +let me know when the success comes. I shall always be waiting; and +remember, this talk is going to do me good too! I have _made_ troubles +for myself because I did not know how well off I was, but now that I +have come so close to the real thing I shall be ashamed to grizzle over +trifles. It _is_ settled, isn't it? You are going on fighting?" + +There was a long silence. She could feel rather than see the struggle +in the man's face, but the pressure tightened on her hand, foretelling +that the decision would be what she wished. + +"Yes," he said slowly at last. "I promise! An hour ago it seemed as if +there was not a soul in the world who cared whether I lived or died, but +as you say you came to me--in the darkness! You think you were sent. +My old mother would have thought the same. I don't know, I can't tell, +but it may be so, and that gives me courage to try again." + +He paused for a moment or two, then suddenly-- + +"What is your name?" he asked. + +"Betty!" + +"Betty!" His voice lingered over the pretty, girlish name. "Thank you, +Betty!" + +"And yours?" + +"Ralph." + +"Thank you, Ralph! You have given me something real to think of in +life--something to look forward to." + +"Ah!" He drew a long, stabbing breath. "But at the best it will be a +long waiting. You will be far from eighteen--`nearly eighteen'--before +I can hope for success. The years will seem very long." + +"But they will pass!" cried Betty. "I can wait!" + +She was in a state of exaltation when no trial of patience seemed too +great to face, and difficulties presented themselves only as glorious +opportunities; but the man, who had experienced the heat and burden of +the day, sighed, and was silent. + +By this time they had made their way past the great houses standing back +from the road, and were close on the Lancaster Gate Station of the +Central London Railway. A faint light streamed into the gloom from the +glass fanlight, and for the first time Betty began to feel that she trod +on familiar ground. + +"Ah, here we are; if we go round this corner I shall be home in five +minutes. Perhaps we shall arrive before the others, after all. You +have brought me so quickly that there is no time for them to have been +anxious, unless Miles went in alone." + +The stranger did not answer. They turned round the corner of Stanhope +Terrace and walked along for twenty or thirty yards, then suddenly he +stood still, and dropped her arm. + +"I may never meet you again," he said slowly; "in all probability we +never shall meet, but before we part, let me see your face, Betty!" + +There was a sound of a match being struck against the side of a box, +then a tiny flame flickered up in the darkness. Betty gazed upwards +into a face still young, but haggard and drawn with suffering, a long +thin face with deep-set eyes and a well-cut chin. + +"Now, now, now," she was saying breathlessly to herself. "I must +notice! I must remember! I shall have to remember for so many years--" + +The flame quivered and faded away. + +"Thank you," said the stranger quietly. "I shall remember!" Evidently +his thoughts and hers had followed the same course. + +They walked along slowly side by side, but no longer arm in arm, for +that momentary exchange of glances had brought a touch of personal +embarrassment into the situation which had been unfelt before. Betty +was anxiously pondering what to say in farewell, feeling at the same +time that further words would be more likely to mar than to aid the +impression already made, when suddenly a form loomed through the +darkness, and a well-known "Coo-ee" sounded in her ears. + +"Miles--oh, Miles! I'm here! Oh, Miles, I am so glad! I was so +frightened, but this gentleman has been so kind. He has brought me all +the way home." + +Miles grunted discourteously; he disapproved of stray acquaintances for +his sister, and now that anxiety for her safety was assuaged, began to +feel aggrieved at having been frightened for nothing. + +"What on earth did you mean by rushing off by yourself? Might have been +lost all night. I've been hanging about for an age, not daring to go +into the house and scare the mater. Never go out with you again in a +fog!" + +Betty laughed merrily. + +"I can return that compliment. It seems to me that you ran away from +me." She turned to hold out her hand to the stranger. "Now that my +brother is here I need not trouble you any more. Good-bye! Thank you +very much!" + +"Thank you!" he said earnestly. "Good-bye until--a brighter day." + +"What does that bounder mean by talking of another day? Cheek!" grunted +Miles, leading the way onward, but Betty only pressed his arm and +replied irrelevantly-- + +"Don't say anything about our having missed each other when we first go +in, Miles. I'll tell mother quietly. I'd rather, if you don't mind." + +Miles did not mind a bit--in fact, he was thankful to be spared +questioning and reproach, so he made his way upstairs to his room, while +Betty entered the study, where Dr and Mrs Trevor were seated. + +"Here we are, safe and sound! It has been adventurous, but all's well +that ends well. Have you been anxious, mother dear? I do hope not." + +She bent to kiss her mother with an unwonted tenderness, which brought a +flush of pleasure into the thin cheek. + +"How sweet that child looks to-night! Did you notice?" she said to her +husband when they were once more alone. "And she was so gentle and +considerate. It's such a pleasure to see her like that, for she is +sometimes so difficult." + +Dr Trevor smiled. + +"She is mellowing, dear, she is mellowing! I told you it would come. +The child is turning into a woman--and a bonnie woman she will be too. +Dear little Betty!" + +And in the shelter of her attic bedroom the child woman was holding a +lighted candle before the looking-glass, and staring half abashed into +an oval face with dilated eyes, and dark hair twisted by the damp into a +cloud of tiny ringlets. + +"Did he--did he think me--nice?" she was asking of herself. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +THE SISTERS. + +Upon the first quiet opportunity Betty confided the history of her walk +to her mother, who listened with the deepest interest and sympathy. + +"It was a great opportunity, dear, and you made the most of it. I am +proud of my daughter," she said. "I will join with you in praying that +the poor fellow may be kept true to his pledge. It's not the first step +which costs in these struggles, whatever the proverb may say; the +hardest part of the fight comes later on, when the first excitement is +over, and progress seems so pitifully slow. So don't let yourself grow +weary in well-doing, dear Betty. Your poor friend will need your +prayers more and more, not less and less." + +"Oh no, I shall never grow tired," said Betty confidently. Then her +face clouded, and she sighed. "Mother, do you suppose I shall ever--see +him again?" + +"It is very unlikely, dear. He is going so far away, and will have no +money to spare for visits home. It must be a large sum which he has to +repay, if the loss of it necessitated such a change in his friend's +household. With everything in his favour it would take a long time to +earn." + +"How long, mother?" + +"Dear child, what a question! It is impossible to say. It would be +extraordinary, I should think, if he managed it in less than a dozen +years." + +"A dozen years! I should be thirty! I shall be hideous at thirty," +thought Betty ruefully, recalling the vision of the sweet, flushed face +which had looked at her from the mirror the day before. Could it be +possible that a dozen years--twelve whole years--could pass by without +bringing her any tidings of "Ralph"? In the state of exaltation which +had possessed her last night she had felt raised above the need of +words, but already reaction had set in, and with it a strange sense of +depression at the thought of the future. + +It was good to know that there was Cynthia to talk to--Cynthia, who +might not be able to advise and strengthen as wisely as mother did, but +who was a girl, and knew how girls felt--"up and down, and in and out, +and--oh, and so topsy-turvy upside down!" thought poor Betty to herself. + +A breathless, "I want to speak to you; I have something dreadfully +interesting to tell!" whispered in a chance encounter in the street, +brought an immediate invitation to tea `in my own room, where we shan't +be bothered'; and under these happy auspices the adventure was once more +related, while Cynthia's grey eyes grew wide with excitement. + +"Dear Betty, how glorious for you!" she cried ecstatically. "What a +wonderful thing to remember! You can never be blue again, and say that +you are no use in the world. To have saved a man's life, and started +him on the right road--at eighteen--not eighteen! You are the most +fortunate girl in the whole world! It's so strange that this chance +should have come to you on that particular day, because your brother and +I had been talking about the different work of men and women as we +walked over the Park to the Albert Hall, and he said that if it was +men's province to make the greatest things in the world, it was women's +work to make the men; and that was what you did, Betty dear. You helped +God to make a man!" + +Betty raised her brows in a surprise which was not altogether agreeable. + +"Miles--_Miles_ said so! How extraordinary! He never talks like that +to me, and he hardly knew you at all. However did you come to discuss +such a subject?" + +"I asked him about his work, and envied him for being able to do +something real. He is a nice boy. I like him very much," said Cynthia +placidly. + +Imagine being favoured with confidences from Miles, and remaining quite +cool and unconcerned! For a good two moments Betty forgot all about her +own affairs in sheer wonder at such an astonishing state of mind. Then +remembrance came back, and she asked eagerly-- + +"Cynthia, do you think I shall ever hear anything more about him? +Mother says it will take years and years to save so much money. Do you +think I shall ever know?" + +"Yes!" said Cynthia confidently. "Of course you will know. He will +find some way of telling you. You told him your address, so it was the +easiest thing in the world to find out your name. You will get +something from him every year--perhaps on Christmas Day, perhaps in +summer, perhaps on the anniversary of the night. It may be only a +newspaper, it may be a letter, it may be just a flower--like the man in +_The Prisoner of Zenda_ sent to the princess, but it will be +_something_! He mayn't sign his name or give his address, but he will +want you to know--he will feel you ought to know that he is alive and +remembering." + +Oh, the beauty of a girl confidante! How truly she understands the art +of comfort! + +"And shall I ever see him again?" + +"Yes--if you both live. He will want to see you again more than +anything in the world, except paying off his debt. When that is done, +he will rush straight off to you and say, `Here I am. I have worked +hard and kept my promise. To-day I can look the whole world in the +face, for I owe not any man. I have regained my friend and my position, +and it is your doing. _You_ saved me! All these years the thought of +you has been my inspiration. I have lived in the thought of seeing your +face again--'" + +"Oh, oh, oh!" cried Betty, gasping. "And I shall be hideous, Cynthia, +hideous! Fancy, I may be thirty! What will he think, when he sees me +so changed?" + +"He won't mind a bit--they never do. He will say, `Though worn and +haggard, you are still in my eyes the most beautiful woman in the +world!'" cried Cynthia. + +And then, being only eighteen--nearly eighteen--each girl suddenly +descended from her high horse, and went off into peal after peal of +laughter, merry, heart-whole laughter, which floated to Mrs Alliot's +ears as she lay on her couch in the drawing-room, and brought a smile to +her pale face. This new friendship was doing great things for her +lonely girl! + +Towards the end of the Christmas holidays the great news circulated that +Mrs Vanburgh was coming home, and bringing her two younger sisters for +a few weeks' shopping in town. Agatha and Christabel had just returned +from two years' sojourn abroad, and were presumably "finished" young +ladies. Cynthia and Betty wondered how much finished, and whether +finished enough to look down with contempt upon unfinished damsels still +undergoing the thraldom of "classes!" + +It was a thrilling occasion when they were bidden to tea "to meet my +sisters," and Betty felt she would hardly have had courage to face the +ordeal but for the fact of a new blouse and that fascinating buckle on +her belt. She had a sensation of being all arms and legs--a horrible, +almost forgotten remnant of schoolroom days--as she crossed Mrs +Vanburgh's drawing-room to be introduced to the two strange figures on +the sofa. + +One was dark and one was fair; both possessed a wonderful wealth of +beautiful glossy hair, gold in the one case, in the other brown, rolling +back from the brow in upstanding pompadours, which were, however, more +picturesque than stiff, and rolled into coil after coil at the back of +the neck. Done-up hair--that was very "finished" indeed! Both were +distinctly good-looking, and the younger, though the smaller of the two, +possessed a personality which at once seemed to constitute her mistress +of the ceremonies. Both were perfectly at ease, and so full of +conversation that they talked both at the same time, emphasising every +second or third word after a quaint fashion of their own which Betty +found very amusing. + +They were fear-fully pleased to see her. They had heard such _reams_ +about her from Nan. It was so charming for Nan to have girl friends. +Nan was _devoted_ to girls. It was such _sport_ to be staying with Nan. +They had been simply _dying_ to live in town. My dear, they had not a +_rag_ to wear! Nobody wore decent clothes in Germany. Frumps, my dear, +per-fect frumps! They were on their own allowance. Was Betty on her +own allowance? Lucky girl! It was simply _agonising_ to have to buy +_everything_ you needed on a quarter's allowance. They had lain awake +for _hours_ considering the problem. They were in _despair_! Nan had +given them each a dress for Christmas. Nan was an _angel_! They wanted +Nan to give a dance for them while they were in town. + +Betty's heart leapt, but Mrs Vanburgh shook her head, and said-- + +"Sorry, but Nan can't! Mother wouldn't like it, as you have only just +left school, and are not properly out yet." + +"Well, I shall _leak_ out, then! I am not going to wait another year, +if I know it. There's a dance coming on at home in February, and I'm +going to it, or my name is not Christabel Rendell. I'm going to buy a +dress and all the _et-ceteras_, and then mother won't have the _heart_ +to say No. Nan, if you won't give us a dance, what _are_ you going to +do? You can't be so mean as to provide _no_ evening jollification!" + +"My dear, remembah! You were a girl yourself!" echoed Agatha, in deep- +toned remonstrance, and then they began rattling out a list of +suggestions. + +"Tableaux--" + +"Progressive games--" + +"Dinner-party. No old fogies! We will choose the guests." + +"Music and conversation. You do the music, and we'll converse." + +"General frolic, and supper to finish up. If it develops into a dance, +so much the better! It's not coming out to dance on a carpet." + +"Really, Nan, it's piteous to think how _stodgy_ you have grown! +Married sisters are a delusion. We used to imagine coming to stay, and +doing whatever we liked, and eating all sorts of indigestible things +that we mayn't have at home. But now Maud can think of nothing but that +baby, and you are so prim--too fearfully prim for words." + +"Prim!" shouted Mrs Vanburgh. There is really no other word to express +the outraged indignation of her tone. To hear her, one might have +supposed it the greatest insult in the world to be accused of primness +of demeanour. "You dare to sit there and call me names in my own house! +If I am prim, you had better go home and leave me. I wouldn't stay any +longer, if I'm prim. I'm sorry I asked you, if I'm prim. If I'm prim, +I wonder why you ever wanted to come. Prim, indeed! If it's prim to +know what is correct and what is not, it's a pity you are not prim too! +If I'm prim, I won't give any party at all. You had better sit round +the fire and knit stockings, and I'll read aloud _The Old Helmet_, as +I'm so prim." + +Christabel raised her hands to her ears in affected distraction. + +"Stop her, somebody--stop her for pity's sake! When she is once wound +up like this she will go on for hours! My dear, I crawl, I _grovel_ +before you! You are _not_ prim! Nothing is further removed from your +character. You are going to give us as many parties as we like." + +"Humph!" said Mrs Vanburgh shortly. She was by no means appeased, and +during the meal which followed ejaculations of "Prim--prim, indeed!" +fell from her lips at intervals like so many minute-guns of indignation, +while Christabel ate cakes and scones with undiminished zest, and smiled +upon her with patronising indulgence. + +In relating the history of the afternoon to Jill, later on, Betty +declared that she herself had not spoken a single sentence the whole +afternoon. She had exclaimed, "Really!" "Fancy!" "Goodness!" "How +killing!" each about a hundred times over, had laughed and smiled, +nodded her head and said "Yes" to a dozen propositions, had been +unceasingly amused and interested, but had never been allowed a +breathing space in which to air her own opinions. + +It had been finally decided that "a general frolic" should be held on +the following Thursday evening, Christabel proposing, seconding, and +triumphantly carrying the resolution that each guest should come +prepared to entertain the company for a period of at least five minutes +on end. The protesting groans and denials of her companions beat in +vain against the rock of her decision. She smiled graciously upon them, +and cried-- + +"Rubbish! Of _course_ you can! Sing, play, dance, recite, read aloud, +tell a story, show some new tricks; there's no _end_ to the things to +choose from, my deah! If you begin by protesting and excusing as you +are doing now, there will be no time left. It will be too lovelay for +_words_! A sit-down supper, Nan,--no light refreshments, please!--and, +as a matter of precaution, as much furniture as possible moved out of +the drawing-room. I can't think why you did not have a parquet floor! +People grow so selfish and inconsiderate when they are married. +_Piteous_, I call it!" + +"Anything else?" queried Nan loftily. "Selfish, and inconsiderate, and +prim, am I? Prim, indeed! I'll tell Gervase the moment he comes in +what a wretched wife he has married! He'd never find it out for +himself." + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +THE PARTY. + +"She may request as much as she likes; I'm not going! I wouldn't go if +I were paid for it!" was Miles' ungallant comment upon receipt of Mrs +Vanburgh's invitation; but before he had time to pen his refusal, +Cynthia, in her new character of mentor, issued her regal decree that it +should be turned into an acceptance. In vain he grumbled and protested; +the silken chains never relaxed their hold. + +"Hate parties! Senseless waste of time." + +"It would be kind of you to help to make it more profitable." + +"I've no parlour tricks--and don't see the fun of making a performing +bear of myself among a lot of strangers." + +"It would be bearish to refuse, and allow your sisters to go alone! +I've always longed for a brother to take me about. A nice man is always +considerate to girls." + +Miles grunted. + +"If I did go, they wouldn't speak to me all the evening! I never know +what to say to strangers. I should have to sit in a corner by myself. +There'll be a crowd of girls--you, and Betty, and Mrs Vanburgh's +sisters, and who knows how many more?" + +Cynthia bowed her head in stately salute. + +"You would not be ungallant enough to insinuate that there could be too +many! It will be your proud privilege to introduce a masculine element +into the assembly." + +"Humph!" + +"It likewise appears probable to me that Mrs Vanburgh may know a few +nice men besides yourself." + +Betty would have said "boys," Cynthia knew better, and reaped her reward +in Miles' wavering air. + +"Couldn't entertain a party for one minute, let alone ten." + +"We will go into partnership then, and do it together! Ten minutes +instead of five. We'll be confederates, and show them tricks. I know a +lovely one about telling the time from the position of a poker--no! How +silly I am, I always give away the secret! You tell a _card_, not the +hour. It's quite easy. You have an imaginary clock face on the +hearthrug; twelve o'clock is the fire, and you lay the poker on the rug +with the point on the number you want--one, two, three and so on, up to +queen. For king, you simply hold it in your hand, which puzzles them +more than ever." + +"What about the suits?" + +"Oh, that's quite easy. When the person outside comes in, he must +notice first of all how his confederate is looking; to the left means +hearts; to the right, diamonds; upwards, clubs; downward, spades. It's +really a lovely trick. We'll rehearse it, and I'm sure you must know +many more." + +"I know some balancing tips,--Georgia Magnet business. You might be the +Magnetic Lady, and I'd be the showman." + +"Oh, lovely, lovely! Could you teach me really? Could I lift up a +table with two or three men sitting on it, like you see in the +advertisements?" cried Cynthia fervently, and though Miles replied, +"Rather not!" he condescended to state one or two less strenuous feats +which she might safely accomplish, and even to put her through a +preliminary drilling on the spot. + +The battle was won! For the next week Mrs Vanburgh's party was the one +subject of discussion with the Trevor sisters. Betty was agitated on +the subject of her dress, and being denied a new sash, subsided into +gloom for the space of ten minutes, when with a sudden turn of the wheel +a mental picture was presented of a ship ploughing across the seas, +bearing a lonely emigrant to his difficult task, when it became, all of +a sudden, contemptible beyond words to fret oneself about--a ribbon! As +she herself had said, having once come face to face with tragedy, her +eyes were opened to the petty nature of her own trials. She ironed and +pressed, and viewing the shabby bows and insufficient ends, said +bravely: "Who cares? It will be all the same in a hundred years!" + +Jill wished to know exactly how late the party would be kept up, and if +there was to be a sit-down supper. "I loathe `light refreshments' like +we have at breaks up. Bitter lemonade and sangwidges--who wants +sangwidges? I like to sit down, and have courses, and stay as long as +you like, and crackers, with things in them." When asked how she +proposed to amuse the company when her turn came round, she shrugged her +shoulders, and replied, "Haven't the faintest idea! Shall think of +something, I suppose," in true Jill-like, happy-go-lucky fashion. + +Pam sat glued to the window, and kept an unerring record of everything +which entered the Vanburgh house for two days before the fray. Baskets +from the fruiterer's, trays from the confectioner's; mysterious paper +boxes from the Stores; flowers from the florist's; they were all +registered in her accurate little brain, and described at length to her +sisters. + +"Couldn't you bring me back somefing nice?" she pleaded wistfully. +"Sweets--or a cracker--or a very pretty cake with icing on it?"--and +though Betty proved adamant, Jill succumbed. + +"What are pouches for if you can't carry things in them?" she demanded. +"My party body has a huge pouch. I'll bring you samples, Pam, and if +there are enough, we'll share them together!" + +When the great night arrived, Miles was decidedly short as to temper, +but he looked so tall and imposing in his dress suit, that Cynthia's +designation of "man" seemed nothing but his due. Like all male beings, +he seemed to regard the behaviour of his tie and shirt front as the only +things of importance in the universe, and so completely engrossed was he +thereby that he had only an absent, "Oh, all right!" to return to +Betty's anxious inquiries as to her own appearance. + +They crossed the road together, three ungainly-looking figures in +ulsters and snow-shoes, and were admitted to the Vanburgh hall, which +was instinct with the air of festivity. Flowers everywhere, plants +banked up in the background, attentive servants to wave you forward; +more servants to greet you at the head of the staircase, to help you to +unwrap in the bedroom, and make you feel ashamed that your tweed coat +was not an opera mantle, like the charming specimens displayed on the +bed! + +In the drawing-room quite a number of guests were assembled, and Miles +was relieved to discover that he was by no means the only member of his +sex. Betty's first shyness died away as Christabel smiled at her across +the room, and patted the empty seat by her side with an inviting +gesture. She looked very charming and imposing in her evening dress, +but when Betty ventured to admire it she was informed that it was "A +rag, my dear--a prehistoric _rag_!" and warned that at any moment the +worn-out fabric might be expected to fly asunder, when "As you love me, +fling yourself upon me, and _hurl_ me from the room! My entertainment +comes on last of all. I arranged it so for a special reason," +Christabel explained, with the _grande dame_ air which was one of her +chief characteristics. "We are to draw lots for the rest, so that there +shall be no favouritism." + +Presently the lots were drawn, and who should draw number one but Jill, +the casual and unprepared! Betty blushed for her, and felt a wild +longing to creep beneath the grand piano, but Jill herself laughed, and +went forward to seat herself on a chair facing the whole assembly with +undisturbed composure. + +Everyone stared at her, and she stared back, dropping her head on one +side, and screwing up her saucy nose with a transparent pretence of +embarrassment, which aroused the first laugh of the evening. Everybody +was amused and interested, and ready to be pleased, so that the +announcement, "I'm going to ask riddles!" instead of falling flat, as +might have been expected, was received with quite a burst of applause. +And there she sat asking riddles--venerable old chestnuts for the most +part, and the marvel of it was that it was a most lively performance, +for the orthodox answers were mischievously replaced by newer and more +amusing editions, and one person after another would cry, "That reminds +me--do you know what is the difference," etcetera, etcetera, so that +presently everyone was asking riddles and catches, and really good ones +into the bargain, and it was only after fifteen minutes had elapsed that +Jill retired from her post beneath a hurricane of applause. Happy Jill, +it was her birthright to charm! It seemed impossible that she should +ever do the wrong thing. + +When it came to Betty's turn she played conscientiously through the +Sonata Pathetique, with which she had been wrestling for two hours a day +for the last month. That very morning she had played it over without a +single fault, and really and truly the runs had sounded quite +professional; but when your head throbs, and your cheeks burn, and your +heart pounds, and your feet grow cold, and your fingers are hot, and +stick together, and refuse to do what they are told, it is wonderful how +differently things sound! Poor Sonata! It really _was_ rather +pathetic, and it is to be feared that the audience was almost as much +relieved as was Betty herself, when it came to an end. + +The Magnetic Lady performance was a great success, Miles as showman +being an agreeable surprise to his relations, for if he were not +discursive, he was at least perfectly composed and business-like, and +the poker trick and balancing feats were alike marvellous and +perplexing. + +Agatha recounted a story of a haunted castle, and of a ghost which was +not a ghost at all, but simply a gentleman's bath-gown hung on a nail. +The plot was decidedly thin, but the audience found amusement in the +quaint and truly Rendell-like phraseology in which it was presented, and +in the lavish use of italics. Poor crushed Betty congratulated Agatha +on her success, and Agatha rolled her eyes, and cried tragically-- + +"My dear--I nearly _expired_ with embarrassment! I was _purple_ with +agitation. As a candid friend, tell me truly--_has_ it spread to my +nose?" + +Somebody recited; someone sang a song; somebody introduced a new game; +somebody showed card tricks; a budding artist took lightning portraits +of host and hostess and a few of the leading guests, and presently +supper was announced before Christabel had had time for her turn. + +"Never mind! It will be even better afterwards! I intended it to be +afterwards," she said, smiling mysteriously, as she was led down to +supper by the oldest and most important man in the room. Miles eagerly +appropriated Cynthia, and Betty's partner was one Mr Ned Rendell, the +only brother of the houseful of girls, a somewhat lofty and self- +satisfied gentleman, who let her see that he considered her a mere child +more plainly than was altogether polite. Not being possessed of Jill's +youthful love of good things to eat, she was thankful when it was time +to return to the drawing-room, where Christabel was already awaiting her +turn, with an eagerness which had been lacking in any other performer. + +"Put your chairs against the wall, please--quite against the wall! I +need all the room I can get," she directed, waving her hands to right +and left in masterful fashion. "That's better! Move that table, +please. I don't want to knock it down. I shall want someone to help +me. Mr Ross, will you be so kind? We must have a musical +accompaniment, too. A little slow music--Agatha knows what I mean. +Begin at once, please!" + +A meaning glance passed between the sisters as Agatha obediently seated +herself on the piano-stool and struck up--a waltz tune! When, presto! +Christabel and her partner were whirling round the room, while she +laughed a merry defiance at Nan, and nodded to the assembled guests to +follow her example. + +In a trice the floor was covered with dancers, and for the rest of the +evening no other amusement had a chance. Christabel had her way after +all! It was safe to predict that Christabel generally _would_ get her +own way. + +It was in the middle of the final Sir Roger, just as she was curtseying +in the centre of the two long lines, that Jill's pouch played her false, +and a meringue, a sausage roll, and a couple of crackers fell on the +ground in a sticky heap. Betty wished that the ground would open and +swallow her up, and even Jill had the grace to blush, but Mrs Vanburgh +came to the rescue with truly delightful understanding. + +"Oh--oh, what a pity! You were taking them home for the children--I +always did!" she cried sympathetically. "Bring a shovel, Gervase, +please, and take away the crumbs. You should have smuggled them into +the bedroom, Jill--that's how _I_ managed. Now then, partner!" and off +she went, dancing down the line, and setting everybody else going, so +that it was impossible to dwell any longer on the tragic discovery. + +Never since the creation of the world, Jill decided, had there lived +anyone more deliciously suitable to play the part of hostess to an +assembly of young people! + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +A STRANGE MEETING. + +Time passes rapidly to the young and light-hearted, and winter fogs had +given place to blue skies and flowering trees before--as Jill expressed +it--one could say "Jack Robinson." + +Miles was finishing his course of study, and had so distinguished +himself above his fellows that there was little doubt that a good +opening would be offered to him ere long. Dr Trevor was very proud of +his clever son, but the mother's face took on a wistful expression as +she looked round the table at her assembled family, and realised that +the time was close at hand for the stirring up of the nest. She was +unusually indulgent during those spring months, as if she could not find +it in her heart to deny any possible pleasure. + +"We shall not long be together. Miles will be going away, and after +then--who knows?" she told herself sadly. "Once children begin to grow +up and go out into the world, one can never be sure of meeting again as +a complete family circle. Let them be happy while they may!" + +So those spring months saw an unusual succession of gaieties in the +doctor's shabby house, in the shape of merry, informal gatherings, which +went far to cement newly-made friendships. Agatha and Christabel +Rendell returned home, only to be succeeded by the remaining three +sisters of the family, who proved quite as interesting in their various +ways. Dear good Maud was as sweet and placid as her own fat baby, while +Elsie was an intense young person, quite different from anyone else whom +Betty and Cynthia had ever encountered. Her hair was parted in the +middle and brushed smoothly over her ears; she wore quaintly +unfashionable garments, and--thrilling item of interest!--was engaged to +be married to a sub-editor of a magazine, who was reported to be even +more intense than herself. Elsie disdained the ordinary sign of +betrothal; a ring, she explained to the astonished girls, was a badge of +servitude to which no self-respecting woman should submit, and she wore +in its place a gold locket, bearing strange cabalistic signs, the +meaning of which the beholders vainly yearned to discover. + +With regard to the future, Elsie and her editor announced their +intention of living "the higher life"--a high-sounding phrase which was +not a little impressive, until one heard the details thereof, which +scarcely appealed to the ordinary imagination. They were going to +subsist on a diet of bread and nuts, a regime which did away at one fell +swoop with the need of such superfluities as cook and kitchen; they +would have no curtains nor draperies, as woollens harbour microbes; no +wall-papers, as papers exude poisons; no ornaments, since it was a sin +to waste the precious hours in dusting what was of no use. What they +_were_ going to have, soon became the question in the minds of the +anxious hearers, while "Poor old Elsie!" cried Nan Vanburgh, laughing. +"I give her a month before I am taken for a day's hard shopping at +Maple's! She rides her hobbies so violently that they collapse of sheer +exhaustion before she has time to put them into practice!" + +In the matter of conversation, Elsie swayed between the high-flown and +the natural, sometimes chatting away in ordinary commonplace fashion, at +other times confounding her hearers by weird and mysterious utterances. + +"Have you ever felt the intense meaning in _colour_?" she demanded one +day, at the end of a silence during which she had been gazing into the +heart of the fire. Betty stared aghast, but Cynthia, with finer humour, +smiled demurely, and replied-- + +"Of blues--yes! I feel it horribly at times," whereupon, being a +Rendell, Elsie descended promptly from her high horse, and chuckled with +enjoyment. + +After Elsie appeared Lilias--a vision of beauty and elegance, but far +too grown-up and superior to care for the society of chits in the +schoolroom. Her visit was a round of gaiety, for she did not care for +quiet home evenings, but she never seemed really satisfied nor pleased, +and there was always a "but" or an "if" at the end of her description of +the last day's doings. + +Nan looked at her with troubled eyes, and her "Poor Lilias!" had a very +different ring from the "Poor old Elsie!" which was after all only a +pretence at pity. + +Cynthia's prophecy had been fulfilled, for at the end of January Betty +had received from America a copy of the _New York Herald_, with the +significant letter "R" printed on a corner of the wrapper. Her friend +of the fog had evidently possessed himself of her full name and address +before leaving town, and now wished her to know that he had safely +reached the scene of his future labours. How carefully that wrapper was +preserved! How diligently it was searched for further messages, long +after it had been definitely concluded that no such message could exist! +Betty considered the handwriting the most manly and distinctive that +she had ever beheld; and Cynthia, without going so far, was still +prepared to read in it all the desired meanings. + +"The letters are joined together; that means sequence of thought and +mental ability. The line rises at the end; that shows proper ambition. +There are power and success written in every stroke!" + +"Dear Cynthia!" sighed Betty ardently. "How clever you are! You are +always right." + +As for Jack, he was working, absolutely working hard, instead of playing +with his tasks. The redoubtable Johnson was constrained to take a +second place in the class as a permanency nowadays, and hopes of the +scholarship grew apace in the parental heart. Jack did not appreciate +home references to his newly-developed industry, and, so strange and +unaccountable a thing is schoolboy nature, that when Betty injudiciously +remarked on his "goodness," he "slacked it" of intent for a whole week, +just to have the satisfaction of telling her of his descent in the +class. Not for all the riches in the world would he have explained the +real reason for the change, but those three words, "the Captain's +orders!" rang in his ears like a battle-cry, and the voice within gave +him no peace if he did less than his best. Poor General Digby! It +seemed hard that he should be denied the exquisite satisfaction of +knowing what good he had been the means of working; but, though Jack's +lips were sealed on this point, he showed an appreciation of that +gentleman's company and an affectionate forethought for his comfort +which were very comforting to a lonely bachelor. It became a habit to +drop in at the flat for a cup of tea and half an hour's chat on the way +home from school, and to accompany the General for a walk on Sunday +afternoons. Dr and Mrs Trevor were pleased that the boy should be +brought so much in contact with a man for whom their admiration and +respect increased more and more with better acquaintance, for the +General's faults were all on the surface, and behind the loud voice and +irascible mien were hidden a child-like faith and purity of heart. + +And then one day an extraordinary thing happened! Talk of story-books, +as Betty said,--talk of three volume novels,--talk of a whole +circulating library at once, and never, no never, could you think of +anything more exciting or romantic! + +Mrs Trevor had invited Miss Beveridge to spend Sunday at Number 1, in +response to a plaintive appeal from her eldest daughter. + +"She weighs on my mind like a lump of lead, for I know Mrs Vanburgh +thinks I'm mean never to have asked her here, but I really can't contend +with her alone, she is so frightfully snubbing and superior. If you +would let her come some Sunday when everyone is at home, and you are not +busy all the time, we could take turns at entertaining her. I'd love +you for ever and ever if you only would!" + +"Well--it's a big bribe!" said Mrs Trevor, laughing. "Yes, by all +means ask her to come. I shall be very glad to welcome her any Sunday, +if she seems to enjoy coming." + +"Oh, she won't do that. She hasn't any enjoying power left. It's all +taught out of her. I don't believe she could feel anything if she +tried," quoth Miss Betty in her wisdom, and was fated to see the folly +of her words. + +Mrs Trevor was pouring out tea in the drawing-room at a little table +set almost beneath the shadow of Pam's branching palm. Miss Beveridge +was sitting bolt upright in an easy-chair, looking as if she were +accustomed to be uncomfortable, and uncomfortable she was determined to +be, in spite of all conspiracies to the contrary. She wore a severe +black dress, and her iron-grey hair was brushed back from her face with +almost painful neatness. Betty looked from one to the other as she +handed round cakes and scones, and wondered if her mother was really +years and years younger than Miss Beveridge, or if she only looked it +because she was pretty and dainty, and happy at heart. Miss Beveridge +had beautiful features, but the listless gloom of her expression spoiled +what beauty she might still have possessed. Nan's persistent efforts +had to some extent thawed the icy barrier of reserve, but in a strange +atmosphere it seemed to have frozen even harder than before, so that +Mrs Trevor was devoutly thankful for the arrival of the tea-tray, and +wondered no more at Betty's unwillingness to tackle this silent visitor. + +And then the door opened, and Jack's cheery voice was heard. + +"Hallo, mother, here's a friend come to tea!" he announced, and the next +moment the whole atmosphere of the room was changed, as the General's +big form hobbled forward, the big red face smiled its big kind smile, +and the big voice boomed out a thunderous greeting. + +"Afternoon, madam! Afternoon, Lady Betty! This boy tempted me, and I +fell. What's this I hear about hot muffins and apricot jam? When I was +a nipper there was no boy in the length of Ireland that could beat +Terence Digby at a muffin struggle. Where's my friend Jill? Plain +Jill! Eh, what? No, my dear--I said to her--that, at least, you never +can be. That's taken out of your power! Where's Miss Pussy Pam? I +can't see you all in this half light. Very picturesque for young eyes, +madam, but when you get old like me you'll be thankful for electricity. +Eh! Who's this?" + +He had caught a glimpse of the figure in the easy-chair, and, wheeling +suddenly round, stared full at it. Stared, and grew silent. And Miss +Beveridge stared back, and her eyes looked big, big, and oh! So dark +and deep. And her lips worked as if she were going to speak, and a red +spot came out on each cheek, and she was not Miss Beveridge any longer, +but someone whom the onlookers had never seen before. + +The General's figure seemed to stiffen, his bent shoulders straightened +and broadened out. He stretched out his right hand. + +"_Alice_!" he said, and his voice was soft and breathless. One could +hardly imagine it could be General Digby's voice. "Alice! Is that +you?" + +She put her hand in his, and nodded dumbly. Mrs Trevor rattled her +teacups, questioned Jack volubly as to his walk--frowning at Betty to +second her efforts, and so leave the two old friends undisturbed; but it +was beyond girl nature to resist sly peeps, and if one's ears were made +sharp by nature, how could one help hearing odd scraps of conversation? + +"And you have been living in London for years? You are not--" a glance +at the ringless hand--"not married then? I always thought you would +marry. ... You will give me your address. I must not lose sight of you +again.--A Governesses' Home. Oh, Alice!" ... + +General Digby had no appetite for muffins and apricot jam that +afternoon. His fierce old face worked strangely as he sat with the +untasted tea in his hands, his glassy eyes were for once moist and +tender. As for Miss Beveridge, the flush died away from her cheeks, +leaving her looking even more worn and grey than before, and Betty, +looking at her, was conscious of a sudden tender outgoing of the heart, +a longing to help and comfort, such as had inspired Nan Vanburgh months +before, but after which she herself had striven in vain. This was +evidently a meeting of old lovers parted by some untoward fate. Ah, +poor soul, and it had come too late! Youth and health, and joy and +beauty, had all paid toll to the long years as they passed. How shocked +and pained the General must be, to meet his love in such a sadly +different guise! It was not possible he could care for her any more. +Better not to have met, and to have preserved the old illusion. + +"I'll be nice to her! I thought she had been born old, but she has been +young after all. I will be nice to her. I'll try to make up!" said +Betty pitifully to herself. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +A TETE-A-TETE. + +Half an hour later, when Betty escorted the General to the door, he +paused in the hall to lay his hand on her arm, and inquire in a voice +unusually tremulous-- + +"You have often spoken to me about your `Govies,' as you call them. +Was--was _She_ one of the number?" + +Betty murmured an assent, guiltily conscious of the criticisms which had +accompanied the references. Was he about to take her to task for all +the scathing remarks she had made on the subject of his old love? But +no--the grip tightened on her arm, and he said gently-- + +"God bless you, my dear, for all your kindness! May it be meted out to +you a hundred times over in your hour of need. A Governesses' Home-- +Alice Beveridge! And Terence Digby living in the lap of luxury! Well, +well! Twenty years, my dear, since we last met--I was over forty, but +she was a mere girl. A beautiful girl,--I never saw her equal, and the +years have not touched her. I should have known her anywhere. She is +marvellously unchanged!" + +Betty gazed at him dumbly, and there came to her at that moment, for the +first time in her life, a realisation of the deep, abiding love which +sees beneath the surface, and knows neither change nor time. She had no +inclination to laugh at the old man's blindness; rather she felt towards +him reverence and admiration. Happy Miss Beveridge! To one loyal heart +at least she would remain always young, always beautiful. Happy Terence +Digby, who had kept his ideal untouched! + +When Betty retraced her steps to the drawing-room a few minutes later, +another surprise was in waiting, for behold, Miss Beveridge sobbing, +with her hands over her face, while Mrs Trevor patted her tenderly on +the shoulder. She looked across the room and shook her head at her +young daughter. + +"Go away, Betty dear, please! Leave us alone," she said gently, and +Betty tottered across the hall and collapsed in a heap on the nearest +chair, positively faint with excitement. The first real romance with +which she had come in contact,--and behold! The leading characters were +General Digby and Miss Beveridge! Wonders would never cease! + +The next afternoon the General appeared once more, and had a long _tete- +a-tete_ with Mrs Trevor. + +"I am sorry to be such a trouble to you, madam, but you have no one to +blame but yourself, for you have been so patient and forbearing with me +during the last six months, that I feel as if there were no limits to +your kindness. I went to that Governesses' Home to-day--for that matter +I passed it half a dozen times, but I could not screw up my courage to +do any more. The look of the place daunted me, to begin with. To think +of Alice Beveridge shut up there! Besides, I'm a soldier; my life has +been spent among men; I haven't the pluck to face a houseful of women. +Be a good angel, and let us meet here once more! I was too much +overcome yesterday to know what I was saying, but something must be +done, and done quickly. I can't go on living as I am, and think of her +working for her living. Of course, you know what it all means. You are +a woman, and women are quick enough at guessing these things. I never +cared for another woman. I was a middle-aged man when we met, and it +went very hard with me when she said Number 1 was not a boy, to forget +at the sight of the next pretty face. I have tried to make the best of +things, but it's been lonely work. I went abroad immediately after she +refused me, and heard no more about her. She was visiting a common +friend when we met. I knew nothing of her family, so we simply passed +out of each other's lives. I always thought of her as happily married +years ago; it never dawned upon me that there could have been any +misunderstanding, but yesterday when we met there was something in her +face, her manner-- She seemed almost as much agitated as I was myself. +I may be a conceited old idiot, but it seemed to me as if she _had_ +cared after all,--as if there had been some mistake! Women talk to each +other more openly than we do. If she told you anything about it, I +think you ought to let me know. I have waited a long time!" + +There was a pathos in the sound of those last few words which went +straight to Mrs Trevor's heart, and she answered as frankly as he had +spoken. + +"Yes, indeed, it has been a hard time for you both. Miss Beveridge +quite broke down after you left last night, and I gathered from what she +said that at the time of your proposal she was taken by surprise, and +felt nervous and uncertain of herself, as girls often do. It was only +after you had sailed, and she was at home again, that she realised what +a blank your absence made, and knew that she had loved you all the time. +She hoped you might write, or see her on your return." + +"But she had not the courage to write herself, and acknowledge her +mistake? Well, well! Women have their own code of honour, I suppose, +but it would have been a gracious act. I remembered her always, but it +did not seem to me the straight thing to force myself on a girl half my +age, who had already refused me once, and so we have gone on +misunderstanding all these years. Then I suppose trouble began? Her +people were not rich, but she had a comfortable home, so far as I knew." + +"The parents died, and she was obliged to earn her own living. She has +been teaching music in London for the last fifteen years." + +The General groaned. + +"I know! I know! Dragging about in all weathers, to earn a few +shillings for hearing wretched brats strumming five-finger exercises. +Beg pardon, ma'am--I should not have said that to you! You have +children of your own." + +"But I do not in the least envy their music-mistress!" cried Mrs +Trevor, smiling. "It is a hard, hard life, especially when it is a case +of going back to an Institution instead of a home. It is young Mrs +Vanburgh, Betty's friend, to whom you are really indebted for this +meeting. It was her idea to welcome lonely gentlewomen to her home, and +Miss Beveridge happened to be her first visitor." + +"God bless her!" said the General reverently. He sat in silence for +some minutes, gazing dreamily before him, a puzzled look on the red +face. At last--"Now there's the question of the future to consider!" he +said anxiously. "I'm getting old--sixty-four next birthday, precious +near the allotted span of life, but she is twenty years younger--she may +have a long life before her still. It would break my heart to let her +go on working, but she'd be too proud to take money from me, unless-- +unless-- Mrs Trevor, you are a sensible woman! I can trust you to give +me a candid answer. Would you consider me a madman if I asked the girl +a second time to marry me, old as I am, gouty as I am? Is it too late, +or can you imagine it possible that she might still care to take me in +hand?" + +He looked across the room as he spoke with a pathetic eagerness in his +glance, and Mrs Trevor's answering smile was full of tenderness. + +"Indeed I can! I should not think you a madman at all, General, for I +am old enough to know that the heart does not age with the body, and +that the happiness which comes late in life is sometimes the sweetest of +all. You are a hale man still, in spite of your gout, and with a wife +to care for you, you might renew your youth. I hope and believe that +all will go well this time, but let me advise you not to be in too great +a hurry. Twenty years is a long time, and you and Miss Beveridge have +led such very different lives that you may find that there is little +sympathy left between you. It is only a `may,' but I do think you would +do well to see more of each other before speaking of anything so serious +as marriage. You shall have plenty of opportunity of seeing each other, +I promise you that! I will invite Miss Beveridge to spend as much of +her time with us as is possible, and you shall be left alone to renew +your acquaintance, and learn to know each other afresh. That will be +the wisest plan, will it not?" + +"Um--um!" grunted the General vaguely. He frowned and looked +crestfallen, for he retained enough of his youthful impetuosity to make +anything like delay distinctly a trial. "Perhaps you are right, though +I cannot believe that any number of years could change my feelings. +Alice is--Alice! The one woman in the world I ever loved. That's the +beginning and the end of the matter, but perhaps for her sake I should +not be hasty. Mustn't frighten her again, poor girl! That's arranged, +then, ma'am--you let us meet in your house, and if we live, we'll try to +pay you back for your goodness, and I'll wait--two or three weeks. You +wouldn't wish me to wait longer than two or three weeks?" He put up his +hand and raked his grey locks into a fierce, upstanding crest, while a +curious embarrassment flashed across his face. "A married man? Terence +Digby married! There's only one thing I'm afraid of--Johnson! What +will Johnson say to a woman in possession?" + +Mrs Trevor laughed, but could give no reply, and presently the General +took himself off, and left her to write an invitation for the next week- +end to his old love, which was accepted in a grateful little note by +return of post. + +For three nights running did the General dine at Dr Trevor's table, +while Miss Beveridge sat beside him, with pathetic little bows of lace +pinned in the front of her shabby black silk, which somehow looked +shabbier than ever for the attempt at decoration. At the beginning of +the meal she was just Miss Beveridge, stiff, silent, colourless; but as +time passed by and she talked to the General, and the General talked to +her, attending to her little wants as if they were of all things in the +world the most important, fussing about a draught that might possibly +distress her, and violently kicking his opposite neighbour in his +endeavours to provide her with a footstool, gradually, gradually the +Miss Beveridge of the music-lessons and the Governesses' Home +disappeared from sight, and there appeared in her place an absolutely +different woman, with a sweet smiling face, out of which the lines +seemed to have been miraculously smoothed away, while a delicate colour +in her cheeks gave to the once grey face something of the fragile beauty +of an old pastel. + +For fifteen years she had fought a hand-to-hand battle with want; a +lonely battle, with no one to care or to comfort, and now it was meat, +and drink, and health, and sunshine, to find herself of a sudden the +most precious object on earth to one faithful heart! Although the +General had given a promise not to be too precipitate in his wooing, it +was easy to prophesy how things would end; but before the "two or three +weeks" had come to an end, another event happened of such supreme +importance to the Trevor household as to put in the background every +other subject, interesting and romantic though it might be. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. + +TRYING DAYS. + +One May afternoon Miles came home with the news that, through the +influence of an engineering friend, he had been offered a post in +connection with a new railway which the ever-increasing mining industry +in Mexico had rendered necessary. The salary proposed was a handsome +one for so young a man. He owed the offer entirely to Mr Owen's good +offices, and would be required to sail as soon as his outfit could be +got together. + +Dr Trevor rejoiced in his son's success, and warmly congratulated him +on having had so short a time to wait for an opening. He took a man's +view of life, and felt that it was time that Miles faced the world on +his own account; but the youth faded out of the mother's face as she sat +in her corner and listened to the conversation. + +"Luck!" They called it luck that Miles, her darling, should be sent to +the other side of the world, to a wild, dare-devil country, the very +name of which conjured up a dozen thrilling tales of adventure. "A five +years' appointment!" The words rang like a knell in her ears! + +Of course, she had known all along that a separation must come, but she +had hoped against hope that an opening might be found somewhere within +the borders of the United Kingdom, when she would still be able to feel +within reach in case of need. Now it was indeed good-bye, since it must +at best be a matter of years before she could hope for another meeting. +Oh, this stirring up of the nest, how it tears the mother's heart! + +Mrs Trevor looked across the room to where Miles stood, almost as tall +and broad as the doctor himself, and her thoughts flew back to the time +when he was a little curly-headed boy who vowed he would never leave his +mother. "I won't never get married," he had announced one day. "You +shall be my wife. You are daddy's wife, and I don't see why you +shouldn't be wife to both your darlin's!" Another day--"I'll stay with +you all my life, and when you're a nold, nold woman I'll wheel you about +in a Barf chair." Later on had come the time when the first dawning of +future responsibility began to weigh on the childish mind--"I can't sink +how I can ever make pennies like daddy does! I can't write proper +letters like grown-ups do, only the printed ones!" he had sighed, and +she had bidden him be a good boy and do his best for the day, leaving +the future in God's hand. "God will give you your work!" she had told +him; and how she and his father had rejoiced together when his +absorption in a box of tools, and his ingenuity therewith, had pointed +out a congenial career. She had prayed and trusted for guidance in +bringing up this dear son, and that being so, she must now believe that +the offered post was the right thing, and that the distant land was just +the very spot of all others where God wished him to be. + +When Miles turned to his mother, she had a smile in readiness for him, +and if it were rather tremulous, it was none the less sweet. She would +not allow herself to break down, but threw herself heart and soul into a +study of the Stores' list, which could not be delayed another day, +seeing that it was suggested that Miles should sail in a week's time. A +week! Only one week! Was it really possible that the following day was +the last Sunday which would see a united family circle round the table? + +Every female member of the household shed tears on their pillows that +evening, and Betty was convinced that she had lain awake all night long, +because she had actually heard the clock strike one. Mrs Trevor's +vigil was real, not imaginary, and she was thankful when it was time to +get up, and get ready for that quiet early service at church which would +be her best preparation for the week. Her hard-worked husband was +sleeping soundly, and she would not waken him, but a feeling of unusual +sadness and loneliness oppressed her as she made her way through the +silent house. She had depended so much on her big strong boy, had grown +into the habit of consulting him on many matters, in which, by helping +her, he could save his father trouble. That was all over now. She must +learn to do without Miles' aid! And then suddenly from behind the +dining-room door a big figure stepped forward to meet her, and Miles' +voice said, in half-shamefaced tones-- + +"I thought--I'd come too! I thought we'd go together!" + +"Oh, Miles!" cried his mother, and could say no more, but her heart +leapt with thankfulness for all that that action meant--for this sign +that her boy was anxious to dedicate himself afresh to Christ's service +at the beginning of his new life. She passed her hand through his arm, +and they went out of the house together, unconscious of the presence of +a third figure which had looked down at them from an upper landing. + +Betty had awakened to fresh tears, and, hearing her mother stirring, had +hurried into her clothes, so as to accompany her to church; but in the +very act of slipping downstairs Miles' voice had arrested her, and she +had drawn back into the shadow. The Betty of a year ago would have +continued her course unabashed; the Betty of to-day divined with a new +humility that her presence would mar the sacredness of that last +Communion of mother and son, and turned back quietly to her own room. + +The days flew. The first mornings were spent at the Stores, choosing, +ordering, and fitting; the afternoons in marking and packing the +different possessions as they arrived. Then there were farewell visits +to be paid, and to receive, and a score of letters and presents to +acknowledge. Relations turned up trumps, and sent contributions towards +the outfit in money and in kind; the General presented a handsome +double-barrelled fowling-piece, which thrilled Miles with delight and +his mother with horror. Miss Beveridge gave a "housewife" stocked with +all sorts of mending materials--fancy Miles darning his own socks!--and +Cynthia Alliot sent across a case containing one of the most perfect +quarter-plate cameras that ever was seen. + + "When this you see, + Send snaps to me!" + +was inscribed on the inner wrapping, which Miles quietly folded and put +away in his pocket. He would not need the camera or any external aid to +help him to remember his mentor of the golden hair and sweet grey eyes. + +Cynthia came over very often those last few days, and diffused a little +fun into the gathering gloom by constituting herself Miles' sewing- +mistress, and sitting over him in sternest fashion while he fumbled +clumsily at his task. Rumour had it that she even rapped his knuckles +with the scissors when he took up half a dozen threads at once in his +second darn; and even Mrs Trevor was obliged to laugh at her imitation +of Miles' grimaces when trying to thread a needle. In the end Pam was +made happy by being commissioned to thread dozens of needles with long +black and white threads, and then stick them in a special needle-book, +with their tails twisted neatly round and round. + +As for Cynthia, she revelled in her position as instructress. + +"I've suffered so much myself, that it is simply lovely to turn the +tables on someone else," she announced. "I am going to see this +business through in a proper and well-regulated fashion. Now that the +technical course is finished, you are going to be put through a _viva +voce_ examination. Sit down in front of the work-basket, and answer +without any shuffling or trying to escape. Now then! Distinguish +between a darning-needle and a bodkin." She nipped up Mrs Trevor's +spectacles from a side-table, as she spoke, perched them on the end of +her nose, and stared over them with an assumption of great severity. +Miles grinned complacently. + +"Easy enough. One pricks and the other doesn't." + +"A very superficial reply! To what separate and distinctive duties +would you apply the two?" + +"Wouldn't apply them at all if I had my way," began the pupil daringly, +but a flash of his mistress's eye recalled him promptly to order, and he +added hastily, "One you use to darn things up with, and the other to +drag strings through tunnel sort of businesses, and bring them out at +the other side." + +"No engineering terms, please! Your matter is correct, but the manner +leaves much to be desired. Question number two is--Which thread would +you use to affix (a) a shirt, (b) a boot, (c) a waistcoat button?" + +"The first that came handy," replied Miles recklessly, whereupon Pam +squealed with dismay, and was for labelling all her needles forthwith, +but Cynthia rapped sternly on the table, and would have each bobbin +brought out in turn, and so carefully examined that its qualities could +not easily be forgotten. Then, and only then, would she consent to pass +on to the third question, which concerned itself with the vexed question +of darning. + +"Three, State clearly, and in sequence, the steps necessary for +repairing a hole in the sole of your sock." + +Miles shrugged his shoulders with a despairing gesture. + +"Oh, if you mean how a woman does it,--drag the old thing tightly over +your left arm, so that you have only one hand to work with, fill your +needle with a silly stuff that breaks if you look at it, and begin see- +sawing away half a mile from the scene of the accident. Stick at it +until you have pulled off most of the skin on your fingers, and then +turn it round and start the whole thing over again, the other way round. +Then walk about and get a blister on your heel!" + +The audience sputtered with laughter at this eloquent description, but +Cynthia gazed down her nose with an expression of contemptuous disgust. + +"And how many blisters would you have if you did not mend it, pray? May +I suggest that you make the experiment and see? No marks at all for +that answer! Question number four is, Work a buttonhole on the +accompanying strip of linen." + +But here Miles struck. No power on earth, he declared, would induce him +to attempt to "festoon" a hole in the accepted fashion. + +"When I want one I'll make it with the nearest implement that comes +handy. There are always my teeth as a last resource. It's silly +nonsense cutting out a hole and immediately proceeding to sew it up! +Time enough for that when it begins to split--" + +"Plucked! Hopelessly plucked!" cried Cynthia, rolling her eyes in +dismay. Then the spectacles dropped off her nose, and she joined in the +general laughter, and forgot her role of mentor for the rest of the +evening. + +But it was not only in the matter of amusement that Cynthia made herself +invaluable during those last trying days; she seemed ever on the watch +for opportunities of service. If anything was overlooked or late in +delivery, she was ready to drive to the shop, and bring it home. She +invited Pam to lunch and tea, thereby setting her elders free and +keeping the child happy and occupied, and she steadily refused to +accompany Miles and Betty on any of their expeditions, thereby earning +her friend's undying gratitude, though perhaps Miles himself was less +appreciative of her self-denial. Her turn for a quiet word came only on +the last day of all, when Miles accompanied her for the few yards which +intervened between the two houses, and stood on the doorstep to wish her +farewell. + +His face was white, and his words came out with even more than the usual +difficulty. + +"It's been--a jolly good thing for me--knowing you for these last +months. You've been--a help! If I ever turn out anything of a man--it +will be a good deal--your doing!" + +Cynthia stared at him with her beautiful grave eyes. + +"Mine?" she cried in amazement. "Oh, why? What have I done?" + +"You've been yourself!" said Miles gruffly. "Good-bye!" + +He held out his big hand, and Cynthia's little fingers closed tightly +round it. + +"Good-bye, Miles! I won't forget," she said simply. And with those +words ringing in his ears Miles Trevor sailed away to begin his new +life. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. + +THE GENERAL'S WOOING. + +Tears and lamentations made up the story of the next few days. + +"When's the washing coming home? I've cried out all my handkerchiefs, +and I get scolded if I sniff!" grumbled red-eyed Jill on the evening of +the third day after Miles' departure; and it appeared that most members +of the family found themselves in the same predicament, for the first +break in the family circle is a painful experience, especially when its +members are as devoted as were the Trevors. + +It was a relief to all to watch the progress of the General's wooing, +and to have his genial presence among them. Now that the evenings were +beginning to be really summer-like, he and Miss Beveridge would adjourn +to the Square Gardens after dinner, and sit on a bench not far removed +from that historic spot where he had fallen a victim to the twins' love +of adventure. As a rule, so soon as dusk approached, Miss Beveridge +would take an omnibus and return to her "Home," while the General would +step stiffly into a cab and return to his flat, where the faithful +Johnson was no doubt wondering what had happened to induce such young +habits in his once stay-at-home master. One night, however, instead of +separating as usual, they returned to Number 1, and the first glance at +their faces showed that the _denouement_ had been reached. The General +was red, Miss Beveridge was white; he was voluble with excitement, she +was too excited to speak. Mrs Trevor read the signs of the times, and +thoughtfully led the way to the drawing-room, so that the formal +announcement of the engagement could be made away from the somewhat +embarrassing scrutiny of the young people. + +"Alice has promised to let me take care of her! Congratulate me, my +dear madam. I am the happiest man in the world!" cried the excited +Irishman. "We have wasted enough time, but we are not going to waste +any more. `Haste to the wedding!'--that's our motto. What? Alice +talks about clothes. Fiddlesticks, I tell her! We can buy the finest +dress in London in half an hour's time, or my name's not Terence Digby. +Then she talks about pupils. Pack of rubbish, I tell her! There are +fifty women in London wanting to give lessons, for every pupil who wants +to learn. Let someone else hear the `nid, nid, nodding' for a change!" +(This last was a dark reference to the Scotch air with which poor Pam +had been wrestling for weeks past.) "`A June wedding!' Always said I'd +be married in June if I had the chance, and it's a poor thing if I can't +have my way after waiting twenty years. Don't like July--nasty, +treacherous month! Best way to spend it is a honeymoon in the country. +What? You'll tell the boys and girls, eh? Tell them after we've gone. +Too bashful to stand the racket to-night! Besides, there's Johnson to +face. Bit of a pill to face Johnson. What? Don't know what he'll say +to a mistress, but it will be all right when he sees Alice. Alice will +get over him fast enough!" + +It was charming to see the look of proud admiration which he cast at his +_fiancee_; charming to see her changed and softened mien; charming to +see the smile of complete and happy confidence which was exchanged +between the two. For the first time for many days the weight of +depression lifted from Mrs Trevor's heart, and she forgot Miles' +departure in rejoicing in their joy. Her face had its old bright look +as she re-entered the study to tell the news to her children, who, truth +to tell, were not too sympathetic in their reception. + +The three elders were, of course, more or less prepared for the +announcement, but Pam gasped in shocked surprise. + +"_Married_!" she cried shrilly. "But they are so old! What's the good +of being married, and having all the bother for nothing? They'll be +dead so soon!" + +"It's an awful fag. It won't be half so much sport going to tea," +commented Jill with outspoken selfishness, while Jack shrugged his +shoulders and grimaced disapproval. + +"Got everything he wants--rattling good food, all his relics and things +around him, and Johnson to save all bother. Can't think why he couldn't +be satisfied!" + +Only Betty was silent, her heart warming with a tender sympathy over the +story of an old and loyal love. Miss Beveridge was quite, quite old, +over forty, and her hair was grey, yet the General called her a girl, +and thought her beautiful still. Somehow the thought had a direct +personal comfort. Other people might feel the same; and thirty--thirty +was comparatively young! + +The next day the General was taken in state to call upon Nan Vanburgh, +who had heard from Betty which way the wind was blowing, but had, of +course, been obliged to preserve an unconscious demeanour until the +engagement was a _fait accompli_. + +"Under Providence, madam, I am indebted to you for this happiness!" +cried the General, bowing over her hand in his courtly old-world +fashion; and Nan looked at him with what her friends called "the shiny +look" in her eyes, and said, in the honest, big-girl fashion which she +never seemed to outgrow-- + +"And I am so happy that you are happy that I could just jump for joy! +It's a perfectly beautiful ending to my Saturday afternoons. I'm only a +little bit jealous that Mrs Trevor has had you to herself all this +time. Now it's my turn! What about the wedding? Where is it to take +place? Are you perhaps going to some relation's house?" + +"No. Neither of us owns anyone very near and dear, so we prefer to stay +quietly in town." + +"Then it must certainly be from here! You couldn't dream of being +married from the Home, Miss Beveridge! Come to me a few days before, +and I'll be your tire-woman, and help to get everything ready, and you +shall have a nice breakfast and invite all your friends." + +But here the General interfered. + +"No, no! No breakfast!" he cried. "None the less grateful to you, +madam, but fuss and speechifying don't come naturally to a man of my +age. I want to get my wife to myself as soon as possible, so we'll make +a bolt of it from the church door. Capital plan, though, to stay with +you for a bit before. What? You'd like that, Alice, wouldn't you? +Need someone to fix your fal-lals. What? Another debt of gratitude, +madam, which we will hope to repay, God willing, when we settle down in +our new home." + +Miss Beveridge gratefully accepted Nan's invitation, but when she went a +step further and offered to assist in the choice of the wedding-dress, +it appeared that the bridegroom had decided views of his own on the +subject, and had already made his selection. + +"She must wear blue! Says it ought to be grey at her age! Her age, +indeed, as if she were an elderly woman! She was wearing blue when I +saw her first, and she's going to be married in blue, or I'll know the +reason why! Blue dress, and a hat with blue feathers; and those Trevor +lassies shall be bridesmaids. Must have bridesmaids, however quiet it +is. What? Besides, I owe them something, and it will be an excuse to +give them their kit--white muslin and blue ribbons. That's how young +girls used to dress when I was a lad, and I've never seen anything to +touch it. There will be no trouble about the dresses, madam. I've +decided all that. You just tell me the name of a dressmaker--a tip-top +dressmaker, mind you--and we'll send in the order at once." + +The bride-elect turned to her friend with a somewhat horrified +expression, but Nan flashed a reassuring smile, and adroitly turned the +subject in another direction. + +"Don't worry!" she whispered, the first time that there was an +opportunity for a quiet word. "The General shall have his way, and +everything shall be charming into the bargain. I know of a dressmaker +who could make sackcloth elegant. She will manufacture even the hat +with blue feathers, so that you will never have had anything so becoming +in your life. Fortunately the General does not confine you to one shade +of blue. And the muslins and blue ribbons will be wonderful filmy +creations, as different from the Early Victorian stiffnesses as anything +you can possibly imagine. How Betty will enjoy herself!" + +Betty did! In all the course of her eighteen years, it was the first +occasion on which she had been provided with an outfit with no regard to +money, but simply to what would be prettiest and most becoming. The +dress, the hat, the shoes, the gloves, the basket of pale-hued roses, +were all perfect of their kind, and, to crown all, on the morning of the +wedding there arrived two small morocco boxes, which, being opened, +displayed two miniature gold watches, encircled with turquoise, and +provided with blue enamel bows, by which they could be attached to the +dress. Jill's whoops of delight might have been heard half-way across +the Square. There seemed nothing left to wish for in life, now that the +long-dreamed-of "real gold" watch was actually in her grasp. + +And so Terence Digby took Alice Beveridge to wife, for better for worse, +for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death did them +part; and more than one spectator prayed fervently that the hour of +separation should be long delayed, so that the reunited lovers might +enjoy a peaceful golden summer. + +They drove away from the church door, and when the bride thrust her +blue-feathered toque out of the window to smile a radiant farewell, Nan +Vanburgh nodded her pretty head at Betty, and cried triumphantly-- + +"Now behold for yourself what miracles love and home and appreciation +can work! That was Miss Beveridge once on a time, and you called her a +frump and a fright, but the _real_ woman was that charming Mrs Digby, +and the magician's wand has brought her to life?" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. + +A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. + +_Miles Trevor to his Mother_. + +Dearest Mater,--A merry Christmas to you all! I can hardly believe it +is nearly four years since I said good-bye and came out here, though +there are times, when I am down on my luck, when it seems more like a +hundred. One doesn't have much time for moping during the day, but the +evenings are the trying times, when one wonders what on earth made him +such an idiot as to leave the dear old country. In saner moments I'm +precious glad I did, for I shouldn't have had half the chance of getting +on at home. The manager went off for a holiday last week and left me in +charge, and I'm thankful to say all has gone well. It was my chance of +showing what I could do, and I was determined to make the most of it. +All the same, I am sorry at times that I did not go in for mining, as I +once thought of doing, you remember. My chum Gerard is going ahead at a +great rate. He came out here without a penny, and has simply worked his +way through the different processes in the big Aladdin Mine with which +we are connected. He took the most profitable stages first, and when he +had saved up a little money went in for the ones which paid least, until +he had a real practical working knowledge of everything from start to +finish. Of course he had had no training at home, or this would not +have been necessary, but as he is a beggar to work, and a genius at +making other people work too, he has risen to the post of sub-manager, +and as soon as he has saved enough money is going prospecting on his own +account. He has promised me a share in his gold-mine when it is +discovered, and you may trust Gerard to find one if it is in existence, +so you may see us home together some fine day to float our company. + +The sooner it comes the better, or everything and everyone will be +changed out of knowledge! It is beyond my imaginative powers to think +of Jill as a young lady with her hair up, and Jack at Oxford, and Betty +"an old maid." (There's not much of the old maid about that photograph +she sent out last mail!) All the fellows admire it tremendously, and it +gives quite an air of beauty and fashion to my little cabin. I never +thought Betty would turn out so pretty, but there's no denying that she +looks a lot older. Tell Pam not to grow up if she loves me! I want to +find _someone_ the same as when I left! + +Glad to hear the General and Mrs Digby are still happy and satisfied +with each other, and that pretty Mrs, Vanburgh's little boy is all right +again. Remember me to them, and to Cynthia Alliot when you see her. Is +she well? You have not mentioned her lately. + +Many thanks to father for the papers; you can hardly imagine how welcome +they are out here, or how eagerly one looks forward to mail days. Tell +that lazy Jill to write to a fellow now and then. She shall have no +nuggets out of my El Dorado if she doesn't. Yes, I'm all right! Don't +worry about me, dear. I had a bit of a breakdown a month or two ago, +but Gerard nursed me almost as well as you could have done yourself. He +is the best chum a man could have. Love to everybody, and most of all +to yourself, dearest mater.--From your son, Miles. + +_Betty Trevor to her Brother Miles_. + +Dearest old Lad,--I missed the last mail, so I must send you an extra +long scrawl to make up. Thanks so much for your last batch of +photographs. I am glad you marked the names on the back, for really it +is difficult to believe that that ferocious-looking bearded person is +really you! I am glad you have promised to shave it off before you come +home, for--honestly speaking--it's not becoming! Mr Gerard looks just +a shade less disreputable than yourself, but I like him because he is +nice to you. You can give him my kind regards. + +I've had ever such a good time since I wrote last, staying with the +Rendell girls--Nan Vanburgh's sisters, you know, whom you met at that +first historic party. They are dears, and so amusing that it's as good +as a play to be with them. Elsie is married, and Lilias, the beauty, is +engaged--to a clergyman, if you please. Everyone is surprised, for she +has always been rather selfish and worldly, and cared only for people +who were rich and grand, and Mr Ross is not like that. He is rather +old, nearly forty, I think, and rather delicate, and very grave, and not +a bit well off, and he thinks Lilias a miracle of goodness and +sweetness, and the nice part is that she really _is_ growing nicer, +because she likes him so much, and doesn't want him to be disappointed. +They are all awfully pleased, and Agatha and Christabel think it will be +great sport to be the only girls in the house, and have no elder sister +left to rule over them. The brother, Ned, is in love with the girls' +great friend, Kitty Maitland, but she snubs him, though the girls say +she likes him all the time, and only does it to pay him back for the way +he used to snub her as a child, and because he is so conceited that she +thinks it will do him good. He really _is_ a good deal spoiled by all +those six sisters. + +You see everybody seems to be falling in love and getting married except +me, and I shall be an old maid. I don't like anyone, and I don't like +anyone to like me. I feel quite angry if anyone pays me the least +attention, and yet I'm lonely inside. Oh, Miles, why did you go so far +away, and turn into a great bearded stranger, when I wanted you at home +to talk to every day? I hate Mexico, and the valley, and the mine, and +"my chum Gerard"--"my chum Gerard" most of all, because I'm so jealous +of him. What business had he to nurse you, I should like to know! But +I pity him, if you were as cross as you used to be when you had a cold +in the old days, and had to put your feet into mustard and water! How +well I remember it! First the water was too hot, then it was too cold, +and in the end there, was no water left in the bath, and the furniture +was afloat. Jack is not half so _difficile_ as you used to be! He has +grown such a dear old thing, just as merry and mischievous as ever, but +so kind, and thoughtful, and nice all round. Father is very proud of +him, and he is the old General's special pet, and half lives there when +he is at home. As for Jill, she is a MINX in capital letters. So +pretty and gay, and funny and charming, and naughty and nice, and +aggravating and coaxing, and lazy and reckless, and altogether different +from everybody else, that my poor little nose is quite out of joint, and +I heard an impertinent young man speaking of me the other night as "Jill +Trevor's sister"! That's what I have descended to, after all my lofty +ambitions--_Jill's sister_! How furious I should have been in the old +days, but now I don't seem to mind. Are you changed very much, old +Miles? Inside, I mean, I'm not thinking of the horrid beard. You are +such a reserved person that your letters leave one in ignorance of the +real _you_. "My chum Gerard" knows you better than I do nowadays. What +an awful thought! Life seems so different now from what it did at +eighteen, and all one's ideals are changed. I had my usual yearly +"token" from my friend of the fog this spring--just a newspaper posted +from New York, as before, so that I know he is alive and well, but I +long to know more, and sometimes it seems as if I never should. +Sometimes--when I am in the blues--I feel as if that night was the only +time in my life when I was really and truly of use. I suppose that's +what makes me remember it so well, and think so much of the poor man. I +can remember his face still--so distinctly! Poor, poor fellow! Father +says it's more difficult than ever to make money nowadays. He may work +all his life, and never be able to pay off his debts. + +Cynthia! No; Cynthia is _not_ well. We didn't tell you before, because +it's horrid to write bad news, and you two were good friends. Besides, +we hoped she would get better. It began six months ago with an attack +of influenza. She did not seem to throw it off, but grew thin, and +coughed--a horrid cough! They took her away, and did everything they +could, but so far she is no better, and I'm afraid there's no doubt that +her lungs are affected. Mrs Alliot is awfully anxious, and so is her +father, who has retired now, as you know, and is home for good. They +have taken her away to the sea, and she lives out of doors, and has a +nurse, and everything that can possibly be got to make her better. She +is very thin, but is quite bright and cheerful, and thinks about +everybody in the world but herself. They hope she will get better; she +_must_ get better--she's so young, and dear, and lovely, and everything +that's sweet. I can't tell you what Cynthia has been to me all these +years! Pray for her, Miles--pray _hard_! I rend the heavens for +Cynthia's life. + +That's all, old boy--I have no more news. Bother the nuggets! Come +home the instant you can. Father doesn't believe in gold-mines. Don't +let "my chum Gerard" lead you into any wild-goose chase!--Always your +lovingest sister, Betty. + +_From General Digby to Jack Trevor_. + +My dear Boy,--If you were my own son (which I wish you were!) I could +not have felt happier and prouder than I did on the receipt of your +letter this morning. To hear that you have decided to read for the +ministry, and that you attribute the origin of this choice to some +chance words of mine uttered years ago--that is indeed an unexpected +joy! This tongue of mine has uttered so many foolish sayings in its +time, and got me into so much trouble, that I am thankful beyond +expression to know that in this instance it has done some good for a +change. Thank you, my boy, for giving me the satisfaction of knowing as +much. I know it is hard for you young fellows to speak out. You might +easily have kept it to yourself, and left me a poorer man. + +No! Since you ask my opinion, I'm convinced that it would be a thousand +pities to drop any of your athletic interests. I'd rather advise you to +put more grist into them, and come to the front as much as possible; +short, of course, of interfering with your studies. When you have a +parish of your own, or assist another man in his parish, you will have a +big work to do among the boys and young men, and how do you think it +will affect _them_ to hear that you have pulled stroke in your boat, or +played for the 'Varsity in football or cricket? Will they think less of +you, or more? If I know masculine nature, it will give you an immediate +influence which scarcely anything else could command. They will know +you for a man, and a manly man into the bargain, a man who has like +interests with themselves, and is not merely a puppet stuck up in the +pulpit to babble platitudes, as so many fellows do nowadays--more shame +to them! Play with the young fellows on Saturday;--let them feel that +you understand and enter into their interests, and my name's not Terence +Digby if your serious words don't have a tenfold influence on Sunday. + +We must have a good talk on this subject when you come home. It is one +on which I feel very strongly. Let me know at any time if you want help +as to books, or any other expenses. Your father has enough to do with +the rest of the family, and it is a pleasure to me to pretend now and +again that you belong to me. + +All goes well at Brompton Square. Your mother wears well--a wonderful +woman! None of her daughters will ever equal her, though Betty is twice +the girl she used to be, and Mademoiselle Jill makes havoc among the +young fellows. My dear wife looks after me so carefully that my gout is +steadily on the decline, and I grow younger year by year. Get the right +woman for your wife, young fellow! I waited twenty years for mine, and +she's cheap at the price.--Your friend, Terence Digby. + +_Christabel Rendell to her sister Nan Vanburgh_. + +Dearest Mops,--I am in a state of abject collapse after rushing after +the beagles yesterday, tearing all over the countryside, and leaping +wildly over mountainous barriers, so I think I might as well spend my +time writing to you, as you have been hurling reproaches at me for my +silence. I couldn't possibly attempt letters while Betty was here, for +we only had a fortnight, and I didn't get through half what I wanted to +say. We enjoyed having her immensely, she's a perfect dear, and very +pretty when she takes enough trouble, which isn't by any means always +the case. I read her a severe lecture on the subject, and retrimmed her +blue hat. I'm sure you'll think it improved. Talking of hats--I can't +understand why I am not a lunatic, after all I've experienced with my +clothes this spring! Agatha and I went to a tailor's at Hertford and +ordered coats and skirts for morning wear. She wasn't in a hurry for +hers, but I was simply panting for mine to take to the Goodmans' the +next Wednesday, so it was arranged that he should rush on with mine, and +that I should go over for a fitting on Monday. My dear, on Monday I was +a wreck!--toothache in every joint, chattering with cold, and the rain +descended in floods. I ploughed to the station in a sort of dismal, it- +is-my-duty-and-I-must kind of stupor; sat in the train with Mrs Ellis, +who yelled at me the whole time about the Coal Club, and Mary Jane's +little Emma's mumps; staggered along the roads to the tailor's shop, and +sat shuddering in his nasty little room with my feet on a slippery +oilcloth as cold as ice. + +After about twenty minutes (it seemed three hours and a half)--he came +in with a coat over his arm! _Agatha's coat_! I nearly swooned! ... +"Now you don't say so--really! Your sister's? And I made so sure it +was yours! Isn't that curious, now? I may say I have been in the +tailoring trade, man and boy, for a matter of twenty years, an' I never +knew such a thing to occur before! Of course it wouldn't be any use +saying I could make another by Wednesday, for I should only disappoint, +but if Miss Hagatha was to run over, such a thing as this hafternoon, +she could have 'er's 'ome in the place of yours." ... I got home +_somehow_, I don't know how, for my mind was a blank, fell into bed, and +lay prostrate until the next day, when hope revived once more. If the +worst came to the worst, I was sure of a new voile dress which Miss +Green was making, and the old coat and skirt would do very well for the +mornings. The voile dress promised to be charming, for she really makes +very well when she likes; so I felt restored to equanimity, until at +eleven o'clock, behold a small girl, to see Miss C Rendell--"Oh, if-- +you--please--Miss Green--says--as--she's--two--yards--short--of--the-- +material--and--could--you--make--it--convenient--to--get--it--to-day?" +My brain reeled! As soon as I had sufficiently recovered, I rushed +round to see her myself. "You _told_ me you only needed twelve yards, +and I got thirteen!" "Yes, madam, but you see, madam, these guagings +run into a deal of material. You wouldn't like them not to be full and +'andsome. Just another two yards!" There was nothing else for it, so I +promised to go up to town next morning (I couldn't possibly go that +day), and impressed upon the wretch to finish the bodice _first_,--as, +if necessary, we could do with less trimming on the skirt. My dear, the +worst is still to come! The shop was _sold out_ of the shade of voile, +and could not get it again, and when I went back to Miss Green, she had +finished the _skirt_, and had nothing left for sleeves! "Yes, I +remember you _did_ say do the bodice first, but I thought I'd be getting +on with the guaging. Guaging runs into a deal of time!" ... I just lay +back, and said to myself, "Can it be real--or is it only a terrible +nightmare?" We sat turning over hundreds of dirty old fashion plates, +to find out how to make sleeves out of nothing, and they are sights, and +I look an owl in them. There's only one comfort--if my brain has stood +such a strain, it will stand anything! + +Lilias and Mr Ross are really very satisfactory, and considering that +she is thirty (thirty! Isn't it appalling!), he is not a bit too old. +It's nice to see her look happy and satisfied, and she has been as sweet +as sugar ever since, and as pleased as possible with furnishing her +little house, which will be quite poky and shabby compared with yours, +or Maud's, or even Elsie's sanatorium. Poor old Lil! I'm glad she's +going to have a good time, at last. I'm afraid she has felt very "out +of it" the last few years. + +Old Mr Vanburgh is longing for your next visit, and has his study +simply plastered over with portraits of the boy. I go to sit with him +on wet afternoons, and listen meekly to praises of yourself, which I +know to be absolutely undeserved. + +By the way--is Betty in love? Never a word could I get out of her, but +her indifference to the admiration she got down here--and she got a good +deal--was quite phenomenal, unless there is something behind! Methinks +at times I trace a melancholy in her eye. Adieu, my love; this epistle +ought to make up for past delinquencies.--Yours ever, Christabel. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. + +MILES' RETURN. + +It was six years after his departure from home when Miles Trevor sailed +again for his native land. There had been some talk of his return +during the previous winter, and bitter indeed had been the +disappointment when it was again postponed, and postponed on account of +that ubiquitous person "my chum Gerard." The prospecting expedition of +Will Gerard and his partner had at last been blessed with success;--if +reports could be believed, with extraordinary success, for the opinion +of the experts who had visited the claim predicted for it an even +greater future than the Aladdin itself. Between the partners in the +venture a sufficient sum had been raised to enable the mine to be +"proved" by several shafts and cross-cuts, and the analyses of samples +produced were so abundantly satisfactory, that there could be no +difficulty in obtaining all the money necessary to thoroughly develop +the mine. Miles was intensely interested in his chum's prospects, which +to a certain extent were coincident with his own, for, according to +promise, he had been allowed to buy a share in the land, which, small as +it was, might turn out a more profitable investment than engineering. + +It was decided that while one partner stayed on the spot, Miles should +fit in his holiday so as to be able to help Gerard with the work of +floating a company in England, an arrangement which it was believed +would necessitate but a short delay. As is invariably the case in these +affairs, however, matters took much longer to set in train than had been +originally expected, and it was a good six months later before the +welcome cablegram was received stating that the travellers were really +on their way. + +Six years! Miles was a man of twenty-six, matured by a life of +enterprise and adventure. Betty admitted with horror to being "twenty- +four next birthday," and shivered at the remembrance that six more years +would bring her to that dreaded thirty which she had once considered the +"finis" of life. Jack and Jill were twenty, and if he were still a lad, +she was a very finished product indeed, the acknowledged belle of her +set, with a transparent satisfaction in her own success which would have +been called vanity in a less popular person, but which in her case was +indulgently voted as yet another charm. Pam was fourteen, a lanky +schoolgirl, who had outgrown her kitten-like graces, and entered the +world of school, where everything (including the return of a half- +forgotten brother!) was secondary in interest to the strictures of +"Maddie" on the subject of French verbs, the ambition of some day +becoming "head girl," and the daily meetings with her bosom friend +Nellie Banks. + +Everyone had grown older; even little Jerry Vanburgh, who six years +before had been by his own account "a baby angel up in heaven," was now +a sturdy rascal of four, in man-of-war suits, whose love of fun and +frolic was worthy of his mother's son. + +What would Miles think of them all? Betty asked herself as she donned +her prettiest dress, in preparation for the long-expected hour. Would +he be prepared for the changes which had taken place, or feel surprised +and chilled, perhaps even disappointed, to find his old companions +turned into comparative strangers? He had never had much imagination, +dear old lad!--it would be just like him to come home expecting to find +everything looking as if he had left it but a month before. + +Betty leant her arms on the dressing-table and stared scrutinisingly at +her reflection in the mirror. She had always been a severe judge of her +own charms, and now the remembrance of Jill's sparkling little face made +her own appear unnaturally grave and staid; still, when all was said and +done, she looked very _nice_!--the old schoolgirl word came in as ever +to fill an awkward place. + +Twenty-four though she undoubtedly was, it was certain that she was +prettier than she had been at eighteen, and pink was Miles' favourite +colour--she had remembered that in buying her new dress, and had chosen +it especially for his benefit. "Oh, I hope he'll like me! He _must_ +like me!" she cried to herself, with a rush of love and longing swelling +at her heart. How was it that as one grew older, home ceased to be the +absolutely complete and satisfying world which it had been in early +days? Why was it that, surrounded with father and mother, and sisters +and brothers, all dear and kind and loving, the heart would yet +experience a feeling of loneliness, a longing for something too +intangible to be put into words? + +"I want something--_badly_! What can it be?" Betty had questioned of +herself times and again during the last few years, and the invariable +answer had been--"Miles! It must be the loss of Miles which I feel more +and more, instead of less and less. When Miles comes home there will be +nothing left to wish for in all the world!" And now in an hour,--in +half an hour, Miles would be with her once more! Dr Trevor and Jack +had gone to the station to meet him, but his mother and the girls had +preferred to wait at home. "So that you can all howl, and hang round +his neck at once--I know you!" Jack had cried teasingly. "Take my +advice, and cut short the huggings. When fellows have roughed it +abroad, they don't like being mauled!"--at which a chorus of feminine +indignation had buzzed about his ears. + +"Mauled, indeed! Howl, indeed! They trusted they knew how to behave +without his advice! Would it not be well if he allowed Miles himself to +say what he did and did not like? Had he not better rehearse his own +conduct, before troubling himself about other people's?" So on, and so +on, until Jack fled in dismay, fingers in ears. That was the worst of +chaffing girls--they would always insist upon having the last word! + +Downstairs in the sitting-rooms all was _en fete_, the best mats and +covers and cushions being exhibited for the benefit of one who would +probably never notice their existence, or might even be misguided enough +to imagine that chiffon-draped cushions were meant for use, not +ornament. Flowers were tastefully arrayed in every available position; +the tea-table lacked only the presence of pot and kettle; Jill had +arranged the little curl on her forehead at its most artless and +captivating angle--in a word, preparation was complete! + +"Sit down, dears--sit down! You make me nervous fidgeting about, and-- +I'm nervous enough already!" said Mrs Trevor tremulously, and her three +big daughters obediently sank down on chairs and stared at each other +across the room. + +"I'm very sorry to say so--but I'm _ill_!" cried Betty tragically. "I +feel awful. A kind of crawly, creepy--all--overish--sick-swimming-kind- +of-feeling--I think I'm going to faint! I'm sorry to alarm you--" + +But no one was in the least alarmed. Mrs Trevor only smiled feebly, +while the other girls expatiated upon even more alarming symptoms. + +"My heart is going like a sledge-hammer," sighed Jill. "I feel every +moment as if it might _burst_!--I can't see you. The air is full of +spots--" + +"I'm as dizzy as dizzy," declared Pam eloquently. "I feel exactly as I +did that Wednesday Nellie and I ate chocolates all the afternoon in a +hot room. If he doesn't come soon we'd better all lie down. We could +get up again when we heard the bell." + +"The bell, indeed! Miles shall not have to ring the bell when he +arrives home after six years' absence, if his mother is alive to open +the door for him!" cried Mrs Trevor indignantly, and then suddenly she +gave a cry, and rushed across the room. A cab laden with luggage had +drawn up before the door. Miles had arrived! + +Well, after all Jack was right! They _did_ all hang round him at once. +Mrs Trevor was folded in his arms, but Betty and Jill each hung on to a +side, while Pam stroked the back of his head, and if they did not +exactly "howl," they were certainly by no means dry-eyed. + +"My boy! My boy!" cried the mother. "Miles, oh, Miles!" sobbed the +girls; and Miles mumbled incoherent answers in his big man's voice, and +quietly but surely pushed his way into the drawing-room. _His_ eyes +were shining too, but he had no intention that the passers-by should +witness his emotion. He looked enormously big and broad, and tanned and +important. Handsome Miles would never be, but his was a good strong +face, with the firmly-set lips and clear, level gaze which speak so +eloquently of a man's character, and his mother thanked God with a full +heart as she welcomed him back. + +As for Miles himself, the sight of his mother brought with it a pang of +sadness, for though outsiders might exclaim at her youthful appearance, +six years on the wrong side of forty can never fail to leave behind them +heavy traces, and to the unaccustomed eyes she looked greatly changed. +He kept his arm round her as they moved forward, and his eyes grew very +tender. The little mother was growing old! Her hair was quite grey, +her pretty cheeks had lost their roundness--he must take more care of +her than ever. She enjoyed being cared for, as all nice women did. And +then Miles sat down and drank tea, and they all settled themselves to +the difficult task of making conversation after a long absence. It +seems sad that it should be difficult, but it is invariably the case, +for when there is so much to tell, and to ask, it is difficult to know +where to begin, and a certain strangeness follows hard on the first +excitement. Were these smart young ladies truly and actually Betty and +Jill; this young man with the Oxford drawl the once unkempt and noisy +Jack? And who was this shy and awkward maypole, who had taken the place +of dear, cuddlesome, wee Pam? + +If it had not been for Dr Trevor, conversation would have halted sadly +during the first difficult quarter of an hour, but that gentleman was +fortunately free from sentimental embarrassment, and kept the ball +rolling by his practical questions and remarks. + +The voyage, it appeared, had been unusually calm and agreeable, and the +partners had thoroughly enjoyed the rest after the somewhat worrying +work of the last six months. Yes, everything was working out splendidly +as regards the new mine, and Miles was convinced that only time was +necessary to turn it into a huge success. Will Gerard would be a +millionaire some fine day, or something very like a millionaire, and he +would deserve all he got. The best fellow and the smartest, and the +hardest working, and the truest chum-- + +In the background saucy Jill dumbly echoed these well-worn sentiments, +rolling her eyes ceilingwards, and declaiming with outstretched hands, +till Miles, turning suddenly, caught sight of her, and burst into one of +his old hearty laughs. + +"Well, what does that mean, Jill? What have I said to amuse you?" + +Jill sparkled at him in her most captivating manner. + +"_Toujours le bon_ Gerard! We have heard so much of this marvel that we +are dying to behold him. Snap-shots, we know, are not the most +flattering medium, so we ought not to judge by the likenesses we have +already seen, but he hardly appeals to me as a miracle of beauty! When +does he propose to dazzle our eyes by appearing before us in the flesh?" + +Miles laughed once more. + +"Not till next week, so you must exercise your patience, my dear. He +has his own people to see, and besides that he has too much tact to +intrude upon a fellow's first days at home. Gerard always knows what is +the right--" He broke off hastily as Jill resumed her silent pantomime +of admiration. "Oh, all right! I won't praise him any more. You can +find out his good points for yourself. If the truth were known, I +daresay he is anxious to get a new rig-out before he pays calls on +fascinating young ladies. We have neither of us a decent coat to our +backs, and must go tailor-hunting the first thing to-morrow morning. We +have not had much ladies' society abroad. I expect Gerard will fall +headlong in love when he sees you in that blouse, Jill!" + +"I expect he will. They generally do! But it's no use. I don't care +for Colonials!" drawled Miss Jill, chin in air, and Miles' heated +repudiation of the term as applied to either his partner or himself +failed to move her from her front. + +"Jill is waiting for Prince Edward of Wales. There's no other unmarried +male who comes up to her standpoint," said her father, laughing; and +once more Miles marvelled at the changes of the years! + +When bedtime came, Betty looked shyly at the new Miles, who seemed still +more than half a stranger, and felt her heart throb with pleasure as his +grasp tightened on her arm, and he said affectionately-- + +"Come into my room for a chat, old girl, before you turn in! It won't +seem like home unless I see you perched on my bed nursing your knees and +your grievances at the same time. Got any grievances nowadays, eh? You +used generally to have a good stock on hand. We'll have to lay them +together while I'm at home. That's what I want to do--give you all a +rattling good time! It's what I have looked forward to most in coming +home. How are things going, really? Quite well? No bothers and +worries that you have been keeping to yourselves, for fear of making me +anxious?" + +"Nothing big, dear--only the little worries which one must grin and put +up with." + +Betty perched herself on the bed, and fell into the old position, while +Miles sat down on the chair by the dressing-table, and began unlacing +his shoes with the same, oh, the very same gestures which he had used +every night during the many long years when this evening conference had +been the brightest spot in the day! It was as if time had flashed back +for a moment, and they were boy and girl together once more! Betty's +eyes melted in tender rejoicing, and Miles cried heartily-- + +"Bet, my dear, you've grown rattling pretty! You beat Jill into fits +when you look like that. You must wear that frock when Gerard comes +next week. It suits you splendidly." + +"I got it for your sake--not Mr Gerard's. You always liked pink, +Miles. Oh, I shan't have any grievances now that you are home. I am +really and truly far less grumbly than I used to be. I have tried hard +to make it a duty to be happy, since I discovered--you know how!--how +imaginary my troubles really were--but sometimes I have felt very +lonely. I think one does, as one grows older, for there seem so many +things that one can't talk about to the best of friends. Of course you +may not understand the feeling--you are so devoted to Mr Gerard." + +Miles kicked his shoes in opposite directions--another old trick!--and +stroked his chin silently. The offending beard had disappeared, but the +skin was dark with constant shaving, and there were new lines in his +face. This was a man indeed. The boy had disappeared for ever. + +"I don't think I should advertise my loneliness even to Gerard," he said +slowly. Then, leaning forward and opening a drawer in the dressing- +table, "How is Cynthia?" he queried abruptly. + +"Better!" replied Betty, so quietly that no one would have guessed the +leap of excitement which her heart had given at the sound of her +friend's name uttered in this connection. "Very delicate still, but +certainly better. They live entirely in the country for her sake, and +the doctors think that in a year or two she will probably be quite well +again. Meantime she is treated like an invalid, and we can seldom meet. +It isn't good for her to chatter, and it isn't supposed to be good for +my health to be there. I _ache_ for her, Miles! No one will ever know +what it has meant for me to be separated like this." + +Miles sat silently staring at his stockinged feet. His eyes were +hidden, the heavy moustache covered the lines of his mouth, yet as Betty +looked at him she felt a stab of reproach, as if, while pitying herself, +she had inadvertently probed a deeper wound. Had Miles also ached for +Cynthia? Had the separation from her been the hardest part of his long +exile? She longed to question him on the subject, but the stern, set +face gave no encouragement to curiosity, however affectionate. + +"We are to go down to see her some day soon. She was almost as much +excited about your coming home as we were ourselves, and we can run down +to Franton and back quite easily in the day. You won't be occupied with +business every day while you are at home, will you, Miles? You will be +able to give up some of your time to us?" + +"Oh dear, yes. This is by way of being a holiday, and I mean to take +you girls about, and the mater too, if she will come. We must see the +mining business in train first, and then we'll go off somewhere and have +a good time. I haven't worked for nothing all these years, and the best +chance of enjoying myself is to see your enjoyment. Things don't always +work out as we expect--but we must make the best of what remains--" + +He sighed, and rose from his chair with a gesture which somehow made +Betty conscious that he wished to be alone. It had been a very short +chat, and the impression left was rather sad than cheerful. She put her +arms round Miles' neck, kissed him fervently, but in silence, and stole +away to her own room. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. + +MR. GERARD. + +Clad in an immaculate frock-coat, with a hat of irreproachable shininess +on his head, a flower in his buttonhole, and every detail of his attire +correctly up-to-date, "my chum Gerard" made his appearance to call at +Brompton Square on the Monday afternoon following Miles' return. + +"I've met him a hundred times in Piccadilly!" was Jill's comment on the +stranger, and indeed he had far more the air of a fashionable Londoner +than of a miner from the far-off wilds of Mexico. As tall as Miles, +though of a more slender build, showing in the same eloquent fashion the +marks of recent shaving, rather handsome than plain, rather dark than +fair, there seemed at first sight little to distinguish him from a +hundred other men of the same age. On a closer acquaintance, however, a +further attraction was found in the grave, steady glance of the eyes, +and in a rare smile, lighting up somewhat careworn features into a +charming flash of gaiety. Mr Gerard was evidently unused to laughter-- +with all his sterling qualities Miles could not be described as a +humorous companion!--and the programme of the past years had been all +work and no play. As he sat in Mrs Trevor's drawing-room that first +afternoon, he listened in a somewhat dazed fashion to the banter which +went on between Jack and his sisters; but after some time had passed his +face began to soften, the corners of his mouth twitched, and presently +out flashed that delightful, whole-hearted smile, and Betty, meeting it, +buried at once and for ever all lingering prejudices against her +brother's friend. + +It was fortunate that Mr Gerard had made a favourable impression on the +young people, for, at Miles' earnest request, he was invited to take up +his quarters at Brompton Square for the next few weeks. + +"His own people live in the country; he has no friends that he cares +about in town, and I hate the thought of him moping alone in an hotel +after all he has done for me. Besides, we ought to be together just +now. There will be business to talk over every night until we get this +company floated, and if he were not here I should always have to be +going over to him--" + +The last argument settled the matter in Mrs Trevor's eyes. Truth to +tell, she was not too anxious to introduce a stranger into her reunited +family circle, but if it were easier and more convenient for Miles, and +ensured for herself a greater amount of his society, it was impossible +to refuse. She reaped the reward of merit in a growing liking and +admiration for her guest, who was even pathetically grateful for her +hospitality, and appreciative of the home atmosphere to which he had so +long been a stranger. + +Business engrossed the greater part of the time, but there were odd +hours of leisure when the girls were suddenly commanded to get ready +with all possible speed, and spirited off for an afternoon on the river, +or on bicycle expeditions to the country, ending up with an evening meal +at some old-fashioned country inn. They were treated to concerts also, +and to entertainments of all sorts, including welcoming parties at +friends' houses, and when they bemoaned the speedy wearing out of +evening dresses, Miles insisted upon providing new ones, regardless of +expense. + +"It's most grateful and comforting to have a gold-mine in the family," +cried Jill, making languishing eyes at the senior partner. Of course +she flirted with him--Jill flirted with everything in the shape of a +man--monopolising his attention on all occasions in a manner which would +have been somewhat trying to most elder sisters. + +"But I know you don't mind. You like best of all to be with Miles," +said Jill easily, when some remark of the sort was made, and Betty's +reply held an unexpected tartness. + +"I don't mind in the least. It is a matter of perfect unconcern to me +how Mr Gerard behaves; but you are my sister. I am sorry to see you +lowering your dignity, by being so silly, and flighty, and ridiculous! +I am sure he must laugh at you in private?" + +"He laughs to my face, dear. I amuse him wonderfully. He told me +yesterday that I was as good as a tonic. Such a pity you should bother +your poor old head about me! _I_ understand men, my dear!" + +The insinuation of that emphasised "I" was unmistakable. Jill began to +hum--an aggravating habit of hers when she felt the mistress of a +situation--and tripped lightly out of the room. + +And Betty sat and thought. Burning like a furnace, throbbing in every +nerve, shaking her even as she sat, came a sudden fierce heat of anger +such as she had not experienced for many a long year. She had been +accustomed to regard Jill's flirtation from a mental height of +affectionate disdain, to laugh with purest amusement at her assumption +of superiority, but now of a sudden indifference had changed to anger +and a sore rankling of jealousy, which puzzled as much as it disturbed. +It could not be that she herself coveted Mr Gerard's attention! +Cynthia, Nan Vanburgh, all her friends had remarked times and again upon +her indifference to masculine admiration, for, strange as it might seem, +that romantic interview in the fog six years before had linked her +sympathies so strangely with one man's lot that she had had none to +spare for later comers. Under God's providence she had saved a life, +and while those voiceless messengers told of its preservation, it must +remain the one supreme interest of life. Some day "Ralph" would come +home. Some day he would appear before her to announce his task +completed, and to claim her friendship as his reward. Her mother +pleaded with her not to allow a romantic fancy to ruin her life, pointed +out that "Ralph" might have married long before now, that even if he +returned she might be bitterly disappointed in his identity. In vain! +Betty could not argue. She _felt_--and that was the end of the matter. +The sympathetic attraction was too strong to be one-sided. At the other +side of the ocean "Ralph" was waiting for her, even as she for him, and +the meeting would surely come. It might be years hence, but--marvellous +thought!--it might be to-day. Each fresh awakening brought with it a +thrill and a hope. + +All these long years had this fantasy lasted; it was not possible that +it was beginning to fade at the sight of a pair of grave grey eyes, at +the sound of a man's deep-toned voice! + +Betty sat and thought. Ten minutes passed, twenty minutes, half an +hour. + +Jill thrust her head round the corner of the door to give a careless +invitation. + +"I'm going for a trot before dinner. Come along too. It will do you +good." + +"No, thank you. I'd rather not." + +"Sulking still? Goodness, I thought you'd have recovered by this time! +Bye-bye, my dear. Hope you'll get it over before dinner." + +She was humming again as she made her way to the door, where, no doubt, +Mr Gerard waited to accompany her. The invitation had been a polite +matter of form to which an acceptance was not desired. Betty leant her +head on the table and lived through a moment of bitterness before the +door opened once more, and a voice said-- + +"If you are not going out, may I come in for a few minutes? Miles has +not yet--" Then, in a tone of startled concern, "I beg your pardon! I +am interrupting you. You are in trouble?" + +Betty straightened herself with a nervous laugh. + +"Oh, please come in! It's nothing. I only felt rather--upset. +Something vexed me, but it's nothing of any importance. Can I do +anything for you? Are you expecting Miles? He said he would be home +quite early. Were you going out together?" + +"Yes, we have some calls to pay, but there's still half an hour to +spare. He will be up to time, I'm sure. Miles is always punctual." + +Mr Gerard seated himself, and looked with concern at Betty's face, on +which the signs of her mental conflict were clearly printed. It was +almost the first time that they had been alone together, for _tete-a- +tetes_ were of rare occurrence in the doctor's busy household, and there +was a perceptible hesitation on both sides. + +"No, thank you! You can do nothing for me, but I wish I could help +you," said Gerard. "Can't I pummel somebody? Miles will tell you I +have a good fighting arm. If anyone has been annoying you--" + +That made Betty laugh, with a quick wonder as to what Mr Gerard would +say if he knew the identity of his proposed opponent. + +"No, no, thank you! I must fight my own battles. As a matter of fact, +it's more temper than anything else. I have a most intrusive temper. +It is always pushing itself forward--" + +She expected the usual polite disclaimer, but it did not come. Will +Gerard looked at her for a minute, as if thoughtfully weighing her in +the balance, and then the delightful irradiating smile passed over his +features. + +"And it is more difficult to fight now than in the old days, when you +could let yourself go, have a grand rampage, and trust to time and the +aroma of roast chestnuts to make the peace!" he said mischievously; and +when Betty started in dismay-- + +"Oh, I know all about it! The subject of home is very attractive when +one is alone in exile. I could hardly know more about you if I'd been a +member of your schoolroom party. I used to lure Miles on to talk of old +days. It kept us both occupied. Do you remember the occasion when you +decided to starve yourself to death, because you imagined that you had +been unjustly treated, and then got up in the middle of the first night +to raid a cold chop from the larder? Or the time you vowed vengeance on +Miles for cutting off the ends of your hair to make paint brushes, +repented after you went to bed, and went to make it up, when he +concluded you were playing ghosts, and nearly throttled you as a +welcome?" + +Betty laughed, undecided between amusement and vexation. + +"It's too bad! He seems to have given me away all round. If he was +going to tell tales, he might have told flattering ones. I am sure I +was often very nice, or I was always sorry if I wasn't. I used to roast +chestnuts and muffins, and eat oranges and peppermints with the door +wide open to lure him back. They were dear old days! I am glad he +remembered them, but it must have been boring for you. Did he--did he +tell you--more things about me?" + +"Many more!" + +"Principally about me? More than about the others?" + +"You were his special chum. It was natural that he should speak most of +you." + +"And--er--my letters! Did he read those aloud?" + +"Parts of them. I never saw them, of course, except--" + +"Except when?" + +"When he was ill. He could not read himself, and was anxious to hear +the news. Three letters from you arrived during that time. He said it +did not matter. That there would be no secrets in them--nothing you +would not wish me to know." + +Betty flushed, cast an agonised thought back through the years, to try +to remember the gist of those three missives, failed completely, and +nervously twisted her fingers together. + +"There was one thing they would show you pretty plainly, which I'd +rather have kept secret." + +"Yes?" + +"Myself?" + +She looked across the room with a flickering glance, and met Will +Gerard's steady gaze. + +"Yes," he said slowly. "They showed me yourself!" + +That was all. Not another word, either of praise or blame. Did he hate +her then--think her altogether flighty and contemptible, or had the +letters been by chance good specimens of their number, and did he like +them, and think her "nice"? The face told her nothing in its grave +impenetrability. She felt herself blushing more deeply than ever, +rallied all her powers with the determination that she would _not_ be +stupid, and cried gaily-- + +"Well, after all, the confidence was not all on one side! We heard +enough about you. `My chum Gerard' has been a household word among us +for years past. You were such a paragon that we were quite bored with +the list of your perfections." She raised her hands and began checking +off his characteristics on the different fingers in charming, +mischievous fashion. "My chum Gerard is so clever,--so industrious,--so +far-seeing,--so thoughtful,--so generous,--so kind,--so helpful--no! I +am not going to stop; I've not half-finished yet.--All that he does is +wise; all that he tries, succeeds; all that he has, he shares; and when +he speaks, let no dog bark! When we read about impossible heroes in +books we called them `Gerard'; when we wanted to express the acme of +perfection, we called a thing `Gerardy.' Jill read aloud the _Swiss +Family Robinson_ to Pam, and called the good proper papa `Mr Gerard' +all the way through. So now!" + +"Now, indeed!" echoed the real Mr Gerard, laughing. "You are certainly +revenged, Miss Trevor. I don't know anything more trying than to be +preceded by an impossibly exaggerated character! The reality is bound +to be a disappointment. Miles has credited me with his own virtues, for +in reality I am a very faulty person; not in the least like that +paragon, Robinson Papa, of whom I have a vivid remembrance. He would +have been a useful person out in Mexico, all the same. That convenient +habit of discovering every necessity for the table or the toilet on the +nearest bush would have helped us out of many a dilemma." + +They laughed together over the old-time memory, and then, suddenly +sobering, Mr Gerard continued-- + +"At any rate, Miss Trevor, the fact remains, that by `good report or +ill,' even by sight, so far as photographs can reproduce us, we have +been intimately acquainted with each other for the last six years. Six +years is a long time. It ought to enable us to meet as friends rather +than acquaintances?" + +The last sentence was uttered more as a question than a fact, and Betty +answered with eager acquiescence. + +"Oh yes, as friends, quite old friends. It is far better so--" + +"Yet there are times when you treat me like the veriest stranger! It +must be my own fault. Have I done or said anything since my arrival +which has displeased you?" + +"Oh no! Please don't think so. It was nothing at all, not a thing, +except only that--" + +She could not say, "Except that you seemed to prefer Jill's society to +mine," and so complete the sentence; so she subsided into blushing +silence, and Mr Gerard tactfully forbore to question. + +"Don't let there be any more `excepts' or `buts,' please! Take me on +trust as Miles' friend and--if you will allow me--your own. That is all +I request." + +At this interesting moment the sound of a latchkey was heard in the +front door, followed by voices and footsteps in the hall. Mr Gerard +muttered something under his breath. What the exact words were Betty +did not know, but they were certainly not indicative of pleasure. Then +the door opened, and Miles entered, followed by Jill, who had met her +brother soon after starting for her walk, and had escorted him back to +the house. + +She raised her eyebrows at the sight of Mr Gerard. Had he not refused +to go out with her a few minutes before, on the score of letters to be +written? Yet here he was, talking to Betty, with never a pretence of +paper or ink in the room. + +Jill came down to dinner an hour or two later, attired in her prettiest +dress, with the little curl, which Jack naughtily termed the "War Cry," +artlessly displayed on her forehead. She did not care two pins about +her brother's partner, but it was her nature to wish to reign supreme +with any man with whom she was brought into contact, so she was her most +captivating self all the evening, and Will Gerard laid his hand on his +heart and bowed before her, laughed at her sallies, and applauded her +songs, as he had done every evening since his arrival, and Betty laughed +and applauded in her turn, without a trace of the old rankling jealousy. +"He talks to her, but he looks at me. He wants _me_ to be his friend!" +she told herself with a proud content. + +For the first time for many a long year her dreams that night were in +the present, instead of in the past. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. + +A MOONLIGHT WALK. + +Cynthia wrote to beg that Betty would soon come down to see her, and +bring her old pupil to be reintroduced to his mentor, but time passed +by, and one day after another was vetoed by Miles himself. Betty was +nonplussed. It seemed as if he did not want to go. Yet she could +hardly believe that such could be the case, when she recalled to memory +the tone of his voice, the look on his face when, for the first and last +time since his return, Miles had voluntarily mentioned Cynthia's name. + +"It is quite an easy journey. We can get there in less than two hours +by an express train, stay for lunch and tea, and get home again in time +for dinner. I've been down twice this spring, and it is quite easily +managed," she protested; but Miles would do nothing but grunt, and +refuse a definite answer. To spend three or four hours in Franton, a +large proportion of which would be taken up in eating meals, and talking +to other people--this was not his idea of a first visit to Cynthia after +six years of absence. He continued to grunt and make objections for the +next few weeks, and then one night at dinner he announced airily-- + +"I've taken rooms at the Grand at Franton for a week from Friday. I +thought, as we were going down in any case, we might as well do the +thing comfortably, and have a breath of sea-air. Awfully stuffy in town +this last week! They say the Grand is the best hotel, and we shall be +fairly comfortable there. Four bedrooms, and a private sitting-room for +you, mater, in case you want to be quiet. Gerard's coming along; and +you'll come too--over Sunday, at least--I hope, father?" + +"Over Sunday, certainly. I can manage that very well; and perhaps +Horton can take on my work for a few days. There are no very serious +cases on at present, and a rest would be very delightful!" said the +tired doctor with a sigh. His wife brightened instantly at the thought +of his pleasure, while Betty and Jill flushed with excitement. + +Rooms at the Grand! The best hotel, where perchance they might be +"comfortable"! They had never before stayed in an hotel; lodgings, and +cheap lodgings into the bargain, had been their portion on the occasion +of their rare holiday-makings. The grandeur of the prospect drove out +every other thought, and, to his own immense relief, Miles escaped +embarrassing comments on his sadden change of front. + +"I hope we shan't have meals in the private room," Jill said anxiously. +"The great fun of staying in an hotel is to see the people, and--er--" + +"Be seen by the people?" + +"Exactly! Especially the latter. Don't ask me to do a single thing +before Friday, for I shan't have a second to spare. I'm off remnant- +hunting this morning, and shall be glued to the sewing-machine for the +rest of the time. Two new blouses at least I _must_ have, if I am to +pose before the public eye--" + +"Oh, bother remnants! We'll go to Regent Street this morning, and buy +half a dozen blouses between you. I am not going to take you to an +hotel in remnants!" cried Miles with masculine scorn. + +Since his return from abroad the eldest son of the family displayed a +disregard of money which seemed next door to criminal in the eyes of his +careful relations. Why worry to make up a blouse for three-and-sixpence +when you can buy a better one for three guineas? That was his present +attitude of mind; and when the girls hesitated,--fascinated yet +fearful,--the reply was always the same-- + +"I've slaved hard enough all these years! This is my holiday. I've +come home to enjoy myself, and see you enjoy yourselves, and I'm not +going to worry my head about shillings. For pity's sake take what you +can get, and don't fuss!" + +It is the attitude of all men who come back to civilisation after a long +absence, and in Miles' case it could truthfully be said that his +extravagances benefited other people infinitely more than himself. + +It was a very merry party which travelled down to Franton a few days +later, and the comfort and grandeur of the hotel exceeded even the +girls' expectation. All the bedrooms secured were situated on the +front, and were provided with dear little balconies, on which they could +sit and gaze over the sea. The drawing-room was a gorgeous apartment-- +all yellow satin and white archways, and banks of flowers. The dining- +hall was dotted over with little tables, a larger one in a bay-window +being reserved for the Trevor party. The lounge was provided with +innumerable couches and wicker chairs, in which one could loll at ease, +scrutinising the other visitors, or submitting to scrutiny on one's own +account, with a delightful consciousness of a Regent Street blouse. The +gardens and shrubberies would have been quite irresistible, had it not +been that just beyond their bounds stretched the firm golden sands, on +which the white-crested waves broke with a siren sound. + +"Go to bed without a walk on the shore by moonlight--I can't and +_won't_, not if ten fathers, and fifty thousand mothers went down on +their knees and implored me to be prudent!" asserted audacious Jill, as +she finished her after-dinner coffee; whereupon Dr Trevor laughed good- +naturedly, and said-- + +"There's only one father present, and the only knees he possesses are +much too stiff to exert themselves in a hopeless cause! Run along, my +dear; I should have felt the same at your age. Put on a shawl. Miles, +you will see that your sisters don't run wild, and that they come in by +a sensible hour." + +So the four young people wandered along the sands, and watched the +moonlight play upon the waters; but there was no need of the last part +of the doctor's warning, for even Jill grew quiet and subdued, and +forgot to tease and banter. Coming fresh from the noisy, crowded city, +there was something inexpressibly impressive in the long stretch of +sand, the dark, mysterious waters, the loneliness, the silence, broken +only by the rhythmic break of the waves. + +Miles walked alone, his face lifted now and again to the top of the +cliff on which stood the villa which the Alliots had hired for the +summer months. Betty looked across the waste of waters, and felt a pang +of compunction. How long was it since she had last thought of her +friend across the sea? Fainter and more faint had his image been +growing, until from forming a constant background to her thoughts, it +had become a positive effort to remember. She turned aside from Will +Gerard's whispered words, and passed her hand through her brother's arm. +To be beside Miles was in itself an incentive to loyalty. + +Next morning at eleven o'clock, Betty and Miles started to walk up to +the Alliots' villa, leaving Jill and Will Gerard seated on the shore +throwing pebbles into the sea, with every appearance of satisfaction +with themselves, and their occupation. The path was steep but not very +long, and at the entrance to the garden Mrs Alliot was strolling about, +as if awaiting their arrival. She kissed Betty and patted her +affectionately on the shoulder. + +"Cynthia is waiting for you. Run along to her, dear! I will follow +with your brother, and hear some of his news," she said in a light tone +which yet held a hint of command, and, when Betty disappeared, she +turned in an opposite direction, so as to take the least direct path to +the house. + +"I am sure your mother is delighted to have you back! It is delightful +that you have been so successful in your work. We have been so +interested in your adventures." + +The short conventional sentences were the only references made to Miles' +own affairs, and then, as if in a hurry to get to the subject most on +her mind, Mrs Alliot began to speak of her daughter. + +"You will be surprised to find Cynthia looking so well. She has put on +flesh during the last few months, and the sea-air has given her a +colour. Last winter she was painfully thin. It has been a long uphill +struggle, but now at last we begin to see definite improvement. The +doctors are confident that it will be a complete cure if we are very +careful during the next two or three years. The great thing is to live +in pure bracing air, and to keep her happy and cheerful. Anything that +caused agitation or worry of any kind, would have a deleterious effect. +She has a very sensitive nature, and things go deeply with her,--more +deeply than with most girls. Her father and I hide all worries from +her, even our anxiety about herself. We, and all the friends who love +her, must unite in doing everything in our power to spare her during +these all-important years. I know you will understand the position." + +"Yes," said Miles quietly, "I perfectly understand." + +He had grown very white beneath his tan, and Mrs Alliot, glancing +swiftly at him, felt a pang of compunction. Poor young fellow, it was +hard on him, if he really cared! Yet she had done no more than her duty +in warning him that he could not be allowed to disturb Cynthia's peace +of mind. So far, the girl was fancy free, but her interest in the +return of her boy-friend was so strong that a word, a look, a hint of +his own feeling might be sufficient to fan it into a stronger flame. + +"But now that I have spoken he knows how things are, and he is a good +fellow! He will think of her before himself," said Cynthia's mother to +herself with a sigh of relief. + +For the rest of the way to the house Mrs Alliot talked on impersonal +subjects, and Miles answered with colourless politeness; then, at last, +across a wide green lawn, a sun shelter came into view, in which Betty +could be discerned, and someone else in a white dress lying on a couch +banked up with blue cushions. + +"There are the girls! Don't wait for me! Go across the lawn," said +Mrs Alliot kindly. + +When one has dealt the one great blow, it is easy enough to make +trifling concessions, reflected Miles bitterly, as he strode forward; +but the next moment all bitterness died away as he grasped a thin white +hand, and looked down into a face which was at once strange, and +exquisitely familiar. Cynthia, but Cynthia as a woman, no longer a +schoolgirl; Cynthia with her golden mane wound smoothly round her head, +with blue shadows under the sweet eyes, and hollows where the dimples +used to dip in the rounded cheeks. At the first glance the air of +delicacy was painfully pronounced, but as she smiled and flushed, the +old merry Cynthia looked at him once more. + +"Miles! Is it really you? I can hardly believe it! Such a great, big +man! Oh, but I'm glad! I'm glad to see you again! Sit down, sit down. +Let me see you properly. I mayn't get up from this horrid couch. Yes, +it's you! I'd know your eyes anywhere, and the moustache is nice--a +very fine moustache, Miles! I'm glad the beard is off. I like your +square chin. It is lovely to have you all here, and to know you have +not to run away in a few hours. I'm looking forward immensely to the +next week. Old Miles! It _is_ good to see you!" + +She laughed and coughed, and lent back against the cushions, pushing +them into place with an impatient hand; while Miles stared at her in an +intent silence which printed every detail so deeply in his memory that +no passage of time could wear them away. The loose ends of hair which +escaped from the coils and curled on her white neck, the long +transparent hands against the blue cushions, the slight figure in the +white dress--how often that vision arose before him in the years to +come! + +As of old, Cynthia's friendliness showed no hint of embarrassment, and +she chatted away as easily as if the separation had lasted for weeks +instead of years. Betty had tactfully rejoined Mrs Alliot, and for the +next half-hour Miles was allowed an uninterrupted _tete-a-tete_. + +"Tell me all about everything!" cried Cynthia, just as years before she +had demanded an account of Miles' engineering studies; and when he +protested, "Oh, it's quite easy," she maintained, "Tell me the history +of a day. You wake in the morning, and get up, and then--what next? Go +through the whole programme until it is time to go to bed again." + +Then Miles spoke, and she listened eagerly, the flush dying out of her +cheeks and a wistful expression deepening in her eyes. + +"It's just as I said long ago," she sighed plaintively when he had +finished; "you have gone out into the world and done things, and I have +stayed at home and done--_nothing_! Oh, Miles, it was hard being taken +ill just then! Father had come home, and we were looking forward to +travelling about, and having a good time together, and being so happy. +I had finished classes, and was old enough to come out, and I meant to +be such a good daughter, and to take care of the parents for a change, +after being taken care of all my life. I was going to my first ball--my +dress was in the house--when I caught influenza, and since then"--she +threw out her arms with an expressive gesture--"it's been this sort of +thing all the time! Lying still--eating--sleeping--being waited on hand +and foot; an anxiety instead of a help; a care instead of a joy--oh, and +I _did_ want to be a joy!" She paused a moment to press her lips +together, and to give her head an impatient shake. "I mustn't be silly! +Father and mother don't guess that I feel like this, and it isn't +always so bad. Some days I feel quite bright and happy, especially +lately, since I've been getting better, but seeing you brought back the +dear old days, and oh, I _want_ to be well again, and run about with you +on the sands. I shan't be able to go about with you at all." + +"I will come and sit with you as often as I may--as long as I may," said +Miles huskily whereupon Cynthia smiled on him again. + +"How nice of you! Ah yes, you must come. I'll keep quite quiet for the +rest of the day, and then I can talk while you are here. There's so +much I want to tell, and to hear!" + +She coughed again, and brushed her hair from her brow, evidently +fatigued by her own emotion. The dainty finish and grace of her +appearance, which had been the greatest charm in Miles' eyes long ago, +was accentuated by her illness into a fragility which made her seem more +like a spirit than a flesh-and-blood woman to his unaccustomed eyes. +His thoughts raced back for a moment to the scene of his Mexican home, +and he realised the folly of the dream which had for so long made the +half-conscious background of his thoughts. Even if she were willing, +even if she loved him, as he loved and would always love her, it would +be a madman who could dream of transplanting this fragile flower to +those rude surroundings. Cynthia was not for him! Their lives, for the +present at least, lay far apart. As for the future, that was in God's +hands; it would be selfish and cowardly to try to ensure it for himself. +Miles' heart was wrung with the agony of renunciation, but his set face +showed no signs of his suffering. He cheered Cynthia with renewed +promises of daily visits, chatted with her of old friends and old times, +and had the reward of hearing her laugh with the old merry ring. When +he took her hand in farewell, she looked at him with frank eyes, and +said sweetly-- + +"I'm sorry I grumbled--it was wrong of me when I'm so well off. I do +try to be good, but I was always impatient--you used to laugh when I +said so, but it was true. This illness may be just what I need--`They +also serve, who only stand and wait'--I think so often of that line, and +try to wait in patience, but it is hard--the hardest thing in the world, +sometimes!" + +"Yes," said Miles quietly, "the very hardest?" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. + +EXPLANATIONS. + +It was a very happy week. The weather was all that could be desired for +a seaside holiday,--bright yet not glaring, warm but not hot. The hotel +was everything that was luxurious and comfortable, and, last and best of +all, Cynthia kept bright and happy, and was better--not worse--for the +visits of her old friends. + +Every morning Betty accompanied Miles up to the villa, leaving Mr +Gerard and Jill busy playing tennis, roving about on the shore, or +engaged in that other engrossing occupation of throwing stones. For the +first day or two she made excuses, and strolled away to join Mrs +Alliot, but it soon became apparent to her quick senses that neither +that lady nor, strangely enough, Miles himself encouraged these well- +meant excursions. So for the rest of the time she sat in the shelter by +Cynthia's couch, and joined frankly in the conversation. Sometimes +Miles would be silent for almost the whole morning, listening while the +two friends talked together as girls will--a pretty, innocent, sweet- +hearted chatter of home and friends and books and dresses, and "Do you +remember," and "Oh, just suppose," which unconsciously revealed the +character of both. + +Absorbed as he was in Cynthia and all that belonged to her, Miles was +more than once arrested by Betty herself, and asked himself if it could +be true or only imagination that she had gained immensely in beauty, +softness, and general charm since his return five weeks ago. There was +an expression on her face in these last days which transfigured the old +Betty into something a hundred times sweeter and more attractive. +Happiness enveloped her as an atmosphere,--an almost tremulous +happiness, as of one fearful of her own joy. Miles felt assured that +Cynthia noticed this new development as he did himself, as he saw the +grey eyes rest on her friend's face with a tender wistfulness of gaze, +and heard the fluttering sigh with which she turned aside. + +Never again had Cynthia breathed a word of complaint for her own +limitations. After that first involuntary outburst she had carefully +steered clear of the subject of self, and thrown herself heart and soul +into her companion's interest. It was only when the last day of the +short visit had been reached that she alluded to her own plans. + +"We are ordered to leave Franton. It is very hot and oppressive in July +and August, and the doctors want us to go to some high mountain resort +in Switzerland. We shall move on by easy stages as soon as possible-- +possibly next week. It is quite uncertain what we shall do for the +autumn and winter; we may possibly move on to the Engadine. In any case +I'm afraid it is unlikely that we shall return to England. Will there +be any chance of seeing you when we return in spring, Miles?" + +And then Betty received a shock, for Miles replied quietly-- + +"I shall be back in Mexico long before then. I don't think I shall take +more than three months' holiday this time. One gets tired of loafing +after a busy life. I shall want to get back to work." + +"Miles, how can you!" cried his sister shrilly. "Three months! In +another seven weeks--it's impossible! We have hardly had time to +realise that you are home. We made sure that you would be with us till +after Christmas at least. Three months' holiday after all these years! +Oh, Miles, you can't mean it!" + +"I came home to see you all, Betty, and to satisfy myself that you were +well; when that's done there's no more excuse for lazying. I am +entitled to a year's rest, if I like to take it; but if I go back now I +shall be nine months nearer my next visit; and if the mine does all that +we expect, I shall be back sooner than you imagine. Three years--even +two--may see me home again, and then--things may be changed--it may be +easier to stay--!" + +He kept his eyes lowered as he spoke, but Betty understood. Perhaps +Cynthia did too, for her pale cheeks flushed, and she made not a word of +comment. + +When Miles rose a few minutes later, she said "Good-bye" to him in +exactly the same words which she had used six years before-- + +"Good-bye, Miles. I won't forget!" + +And Miles crushed her little hands in his, and walked silently away. + +At the gate Mrs Alliot was awaiting him, as on the morning of his first +visit. She looked wistfully at the stern, white face, then laid her +hand on his arm, and said in a tremulous voice-- + +"Mr Trevor--I--I want to thank you! You have been very brave and kind. +Don't think I have not understood--mothers always understand--but for +Cynthia's sake I was obliged to be selfish. It might have undone all +she has gained, to have had any great excitement or agitation. She is +very young yet--only twenty-two--and she looks upon you as a friend of +her school-days. It was better for every reason that your relations +should remain unchanged." + +Then Miles faced her, a tall imposing figure drawn to his full height, +with shoulders squared and flashing eyes. + +"For the present, yes! I have respected your wishes, and put my own +hopes on one side. Now I am going back to work like ten men rather than +one. If things go as we expect--as we have a right to expect--in a few +years' time I shall be able to live where I please, to choose my home +where it best suits myself--and others. If I live, Mrs Alliot, I shall +be home again in a few years' time, and then I warn you that nothing and +nobody shall keep me apart from Cynthia if she will be my wife. If she +has recovered--well! If she is ill--I will take care of her! I have +served for her six years already. I will serve six more if needs be, +but I shall claim her in the end!" + +"And if it is God's will that she lives and loves you, I will give her +to you gladly. You are a good man, Miles. God bless you! All good go +with you!" said Mrs Alliot warmly. + +Then they shook hands and parted. For how long? It was impossible to +say. Before Miles lay the far country, danger by land and sea, a hard, +adventurous life; before Cynthia years of what at the best must be a +slow, difficult convalescence, with the ever-present danger of a relapse +into her old condition. Only God knew, Who holds the issue of time. +Their greatest stronghold lay in their confidence in Him. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +That evening Betty sat beside Will Gerard on the sloping beach, and +watched the sun set in a silence tinged with melancholy. Miles' +announcement of a speedy return to America had planted a dart in her +heart which was not solely on his own account; for if he went, would not +his partner go too, leaving her to a life of such blank emptiness as was +terrifying to contemplate? All day long the thought had haunted her; +she had longed yet dreaded to speak on the subject, and now that evening +was here, she felt it impossible to face the long hours of the night +without some certain knowledge. + +A few minutes before, Miles had taken Jill for a walk along the sands; +in a short time they would return, and the opportunity for quiet +conversation would be over. Betty turned slowly, to meet her +companion's deep-set eyes fixed intently on her face. He had fallen +into a habit of watching her in this earnest manner, and was often able +to divine her thoughts even before she spoke. + +"What is it?" he asked gently. "Something is troubling you. Won't you +tell me what it is?" + +"It's Miles! He said this morning that he intended to take only three +months' holiday--that means to leave England in six or seven weeks from +now. I can't believe it. We counted on six months or more,--possibly +even a year. Do you think he seriously means to go?" + +"I am sure he does, and I think he is right. If you want to be really +kind, Miss Trevor, you won't ask him to stay." + +Betty's lips trembled. + +"Oh, perhaps not, but it is hardest of all to feel that he _wants_ to +go; that with all our love and care we are so much outside his life that +we can't make him happy or satisfied. Poor mother! It must be dreadful +to bring up a child all those years, and to long and long for his +return, and then see him in a hurry to rush away again, just because-- +oh, I know that you know the real reason--because of a girl of whom, +after all, he has seen very little! It's very hard!" + +"Yes, it is hard--but it is the natural course of events, and I am sure +Mrs Trevor realises that Miles is one of the best sons that it is +possible for a woman to have. He doesn't love you any the less because +he feels the need of getting back to his work. A man must work if he +has any trouble weighing upon him; it is the only safe way of letting +off steam. Fortunately there is plenty for him to do, and the chances +are good for a speedy return." + +He paused, and Betty turned her head aside, and gazed over the darkening +sea. + +"And--you?" she asked softly. "Will you go too?" + +"That depends." + +"On business?" + +"Partly. If things go on as well as they have started, the company will +be floated in another month, and I shall be of more use at the other end +than here. I have made no plans, however. There are other +considerations which come even before business." + +He paused again, as if waiting to be questioned, but Betty did not +speak. The gentle break of the water was the only sound which broke the +silence. Afar off she could just distinguish the dark, retreating +figures of Miles and Jill. She stared at them, at the sea, the sky, +anywhere except at that pale, eager face which was watching her so +intently. + +"Betty," breathed a low voice by her side, "you know what I mean! You +know that my going or staying depends upon yourself--that the happiness +of my life is in your hands! Are you going to be kind to me, Betty? +Will you let me love you?" + +She drew herself away from him with a cry of protest, almost startling +in its suddenness. + +"Oh no, no! I cannot--I must not listen! It is quite impossible. +Please don't say any more. I cannot listen to you!" + +"But, Betty,"--he put out his hand and took forcible possession of the +little cold fingers--"I must speak. We must have this out, and be +honest with each other. Dear!--don't think me presumptuous, but lately +I have fancied that you did care a little bit for me, and were not +perfectly indifferent whether I came or stayed. Was I quite mistaken? +Can you look me in the eyes, Betty, and say that I am no more to you +than any other man?" + +Betty did not attempt to meet his eyes, and her disclaimer was +transparently artificial. + +"Oh, of course you are Miles' friend, naturally it is different--but I +can't be engaged to anybody. It's impossible. Please, please believe +that I know what I say!" + +"Not unless you tell me the reason why it is impossible. Is there +someone else, Betty? Someone whom you love better than me?" + +"No--yes! I don't know if I love him, but I have always felt as if I +belonged to him, and must wait till he came back. You would think me +mad if you knew the whole story. I sometimes think I am mad myself, but +I feel as if I should be betraying a trust if I married another man." + +Will Gerard sat very still for a moment. Then: "Tell me about it!" he +said hoarsely. "Tell me! I ought to know. Perhaps I shall +understand." + +"I don't understand myself," said Betty sadly. "I have tried not to +care for you, but I do care in spite of trying. When I thought of you +going away, my heart stood still, but the other thing has gone on so +long; it has been part of my life, and even for your sake I can't forget +it. If I could be sure that he was well and happy, and had found +someone else to love him, then to be your wife would be the greatest +happiness in the world; but until I hear, I feel--_bound_! We only met +once. That sounds mad enough, doesn't it? And I know nothing of him +but his Christian name. It was an evening more than six years ago; we +had been at a concert at the Albert Hall, and when we came out there was +a black fog, and I lost Miles, and met this man, who brought me home +instead. He was in great trouble--I found it out from something he +said--in such terrible trouble that he had lost all hope, and made up +his mind to commit suicide. That was the first time that I had ever +been brought face to face with real trouble, and it changed my whole +life. Think of it! I was coming back to my happy home from an +afternoon's pleasure, and he--was going to the river..." + +Will Gerard had been sitting listening to her with his head buried in +his hands, but at the sound of that last word he raised his face, and +turned towards her with a sudden, passionate gesture. + +"And you came to him like a good angel in the midst of the darkness-- +came to him without a face or a name,--just as a girl's sweet voice +bidding him take courage, and sending him out to a fresh battle! And +all these years you have treasured him in your faithful heart, and +waited for his return; and he has waited too, Betty, and worked hard-- +worked for you with the thought of you before him! And now that he can +repay his debts and look the world in the face once more, he comes to +you for his reward. Betty, Betty, a man may have more names than one-- +is my face quite strange to you? Have you never seen it before--in a +half light like this, lit by a flickering flame? Betty, _look_! What +do you see?" + +She gave a little gasp of incredulity--rapture--relief, and held out her +hands towards him. + +"Ralph, Ralph! It is you--you have come home!" + +So the long dream was fulfilled, and the fairy prince threw off his +disguise, and showed himself in the shape of the struggler who had +bravely redeemed a past offence. In loving one, she could love both. +Past and present united in bestowing a perfect happiness. Betty held +Ralph's hands in her own, and looked deep into his eyes. + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Betty Trevor, by Mrs. G. de Horne Vaizey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BETTY TREVOR *** + +***** This file should be named 21117.txt or 21117.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/1/1/21117/ + +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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