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diff --git a/36874.txt b/36874.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44c9938 --- /dev/null +++ b/36874.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4640 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Girl in Spring-Time, by Jessie Mansergh + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Girl in Spring-Time + +Author: Jessie Mansergh + +Illustrator: Gertrude Demain Hammond + +Release Date: July 27, 2011 [EBook #36874] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GIRL IN SPRING-TIME *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +A Girl in Spring-Time +By Jessie Mansergh +Illustrations by Gertrude Demain Hammond +Published by Blackie and Son Limited, London. +This edition dated 1897. +A Girl in Spring-Time, by Jessie Mansergh. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +________________________________________________________________________ +A GIRL IN SPRING-TIME, BY JESSIE MANSERGH. + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +THE DAY BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS. + +It was the day before the midsummer holidays, and the girls of the first +form were sitting together in the upstairs school-room at Milvern House, +discussing the events of the term, and the prospective pleasures of the +next few weeks. Lessons had been finished in the morning, the afternoon +had been given up to packing, and now they were enjoying a delightfully +unsupervised hour of rest. + +A tall, slim girl was standing by the table, turning out the contents of +a desk, and filling the waste-paper basket with fragments of paper. The +other pupils watched the movements of the small hands, and the sleek, +dark head with unconscious fascination. There was something +delightfully trim and dainty about Bertha Faucit. Her hair was always +neat, her actions deliberate and graceful; she reminded one irresistibly +of a sleek, well-nurtured pigeon pluming its wings in the sunshine, with +a very happy sense of its own importance. + +By the window stood another girl, who was evidently a sister, for she +wore a dress of the same pattern, and held herself with a like air of +dignified composure. Bertha and Lois Faucit were the daughters of a +dean who lived in an old cathedral town, and their school-fellows were +accustomed to account for every peculiarity on this score. "Dean's +daughters, you know!" It was ridiculous to expect that the children of +such a dignitary would indulge in pillow-fights, and bedroom supper, +like ordinary frivolous mortals. + +Bertha was talking all the while she worked, dropping out her words with +the same delicate distinctness which characterised her actions. + +"Picnics? Oh, dear me, yes! We have a picnic almost every week. We +take the pony carriage and carry our own provisions, and make a fire of +sticks. Have you ever tried to boil a kettle in the open air? It is a +terrible experience. First of all the wood is so damp that it won't +light, and you get all smoked and dirty; then when it does begin to +burn, and you put the kettle on the top, the whole thing collapses to +the ground, and you have to begin again from the beginning. You prop it +up with stones, and get everything started for the second time, and then +the others come back from laying the table and say, `What! isn't the +water boiling yet? Oh, you don't know how to light a fire! It is not +properly laid. Let me show you!' and down comes the whole thing again. +At the end of an hour the kettle boils, and the water is smoked! We +always use it to wash our hands, and drink milk instead. This year I +intend to use fire-lighters." + +"We have a proper tea-basket for taking about with us," said one of the +other girls. "The kettle hangs over a lamp which is protected from the +draught, and you can have boiling water in ten minutes without any +trouble. We always take it when we go on the river. I like boating +picnics best of any." + +"We go to the sea-side for the whole of the holidays," said Ella Bennet, +a big girl with rosy cheeks and long, brown hair; "Mother thinks the +bathing does us so much good. I learnt to swim last year. An old +fisherman rowed out in a boat. I had a strap fastened round my waist, +and he held me up with a pole while I went puffing round and round. He +tried to teach me to dive as well, but I was too nervous. One day I +vowed I really would try. I climbed on to the edge of the boat six +times over, while he held me, and showed me how to put out my hands, and +each time I began to squeal, and jumped down again at the last moment. +It was band day, so there were hundreds of people sitting on the shore, +and they roared with laughter. I was ashamed to come out of the van." + +"I don't care about the sea-side. I like the country," said another +girl. "Last year we stayed at an old farmhouse in Derbyshire. The +walls are of oak, and there are secret cupboards on the stairs. There +is a legend that on moonlight nights one of the rooms is haunted by a +lady in white, who comes and sits by an old spinning-wheel. One evening +I dressed up in a sheet, powdered my hair, and blacked my eyebrows, then +I got the landlady to suggest to the others that they should go upstairs +and look for the ghost. They came up in a rush, and there I was +spinning away with my head bent down as solemn as a judge. They were +awfully quiet, but the boys crept nearer and nearer, and then pretended +to faint, and toppled right over me. Horrid things! It turned out that +the silly old woman thought they might be frightened, so she told them +who it was before they came up. I was so cross!" + +"But they might really have been frightened. I wouldn't go upstairs to +see a ghost for a million pounds--not by myself, at least," said Nellie +Grey, the youngest girl in the form. "Of course it wouldn't be so bad +if you had your brothers with you. Brothers are great teases, but they +never get frightened themselves, so it is a comfort to have them +sometimes. My eldest brother is awfully brave. He wanted to be a +sailor, but Father wouldn't let him, so at Christmas he confided in us +one night that he was going to run away. He said good-bye, and divided +his things among us. I got the paint-box, and Minnie the desk, and Phil +the books and tool-chest. Next morning when we came down to breakfast, +there he was just the same as usual. He hadn't run away at all. He +said it was too cold. But we wouldn't give the things back. It's an +awfully nice paint-box, with a lovely big palette in a drawer +underneath. Mildred! how quiet you are! What are you going to do in +the holidays?" + +The speaker turned to look at a girl who was seated on the edge of the +table itself, and everyone in the room followed her example with an +alacrity which showed how pleasant the sight was in their eyes. + +Mildred Moore had just passed her fourteenth birthday, but she was so +big and strong that she looked older than her age. Her long legs nearly +reached the floor, her hands were folded in her lap, and she stared +through the window, lost in happy day-dreams. Mildred was the beauty of +the school, and as the love of all that is sweet, and bright, and lovely +is natural to girlhood, her companions placed her on a pedestal on that +account, and treated her with special marks of favour. Eva Murray, who +was sentimental, was accustomed to declare that Mildred was exactly like +a Norse princess, and when Blanche Green, who was practical, asked what +a Norse princess was like, she replied that she had never met one in +real life, but had seen many in picture galleries, that they always had +grey eyes and golden hair, and looked strong and kind and fearless, but +also as if they could be awfully disagreeable if they liked,--which +settled the question once for all, for everyone agreed that the +description suited Mildred to a T. + +"What am I going to do?" repeated the Norse princess cheerily. "Why, +nothing at all in the way you mean. We never go away, either to the +country or the sea-side, or have picnics, or parties, or any excitements +of that kind. We just stay quietly at home and go on with the usual +work, but I am with Mother, you know--that's my holiday! You have never +seen her, you girls; I wish you had, for she is quite different to other +peoples' mothers. She is only twenty years older than I am, to begin +with, and she is awfully pretty. She is a tiny little thing, with dark +eyes, and soft brown hair. She comes to meet me at the station in a +sailor hat, and a little blue jacket, looking like a big school-girl +herself. I'm so proud of her! Last time I went home I took her up in +my arms and carried her across the room. She kicked like anything and +said, `You disrespectful child! How dare you! Put me down this +instant!' but she wasn't really angry a bit, and we both tumbled over on +to the sofa, and laughed till we cried. We do enjoy ourselves so much +when we get together--Mother and I. She is lonely when I am away, poor +dear, with no one to speak to but the children, so we make up for it in +the holidays. I sit up to supper every night, and we have coffee, and +hot buttered toast, and all sorts of good things that are bad for us, +and in the daytime we bribe the elder children with pennies to amuse the +younger ones, so that we may have the room to ourselves, and talk of the +good times we shall have when my schooling is over, and I go home to +stay!" + +The girls gazed at Mildred as she spoke, with a mingling of envy and +compassion. Envy,--because her intense delight in the mere prospect of +being at home made them conscious of their own selfishness in regarding +the holidays as a period when parents should occupy themselves in +providing amusement for their families;--compassion,--because it was +well known that Mrs Moore was a widow, and so poor that she could not +afford to leave the country house where she lived with her half-dozen +noisy youngsters. Mildred had been sent to a good boarding-school so +that she might be able to teach her little brother and sisters in due +time, and the other girls were specially pitiful over this prospect. + +Mary Nicoll referred to the subject now with questionable taste. + +"But it won't be much fun, Mildred, if you have to teach all day long. +You won't be able to go about as you like, or have any time free except +in the evenings. And fancy having to go over all the wretched old +lessons again, and to drill tables and dates, and latitudes and +longitudes into the brains of a lot of stupid children. It will be +worse than being at school." + +"Our children are not stupid. They are as sharp as needles, and I don't +think it will be dull at all. It will be fun to have the positions +reversed, and to do none of the work and all the fault-finding. I shall +bully them fearfully. Can't you imagine me--very proper and stiff, hair +done up--sitting at the head of the table tapping with a lead pencil... +`At-tention to the board! ... Shoulders back, young ladies, if you +please! Your deportment leaves much to be desired! ... My dear, good +child, how can you be so stupid! You try my patience to the +uttermost!'" + +Mildred accompanied these remarks with contortions of the face and body +in imitation of the different teachers at Milvern House, and the bursts +of laughter with which they were greeted showed how real were her powers +of mimicry. She joined in the laughter herself, then suddenly breaking +off, clasped her hands together, and rocked to and fro in an ecstasy of +anticipation. + +"This time to-morrow--oh! I shall be driving home from the station. We +shall have passed the village cross, and the almshouses, and turned the +corner by the farm. The children will be swarming out of the gate--the +table will be laid for tea, with a bowl of roses in the middle--oh!--and +strawberries--oh!--and real, true, thick, country cream. To-morrow! I +can't believe it. I don't think I ever wanted to go home so badly +before. The term from Christmas to midsummer seems so awfully long when +you don't go away for Easter. I shan't sleep a wink to-night, I am so +excited. I don't think I can lie down at all." + +The girls were so absorbed in their conversation that they had not heard +the door open during Mildred's last speech, and the new comer had thus +an opportunity of listening undisturbed. She was a tall, slight young +lady, with dark hair, and the sweetest brown eyes that were ever seen. +She wore a black dress, and white collar and cuffs, and looked as if she +were trying her best to appear old and dignified, and not succeeding so +well as she would have wished. This was Miss Margaret, the younger of +the two lady principals, familiarly known among the girls as "Mardie", +because she was "such a darling" that it was impossible to address her +by an ordinary, stiff, school-mistressy title. This afternoon, however, +Mardie's eyes were not so serene as usual, and her face clouded over in +a noticeable manner as she listened to Mildred's rhapsodies. + +"Mildred, dear," she said, coming forward and laying her hand on the +girl's shoulder. "I want you in my room for a few minutes. I won't +keep you long. There is something--" + +"You want to say to me! Oh, Mardie, I can guess. I have left my +slippers in the middle of the floor, and thrown my clothes all over the +room. I know--I know quite well, but it's the last day--I can't be prim +and tidy on the last day. It's not in human nature!" Mildred took hold +of Miss Margaret by the arm, and rubbed her curly head against her +shoulder in a pretty, kitten-like manner. "To-morrow morning you will +be rid of us altogether, and then--" + +"But it is not about your room, Mildred. Come dear--come with me. I +really want you." + +"I'm ready then!" The girl slipped lightly to the ground, and turned to +follow Miss Margaret from the room. "You make me quite curious, Mardie. +Whatever can it be?" + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +A GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT. + +Miss Margaret's room was on the third floor, and did service both as a +bedroom and as a sanctum to which its owner could retire in rare moments +of leisure. The bed stood in a corner, curtained off from the rest of +the room; pictures hung on the walls; little bookcases fitted into the +angles; while before the window was an upholstered seat, so long and +wide, and luxuriously cushioned, as to make an ideal sofa. In the +girls' estimation Mardie's room was a paradise, and it seemed almost +worth while having a headache, when one could be tucked up warm and cosy +on that delightful seat, shaded from the sun by the linen blind outside +the window, yet catching delicious peeps at the garden beneath its +shelter. + +Mildred made straight for the coveted position and leant back against +the cushions, her hands clasped round her knees in an attitude rather +comfortable than elegant. For once, however, Miss Margaret had no +reproof to offer. She had nothing to say about the awful consequences +of curving the back and contracting the chest; she did not even inquire, +with a lifting of the eyebrows, "My dear Mildred, is that the way in +which a young lady ought to sit?" She only gazed at the girl's face and +wrinkled her brows, as if puzzled how to open the conversation. + +"Go on, Mardie, dear?" said her pupil, encouragingly. "What is it--have +I done anything wrong? I don't know what it is, but I'm awfully sorry, +and I'll never do it any more. Don't scold me on the last day! I'll +promise faithfully--" + +"Don't, dear! It isn't anything like that." Miss Margaret straightened +herself with an expression of resolution and went boldly forward. +"Mildred, are you brave? Can you bear a great disappointment?" + +Mildred raised her eyes with a start of apprehension. There was a +moment's silence, during which a curious change came over the girlish +face. The colour faded from the cheeks, the eyes hardened, the lips set +themselves in a thin, straight line. + +"No," she said sharply, "I can't!" and Miss Margaret looked at her with +gentle remonstrance. + +"Oh, Mildred, don't take it like that! I have had to bring other girls +into this room, dear, and tell them of troubles compared to which this +disappointment of yours is as nothing--nothing! Poor little Effie +Browning, looking forward to her parents' return from abroad, and +counting the hours to their arrival--I had to show her the telegram +announcing her mother's death. And Mabel, and Fanny--But your mother is +well, quite well and safe. Doesn't that make you feel thankful to bear +any lesser trouble?" + +"No!" said Mildred again, more obstinately than before; "No!" She +stared at Miss Margaret with unflinching eyes. "If Mother is well, +there is only one other trouble which I could feel just now. If--if it +is anything to prevent me going home, I can't bear it--it will kill me! +I shall break my heart!" + +"Nonsense! You are far too strong, and brave, and sensible to break +your heart over a disappointment of a few weeks, however hard it may be +to face. Come, Mildred, you know I rely upon you to be my helper in +difficulties; you must not quarrel with me, for we shall have to keep +each other company. Your little brother Robbie has taken scarlet fever, +and you will not be able--" + +She did not finish the sentence, for her pupil interrupted with a cry of +bitter grief, and buried her face in her hands. It was one thing to +imagine a thing, and another to know that it was true in solemn earnest. +Mildred had spoken of the possibility of not being able to go home as +of some appalling imaginary calamity, but she had never, never thought +it could be true. Not go home! Stay at school all through the +holidays!--the prospect was so terrible that it was impossible to +realise all that it meant. Nevertheless some of the first miserable +consequences were clear enough to poor Mildred's mind:--to unpack all +her boxes, to put her clothes back in drawers and cupboards; to sleep by +herself in the deserted dormitory; to spend the days lounging about +empty school-rooms, feeling doubly lonely because of the remembrance of +the friends who had been by her side but a few days before, and who had +now dispersed to their own happy homes. Effie Browning had spent the +holidays at school once or twice, and Mildred had pitied her so much +that she had sent weekly letters and boxes of country flowers and +mosses, to cheer her solitude. And now she herself was to undergo this +awful experience! To-morrow morning the other girls would fasten their +boxes and drive off to the station, but for her there would be no +excitement of farewell, no railway journey, with the delightful sense of +importance in travelling by herself all the way from the junction, no +dear little mother waiting to greet her in sailor hat and blue serge +suit! Her heart swelled with passionate longing, but she could not cry; +the blow was too sudden, too severe. Miss Margaret's eyes were wet, +however, as she looked down at the curly, golden head. She did not +speak for a few minutes, then she laid her hand on the girl's arm and +pressed it to attract attention. + +"I am so sorry for you--so sorry, my poor girl. See, dear, here is a +letter which came inclosed in one to my sister. Your mother wished us +to break the news--" + +Mildred seized the letter in an almost savage grasp. It was in her +mother's handwriting, and ran as follows:-- + + My darling Mildred, + + When you get this letter, Miss Chilton will have told you of the + trouble at home. Poor little Robbie has been very poorly for two + days, and this morning the doctor pronounces it to be scarlet fever. + I could not help crying when he told me, for so many things came + rushing into my head, and it all seemed so dark and difficult. I was + anxious about Robbie, and couldn't think what to do with the rest of + the children; and you, my darling, with your holidays just beginning! + It broke my heart to think of you. I seem to have lived a month in + the last few hours, but everyone has been so kind, and help has come + from all directions. Mrs Bewley and Mrs Ross are to take the + children to stay with them, as they have no little ones of their own, + and are not afraid of infection. I will nurse Robbie, and if any of + the others fall ill, they will be sent home at once, and we will make + a hospital of the top floor. I suppose, even if all goes well, and + Robbie is the only patient, it will be six weeks before we are out of + quarantine. Oh, my dearest child, I am so grieved for your + disappointment, coming upon you in the midst of your preparations; but + there is no help for it, you must stay on at school, for there is no + other place to which I can send you. I can't ask either Mrs Bewley + or Mrs Ross to take you in addition to the other children, and even + if you were here we could not see or speak to each other, and it would + be dreadful to know that you were so near, and not be able to be + together. + + I am as disappointed as you, can be, dear, for I can't tell you how I + was looking forward to having my dear, big girl back again, but this + is a trouble which has come to us, and which we cannot help, and we + must try to be as brave as possible. Robbie is very hot and feverish + to-day. He asked when you would be at home, and I was obliged to tell + him that you could not come now. A little time afterwards I went back + and found him crying, "'Cause Millie will be angry wif me!" Poor wee + man! if he only gets on well we must not mind any disappointment which + his illness has caused. + + I shall not be allowed to send you letters, dear, but please write to + me as often and as cheerfully as you can. We shall be shut off from + all our friends, and letters will be eagerly welcomed. I send you a + postal order for a sovereign for pocket-money during the holidays. It + is all I can afford, darling, or you should have ten times as much. + You know that. + + I have not another minute to spare, so goodbye, dearie. I shall think + of you every hour of the day. Help me by being brave! + + Mother. + +Mildred read the letter through, folded it away, and looked up at Miss +Margaret with bright, dry eyes. + +"Can I go to my own room, Miss Margaret, please?" + +"You can if you like, Mildred, but the other girls will be there in a +moment, getting ready for tea. Wouldn't you prefer to stay here? I +will give you my writing-case, and you can write to your mother; she +will be longing to hear. You shall have tea up here, a nice little +tray, and Bertha shall have it with you, unless you prefer to be alone." + +"I don't want to see anyone. They are all going home. It would make me +feel worse than ever. They are all happy but me--" + +"They will feel your disappointment almost as much as you do yourself. +We are all so grieved; but I will do my best to make the holidays +pleasant for you, dear." + +"Don't be kind to me, Mardie, please. I can't bear it--I feel as if I +hated everyone! Why need Robbie take ill just now of all times in the +year? He is a tiresome little thing. It is always the same way,--there +is more trouble with him than with all the five girls. Why can't Mother +stay with us and send him away to be nursed? There are five of us, and +only one of him. I wasn't home at Easter, though almost all the girls +went. I can't live six whole months longer without seeing Mother. It +makes me wild even to think of it!" + +"Don't think of it, Mildred. Six months is a long way ahead; a hundred +things may happen before then. Don't worry yourself about months, think +only of to-day, and try to be bright, and brave, and patient." + +"It would be horrid of me to be bright when Mother is in trouble. I +can't be brave when everything goes wrong; I can't be patient when my +heart is breaking." + +"It is hard, dear, but there are harder trials than this, which we have +to bear as we go through life, and you know--" + +"Mardie, don't preach! Don't! I can't bear it. How can it make it +easier to know that other people have worse troubles? It makes it +harder, for I have to be sorry for them as well as myself. It's no use +trying to reason; you had better leave me alone. If you say another +word I--I--I shall--" Mildred's voice broke, she struggled in vain +against the rising sobs, and burying her face in her hands, burst into a +storm of bitter weeping. + +Miss Margaret did not try to check her, for she knew that tears would be +a relief, and that after this outburst Mildred would be calmer and more +reasonable. She patted her heaving shoulders and murmured caressing +words from time to time. + +"Dear Mildred! poor girl! I am so sorry,--we are all so sorry for you, +dear. You know that--don't you?" + +Mildred cried on unrestrainedly, but by and by she nestled nearer to +Mardie's side, and a few broken phrases began to mingle with her sobs. + +"Oh, Mardie, I don't want--to be--so horrid! I'll try--to be good.--But +you don't know--how--I feel--inside! All raging, desperate! It seems-- +as if--it can't be true. I was so happy. It was so--near." + +"Yes, dear, yes; but, Mildred, listen to me. I know that nothing can +make up for home or Mother, but I am not going away for two or three +weeks, and we will have some cosey little times together--you and I. +You shall sleep with me, we will have our meals in the south parlour, +and we will go little expeditions on our own account, have tea in +village inns, and botanise in the fields. The doctor's daughter will be +at home from school, she shall come and spend the day with you as often +as you like, and you must help me to pick fruit and make jam. We will +get some nice books too, and read aloud in the evenings. It won't be so +dreadful--will it, dear? Come, Mildred, if you cry like this I shall +think you don't care for me at all." + +"Oh, Mardie, I do! I love you, and I know you will be kind, but +I'm--_tired_ of school. I want Mother! I want Mother!" And down went +the curly head once more, and Mildred burst into fresh floods of tears. + +It was indeed a sad ending to a day which had dawned with such radiant +promise. + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +FRIENDS TO THE RESCUE. + +There was consternation downstairs when the news of Mildred's +disappointment was made public. The girls clustered together in groups, +and talked with bated breath. The number of times that the words +"fearful" and "awful" were used would have horrified Miss Chilton if she +had been present, and one and all were agreed that their friend was the +most pitiable creature upon earth. + +Even the little sixth-form pupils were full of sympathy, for Mildred +took more notice of them than any of the "big girls", and even +condescended, upon occasion, to spend a holiday afternoon helping them +with their games and "dressings up." Within ten minutes of hearing the +news little Nina Behrends had scribbled a note on a leaf of an +exercise-book, and fitted it into an envelope together with a bulky +inclosure. She trotted upstairs and knocked at Miss Margaret's door, +and when Mildred peered out into the passage with her tear-stained eyes, +the little mite pressed the package into her hands and scuttled away as +fast as her legs would carry her. + +Mildred opened the envelope with a feeling of bewilderment, which was +certainly not decreased when she drew forth an aged piece of +india-rubber, shaggy and frayed at the ends, as with the bites of tiny +teeth. She turned to the note for an explanation, which was given in +the following words: + + Deer Mildred, + + I hope you are quite well. I send you my injy-ruber. The thick side + rubs out. I hope it will comfort you that you can't go home. + + So I remain, + + Your little friend, + + Nina. + +Poor little Nina! The "injy-ruber" was one of her greatest treasures, +and it had seemed to her that no other offering could so fitly express +her love and pity. + +The same impulse visited all the other girls in their turn. It was not +enough to sympathise in words, it seemed absolutely necessary to _do_ +something; and before half an hour was over, every girl was rummaging +through the contents of a newly-tidied desk, in search of some tribute +which she might send to Mildred in her distress. Such a curious +collection of presents as it was! Pencil boxes (more or less damaged); +blotted blotters; "happy families" of ducks and rabbits congregated on +circles of velvet; photograph frames; coloured slate-pencils;--it would +be difficult to say what was not included in the list, while every gift +was wrapped in a separate parcel, and offered in terms of tenderest +affection. + +Bertha Faucit was deputed to carry the presentations upstairs, and she +found Mildred sitting upon the window-seat, gazing out into the garden +with dreary, tear-stained eyes. There was nothing in the least like a +Norse princess about her at this moment. She looked just what she was-- +a particularly lugubrious, unhappy, English school-girl. Her face +lighted up with a gleam of pleasure when she saw her friend, however, +for she had been alone for nearly an hour, while tea was going on +downstairs, and was beginning to find the unusual silence oppressive. + +"Oh, Mildred!" cried Bertha. "Oh, Bertha!" cried Mildred; then they +collapsed into silence, gazing at each other with melancholy eyes. + +"I can't--go home!" said Mildred at last, speaking with heaving breath +and suspicious gaps between the words. "I have to stay here all the +holi--days--by myself! Eight weeks--fifty-six days! I think I shall go +mad--I'm sure I shall! My head feels queer already!" + +"That is because you have been crying. You will be better in the +morning," said Bertha, and her quiet, matter-of-fact voice sounded +soothingly in her friend's ears. "See, Mildred, the girls have sent you +these little presents to show how sorry they are for your +disappointment. We couldn't go out to buy anything new, so you must +excuse us if they are not quite fresh. I have brought my crayons,--you +said the blue was a nicer colour than yours; Lois has chosen two texts +for illuminating, and there are all sorts of things besides. See what a +collection! Maggie Bruce has sent an exercise-book with the used leaves +torn out. She said it was to be used as an album; and when we go home +we are all going to ask our fathers for foreign stamps, and send them on +to you. Don't you want to look at all the other things?" + +Bertha had laid the parcels in a row along the floor, and Mildred now +took up one after another and examined the contents, while at one moment +she laughed, and at the next her eyes ran over with tears. + +"How good of them all--how kind! Poor little Nina Behrends presented me +with her `injy-ruber' before tea. It is so dirty that it would spoil +anything it touched, but it was sweet of the little thing to think of +it. A note from Carrie. Poor old Elsie--fancy sending me this! What a +nice frame; I'll put your photograph in it, Bertha. Slate-pencils! does +she think I am going to do sums in the holidays? Oh, Bertha, don't +think me horrid, but people seem to me to have a very queer idea of +comfort! Miss Margaret sent up strawberry jam and cake for my tea, as +if anything to _eat_ could make up for not seeing Mother!--or pencils, +or books, or stamps. I'd give all the stationery in the world if I +could only wake up and find it was a dream, and that I was really going +home!" + +"I don't think that is quite the right way to look at it," said Bertha, +seating herself elegantly on a chair, and speaking in her precise, +little, grown-up manner. "We don't expect these things to `make up'; +they are not of much value in themselves, but you must think of their +meaning, and that is that we all love you, and are sorry for you, and +want to do everything in our power to help you." + +"Yes, yes, I know; you are all angels, and I am a wretch!" cried poor +Mildred dismally. "I don't deserve that you should be so kind. I +should like to be grateful and patient, but I can't! Bertha, if you +were in my place, and had to stay here at school all alone, without even +Lois or a single one of the girls, what would you do?" + +Bertha reflected. + +"I think I should cry a good deal at first," she said honestly, "and lie +awake at nights, and have a headache, but I should try to be resigned. +I have never had anything very hard to bear, and sometimes I have almost +wished that I had. I don't mean, of course, that I want anyone +belonging to me to fall ill like your brother. I should like a trouble +that affected myself alone, so that I might see how well I could bear +it. I love to read about people who have had terrible trials, and have +been brave and heroic, and overcome them all. I have an ambition to see +if I could imitate them." + +"Well, I haven't," said Mildred, "not a bit; and you won't like it +either, Bertha, when it comes to your turn! Besides, I don't see that +there is much chance of being heroic in living alone by yourself in a +ladies' school. Heroes have to fight against armies, and plagues, and +terrible calamities, and I have to face only dullness and +disappointment. Even if I bear them well it will be no more than is +expected of me. ... There would be nothing heroic about it!" + +Bertha knit her brows in thoughtful fashion. + +"I am not so sure," she said. "I think it must be pretty easy to be +brave when you are marching with hundreds of other people, while drums +are beating and flags waving, and you remember that England expects you +to do your duty, and that the whole world will talk of it to-morrow if +you do well. It would be quite easy for you, Mildred; for you are never +afraid, and you would get so excited that you would hardly know what you +were doing. It will be much harder for you to sit still here and be +cheerful; and to do the hardest thing must be heroic! I will write to +you often, Mildred; all the girls will write. You will have heaps of +letters." + +"That will be nice. I love letters," said Mildred gratefully. She +cheered up a little at the prospect, and talked to her friend for the +next half-hour without relapsing into tears. Nevertheless, the +remembrance of the poor, disfigured face weighed heavily on Bertha's +heart, and she could talk of nothing else, as she and Lois finished +their packing later on the same evening. + +"I feel quite mean to be going home when poor Mildred is left here +alone," she said. "And we have such a happy time. Father and Mother +are so good, they give us almost everything we ask in the holidays. I +wonder--" She stopped short as if struck with a brilliant idea, and +stared into her sister's eyes. + +"I wonder--" echoed Lois immediately, and her voice had the same ring, +her face the same curious expression. + +The pupils at Milvern House were often amazed at the instinctive manner +in which these two sisters leapt to an understanding of each other's +meaning, and the present instance it was evident that Lois needed no +explanation of that mysterious "I wonder." "We are twins, you know," +they were accustomed to say, when questioned about this peculiarity, and +it seemed as if this fact did indeed save them from much conversational +exercise. + +"We will see!" said Bertha again, and Lois nodded her head and repeated, +"We will see!" while her face lit up with smiles. + +But Mildred did not know what pleasant schemes her friends were plotting +on her behalf, and she lay, face downwards, crying heart-brokenly upon +her bed. + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +BAD NEWS FROM HOME. + +The next morning Mildred awoke with a wail of despairing remembrance. +She hid her face in the pillow and wondered how she was to live through +the day, to see the different batches of girls leave the house at ten +o'clock, at eleven, at one, at half a dozen different times, while she +was left alone in solitary misery. + +Her friends, however, were too considerate of her feelings to let her +experience such a trial. Immediately after breakfast Miss Chilton +announced that she was going to spend the day in a neighbouring +township, and requested Mildred to get ready to accompany her. Now, +Miss Chilton was a majestic person, with a Roman nose and hair braided +smoothly down each side of her face; and none of the girls dared to +argue concerning her decrees, as they did, on occasion, with the more +popular Miss Margaret. + +So Mildred marched meekly upstairs, to put on hat and jacket, without +uttering a single protest. She would have liked to say, "Oh, do leave +me alone! I would far rather stay at home and mope;" and Miss Chilton +probably guessed as much, though she took no notice of her companion's +downcast expression, and sat with the same unconscious smile upon her +face all the length of the journey. + +She had some shopping to do, in preparation for her own holidays, but +when that was over, she and her pupil repaired to the house of a friend, +where they were to lunch and spend the afternoon. + +The friend had two daughters about Mildred's own age,--bright, lively +girls, who carried her away to their own rooms, showed her their +possessions, confided secret plans, and were altogether so kind and +friendly that she forgot to be unhappy, and chatted as gaily as they did +themselves. Miss Chilton had probably sounded a note of warning in the +letter which announced her coming, for no one said a word to Mildred on +the subject of the holidays, but when she was leaving, the mother +invited her to spend another day with the girls, and the girls +themselves kissed her with sympathetic effusion. + +It was nearly eight o'clock when the travellers reached school again, to +find the house transformed from its usual bustling aspect. The +classrooms were closed, supper was laid in the cosy little south +parlour, and when Mildred tried to enter the dormitory which she shared +with two other girls she found that the door was locked, and Miss +Margaret came smilingly forward to lead the way to her own room. + +"I have been as busy as a bee all afternoon. Come and see how nicely I +have arranged it all," she said brightly, and Mildred, looking round, +saw her own chest of drawers in one corner, her dresses hanging neatly +in the wardrobe, while a narrow bed stood out at right angles from the +wall. + +Her heart swelled at the sight, and a hundred loving, grateful thoughts +arose in her heart. She longed to thank Miss Margaret for sparing her +the painful task of unpacking, and for letting her share this pretty, +luxurious room, but it seemed as if an iron band were placed round her +lips, and she could not pronounce the words. + +"The bed spoils the look of the room!" she muttered at last, and even in +her own ears her voice sounded gruff and ungracious; but Miss Margaret +only smiled, and slipped one arm caressingly round her waist. + +"Ah, but I sha'n't think that when I wake in the morning and see my +little goldilocks lying beside me, with her curls all over the pillow +like the princess in the fairy tale!" she said, and at that Mildred was +obliged to laugh too, for she was like most other mortals--marvellously +susceptible to a touch of flattery! + +"A very grumpy princess!" she said penitently. "I am really awfully +grateful, Mardie, but I can't show it. You will excuse me if I am nasty +for a day or two, won't you, dear?" + +Mardie raised her eyebrows and pursed up her lips in comical fashion. +She was always unusually lively for a school-mistress, but already it +seemed to Mildred that she was quite a different person from the "Miss +Margaret" of term time. She wore a pretty blue dress, with lace +frillings on the bodice, and walked about with an airy tread, as though +released from a weight of responsibility. + +"Well," she said, nodding her head, and looking as mischievous as a girl +herself, "I'll make allowances, of course, but I hope you won't try me +too far. I am a delightful person out of school time, and mean to enjoy +every day of the holidays to the full--unless you prevent me I shall be +dependent upon you!" + +"I prevent you,--I!" + +That seemed to put the matter in a new light, and Mildred was overcome +at the thought of her own selfishness. Whatever she might have to +suffer, she must not spoil poor Mardie's pleasure in her well-earned +rest. That would be inexcusable. She determined to do her utmost to be +brave for Mardie's sake. + +The next day Miss Chilton departed on her travels, and a letter arrived +from Mrs Ross giving a serious account of the little invalid's +condition. She evidently tried to write as cheerfully as possible, but +Mildred read anxiety between the lines, and was full of compunction. + +She had never imagined that Robbie would be really ill, but had looked +upon the fever as a childish complaint which would make him hot and red +for a few days, and put everyone else to inconvenience for as many +weeks. She had not only felt, but said, that it was very "tiresome" of +him to have taken ill at such a time; but now the remembrance of poor +wee Robbie lying in bed crying, "'Cause Millie would be angry wif him," +cut her to the heart. The day seemed endlessly long and dreary, and the +next morning's news was worse instead of better. Robbie's life was in +danger. The doctor hoped, however, that a change might take place +within the next twenty-four hours, and Mrs Ross promised to telegraph +in the afternoon to allay his sister's anxiety. + +Miss Margaret looked very grave, but she said little, and did not +attempt to follow when Mildred fled upstairs, leaving the letter in her +hands. There are times when we all prefer to be alone, and this morning +Mildred could not have brought herself to speak to anyone in the world +but her mother. She lay motionless on the window-seat, her head resting +on the open sill, the summer breeze stirring the curls on her forehead, +while the clock in the hall chimed one hour after another, and the +morning crept slowly away. For the most part she felt stupefied, as if +she could not realise all that the tidings meant, but every now and then +her heart swelled with an intolerable ache. + +It was true that Robbie had caused more trouble than his five sisters +put together, but his exploits had been of an innocent, lovable nature, +and when the temporary annoyance which they caused was over, she and her +mother had laughed over them with tender pride. He was such a manly +little fellow! Many a boy would have been spoiled if he had been +brought up in a household composed exclusively of womenkind, but nothing +could take the spirit out of Robbie. He had begun to domineer over his +sisters while he was still in petticoats, and now that he was promoted +to sailor suits, he gave himself the airs of the master of the house! +Mildred recalled the day when he had been discovered standing before a +mirror, making wild slashes at his curls with a pair of cutting-out +scissors. The explanation given was that some boys had dared to call +him "pitty girl!" and he couldn't "'tand it!" When his mother shed +tears of mortification, Robbie hugged her with sympathetic effusion, but +sturdily refused to say that he was "torry!" + +A vision of the little shaggy head rose up before Mildred's eyes: she +saw the chubby face, the defiant pose of the childish figure, and +stretching out her hands, sobbed forth a broken prayer. + +"Oh, God! you have so many children in Heaven--so many little boys. We +have only one... Don't take Robbie!" + +The morning wore away, the blazing sun of noon shone in through the open +window, Mildred's head throbbed with pain, then gradually everything +seemed to sink away to an immeasurable distance, and she was lost in +blessed unconsciousness. + +When she awoke the church bell was chiming for afternoon service, and +Miss Margaret knelt by her side, holding an open telegram in her hand. + +"I opened it, darling!" she said; "I thought it would be better. It is +good news, Mildred--good news! Robbie is better. The doctors think he +will get well now!" + +Ah! that was a happy afternoon! Mardie took Mildred in her arms and +kissed and petted her to her heart's content, then the door opened and +in came old Ellen, the cook, carrying a tea-tray with freshly-made +scones, a plate of raspberries from the garden, and a jug of thick, +country cream. The kind old soul had been so full of sympathy that she +had insisted upon carrying it up the three flights of stairs herself, +although her breath was of the shortest, and she gasped and panted in +alarming fashion. Mildred laughed and cried in one breath, and lay back +against the cushions, drinking tea, and eating raspberries in great +contentment of spirit. + +"I was awfully hungry, though I didn't know it. I feel as if I had been +ill. Oh, Mardie, isn't it a lovely feeling when the pain goes, and you +can just rest and be thankful! ... It's worse to have a pain in your +mind than in your body. I feel ashamed now that I made such a fuss +about staying at school--it seems such a little thing in comparison, but +don't say `I told you so!' Mardie, or that will make me feel horrid +again. It really _is_ big, you know, only the other was so much +bigger... Mardie, have you ever had a disappointment--as big a +disappointment as mine?" + +A quiver passed over Miss Margaret's face, and for a moment she looked +very sad. + +"Oh, Mildred, yes!" she cried. "Everyone has, dear, but sometimes I +have been discontented enough to imagine that I have had more than my +share. A disappointment, indeed! dozens,--scores,--hundreds! But of +course some are harder to bear than others." + +"Tell me about one now!" said Mildred, leaning back against the cushions +and settling herself to listen in comfort. "Do, Mardie! I feel just in +the humour to listen to a story; and I know it will be interesting if +you tell it. `The Story of a Disappointment!' Something exciting that +happened to you when you were young. Now then, go along! Begin at +once!" + +Mardie laughed, and then pretended to look indignant. + +"When I was young, indeed! What do you call me now? When you are my +age you will be very indignant if anyone calls you old. Well now, let +me see! I'll tell you the story of a disappointment which happened to-- +well--not exactly to me, but to a very great friend whom I had known all +my life. He tried to get on in business in England, but it seemed as if +there was no opening for him here, and at last he made up his mind to go +abroad. He heard through an advertisement of an opening in a tea +plantation in Assam (Assam, Mildred! You know where it is, of course), +and though he hated the idea of leaving home, he thought it was the +right thing to do. Well, he went. It was a long and expensive journey, +and when he arrived he found that things were not at all as they had +been represented. I can't enter into details, but the advertisement had +been one of those cruel frauds by which young men are tempted abroad, +and robbed of time and money. My friend was clever enough to see +through the deception, and refused to have anything to do with the +business. That was all right so far as it went, but there he was, alone +in a strange land, not knowing where to turn, or what to do to earn a +livelihood. It was just about this time that the planters in Ceylon +were beginning to grow the cinchona-tree, from the bark of which the +medicine known as quinine is made; and it happened one day that my +friend overheard two gentlemen discussing the prospects of the crops and +speaking very enthusiastically about it. He made inquiries in as many +directions as he could, and finally decided to go south to Ceylon and +prospect. He had some money of his own, and he was fortunate enough to +meet a man who had been in the island for years, and who had valuable +experience. They bought an estate between them, planted it with +cinchona, and worked hard to cultivate it; and it is very hard, Mildred, +for an Englishman to work in the open air in those tropical countries! +It was a difficult crop to raise, and misfortune befell all the estates +around. The roots `cankered', the leaves turned red and dropped off, so +that the trees had to be uprooted, and very little if any of the bark +could be used. My friend's estate, however, flourished more and more. +His partner was a clever planter, and they were not content to leave the +work to the care of an overseer, but looked after it themselves, night +and day. There was not a single precaution which they neglected; not an +improvement which they left untried, and as I say the place flourished-- +people talked about it--it became well known in the island. It was all +the more valuable because of the failure of the other estates, and the +sum which the estate would realise, if all went well, would be a +fortune--large enough to provide both partners for life. + +"Imagine how they felt, Mildred! How eager they were; how delighted. +They had been away from home for years by this time, and were longing to +return. They had each their own castle in the air, and it seemed as if +this money would build it on solid earth. For some time everything +flourished, then--one morning--" + +Miss Margaret paused, and drew a difficult breath; Mildred stared at her +with dilated eyes. + +"My friend wrote me all about it. They had finished breakfast and +strolled out together, talking of what they would do when the next few +weeks were over, and the money was paid down. They were to buy presents +in Colombo, take passages in the first steamer, and come home laden with +spoils. The partner--his name was `Ned'--was picturing the scene which +would take place at his home when he distributed the treasures which he +had bought for his sisters--amethyst rings, tortoise-shell brushes, +brass ornaments. He walked on ahead, gesticulating, and waving his +hands in the air. Suddenly he stopped short, started violently, and +stared at one of the carefully-guarded cinchona-trees. + +"`What is it, Ned?' cried his partner, and at that the other turned his +face. It had been all bright and sparkling a moment before. It was +changed now--like the face of an old, old man. My friend looked and +saw: the leaves were shrivelling--it was the beginning of the red +blight!" + +Miss Margaret jumped up from her seat and began to pace the room. Her +voice quivered; her eyes had a suspicious brightness; while Mildred was +undisguisedly tearful. + +"Oh, Mardie! How awful! Oh, the poor, poor fellows! What did they +do?" + +"There was nothing to be done. They knew that by experience. The +blight would spread and spread until the whole estate was destroyed. +They could do nothing to stop it. They went back to the bungalow and +sat there all day long--without speaking a word or lifting their eyes +from the ground. All the years of hard, unceasing work had been for +nothing--" + +Mardie stopped abruptly. + +"And after--afterwards?" + +Mardie stood with her back to her companion, as if avoiding her glance. +Her voice had a curiously tired, listless expression. + +"Oh!--they dug up the ground to plant tea, and began life over again." + +"But, Mardie, dear, don't be so sorry! It was terribly hard, but after +all it is over, and it did not affect your own personal happiness!" + +Mardie moved the ornaments on the dressing-table with nervous fingers. + +"It is getting late," she said. "Put on your hat, Mildred, and let us +have a stroll in the garden before it is dusk." + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +SUNSHINE AGAIN! + +The next day brought reassuring news of Robbie, who had had a good +night, and was distinctly better. Mildred was devoutly thankful; but +now that the strain of anxiety was relieved, the loneliness of her +position began to weigh upon her with all the old intensity. She grew +tired of reading and writing letters, and the silence of the big, empty +house weighed upon her spirits. + +"Three days--and already it seemed like a month! Then what will a month +feel like? and two months?" she asked herself in a tremor of alarm. "It +is all very well for Mardie to say, `Take one day at a time, and don't +worry about the future.' She wouldn't find it so easy in my place! +Bertha might send me a letter! I didn't expect her to write the first +day she was at home, but she might have managed it the second, under the +circumstances!" + +Miss Margaret was engaged with callers; the servants busy at their work. +Mildred was at her wits' end to know what to do with herself. She +flattened her face against the window, and stared gloomily down the +drive. + +"Two more visitors coming to see Mardie. That means another half-hour +at the least before I can go downstairs to have tea. An old lady, and a +young one in a light dress, and a hat with pink roses. She doesn't look +a bit nice!" pronounced Mildred in critical spirit; "I shall dress much +better than that when I am grown up. Her boots are awful!--old, shabby +things beneath a grand dress. I would rather spend less on finery and +have respectable feet. The old lady is as broad as she is long; her +bonnet is crooked! Why doesn't the girl put it straight before they go +into the house? I wouldn't allow my mother to be so untidy! She looks +fearfully hot!" + +Mildred stared at the old lady and her daughter until a sweep of the +drive hid them from sight, and felt more lonely than ever when they had +disappeared. For ten minutes or more not another soul could be seen, +then the postman came briskly trotting towards the house. Mildred heard +the peal of the bell, and became fired with curiosity to know whether +any of the letters were for herself. Probably, almost certainly; for +this was the post from the south, in which direction almost all the +girls had their homes. There might be one from Bertha among the number. +How aggravating to know that they were lying in the letter-box at the +present moment, and to be obliged to wait until the visitors took their +departure before Mardie could come out and unlock it. + +"He had five or six in his hand; some of them must be for me. Suppose +now, just suppose I could have whatever I liked--what should I choose? +A letter from a lawyer to say I had come in for a fortune of a million +pounds? That would be rather nice. What should I do with it, I wonder? +Mother couldn't come away with me just now, which would be a nuisance. +I think I would travel about with Mardie, and look at all the big +estates that were for sale, and buy one with a tower and a beautiful big +park, with deer, and peacocks, and sun-dials on the grass. I'd go up to +London to buy the furniture,--the most artistic furniture that was ever +seen. The drawing-room and library should be left for Mother to +arrange, but I'd finish all the rest, so that she could come the first +moment it was safe. I'd have a suite of rooms for myself next to hers. +A big sitting-room,--blue,--with white wood arches over the windows; +dear little bookcases fitting into the corners, and electric lights +hanging like lilies from the wall. Opening out of that there would be +another little room where I could amuse myself as I liked, without being +so awfully tidy. I'd do wood-carving there, and painting, and sewing. +I might have a little cooking-stove in one corner to make toffee and +caramels whenever I felt inclined, but I'm not quite decided about that. +It would be rather sticky, and I could always go down to the kitchen. +Then there would be my bedroom--pink,--with the sweetest little bed, +with curtains draped across from one side of the top to the other side +of the bottom. I saw one like that once, and it was lovely. I'd have +all sorts of nice things out-of-doors, too--horses for Mother and myself +to ride, and long-tailed ponies for the children. I'd like to send the +little ones to boarding-schools, but I am afraid Mother wouldn't consent +to that; but they could have governesses and tutors, and a school-room +right at the other end of the house. I should have nothing to do with +teaching them, of course. I should be called `The Heiress of the +Grange', and all the village children would bob as I passed by. It +would be rather nice. I would give them a treat in the grounds every +year on my birthday, and they would drink my health. It seems a great +deal of happiness for a million pounds. I wish I had someone to leave +it to me--an old uncle in Australia or Africa; someone I had never seen, +then I could enjoy it without feeling sorry." + +The prospect of inheriting a million pounds was so engrossing that it +was with quite a shock of surprise that Mildred perceived the old lady +and her daughter retracing their steps down the drive. Downstairs she +flew, two steps at a time, and discovered Miss Margaret emptying the +letter-box of its contents. + +"Oh, Mardie, I saw the postman coming, ages ago! I've been dying to get +that key for the last half-hour!" + +"Have you, really? I am sorry; but you are well repaid. Three letters +for you, and only one for me. You are fortunate to-day." + +"Bertha--Carrie--Norah!" Mildred turned over the envelopes one by one, +and skipped into the drawing-room with dancing tread. "Now for a treat. +I love letters. I shall keep Bertha's to the last, and see what these +other young ladies have to say for themselves." + +She settled herself comfortably in an armchair, and Miss Margaret, +having read her own note, watched her with an expression of expectant +curiosity. The two first letters were short and obviously unexciting; +the third contained several inclosures at which Mildred stared with +puzzled eyes. One looked like a telegram, but the flash of fear on her +face was quickly superseded by amazement, as she read the words of the +message. Last of all came Bertha's own communication, and when that had +been mastered the reader's cheeks were aglow, her eyes bright with +excitement. She raised her head, and there was Mardie staring at her +from the other end of the room, and smiling as though she knew all about +it. + +"Oh, Mardie, the most wonderful thing! It's from Mrs Faucit; an +invitation to go and stay with them for a whole month! She has written +to Mother, and here is a telegram which came in reply, saying that she +is delighted to allow me to accept. I am to go at once. There is a +note from Mrs Faucit as well as one from Bertha. So kind! She says +they are to be at home for a month before taking the girls to +Switzerland for a few weeks, and that it will be a great pleasure to +have me. I wish--I wish--" + +She stopped short, staring at Miss Margaret with an expression of +comical penitence. Even when that lady inquired, "Well, what do you +wish now, you dissatisfied child?" it was several minutes before she +replied. + +"Nothing; only when you have made a great fuss about a thing, and it +turns out in the end that you haven't to do it after all, you feel +rather--_small_. I wish now that I had been good and resigned; I should +feel so much more comfortable. I suppose my going won't make any +difference to you, Mardie?" + +"Only this, that I shall hurry through my work as quickly as possible, +and go away now instead of waiting until my sister returns. I am +delighted, Mildred! it's just as nice as it can be. I have had a letter +from Mrs Faucit, too. She asks you to go at once, but I am not sure if +we can manage that." She hesitated, looking at her pupil with uncertain +eyes. "She is so pretty, bless her!" she was saying to herself, "that +she always manages to look well; but she is shabby! I should think her +mother would wish her to have one or two new dresses before she goes. I +must speak about it. You see, Mildred," she said aloud, "I am thinking +about your clothes. You will probably be asked to a great many tennis +and garden parties while you are at The Deanery, and you will have to be +more particular than at school. Do you think you can go with what you +have, or shall we get something new? We might call at the dressmaker's +to-morrow." + +Mildred shook her head. + +"Oh, no! I must go as I am, Mardie, or stay at school. I wouldn't ask +Mother for money just now, not for the world. There will be doctors' +bills, and a dozen extra expenses to meet, and she has a hard enough +time as it is. I can buy some little things--shoes, and gloves, and a +sailor hat--with the money I have: nearly twenty-five shillings +altogether; but it is no use thinking about a dress. I shall do very +well. I have the blue crepe, and the brown, and the dyed green, and +this good old serge to wear with blouses. If I see people examining my +clothes, I shall shake my hair all over my back, and stare as hard as I +can, so that they will be obliged to turn away... If we go into town +to-morrow, I could go on Wednesday, couldn't I?" + +"Say Friday, dear; it will give us a little more time." For, to +herself, Miss Margaret was saying: "I will engage that clever little +sewing-woman to come in for a couple of days and look over her dresses. +She is quite right to consider her mother's purse, but she will feel her +own shortcomings when she is among the Faucit's friends. I must do all +I can to make it easier for the child. There is one comfort, she is +easy to dress." + +Mildred danced away to answer her friend's letter in overflowing +spirits. She had never before paid a visit on her own account, and it +seemed delightfully grown-up to be going to a strange house by herself. +A Deanery, too! There was something so imposing about the sound. One +Deanery was worth a dozen ordinary, commonplace houses, just as Bertha +was worth a hundred other friends. Dear, darling Bertha--this was her +idea, of course! It took three sheets of note-paper to contain all +Mildred's expressions of delight. + +The next day was set apart for the shopping expedition, an occasion +calling for anxious consideration. At Miss Margaret's suggestion +Mildred drew out a list of the articles which she wished to purchase out +of her twenty-five shillings of capital. It was neatly written on a +sheet of note-paper, with descriptive notes attached to the various +items, and red lines ruled between, so that it presented quite a +superior appearance. The list ran as follows:-- + +New shoes (pretty ones this time,--not thick). + +Slippers (with buckles). + +Gloves (light and dark). + +Ribbons. + +Something to do up the hat. + +Sashes. + +Lace things for evening. + +Scent. + +P.F.M. + +Miss Margaret read the list, and shook with laughter. + +"Are you sure there is nothing else?" she inquired. "How much more do +you expect from those poor twenty-five shillings? They can never, by +any possibility, be induced to buy so much. What is the mysterious +P.F.M.?" + +"A necessity; can't be crossed out. Oh, dear," groaned Mildred, "what a +bother it is!" She tore off half a sheet of paper this time, and did +not attempt any decorations. Then she went over the items one by one, +sighing heavily as she did so. + +"I can't do without shoes; I can't do without slippers; I can't do +without gloves. I might get silk ones, of course, but they make me feel +creepy-creepy all over. I daren't touch anything when I have them on. +I should look like one of those wax figures in shop windows, with my +arms sticking out on either side! I can't do without ribbons; I can't +do--well, I suppose I _could_ wear the old hat as it is, and do without +scent, and a sash, and laces, or any single pretty thing to put on at +night, but I don't want to! They are the most interesting things... +Oh, dear, here goes!" and list number two was dashed off in disgusted +haste. + +Shoes. + +Slippers. + +Sailor Hat. + +Gloves. P.F.M. + +"That's short enough now! All the fripperies cut out, and the dull +necessities left. I can get these, I suppose, Mardie?" + +Miss Margaret believed that she could "with care", whereupon Mildred +wrinkled her saucy nose, and said she should never have any respect for +twenty-five shillings again, since it appeared that so very little could +be obtained in exchange. + +The shopping expedition was a great success, however, in spite of all +drawbacks. The purchases were pretty and good of their kind, and +Mildred felt an agreeable sense of virtue in having chosen useful things +rather than ornamental. She had still a little plan of her own which +she was anxious to execute before returning home, and took the +opportunity to make a request while waiting for change in a large +drapery establishment. + +"I want to go to another department, Mardie. Do you mind if I leave you +for a few minutes?" + +"Not at all. I have some little things to get too. Suppose we arrange +to meet at the door in ten minutes from now?" + +Mildred dashed off in her usual impetuous fashion, but presently came to +a standstill before a long, glass-covered counter, on which was +displayed a fascinating assortment of silver and enamel goods. For the +first few moments the assistant in charge took no further notice than a +glance of kindly admiration. School-girls in short dresses, and with +clouds of golden hair hanging loose round their shoulders, are not given +to the purchase of valuable articles such as these; but Mildred +proceeded to ask the price of one thing after another, with an air of +such serious consideration as made it seem likely that she was to be the +exception to the rule. + +The glass case was opened, little heart-shaped trays and boxes brought +forth, and such rhapsodies indulged in concerning silver-backed mirrors +that the assistant felt certain of a sale. She was stretching +underneath the glass to reach a mirror of another pattern, when Mildred +suddenly glanced up at a clock, ejaculated "Oh, I must go! Thank you so +much!" and rushed off at full speed in another direction. The ten +minutes were nearly over, and Mildred had not executed the private +business which she had on hand. She turned the corner where parasols +hung in tempting array, passed the fancy work with resolute +indifference, and making a dash for the perfumery counter came into +collision with a lady who was just turning away, parcel in hand. + +The lady lifted her eyes in surprise. By all that was mysterious and +unexpected, it was Miss Margaret herself! Mildred blushed, Mardie +laughed. + +"What are you doing here, Ubiquitous Person?" she cried, but immediately +turned aside in tactful fashion, and made her way to the door. + +No reference to this encounter was made on either side, but later in the +day a comical incident occurred. When Miss Margaret went upstairs to +dress for dinner, she found a small box lying upon her dressing-table, +on the paper covering of which an inscription was written in well-known, +straggly writing: + +"_Mardie, with heaps of love and many thanks, from Mildred_." + +Inside the box was a bottle of White Rose perfume, at the sight of which +Miss Margaret began to laugh with mysterious enjoyment. When Mildred +appeared a few minutes later, blushing and embarrassed, she said never a +word of thanks, but led her across the room towards a table which had +been specially devoted to her use. Mildred stared around, and then +began to laugh in her turn, for there lay a parcel of precisely the same +shape and size as that which she had addressed a few minutes earlier, +and her own name was written on the cover. + +"Great minds think alike!" cried Mardie. "So this is the explanation of +that mysterious `P.F.M.'! But what are the thanks for, dear?" + +"Oh, everything! You are so nice, you know, and I've been so nasty!" +said Mildred. + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +THE JOURNEY TO THE DEANERY. + +Friday arrived in a bustle of work and excitement. For the last two +days Miss Margaret's little sewing-woman had taken possession of the +work-room, and Mildred's well-worn dresses had been sponged and pressed, +with such wholesale renewals of braid and buttons as brought back a +remembrance of their lost youth. And now all was ready. Letters from +home announced further improvements in Robbie's condition; Miss Margaret +was radiant in the prospect of her own holiday; there was nothing to +shadow Mildred's expectation, and it really seemed as if it had been +worth while having those days of disappointment and anxiety, so +delightful was the reaction. + +Miss Margaret and her pupil had a great many nice things to say to each +other in the few minutes before the train steamed out of the station. +Mildred had said "thank you" so many times during the last few days, +that there was little left to be done in that direction, but she was +full of warm-hearted affection. + +"I shall always remember how good you have been to me, Mardie. I think +you are the nicest person in the world next to Mother. I shouldn't mind +being old if I could be like you." + +"But my dear child, I don't consider myself old at all! When you get to +my age you will have discovered that you are just beginning to be young. +I wonder if,--when,--if you would--" + +Mardie checked herself suddenly, and Mildred, scenting one of those +secrets which are the delight of a school-girl's existence, called out +an eager: "What? What? What?" + +"Oh, nothing! I only wondered if you would be very much shocked if I +were betrayed into doing something very foolish and youthful one of +these days." + +Mildred stared down from the altitude of the carriage window. + +What could Mardie mean? There was no secret about her age. It was +inscribed in every birth-day-book in the school, and thirty seemed +venerable in the estimation of fourteen. It did occur to the girl at +this moment that Miss Margaret looked unusually charming for an elderly +lady--those sweet eyes of hers were sweeter than ever when lighted by a +happy smile. + +"I am sure you will never be foolish, Mardie!" she said reassuringly, +and then the engine whistled, the guard waved his flag, and there was +only time for a hurried embrace before the train was off. + +So long as the platform remained in sight Mildred's head was out of the +window; then she sat down to find herself confronted by the mild-faced +old lady into whose charge she had been committed. + +She was an ideal old lady so far as appearances went. Her hair was +white as snow; her chin nestled upon bows of lavender ribbon, and her +face beamed with good nature; nevertheless Mildred found her fixed +scrutiny a trifle discomposing, and stared out of the window by way of +escape. For ten minutes on end the old lady gazed away with unblushing +composure, then suddenly burst into conversation. + +"Dear me, my love, you have a great deal of it! Are you not afraid that +it may injure your health?" + +Mildred fairly jumped with astonishment. + +"Afraid? Of what? I beg your pardon--I don't understand--" + +"Your hair, my dear!--so much of it. They say, you know, that it saps +the strength. A young friend of mine had hair just like yours--you +remind me very much of her--and she died! Consumption, they called it. +The doctors said all her strength went into her hair!" + +Mildred laughed merrily. + +"Oh, well! it's quite different with me, I have plenty of strength left +over for myself. I am as strong as a horse, and have hardly been ill a +day in my life." + +"Dear! Dear!" ejaculated the old lady. "And with that complexion too-- +pink and white. Now I should have been afraid--" + +She fell to shaking her head in lugubrious fashion, and watched the +girl's movements with anxious scrutiny. + +"Do you think you are quite wise to sit next the window, love?" she +asked presently. "You look a little flushed, and there is always a +draught. Won't you come over and sit by me? Just as you like, of +course; but I assure you you can't be too careful. I noticed that you +cleared your throat just now. Ah, that's just what a young friend of +mine used to say, `It's only a little tickling in my throat,' but it +grew worse and worse, my dear, till the doctors could do nothing for +her. I am always nervous about colds--" + +"She has been very unfortunate in her `young friends'!" commented +Mildred to herself, but she made no reply, and the old lady waited fully +two minutes before venturing another remark. + +"Your--er--aunt seems a very sweet creature, my dear! You must be sorry +to part from her." + +"I am. Very! But she is not my aunt." + +"You don't say so! Not a sister, surely? I never should have thought +it--" + +"She is not a sister either." (Now, what in the world can it matter to +her whether we are relations or not! I suppose I had better tell her, +or she will be suggesting `mother' next). "She is one of the +school-mistresses. I am just leaving school." + +The old lady appeared overwhelmed by this intelligence. Her placid +expression vanished, her forehead became fretted with lines, and she +looked so distressed that it was all Mildred could do to keep from +bursting into a fit of laughter. + +"A boarding-school! Oh, my dear!" she cried. Then in a tone of +breathless eagerness, "Now tell me--quite in confidence, you know, +absolutely in confidence,--do they give you enough to eat? Oh, my love, +I could tell you such stories--the saddest experiences--" + +"Dear young friends of her own, starved to death! I know," said Mildred +to herself, and she broke in hastily upon the reminiscences, to give +such glowing accounts of the management of Milvern House as made the old +lady open her eyes in astonishment. + +"Four courses for dinner, and a second helping whenever you like. Now +really, my dear, you must write down the address of that school for me. +I have so many young friends. And have you any idea of the terms?" + +She was certainly an inquisitive old lady, but she was very +kind-hearted, and when one o'clock arrived she insisted upon Mildred +sharing the contents of her well-filled luncheon-basket. Her endless +questions served another purpose too, for they filled up the time, and +made the journey seem shorter than it would otherwise have done. It +came as quite a surprise when the train steamed into the station at B--, +and Mildred had not time to lower the window before it had come to a +standstill. She caught a glimpse of her friends upon the platform, +however, and in another minute was out of the carriage, waving her hand +to attract attention. + +Bertha and Lois were accompanied by a lady who was so evidently their +mother that there could be no doubt upon the subject. She had the same +pale complexion and dark eyes, the same small features and dainty, +well-finished appearance. As Mildred advanced along the platform to +meet the three figures in their trim, tweed suits, she became suddenly +conscious of flying locks, wrinkled gloves, and loose shoe-laces, and +blushed for her own deficiencies. She could not hear Bertha's rapturous +"There she is! Look, Mother! Do you wonder that we call her the `Norse +Princess?'" or Mrs Faucit's "Is that Mildred? She looks charming, +Bertha. It is a very good description;" but the greetings which she +received were so cordial as to set her completely at ease. + +On the drive home Mrs Faucit leant back in her corner of the carriage, +and listened to the conversation which went on between the three girls +in smiling silence. She soon heard enough to prove that it was the +attraction of opposites which drew the stranger and her own daughters so +closely together, but though Mildred's impetuosity was a trifle +startling, she was irresistibly attracted, not only by her beauty, but +by the frank, open expression of the grey eyes. + +"Plenty of spirit," she said to herself, "as well as honest and +true-hearted! Miss Chilton was right. She will do the girls good. +They are a little too quiet for their age. I am glad I asked her--" + +"What did you think, Mildred, when Mother's letter arrived with the +invitation?" Lois asked, and Mildred clasped her hands in ecstatic +remembrance. + +"Oh-h, I can't tell you! I had just been longing for a letter, and +wondering what sort of one I would have if I could chose. I decided +that I would hear that I had inherited a fortune, and I was just +arranging how to spend it when your letter arrived. Lovely! lovely! I +wanted to come off the next day, but Mardie objected. She has been so +good to me, and I was a perfect horror for the first few days. I was +ashamed of myself when your invitation came. Oh, what a funny old place +this is! What curious houses--what narrow little streets!" + +Mrs Faucit smiled. + +"We are very proud of our old city, Mildred," she said. "We must show +you all the sights--the walls, and the castle, and the old streets down +which the mail-coaches used to pass on their way to London. Some of +them are so narrow that you would hardly believe there was room for a +coach. These newer streets seem to us quite wide and fashionable in +comparison." + +Even as she was speaking the carriage suddenly wheeled round a corner, +and turned up a road leading to the Deanery gates. Mildred was not +familiar with the peculiarities of old cathedral cities, and she stared +in bewilderment at the sudden change of scene. One moment they had been +in a busy, shop-lined thoroughfare; the next they were apparently in the +depths of the country--avenues of beech-trees rising on either side; +moss growing between the stones on the walls; and such an air of still +solemnity all around, as can be found nowhere in the world but in the +precincts of a cathedral. + +The Deanery itself was in character with its surroundings. The entrance +hall was large and dim; furnished in oak, with an array of old armour +upon the walls. In winter time, when a large fire blazed in the grate, +it looked cheerful and home-like enough, but coming in from the bright +summer sunshine the effect was decidedly chilling, and Mildred's eyes +grew large and awe-stricken as she glanced around. The next moment, +however, Mrs Faucit threw open a door to the right, and ushered her +guest into the most charming room she had ever seen. + +Whatever of cheerfulness was wanting in the hall without was abundantly +present here. One bay window looked out on to the lawn, and the row of +old beeches in the distance; another opened into a conservatory ablaze +with flowering plants, while over the mantel-piece was a third window, +raising perplexing questions in the mind concerning the position of the +chimney. Wherever the eye turned there was some beautiful object to +hold it entranced, and Mildred was just saying to herself, "I shall have +one of my drawing-rooms furnished exactly like this!" when she became +aware that someone was seated in an armchair close to where she herself +was standing. + +"Well, Lady Sarah, we have brought back our little friend. This is +Mildred. She has accomplished her journey in safety. Mildred, I must +introduce you to our other guest, Lady Sarah Monckton." + +"How do you do?" murmured Mildred politely. Lady Sarah put up a pair of +eye-glasses mounted on a tortoise-shell stick, and stared at her +critically from head to foot. Then she dropped them with a sharp click, +as if what she saw was not worth the trouble of regarding, and addressed +herself to Mrs Faucit in accents of commiseration. + +"My dear, you look shockingly tired! Train late, as usual, I suppose! +It is always the way with this wretched service. I know nothing more +exhausting than hanging about a platform waiting for people who are +behind their time. Bertha looks white too. You have had no tea, of +course. You must be longing for it?" + +"Oh! I am always ready for tea, but we had only a few minutes to wait. +Sit down, Mildred dear, you must be the hungry one after your long +journey. James will bring in the tray in another moment." + +Mrs Faucit smiled in an encouraging manner, for she had seen a blank +expression overspread the girl's face as she listened to Lady Sarah's +remarks. "She speaks as if it were my fault!" Mildred was saying to +herself. "How could I help it if the train was late? She never even +said, `How do you do?' I wonder who she can be?" + +It was her turn to stare now, and once having begun to look at Lady +Sarah, it was difficult to turn away, for such an extraordinary looking +individual she had never seen before in the whole course of her life. +Her face was wan and haggard, and a perfect net-work of wrinkles; but it +was surmounted by a profusion of light-brown hair, curled and waved in +the latest fashion; her skinny hands glittered with rings, and her dress +was light in colour, and elaborately trimmed. She had a small waist, +wide sleeves, and high-heeled shoes peeping out from beneath the frills +of her skirt. If it had not been for her face, she might have passed +for a fashionable young lady, but her face was beyond the reach of art, +and looked pitifully out of keeping with its surroundings. + +Country-bred Mildred could not conceal her amazement. She sat on her +high-backed chair, her golden hair falling in a shower over her +shoulders, her grey eyes wider than ever as she stared transfixed at +this extraordinary spectacle. Even when tea was handed round, she +continued to cast surreptitious glances over the brim of her cup, and to +eat bread-and-butter with divided attention. + +Mrs Faucit noticed her absorption, and tried to engage her in +conversation, but in vain. Mildred murmured a polite little answer of +half a dozen words, and turned back to stare at Lady Sarah with +fascinated curiosity. It was a relief to her hostess when the girl +refused a second cup of tea, and she lost no time in suggesting an +adjournment upstairs. + +"Bertha, I am sure Mildred will be glad to go to her own room now. Will +you show the way, dear? We will not expect to see you again until +dinner-time, as I know you will enjoy being alone!" + +Outside in the hall Mildred stood still, and pointed through the closed +door with an outstretched finger. + +"What in the world is--That?" + +"`That!' What? Do you mean lady Sarah? Oh, Mildred, do be careful!" +chorused the twins. "She might come out. She might open the door and +hear you! She is Lady Sarah Monckton. Her husband died in India. He +was a sort of connection of Father's, so she comes here once or twice a +year to consult him about her affairs." + +"A sort of connection! What sort? Near or far? Do you know her well? +Shall I hurt your feelings if I say anything disagreeable? No. I'm so +glad. I'll tell you then--I--don't--like--her--at all!" + +The sisters looked at each other and smiled. They had evidently +expected something more scathing in the way of denunciation, and were +not inclined to condemn Mildred for her opinion. + +"Well, no; of course not. Nobody could! We always look upon her as a +Trial!" said Bertha pensively. "She makes Mother ever so much stricter +than she would be if she were left alone, and thinks it improper for a +young lady to do anything that is nice. We were sorry that your visits +should have come together, but it could not be helped. Perhaps she +won't interfere so much when we have a visitor!" + +"She has taken a dislike to me, so I expect I shall have the benefit! +Didn't you see the way she glowered at me through those awful glasses? +Why does she look like that? Is she a young woman with an old face, or +an old one with young clothes? Why can't she be contented to be one +thing at a time? Is she going to make a long visit?" + +"I don't know. She has brought a maid and heaps of dresses, so I +suppose she is. Mother says we must remember that she is very old, and +has had a great many troubles, and try not to annoy her--" + +"Your mother is a dear!" Mildred cried enthusiastically. "I will be +nice to Lady Sarah to please her, but I don't believe she is at all +inclined to be nice to me. We will see." + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +LADY SARAH. + +Mildred had been a week at The Deanery, and if her enjoyment during that +time had not been entirely unalloyed, the fault lay without question +with Lady Sarah, for all the members of the family vied with each other +as to who could show the young guest the most kindness. Even the Dean +himself fell a victim to the "Norse Princess", much to his wife's +amusement, for he was, as a rule, the most unnoticing of men. Mildred +had written to her mother that Bertha's father was "exactly like a +Dean." She had never met such a dignitary before, it is true, but she +had an impression that he ought to look wise and studious, and Dean +Faucit fulfilled these requirements to the uttermost. + +He had a thin face, with grave eyes set in a net-work of lines; his +shoulders were bowed with poring over the study-desk; and he was, +moreover, so absent-minded that he made two separate attempts before he +succeeded in grasping Mildred's hand on the occasion of their first +introduction. She had been several days in the house before he had the +vaguest idea of her appearance, but one morning it chanced that he +raised his eyes from the breakfast-table to complain of the sunlight +which was pouring in at the window; and right opposite sat Mildred, her +eyes dancing with happiness, a soft pink flush on her cheeks, and her +hair shining like threads of gold. The Dean started, and drew his brows +together, staring at her in curious, short-sighted fashion. He was so +accustomed to the dim light of the Cathedral, and to the pale faces of +his wife and children, that Mildred, with her bright colouring, seemed +the embodiment of the sunshine itself. He fumbled for his glasses, +scrutinised her furtively from time to time as the meal progressed, and +when it was over, lingered behind to speak of her to his wife. + +"That friend of Bertha's seems to he--er--a nice little girl, dear! +There is something in her face which affects me very pleasantly. I-- +er--I hope you are doing all you can to give her a pleasant time. Do +you--er--think she would like to look at my book plates?" + +Mrs Faucit laughed, and slipped her hand inside his arm. + +"No, my dear old man!" she said. "I don't think she would like it all. +I think she would be profoundly bored. Leave her to the girls. They +are as happy as the day is long, wandering about together." + +"Ah, well, you know best! but I should like the child to enjoy herself. +It has struck me once or twice that Sarah Monckton--eh?--not quite so +sympathetic to the young folks as she might be, I'm afraid. There was +something at dinner the other night--I didn't hear it all, but I had an +impression--an impression--. It distressed me very much. I--er--hope +she doesn't interfere with the girls' enjoyment." + +"Oh, no! Don't worry yourself, dear. They are quite happy," protested +Mrs Faucit soothingly; but when her husband had returned to his study +she sighed a little, as though she were not altogether so easy in her +mind as she had led him to believe. + +The scene at the dinner-table to which the Dean had referred was +uncomfortably fresh in her own memory. It had arisen through Mildred's +horrified surprise at the sight of Lady Sarah in evening dress, and the +unconscious manner in which she showed her disapproval. Mrs Faucit +made up her mind that she would take an early opportunity of suggesting +to her young visitor that she had better not stare at the old lady in so +marked a manner, but she was too late, for before the meal was over Lady +Sarah suddenly laid her knife and fork on her plate, and transfixed +Mildred with an awful frown. + +"Well, Miss Moore, what is it all about? Pray let me hear what is +wrong, so that I may put it right at once. If I am to have my dinner, +this sort of thing cannot go on any longer." + +The girl's start of amazement was painful to behold. The sharp voice +struck her like a blow, and she was absolutely ignorant as to her +offence. + +"I--I don't understand! What have I done?" + +"Only kept your eyes fixed upon me from the moment you sat down until +now. It is most ill-bred to stare in that undisguised manner. Pray, is +there anything extraordinary in my appearance that you find it so +impossible to look at anyone else?" + +The blood rushed into Mildred's cheeks, but she made no reply. + +"Is there anything extraordinary in my appearance, I ask you?" repeated +Lady Sarah shrilly. + +It was impossible to avoid answering a second time, but while the +listeners were trembling at the thought of what might happen next, +Mildred raised her head, and answered, with suddenly-regained composure: + +"I did not know I was staring. I hope you will forgive me--I am very +sorry if I have been rude." + +She spoke with a certain grave dignity, which sat well upon her, and +Lady Sarah could not do otherwise than accept an apology so gracefully +offered. Nevertheless the marked way in which the girl had avoided +answering her question was, if possible, more galling than the original +offence, and the glances which she sent across the table were the +reverse of friendly. + +From this time forth it seemed impossible for Mildred to do anything +right in Lady Sarah's eyes. Bertha and Lois were allowed to go on their +way undisturbed, while the sharp tongue, which had been wont to vent its +spleen upon them half a dozen times a day, found occupation in +criticising their friend. + +She was rough, clumsy, awkward, Lady Sarah declared. She came into a +room like a whirlwind; she ran up and downstairs more like a schoolboy +than a young lady. As to her hair--that cloudy, golden hair which the +others so much admired,--there was no end to the lectures poor Mildred +received on this subject. It was disgracefully untidy--such a head of +hair as no lady could possibly reconcile herself to possessing. In vain +Mildred protested that the so-called untidiness was natural, and that no +amount of brushing or damping could reduce those rebellious waves to +order. Lady Sarah arched her eyebrows, and wished she might only have a +chance of trying. She would guarantee to make it smooth enough. + +Mildred bit her lip and flushed indignantly. It was on the tip of her +tongue to say that she would be happy to grant the opportunity, run +upstairs for her brushes, and force the old lady to prove the fallacy of +her statements; but she restrained herself, and felt more than repaid +for the effort when Mrs Faucit followed her out of the room a few +moments later, and said: + +"I was so glad to see you keep your temper just now, dear. It was +trying for you, for of course we all know that what you said was +perfectly true. You couldn't possibly make your hair smooth, and it +would be a pity if you could--it is far prettier as it is, but I don't +want you to think too hardly of poor Lady Sarah. You must remember that +she is old and ailing, and has had a lonely life in spite of all her +riches. It is difficult to be amiable when one is old and frail, but it +is very easy when you are young and happy. Isn't it, Mildred?" + +"I don't know," said Mildred slowly. "It isn't for me, because I am so +quick-tempered. You don't know how dreadful I feel when anyone vexes me +like that. My blood all goes fizz! It seems as if I couldn't help +answering back." + +"Well, that makes it all the better when you do control yourself!" Mrs +Faucit answered, laughing a little in her gentle, amused fashion; and +Mildred ran upstairs, feeling delightfully virtuous. + +At that moment she was prepared to declare that no amount of aggravation +on the part of Lady Sarah should ever induce her to answer hastily in +return. + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +AN EXCITING PROSPECT. + +When Mildred had been staying for a fortnight at the Deanery, a letter +arrived one morning which filled Bertha and Lois with delight, inasmuch +as it contained an invitation to what they exultantly described as "the +picnic of the year." + +The girls had already attended several tennis parties, and had organised +small excursions on their own account, driving off in the pony carriage +to spend an afternoon in the country in charge of the children's +governess, but this picnic was to be on a very different scale. Mrs +Newland, it appeared, gave one every summer, and understood how to do +things in proper style. Her guests were to assemble at the station at a +certain hour, as the first stage of the journey was by rail, but a +couple of coaches were to be in readiness to convey them the remainder +of the way. + +Their destination was a lovely little village, nestled among the hills, +where a river wound in and out, and there were woods, and dells, and +waterfalls, and caverns; everything in fact that the most exacting mind +could desire for a well-regulated picnic. + +"And such delightful people--quite grown up! You must not imagine that +it is a children's picnic," explained Bertha anxiously. "We are always +the youngest there. We would not be allowed to go at all except that +the Newlands are very old friends, and that Mother chaperones us +herself. Mrs Newland takes two or three of the servants with her, and +they carry hampers, and clear away the things while we amuse ourselves. +We sit on the rocks in the middle of the river, and come home late at +night, singing part songs on the top of the coach, with mandolin and +guitar accompaniments. Oh, it's lovely! You will enjoy yourself, +Mildred!" + +There was no question about that, for Mildred had the faculty of +enjoying every little pleasure which came in her way, and that with a +whole-heartedness and forgetfulness of drawbacks which would have been +shared by few girls of her age. + +Bertha and Lois had a private consultation the first time they found +themselves alone after the arrival of the invitation. + +"I am so glad Mil is to be with us for Mrs Newland's picnic," said the +former. "I want her to see all the people, and I want them to see her. +She will chatter away and not be in the least shy, and they will be +charmed with her, for she does say such funny things! Even Father has +to laugh sometimes. Er--Lois! I wonder what she is going to wear." + +"So do I!" said Lois calmly. "I've been wondering about that ever since +the invitation came, and yet I don't see why we should, for she has +nothing with her but the old school dresses, so how can there be any +choice? She is certainly very shabby. It must be horrid to have no +pretty clothes. I suppose they are very poor." + +"Oh, yes, I know they are! Mildred makes no secret of it. Poor dear! +it is hard for her, when she is so well-connected, too," returned the +dean's eldest daughter, in her funny, consequential, little voice. "Her +grandmother was the daughter of a very well-known man--I forget who he +was, but she told me one day, and I know it was someone important. She +married without her parents' consent, and they never acknowledged her +afterwards. When Mildred's mother was grown up, one of the aunts wished +to adopt her as a companion, but Mrs Moore refused to go, because she +would have had to promise to have nothing more to do with her parents. +The old lady was dreadfully offended, and they have never heard of her +since that day." + +"And a good thing, too, if she was like some old ladies we could +mention!" said Lois sharply, whereat her sister first laughed, and then +sighed. + +"Oh, well, it's no use saying anything about that! What were we talking +about before--Mildred's dress? Well, there is one comfort--she always +looks sweet. I dare say she will look one of the nicest there, though +Mrs Newland's friends are so smart. Don't say anything to her about +our new dresses. It might make her feel uncomfortable." + +There were no signs of discomfiture in Mildred's manner, however, when +the new dresses arrived from town a week later on. She had been romping +with the children in the garden, and came dancing in through the open +window of the library to find Mrs Faucit, Lady Sarah, and the two girls +grouped round the table on which lay two large cardboard boxes. The +lids were thrown open, the tissue paper wrappings strewn over the floor, +and Mildred, looking at the contents, gave a cry of pleasure and +comprehension. + +"New dresses for the picnic! Oh, how lovely! Do let me look,"--and +Lady Sarah's eye-glasses went up in horrified fashion as she swung +herself on to the corner of the table in her anxiety to have a good +view. + +The new dresses were charming, everything that the heart of girlhood +could desire for the occasion; soft, creamy white, with lemon-coloured +ribbons arranged in the most Frenchified style, and with big leghorn +hats to match. Even Lady Sarah smiled approval, but the exclamations of +the other onlookers were feeble, as compared with Mildred's ecstatic +rhapsodies. + +"Oh, the darlings! Oh, the beauties! Aren't they sweet? Look at the +ducky little bows at the elbows, and the little crinkly ruchings at the +neck! And the sashes!--oh, goodness, what yards of ribbon!--and yellow +silk frills round the bottom--oh-h! And the hats--Bertha, you will look +an angel! If I had a dress like that I should sit up all night--I'm +sure I should! I could never bring myself to take it off. Oh-h!" + +Mrs Faucit looked at the fair, flushed face with mingled approval and +pity. "Poor, dear child!" she said to herself as she left the room in +answer to a summons from a servant; "very few girls of her age would be +so entirely free from envy. I wish I had ventured to order a dress for +her at the same time; but I was afraid she might not like it. I wonder +what she is going to wear?" + +The same question had occurred to another person, and not being +possessed of the same delicacy of mind as the dean's wife, Lady Sarah +saw no reason why her curiosity should not be gratified. + +"And when is your dress to arrive?" she inquired. "What have you +ordered for yourself, my dear?" + +"I--I ordered!" Mildred fairly gasped. The idea of "ordering" anything +was so supremely ridiculous. "I haven't ordered anything!" + +"Indeed! You brought your dress with you, I presume. Still I think, +Miss Mildred, that you might have honoured your hostess by making the +same preparation for yourself which she thinks it necessary to make for +her own daughters." + +"Why, dear me," cried Mildred, still too much swallowed up with +amazement at the extraordinary suggestion to have room for indignation. +"Why, dear me, I'd be only too delighted to order a dozen if I could; +but where on earth should I get the money to pay for them? I never had +a dress like that in my life. I don't suppose I ever shall have one!" + +"Then what are you going to wear, if one may ask?" + +Poor Mildred smoothed down the folds of the blue crepe dress. The romp +in the garden had not improved its condition; it was looking sadly +crumpled and out of condition, but it had been washed a dozen times, and +had a delightful knack of issuing from the ordeal a softer and more +becoming shade than before. With certain little accessories, already +planned, she did not despair of a satisfactory result. + +"Well, I thought Mrs Faucit would be so kind as to allow the laundress +to get up this dress. It is the only suitable thing I have, and I was +going to--" + +"Suitable! That thing! Do you mean to say that you seriously intend to +wear the dress you have on to a picnic given by Mrs Newland?" + +Lois bit her lip and turned aside. Bertha began hastily to cover up the +dainty white folds which showed the crumpled blue in such unfavourable +contrast. Mildred drooped her eyelids, and answered with that +smouldering calm which precedes a storm. + +"I am. That is certainly my intention." + +"And you mean to say you have no better dress than that in your +possession?" + +"This is my best dress. Yes! I have no better." + +"And your mother actually allowed you to come away with such a wardrobe! +Preposterous, I call it! People who cannot provide for themselves +respectably have no business to accept invitations, in my opinion!" + +Now it happened that this morning Lady Sarah had risen with a bad +headache, one of the consequences of which had been to make her even +more fault-finding towards Mildred than usual. The old discussion about +her hair had been resumed after breakfast; she had been reproved for +leaving the door open; for shutting the door, for speaking too loudly; +for mumbling so indistinctly that it was impossible to hear; for one +imaginary offence after another, until finally she had run away in +despair and taken refuge with the children in the garden. It was not +only the present annoyance, therefore, it was the accumulated irritation +of the morning, with which the girl had to fight at this moment, and the +conflict was too hard for her strength. + +As she herself would have described it, she went hot and cold all over, +something went "fizz" in her brain, and the next moment she leapt down +from the table and confronted Lady Sarah with flaming cheeks and eyes +ablaze with anger. + +"And--who--asked--_your_--opinion? What business is it of yours what I +wear? I didn't come here on your invitation--I was asked by Mrs +Faucit, and so long as she is satisfied you have no right to say a word. +How dare you find fault with my mother before my face? How dare +you question what she thinks right to do? you--you unkind, +interfering,--_disagreeable old woman_!" + +There was an awful silence. Lady Sarah appeared transfixed with +astonishment; her jaw fell, her eyes protruded from their sockets. The +twins instinctively clasped hands, and Mrs Faucit, arrested, in the act +of re-entering the room, by the sound of the last few words, stood +motionless in the doorway, her face eloquent of pained surprise. + +Mildred glanced from one to the other. She was trembling from head to +foot, her heart beat with suffocating throbs. For one moment she +succeeded in maintaining her attitude of defiance; but when she met the +grave scrutiny of Mrs Faucit's eyes, she burst into a storm of tears +and rushed from the room. Reaction had set in, and her own irritation +was as nothing to the shock which followed as she realised that--fresh +from Mrs Faucit's praise and her own congratulations,--she had given +way to an outburst of temper which must have horrified all who heard it. + +She crouched down on a corner of her bedroom sofa and sobbed as if her +heart would break. The old intolerable pangs of homesickness woke up +again and dragged at her heart; the longing for her own place, her own +people, above all, for the precious mother who always sympathised and +understood. + +Perhaps Mrs Faucit would be so disgusted that she would send her +straight back to school. Well! at this moment the thought of the quiet +house and of Mardie's loving kindness was by no means unwelcome. At +school, at least, everyone was kind--the very servants went out of their +way to give her pleasure--there was no terrible Lady Sarah to stare at +her through gold-rimmed eye-glasses, and criticise and find fault from +morning till night. + +It was in reality less than ten minutes, but it seemed like hours to +Mildred before the door opened to admit Bertha and Lois, and a fresh +outburst of sobbing was the only notice which she took of their +entrance. + +Bertha slipped an arm round her waist. Lois sniffed in sympathy from +afar. + +"Never mind her, Mil!" she cried. "Don't cry. You couldn't possibly +have anything prettier than the blue crepe," but at this Mildred raised +her face in eager protest. + +"Oh, I'm not crying about that! I don't care a rap about the dress, +but--but she made me so furious. It had been going on all morning, and +I c-couldn't bear it any longer. I am so ashamed. I can't bear to +think of it. I don't know what I said." + +The twins exchanged furtive glances. + +"You called her `an interfering, disagreeable old woman'!" whispered +Bertha with bated breath, glancing half fearfully at the door as she +spoke. "I--I felt as if the world were coming to an end! As if the +ceiling would fall down over our heads! Oh, Mil, you should have seen +her face! I never saw anyone look so astonished in my life, but the +curious part of it is that I don't think she was angry. She knew she +had no right to speak as she had done, and I believe she admired you for +being indignant. Perhaps you will be better friends after this." + +"No, we won't!" said Mildred, setting her chin stubbornly; "because I +won't, if she will. I'll never forgive her. It is not Lady Sarah I +care about--it is your mother. Oh, I can't forget her face, she looked +so shocked! She stared at me with such horrified eyes. Is she awfully +angry, do you think?" + +"I haven't spoken to her. She sent us out of the room directly after +you left, but she didn't seem angry, only quiet and grieved." + +"Oh, oh, oh! what shall I do? I hate people to be grieved! I detest +it! It's fifty thousand times worse than being angry. If people are +angry you can defend yourself and take your own part, but if they are +`grieved' you can only feel a wretch, as if you had no right to live. +Oh, dear, what will she think of me! It was only the other day she was +saying that I kept my temper so well, and now I've disgraced myself for +ever! She will never, never forgive me!" + +Before the girls could say anything by way of comfort, Mrs Faucit +herself entered the room and walked straight towards the couch on which +Mildred was sitting. She looked pale and distressed, but the manner in +which she put her arm round the girl's waist was certainly not +suggestive of anger. + +"I am so very sorry that this scene should have occurred, Mildred," she +said; "but I have been having a talk with Lady Sarah, and she takes all +the blame upon herself. She is sorry that she spoke as she did, and I +think she will be more considerate of your feelings for the future. I +said the other day that I knew you must often feel provoked, and how +pleased I felt to know that you controlled your temper. I wish, dear," +she sighed heavily, "I wish you had gone on as you began! It would have +been a great relief to me; but perhaps it was too much to expect. You +are young and impulsive." + +"Oh, no, no! don't make excuses! I am a wretch, I know I am!" sobbed +Mildred penitently. "It was hateful of me to speak rudely to a guest of +yours--so old, too. Mother would be miserable if she knew. But it was +so maddening! I bore it as long as she found fault with me, but when +she began criticising Mother--saying that she didn't dress me properly, +and had no right to allow me to come here,--I couldn't keep quiet any +longer--I couldn't! It made me too furious. I was obliged to explode." + +"I know! I know. I am sorry the girls' dresses were ever brought +down--that was the beginning of it all. Mildred, dear, I hope you won't +think any more of what Lady Sarah said on that subject. I noticed how +pretty your dress looked when you first arrived, and we will see that it +is made fresh and bright again for the picnic. It came into my mind to +order a dress for you like the ones which the girls are to wear, but I +was not sure if you would like it, or if it would seem as if I were +dissatisfied with what your mother had provided." + +Mildred threw her arms round the speaker with one of her bear-like hugs. + +"All, you know! you understand!" she cried; "you are so different. It +was sweet and lovely of you to think of it, but I'd rather not. If +people don't care to have me in my old clothes, I'd rather stay away +altogether. But I have ever so many pretty things stored away in my +box--new gloves,--ribbons,--a lace collar. I can make myself quite +respectable. Don't be worried, Mrs Faucit, please! I'll try to be +good and not vex you again. Do please take your forehead out of +crinkles." + +Mrs Faucit laughed at that, and stroked the golden head with a +caressing hand. She had grown very fond of her young visitor during the +last few weeks, and found her coaxing ways quite irresistible. + +"Dear Mildred!" she cried, "Poor Mildred! I am so sorry that your visit +should be spoiled in this way, but remember what I told you the other +day, dear, and try to avoid harsh judgments. It is a great concession +for Lady Sarah to have acknowledged herself in the wrong in a dispute +with a girl of your age; you must show how generous and forbearing you +can be in return. I hope that after this you may be really good +friends." + +Mildred said nothing, but her lips closed with an expression which +Bertha and Lois recognised. They had seen it at school on more than one +memorable occasion. Mildred was the dearest girl in the world, but she +did not find it easy to forgive when her animosity had been aroused. + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +THE FRENCH MAID. + +No further reference was made to the unpleasant scene in the library. +Lady Sarah seemed disposed neither to offer nor to demand any sort of +apology. Unnoticed by the girl, however, she constantly scrutinised her +through her gold eye-glasses with a curiosity which was almost kindly. +It seemed an impossibility for the old lady to refrain from interfering +in the affairs of others, but for the next few days Mildred was allowed +to go her own way undisturbed, while she devoted her attention to the +daughters of the house. + +She assured Mrs Faucit that Lois's right shoulder was higher than the +left, and insisted that she should be made to lie down for two hours +every afternoon; she gave it as her opinion that, as the girls were now +fifteen, they should not be allowed to go about unattended by a +chaperone; and last, and worst of all, she showed the Dean a prospectus +of a German school, to which she advised they should be sent at once. + +The twins were in despair, and many were the indignation meetings which +were held in the school-room or the bedrooms overhead, while poor Mrs +Faucit exhausted herself in the effort to smooth down both parties and +to keep her husband in ignorance of what was passing before his very +eyes. Meantime the date of the picnic drew nearer and nearer, and in +connection with her own preparations Mildred met with an unexpected +display of kindness on the part of no less a person than Cecile herself. + +The blue dress returned from the laundress looking crisper and fresher +than ever in its newly-ironed folds, and when Mildred went up to her +room the same afternoon she beheld Cecile seated by the dressing-table +busily engaged in sewing the lace-frills round neck and sleeves. + +"Why, Cecile--you!" she exclaimed, and the Frenchwoman raised her +shoulders with a shrug of protest. + +"Ah, Mademoiselle, what would you have? They are so careless, these +servants. Mary would iron the lace as it was, sewn in the dress, but I +say, `No, it is impossible so to do it well. You take it off,' I say, +`and I shall sew it on. Mademoiselle Mildred shall not go to the picnic +with frills untidy while I am in the house.'" + +"But that is very kind of you, Cecile. I'm sure I am awfully obliged," +said Mildred warmly. She leant up against the corner of the +dressing-table and watched the play of the nimble fingers with admiring +eyes. "How quickly you do it, and how well! It would take me about a +month to pleat the lace into those teeny little folds. I just run it up +and draw the string, but of course it is far nicer this way. The old +dress looks quite new again. It seems to enjoy being washed." + +Cecile held the skirt at arm's-length, looking at it with critical eyes. + +"It is a pretty colour--soft and full--just the right shade to suit +Mademoiselle's complexion. When it has the sash and the lace collar it +will have an air quite _chic_, but it could still be improved. If +Mademoiselle will, I shall stiffen the sleeves and make them more--what +you say?--fashionable! It would be much better so." + +"I don't know, I'm sure. It would be very nice, but have you time, +Cecile?" asked Mildred doubtfully. "You have work to do for Lady Sarah, +and I should not like to interfere with that. It is very kind of you to +offer, but--" + +"Oh, indeed, I have hours to myself--hours! I am killed with ennui in +this quiet house. It would be a charity to give me occupation. It is +still quite early; if Mademoiselle would put the dress on now, for one +little minute, I could then see what is required, and put in a stitch +here and there." + +Mildred unfastened her dress with mechanical fingers. She was +bewildered by this sudden display of amiability on the part of Lady +Sarah's maid, and filled with remorse for her former misjudgments. She +had taken a dislike to Cecile from the moment when they had first met in +the corridor and the Frenchwoman's sharp eye had scanned her from head +to foot, as if taking in every detail of her attire and appraising its +value. Once or twice, moreover, upon entering Bertha's room +unexpectedly, she had discovered Cecile turning over the ornaments upon +the dressing-table, and had not felt altogether inclined to believe the +explanation that she was looking to see if there was anything she could +do for mademoiselle; yet if Cecile were now so anxious to serve herself, +why should she not have been equally well-disposed to Bertha? + +Mildred argued out this question with herself as she stood before the +glass while Cecile's clever fingers busied themselves about her dress, +putting in a pin here, a pin there, achieving thereby an improvement +which seemed almost miraculous in the girl's unsophisticated eyes. + +While she worked Cecile kept up a string of flattering remarks. + +"I must fasten the hair up for a moment to see the back. Ah, the +beautiful hair! what a coiffure it will make some day! See how it goes +itself into a coronet like a queen's! It is easy to fit a dress when +one has the perfect model. You have the back like an arrow, +Mademoiselle. Most young ladies get into the bad habits at school, and +bend their shoulders like old women, but you are not so. There are many +princesses who would give thousands of pounds to have a figure like +yours." + +"They must be very silly princesses, then," said Mildred brusquely. How +was it that she could not get over her dislike to Cecile--that the touch +of her thin fingers, the sight of her face in the glass brought with +them a shiver of repulsion? Cecile had nothing to gain by spending time +on the renewal of a school-girl's frock, and could therefore only be +actuated by kindness. If it had been anyone else who had done her such +a service Mildred would have been overflowing with thanks, but for some +mysterious reason her heart seemed closed against Lady Sarah's maid. +All the same she was annoyed at herself for such ingratitude, and made a +gallant effort to carry on a friendly conversation. + +"Have you been maid to many other ladies, Cecile, before coming to Lady +Sarah? You have been with her only a short time, I think." Cecile +sighed lugubriously. + +"Three months, Mademoiselle. Oh, such long, slow months! Never before +have I known the time so long. Before then I was with two beautiful +young ladies in London. They went out every night--to two or three +balls very often,--and always they were the most admired among the +guests. Miss Adeline married an officer and went to India. She was +like you, Mademoiselle--the same hair, the same eyes--you might be her +sister. She would that I should go to India too. `Oh, Cecile!' she +say, `what shall I do without you? No one shall ever suit me as you +have done.' But I dare not risk the journey, the heat, the fatigue. +Then Miss Edith shared the same maid with her mama, and I came to my +lady here. Ah, what a difference! The house of Madame, it is like a +grave--no life, no sun. With my young ladies it was all excitement from +morning till night--luncheon parties, afternoon parties, evening +parties, one thing after another, and no time to feel _triste_, but now +all is changed. We drive in a closed carriage for amusement, and go to +bed at ten o'clock, just when my ladies were dressing for their balls, +and the evening should begin." + +"Well, but, Cecile, I should think you would like it better," said +Mildred guilelessly, "because if they did not come home until two or +three in the morning it must have been terribly tiring sitting up for so +long, and very bad for your health. Now you can go to bed at eleven and +have nothing to disturb you until the next morning." + +Cecile lifted her head from her work and darted a keen glance at the +girl's face. Her eyes were small and light, and it seemed to Mildred as +if at this moment there was something unpleasantly cunning in their +expression, but perhaps it was only the result of the strong light which +fell upon her through the open window. + +"Oh, Mademoiselle, it is one thing to rest, and another to allow some +one else to do the same. My lady goes to bed but not to sleep. She +lies awake for hours, and she is cross sometimes, but so cross! She +speaks so shrill, so loud, one would suppose a calamity should happen. +It is bad for the nerves to hear such sounds in the night-time. I have +been afraid for Mademoiselle lest she should be disturbed. Her windows +are so near, and when the house is quiet--" + +"Oh, you need not be afraid for me! I sleep like a top when I once +begin. Sometimes we have had dreadful thunder-storms in the night at +school, and half the girls have been sitting up shivering in their +dressing-gowns, but I have known nothing about them until the morning. +Besides, it is such a long way round to get to Lady Sarah's room, that I +never realised before that her windows were so near." + +Mildred craned her head as she spoke to look out of the window. As she +had said, the entrance to Lady Sarah's room was some distance along the +corridor, and round a corner, but, as it was situated in a wing of the +house which stood out at right angles from the main wall, the window was +but a few yards from Mildred's own. + +"I never realised that I was so near!" repeated the girl dreamily, and +as she busied herself with the folds of the skirt Cecile frowned and bit +her lip, as though annoyed with herself for an incautious remark. + +"I am glad you have not been disturbed. I feared it might be so, but if +Mademoiselle should any time hear a noise in the night she will +understand--she will go to sleep again quite satisfied. I am always +there in my lady's dressing-room, ready to go when she calls." + +"Oh, yes, I'll remember!" said Mildred easily; "but I am not in the +least likely to hear. I can't understand how people can go on talking +after they are in bed. When I go home for the holidays I sleep with my +mother, and I have so much to say that I try hard to keep awake, but I +can't. We talk for a little time, then she says something, and I repeat +it over and over to myself, trying to understand what it means. It is +probably the simplest thing in the world, but it seems like Greek, and +while I am still trying to puzzle it out, I fall asleep and remember +nothing more till the next day." + +"Oh, yes! but you are young and my lady is old. Sleep does not come to +her as to you, and she is so that she cannot bear anyone to have what +she has not. If she is miserable, it is her pleasure that I also should +suffer." + +Mildred knitted her brows and stared at the maid in disapproving +fashion. + +"I don't think you ought to talk like that, Cecile," she said boldly. +"You are always paying Lady Sarah compliments to her face, so you ought +not to abuse her behind her back. Besides, I don't think she is cross +to you. She seems kinder to you than to other people. We all notice +it." + +"Ah, yes!" replied Cecile scornfully; "my lady can be amiable enough +when it suits; but to live with all day long, to have her as mistress-- +ah, Mademoiselle thinks she can understand what that means! But wait a +little time, wait until Mrs Faucit shall go away and my lady is left in +charge, then you shall see! You will feel for me then for what I +undergo!" + +Mildred's eyes widened in astonishment. + +"But she is not going away! What do you mean by saying such a thing? +How could she go away when she has visitors in the house, and her +children are home for the holidays?" + +The Frenchwoman flushed and looked strangely embarrassed. + +"Oh, I mean nothing--nothing! I had the impression that it was said. +The servants talk among themselves, Mademoiselle. But you know best-- +you are of the family. It has been a mistake. See, then, Mademoiselle, +I have made what I can. Do you find the dress is better?" + +"It looks ever so much nicer, Cecile. I can't imagine what you have +done to make such an improvement. I am awfully obliged to you for all +your trouble." + +"It is nothing, Mademoiselle, not worth speaking about. When the lace +is on and the ribbon--big, full bows instead of the little, old ones-- +you shall see what a difference I make. They will say no one can tie a +bow like a Frenchwoman; and even in Paris, where I learn my business, no +one in the room could make one like me. I had them always to arrange, +on the handsomest dresses. Mademoiselle shall see the lovely bows I +shall make--" + +Cecile lifted a roll of shimmering, satin ribbon from the table as she +spoke, and shaking out a length of two or three yards, began to gather +it up in her fingers. It was a beautiful ribbon, soft and thick, and of +the richest texture, but Mildred flushed as she looked at it, and her +voice sounded sharp and disapproving. + +"What ribbon is that? It's not mine! You are not going to put that on +my dress, Cecile!" + +"But yes, Mademoiselle, I was told to do so. My lady rang the bell and +asked what I did. When I said I helped with the dress of Mademoiselle +Mildred, she took the ribbon from her drawer and asked if it should be +useful. `Use what you will,' she say to me. It is a beautiful ribbon, +Mademoiselle, and goes well with the lace. You look not satisfied, but +believe me, when you see it arranged, you will agree--" + +"I wasn't thinking about that. I dare say it would look very nice, but +I can't take it, Cecile," said the girl firmly. "I am glad you have not +cut it up, for it will not be spoiled. I am much obliged to Lady Sarah, +and you may tell her so, but I prefer to use my own things. If the old +ribbon is too shabby, I can do without altogether; but it's no use +putting that on, for I won't wear it." + +Cecile stared in amazement, but there was no mistaking the girl's +sincerity. Her eyes were bright with anger, she held her head at a +defiant angle, and her lips were pressed into a thin scarlet line. +Mildred was disgusted to hear that Lady Sarah had any share whatever in +Cecile's services. She wished with all her heart that she had not +accepted the Frenchwoman's offer. Now if the dress looked at all +respectable on the day of the picnic, Lady Sarah would take the credit +to herself, because she had allowed her maid to make alterations; and +how dare she send contributions of her own, and give instructions as to +what was to be done with them, without asking permission! + +Cecile was quite awed by the young lady's air of indignation, and +carried away the white ribbon without a word of protest. She evidently +informed her mistress of what had occurred, for after dinner the same +evening Lady Sarah detained Mildred on her way to the garden, to +question her on the subject. + +"So, Miss Mildred, my maid tells me that you refused to use the ribbon +which I gave her for your dress. Is that true, may I ask?" + +"Yes, quite true. I told Cecile to tell you that I was very much +obliged for the offer, but that I preferred to wear my own things." + +"You are very independent. Was the ribbon not to your fancy? Have you +one of your own which you prefer?" + +"Oh, no, it was beautiful; it could not have been nicer!" + +"Your own is not so good?" + +"Not nearly so good, Lady Sarah!" + +Cecile might well have said that Mildred had the good, straight back, if +she had seen her at this moment. Her cheeks were flushed, but her mouth +had the stubborn look which her friends knew so well. + +"You refuse, then, simply because you object to receiving anything from +me?" + +"I am much obliged to you, Lady Sarah, but I prefer to wear my own +things." + +"Oh, well, well!" sighed the other wearily; "I won't argue with you, my +dear. Do as you please. I meant to do you a kindness, but, if you +choose to take it in this way, there is no use saying anything about it. +Don't let me keep you. Run away to your friends." + +She turned towards the window as she spoke, and the sun shone full on +her face. It looked tired and grey, and very, very old; and the thin +hands crossed on her lap, how shrivelled they were!--they trembled all +the time as though they could not keep still. Mildred walked out into +the garden, a pang of compunction at her heart. Dreadful to be so +old!--not to be able to see without spectacles; to hear,--unless people +spoke at the pitch of their voices; to walk,--unless supported by a +stick; to feel cold even on the hottest day; to feel tired the first +thing in the morning;--how dreadful! Lady Sarah had looked sad too--not +merely cross, as usual, but really and truly sad and lonely. + +Suppose she had seriously meant to be kind--to show that she regretted +her interference in the past? Mildred's face clouded over as this +thought passed through her mind, but before she crossed the lawn to join +her friends her lips stiffened into the old, obstinate line. + +"I don't care. She had no right to send in her scraps of finery, +without even asking my permission. And after saying that Mother didn't +provide for me properly, too! No, I am not a bit sorry; I would do the +same thing over again!" + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +AN UNEXPECTED DEPARTURE. + +The day before the eventful picnic the family were seated round the +breakfast-table, when the Dean looked up from a letter which he had just +been reading, and said mildly, and as if he were making the most natural +request in the world: + +"Evelyn, will you get ready to go up to town by the five o'clock train +this afternoon? The Archbishop has appointed our interview for three +o'clock to-morrow. You had better pack for two or three nights." + +Mrs Faucit gave an irrepressible start of consternation. Was ever +anything so unfortunate! The interview with the Archbishop had been +talked of for months past; half a dozen letters had been exchanged on +the subject within the last fortnight; the question which was to be +discussed was of pressing importance. She realised at once that the +appointment must be kept, but her heart sank as she looked at the three +young faces beside her--aghast, and speechless with horror. + +"Oh! is it really to-morrow?" she cried. "Are you quite sure, dear? +Look again! you so often make mistakes in the date. Does he say +Wednesday the sixteenth, or Wednesday the twenty-third?" + +The Dean peered at his letter once more. + +"He says: _I shall be able to meet you on Wednesday next, sixteenth +instant_. It is certainly to-morrow. Why, Evelyn; is there any reason +why--er--?" + +"It is the day of Mrs Newland's picnic. I have accepted her +invitation--" + +"Oh, is that all!" Her husband drew a sigh of relief. "You must write, +of course, and explain your absence. She will understand, and it will +be a relief to you, dear. I--er--I have some recollection of being at a +picnic myself years ago. Uncomfortable occasion! Er--earwigs--meals on +the grass--baskets to carry. You would have been very tired. Much more +comfortable at the Metropole!" + +Mrs Faucit could not restrain a smile in spite of her concern. + +"Just so, Austin; but that is not the light in which the young people +look at it. I was to chaperone the girls. I am thinking of them, not +of myself. It will be a great disappointment." + +The Dean put up his eye-glasses, and stared at the three girls in turn. +His own daughters were white with suppressed emotion, but Mildred's face +was tragic in its agony of suspense. She did not say a word, but she +turned her great, grey eyes upon him, piteous as those of a child who +sees a surgeon standing over her, knife in hand; and as he met that +glance the Dean rumpled his hair in perturbation of spirit. + +"Dear me! dear me! this is very distressing. Disappointed, are they? I +don't want the children to be disappointed, Evelyn! Let them enjoy +themselves. If they appreciate that sort of thing, let them go by all +means. Why should they stay away because you are obliged to do so? +Mrs Newland will look after them." + +"My dear Dean!" Lady Sarah shook out her serviette, and raised her +voice to an even shriller note than usual. "My dear Dean, you don't +realise what you are saying. The girls are not children any longer; +they were fifteen their last birthday. In another two years, or three +at the outside, they will be in society. You cannot possibly allow them +to go to a large affair of this sort without a chaperone. Mrs Newland +will be occupied with her guests, and will have no time to look after +them. If Evelyn is obliged to go away, let the girls stay at home. +They can surely bear a little disappointment. They will have bigger +ones than this to bear as they go through life!" + +"True, Sarah,--quite true; but that is the more reason why I wish to +postpone them as long as possible. I don't want the girls to miss their +pleasure, Evelyn! Can nothing be done? Can't you think of some plan, +dear? you are so clever. Is there no other alternative?" And the +kindly Dean looked at his wife with a face full of anxiety. + +Mrs Faucit smiled back at him in the peculiarly sweet, reassuring +manner which she reserved for himself and for Erroll, the youngest +member of the family--a mischievous little rascal, who employed himself +in getting into trouble all day long, and in rushing to throw himself +upon his mother's tender mercies after each fresh exploit. + +"I think we might surely hit on some plan between us!" she said +brightly. "Such a number of clever people! For instance, it ought not +to be altogether impossible to provide another chaperone for the girls. +There are more people than my important self in the town, and Mrs +Newland will be quite willing to accept a representative under the +circumstances." + +"If you mean me, Evelyn, I am not at all sure that I feel equal to the +exertion. If they were going to drive from door to door, and have lunch +in an hotel in reasonable fashion, it would be different; but with so +many changes, and the whole day to be spent in the open air--" + +"Oh, my dear Sarah, I never thought of such a thing for a moment! It +would be too much to ask. You would be terribly fatigued." Mrs Faucit +had caught the echo of three separate gasps of consternation, and she +spoke with unusual emphasis. "Oh, no, indeed! I think it will answer +all purposes if Miss Turner takes the girls in charge. Mrs Newland +knows her, and it would be a pity to look any further when we have +someone so suitable in the house. That will be a very good arrangement, +won't it, girls?" + +Then for the first time the girls' lips were opened, and they spoke. Up +till now the tension of suspense had been so great that they seemed +scarcely able to breathe. + +"Oh, yes, Mother, it will be delightful!" + +"Oh, yes, Mrs Faucit, splendid! Miss Turner will be nicer than anyone +if you can't go yourself. But are you really obliged to go away? Why +can't you stay at home when it is only for two days?" + +"My dear Mil! and allow Father to go by himself!" Bertha waxed quite +mischievous in the relief of the moment. "You don't know what an +absent-minded creature he is! If Mother were not there to look after +him, he would go to meet the Archbishop without a hat on his head, or +stand gloating over an old bookstall in the street, until he forgot all +about his appointment. Mother has to be very careful not to let him out +of her sight. She writes down all that he wants to say on a piece of +paper, and leads him up to the very door of the room. Then she says: +`Now, Austin, do you know whom you are going to see?' Father stares +blankly, and says: `Er--er--I really er--.' And then she says very +slowly and distinctly: `You--are--going--to--see--the--Archbishop! +You--want--to--see--him--very--badly--indeed. Here is a list of the +things you want to say!' Then she thrusts the paper into his hands, +pushes him inside the door, and shuts it firmly behind him. It's quite +true! I know, because I have been with them." + +"Eh? eh? eh? What this! what's all this?" The Dean pushed his chair +from the table, and stared at his daughter with a comical expression of +amused embarrassment upon his face. "Upon my word, Sarah, I believe you +are right! The children are growing up--they are growing up! I--I +never heard such an accusation in my life! Absent-minded! Am I indeed, +Miss Bertha? I see a great deal more than you imagine, young lady!" + +His lips were twitching, his grave eyes twinkling with amusement. He +was a Dean and a scholar whose fame was world-wide; who wrote books the +very names of which Mildred was unable to understand, but he had shown +himself so considerate of the young people's enjoyment, he looked, at +the moment, so kindly and mischievous that a sudden wave of affection +swelled within the girl's heart. Up she leapt, and bounding across the +room to his side, threw her long arms round his neck, and kissed him +rapturously upon the lips. It was an extraordinary liberty to take, but +what followed was more extraordinary still, for the Dean returned the +salute with the utmost alacrity, and keeping one arm round Mildred's +waist, twirled off with her towards the door in something that was +perilously,--perilously like a polka! + +When he reached the doorway, and saw the old butler coming along the +passage, he shook himself free in a moment, and shuffled off to the +study, looking as sober as if he had never indulged in a game of romps +in his life; but when Mildred turned back into the room the twins were +clapping their hands in delight, Lady Sarah struggling in vain to +restrain a smile, while Mrs Faucit was laughing softly to herself, with +a glimmer of tears in her eyes. + +There are two sorts of tears, however, and these of the Dean's wife were +certainly not those of sorrow. Perhaps she was thinking of the days +when she was a girl herself, and of a certain lanky schoolboy who spent +the vacations with her brothers, and who behaved in such harum-scarum +fashion that an onlooker would have been ready to prophesy anything of +him, rather than that he should have developed into a sober dignitary of +the church! + +But a day of busy preparation lay before Mrs Faucit. She had no time +to waste in day-dreams, so excusing herself to Lady Sarah, she carried +the girls upstairs to her room, where she proceeded to read them a +gentle lecture on their behaviour for the next few days. + +"Now do, dears, try to help me while I am away! I shall be miserable if +I feel that things are not going on well at home, and it all depends +upon you. Make up your minds that you will not allow little things to +annoy you, and set yourselves to be cheerful and forbearing. The rest +will follow as a matter of course. Bertha, I leave the children to +you--see that they are happy. If any accident or sudden illness should +happen, telegraph at once for me. Lois, you must take my place in the +house. Look after the flowers, and see that a fire is lit in the small +drawing-room if the weather is at all chilly. Mildred, I have a task +for you too. I wonder if you can guess what it is? I am going to leave +Lady Sarah in your care! Yes, really, dear--I mean it! I ask you as a +favour to look upon her as your special charge while I am away--to see +that she is comfortable and has all she wants. She is very old, +Mildred, and in spite of her sharp manner, she appreciates kindness. +Now remember, dear, I trust you!" + +"Oh, dear!" groaned Mildred; "I wish you wouldn't! I don't like it a +bit. I'd much sooner arrange the flowers--mayn't I arrange the flowers, +Mrs Faucit, please, and let Lois look after Lady Sarah? You said +yourself I had quite a gift for arranging flowers!" Then, as Mrs +Faucit only smiled and shook her head, she went off into fresh +lamentations. "It's perfectly miserable that you have to go away at +all. Things do happen so nastily in this world! Just as I was going +home Robbie fell ill, and now the very day before the picnic this letter +arrives! It's horrid. Cecile said you were going away, but I never +believed you would!" + +Mrs Faucit looked up sharply. + +"Cecile said!" she repeated. "Cecile! What did she know about it, +pray? The date of the interview was so uncertain that I have never +spoken of it in the house. I hoped that, as it had been so often +deferred, it might not come off until the end of the holidays. What did +Cecile say?" + +"Oh, not much!" replied Mildred easily. "Something about finding out +what Lady Sarah was like when you went away and she was left in charge. +I said you were not going away, and she muttered something about hearing +the servants talk. I really forget what it was." + +Mrs Faucit wrinkled her brows, and looked perturbed. How could Cecile +know of plans which had only been discussed between husband and wife? +Could it be that the Dean, in his carelessness, had left a letter on the +subject lying about, and that Cecile had been unprincipled enough to +read the contents? It was the only explanation of which she could +think, and it was sufficiently unpleasant to send her downstairs to +interview Lady Sarah with a fresh weight on her mind. + +"Will you be kind enough to take care of the keys for me, Sarah?" she +asked. "There are a good many valuables in the chest in the +strong-room, and I should feel more comfortable if you were in charge. +James will apply to you for anything he needs, and pray do not hesitate +to give him your instructions in return. By the way, Mildred has just +been telling me that Cecile spoke to her some days ago of our leaving +home! I can't imagine how she can have known about it. I am afraid I +have never got over my first dislike to that woman, Sarah. I don't like +her prying ways, and I don't like her manner to you. You are not given +to spoiling your servants, but it seems to me that you are allowing +Cecile to get the upper hand; and if that goes on, it will be a great +mistake. She does not impress me as a woman whom it is safe to +indulge!" + +Lady Sarah gave an impatient toss to her head. + +"Oh, my dear Evelyn!" she cried; "it is easy for you to talk. You have +your husband and children, and are not dependent upon a servant. I am! +Cecile has it in her power to make my comfort or misery, and she is a +capable woman, who understands my requirements. I have suffered so much +from inefficient maids that I cannot afford to quarrel with one who +really suits me!" + +She evidently did not appreciate her friend's interference, and Mrs +Faucit realised that there was no more to be said on the subject. + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +THE PICNIC AT LAST. + +The next morning Mildred awoke to find the sun pouring into her room +through the uncurtained windows. A moment of sleepy confusion, and then +remembrance awoke. It was the day of the picnic--the all-important day +which had been dreamt of so long, and with such ardent anticipation. +She jumped out of bed and ran to the window, to see if the sky fulfilled +the promise of the sunshine. Well, not quite! the blue was broken by +ominous clouds, which the wind drove along at a speed too rapid to be +reassuring. Mildred knew that radiant mornings had an unpleasant knack +of settling down into gloomy days, but she was so anxious to think the +best that she would not allow herself to dwell upon unpleasant truths. +It was enough to put anyone in good spirits to dress in that delicious +blaze of sunshine, and the meeting at the breakfast-table took place +under the brightest auspices. + +"Isn't it a perfectly scrumptious day? Doesn't it make you want to skip +and dance?" cried Mildred enthusiastically. "I feel as if I could do +anything when the sun shines like this--it's so inspiring--it makes you +feel so strong, and light, and well. I could jump over a mountain, I +believe, if there was one in my way." She gave a spring over a stool as +she spoke, by way of illustrating her words, and might possibly have +proceeded to further exploits had not Lady Sarah entered the room at +that moment and taken her seat at the head of the table. + +She walked with an unusually brisk tread, and her face looked less lined +and tired than usual. The brilliant morning had evidently its effect +upon her as well as on the younger members of the household, and so +amiable did she appear that the girls went on with their rhapsodies +undeterred by her presence. They laughed, and chattered, and joked in +overflowing spirits, and when Lady Sarah found a chance to put in a +question about the scene of the day's excursion there was a race to see +who could answer first, and use the greatest number of superlatives in +doing so. + +"A pretty place?--Oh, exquisite! The most beautiful little village that +was ever seen! A river?--Yes, indeed, the prettiest river in the world, +splashing over rocks, and with the sweetest little shady paths on either +side! An inn?--Rather! Like an inn in a picture--oak walls, and blue +china in corner cupboards. Walks?--Everywhere! In every direction?-- +Impossible to take a wrong turning where every step of the country was +beautiful!" + +After these rhapsodies had continued for several moments Lady Sarah's +face began to assume an expression of curiosity, and she glanced out of +the window from time to time, as if mentally considering some question. + +"I am not quite sure about the day, the clouds look low. If it were +more settled I really think I should like to come with you myself +instead of Miss Turner." + +Had a bomb-shell suddenly exploded in the room its occupants could +hardly have been more bewildered than they were by the utterance of +these few, quietly-spoken words, "I should like to go with you myself." +The girls held their breath, and felt stupefied with horror. They had +never dreamt that this would be the result of their ecstatic +description; they had imagined that the subject of a chaperone was +settled once for all, and it was a terrible awakening. Bertha was the +first to recover her composure. She had a strong consciousness of the +importance of her position as the Dean's eldest daughter, and in her +mother's absence was determined not to shirk her responsibility. + +"But--but, Lady Sarah, Miss Turner has been asked. Mother has written +to Mrs Newland. Do you think it would do to alter the arrangement?" +she asked earnestly, and Lady Sarah tossed her head in derision. + +"My dear child, what nonsense you talk! I think Mrs Newland would have +little hesitation in accepting me in Miss Turner's place; I would +explain it to her myself." + +"But we go for a walk in the afternoon, a long walk. You would be +terribly tired." + +"Nothing of the sort. I am not quite paralysed yet. Say no more on +that score, if you please. I am able and willing, and shall be glad of +the chance of seeing the place; but, of course if you prefer the +governess--" + +What could be said in answer to such a question as this? The usages of +polite society forbidding a candid avowal of the truth, Bertha could +only protest feebly in a weak, broken-spirited voice. + +"Very well, then, we will consider it settled. We do not leave the +house until half-past eleven, by that time I shall see what the day is +going to do. It is beginning to cloud over, and I don't like the look +of the sky. If it shows any disposition to rain I shall certainly not +risk an attack of rheumatism by walking on damp grass, but if it keeps +fine I shall be ready when the carriage comes round. Miss Turner will +no doubt be very glad to stay at home." + +She swept from the room, and the scene which followed can be better +imagined than described. Mildred paced up and down, her cheeks aflame, +her lips pressed together to keep back a torrent of angry words. Lois +had hard work not to cry outright, while Bertha sat down on a chair, and +clasped her hands in despair. + +"I know what it means!--I know what it means! She went with us once +before. She made me stay beside her all day long, and wear mufflers +round my neck; and sit inside the coach coming home. She wouldn't let +me have an ice at lunch, or sail on the lake--or--or--do anything nice! +I'd just as soon give it up at once, and stay at home. It will be all +spoiled! I sha'n't enjoy it a bit!" + +She was very near tears herself, but for once in her life Mildred made +no response. There was a strange, half-triumphant smile upon her lips, +and she continued to pace up and down the room, and to take no part in +her friend's lamentations. + +By and by Bertha and Lois went away, with dejected mien, to attend to +the various duties with which they had been charged. Bertha to the +nursery, to give orders that some little friends should be invited to +take tea with the children, Lois to arrange the basket of flowers which +the gardener brought up to the house. About ten o'clock the sky clouded +over in a threatening manner, and it seemed as if Lady Sarah's prophecy +was about to be fulfilled, but when the carriage came round to the door +at half-past eleven, the sun was shining again in all its splendour, and +the air felt warm and fragrant. + +Neither of the girls had seen anything of Mildred since parting from her +in the breakfast-room, but at the last moment she came strolling +leisurely across the hall, looking such a picture of youth and beauty as +made them hold their breath in admiration. The blue dress looked as +fresh and dainty as if it was being worn for the first time, a soft +white sash was twisted round the waist, and a bunch of ox-eye daisies +tucked into the folds of muslin round the neck. The golden hair fell in +wavy masses down her back, and the shady hat dipped forward over her +charming face. The Dean's daughters looked colourless and insignificant +beside her, but they were too radiantly happy to care about their own +appearance, for it was Miss Turner who came forward to seat herself +beside them in the carriage, while Lady Sarah stood within the porch +speaking her farewells in tones of ill-concealed irritation. + +"Most rash and foolish I call it! I heard the rain distinctly, I tell +you, and not satisfied with hearing, I put my head out of the window and +felt several drops upon my face. Have you taken umbrellas and +mackintoshes?--No? Now, my dear Lois, pray, don't make objections to +everything I say. Your mother is away, and I feel the responsibility on +my shoulders. Miss Turner, will you be good enough to see that +umbrellas and mackintoshes are taken, and good thick cloaks in case of +cold? You will be starved to death on the coach coming home." + +The echo of the fretful voice followed the carriage as it drove away +from the door, and as Bertha waved her hand, a shadow of compunction +fell over her face. + +"She is disappointed! Poor old lady; she looks lonely, standing there. +She daren't come because of her rheumatism; but just look at that sky, +and imagine anyone saying that it had been raining; so positive about +it, too. She must have been dreaming." + +"Well, for goodness sake don't begin to be miserable now, Bertha, +because she is _not_ coming! Two hours ago you were nearly crying +because she was. You said you wouldn't enjoy yourself at all, and would +just as soon stay at home. For goodness sake be cheerful, and don't +grumble any more!" + +Mildred's voice sounded so irritable that her friends stared at her in +surprise. She looked exceedingly pretty and charming, but not quite +like herself all the same. It was difficult to say wherein the +difference lay, yet both Lois and Bertha recognised it at once. The air +of exuberant happiness, which was one of her chief characteristics, had +disappeared. She looked strained, worried, ill at ease. + +All through the earlier part of the day this curious depression seemed +to hang over Mildred's spirits. At every quiet opportunity she +whispered an eager "Are you enjoying yourself?" into her friend's ear; +"You are enjoying yourself, aren't you, Bertha?" but it was not until +lunch was laid out upon the grass, and the merry scramble for knives and +forks had begun, that she herself seemed able to enter into the fun with +a whole heart. From that time onward she was her own merry self, and +Bertha had the pleasure of seeing her prophecy fulfilled, for before the +afternoon was over, Mildred, in her old blue dress and renovated hat, +had become the principal personage in the party. The ladies were +charmed with her because she was so pretty, and had such winsome, +coaxing little ways; the gentlemen, because she was a thorough +school-girl, free from every trace of young-ladyish affectation. It +delighted them to see her race up the hillsides, or skip from rock to +rock across the river bed, and when the time came for the return drive, +there was quite a struggle for the seat by her side in the coach. The +gentleman who gained it was, in Mildred's estimation, the most +interesting of the number. He was very tall, and so thin that his +clothes hung upon him in baggy folds. His skin was burnt to a dull +brown colour, and had a curious dried-up appearance, but his blue eyes +shone with a boy-like gleam. Mildred could not make up her mind whether +he were old or young, but as he remarked, in the course of conversation, +that he had just returned from a fifteen-years sojourn in Ceylon, and +that he had left England shortly after his twenty-first birthday, she +was able to calculate his age with little difficulty. + +"I am interested in Ceylon. Do tell me all about it!" she said. +Whereat her companion smiled, and said that was a "large order." He +proceeded, however, in easy, chatty manner to give some interesting +accounts of the country, and his own adventures therein. He told, for +instance, of how darkness fell suddenly upon the land, and the tiny +streams swelled in an hour to the magnitude of a river; how, when +returning from a friend's bungalow one evening, the oil in his lantern +had given out, and he had been compelled to crawl on hands and knees +along the dangerous road; how, on the borders of a forest, he had seen +two snakes standing erect in deadly combat, and could remember a flight +of white butterflies, three miles in length and of such density that +they obscured the sun as with a cloud. He told stories of his +elephants, too; how they had worked for him in building the big +tea-factory on which he had been engaged, dragging the heavy stones up +the hillsides, and pushing them into their own particular niche, with +their ponderous feet. How steadily they worked, and with what +persistence, until the bell rang at four o'clock, when they instantly +turned tail, ambled off to their lines, and refused to do a stroke of +work until the next morning. "Fifteen years!" he sighed; "fifteen +years! It is a good slice out of a man's life. When I went out, I had +dreams of making my fortune in a few years and coming home to spend it +in England, but the days of rapid fortune making are over, and I shall +probably end my life in Ceylon. I wasn't much older than you are now, +Miss Mildred, when my guardian packed me off to an office in the city, +and I was obliged to sit copying letters at a desk from morning till +night. Bah! how I hated it. I made up my mind to go abroad the moment +I was twenty-one, and could claim my money, but when the time came, I +felt pretty bad at leaving. I had a special chum, with whom I lived and +worked, and played, and shared every joy and sorrow. It was a terrible +wrench to part from him--and from someone else--the lady who is now my +wife! You have been introduced to her, I think; there she is in the +blue dress, sitting in the front of the other coach." + +"With the brown hat? Yes, I know; I like her. She looks awfully +sweet." Mildred nodded her head decisively, and her companion's eyes +twinkled in response. + +"Oh, yes! she's quite satisfactory. Bullies me a little now and then, +you know--between ourselves; but one can't have everything in this +wicked world. Well, you see, she came out to me in due time. But +before there was any talk of that, another curious thing had happened. +I was sitting in front of my bungalow one afternoon, very low and +homesick, and tired to death after a long day's work. I was wondering +if I should ever live to get back to the old country, or to see my +friends again, when suddenly a man came round the corner of the road, +and marched up the garden path. He was an Englishman--that was seen at +the first glance; he was tall, and broad, and had a peculiar way of +holding his shoulders. I stared at him, not knowing if I were awake or +asleep, and when he was within a dozen yards, he raised his head to look +at me, and it was my chum!--the very fellow I had been thinking of five +minutes before, and despairing of ever seeing again!" + +"Good gracious! What did you do? What did you say?" + +Mr Muir smiled. + +"Do? Say? I called out `Halloa!' and he called out `Halloa!' and we +shook hands and went into the bungalow. That seems strange to you, +doesn't it? If you had been in my place, and one of your school-fellows +had appeared upon the scene, you would have behaved rather differently, +I imagine!" + +"Rather!" cried Mildred; "I can't think how you can have been so calm! +If I had been there, and had seen Bertha coming, I'd have whooped like a +red Indian, and rushed down, and simply smothered her with kisses. Men +must be awfully cold-blooded." + +"I don't know about that. There are different ways of expressing one's +emotion. A grip of the hand goes a long way sometimes. Well, I was +fortunate, you see, for I had my chum with me once more. He had been as +lonely without me as I without him, and had made up his mind to come and +join me. We bought an estate between us, and now have a factory of our +own. I was grieved to see these good people drinking Chinese tea this +evening. I believe some wiseacres pretend that it is good for the +digestion, but what is that compared with encouraging the poor planters +in Ceylon? Remember, Miss Mildred, I rely upon you to drink nothing but +Indian tea for the rest of your life." + +"Oh, I will!" promised Mildred readily. "I am quite interested in +Ceylon now, because of you, and of another planter who was a friend of a +great friend of mine. She told me a story about him only a few weeks +ago. He wasn't so fortunate as you. He was quite alone, and he tried +to grow quinine--cinchona, you call it, don't you? All the other +estates suffered from blight, except his, and he was promised ever so +much money for it--a fortune--but just when he was so happy, thinking of +coming home, the disease came on his estate too, and everything died +away before his eyes. All his work was lost, he had to begin over +again, and dig up the land to plant tea instead." + +"Now, I wonder who told you that story!" Mr Muir cried. "I knew a +fellow who had exactly the same experience. Curiously enough, he came +home in the ship with me. We only landed a week ago. Do you mind +telling the name of your informant?" + +"No, of course not. Why should I? It was one of my school-mistresses-- +Miss Margaret Chilton. She and her eldest sister keep the school to +which we all go--Bertha, and Lois, and I. We were talking of +disappointments one day, and she told me this story as an illustration." + +Mr Muir threw back his head, and began to laugh in a soft, amused +fashion, most mystifying to the hearer. + +"Talk of coincidences!" he cried. "Talk of coincidences! Why, Miss +Mildred, it is the very man of whom I was speaking. Isn't that a +curious thing? I knew him intimately, and he has told me stories too-- +about Miss Margaret Chilton among other people. And she is your +school-mistress? Tell me now, what is she like? I have heard so much +about her that I am interested to hear." + +"She is a darling!" + +"Er--so I was given to understand!" said Mr Muir drily. "And as to +appearance? Dark or fair, tall or short, plain or good-looking?" + +Mildred reflected. + +"She has brown eyes," she said slowly. "Oh, you may think that is not a +good description, but it is; because when you see Mardie's eyes, you +don't notice anything else. They are so clear, and sweet, and lovely, +and they look straight at you, as if they could see through and through, +but so gently and kindly that you don't mind it a bit." + +Mildred opened her own eyes at her companion as she spoke, with a +comical imitation of Miss Margaret's expression, which made him laugh in +spite of himself. + +"I see! I see! Well, I shouldn't wonder if I were to have the pleasure +of meeting Miss Chilton one of these fine days. If I do, I am sure I +shall recognise her by the description." + +At this point the coach drew up before the railway station, and the +party separated to return to their various homes. Mr Muir whispered a +word or two in his wife's ear, and they came together to the window of +the carriage in which the girls were seated, to wish them a last +farewell. + +"_Au revoir_, Miss Mildred!" he cried, his blue eyes twinkling with +amusement. "I am not going to say good-bye, for I expect to meet you +again, on a still more interesting occasion." + +"I haven't the least idea what you mean, but I hope we shall!" returned +Mildred. + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. + +When the girls reached home they found Lady Sarah awaiting them in the +drawing-room. Her hands were lying idly on her lap, a white shawl was +wrapped round her shoulders, and the sight of her tired, dispirited face +brought with it a throb of compunction. It was not easy to continue the +rhapsodies in which they had indulged all the way from the station in +the presence of one who had, so evidently, found the day long and +uninteresting. Lady Sarah, however, had many questions to ask, and +received each answer with an echo of the old complaint. + +"If I had only gone with you! It has been a beautiful day, I should +have taken no harm. If it had not been for that unfortunate shower I +should have seen it all, instead of sitting here the whole day long, +wearying to death." + +"Dear Lady Sarah, haven't you been a drive? Why didn't you order the +carriage, and go a nice long drive into the country?" + +"What is the use of driving by yourself? No, thank you, Bertha, I +prefer to stay at home. Cecile? no--not for worlds. I think something +must be wrong with the girl's nerves. It seems as if it were impossible +for her to sit still the last few days. It fidgets me to be near a +person who jumps up and down like a Jack-in-the-box. There is some +supper waiting for you in the dining-room, my dears. You had better +take it and let us get off to bed. The day has been long enough." + +The girls turned away obediently and hurried through their meal, not to +delay the old lady any longer than could be helped. They had been +successful in getting their own way, and, as is usual under the +circumstances, conscience was beginning to reproach them for +selfishness, and to suggest that it might have been possible to have had +their own enjoyment, and to have allowed Lady Sarah to have had hers +into the bargain. + +When the twins went into Mildred's bedroom to say good-night, Bertha +could not refrain from putting these sentiments into words. + +"Poor Lady Sarah, she does look dull! She has had a lonely day. I must +say I feel rather--mean." + +"I feel mean too," said Lois; but at this Mildred interrupted with an +impatient protest. + +"What in the world have you to feel mean about? You have done nothing. +It was not your fault. You did nothing to prevent her going." + +"No, but I didn't want her to come, even when she said it would be a +pleasure. I was glad when she was prevented; I thought the shower was +quite a providence." + +"Don't, Bertha!" cried Mildred sharply. Her face flushed to a vivid +pink, she seemed to struggle with herself for a moment, then said +decisively, "Look here, I am going to tell you something. You will be +shocked, but it's done now, and can't be undone, so there is no use +saying anything about it. There was no shower. It was a trick. I +played the hose upon her window." + +A gasp of horror sounded through the room as the twins uttered a +simultaneous question, "You--_what_?" + +"I played the hose upon her window. I'll tell you all about it. You +had both been crying in the dining-room, saying that your pleasure was +spoiled, and that you wouldn't enjoy yourselves a bit. Then you went +out of the room and I strolled into the garden. I heard a noise at the +window and saw Lady Sarah standing in her room. I didn't want her to +see me, so I slipped behind a clump of trees, and the hose was lying on +the ground all ready. It darted into my head in a moment that I could +make her think it was raining, and I took it up and played it gently on +the panes,--just like the very beginning of a shower. By and by I heard +the window open and saw her stretch out her hand; then I gave a flick +round the corner, so that she got quite a nice little bath. The window +shut with a bang, and I went on pattering until it was all over drops. +She stood in the background looking out--" + +"Oh, Mildred!" echoed the Dean's daughters in horrified chorus; "Oh, +Mildred! how could you, how dare you? Suppose anyone had seen you." + +"Oh, I took good care of that! No one saw me at all--except Erroll." + +"Erroll? Good gracious! And did you warn him not to tell?" + +Mildred shook her head. + +"No; Mother never allows us to tell the children anything like that. +She says it makes them deceitful. He will forget all about it; children +always do." + +"They generally remember when you want them to forget. Oh, Mildred, I +wish you hadn't done it! I don't like it a bit. It makes me feel worse +than ever." + +"You can't feel anything like as bad as I do," retorted Mildred +miserably. "I was sorry the moment after I had done it. I went +upstairs and stayed in my own room, for I thought I had done enough +mischief, and had better keep out of the way. I was really disappointed +to see Miss Turner in the carriage instead of Lady Sarah. I thought I +shouldn't enjoy myself at all--it worried me so; but then I got +interested and forgot all about it--until we came home." Her voice sank +into a disconsolate whisper, "I don't know what your mother will think, +when she put her into my charge, too, but there are two days more; I'm +going to be awfully nice, and try if I can't make up." + +"We will all try," said Bertha heartily. She saw that Mildred was even +more distressed than she would admit, and was anxious to say something +comforting before retiring for the night. "We have had our good time +to-day, she shall have hers to-morrow. Don't worry any more, Mil dear, +but try to think of something nice that we can do for her as a surprise +before Mother comes back." + +"It's awfully good of you not to scold me, Bertha. I know you must be +disgusted with me, though you won't say so. You would never have done +such a thing yourself." + +"No, because I am never in a hurry. I take a long time to make up my +mind about anything, good or bad. If you had waited five minutes to +think about it, you would never have played that hose; but never mind, +Mil, some time there will be a brave thing to do, and you will have +risked your life and done it, while I am still trembling on the brink. +It works both ways, you see!" + +Bertha patted her friend on the arm with an air of gracious +condescension, and bidding her an affectionate good-night, returned to +her own room. + +Left to herself, Mildred began to undress in listless, disconsolate +fashion. She was tired with the day's exertions, and sorely troubled +about the escapade of the morning. Lady Sarah's face haunted her. If +Bertha and Lois were shocked, what, oh! what, would be their mother's +feelings? "She will be grieved in earnest this time," Mildred sighed to +herself. "Oh, goodness, I wonder why it is that I am always getting +into trouble! I mean to be good, I have the best intentions... Mrs +Faucit will look at me as she did that day when I flew into a passion. +I hate to be looked at like that. Great, solemn eyes, as if her heart +were broken! And it was all my fault this time... I wish I could be +calm and deliberate. I'll begin to-morrow, and count twenty to myself +before I say a single word." + +She crept into bed and laid her head upon the pillows with a weary sigh, +but sleep was long in coming, and even when the lids closed over the +tired eyes, the groans which forced themselves through the closed lips, +the nervous twitches of the limbs, showed that an uneasy conscience +pursued her into the land of dreams. + +How long she slept Mildred never knew, but it seemed as if at one moment +she was lost in unconsciousness, and at the next she was awake--wide, +wide awake,--with her heart beating like a sledge-hammer, and an unusual +chilling of fear in her veins. Something had aroused her--what was it? +The echo of the sound rang in her ears, shrill, piteous, beseeching. +What could it have been? Mildred sat up in bed and looked searchingly +round the room. The light was high enough to show the furthest corner. +The door was closed, the window as she had left it, the sash opened a +few inches at the bottom; the tick of the little clock on the +mantel-piece sounded clearly in the silence. All looked so calm, so +peaceful, so safe, that Mildred drew a breath of relief and was +preparing to burrow down again among the clothes, when her heart leapt +at a repetition of the same mysterious sound. + +There was no mistaking it this time. It was the sound of a voice raised +in a wail of such bitter, helpless pleading as left the listener +trembling with nervousness. + +In the broad light of day, with friends seated by our sides, it is +difficult to realise how keenly a sound such as this tells upon the +nerves in the dark silence of the night, but Mildred was of a fearless +nature, and after the first shock of surprise, her impulse was to find +out the source of the alarm, not to hide her head under the bedclothes +and stuff her fingers in her ears, as many another girl would have done +in her place. She slipped out of bed, crept across the room to the +window, and kneeling on the floor, applied her ear to the open space, +listening intently. + +The windows of the house were dark and lifeless, but as she waited, in +straining silence, it seemed to Mildred that a faint murmur of voices +reached her ear. Now a long level murmur, now a broken effort of +protest, then again the smooth low voice. + +Mildred turned her eye from one side to the other, calling to mind the +different rooms to which the windows belonged. Below the +breakfast-room, above the day nursery, to the right her own +dressing-room, to the left, in the projecting wing, Lady Sarah's room +and that of her maid. Mildred had never realised before how she was cut +off from the rest of the household, but the conviction that the voices +must come from this last-named room brought with it a throb of relief. +Cecile had said that her mistress was often irritably wakeful during the +night-time, and had warned her of a possible alarm like the present. + +If it was only Lady Sarah scolding her maid, there was no reason why she +should not go back to bed and sleep comfortably, but in spite of this +conclusion she continued to kneel by the window, for the remembrance of +those two cries was not easily reasoned away. She had not been able to +distinguish the words, but the tone could not be accounted for by mere +irritability. Mildred had had ample opportunity of studying the +different tones of Lady Sarah's voice, but she had never heard this note +before. Cecile had declared that her mistress treated her harshly, but +Mildred, like everyone else in the house, had been inclined to think +that the opposite view of the situation would be nearer the truth, for +the old lady seemed in dread of the clever maid, and fearful of +offending her. + +The old distrust of the Frenchwoman, which had been temporarily +forgotten because of her kindness in the matter of the blue dress, awoke +afresh in Mildred's breast; she bent her head forward and strained her +ears to overhear what was going on within that further room. It seemed +as if she had been kneeling by the window for a long time, but it was in +reality only a few minutes, before suddenly, sharply, the cry rang out +again, to be as quickly stifled, but not before the listener had +recognised the voice, and the word which it was struggling to say. + +"Help! Help!" + +It was Lady Sarah's voice. She was in trouble, someone was ill-treating +her, so that she was fain to raise her poor, quivering voice in an +appeal for help. + +Mildred leapt to her feet, while the blood rushed into her cheeks and +her heart began to beat furiously. She was not in the least frightened. +What she felt at that moment was something almost like triumph. Lady +Sarah had been committed to her charge, and she was now in danger. Here +was a chance of redeeming her misdoings of the day before; an +opportunity of saving her from threatened danger! Mildred slipped on +dressing-gown and slippers and laid her hand on the knob of the door. +Before she had time to open it, however, a faint rustling from without +attracted her attention; she listened, and could discern the almost +imperceptible sound of footsteps coming along the corridor from Lady +Sarah's room, and towards her own. Outside her door they paused, and it +seemed as if the beating of her heart must surely betray her presence. +But no, they moved on again, the swish of the trailing skirts growing +fainter and fainter, until it died away in the distance. + +Mildred opened the door and peered cautiously into the passage. All was +dark and silent, but on the wall above the staircase a faint light +flickered, now here, now there, as if reflected from a candle carried in +the hand of someone descending to the hall beneath. Mildred darted in +pursuit along the passage, her thick padded slippers aiding her +characteristic lightness of movement, so that she reached a point where +she could get the desired view without making a sound that could have +been heard by the most watchful ears. + +It was as she thought. Someone was creeping downstairs, candle in hand, +and feeble as the flame was, it was sufficient to light up the sleek +head, the slight, sinuous figure of Lady Sarah's maid. + +Mildred pressed her lips together with a look of comprehension, and +immediately faced round to retrace her steps with even more speed than +before. This time she did not stop short at her own room, but turned +into the further passage from which Lady Sarah's room was entered. The +key was in the lock, for Cecile had carefully fastened the old lady in +the room before she herself had taken her departure, but Mildred gave a +fine smile of contempt as she drew it out, and slipped it into the +pocket of her dressing-gown. Another moment and she was within the +room, standing by Lady Sarah's bed and gazing upon the face which lay on +the pillow with startled eyes. + +At the first glance it seemed altogether strange and unfamiliar. Lady +Sarah's hair was brown and luxurious--these straggling locks were white +as snow; Lady Sarah had well-marked brows and regular teeth, but when +she lifted the handkerchief which covered the face, the brows were +missing and the lips fell in around toothless gums. Mildred stood +transfixed, but even as she gazed, she became aware of a faint, sickly +odour, which seemed to rise from the handkerchief which she held in her +hand. She raised it to her face and shuddered with disgust as the +remembrance of a dentist's operating-room came swiftly to mind. That +wicked Cecile! Had she been using something to make Lady Sarah +unconscious? And was that the reason why she lay so still, and made no +attempt to open her eyes? + +Mildred dared not turn up the gas in case the light might be seen from +without and excite suspicion, but she peered about the dressing-table, +discovered a bottle of salts among the litter of silver ornaments, and +with the aid of this and a plenteous sprinkling of water, managed to +arouse the old lady to consciousness. The flattened eyelids opened, and +Lady Sarah stared upwards with dreamy unrecognising eyes, for in the +uncertain light the figure of the girl in her white robes and flowing +golden hair seemed more like a heavenly visitant than a flesh-and-blood +girl. + +"Who,--who,--what are you?" she muttered, and Mildred bent nearer with a +reassuring smile. + +"It is I--Mildred! Mildred Moore. I heard you call and came to see +what was wrong. Don't be frightened, Lady Sarah. You know me--you know +Mildred! I will take care of you--No one shall do you any harm." + +Lady Sarah continued to stare with those dazed, bewildered eyes, then +suddenly the light of understanding flashed over her face, her fingers +clasped the girl's arm, and she glanced wildly from side to side. + +"Cecile? Cecile?" + +"She is not here, Lady Sarah. She has gone downstairs. I saw her go, +and came in here at once to look after you." + +"Gone? Downstairs?" Lady Sarah pushed the girl away, and drawing +herself up in the bed, began groping hurriedly beneath her pillow. "The +key? It is gone--she has taken it! Oh, Mildred, the key of the safe in +the strong-room. I had it here. I slept with it under my pillow. She +tried to take it from me, and I wouldn't give it up.--She is a thief, +Mildred, a cunning, wicked woman, and when she could not get it from me +by force, she put chloroform on that handkerchief and held it over my +face. She has accomplices downstairs. They will open the safe and get +away before anyone knows they are here. There are valuables of my own +there besides Mrs Faucit's. We shall never see them again, and I was +left in charge. The wicked woman! She has been scheming for this. Oh, +she is cruel, she is dangerous--she will kill you, child, if she comes +back and finds you here." + +Mildred laughed shortly, and threw back her hair with a scornful +gesture: "Not she, indeed! She would be far more afraid of me than I +should be of her. But what is to be done, Lady Sarah? We must do +something quickly; there is no time to be lost. Shall I go and waken +Bertha--the servants--Miss Turner?" + +"A lot of nervous women! What good would they do? They would go off +into hysterics, and give the alarm before you could get downstairs. And +if you went down, what could you do, children and girls as you are, +against old practised hands? Cecile has never planned this by herself. +There are two or three men downstairs, she let out as much in her anger. +If you could find James..." + +Lady Sarah broke off, and stared into the girl's face with her haggard +eyes. It was an intent, questioning gaze, but the girl did not shrink +before it. She nodded her head gravely, as if recognising the force of +the suggestion, and accepting the responsibility which it thrust upon +her, for James's room was cut off from the rest of the house, and to +reach it it was necessary to descend to the ground floor, and go along +the whole length of the passage leading to the servants' hall. + +"Yes, of course; James would be the best!" + +"You know where he sleeps?" + +"Yes, I know." + +Lady Sarah leant her head against the pillow, trembling violently. + +"You would have to go downstairs, to pass within a few yards of the +strong-room door--they might see you--and if they did?--No, no! I +cannot let you go. Poor child, poor child! Your safety is of more +value than anything they can take. It is too great a risk." + +"Dear Lady Sarah, I am not afraid. I will creep along so quietly that +they will never hear me, and once down, it will not take me a minute to +run along the passage. Don't try to prevent me, I must go--I must! I +couldn't stay quietly here while Mrs Faucit was being robbed. See! +here is the key, Cecile left it in the lock. Get up and fasten yourself +in, and don't open the door until I come back. You won't be nervous?" + +"Not for myself--no, no!--but for you, Mildred. No, you shall not go, I +will not allow it! Your mother--" + +"Mother would go herself. She is the bravest little creature in the +world. I am not afraid. If they see me I will make a dash for it, and +scream at the pitch of my voice. You will hear, the others will hear, +the whole house will be in a tumult, and they will be glad to escape and +let me alone. But I want to take them by surprise, and not let them get +away. I'm going now. There is not a minute to waste. Be careful how +you shut the door. Don't be frightened. If you hear no noise you will +know all is well." + +Mildred drew the folds of her gown round her, and stepped out into the +passage. The lamps were out, but the moonlight poured in by the long +windows, and saved her from all danger of stumbling. Round the corner, +past the door of her own room, along to the head of the staircase she +crept, so far with nothing more than consciousness of excitement and +enterprise; but here the dangerous part of her mission began, and she +paused for a moment to draw breath and consider how she had best +proceed. The staircase descended in flights of six steps at a time, +during two of which only she would be within sight from the hall +beneath. One of the steps, she knew, creaked. Which was it? In which +flight? Stupid not to remember when she had noticed it so many, many +times! There was only one thing for it; to tread each step as lightly +as possible, and to trust that the thieves might be so busily engaged +that they would not notice such a gentle sound. She bent down to fasten +the woollen slippers more closely, then slowly, cautiously began the +descent. No step creaked beneath her feet, but when she reached the +bottom of the second flight of stairs, it was not relief but +disappointment which she felt, for she realised that the dangerous point +must now be passed, while she was in sight of anyone who might be +standing in the hall beneath. + +Suppose Cecile had stationed one of her accomplices outside the door of +the strong-room, to guard against possible discovery? Suppose with the +next step forward she found herself confronted by a burly rascal, ready +to spring forward and silence her cries with a heavy hand pressed over +her lips? Mildred set her teeth with the old obstinate expression, and +stepped determinedly forward. She had known from the outset that there +was a certain amount of danger in her mission; she was not to be +dismayed by the first alarm. Another moment and she was within sight of +the strong-room, to discover, with a thrill of relief, that the thieves +were too busily engaged getting together their spoil to have time to +play sentry. A faint light shone from within the half-closed door; +Mildred held her breath, and could hear a murmur of voices, an +occasional clicking, as of steel instruments upon a hard substance. + +In the rush of indignation which the sound brought with it she trod less +carefully than before, and the creak which followed filled her with +dismay. Good heavens! how loudly it sounded in the stillness! She +dared not move a step, but stood crouched against the wall, her gown +gathered up in her hand, ready at the first sign of an alarm to rush +back to the upper floor and rouse the servants by her cries; but there +was no cessation of work within the strong-room, the voices still +whispered together, the click, click went on as before. What had +sounded so sharply in Mildred's ears had in reality been a very faint +sound, scarcely perceptible at a distance of a few yards, and the noise +made by their own movements prevented it from reaching the ears of the +thieves. + +The fact that it had not been noticed gave the girl fresh courage, so +that she almost ran down the few steps that remained, her little padded +feet falling noiselessly upon the carpet. She stood now in the hall +itself; a sharp turn to the right would take her towards James's +bedroom, but before moving forward she turned with instinctive curiosity +to cast another glance at the door of the strong-room. It was +half-closed,--more than half-closed; the moonlight shone on the polished +handle, and on the great brass bolts above and below. If these were +once slipped into position it would be an impossible task for those +inside the room to make their escape, for the window was small, and +protected by iron bars. If the bolts were fastened the thieves would be +caught like rats in a trap! + +Mildred stood like a figure carved in stone, staring fixedly at the +door; her heart was beating like a sledge-hammer, the blood tingled to +her finger ends. Supposing she went on and tried to awaken James! His +door might be locked; he was an old man, probably a heavy sleeper; by +the time he was aroused and had put on his clothes the thieves might +have escaped! They were hard at work; at any moment they might come +out,--_but if those bolts were slipped_!--A sudden impulse leapt into +the girl's brain and refused to be shaken off. A dozen steps to the +right, a leap forward, one hand on the knob, another raised to shoot the +bar of brass into its place, a swift, impetuous movement, and the thing +would be done, the thieves caught red-handed, and Mrs Faucit's +treasures saved! "And I can do it," said Mildred to herself, "as well +as James or anyone else; better perhaps, for I am small and light, and +they are busy now and unsuspicious. It is the right time, perhaps the +_only_ time. I can do it--I _will_ do it, before I get too nervous,-- +before I have time to think!" + +She was nervous enough as it was, poor child, for the fear of failure +was in her heart, and a terrible dread of those wicked men; but she had +enough self-possession left to know that it must be now or never, and to +allow herself no time for wavering. + +Cecile and her two accomplices, rifling the safe of its treasures and +packing the spoil together in convenient fashion for carrying away, were +all unconscious of the white figure in the hall stealing forward step by +step, the white face looking out from the veil of golden hair, the +outstretched hands creeping nearer and nearer to those two strong brass +knobs. A little gurgling sob of emotion swelled in Mildred's throat at +that last crucial moment, her teeth gleamed between her parted lips, +then with a spring like that of a wild animal she pounced upon the +handle, and with strength born of excitement slammed the door against +the lintel, and shot the big brass bar into position. A howl of rage +sounded from within as the thieves threw themselves against the door +with desperate force, but it was too late. Mildred bent downwards, +secured the second fastening, and flew off to awaken James, secure in +the knowledge that, rage and struggle as they might, the strong oak door +shut them out from escape as surely as the barred window itself. + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +AFTER THE ROBBERY. + +There was no sleep for the inhabitants of The Deanery during the +remainder of that exciting night. The sudden banging of the strong-room +door, with the babel which immediately followed from within, would in +themselves have been enough to alarm the household; but Mildred was +determined to leave nothing to chance. + +She arrived at James's room just in time to meet that faithful servant +hurrying forth with a greatcoat fastened over his night attire, and +while he rushed across the garden to arouse the coachman, she turned +back into the hall, and began to beat a wild tattoo upon the gong. + +When Bertha came rushing downstairs a moment later, followed by a flock +of terrified women-servants, she was horrified by the sight which she +beheld. There stood Mildred in her white dressing-gown, her hair hung +round her face in wild confusion, her eyes gleamed, her long arms swung +the sticks through the air, and brought them down upon the gong with a +fierceness of triumph, which had in it something uncanny to the gentle +onlooker. She looked strangely unlike Mildred Moore--pretty, merry +Mildred, so ready to tease and plague, to kiss and make friends, and +tease again all in a moment. She was so carried away by the terrible +excitement of the moment that she had no eyes for what was going on +around, and seemed perfectly oblivious of the fact that her friends were +standing by her side. + +It flashed through Bertha's mind that Mildred was going mad, and she +seized hold of the swinging arms in an agony of appeal. + +"Mildred, Mildred--don't! Oh, what are you doing? We are all here; I +am here--Bertha! What has happened? what is the matter? Don't stare +like that, you frighten me! You understand what I am saying, don't you, +Mildred, dear?" + +"I--I--I," began Mildred blankly. She turned her head and looked at the +strong-room door, before which James stood on guard, waiting the return +of the coachman with the policemen; then at the group of women-servants +huddled on the stairs; last of all in her friend's face, white and +anxious, and overflowing with sympathy. "You understand me, don't you, +Mil?" Bertha repeated gently, and at that Mildred's tense attitude +relaxed. She put her hand to her head as one awakening from a dream, +and clutching Bertha by the arms, burst into a flood of tears. + +"Take me away!" she sobbed; "take me away!" and Bertha led her forward +into the breakfast-room, followed by a murmur of sympathy from the +onlookers. + +James had found time to give a brief account of what had taken place to +his fellow-servants, and they were filled with wonder and admiration. + +"To come down all by herself, in the dead of night--that child! She is +brave and no mistake! I always liked her--she has such pretty ways of +her own,--but I never thought she would come out like this. She seemed +so careless-like! Poor child, to see her beating that gong! She didn't +know what she was doing. It's enough to upset anyone. To fasten that +heavy door herself!" + +Then the conversation took another turn, and busied itself in denouncing +Cecile and her villainies. + +"The deceitful, wicked creature! That's the end of her smooth tongue +and her deceitful ways! Making excuses to poke about all the rooms in +turn, and pretending to help when it was nothing else than curiosity and +wicked scheming! I saw her with a letter of the master's in her hand +one evening, and she said she had been sent to find it. So likely, when +he had half a dozen servants of his own in the house! Now she will have +a spell in prison for a change--not the first one either, or I'm +mistaken. To think, if it hadn't been for Miss Mildred, she would have +been off with the pick of the valuables in the house!" + +So on and so on, while within the breakfast-room the heroine of the +occasion was being soothed and petted to her heart's content, Miss +Turner and the two girls hanging round her, and vieing with each other +as to who could do most for her comfort. In spite of her agitation, +however, it was Mildred who was the first to think of the old lady +upstairs, and her quick "Who is with Lady Sarah?" made the governess +start in compunction. + +"Oh, my dear, I am so glad you reminded me! I am ashamed to say I +forgot all about her. One is so accustomed to depend upon Cecile." + +She hurried away, sending the motherly old cook to take her place beside +the girls, while the cook in her turn despatched the kitchen-maid to +provide refreshment for the household. So it came to pass that at three +o'clock in the morning several tea-parties were being held in The +Deanery, the guests thereat presenting a motley appearance in their +anomalous garments. + +When the policemen arrived, Bertha and Mildred refused to go out into +the hall to see the capture of the thieves; but Lois could not restrain +her curiosity, and came back with a thrilling account of the two big, +wicked-looking men who were Cecile's accomplices, and of Cecile herself, +looking "so white, so terrified, so,--so _old_, that I was obliged to be +sorry for her, though I tried to be angry! I expect she wishes now that +she had gone to bed, and slept quietly, like a good Christian!" +concluded Lois quaintly; and at that Mistress Cook lifted up her voice, +and remarked that it would be a good thing if they were all to set about +doing that without delay. + +"It is nearly four o'clock," she said, "and to-morrow's work has to be +done, thieves or no thieves. The mistress will get a telegram the +moment the office is opened, and she will be home by the first train, or +I'm mistaken. You young ladies had better get off to bed at once, or +she will be more upset than ever if she finds you looking like ghosts!" + +Miss Turner returned to the room at this moment, and warmly seconded the +motion. She had left Mary, the pleasant-faced housemaid, in charge of +Lady Sarah, who was nervous and unstrung after her fright, and she +herself proposed to share Mildred's bed for the remainder of the night, +the twins being left to keep each other company. + +Mildred was thankful to accept the offer, for the strain upon her nerves +had left her so weak that her legs trembled beneath her as she ascended +the staircase. Even with Miss Turner lying beside her, sleep refused to +come until the sun was high in the heavens, and the noises of the day +rose from the garden beneath. Then at last, in the blissful sense of +security brought about by light and sunshine, the tired lids closed, and +she fell into a deep, restful slumber. + +Miss Turner rose and crept softly from the room; Bertha and Lois peeped +in at intervals of half an hour; Mary prepared two tempting +breakfast-trays, one after the other, and carried them down untouched, +for Mildred slept like the seven sleepers, and no one had the heart to +shorten the well-earned rest. + +Shortly before one o'clock a cab drove up to the door, and the Dean and +Mrs Faucit hurried into the house. They looked anxious and perturbed, +and had a great many questions to ask--not about the silver, however,-- +that seemed quite a secondary consideration,--but about the welfare of +Mildred, Lady Sarah, and the children, and as to what had been done with +that poor, unhappy Cecile. Miss Turner assured them in reply that the +children were as happy and as naughty as ever; that Lady Sarah was +rather nervous, but otherwise none the worse for her adventure, and that +Mildred had been sound asleep since seven o'clock in the morning. + +"I must go up and see her at once--the dear child! the dear, brave +child!" cried Mrs Faucit warmly; and she hurried upstairs, the Dean +following, shaking his head in meaning manner, and treading on tiptoe as +he entered the room, and advanced to the bedside. + +Mildred lay fast asleep, her hair falling over the pillow in shining +golden tangles; while one arm was thrown over the counterpane, the other +tucked under her head, so that her cheek rested in the hollow of her +palm. + +There were dark shadows beneath her eyes; and she looked so white and +spent, so unlike her usual radiant self, that Mrs Faucit's eyes +overflowed with tears, and she bent involuntarily to press a kiss upon +her lips. + +The scream with which Mildred started up in bed made the two hearers +fairly leap back in amazement. The sudden awakening was too much for +the disordered nerves, and the soft touch had brought with it a hundred +nightmare dreads. When she saw who was standing beside her, she calmed +down in a moment, and apologised in shamefaced manner. + +"Oh, Mrs Faucit, I am so sorry I startled you! I had just shut my +eyes, and I thought it was--something dreadful--I don't know what +exactly! How did you get back? What time is it? Is breakfast ready? +Oh, I am so glad you are here! It is all right! I shut the door--they +can't get out!--" + +"Yes, dear, yes--I know! Don't think about it. We will have a long +talk to-night when you are rested, but try to go to sleep again now. I +am so vexed with myself for disturbing you!" + +"I can't sleep. I've tried, but it's no good. I've been awake all +night!" sighed Mildred pitifully. She believed that she was speaking +the truth, but in reality she was so sleepy at the present moment that +she hardly knew what she was saying. She raised pathetic eyes to the +Dean's face, and inquired, with a yawn: "Wh-at did the Archbishop say +about Cecile?" + +"Bless me!" cried the Dean in alarm. "This is terrible--the child is +wandering! She doesn't know what she is saying!" He laid his hand on +Mildred's forehead, and backed out of the room, beckoning furtively to +his wife as he went. Outside in the passage he ruffled his hair in +helpless misery. + +"Her head is burning, Evelyn! the child is in a fever! Something must +be done at once. I don't like to see her suffering. Er--er--what could +you give her, dear? Aconite and belladonna? What do you say to aconite +and belladonna--every half-hour?" + +He looked so comical with his ruffled hair and distended eyes, that his +wife could not restrain a smile. + +"Oh, she will be all right, dear, after a day's rest!" she said +reassuringly. "I will keep her in bed, and not allow her to talk too +much. You need not be anxious; Mildred is too healthy to be upset for +more than a few hours!" + +"But I should try the belladonna! I should certainly try the +belladonna!" said the Dean urgently. He shuffled along the passage, but +before his wife had time to re-enter the room he was back again, his +face alight with inspiration. + +"Evelyn, I was thinking! A gold watch and chain--the same as we gave +the girls at Christmas.--How would that do, eh? We might present them +to her as a small--er,--acknowledgment of--er,--gratitude! What do you +think of that? Does it strike you as a good idea?" + +"Capital, Austin! Much better than the belladonna!" cried Mrs Faucit. + +She patted him approvingly upon the shoulder, and the Dean went off to +his study rubbing his hands, and chuckling to himself, like a kindly, +innocent child, which indeed he was, despite all the learning which had +made him famous. + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +FRIENDS AT LAST! + +There was a constant coming and going at The Deanery during the whole of +that day, and the very atmosphere seemed full of excitement. Mrs +Faucit, however, kept Mildred a prisoner in her own room, gave her an +interesting book to read, and forbade the subject of the robbery to be +mentioned in her hearing, with the result that by evening she was +herself once more, chatting with the girls, and only lapsing into +melancholy at the remembrance of poor, unhappy Cecile. + +The next morning Mildred saw Lady Sarah for the first time since the +eventful moment when she had started on her search for James's bedroom. + +The old lady was sitting in her favourite corner by the drawing-room +window, wrapped in shawls, and supported by pillows, for at her advanced +age such an experience as she had known was not easily outlived, and as +Mildred paced the garden walks with her friends, she received a message +to the effect that Lady Sarah wished to see her alone for a few minutes, +as she had something particular to say. + +"My thanks are due, Most kind and generous maiden, unto you!" quoted +Lois, from a play which had been performed at school at the beginning of +the Christmas holidays, and Mildred gave a little laugh of complacency. + +The quotation sounded appropriately in her ears, for she had no doubt +that she was summoned to hear grateful acknowledgment for the help which +she had given on the night of the attempted robbery. As she walked +across the lawn towards the house, she was rehearsing the scene to +herself, after a habit of her own on occasions like the present. "My +dear Mildred! How can I thank you sufficiently!" Lady Sarah, she +imagined, cried enthusiastically. + +"Oh, pray, don't mention it! I have done nothing at all!" + +She screwed her face into the very smile of polite protest with which +she would give her answer, and was proceeding to invent an emphatic +disclaimer from Lady Sarah, when she came face to face with the Benjamin +of the household--little, mischievous Erroll, who was strolling about +the garden in search of adventure. + +He wore a holland blouse, and absurd little knickerbockers about six +inches long, from beneath which his bare legs emerged brown and sturdy. + +A scarlet cap was perched on the back of his head, and he swung his arms +as he walked with the air of a Grenadier Guard, and a very fierce and +warlike one at that. Mildred pinched his ear as she passed, as a mark +of affectionate remembrance, whereupon Erroll lifted his funny little +face to hers, and volunteered a piece of information. + +"I telled Yady Saraw about ze pump!" + +"The pump!" Mildred's heart gave a leap of apprehension. She seized +the child by the arm and held him firmly until he had answered her +question. "What pump? What do you mean, Erroll?" + +"Wat zo pumped ze water wif, on ze window!" said Erroll pleasantly. + +He evidently had no idea that Mildred would be discomposed by the +intelligence, and was a good deal astonished at the hasty manner in +which she shook him off and resumed her walk to the house. + +Here, indeed, was a changed position. She was going to be scolded, not +thanked--called to account for misdeeds, not praised for valour. +Mildred pressed her lips together, and her eyes shone with a gleam of +anger. + +The more exciting events of the last two days had thrown the picnic into +the background, so that she had almost forgotten the unfortunate +incident to which Erroll had referred. It had troubled her greatly at +the time, but since then she had had an opportunity of "making up", +which should surely have condoned any previous offence. "Lady Sarah +need not have said anything about it; even if she were told. She might +have forgiven a little thing like that, when I have perhaps saved her +life," she told herself angrily. "I believe she is glad to have +something to blame me for, so that she may avoid saying anything nice or +grateful!" + +Mildred felt thoroughly cross and out of sorts, as was not altogether +unnatural under the circumstances. When one has been treated as a +heroine for a couple of days, it comes as an unpleasant shock to find +one's self suddenly dragged down from the pedestal and compelled to +appear in the character of a culprit. Mildred felt it very hard indeed, +and the softened feeling with which she had thought of the old lady +during the last forty-eight hours vanished at once, and gave place to +the old bitter enmity. + +Lady Sarah had seen the girl's encounter with Erroll, so that she was at +no loss to understand the sudden change in her expression, as she drew +near. They looked at one another in silence for several minutes--Lady +Sarah with her brows drawn together, yet on the whole more anxious than +angry; Mildred erect as a dart, her head thrown back in defiant fashion. + +"Is this true, may I ask, what the child tells me--that you played the +hose on my bedroom window the other morning, in order to make me believe +it was raining?" + +Lady Sarah sat upright on her chair, her hands clasped together on her +lap. The morning light gave a livid hue to the worn features, the bones +in her neck seemed more prominent than ever. "But it is not my fault if +she is old," was Mildred's obstinate comment. "She can't blame me for +that, I suppose?" + +"Yes, it's quite true." + +"It is true! You heard me say that I was afraid of my rheumatism, and +tried to persuade me that it was raining so that I might stay at home. +You knew I was anxious to go, and you deliberately set to work to +prevent me. Nice behaviour, indeed! I wonder you have the audacity to +look in my face and acknowledge it!" + +"I never tell lies," said the girl proudly, and Lady Sarah interrupted +with a harsh laugh. + +"No; you only act them, I suppose. It never struck you that it was +acting a lie to go out of your way to deceive an old woman and make her +stay at home on false pretences, did it?" + +Mildred started. + +"No, it never did. I did not think of that. If I had, I would not have +done it." + +"And why did you do it? To prevent my going to the picnic, of course; +but why were you so anxious about that? What harm would it have done if +I had been there?" + +There was an unwonted strain of anxiety in the sharp voice, and the +answer came but slowly. + +"Oh, I don't know! We had been looking forward to the picnic for the +last week. We had done nothing but talk about it. Of course we didn't +want to have it all spoiled." + +"As it would have been by my presence?" + +"Y-es." + +Mildred did not exactly relish saying so many unpalatable things, but +all the same there was a kind of satisfaction in being obliged to tell +this disagreeable old woman what was thought of her. Disagreeable and +ungrateful, too! Had she forgotten all that had happened on the night +of the picnic that she could greet her deliverer without one word of +thanks? + +A wave of emotion passed over Lady Sarah's face as she heard that +decisive answer. Her throat worked, her face was full of wistful +appeal, as she looked at the unrelenting, girlish figure, but Mildred's +eyes were cast down, and she saw nothing. + +"In what way were you afraid I should spoil your pleasure?" + +"Oh--in every way! You would have made us stay beside you all the time +and forbidden us to run about; or--or sit on the outside of the coach, +or--or speak to anyone--or do anything we liked. You said that we ought +to come home by an early train. You wanted us to wear cloaks when we +were boiling with heat. You would have corrected us before the others, +as if we were little children. Oh!" cried Mildred impulsively, as all +the fears of two days earlier came suddenly to remembrance, "it would +have been miserable!" + +Silence. Mildred shuffled uneasily from one foot to another, rolled her +handkerchief into a ball, and felt supremely uncomfortable. She had +been irritated into speaking with unbecoming warmth, but the words had +no sooner passed her lips than conscience began to prick. She longed +for Lady Sarah to say something sharper, more unreasonable than ever, so +that she might feel that she was the injured person, and get rid of this +horrible feeling of guilt. But Lady Sarah did not speak. Was she too +angry to find words? Was she gathering her energies for an outburst of +indignation? The silence grew oppressive. Mildred longed to be allowed +to rejoin her companions, and raised her eyes with impatient defiance. + +Mercy! What was this that she saw? This pitiful, huddled-up figure, +these trembling hands and quivering features down which the salt, +difficult tears of age were trickling? They could never, never belong +to the self-possessed and fashionable lady of a moment before! + +Mildred gave one gasp of horror, and threw herself on her knees beside +the chair. + +"Oh! what have I said? what have I said? Oh, the wicked, wicked, +detestable creature that I am! Lady Sarah, Lady Sarah, don't cry! Oh, +please don't cry, please don't cry! You will break my heart if you go +on like this!" + +Her voice trembled, she clasped her arms round the old lady's waist, and +swayed with her from side to side, echoing sob for sob, while ever and +anon broken utterances fell painfully on her ear. + +"--Cumberer of the ground! Cumberer of the ground! Alone in the +world.--No one to care! Oh, dear Lord, let me be done with it--let me +die!" + +"No! no! no!" cried Mildred, in a paroxysm of remorse. She folded the +thin figure more closely in her arms, and laid her soft, warm cheek +against the quivering face. "Don't talk like that--don't! I can't bear +it. I can never be happy again as long as I live if you won't forgive +me, and promise to be friends! I was sorry the moment after I played +that trick upon you. It spoiled my pleasure at the picnic. If you had +asked me gently I would have told you how sorry I was, but I have such a +dreadful temper. I fly into a passion, and then I don't know what I +say. Do please forgive me, and stop crying! There--there's my +handkerchief; let me dry your eyes!" + +Lady Sarah trembled. + +"You are very good. I don't blame you, poor child. You are an honest +lassie, and I've tried your temper many a time. I was young and bright, +too, once on a day, but that's all past now. I am nothing but a +fretful, selfish, old woman, a burden to everybody, without chick or +child to care what becomes of me." + +"Don't say that. I'll love you! I'd like to love you if you will let +me. You see it has all been a mistake. I thought you were cold and +cross, and didn't care, but if you are only sad and lonely, why, then, I +_do_ love you!" cried Mildred impetuously; "for I'm sure I should be +fifty thousand times nastier myself if I were in your place." + +Lady Sarah smiled through her tears. + +"I don't want to be `nasty'! I don't want to spoil your happiness, poor +child!" she said pathetically; "but this crabbed spirit has grown and +grown, until I seem powerless to overcome it. And you must think me +ungrateful, too. I wanted to thank you for your help the other night. +I don't forget it, child--I shall never forget it! I was longing to see +you this morning. If you had been half an hour earlier, you would have +had a different reception, but that child ran in and began telling his +little stories. I wish he had kept quiet. I wish I had never +listened." + +"I don't! I am glad that you know, now that the scolding is over," said +Mildred frankly. "I am not sure that I could have screwed up courage to +tell you myself, but I feel much more comfortable now that you do know. +I've never done anything else like that; I truly haven't." + +Lady Sarah smiled, and laid her hand caressingly on the golden head. + +"I believe you, my dear. I am quite sure you have not, if you say so. +You are a bright, hopeful, young creature, Mildred. My heart goes out +towards you. Will you help an old woman to get the better of her +fretful temper?" + +Mildred lifted her face, the grey eyes large and solemn. + +"If you help me, too," she said. "Let us help each other!" + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +A HAPPY ENDING. + +The Dean and Mrs Faucit duly presented Mildred with a gold watch to +match those already possessed by their own daughters. It had a monogram +on the back, an inscription inside the cover, and was altogether the +most delightful specimen of its kind that could be imagined. + +Mildred developed an absorbing curiosity to know how time was passing +during the next few days, which compelled her to pull out the watch +every two or three minutes, while the intervals were agreeably spent in +playing with the pretty little chain to which it was attached. She +wrote enthusiastic letters to her mother and Miss Margaret, describing +her new possession and giving a dramatic description of the events which +had led to its presentation; but the answers which she received were +distinctly disappointing, for Mrs Moore could only send a verbal +message, while Mardie treated her news in aggravatingly lukewarm manner. + +Mildred realised with chagrin that her thrilling description had failed +to arouse anything like the interest which she expected. Even the +congratulations which followed were wanting in fervour, as though the +presentation of a watch and chain were an everyday occurrence. + +"_And now, dear, I have something interesting to tell you_," the letter +went on, when the subject of Mildred's own adventures had been dismissed +in a few cursory sentences; and as she read the words, the girl tossed +her head with a gesture of impatience. + +"Interesting indeed! What does she call _my_ news?--A robbery,--a +capture,--a quarrel,--a reconciliation,--a watch and chain! She has +nothing half so interesting to tell me, I am sure." Mildred changed her +mind, however, before she finished reading Miss Margaret's letter. + + And now, dear, I have something interesting to tell you. You remember + the story about my friend, the planter in Ceylon, whose crop of + cinchona died down so disastrously? I told it to you the night when + you were so distressed about not being able to go home for the + holidays. You said at the time that this disappointment was different + to yours, because it had not affected my own personal happiness; but + you were wrong, Mildred dear, for if that crop had been a success, + instead of a failure, I should have been the planter's wife long ago, + and you would not have had "Mardie" at Milvern House! Years have + passed since then, but now things look brighter, though there is no + prospect of a second fortune, and I am going to live in Ceylon, + Mildred, in the very bungalow of which we spoke together. + + I am afraid you will not find me at school when you return after the + holidays, for we are going to be married very soon; but Mr Lytton + will be in England for six months to come, and that wonderful person, + his future wife, will, I feel sure, pay many visits to Milvern House, + to see the dear girls whose affection has been a comfort to her during + the days of her loneliness. Are you very much surprised, Mildred? + You must write and tell me what you think of my great news, and tell + Bertha and Lois to write too. By the way, Mr Lytton brought a friend + to call upon me the other day, a Mr Muir, who is a neighbour in + Ceylon. He told me that he had met you at a picnic the other day, and + intrusted me with a message which I was to give the next time I wrote: + "Give Miss Mildred my love, and tell her that I am quite of her + opinion." What did he mean, dear? I am curious. + +Mildred gave a loud shriek of excitement when she came to that thrilling +word "wife", the effect of which was to bring Bertha and Lois flying to +peer over her shoulder. Together the three girls read the letter, +together they gasped, and groaned, and exclaimed, together they burst +into a chorus of lamentation when the end was reached. + +"School without Mardie!" + +"Lessons without Mardie!" + +"Milvern House without Mardie! Oh, oh, oh! how shall we bear it?" + +"I hate Mr Lytton!" cried Mildred vindictively, then repenting; "at +least, I don't exactly mean that. It is only natural that he should +want Mardie if he can get her; but I call him selfish. What are _we_ to +do, I should like to know?" + +"Perhaps he would think we were selfish to want to keep her to +ourselves," said Bertha pensively. "I am glad that Mardie is going to +be happy, but I can't imagine school without her. Who will welcome the +new girls, and comfort them when they are homesick? Who will take us +out on half-holidays, and read aloud in the evening? Who will nurse us +when we are ill?" + +"Who will have her room when she is gone? I can't think how she can +find it in her heart to leave that sweet little room!" cried Lois, in +her turn. "But she must be anxious to go, I suppose, or she would not +have promised to marry him." + +"I wouldn't like to live in a country where you met snakes when you went +out for afternoon strolls; but I think Indian people are nice," declared +Mildred. "That Mr Muir had such a nice, sunburnt face, and such kind, +twinkling eyes! If Mardie's husband is like that, I'll forgive him for +taking her away. But I'll work like a slave, so as to be able to leave +school as soon as possible. `Mrs Lytton!' Gracious! We shall have to +give her a present. I wish the wedding were not quite so soon, for I +have only two and twopence in the world. Perhaps we could join +together." + +"I think it would be a good thing if the whole school joined, and gave +her something really handsome--a dressing-bag, for instance." + +"Oh, not a dressing-bag. She would use that on the voyage, and perhaps +not again for two or three years. We ought to choose something that she +would need every day. A clock would be nice," and Mildred jingled her +watch-chain with an air of proud possession. + +"I think a ring would be better than either," said Lois; and the +discussion went on with unabated energy for the next half-hour, when it +was abandoned to allow the disputants to write letters of hearty, though +somewhat lugubrious, congratulation, to the bride-elect. + +Mildred had no sooner finished her letter than she ran upstairs to spend +half an hour with Lady Sarah in her bedroom. The compact of friendship +which had been made a few days earlier had been kept all the more +faithfully on the girl's part because the old lady had been suffering +from the effect of shock and excitement, and had been confined to bed +for several days. Mary the housemaid was deputed to act as maid in the +place of the unhappy Cecile, but half a dozen times a day Mildred would +go into the room to rearrange the pillows, and enliven the invalid with +her bright, sunshiny presence. Lady Sarah always welcomed her with a +smile, and never allowed her to depart without the earnest "Come back +soon!" which sounded sweetly in the girl's ear. She was growing really +fond of the old lady, and adopted little airs of authority in the +sick-room which amused and fascinated the onlookers. + +On the present occasion she despatched Mary downstairs to tea, and +seated herself on the end of the bed, with her hair falling in showers +over her shoulders, and her hands clasped round her knees. A fortnight +ago Lady Sarah would have exclaimed at the inelegance of the position, +but to-day her gaze rested upon the girlish figure as if the sight were +pleasant in her eyes. She herself looked thin and shaken, but the +kindly expression transformed her face, and the soft, white hair was +much more becoming than the elaborate wig which she was in the habit of +wearing. Mildred felt very strongly on this point, and did not hesitate +to put her thoughts into words. + +"If you are going to be _my_ old lady I shall insist upon burning that +ugly, brown wig!" she said this afternoon. "I love old ladies with +white hair, and yours is prettier than any imitation. When you get up I +am going to arrange it for you over a cushion in front, and with a +pretty piece of lace falling over the back. I don't think the brown +hair suits you a bit, and it looks so frizzled up and artificial. You +don't mind my saying so--do you?" she concluded in an artless manner +which made Lady Sarah smile in spite of herself. + +"No, my dear, no! Whatever please you. It is a long time since anyone +took an interest in my appearance. But it will be awkward. People will +make remarks--" + +"What will that matter, when they will only say that you look twice as +nice? Of course everyone knew quite well that it was a wig," said +Mildred, with an unconscious cruelty at which Lady Sarah winced. When +the latter spoke again, however, it was to make a request which showed +that she cherished no resentment. + +"I have been wondering, Mildred, if you would spend the remainder of +your holidays with me in Scotland. The Faucits leave for Switzerland +next week, Miss Chilton will be busy preparing for the wedding of which +you have just told me, and your mother's house will be closed for three +weeks to come. I have taken rooms in an hotel at Pitlochry, and I +should like very much to have you with me. It is a lovely spot, and +there will be other young people in the house. You would not be +dependent upon me for society. Do you think you could make up your mind +to come?" + +"I should have to ask Mother first, but if she said yes, I could--quite +easily," returned Mildred. She clasped her fingers more tightly +together and sat pondering over this latest extraordinary development of +affairs--that Lady Sarah should invite her, of all people in the world, +to pay her a visit, and that she should be willing to accept such an +invitation. If anyone had prophesied as much a fortnight before, how +she would have scoffed and jeered, and what sheets of explanation it +would take to convince the dear little mother that Lady Sarah was not +the ogress which she had been represented, and that she might be trusted +to treat her guest with kindness! + +"What are you thinking of, Mildred?" asked Lady Sarah, watching the +changes in the girl's expression with curious eyes, and Mildred answered +with her usual frankness. + +"I was thinking how strange it was that we should be such good friends, +when we used to dislike each other so much! You were cross to me,--I +was rude to you, and we were always disagreeing! I think I annoyed you +the very first night I arrived. You seemed vexed because I was late." + +"I never disliked you, child. If I seemed to do so, it was because I +have grown into the unfortunate habit of fault-finding. On the contrary +there is something about you which has always attracted me. I don't +know what it is--something in your voice, your laugh, your movements, +which brings back memories of my youth. What a long, long way off it +seems!--like another life,--and of all that large family of boys and +girls there is not one left alive but myself! I am a lonely old woman, +Mildred!" + +"But there is no need that you should be! There are so many people in +the world who need a friend, and you are rich--you can do kind things +every day in the year! I have often thought how nice it would be to be +a dear old lady with curls, and a beautiful big house, and lots of +money. It is one of my castles in the air. I would be a sort of fairy +godmother to poor people; help struggling young geniuses, pretty girls +who had to work for their living, and old women in dingy lodgings. If I +had no people of my own, I would go outside to find them, for I couldn't +live alone, with no one to love me, and nothing to think of but myself! +I couldn't do it!" + +Mildred looked at Lady Sarah with wistful eyes, as if demanding sympathy +for the very thought. She did not know that older people than herself +had long been struggling for courage to impress these views of life upon +her companion, and was guiltless of pointing a moral. Lady Sarah +listened, however, and pondered on her words without being in the least +offended. She was never offended at anything that Mildred said or did +in these latter days; she seemed to have opened her heart to the girl +with an unreserved affection which made Mrs Faucit very hopeful of the +future. + +She said as much in the letter to Mrs Moore which accompanied Lady +Sarah's invitation. + + I hope very much that you will allow Mildred to accept Lady Sarah's + invitation, _she wrote_, for I believe the friendship which has grown + up between them will be of mutual benefit. Lady Sarah has an + unfortunate manner, but I have always believed in her warmth of heart, + and she has fallen deeply in love with your dear, bright girl. They + were not at all good friends at first, as you will doubtless have + heard, but circumstances have drawn them together, and I can see that + each is already beginning to exercise a beneficial influence over the + character of the other. Mildred's sunshiny influence is smoothing the + wrinkles from the poor old lady's face, and the knowledge that one so + old and frail relies upon her for comfort, will, I am sure, overcome + the temptation to hastiness which she is ever bemoaning. I don't + wonder at Lady Sarah's infatuation, for we are all in love with the + dear child. She has been the life of our quiet house. I hope we may + see much of her in the future. + +Mrs Moore received this letter, and the invitation which accompanied +it, one hot afternoon as she sat in the fever room with her patient. +Robbie was an invalid no longer, except in name--he was up and clothed +and in his right mind; able to amuse himself by painting frescoes on the +wall, and to scrub his obstinate little heels with pumice stone, after +the morning and evening baths. Mrs Moore read her letters through +once, twice, and yet again; then she laid them down upon the table, took +her handkerchief from her pocket, and very quietly and deliberately +began to cry. + +She was a merry little mother as a rule, in spite of her anxieties, and +had played the mountebank for Robbie's benefit with such success during +the last few weeks, that he was aghast at the sudden change of mood. + +He gave a roar like a wounded bull, and rushing forward, burrowed his +head on her knee. + +"Don't ky! don't ky!" he cried, "I'll never do it again! never do it +again!" for conscience pricked concerning a dozen mischievous freaks, +and he was convinced that it was his own wickedness which had brought +about this outburst of distress. + +His mother seized him by the arm and stared into his face with eager +eyes. She was the prettiest little mother in the world, and Mildred did +well to be proud of her. + +"Robbie!" she cried excitedly, "am I a good mother? Have I been kind to +you? Do you love me with all your heart?" + +Robbie pranced about in an agony of emotion. + +"Boo--hoo--hoo! Yes, I does! Boo--hoo--" + +"And supposing a rich old lady came one day--very, very rich, Robbie-- +with houses, and gardens, and carriages, and horses, and ponies-- +beautiful little, long-tailed ponies, and she said, `Come and live with +me, Robbie, and be my own little boy?' What would you say? Would you +go away and leave poor Mother all alone?" + +"No--ow--ow! Don't wants no old ladies! Kick a nasty old pony over the +wall!" + +The more his mother wept, the louder Robbie roared. They clung together +sobbing and crying until the sound penetrated to the lower regions, and +the maid-of-all-work crept up the uncarpeted stair and listened, agape +with horror. + +Then suddenly Mrs Moore shook Robbie off, bounded out of the room, and +called to the servant to run down the road to summon Mrs Ross to come +at once--at once, and to bring pencil and paper, so that she might write +down the words of a letter to be dictated from an upper window. + +It was easy to see from whom Mildred had inherited her impetuosity. +Poor Mrs Ross was bewildered by the torrent of words which were hurled +at her head the moment she arrived. She was obliged to write four +separate letters before Mrs Moore was satisfied that she had said the +right thing in the right way. + +The letter seemed fated to cause excitement from beginning to end. When +it arrived at The Deanery, Lady Sarah put up her eye-glasses to read it, +only to drop them a moment later with a cry of astonishment. She +gasped, and panted, and gasped, and panted again, while the other +occupants of the room stared aghast, not knowing what to make of such +behaviour. + +"M-M-Mildred!" she cried, and when the girl advanced to her side, she +clasped her in a passionate embrace. "Mildred, Mildred, do you know who +you are? My own little niece--my grand-niece,--Mary's child! I knew +there was something familiar about you--I felt it! I have said so over +and over again, and now Mary writes,--poor Mary! You always spoke of me +as `Lady Sarah', and she never dreamt that it was I. She has been +living in the depths of the country and has never heard of my husband's +honours. She was unmarried when I saw her last--" + +"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Mildred shrilly, clasping her hands together in +excitement, "It was you! You were the rich aunt! Oh, how dreadfully +romantic! Then you are my aunt, too. `Aunt Sarah!' Goodness me, who +would ever have dreamt of such a thing! And Mother says,--what does +Mother say?" + +"She seems afraid, poor thing, that I shall try to take you from her, as +I wished to separate her from her parents long ago; but be satisfied, +Mildred, I have learned a lesson since those days. I shall not try to +take you from your mother!" + +"I am glad of that, because it would be such a waste of time," said +Mildred promptly. "Besides, you must come and see Mother yourself, and +get to know the whole family. You can never call yourself lonely again, +Lady Sarah, for you will have a niece, and five grand-nieces, and a +grand-nephew. The grand-nephew is more important than all the rest put +together. Oh-h!" she gazed round the room with big, bewildered eyes, "I +can't believe it. My aunt! Your niece! If someone doesn't pinch me +this moment, I shall believe I am asleep and dreaming. Mrs Faucit,-- +Bertha,--Lois,--do you believe it? Do I look at all altered? Lady +Sarah's niece! I--I suppose it doesn't make any difference in my name, +does it? If I have come into a title, break it to me gently, please! I +can't bear much more excitement!" + +"Oh, Mildred!" cried the twins in chorus. Mrs Faucit laughed merrily, +and Lady Sarah looked round with an air of triumph. + +"Ah, my dear, you may take after your father in appearance, but you are +your grandmother over again in disposition! My sister Edyth--the +brightest, merriest girl! She was my friend and companion; no one knew +what I suffered when she went away and left us. Your mother is like +her, Mildred--small and dark. It was the resemblance which drew me to +her, but she refused to leave home, and I went off to China and we lost +sight of each other. I was too proud to inquire what had become of her +when I came home, but I have often thought of her. Blood is thicker +than water, and I have longed for some of my own kith and kin to be near +me in my old age. She is poor, you say, Mildred? Well, well!" Lady +Sarah nodded her head in a mysterious fashion, which seemed to argue a +hundred delightful possibilities. + +So it came to pass that Mildred went to Scotland with Lady Sarah, and +when Robbie was out of quarantine, returned home in company with the old +lady, who was almost as much excited at the meeting with Mrs Moore as +the girl was herself. Aunt and niece had many consultations together, +the result of which was that Mrs Moore and her children bade farewell +to their cottage home, and went to live in a pretty house situated just +outside the gates of Lady Sarah's country seat. Here they were near +enough to be a comfort and cheer to the old lady during her last days, +and not too near to become a burden, or to allow the children to disturb +her rest. + +Lady Sarah took a great interest in her grand-nephew, and in every one +of the five grand-nieces, and treated them all with equal generosity, +but Mildred was her darling and chosen companion. + +The girl spent the greater part of every day up at the big house, and +though many people shook their heads, and argued ill of such a +friendship, it endured unbroken to the end. By this it is not meant to +imply that their lives flow on evenly, without discord or +misunderstanding. Quite the contrary. Neither aunt nor niece changed +their disposition in a moment; Lady Sarah's fretfulness often proved +very trying to Mildred's temper, just as the old lady in her turn was +overpowered by the girl's impetuous ways. Old age and youth cannot live +together without such trials as these, but they had one grand point in +common which never failed to bring them together--they loved each other, +and love is the sweetest of peacemakers. Lady Sarah would remember her +own youth, and check the hasty words on her lip. Mildred, fretting and +fuming, would suddenly bethink herself how sad it must be to be always +tired and ailing, and struggle hard for patience. A glance on one side, +a word on the other, and the disagreement would be over, while each +peacemaking taught a new lesson, and left more strength for the future. + +Mrs Moore and her children had much cause to bless the day when Lady +Sarah became their friend, but when at last death took her away from +their side, none of the good things which she inherited could console +Mildred for the loss of the dear, cross, old lady whom she had grown to +love so truly. + +The End. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Girl in Spring-Time, by Jessie Mansergh + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GIRL IN SPRING-TIME *** + +***** This file should be named 36874.txt or 36874.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/8/7/36874/ + +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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