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+Project Gutenberg's The Two Sides of the Shield, by Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+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: The Two Sides of the Shield
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6007]
+Last Updated: August 17, 2012
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWO SIDES OF THE SHIELD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Hanh Vu
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TWO SIDES OF THE SHIELD
+
+By Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+
+It is sometimes treated as an impertinence to revive the personages
+of one story in another, even though it is after the example of
+Shakespeare, who revived Falstaff, after his death, at the behest of
+Queen Elizabeth. This precedent is, however, a true impertinence in
+calling on the very great to justify the very small!
+
+Yet many a letter in youthful handwriting has begged for further
+information on the fate of the beings that had become favourites of the
+school-room; and this has induced me to believe that the following out
+of my own notions as to the careers of former heroes and heroines
+might not be unwelcome; while I have tried to make the story stand
+independently for new readers, unacquainted with the tale in which Lady
+Merrifield and her brothers and sisters first appeared.
+
+'Scenes and Characters' was, however, published so long ago, that the
+young readers of this generation certainly will only know it if it has
+had the good fortune to have been preserved by their mothers. It
+was only my second book, and in looking back at it so as to preserve
+consistency, I have been astonished at its crudeness.
+
+It will explain a few illusions to state that it is the story of the
+motherless family of Mohuns of Beechcroft, with a kindly deaf father at
+the head, Mr. Mohun, whose pet name was the Baron of Beechcroft, owing
+to a romantic notion of his daughters made fun of by his sons. The
+eldest sister, a stiff, sensible, dry woman, had just married and gone
+to India, leaving her post to the next in age, Emily, who was much too
+indolent for the charge. Lilies, the third in age, with her head full
+of the kind of high romance and sentiment more prevalent thirty or forty
+years ago than now, imagined that whereas the household had formerly
+been ruled by duty, it now might be so by love. Of course, confusion
+dire was the consequence, chiefly with the younger boys, the scientific,
+cross-grained Maurice, and the high-spirited, turbulent Reginald, all
+the mischief being fomented by Jane's pertness and curiosity, and only
+mitigated by the honest simplicity and dutifulness of eight years old
+Phyllis. The remedy was found at last in the marriage of the eldest
+son William with Alethea Weston, already Lilias's favourite friend and
+model.
+
+That in a youthful composition there should be a cavalier ancestry, a
+family much given to dying of consumption, and a young marquess cousin
+is, perhaps, inevitable. Lord Rotherwood was Mr. Mohun's ward, and
+having a dull home of his own, found his chief happiness as well as all
+the best influences of his life, in the merry, highly-principled, though
+easy-going life at his uncle's, whom he revered like a father, while
+his eager, somewhat shatter-brained nature often made him a butt to his
+cousins. All this may account for the tone of camaraderie with which the
+scattered members of the family meet again, especially around Lilias,
+who had, with her cleverness and enthusiasm, always been the leading
+member of the group.
+
+It should, perhaps, also be mentioned that Lord Rotherwood's greatest
+friend was also Lilias's favourite brother, Claude, who had become a
+clergyman and died early. Aunt Adeline had been the spoilt child and
+beauty of the family, the youngest of all.
+
+C. M. YONGE.
+
+March 8th, 1885.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER I. WHAT WILL BECOME OF ME? CHAPTER II. THE MERRIFIELDS CHAPTER
+III. GOOD BYE CHAPTER IV. TURNED IN AMONG THEM CHAPTER V. THE FIRST WALK
+CHAPTER VI. PERSECUTION CHAPTER VII. G.F.S. CHAPTER VIII. MY PERSECUTED
+UNCLE CHAPTER IX. LETTERS CHAPTER X. THE EVENING STAR CHAPTER XI. SECRET
+EXPEDITIONS CHAPTER XII. A HUNT CHAPTER XIII. AN EGYPTIAN SPHINX CHAPTER
+XIV. A CYPHER AND A TY CHAPTER XV. THE BUTTERFLY'S BALL CHAPTER XVI. THE
+INCONSTANCY OF CONSTANCE CHAPTER XVII. THE STONE MELTING CHAPTER XVIII.
+MYSIE AND DOLORES CHAPTER XIX. A SADDER AND A WISER AUTHORESS CHAPTER
+XX. CONFESSIONS OF A COUNTRY MOUSE CHAPTER XXI. IN COURT AND OUT CHAPTER
+XXII. NAY
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TWO SIDES OF THE SHIELD
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. -- WHAT WILL BECOME OF ME?
+
+
+
+A London dining-room was lighted with gas, which showed a table of small
+dimensions, with a vase of somewhat dirty and dilapidated grasses in the
+centre, and at one end a soup tureen, from which a gentleman had helped
+himself and a young girl of about thirteen, without much apparent
+consciousness of what he was about, being absorbed in a pile of papers,
+pamphlets, and letters, while she on her side kept a book pinned open by
+a gravy spoon. The elderly maid-servant, who set the dishes before them,
+handed the vegetables and changed the plates, really came as near to
+feeding the pair as was possible with people above three years old.
+
+The one was a dark, thin man, with a good deal of white in his thick
+beard and scanty hair, the absence of which made the breadth of his
+forehead the more remarkable. The girl would have shown an equally
+remarkable brow, but that her dark hair was cut square over it, so as
+to take off from its height, and give a heavy over-hanging look to the
+upper part of the face, which below was tin and sallow, well-featured,
+but with a want of glow and colour. The thick masses of dark hair were
+plaited into a very long thick tail behind, hanging down over a black
+evening frock, whose white trimmings were, like everything else about
+the place, rather dingy. She was far less absorbed than her father, and
+raised a quick, wistful brown eye whenever he made the least sound, or
+shuffled his papers. Indeed, it seemed that she was reading in order to
+distract her anxiety rather than for the sake of occupation.
+
+It was not till after the last pieces of cheese had been offered and
+refused, and the maid had retired, leaving some dull crackers and
+veteran biscuits, with two decanters and a claret-jug, that he spoke.
+
+'Dolores!'
+
+'Yes, father.'
+
+But he only cleared his throat, and looked at his letter again, while
+she fixed her eager eyes upon him so earnestly that he let his fall
+again, and looked once more over his letters before he spoke again.
+
+'Dolores,' and the tone was dry, as if all feeling were driven from it.
+
+'Yes, father.'
+
+'You know that I have accepted this appointment?'
+
+'Yes, father.'
+
+'And that I shall be absent three years at the least?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Then comes the question, how you are to be disposed of in the
+meantime?'
+
+'Could not I go with you?' she said, under her breath.
+
+'No, my dear.' And somehow the tone had more tenderness in it, though it
+was so explicit. 'I shall have no fixed residence, no one with whom
+to leave you; and the climate is not fit for you. Your Aunt Lilias has
+kindly offered to take charge of you.'
+
+'Oh, father!'
+
+'Well?'
+
+'If you would only let me stay here with Caroline and Fraulein. I like
+it so much better.'
+
+'That cannot be, Dolly. I have this morning promised to let the house as
+it is to Mr. Smithson.'
+
+'And Caroline?'
+
+'If Caroline takes my advice, she will remain here as his housekeeper,
+and I think she will. Well, what is it? You do not mean that you would
+prefer going to your Aunts Jane and Ada?'
+
+'Oh no, no; only if I might go to school.'
+
+'This is nonsense, Dolores. It will be much better for you on all
+accounts to be with your aunt at Silverfold. I have no fear that she and
+her girls will not do their best to make you happy and good, and to give
+you what you have sadly wanted, my poor child. I have always wished you
+could have seen more of her.'
+
+There could be no doubt from the tone, in the mind of any one who knew
+Mr. Maurine Mohun, that the decision was final; but perhaps Dolores
+would have asked more if the door-bell had not rung at the moment and
+Mr. Smithson had not been announced. Fate was closing in on her. She
+retired into her book, and remained as long as she possibly could, for
+the sake of seeing her father and hearing his voice; but after a time
+she was desired to call Caroline, and to go to bed herself, for it was a
+good deal past nine o'clock.
+
+She had been aware, she could hardly tell how, that her father had been
+offered a government appointment connected with the Fiji Islands, and
+then that, glad to escape from the dreariness which had settled down on
+the house since his wife's death, about eighteen months previously, he
+had accepted it, and she had speculated much on her probable fate; but
+had never before been officially informed of his designs for himself or
+for her.
+
+He was a barrister, who spent all his leisure time on scientific
+studies, and his wife had been equally devoted to the same pursuits.
+Dolores had been her constant companion; but after the mother's death,
+from an accident on a glacier, a strange barrier of throwing himself
+into the ways of a girl past the charms of infancy. It was as if they
+had lost their interpreter.
+
+The German governess, chosen by Mrs. Mohun, was very German indeed,
+and greatly occupied in her own studies. When she found that the
+armes-liebes Madchen shrank from being wept over and caressed on the
+mournful return, she decided that the English had no feeling, and
+acquiesced in the routine of lessons and expeditions to classes. She was
+never unkind, but she did not try to be a companion; and old Caroline
+was excellent in the attention she paid to the comforts of her master
+and his daughter, but had no love of children, and would not have
+encouraged familiarities, even if Dolores had not been too entirely a
+drawing-room child to offer them.
+
+The morning came, and everything went on as usual; Dolores poured
+out the coffee, Mr. Mohun read his Times, Fraulein ate as usual, but
+afterwards he asked for a few minutes' conversation with Fraulein. All
+that Dolores heard of the result of it was 'So,' and then lessons went
+on until twelve o'clock, when it was the custom that the girl should
+have an hour's recreation, which was, in any tolerable weather, spent
+in the gardens of the far west Crescent, where she lived. There she was
+nearly certain of meeting her one great friend, Maude Sefton, who was
+always sent out for her airing at the same time.
+
+They spied each other issuing from their doors, met, linked their arms,
+and entered together. Maude was a tall, rosy girl, with a great yellow
+bush down her back, half a year older than Dolores, and a great deal
+bigger.
+
+'My dearest Doll!'
+
+'Oh yes, it is come.'
+
+'Then he is really going? I heard the pater and mater talking about it
+yesterday, and they said it would be an excellent thing for him.'
+
+'Oh, Maude! Then they did not say anything about what we hoped?'
+
+'What, the mater's offering for you to come and live with us, darling?
+Oh no; and I's afraid it is of no use to ask her, for she said of
+herself, that she knew Mr. Mohun had sisters, and--'
+
+'And what? Tell me, Maude. You must!'
+
+'Well, then, you know you made me, and I think it is a shame. She
+said she was glad she wasn't one of them, for you were such a peculiar
+child.'
+
+'Dear me, Maude, you needn't mind telling me that! I'm sure I don't want
+to be like everybody else.'
+
+'And are you going to one of your aunts?'
+
+'Yes, to Aunt Lilias. Oh, Maude, he would not hear a word against it,
+and I know it will be so horrid! Aunts are always nasty!'
+
+'Kate is very fond of her aunt,' said Maude, who did not happen to have
+any personal experiences to oppose to this sweeping assertion.
+
+'Oh, I don't mean proper aunts, but aunts that have orphans left to
+them.'
+
+'But you are not an orphan, darling.'
+
+'I dare say I shall be. 'Tis a horrible climate, and there are no end
+of cannibals there, so that he would not take me out for anything,--and
+sharks, and volcanoes, and hurricanes.'
+
+'I don't think they eat people there now.'
+
+'It's bad enough if they don't! And you know those aunts begin pretty
+well, while they are in fear of the father, but then they get worse.'
+
+'There was Ada Morton,' said Maude, in a tone of conviction, 'and Anna
+Ross.'
+
+'Oh yes, and another book, 'Rose Turquand.' It was a grown-up book, that
+I read once--long ago,' said Dolores, who had in her mother's time been
+allowed a pretty free range of 'book-box.'
+
+"And there's 'Under the Shield,' but that was a boy."
+
+'There are lots and lots,' said Dolores. 'They are ever so much worse
+than the stepmothers! Not that there is any fear of that!' she added
+quickly.
+
+'But isn't this Aunt Lilias nice? It's a pretty name. Which is she? You
+have one aunt a Lady Something, haven't you?'
+
+'Yes, it is this one, Lady Merrifield. Her husband is a general, Sir
+Jasper Merrifield, and he is gone out to command in some place in India;
+but she cannot stand the climate, and is living at home at a place
+called Silverfold, with a whole lot of children. I think two are gone
+out with their father, but there are a great many more.'
+
+'Don't you know them at all?'
+
+'No, and don't want to! I think my aunts were unkind to mother!'
+
+'Oh!' exclaimed Maude.
+
+'I am sure of it. They were horrid, stuck-up, fine ladies, and looked
+down on her, though she was ever so much nicer, and cleverer, and more
+intellectual than they; and she looked down on them.'
+
+'Are you sure?' asked Maude, to whom it was as good as a story.
+
+'Yes, indeed. She was civil, of course, because they were father's
+sisters, but I know she couldn't bear them. If any of them came to
+London, there was a calling, but all very stupid, and a dining at
+Lord Rotherwood's; but she never would, except once, when I can hardly
+remember, go to stay at their slow places in the country. I've heard
+father try to persuade her when they didn't think I understood. You know
+we always went abroad, or to the sea or something, except last year,
+when we were at Beechcroft. That wasn't so bad, for there were lots of
+books, and Uncle Reginald was there, and he is jolly.'
+
+'Can't you get Mr. Mohun to send you there?'
+
+'No, I don't think they would have me, for every body there is grown
+up, and father seems to have a wish for me to be with this Aunt Lilias,
+because she has a schoolroom.'
+
+'I wonder he should wish it, if she was unkind to Mrs. Mohun.'
+
+'Well, she was out of the way most of the time. They have lived at Malta
+and Gibraltar, and Belfast, and all sorts of places, so they will
+all have regular garrison frivolous manner, and think of nothing but
+officers and balls. I know she was a beauty, and wants to be one still.'
+
+'Maude, whose father was a professor, looked quite appalled and said--
+
+'You will be the one to infuse better things.' She felt quite proud of
+the word.
+
+'Perhaps,' returned Dolores; 'they always do that in time, but not till
+they've been awfully bullied. All the cousins are jealous, and the aunt
+spites them because they are nicer and prettier than her own.'
+
+'Yes,' said Maude, 'but then there's always some tremendously nice
+boy-cousin, or uncle, or something, that makes up for it all. Will Sir
+Jasper Merrifield's eldest son be a Sir?'
+
+'Oh no; he's not a baronet, but a G.C.B., Knight Grand Cross of the
+Bath, that is. Besides, I don't care for love, and titles, and all that
+nonsense, though father is first cousin to Lord Rotherwood.'
+
+'And you never saw any of them?'
+
+'Yes, Aunt Lilias was at the Charing Cross Hotel with Uncle Jasper and
+the two eldest daughters, Alethea and Phyllis, and some more of them,
+just before they sailed; and father took me there on Sunday to luncheon;
+but there were so many people, and such a talk, and such a bustle, that
+I hardly knew which was which. Aunt Jane and Aunt Ada were a talking
+that it made my head turn round; but I saw how affected Aunt Lilias is,
+and I knew that whenever they looked at me they said 'poor child,' and
+I always hate any one who does that! All I was afraid of then was that
+father would let Aunt Jane and Aunt Ada come and live with us; but this
+is ever so much worse.'
+
+'You have such a lot of aunts and uncles!' said Maude, 'and I have not
+got anything but one old uncle.'
+
+'Uncles are all very well,' said Dolores, said Maude. 'There are the two
+Miss Mohuns--'
+
+'Oh, that's beginning at the wrong end. Aunt Ada is the youngest of them
+all, and she thinks she is a young lady still, and wears little curls
+on her forehead, and a tennis pinafore, and makes her waist just like a
+wasp. She and Aunt Jane live together at Rockquay, because she has bad
+health--at least she has whenever she likes; and Aunt Jane does all
+sorts of charities and worries, and sets everybody to rights,'
+said Dolly, in a very grown-up voice, speaking partly from her own
+observation, and partly repeating what she had caught from her elders.
+
+'Oh yes, I know her,' said Maude. 'She asked me questions about all I
+did, and she did bother mamma so about a maid she recommended that we
+are never going to take another from her.'
+
+'Aunt Phyllis comes between them, I believe; but she has married a
+sailor captain and gone to settle in New Zealand, and I have not seen
+her since I was a very little girl. Then there's Aunt Emily, who is a
+very great swell indeed. Her husband was a canon, Lord Henry Grey;
+but he is dead, and she lives at Brighton, a regular fat, comfortable
+down-pillow of a woman, who isn't bad to lunch with, only she sends one
+out to the Parade with her maid, as if one was a baby. Mother used to
+laugh at her. And I think there was an older one who went to India and
+died long ago.'
+
+'I have seen your two uncles. There's Major Mohun. Oh! he is fun!'
+
+'Yes, dear old Uncle Regie! I wish he was not in Ireland. He will be so
+sorry to miss seeing father off, but he can't get leave. And there was a
+clergyman who is dead, and father grieved for very much. I think he did
+something to make them all nicer to mother, for it was just after that
+we went to stay at Beechcroft with Uncle William. You know him, and how
+mother used to call him the very model of a country squire; and I like
+his wife, Aunt Alethea. Only it is very pokey and slow down there, and
+they are always after flannel petticoats and soup kitchens, and all the
+old fads that are exploded. I should get awfully tired of it before a
+year was out, only I should not be teased with strange children, and
+there would be no one to be jealous of me.'
+
+'Can't you get your father to change and send you there?'
+
+'Not a chance. You see Aunt Lilias had offered, and they haven't, and I
+must go on with my education. I hope, though I shall have no advantages,
+I shall still be able to go up for the Cambridge examination, if Aunt
+Lilias has not prejudices, as I dare say she has, since of course none
+of her own will be able to try.'
+
+'You'll come up to us for the examination, Dolly dear, and we shall do
+it together, and that will be nice!'
+
+'If they will let me; but I don't expect to be allowed to do anything
+that I wish. Only perhaps father may be come home by that time.'
+
+'Is it three years?'
+
+'Yes. It is a terrible time, isn't it? However, when I'm seventeen
+perhaps he will talk to me, and I can really keep house.'
+
+'And then you'll come back here?'
+
+'Do you know, Maudie--listen--I've another uncle, belonging to mother.'
+
+'Oh, Dolly! I thought she had no one!'
+
+'He told me he was my Uncle Alfred once when he met me in the park with
+Fraulein, and gave me a note for mother. He is called Mr. Flinders.'
+
+'But I thought your mother was daughter to Professor Hay?'
+
+'But this is a half-brother; my grandmother was married before. Uncle
+Alfrey has an immense light beard, and I think he is very poor. He came
+once or twice to see mother, and they always sent me out of the room;
+but I am sure she gave him money--not father's housekeeping money, but
+what she got for herself by writing. Once I heard father go out of the
+house, saying, 'Well, it's your own to do as you please with.' And then
+mother went to her room, and I know she cried. It was the only time that
+ever mother cried!' And as Maude listened, much impressed--'Once when
+she had got eleven pounds, and we were going to have bought father such
+a binocular for a secret as a birthday present, Mr. Flinders came, and
+she gave him ten of it, and we could only buy just a few slides for
+father. And she told me she was grieved, but she could not help it, and
+it would be time for me to understand when I was older.'
+
+'I don't think this Uncle Alfrey can be nice,' said Maude.
+
+''Tis quite disgusting if he kisses me,' said Dolly; 'but you see he is
+poor, and all the Mohuns are stuck up, except father, and they wanted
+mother to despise him, and not help him. And you see, she stuck to him.
+I don't like him much; but you see nobody ever was like her! Oh, Maude,
+if she wasn't dead!'
+
+And poor Dolores cried as she had not done even at the time of the
+accident, or in the terrible week that followed, or at the desolate home
+coming.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. -- THE MERRIFIELDS.
+
+
+
+The cool twilight of a long sunny summer's day was freshening the
+pleasant garden of a country house, and three people were walking slowly
+along a garden path enjoying the contrast with the heat, glare, and
+noise of the day. The central one was a tall, slender lady, with a light
+shawl hung round her shoulders. On one side was a youth who had begun to
+overtop her, on the other a girl of shorter and sturdier mould, who only
+reached up to her shoulder.
+
+'So she is coming!' the girl said.
+
+'Yes, Uncle Maurice has answered my letter very kindly.'
+
+'I should think he would be very much obliged,' observed the boy.
+
+'Please, mamma, do tell us all about it,' said the girl. 'You know I
+stopped directly when you made me a sign not to go on asking questions
+before the little ones. And you said you should have to make us your
+friends while papa and the grown-ups are away.'
+
+'Well, Gillian, I know you can be discreet when you are warned, and
+perhaps it is best that you should know how things stand. Do you
+remember anything about it, Hal?'
+
+'Only a general perception that there were tempests in the higher
+regions, but I think that was more from hearing Alley and Phyl talk than
+from my native sagacity.'
+
+'So I should suppose, since you were only six years old, at the utmost.'
+
+'But Uncle Maurice always was under a cloud, wasn't he, especially at
+Beechcroft, where I never saw him or his wife in the holidays except
+once, when I believe she was not at all liked, and was thought to be
+very proud, and stuck-up, and pretentious.'
+
+'But was she just nobody? not a lady?' cried Gillian. 'Aunt Emily always
+called her, '"Poor thing."'
+
+'Perhaps she did the same by Aunt Emily,' returned Hal.
+
+'And I am sure I have heard Aunt Ada say that she wasn't a lady; and
+Aunt Jane that she had all sorts of discreditable connections.'
+
+'Come now, Gill, if you chatter so, how is mamma to get a word in
+between?'
+
+'I'm afraid we have all been hard on her, poor thing!'
+
+'There now, mamma has done it, just like Aunt Emily!'
+
+'Anybody would be poor who got killed in a glacier!'
+
+'No, but one doesn't say poor when people are--nice.'
+
+'When I said poor,' now put in Lady Merrifield, 'it was not so much that
+I was thinking of her death as of her having come into a family where
+nobody welcomed her, and I really do not suppose it was her fault.'
+
+'Moreover, she seemed to do very well without a welcome,' added Hal.
+
+'Who is interrupting now?' cried Gillian, 'but was she a lady?'
+
+'I never saw her, you know,' said the mother; 'but from all I ever heard
+of her, I should think she was, and cleverer and more highly educated
+than any of us.'
+
+'Yes,' said Hal, 'that was the kind of pretension that exasperated them
+all at Beechcroft, especially Uncle William.'
+
+'I wonder if Dolores will have it!' said Gillian. 'I suppose she will
+know much more than we do.'
+
+'Probably, being the only child of such parents, and with every
+advantage London can give. Maurice was always much the cleverest of us
+all, and with a very strong mechanical and scientific turn, so that I
+now think it might have been better to have let him follow his bent. But
+when we were young there was a good deal of mistrust of anything outside
+the beaten tracks of gentlemanlike professions, and my dear old father
+did not like what he heard of the course of study for those lines.
+Things were not as they are now. So Maurice went to Cambridge, and was
+fifth wrangler of his year, and then had to go to the bar. It somehow
+always gave him a thwarted, injured feeling of working against the
+grain, and he cultivated all these scientific pursuits to the utmost,
+getting more and more into opinions and society that distressed
+grandpapa and Uncle William. So he fell in with Mr. Hay, a professor
+at a German university. I can hear William's tone of utter contempt and
+disgust. I believe this poor man was exceedingly learned, and had made
+some remarkable discoveries, but he was very poor, and lived in lodgings
+at Bonn with his daughter in the small way people are content to do in
+Germany. As to his opinions, we all took it for granted that he was a
+freethinker; but I can't tell how that might be. Maurice lodged in the
+same house one year when he went to learn German and attend lectures,
+and he went back again every long vacation. At last came your dear
+grandfather's death. Maurice hurried away from Beechcroft immediately
+after the funeral, and the next thing that was heard of him was that
+he had married Miss Hay. It was no wonder that your Uncle William was
+bitterly hurt and offended at the apparent disrespect to our father, and
+would make no move towards Maurice.'
+
+'It was when we were at the Cape, wasn't it?' asked Hal.
+
+'Yes, the year Gillian was born. Well, your dear Uncle Claude went to
+see Maurice in London, and found there was much excuse. Maurice had
+learnt that the old professor was dying, and his daughter had nothing,
+and would have had to be a governess, so that Maurice had married her in
+haste in order to be able to help them.'
+
+'Then it really was very kind and noble in him!' exclaimed Gillian.
+
+'And I believe every one would have felt it so; but for his
+unfortunately reserved way of concealing the extent of the acquaintance,
+and showing that he would not be interfered with. Claude did his best to
+close the breach, but there had been something to forgive on both sides,
+and perhaps SHE was prouder than the Mohuns themselves. Oh! my dears,
+I hope you will never have a family quarrel among you! It is so sad to
+look back upon a change after the happy years when we were all together,
+and were laughing and making fun of one another!'
+
+'But you were quite out of it, mamma.'
+
+'So I was in a way, but I knew nothing of the justification till too
+late for any advances from us to take much effect. I am four years older
+than Maurice, we had never been a pair, and had never corresponded.
+And when I wrote to him and to his wife, I only received stiff, formal
+answers. They were abroad when we were in London on coming home, and
+they would not come to see us at Belfast, so that I could never make
+acquaintance with her; but I believe she was an excellent wife, suiting
+him admirably in every way, and I expect to find this little daughter of
+theirs very well brought up, and much forwarder than honest old Mysie.'
+
+'Mysie is in perfect raptures at the notion of having a cousin here
+exactly of her own age,' said Gillian. 'What she would wish is that the
+two should be so much alike as to be taken for twins. I have been trying
+to remember Dolores on that dreadful Sunday at the hotel, when Uncle
+Maurice came to see us, just when papa was setting off for Bombay, but
+it all seems confusion. I can think of nothing but a little black, shy
+figure. I remember Phyllis telling me that she thought I ought to do
+something to entertain her, but I could not think of a word to say to
+her.'
+
+'For which perhaps she was thankful,' said her brother.
+
+'I am not sure. You are all too apt, when you are shy, to console
+yourself with fancying that you are doing as you would be done by. It
+might have worried her then perhaps, but it would have made it easier
+for her to begin among us now! I am very glad her father consents to my
+having her! I do hope we may make her happy.'
+
+'Happy!' said Gillian. 'Anybody must be happy with such a number to play
+with, and with you to mother her, mamma.'
+
+'I am afraid she will not feel me much like her own mother, poor child!
+But it will not be for want of the will. When I look back now I feel
+sorry for myself for the early loss of my mother, for though we were all
+merry enough as children and young people, there always seems to have
+been a lack of something fostering and repressing. There was a kind of
+desolateness in our life, though we did not understand it at the time.
+I am thankful you have not known it, my dears.' There was a strange rush
+of tears nearly choking her voice, and she shook them away with a sort
+of laugh. 'That I should cry for that at this time of day!'
+
+Gillian raised her face for a kiss, and even Harry did the same. Their
+hearts were very full, as the perception swept over them in one flash
+what their lives would have been without mamma. It seemed like the solid
+earth giving way under their feet!
+
+'I am very sorry for poor Dolores,' said Gillian presently. 'It seems as
+if we could never be kind enough to her.'
+
+'Yes. Indeed I hope we may do something towards supplying her with a
+real home, wandering sprites as we have been,' said Lady Merrifield.
+
+'What a name it is! Dolores! It is as bad as Peter Grievous! How did she
+get it?' grumbled Harry.
+
+'That I cannot tell, but I think we must call her Dora or Dolly, as I
+fancy your Aunt Jane told me she was called at home. I hope Wilfred
+will not get hold of it and tease her about it. You must defend her from
+that.'
+
+'If we can,' said Gillian; 'but Wilfred is rather an imp.'
+
+'Yes,' said Harry. 'I found Primrose reduced to the verge of distraction
+yesterday because 'Willie would call her Leg of Mutton.''
+
+'I hope you boxed his ears!' cried Gillian.
+
+'I did give it to him well,' said Hal, laughing.
+
+'Thank you,' said his mother. 'A big brother is more effective in such
+cases than any one else can be. Wilfred is the only one of you all who
+ever seemed to take pleasure in causing pain--and I hardly know how to
+meet the propensity.'
+
+'He is the only one who is not quite certain to be nice with Dolores,'
+said Gillian.
+
+'And I really don't quite see how to manage,' said the mother. 'If we
+show him our anxiety to shield her, it is very likely to direct his
+attention that way.'
+
+'She must take her chance,' said Hal, 'and if she is any way rational,
+she can soon put a stop to it.'
+
+'But, oh dear! I wish he could go to school,' said Gillian.
+
+'So do I, my dear,' returned her mother; 'but you know the doctors say
+we must not risk it for another year, and I can only hope that as he
+grows stronger, he may become more manly. Meantime we must be patient
+with him, and Hal can help more than any one else. There--what's that
+striking?'
+
+'Three quarters.'
+
+'Then we must make haste in, or we shall not have finished supper before
+ten.'
+
+Lilias Mohun had married a soldier, and after many wanderings through
+military stations, the health and education of a large proportion of
+her family had necessitated her remaining at home with them, while her
+husband held a command in India, taking out with him the two grown-up
+daughters and the second son, who was on his staff. She was established
+in a large house not far from a country town, for the convenience of
+daily governess, tutor, and masters. She herself had grown up on the
+old system which made education depend more on the family than on the
+governess, and she preferred honestly the company and training of her
+children to going into society in her husband's absence. Therefore
+she arranged her habits with a view to being constantly with them, and
+though exchanging calls, and occasionally accepting invitations in the
+neighbourhood, it was an understood thing that she went out very little.
+The chief exceptions were when her eldest son, Harry, was at home from
+Oxford. He was devotedly fond of her, and all the more pleased and proud
+to take her about with him because it had not always been possible that
+his holidays in his school life should be spent at home, and thus the
+privilege was doubly prized.
+
+The two sisters above and one brother below him were in India with their
+father, and Gillian was not yet out of the schoolroom, though this did
+not cut her off from being her mother's prime companion. Then followed a
+schoolboy at Wellington, named Jasper, two more girls, a brace of boys,
+and the five-year-old baby of the establishment--sufficient reasons
+to detain Lady Merrifield in England after more than twenty years of
+travels as a soldier's wife, so that scarcely three of her children had
+the same birthplace. She had been able to see very little of her English
+relations, being much tied by the number of her children while all were
+very young, and the expense of journeys; but she was now within easy
+reach of her two unmarried sisters, and after the Cape, Gibraltar,
+Malta, and Dublin, the homes of her eldest sister, and of her eldest
+brother did not seem very far off.
+
+Indeed Beechcroft, the home of her childhood, had always been the
+headquarters of herself and her children on their rare visits to
+England. Her elder boys had been sure of a welcome there in the
+holidays, and loved it scarcely less than she did herself; and when
+looking for her present abode, the whole family had stayed there for
+three months. Her brother Maurice, however, she had scarcely seen, and
+she had been much pained at being included in his persistent avoidance
+of the whole family, who felt that he resented their displeasure at his
+marriage even more since his wife's death than he had done during her
+lifetime, as if he felt doubly bound, for her sake, not to forgive and
+forget. At least so said some of the family, while others hoped that
+his distaste to all intercourse with them only arose from the apathy
+succeeding a great blow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. -- GOOD-BYE
+
+
+
+A passage was offered to Mr. Mohun in a Queen's ship, and this hurried
+the preparations so much that to Dolores it appeared that there was
+nothing but bustle and confusion, from the day of her conversation with
+Maude, until she found herself in the railway carriage returning from
+Plymouth with her eldest uncle. Her father had intended to take her
+himself to Silverfold; but detentions at the office in London, and then
+a telegram from Plymouth, had disconcerted his plans, and when he found
+that his eldest brother would come and meet him at the last, he was glad
+to yield to his little daughter's earnest desire to be with him as long
+as possible.
+
+Shy and reserved as both were, and almost incapable of finding
+expression for their feelings, they still clung closely together, though
+the only tears the girl was seen to shed came in church on the last
+Sunday evening, blinding and choking, and she could barely restrain her
+sobs. Her father would have taken her out, but she resisted, and leant
+against him, while he put his arm round her. After this, whenever it was
+possible, she crept up to him, and he held her close.
+
+There had been no further discussion on her home. Lady Merrifield had
+written kindly to her, as well as to her father, but that was small
+consolation to one so well instructed by story books in the hypocrisy of
+aunts until fathers were at a distance. And her father was so manifestly
+gratified by the letter, that it would be of no use to say a word to him
+now. Her fate was determined, and, as she heroically told Maude in their
+last interview, she was determined to make the best of it. She would
+endure the unjust aunt, and jealous, silly cousins, and be so clever,
+and wise, and superior, that she would force them to admire and respect
+her, and by-and-by follow her example, and be good and sensible, so that
+when father came home, he would find them acknowledging that they owed
+everything to her; she had saved two or three of their lives,
+nursed half of them when the other half were helpless, fainting, and
+hysterical, and, in short, been the Providence of the household. Then
+father would look at her, and say, 'My Mary again!' and he would take
+her home, and talk to her with the free confidence he had shown her
+mother, and would be comforted.
+
+This was the hope that had carried her through the last parting, when
+she went on board with her uncle and saw her father's cabin, and looked
+with a dull kind of entertainment at all the curious arrangements of the
+big ship. It seemed more like sight-seeing than good-bye, when at last
+they were sent on shore, and hurried up to the station just in time for
+the train.
+
+Uncle William was a very unapproachable person. He did not profess to
+understand little girls. He looked at Dolores rather anxiously, afraid,
+perhaps, that she was crying, and put her into the carriage, then rushed
+out and brought back a handful of newspapers, giving her the Graphic,
+and hiding himself in the Times.
+
+She felt too dull and stunned to read, or to look at the pictures,
+though she held the paper in her hands, and she gazed out dreamily at
+the Ton's and rocks and woody ravines of Dartmoor as they flew past her,
+the leaves and ferns all golden brown with autumn colouring. She had
+had little sleep that night; her little legs had all the morning been
+keeping up with the two men's hasty steps, and though an excellent meal
+had been set before her in the ship, she had not been able to swallow
+much, and she was a good deal worn out. So when at last they reached
+Exeter, and finding there would be two hours to wait, her uncle
+asked whether she would come down into the town with him and see the
+Cathedral, she much preferred to stay where she was. He put her under
+the care of the woman in the waiting-room, who gave her some tea, took
+off her hat, and made her lie down on a couch, where she slept quite
+sound for more than an hour, until she was roused by some ladies coming
+in with a crying baby.
+
+It was, she thought, nearly time to go on, for the gas was being
+lighted. She put on her hat, and went out to look for her uncle on
+the platform, so as to get into a better light to see the face of her
+mother's little Swiss watch, which her father had just made over to her.
+She had just made out that there was not more than a quarter of an hour
+to spare, when she heard an exclamation.
+
+'By Jove! if that ain't Mary's little girl!' and, looking up she saw Mr.
+Flinders' huge, bushy, light-coloured beard. 'Is your father here?' he
+asked.
+
+'No; he sailed this afternoon.'
+
+'Always my luck! Ticket wasted! Sailed--really?'
+
+'Oh yes. We did not come back till the ship was out of harbour.'
+
+He muttered some exclamation, and asked--
+
+'Whom are you with?'
+
+'Uncle William. Mr. Mohun--my eldest uncle. He will be back directly.'
+
+Mr. Flinders whistled a note of discontent.
+
+'Going to rusticate with him, poor little mite?' he asked.
+
+'No. I'm to live with my Aunt Lilias--Lady Merrifield.'
+
+'Where?'
+
+'At Silverfold Grange, near Silverfold.'
+
+'Well, you'll get among the swells. They'll make you cut all your
+poor mother's connections. So there's an end of it. She was a good
+creature--she was!'
+
+'I'll never forget any one that belongs to her,' said Dolores. 'Oh,
+there's Uncle William!' as on the top of the stairs she spied the
+welcome sight of his grey locks and burly figure. Before he had
+descended, her other uncle had vanished, and she fancied she had heard
+something about, 'Mum about our meeting. Ta ta!'
+
+Uncle William's eyes being less sharp than hers, he was on his way
+to the waiting-room before she joined him, and as he had not seen her
+encounter, she would not tell him. They were settled in the carriage
+again, and she was tolerably refreshed. Mr. Mohun fell asleep, and she,
+after reading by the lamp-light as long as she could find anything to
+read, gazed at the odd reflections in the windows till she, too, nodded
+and dozed, half waking at every station.
+
+At last, she was aware of a stop in earnest, voices, and being called.
+There was her uncle saying, 'Well, Hal, here we are!' and she was lifted
+out and set on the platform, with gas all round. Her uncle was saying,
+'We didn't get away in time for the express,' and a young man was
+answering, 'We'd better put Dolly into the waggonette at once. Then I'll
+see to the luggage.'
+
+Very like a parcel, so stiff were her legs, she was bundled into the
+dark cavern of a closed waggonette, and, after a little lumbering, her
+uncle and the young man got in after her, saying something about eleven
+o'clock.
+
+She was more awake now, and knew that they were driving through lighted
+streets, and then, after an interval, turned into darkness, upon gravel,
+and stopped at last before a door full of light, with figures standing
+up dark in it. She heard a 'Well, William!' 'Well Lily, here we are at
+last!' Then there were arms embracing her, and a kiss on each cheek, as
+a soft voice said, 'My poor little girl! They wanted to sit up for you,
+but it was too late, and I dare say you had rather be quiet.'
+
+She was led into a lamp-lit room, which dazzled her. It was spread with
+food, but she was too much tired to eat, and her aunt saw how it was,
+and telling Harry to take care of his uncle, she took the hand--though
+it did not close on hers--and, climbing up what seemed to Dolores an
+endless number of stairs, she said--
+
+'You are up high, my dear; but I thought you would like a room to
+yourself.'
+
+'Poked away in an attic,' was Dolores's dreamy thought; while her aunt
+added, to a tall, thin woman, who came out with a lamp in her hand--
+
+'She is so tired that she had better go to bed directly, Mrs. Halfpenny.
+You will make her comfortable, and don't let her be disturbed in the
+morning till she has had her sleep out.'
+
+Dolly found herself undressed, without many words, till it came
+to--'Your prayers, Miss Dora. I am sure you've need not to miss them.'
+
+She did not like to be told, besides, poor child, prayers were not much
+more than a form to her. She did not contest the point, but knelt down
+and muttered something, then laid her weary head on the pillow, was
+tucked up by Mrs. Halfpenny, and left in the dark. It was a dreary half
+sleep into which she fell. The noise of the train seemed to be still in
+her ears, and at the same time she was always being driven up--up--up
+endless stairs, by tall, cruel aunts; or they were shutting her up to do
+all their children's work, and keeping away father's letters from her.
+Then she awoke and told herself it was a dream, but she missed the
+noises of the street, and the patch of light on the wall from the gas
+lamps, and recollected that father was gone, and she was really in the
+power of one of these cruel aunts; and she felt like screaming, only
+then she might have been heard; and a great horrid clock went on making
+a noise like a church bell, and striking so many odd quarters that there
+was no guessing when morning was coming. And after all, why should she
+wish it to come? Oh, if she could but sleep the three years while father
+was away!
+
+At last, however, she fell into a really calm sleep, and when she awoke,
+the room was full of light, but her watch had stopped; she had been too
+much tired to remember to wind it; and she lay a little while hearing
+sounds that made it clear that the world was astir, and she could see
+that preparations had been made for her getting up.
+
+'They shan't begin by scolding me for being late,' she thought, and she
+began her toilette.
+
+Just as she came to her hair, the old nurse knocked and asked whether
+she wanted help.
+
+'Thank you, I've been used to dress myself,' said Dolores, rather
+proudly.
+
+'I'll help you now, missy, for prayers are over, and they are all gone
+to breakfast, only my lady said you were not to be disturbed, and Miss
+Mysie will be up presently again to bring you down.'
+
+She spoke low, and in an accent that Dolores afterwards learnt was
+Scotch; and she was a tall, thin, bony woman, with sandy hair, who
+looked as if she had never been young. She brushed and plaited the dark
+hair in a manner that seemed to the owner more wearisome and less tender
+than Caroline's fashion; and did not talk more than to inquire into the
+fashion of wearing it, and to say that Miss Mohun's boxes had been sent
+from London, demanding the keys that they might be unpacked.
+
+'I can do that myself,' said Dolores, who did not like any stranger to
+meddle with her things.
+
+'Ye could tak them oot, nae doubt, but I must sort them. It's my
+lady's orders,' said Mrs. Halfpenny, with all the determination of the
+sergeant, her husband, and Dolores, with a sense of despair, and a sort
+of expectation that she should be deprived of all her treasures on one
+plea or another, gave up the keys.
+
+Mrs. Halfpenny then observed that the frock which had been worn for the
+last two days on the railway, and evening and morning, needed a better
+brushing and setting to rights than she had had time to give it. She had
+better take out another. Which box were her frocks in?
+
+Dolores expected her heartless relations to insist on her leaving off
+her mourning, and she knew she ought to struggle and shed tears over it;
+but, to tell the truth, she was a good deal tired of her hot and fusty
+black; and when she had followed Mrs. Halfpenny into a passage where
+the boxes stood uncorded; and the first dress that came to light was
+a pretty fresh-looking holland that had been sent home just before the
+accident, she exclaimed--
+
+'Oh, let me put that on.'
+
+'Bless me, miss, it has blue braid, and you in mourning for your poor
+mamma!'
+
+Dolores stood abashed, but a grey alpaca, which she had always much
+disliked, came out next, and Mrs. Halfpenny decided that with her black
+ribbons that would do, though it turned out to be rather shockingly
+short, and to show a great display of black legs; but as the box
+containing the clothes in present wear had not come to hand, this must
+stand for the present--and besides, a voice was heard, saying, 'Is Dora
+ready?' and a young person darted up, put her arms round her neck, and
+kissed her before she knew what she was about. 'Mamma said I should come
+because I am just your age, thirteen and a half,' she said. 'I'm Mysie,
+though my proper name is Maria Millicent.'
+
+Dolores looked her over. She was a good deal taller than herself, and
+had rich-looking shining brown hair, dark brown eyes full of merriment,
+and a bright rosy colour, and she danced on her active feet as if
+she were full of perpetual life. 'All happy and not caring,' thought
+Dolores.
+
+'Now don't fash Miss Mohun with your tricks. She has stood like a lamb,'
+said Mrs. Halfpenny reprovingly. 'There, we'll not keep her to find an
+apron.'
+
+'I don't wear pinafores,' said Mysie, 'but I don't mind pretty aprons
+like this. 'Why, my sisters had them for tennis, before they went out to
+India. Come along, Dora,' grasping her hand.
+
+'My name isn't Dora,' said the new-comer, as they went down the passage.
+
+'No,' said Mysie, in a low voice; 'but mamma told Gill--that's Gillian,
+and me, that we had better not tell anybody, because if the boys heard
+they might tease you so about it; for Wilfred is a tease, and there's
+no stopping him when mamma isn't there. So she said she would call
+you Dora, or Dolly, whichever you liked, and you are not a bit like a
+Dolly.'
+
+'They always called me Dolly,' said Dolores; 'and if I am not to have my
+name, I like that best; but I had rather have my proper name.'
+
+'Oh, very well,' said Mysie; 'it is more out of the way, only it is very
+long.'
+
+By this time they had descended a long narrow flight of uncarpeted
+stairs, 'the back ones,' as Mysie explained, and had reached a slippery
+oak hall with high-backed chairs, and all the odds and ends of a
+family-garden hats, waterproofs, galoshes, bats, rackets, umbrellas,
+etc., ranged round, and a great white cockatoo upon a stand, who
+observed--'Mysie, Cockie wants his breakfast,' as they went by towards
+the door, whence proceeded a hubbub of voices and a clatter of knives
+and jingle of teaspoons and cups, a room that as Mysie threw open the
+door seemed a blaze of sunshine, pouring in at the large window, and
+reflected in the glass and silver. Yes, and in the bright eyes and
+glossy hair of the party who sat round the breakfast-table, further
+brightened by the fire, pleasant in the early autumn.
+
+Eyes, as it seemed to Dolores, eyes without number were levelled on her,
+as Mysie led her in, saying--
+
+'Here's a place by mamma; she kept it for you, between her and Uncle
+William.'
+
+'No, don't all jump up at once and rush at her,' said Lady Merrifield.
+'Give her a little time. Here, my dear;' and she held out her hand and
+drew in the stranger to her, kissing her kindly, and placing her in a
+chair close to herself, as she presided over the teacups--not at the
+end, but at the middle of the table--while all that could be desired to
+eat and drink found its way at once to Dolores, who had arrived at being
+hungry now, and was glad to have the employment for hands and eyes,
+instead of feeling herself gazed at. She was not so much occupied,
+however, as not to perceive that Uncle William's voice had a free, merry
+ring in it, such as she had never heard in his visits to her father, and
+that there was a great deal of fun and laughter going on over the thin
+sheets of an Indian letter, which Aunt Lily was reading aloud.
+
+No one seemed to be attending to anything else, when Dolores ventured to
+cast a glance around and endeavour to count heads as she sat between her
+uncle and aunt. Two boys and a girl were opposite. Harry, who had come
+to meet them last night, was at one end of the table, a tall girl,
+but still a schoolroom girl, was at the other, and Mysie had been lost
+sights of on her own side of the table; also there was a very tiny girl
+on a high chair on the other side of her mamma. 'Seven,' thought Dolores
+with sinking heart. 'Eight oppressors!'
+
+They were mostly brown-eyed, well-grown creatures. One boy, at the
+further corner, had a cast in his eye, and was thin and wizen-looking,
+and when he saw her eyes on him, he made up an ugly face, which he got
+rid of like a flash of lightning before any one else could see it, but
+her heart sank all the more for it. He must be Wilfred, the teaser.
+
+Aunt Lilias was a tall, slender woman, dressed in some kind of soft
+grey, with a little carnation colour at her throat, and a pretty lace
+cap on her still rich, abundant, dark brown hair, where diligent search
+could only detect a very few white threads. Her complexion was always of
+a soft, paly, brunette tint, and though her cheeks showed signs that she
+was not young, her dark, soft, long-lashed eyes and sweet-looking
+lips made her face full of life and freshness; and the figure and long
+slender hands had the kind of grace that some people call willowy, but
+which is perhaps more like the general air of a young birch tree, or,
+as Hal had once said, 'Early pointed architecture reminded him of his
+mother.'
+
+The little one was getting restless, and two of the boys began filliping
+crumbs at one another.
+
+'Wilfred! Fergus!' said the mother quite low and gently; but they
+stopped directly. 'We will say grace,' she said, lifting the little one
+down. 'Now, Primrose.'
+
+Every one stood up, to Dolores' surprise, a pair of little fat hands
+were put together, a little clear voice said a few words of thanksgiving
+perfectly pronounced.
+
+'You may go, if you like,' she said. 'Hal, take care of Prim.'
+
+Up jumped the two boys and a sprite of a girl, who took the hand of
+little Primrose, a beautiful little maiden with rich chestnut wavy
+curls. They all paused at the door, the boys making a salute, the girls
+a little curtsey. Primrose's was as pretty a little 'bob' as ever was
+seen.
+
+'I am glad you keep that custom up,' said Mr. Mohun.
+
+'Jasper had been brought up to it, and wished it to be the habit among
+us; and I find it a great protection against bouncing and rudeness.'
+
+But Dolly's blood boiled at such stupid, antiquated, military nonsense.
+She would never give in to it, if they made her live on bread and water!
+
+The uncle and aunt, who perhaps had lengthened out their breakfast from
+politeness to her, had finished when she had, and the pony-chaise came
+to the door, in which Hal was to drive Uncle William to the station.
+Everybody flocked to the door to bid him good-bye, and then Aunt Lilias
+stooped down to ask Dolores if she were quite rested and felt quite
+well, Mysie standing anxiously by as if she felt her a great charge.
+
+'Quite well, quite rested, thank you,' the girl answered in her stiff,
+shy way.
+
+'There is half an hour to spare before Miss Vincent comes. The children
+generally spend it in feeding the creatures. I am not going to give
+a holiday, because I think people get more pleasantly acquainted over
+something, than over nothing, to do, but you need not begin lessons
+to-day if you had rather settle your thoughts and write your letters.'
+
+'I had rather begin at once,' said Dolores, who thought she would now
+establish her pre-eminence at the cost of any amount of jealousy.
+
+'Very well, then, when you hear the gong--'
+
+'Mamma,' said Mysie solemnly, after long waiting, 'she says she had
+rather not be called out of her name.'
+
+'I thought you had been called Dolly, my dear.'
+
+'Yes, at home,' with a strong emphasis.
+
+'Well, my dear, I dare say it may be better to keep to your proper name
+at once. We won't take liberties with it, till you feel as if you could
+call this home,' said Lady Merrifield, looking as if she would have
+kissed her niece on the slightest encouragement, but no one ever looked
+less kissable than Dolores Mohun at that moment. Was it not cruel and
+hypocritical to talk of this tiresome multitude as ever making home?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. -- TURNED IN AMONG THEM
+
+
+
+'Do you like pets?' asked Mysie eagerly, as her mother left the two
+girls together.
+
+'I never had any,' said Dolores.
+
+'Oh how dreadful! Why, old Cockie, and Aga and Begum, the two oldest
+pussies, have been everywhere with us. And, besides, there's Basto,
+the big Pyrenean dog, and,--oh, here comes little Quiz, mamma's little
+Maltese--Quiz, Quiz.'
+
+Dolores started, she did not like either dogs or cats; and the little
+spun-glass looking dog smelt about her.
+
+'I must go and feed my guinea-pig,' said Mysie; 'won't you come? Here
+are some over shoes and Poncho.'
+
+Dolores was afraid Poncho was another beast, but it turned out to be
+a sort of cape, and she discovered that all the cloaks and most of the
+sticks had names of their own. She was afraid to be left standing on the
+steps alone lest any amount of animals or boys should fall on her there,
+so she consented to accompany Mysie, who shuffled along in a pair of
+overshoes vastly too big for her, since she had put her cousin into the
+well-fitting ones. She chattered all the way.
+
+'We do like this place so. It is the nicest we have ever been in. All
+that is wanting is that papa will buy it, and then we shall never go
+away again.'
+
+It was a pleasant place, though not grand; a homely-looking, roomy,
+red-brick house, covered with creepers--the Virginian one with its
+leaves just beginning to be painted. There was a bright sunny garden
+full of flowers in front, and then a paddock, with cows belonging to a
+farmer, Mysie said. It was her ambition to have them of their own 'when
+papa came home,' when all good things were to happen. Behind there were
+large stable-yards and offices, too large for Lady Merrifield's one
+horse and one pony, and thus available for the children's menagerie of
+rabbits, guinea-pigs, magpie, and the like. On the way Mysie was only
+too happy to explain the family as she called it, when she had recovered
+from her astonishment that Dolores, always living in England, could
+not 'count up her cousins.' 'Why they always had been shown their
+photographs on a Sunday evening after the Bible pictures, and even
+little Primrose knew all the likeness, even of those she had never
+seen.'
+
+The catalogue of names and ages followed.
+
+Dolores heard it with a feeling of bewilderment, and a sense that one
+Maude was worth all the eight put together with whom she was called
+on to be familiar. She found herself standing in a court, rather
+grass-grown, where Gillian, with little Primrose by her side, was
+flinging peas to a number of pigeons, grey, white, and brown, who
+fluttered round her. Valetta and Fergus were on the granary steps,
+throwing meal and sop mixed together to a host of cackling, struggling
+fowls, who tried to leap over each other's backs. Wilfred seemed busy at
+some hutches where some rabbits twitched their noses at cabbage leaves.
+Mysie proceeded to minister to some black and rust-coloured guinea-pigs,
+which Dolores thought very ugly, uninteresting, and odorous.
+
+Then there were dogs jumping about everywhere, and cats and kittens
+parading before people's feet, so that Dolores felt as if she had
+been turned into a den of wild beasts, and resolved against ever again
+venturing into the court at 'feeding-time.' A big bell gathered all the
+children up together into a race to the house. There was another scurry
+to change shoes and wash hands, and then Mysie conducted her cousin
+into a large, cheerful, wainscoted room on the ground floor, with deep
+windows, and numerous little, solid-looking deal tables. There were Lady
+Merrifield and a young lady in spectacles, to whom Dolores was presented
+as 'your new pupil,' and every one sat down at one of the little tables,
+on which there were Bibles and Prayer-books.
+
+Lady Merrifield took the two youngest on each side of her. Dolores found
+a table ready for her with the books. A passage in the New Testament was
+given out and read verse by verse, to the end of the subject, which was
+the Parable of the Tares, and then Lady Merrifield gave a short lesson
+on it, asking questions, and causing references to be found, according
+to a book of notes, she had ready at hand.
+
+'Just like a charity school,' thought Dolores, when she was able to
+glance at the time-table, and saw that two days in the week there was
+Old Testament, two days New, one day Catechism, one day Prayer-book.
+Only half an hour was thus appropriated, but to her mind it was an
+old-fashioned waste of time, and very tiresome.
+
+Then came a ring at the door-bell. 'Mr. Poulter,' she heard, and to her
+amazement, she found that Gillian and Mysie, as well as their brothers,
+had Latin lessons in the dining-room with the curate. The two girls and
+Fergus only went to him every other day, Wilfred every day, as Gillian
+was learning Greek and mathematics. What was Dolores to do?
+
+'Have you done any Latin, my dear?' asked her aunt.
+
+'Not yet. Father wished to be quite convinced that the professor was a
+good scholar,' said Dolores.
+
+'Very well. We will wait a little,' said Aunt Lilias, and Dolores
+indignantly thought that she was amused.
+
+Mysie was sent off to her music in the drawing-room, whither her mother
+followed with Primrose's little lessons, leaving the schoolroom piano to
+Valetta, and Fergus to write copies and to do sums, while Miss Vincent
+examined the new-comer, which she did by giving her some questions to
+answer in writing, and some French and German to translate and parse
+also in writing.
+
+The music was inconvenient to a girl who had always prepared her work
+alone. She could do the language work easily, but the questions teased
+her. They seemed to her of no use, and quite out of her beat. No dates,
+none of the subject she had specially got up. Why, if Miss Vincent did
+not know that people were not to be expected to answer stupid questions
+about history quite out of their own line, that was her fault.
+
+She did what she knew, and then sat biting the top of her pen till
+her aunt came back, and there was a change in occupations all round,
+resulting in her having to read French aloud, which she knew she did
+well; but it was provoking to find that Gillian read quite as well, and
+knew a word at which she had made a shot, and a wrong one.
+
+She heard the observation pass between her aunt and the governess,
+'Languages fair, but she seems to have very little general information.'
+
+General information, indeed! Just as if she who had lived in London,
+gone to lectures, and travelled on the Continent, must not know more
+than these children cast up and down in a soldier's life; and as if
+her Fraulein, with all her diplomas, must not be far superior to a
+mere little daily governess, and a mother! It was all for the sake of
+depreciating her.
+
+At twelve o'clock, to her further indignation, she found there was to be
+an hour of reading aloud and of needlework-actual plain needlework. The
+three girls were making under-garments for themselves; and on Dolores
+proving to have no work of any sort, her aunt sent Gillian to the
+drawer, and produced a child's pinafore, which she was desired to hem.
+Each, however, had a quarter of an hour's reading aloud of history to do
+in turn, all from one big book, a history of Rome, and there was a map
+hung up over the black board, where they were in turn to point to the
+places mentioned. Before Gillian began reading, the date, and something
+about the former lesson was required to be told by the children, and
+it came quite readily, Valetta especially declaring that she did love
+Pyrrhus, which the others seemed to think very bad taste.
+
+Dolores knew nothing about ancient history, and thought it foolish to
+study anything that did not tell in a Cambridge examination; but she
+supposed they knew no better down there; and when it came to her turn
+to read, she mangled the names so, that Val burst out laughing when she
+spoke of A-pious-Claudius. Lady Merrifield hushed this at once, and the
+girl read in a bewildered manner, and as one affronted. She saw he aunt
+looking at her piece of hemming, which, to say the truth, would not have
+done credit to Primrose, and the recollection came across her of all
+the oppressed orphans who had been made household drudges, so that her
+reading did not become more intelligible. As the clock struck one, a
+warning gong was heard; everybody jumped up, the work was folded away,
+and with the obeisance at the door, Gillian and Val ran away.
+
+Mysie stayed a little longer, it being her turn to tidy the room; and
+Lady Merrifield said to Dolores--
+
+'I must teach you how to hold your needle tomorrow, my dear.'
+
+'I hate work,' responded Dolores.
+
+'Val does not like it,' said her aunt; 'nor indeed did I at your age;
+but one cannot be an independent woman without being able to take care
+of one's own clothes, so I resolved that these children should learn
+better than I did. Do you like a take a run with Mysie before dinner?
+Or there is the amusing shelf. Books may be taken out after one o'clock,
+and they must be put back at eight, or they are confiscated for the
+ensuing day,' she added, pointing to a paper below where this sentence
+was written.
+
+Dolores was still rather tired, and more inclined to make friends with
+the books than with the cousins. There were fewer than she expected, and
+nothing like so many absolute stories as she was used to reading with
+Maude Sefton.
+
+'Those are such grown-up books,' she said to Mysie, who came to assist
+her choice, and pointed to the upper shelves.
+
+'Oh, but grown-up books are nicest!' returned Mysie; 'at least, when
+they don't begin being stupid and marrying too soon. They must do it at
+last to get out of the story, and it's nicer than dying, but they can
+have lots of nice adventures first. But here are the 'Feats on the
+Fiords' and the 'Crofton Boys' and 'Water Babies,' and all the volumes
+of 'Aunt Judy,' if you like the younger sort. Or the dear, dear 'Thorn
+Fortress;' that's good for young and old.'
+
+'Haven't you any books of your own?'
+
+'Oh yes; this 'Thorn Fortress' is Val's, and 'A York and a Lancaster
+Rose' is mine, but whenever any one gives us a book, if it is not a
+weeny little gem like Gill's 'Christian Year,' or my 'Little Pillow,' or
+Val's 'Children in the Wood,' we bring it to mother, and if it is nice,
+we keep it here, for every one to read. If it is just rather silly, and
+stupid, we may read it once, and then she keeps it; and if it is very
+silly indeed, she puts it out of the way.'
+
+Mysie said it as if it had been killing an animal.
+
+'Have you got many books?'
+
+'Yes; but I don't mean to have them knocked about by all the boys, nor
+put out of the way neither.'
+
+'Mamma said we were to be all like sisters,' said Mysie, with rather a
+craving for the new books; but Dolores tossed up her head and said--
+
+'We can't be. It's nonsense to say so.'
+
+To her surprise, Mysie turned round to Lady Merrifield, who was looking
+at some exercises that Miss Vincent had laid before her.
+
+'Mamma,' she said, 'is it fair that Dolores should read our books, if
+she won't give you up hers to look over, and be like ours?'
+
+'Mysie,' said Lady Merrifield, 'you can't expect Dolores to like all
+our home plans till she is used to them. No, my dear, you need not be
+afraid; you shall keep your books in your own room, and nobody shall
+meddle with them. I am sure your cousins would not wish to be so unkind
+as to deprive you of the use of theirs.'
+
+By the time Dolores had made up her mind to take 'Tom Brown,' it was
+time for the general flight to prepare for dinner, and she found her
+room made to look very pleasant, and almost homelike, for her books and
+little knickknacks had been put out, not quite as she preferred, but
+still so as to make the place seem like her own. She was pleased enough
+to be quite gracious to Mysie and Val who came to visit her, and to
+offer to let them read any of her books; when they both thanked her and
+said--
+
+'If mamma lets us.'
+
+'Oh, then you won't have them,' said Dolores; 'I'm not going to let her
+have my books to take away.'
+
+'You don't think she would take them away, when she said she wouldn't?'
+said Mysie, hotly.
+
+'Why, what would she do if she didn't happen to approve of them?'
+
+'Only tell us not to read them.'
+
+'And wouldn't you?'
+
+'Why, Dolores!' in such a tone as made her ashamed of her question; and
+she said, 'Well, father never makes any fuss about what I read. He has
+other things to think of.'
+
+'How do you get books, then?'
+
+'I buy them. And Maude Sefton, she's my great friend, has lots given to
+her, but nobody bothers about reading them. They aren't grown-up books,
+you know.'
+
+'How stupid,' said Val. 'You had better read the 'Talisman,' and then
+you'll see how nice a grown-up book is.'
+
+'The 'Talisman!' Why, Maude Sefton's brother had to get it up for his
+holiday task, and he said it was all rot and bosh.'
+
+'What a horridly stupid boy he must be,' returned Mysie. 'Why, I
+remember when Jasper once had the 'Talisman' to do, and the big ones
+were so delighted. Mamma read it out, and I was just old enough to
+listen. I remembered all about Sir Kenneth and Roswal.'
+
+'Tom Sefton's not stupid!' said Dolores, in wrath; 'but--but the book is
+stupid and out of date! I heard father and the professor say it was gone
+by.'
+
+Mysie and Valetta looked perfectly astounded, and Dolores pursued her
+advantage.
+
+'Of course it is all very well for you that have never lived in London,
+nor had any advantages.'
+
+'But we have advantages!' cried Val.
+
+'You don't know what advantages are,' said Dolores.
+
+'There's the gong,' cried Mysie, and down they all plunged into the
+dining-room, where the family were again collected, with Hal at one end
+and his mother at the other.
+
+Dolores was amazed when, at the first pause, after every one was help,
+Valetta's voice arose.
+
+'Mamma, what are advantages?'
+
+'Don't you know, Val?'
+
+'Dolores says we haven't any. And I said we have. And she says I don't
+know what advantages are.'
+
+Hal and Gillian were both laughing with all their might. Their mother
+kept her countenance, and said--
+
+'I suppose every one has advantages of some sort, and perhaps without
+knowing them.'
+
+'I'm sure I know,' cried Fergus.
+
+'Well, what are they?' asked Harry.
+
+'Having mamma!' cried the little boy.
+
+'Hear, hear! That's right, Fergy man! Couldn't be better!' cried Harry,
+and there was a general acclamation, which inspired gentle Mysie with
+the fear that her motherless cousin might feel the contrast, and, though
+against rules, she whispered--
+
+'She will make you like one of us.'
+
+'That wasn't what I meant,' returned Dolores, a little contemptuously.
+
+'What did you mean?' said Mysie.
+
+'Why, you've no classes, nor lectures, nor master, and only just a mere
+daily governess.'
+
+Dolores did not mean this to be heard beyond her neighbour, but Mysie
+demanded--
+
+'What, do you want to be doing lessons all day long?'
+
+'No, but good governesses never are daily!'
+
+'That's a pity,' said Gillian, turning round on her. 'Perhaps you
+don't know that Miss Vincent has a First Class Cambridge Certificate in
+everything, and is daily, because she likes to live with her mother.'
+
+'I think,' added Lady Merrifield, with a smile, 'that Dolores has been
+in the way of seeing more clever people, and getting superior teaching
+of some kind, but we will do the best we can for her, and try not to let
+her miss many advantages.'
+
+Dolores felt a little abashed, and decidedly angry at being put in the
+wrong.
+
+The elders kindly turned away the general attention from her. There was
+a great deal of merry family fun going on, which was quite like a new
+language to her. Fergus and Primrose wanted to go out in search of
+blackberries. Gillian undertook to drive them in the cart, but as the
+donkey had once or twice refused to cross a little stream of water that
+traversed the road, the brothers foretold that she would ignominiously
+come back again.
+
+'Gill and water are perilous!' observed Hal.
+
+'Jack's not here,' said Gillian; 'besides, it is down, not up the hill,
+and I'm sure I don't want to draw a pail of water.'
+
+'No--Sancho will do that.'
+
+'The gong will sound and sound, buzz and roar,' said Wilfred. 'No Gill!
+no little ones! We shall send out and find them stuck fast in the lane,
+Sancho with his feet spread out wide, Gill with three or four sticks
+lying broken on the road round her, the kids reduced to eating
+blackberries like the children in the wood.'
+
+'Don't Fred,' said Gillian. 'You'll frighten them.'
+
+'Little donkeys!' said Wilfred.
+
+'If they were, we shouldn't want Sancho,' said Val.
+
+It was not a very sublime bit of wit, but there was a great laugh at
+it all round the table. Val and Fergus declared they would go too, till
+they heard that Nurse Halfpenny said she would not let the little ones
+go out without her to tear their clothes to pieces.
+
+Every one unanimously declared that would be no fun at all, and turned
+to mamma to beg her to forbid nurse to come out and spoil everything.
+
+'That's just her view,' said mamma, laughing; 'she thinks you spoil
+everything.'
+
+'Oh, that's clothes! Spoiling fun is worse.'
+
+'But were you really going with the old Halfpenny, Gill?' said Mysie,
+turning to her.
+
+'Yes,' said Gillian. 'You know I can manage her pretty well when it is
+only the little ones and they wouldn't have any pleasure otherwise.'
+
+'Oh come, Gill,' intreated Fergus, 'or nurse will make us sit in the
+donkey-cart all the time while Lois picks the blackberries!'
+
+'Mamma, do tell her not to come,' intreated Valetta, and more of them
+joined in with her.
+
+'No, my dears, I don't like to vex her when she thinks she is doing her
+duty.'
+
+'She wouldn't come if you did, mamma,' and there was a general outcry
+of intreaty that mamma would come with them, and defend them from Mrs.
+Halfpenny, as Fergus, who was rather a formal little fellow, expressed
+it, and mamma, after a little consideration, consented to drive the
+pony-carriage in that direction, and to announce to Nurse Halfpenny that
+she herself would take charge of the children. Whereupon there was a
+whoop and a war-dance of jubilee, quite overwhelming to Dolores, who
+could not but privately ask Mysie if Nurse Halfpenny was so very cross.
+
+'Awfully,' said Mysie, and Wilfred added--
+
+'As savage as a bear with a sore head.'
+
+'Like Mrs. Crabtree?' asked Dolores.
+
+'Exactly. Jasper called her so when he wanted to lash her up, till at
+lash she got hold of his 'Holiday House' and threw it into the sea, and
+it was in Malta and we couldn't get another,' said Mysie.
+
+'And haven't you one?'
+
+'Yes, Gill and I save for it; but mamma only let us have it on condition
+we made a solemn promise never to tease nurse about it.'
+
+'And does she go at you with that dreadful thing--what's it name--the
+tawse?'
+
+'Ah! you'll soon know,' said Wilfred.
+
+'No, no; nonsense, Fred,' said Mysie, as Dolores' face worked with
+consternation. 'She never hits us, not if we are ever so tiresome. Papa
+and mamma would not let her.'
+
+'But why do they let her be so dreadful? Maude's nurse used to be horrid
+and slap her, and when her mother found it out the woman was sent away
+directly.'
+
+Nurse Halfpenny isn't that sort,' said Mysie. 'Her husband was papa's
+colour-sergeant, and he got a sun-stroke and died, and then she came
+when Gillian was just born, and so weak and tiny that she would never
+have lived if nurse hadn't watched her day and night, and so Gillian's
+her favourite, except the youngest, and she is ever so good, you know.
+I've heard the ladies, when we were with the dear old 111th, telling
+mamma how they envied her her trustworthy treasure.'
+
+'I'm sure they might have had her at half-price,' said Wilfred. 'She's
+be dear at a farthing!'
+
+At that moment Mrs. Halfpenny's voice was heard demanding if it were
+really her ladyship's pleasure to go out, fatiguing herself to the very
+death with all the children rampaging about her and tearing themselves
+to pieces, if not poisoning themselves with all sorts of nasty berries.
+
+'Indeed I'll take care of them and bring them back safe to you,'
+responded her ladyship, very much in the tone of one of her own children
+making promises. 'Put them on their brown hollands and they can't come
+to much harm.'
+
+'Well, if it's your wish, ma'am, my leddy; what must be, must, but I
+know how it will be--you'll come back tired out, fit to drop, and Miss
+Val and Miss Primrose won't have a rag fit to be seen on them. But if
+it's your will, what must be must, for you're no better than a bairn
+yourself, general's lady though you be, and G.C.B.'
+
+'No, nurse, you'll be G.C.B.--Grand Commander of the Bath--when we come
+home,' called out Hall, who was leaning on the banister at the bottom,
+and there was a general laugh, during which Dolly tardily climbed the
+stairs, so tardily that her aunt, meeting her, asked whether she was
+still tired, and if she would rather have the afternoon to arrange her
+room.
+
+She said 'yes,' but not 'thank you,' and went on, relieved that Mysie
+did not offer to stay and help her, and yet rather offended at being
+left alone, while all the others went their own way. She heard them
+pattering and clattering, shouting and calling up and down the passages,
+and then came a great silence, while they could be seen going down the
+drive, some on foot, some in the pony-chaise or donkey-cart.
+
+Her things had all been unpacked and put in order, and her room had
+a very cheerful window. It was prettily furnished with fresh pink and
+white dimity, and choice-looking earthenware, but to London eyes like
+those of Dolores it seemed very old-fashioned and what she called 'poked
+up.' The paper was ugly, the chimney-piece was a narrow, painting thing,
+of the same dull, stone-colour as the door and the window-frame. And
+then the clear air, the perfect stillness, the absence of anything
+moving in the view from the window gave the citybred child a sense of
+dreadful loneliness and dreariness as she sat on the side of her bed,
+with one foot under her, gazing dolefully round her, and in he head
+composing her own memoirs.
+
+'Fully occupied with their own plans and amusements, the lonely orphan
+was left in solitude. Her aunt knew not how her heart ached after the
+home she had left, but the machine of the family went its own way and
+trod her under its wheels.'
+
+This was such a fine sentence that it was almost a comfort, and she
+thought of writing it to Maude Sefton, but as she got up to fetch her
+writing-case from the schoolroom, she saw that her books were standing
+just in the way she did not like, and with all the volumes mixed up
+together. So she tumbled them all out of the shelves on the floor, and
+at that moment Mrs. Halfpenny looked into the room.
+
+'Well, to be sure!' she exclaimed, 'when me and Lois have been working
+at them books all the morning.'
+
+'They were all nohow--as I don't like them,' said Dolores.
+
+'Oh, very well, please yourself then, miss, if that's all the thanks you
+have in your pocket, you may put them up your own way, for all I care.
+Only my lady will have the young ladies' rooms kept neat and orderly, or
+they lose marks for it.'
+
+'I don't want any help,' said Dolores, crossly, and Mrs. Halfpenny shut
+the door with a bang. 'The menials are insulting me,' said Dolores to
+herself, and a tear came to her eye, while all the time there was a
+certain mournful satisfaction in being so entirely the heroine of a
+book.
+
+She went to work upon her books, at first hotly and sharply, and very
+carefully putting the tallest in the centre so as to form a gradual
+ascent with the tops and not for the world letting a second volume stand
+before its elder brother, but she soon got tired, took to peeping at
+one or two parting gifts which she had not yet been able to read, and at
+last got quite absorbed in the sorrows of a certain Clare, whose golden
+hair was cut short by her wicked aunt, because it outshone her cousin's
+sandy locks. There was reason to think that a tress of this same golden
+hair would lead to her recognition by some grandfather of unknown
+magnificence, as exactly like that of his long-lost Claribel, and this
+might result in her assuming splendours that would annihilate the aunt.
+Things seemed tending to a fracture of the ice under the cruellest
+cousin of all, and her rescue by Clare, when they would be carried
+senseless into the great house, and the recognition of Clare and the
+discomfiture of her foes would take place. How could Dolores shut the
+book at such a critical moment!
+
+So there she was sitting in the midst of her scattered books, when the
+galloping and scampering began again, and Mysie knocked at the door
+to tell her there were pears, apples, biscuits, and milk in the
+dining-room, and that after consuming them, lessons had to be learnt for
+the next day, and then would follow amusements, evening toilette, seven
+o'clock tea, and either games or reading aloud till bedtime. As to the
+books, Mysie stood aghast.
+
+'I thought nurse and Lois had done them all for you.'
+
+'They did them all wrong, so I took them down.'
+
+Oh, dear! We must put them in, or there'll be a report.'
+
+'A report!'
+
+'Yes, Nurse Halfpenny reports us whenever she doesn't find our rooms
+tidy, and then we get a bad mark. Perhaps mamma wouldn't give you one
+this first day, but it is best to make sure. Shall I help you, or you
+won't have time to eat any pears?'
+
+Dolores was thankful for help, and the books were scrambled in anyhow
+on the shelves; for Mysie's good nature was endangering her share of the
+afternoon's gouter, though perhaps it consoled her that her curiosity
+was gratified by a hasty glance at the backs of her cousin's
+story-books.
+
+By the time the two girls got down to the dining-table, every one had
+left the room, and there only remained one doubtful pear, and three
+baked apples, besides the loaf and the jug of milk. Mysie explained that
+not being a regular meal, no one was obliged to come punctually to it,
+or to come at all, but these who came tardily might fare the worse. As
+to the blackberries, for which Dolores inquired, the girls were going
+to make jam of them themselves the next day; but Mysie added, with
+an effort, she would fetch some, as her cousin had had none in the
+gathering.
+
+'Oh no, thank you; I hate blackberries,' said Dolores, helping herself
+to an apple.
+
+'Do you?' said Mysie, blankly. 'We don't. They are such fun. You can't
+think how delicious the great overhanging clusters are in the lane. Some
+was up so high that Hal had to stand up in the cart to reach them, and
+to take Fergus up on his shoulder. We never had such a blackberrying as
+with mamma and Hal to help us. And only think, a great carriage came by,
+with some very grand people in it; we think it was the Dean; and they
+looked down the lane and stared, so surprised to see what great mind to
+call out, 'Fee, faw, fum.' You know nothing makes such a good giant
+as Fergus standing on Hal's shoulders, and a curtain over them to hide
+Hal's face. Oh dear, I wish I hadn't told you! You would have been a new
+person to show it to.'
+
+Dolores made very little answer, finished her apple, and followed to
+the schoolroom, where an irregular verb, some geography, and some dates
+awaited her.
+
+Then followed another rush of the populace for the evening meal of the
+live stock, but in this Dolores was too wary to share. She made her way
+up to her retreat again, and tried to lose the sense of her trouble
+and loneliness in a book. Then came the warning bell, and a prodigious
+scuffling, racing and chasing, accompanied by yells as of terror and
+roars as of victory, all cut short by the growls of Mrs. Halfpenny.
+Everything then subsided. The world was dressing; Dolores dressed too,
+feeling hurt and forlorn at no one's coming to help her, and yet worried
+when Mysie arrived with orders from Mrs. Halfpenny to come to her to
+have her sash tied.
+
+'I think a servant ought to come to me. Caroline always does,' said the
+only daughter with dignity.
+
+'She can't, for she is putting Primrose to bed. Oh, it's so delicious to
+see Prim in her bath,' said Mysie, with a little skip. 'Make haste, or
+we shall miss her, the darling.'
+
+Dolores did not feel pressed to behold the spectacle, and not being
+in the habit of dressing without assistance, she was tardy, and Mysie
+fidgeted about and nearly distracted her. Thus, when she reached the
+nursery, Primrose was already in her little white bed-gown, and was
+being incited by Valetta to caper about on her cot, like a little
+acrobat, as her sisters said, while Mrs. Halfpenny declared that 'they
+were making the child that rampageous, she should not get her to sleep
+till midnight.'
+
+They would have been turned out much sooner, and Primrose hushed into
+silence, if nurse's soul had not been horrified by the state of Dolores'
+hair and the general set of her garments.
+
+'My certie!' she exclaimed--a dreadful exclamation in the eyes of the
+family, who knew it implied that in all her experience Mrs. Halfpenny
+had never known the like! And taking Dolores by the hand, she led the
+wrathful and indignant girl back into her bedroom, untied and tied,
+unbuttoned and buttoned, brushed and combed in spite of the second bell
+ringing, the general scamper, and the sudden apparition of Mysie and
+Val, whom she bade run away and tell her leddyship that 'Miss Mohoone
+should come as soon as she was sorted, but she ought to come up early
+to have her hair looked to, for 'twas shame to see how thae fine London
+servants sorted a motherless bairn.'
+
+Dolores felt herself insulted; she turned red all over, with feelings
+the old Scotchwoman could not understand. She expected to hear the
+message roared out to the whole assembly round the tea-table, but Mysie
+had discretion enough to withhold her sister from making it public.
+
+The tea itself, though partaken of by Lady Merrifield, seemed an
+indignity to the young lady accustomed to late dinners. After it, the
+whole family played at 'dumb crambo.' Dolores was invited to join,
+and instructed to 'do the thing you think it is;' but she was entirely
+unused to social games, and thought it only ridiculous and stupid when
+the word being a rhyme to ite, Fergus gave rather too real a blow to
+Wilfred, and Gillian answered, ''Tis not smite;' Wilfred held out a
+hand, and was told, ''Tis not right;' Val flourished in the air as if
+holding a string, and was informed that 'kite' was wrong; when Hal
+ran away as if pursued by Fergus by way of flight; and Mysie performed
+antics which she was finally obliged to explain were those of a sprite.
+Dolores could not recollect anything, and only felt annoyed at being
+made to feel stupid by such nonsense, when Mysie tried to make her a
+present of a suggestion by pointing to the back of a letter. Neither
+write nor white would come into her head, though little Fergus
+signalized himself, just before he was swept off to bed, by seizing a
+pen and making strokes!
+
+After his departure, Lady Merrifield read aloud 'The Old oak Staircase,'
+which had been kept to begin when Dolores came, Hal taking the book in
+turn with his mother. And so ended Dolores' first day of banishment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. -- THE FIRST WALK
+
+
+
+'What a lot of letters for you, mamma!' cried Mysie.
+
+'Papa!' exclaimed Fergus and Primrose.
+
+'No, it is not the right day, my dears. But here is a letter from Aunt
+Ada.'
+
+'Oh!' in a different tone.
+
+'She writes for Aunt Jane. They will come down here next Monday because
+Aunt Jane is wanted to address the girls at the G.F.S. festival on
+Tuesday.'
+
+'Aunt Jane seems to have taken to public speaking,' said Harry. 'It
+would be rather a lark to hear her.'
+
+'You may have a chance,' said Lady Merrifield, 'for here is a note from
+Mrs. Blackburn to ask if I will be so very kind as to let them have the
+festival here. They had reckoned upon Tillington Park, where they have
+always had it before, but they hear that all the little Tillingtons have
+the measles, and they don't think it safe to venture there.'
+
+'It will be great fun!' said Gillian. 'We will have all sorts of games,
+only I'm afraid they will be much stupider than the Irish girls.'
+
+'And ever so much stupider than the dear 111th children,' sighed Mysie.
+
+'Aren't they all great big girls?' asked Valetta, disconsolately.
+
+'I believe twelve years old is the limit,' said her mother.
+'Twelve-year-old girls have plenty of play in them, Vals, haven't they,
+Mysie? Let me see--two hundred and thirty of them.'
+
+'For you to feast?' asked Harry.
+
+'Oh, no--that cost comes out of their own funds, Mrs. Blackburn takes
+care to tell me, and Miss Hacket will find some one in Siverfold who
+will provide tables and forms and crockery. I must go down and talk to
+Miss Hacket as soon as lessons are over. Or perhaps it would save time
+and trouble if I wrote and asked her to come up to luncheon and see the
+capabilities of the place. Why, what's the matter?' pausing at the blank
+looks.
+
+'The jam, mamma--the blackberry jam!' cried Valetta.
+
+'Well?'
+
+'We can't do it without Gill, and she will have to be after that Miss
+Constance,' explained Val.
+
+'Oh! never mind. She won't stay all the afternoon,' said Gillian,
+cheerfully. 'Luncheon people don't.'
+
+'Yes, but then there will be lessons to be learnt.'
+
+'Look here, Val,' said Gillian, 'if you and Mysie will learn your
+lessons for tomorrow while I'm bound to Miss Con., I'll do mine some
+time in the evening, and be free for the jam when she is gone.'
+
+'The dear delicious jam!' cried Val, springing about upon her chair; and
+Lady Merrifield further said--
+
+'I wonder whether Mysie and Dolores would like to take the note down.
+They could bring back a message by word of mouth.'
+
+'Oh, thank you, mamma!' cried Mysie.
+
+'Then I will write the note as soon as we have done breakfast. Don't
+dawdle, Fergus boy.'
+
+'Mayn't I go?' demanded Wilfred.
+
+'No, my dear. It is your morning with Mr. Poulter. And you must take
+care not to come back later than eleven, Mysie dear; I cannot have him
+kept waiting. Dolores, do you like to go?'
+
+'Yes, please,' said Dolores, partly because it was at any rate gain
+to escape from that charity-school lesson in the morning, and partly
+because Valetta was looking at her in the ardent hope that she would
+refuse the privilege of the walk, and it therefore became valuable;
+but there was so little alacrity in her voice that her aunt asked her
+whether she were quite rested and really liked the walk, which would be
+only half a mile to the outskirts of the town.
+
+Dolores hated personal inquiries beyond everything, and replied that she
+was quite well, and didn't mind.
+
+So soon as she and Mysie had finished, they were sent off to get ready,
+while Aunt Lilias wrote her note in pencil at the corner of the table,
+which she never left, while Fergus and Primrose were finishing their
+meal; but she had to silence a storm at the 'didn't mind'--Gillian even
+venturing to ask how she could send one to whom it was evidently no
+pleasure to go. 'I think she likes it more than she shows,' said the
+mother, 'and she wants air, and will settle to her lessons the better
+for it. What's that, Val?'
+
+'It was my turn, mamma,' said Valetta, in an injured voice.
+
+'It will be your turn next, Val,' said her mother, cheerfully. 'Dolores
+comes between you and Mysie, so she must take her place accordingly. And
+today we grant her the privilege of the new-comer.'
+
+Dolores would have esteemed the privilege more, if, while she was going
+upstairs to put on her hat, the recollection had not occurred to her of
+one of the victim's of an aunt's cruelty who was always made to run on
+errands while her favoured cousins were at their studies. Was this the
+beginning? Somehow, though her better sense knew this was a foolish
+fancy, she had a secret pleasure in pitying herself, and posing to
+herself as a persecuted heroine. And then she was greatly fretted
+to find the housemaid in her room, looking as if no one else had any
+business there. What was worse, she could not find her jacket. She
+pulled out all her drawers with fierce, noisy jerks, and then turned
+round on the maid, sharply demanding--
+
+'Who has taken my jacket?'
+
+'I'm sure I don't know, Miss Dollars. You'd best ask Mrs. Halfpenny.'
+
+'If--' but at that moment Mysie ran in, holding the jacket in her hand.
+'I saw it in the nursery,' she said, triumphantly. 'Nurse had taken it
+to mend! Come along. Where's your hat?'
+
+But there was pursuit; Mrs. Halfpenny was at the door. 'Young ladies,
+you are not going out of the policy in that fashion.'
+
+'Mamma sent us. Mamma wants us to take a note in a hurry. Only to Miss
+Hacket,' pleaded Mysie, as Mrs. Halfpenny laid violent hands on her
+brown Holland jacket, observing--
+
+'My leddy never bade ye run off mair like a wild worricow than a general
+officer's daughter, Miss Mysie. What's that? Only Miss Hacket, do you
+say? You should respect yourself and them you come of mair than to show
+yourself to a blind beetle in an unbecoming way. 'Tis well that there's
+one in the house that knows what is befitting. Miss Dollars, you stand
+still; I must sort your necktie before you go. 'Tis all of a wisp. Miss
+Mysie, you tell your mamma that I should be fain to know her pleasure
+about Miss Dollars' frocks. She've scarce got one--coloured or
+mourning--that don't want altering.'
+
+Mrs. Halfpenny always caused Dolores such extreme astonishment and awe
+that she obeyed her instantly, but to be turned about and tidied by an
+authoritative hand was extremely disagreeable to the independent young
+lady. Caroline had never treated her thus, being more willing to permit
+untidiness than to endure her temper. She only durst, after the pair
+were released, remonstrate with Mysie on being termed Miss Dollars.
+
+'They can't make out your name,' said Mysie. 'I tried to teach Lois, but
+nurse said she had no notion of new-fangled nonsense names.'
+
+'I'm sure Valetta and Primrose are worse.'
+
+'Ah! but Val was born at Malta, and mamma had always loved the Grand
+Master La Valetta so much, and had written verses about him when she was
+only sixteen. And Primrose was named after the first primrose mamma had
+seen for twelve years--the first one Val and I had ever seen.'
+
+'They called me Miss Mohun at home.'
+
+'Yes, but we can't here, because of Aunt Jane.'
+
+All this was chattered forth on the stairs before the two girls reached
+the dining-room, where Mysie committed the feeding of her pets to Val,
+and received the note, with fresh injunctions to come home by eleven,
+and bring word whether Miss Hacket and Miss Constance would both come to
+luncheon.
+
+'Oh dear!' sighed Gillian, and there was a general groan round the
+table.
+
+'It can't be helped, my dear.'
+
+'Oh no, I know it can't,' said Gillian, resignedly.
+
+'You see,' said Mysie. 'Yes, come along, Basto dear. You see Gill has to
+be--down, Basto, I say!--a young lady when.... Never mind him, Dolores,
+he won't hurt. When Miss Constance Hacket and--leave her alone, Basto, I
+say!--and she is such a goose. Not you, Dolores, but Miss Constance.'
+
+'Oh that dog! I wish you would not take him.'
+
+'Not take dear old Basto! Why 'tis such a treat for him to get a walk in
+the morning--the delight of his jolly old black heart. Isn't he a dear
+old fellow? and he never hurt anybody in his life! It's only setting
+off! He will quiet down in a minute; but I couldn't disappoint him.
+Could I, my old man?'
+
+Never having lived with animals nor entered into their feelings, Dolores
+could not understand how a dog's pleasure could be preferred to her
+comfort, and felt a good deal hurt, though Basto's antics subsided as
+soon as they were past the inner gate shutting in the garden from the
+paddock, which was let out to a farmer. Mysie, however, ran on as usual
+with her stream of information--
+
+'The Miss Hacket were sister or daughters or something to some old man
+who used to be clergyman here, and they are all married up but these
+two, and they've got the dearest little house you ever saw. They had
+a nephew in the 111th, and so they came and called on us at once. Miss
+Hacket is a regular old dear, but we none of us can bear Miss Constance,
+except that mamma says we ought to be sorry for her because she leads
+such a confined life. Miss Hacket and Aunt Jane always do go on so about
+the G.F.S. They both are branch secretaries, you know.'
+
+'I know! Aunt Jane did bother Mrs. Sefton so that she says she will
+never have another of those G.F.S. girls. She says it is a society for
+interference.'
+
+'Mamma likes it,' said Mysie.
+
+'Oh! but she is only just come.'
+
+'Yes; but she always looked after the school children at Beechcroft
+before she married, and she and Alethea and Phyllis had the soldiers'
+children up on Sunday. Alethea taught the little drummer boys, and they
+were so funny. I wonder who teaches them now! Gill always goes down
+to help Miss Hacket with her G.F.S. classes. She has one on Sunday
+afternoon, and one on Tuesday for sewing, and she is the only young lady
+in the place who can do plain needlework properly.'
+
+'Sewing-machines can work. What the use of fussing about it!'
+
+'They can't mend,' said Mysie. 'Besides, do you know, in the American
+war, all the sewing-machines in the Southern States got out of order,
+and as all the machinery people were in the north, the poor ladies
+didn't know what to do, and couldn't work without them.'
+
+'Sewing-machines are a recent invention,' said Dolores.
+
+'Oh! you didn't think I meant the great old War of Independence. No, I
+meant the war about the slaves--secession they called it.'
+
+'That is not in the history of England,' said Dolores, as if Mysie had
+no business to look beyond.
+
+'Why! of course not, when it happened in America. Papa told us about
+it. He read it in some paper, I think. Don't you like learning things in
+that way?'
+
+'No. I don't approve of irregular unsystematic knowledge.'
+
+Dolores has heard her mother say something of this kind, and it came
+into her head most opportunely as a defence of her father--for she would
+not for the world have confessed that he did not talk to her as Sir
+Jasper Merrifield seemed to have done to his children. In fact she
+rather despised the General for so doing.
+
+'Oh! but it is such fun picking up things out of lesson time!' said
+Mysie.
+
+'That is the Edge--,' Dolores was not sure of the word Edgeworthian,
+so she went on to 'system. Professor Sefton says he does not approve of
+harassing children with cramming them with irregular information at all
+sorts of times. Let play be play and lessons be lessons, he says, not
+mixed up together, and so Rex and Maude never learnt anything--not a
+letter--till they were seven years old.'
+
+'How stupid!' cried Mysie.
+
+'Maude's not stupid!' cried Dolores, 'nor the professor either! She's my
+great friend.'
+
+'I didn't say she was stupid,' said Mysie, apologetically, 'only that
+it must be very stupid not to be able to read till one was seven. Could
+you?'
+
+'Oh, yes. I can't remember when I couldn't read. But Maude used to play
+with a little girl who could read and talk French at five years old, and
+she died of water upon her brain.'
+
+'Dear me! Primrose can read quite well,' said Mysie, somewhat alarmed;
+'but then,' she went on in a reassured voice, 'so could all of us except
+Jasper and Gillian, and they felt the heat so much at Gibraltar that
+they were quite stupid while they were there.'
+
+This discussion brought the two girls across the paddock out into a road
+with a broad, neat footpath, where numerous little children were being
+exercised with nurses and perambulators. At first it was bordered by
+fields on either side, but villas soon began to spring up, and presently
+the girls reached what looked like a long, low 'cottage residence,' but
+was really two, with a verandah along the front, and a garden divided
+in the middle by a paling covered with canary nasturtium shrubs. The
+verandah on one side was hung with a rich purple pall of the dark
+clematis, on the other by a Gloire de Dijon rose. There were bright
+flower beds, and the dormer windows over the verandah looked like
+smiling eyes under their deep brows of creeper-trimmed verge-board. What
+London-bred Dolores saw was a sight that shocked her--a lady standing
+unbonnetted just beyond the verandah, talking to a girl whose black hat
+and jacket looked what Mysie called 'very G.F.S.-y.'
+
+The lady did not turn out to be young or beautiful. She was near middle
+age, and looked as if she were far too busy to be ever plump; she had a
+very considerable amount of nose and rather thin, dark hair, done in a
+fashion which, like that of her navy blue linen dress, looked perfectly
+antiquated to Dolores. As she saw the two girls at the gate she came
+down the path eagerly to welcome them.
+
+'Ah! my dear Mysie! so kind of your dear mother! I thought I should
+hear from her.' And as she kissed Mysie, she added, 'And this is the new
+cousin. My dear, I am glad to see you here.'
+
+Dolores thought her own dignified manner had kept off a kiss, not
+knowing that Miss Hacket was far too ladylike to be over-familiar, and
+that there was no need to put on such a forbidding look.
+
+Mysie gave her message and note, but Miss Hacket could not give the
+verbal answer at once till she had consulted her sister. She was not
+sure whether Constance had not made an engagement to play lawn-tennis,
+so they must come in.
+
+There sounded 'coo-roo-oo coo-roo-oo' in the verandah, and Mysie cried--
+
+'Oh, the dear doves!'
+
+Miss Hacket said she had been just feeding them when the G.F.S. girl
+arrived, and as Mysie came to a halt in delight at the aspect of a young
+one that had just crept out into public life, the sister was called to
+the window. She was a great deal younger and more of the present day
+in style than her sister, and had pensive-looking grey eyes, with
+a somewhat bored languid manner as she shook hands with the early
+visitors.
+
+The sisters had a little consultation over the note, during which
+Dolores studied them, and Mysie studied the doves, longing to see the
+curious process of feeding the young ones.
+
+When Miss Hacket turned back to her with the acceptance of the
+invitation, she thought she might wait just to help Miss Hacket to put
+in the corn and the sop. Meantime Miss Constance talked to Dolores.
+
+'Did you arrive yesterday?'
+
+'No, the day before.'
+
+'Ah! it must be a great change to you.'
+
+'Indeed it is.'
+
+'This must be the dullest place in England, I think,' said Miss
+Constance. 'No variety, no advantages of any kind! And have not you
+lived in London?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'That is my ambition! I once spent six weeks in London, and it was an
+absolute revelation--the opening of another world. And I understand that
+Mr. Maurice Mohun is such a clever man, and that you saw a great deal of
+his friends.'
+
+'I used,' said Dolores, thinking of those days of her mother when she
+was the pet and plaything of the guests, incited to say clever and pert
+things, which then were passed round and embellished till she neither
+knew them nor comprehended them.
+
+'That is what I pine for!' exclaimed Miss Constance. 'Nobody here has
+any ideas. You can't conceive how borne and prejudiced every one her who
+is used to something better! Don't you love art needlework?'
+
+'Maude Sefton has been working Goosey Goosey Gander on a toilet-cover.'
+
+'Oh! how sweet! We never get any new patterns here! Do come in and see,
+I don't know which to take; I brought three beginnings home to choose
+from, and I am quite undecided.'
+
+'Mrs. Sefton draws her own patterns,' said Dolores. 'Something she gets
+ideas from Lorenzo Dellman--he's an artist, you know, and a regular
+aesthete! He made her do a dado all sunflowers last year, but they are a
+little gone out now, and are very staring besides, and I think she will
+have some nymphs dancing among almond-trees in blue vases instead, as
+soon as she has designed it.'
+
+'Isn't that lovely! Oh! what would I not give for such opportunities? Do
+let me have your opinion.'
+
+So Dolores went in with her, and looked at three patterns, one of
+tall daisies; another of odd-looking doves, one on each side of a red
+Etruscan vase, where the water must have been as much out of their reach
+as that in the pitcher was beyond the crow's; and a third, of Little
+Bo Peep. Having given her opinion in favour of Bo Peep, she was taken
+upstairs to inspect the young lady's store of crewels, and choose the
+colours.
+
+Dolores neither knew nor cared anything about fancy work, but to be
+treated as an authority was quite soothing, and she fully believed
+that the mere glimpses she had had of Mrs. Sefton's work and the shop
+windows, enabled her to give great enlightenment to this poor country
+mouse; so she gladly went to the bedroom, with a muslin-worked
+toilet-cover, embroidered curtains, plates fastened against the wall,
+and table all over knick-knacks, which Miss Constance called her little
+den, where she could study beauty after her own bent, while her sister
+Mary was wholly engrossed with the useful, and could endure nothing but
+the prose of the last century.
+
+Meantime Mysie had forgotten how time flew in her belief that in one
+minute more the young doves would want to be fed, and then in amusement
+at seeing them pursue their parents with low squeaks and flutterings,
+watching, too, the airs and graces, bowing, cooing, and laughing of the
+old ones. When at last she was startled by hearing eleven struck, there
+had to be a great hunt for Dolores in the drawing-room and garden,
+and when at last Miss Hacket's calls for her sister brought the
+tow downstairs more than ten minutes had passed! Mysie was too much
+dismayed, and in too great a hurry to do anything but cry, 'Come along,
+Dolores,' and set off at such a gallop as to scandalize the Londoner,
+even when Mysie recollected that it was too public a place for running,
+and slackened her pace. Dolores was soon gasping, and with a stitch in
+her side. Mysie would have exclaimed, 'What were you doing with Miss
+Constance?' but breathlessness happily prevented it. The way across the
+paddock seemed endless, and Mysie was chafed at having to hold back for
+her companion, who panted in distress, leant against a tree, declared
+she could not go on, she did not care, and then when, Mysie set off
+running, was seized with fright at being left alone in this vast unknown
+space, cried after her and made a rush, soon ending in sobbing breath.
+
+At last they were at the door, and Wilfred just coming out of the
+dining-room greeted them with, 'A quarter to twelve. Won't you catch it?
+Oh my!'
+
+'Are they come?' said Lady Merrifield, looking out of the schoolroom.
+'My dear children! Did Miss Hacket keep you?'
+
+'No, mamma,' gasped Mysie. 'At least it was my fault for watching the
+doves.'
+
+'Ah! Mysie, I must not send you on a message next time. Mr. Poulter has
+been waiting these twenty minutes, and I am afraid you are not fit to
+take a lesson now. Dolores looks quite done up! I shall send you both
+to lie down on your beds and learn your poetry for an hour. And you must
+write an apology to Mr. Poulter this afternoon. No, don't go in now. Go
+up at once, Gillian shall bring your books. Does Miss Hacket come?'
+
+'Yes, mamma,' said Mysie humbly, looking at Dolores all the time.
+She was too generous to say that part of the delay had been caused by
+looking for her cousin, and having to adapt her pace to the slower one,
+but she decidedly expected the avowal from Dolores, and thought it mean
+not to make it. 'And, oh, the jam!' she mourned as she went upstairs.
+While, on the other hand, Dolores considered what she called 'being sent
+to bed' an unmerited and unjust sentence given without a hearing; when
+their tardiness had been all Mysie's fault, not hers. She had no notion
+that her aunt only sent them to lie down, because they looked heated,
+tired, and spent, and was really letting them off their morning's
+lessons. It was a pity that she felt too forlorn and sullen even to
+complain when Gillian brought up Macaulay's 'Armada' for her to learn
+the first twelve lines, or she might have come to an understanding, but
+all that was elicited from her was a glum 'No,' when asked if she knew
+it already. Gillian told her not to keep her dusty boots on the bed, and
+she vouchsafed no answer, for she did not consider Gillian her mistress,
+though, after she was left to herself, she found them so tight and
+hot that she took them off. Then she looked over the verses rather
+contemptuously--she who always learnt German poetry; and she had a great
+mind to assert her independence by getting off the bed, and writing a
+letter to Maude Sefton, describing the narrow stupidity of the whole
+family, and how her aunt, without hearing her, had send her to be for
+Mysie's fault. However she felt so shaky and tired that she thought she
+had better rest a little first, and somehow she fell fast asleep, and
+was only awakened by the gong. She jumped up in haste, recollecting that
+the delightful sympathizing Miss Constance was coming to luncheon,
+and set her hair and dress to rights eagerly, observing, however, to
+herself, that her horrid aunt was quite capable of imprisoning her all
+the time for not having learnt that stupid poetry.
+
+She hesitated a little where to go when she reached the hall, but the
+schoolroom door was open, and she heard a mournful voice concluding with
+a gasp--
+
+        'Our glorious semper eadem, the banner of our pride.'
+
+And Miss Vincent saying, 'Now, my dear, go and wash your face, and try
+not to be such a dismal spectacle.'
+
+And then Mysie came out, with heavy eyes and a mottled face, showing
+that she had been crying all the time she had been learning, over her
+own fault certainly, but likewise over mamma's displeasure and Dolly's
+shabbiness.
+
+'Well, Dora,' said Miss Vincent, 'have you come to repeat your poetry?'
+
+'No,' said Dolores. 'I went to sleep instead.'
+
+'Oh! I'm glad of that. I wish poor Mysie had done the same. I believe it
+was what Lady Merrifield intended, you both looked so knocked up.'
+
+Dolores cleared up a little at this, especially as Miss Vincent was no
+relation, and she thought it a good time to make her protest against
+mere English.
+
+'Oh!' she said. 'I supposed that was the reason she gave me such a
+stupid, childish, sing-song nursery rhyme to learn. I can say lots of
+Schiller and some Goethe.'
+
+'I advise you not to let any one hear you call Lord Macaulay's poem a
+nursery rhyme, or it might never be forgotten,' said Miss Vincent gaily.
+Then seeing the cloud return to Dolores's face, she added, 'You have
+been brought forward in German, I see. We must try to bring your
+knowledge of English literature up to be even with it.'
+
+Dolores liked this better than anything she had yet heard, chiefly
+because she had learnt from her books that governesses were not
+uniformly so cruel as aunts. And besides, she felt that she had been
+spared a public humiliation.
+
+By this time the guests were ringing at the door, and Miss Vincent, with
+her had on, only waiting till their entrance was made to depart. Dolores
+asked whether to go into the drawing-room, and was told that Lady
+Merrifield preferred that the children should only appear in the
+dining-room on the sound of the gong, which was not long in being heard.
+
+The Merrifields were trained not to chatter when there was company at
+table, besides Mysie and Val were in low spirits about the chance of the
+blackberry cookery. Miss Hacket sat on one side of Lady Merrifield, and
+talked about what associates had answered her letters, and what villages
+would send contingents of girls, and it sounded very dull to the
+young people. Miss Constance was next to Hal. She looked amiable and
+sympathetic at Dolores on the opposite side of the table, but discussed
+lawn-tennis tournaments with her neighbour, which was quite as little
+interesting to the general public as was the G.F.S. However, as soon as
+Primrose had said grace, Lady Merrifield proposed to take Miss Hacket
+down to the stable-yard; and the whole train followed excepting the
+two girls, who trusted Hal to see whether their pets would suffer
+inconvenience. However it soon was made evident to Gillian that she was
+not wanted, and that Dolores and Constance had no notion of wandering
+about the paved courts and bare coach-houses, among the dogs and cats,
+guinea-pigs, and fowls. Indeed, Constance, who was at least seven years
+older than Gillian, and a full-blown young lady, dismissed her by saying
+'that she was going to see Miss Mohun's books.'
+
+'Oh, certainly,' said Gillian, in a voice as though she were rather
+surprised, though much relieved.
+
+So off the friends went together--for of course they were to be friends.
+The Miss Mohun had been uttered in a tone that clearly meant to be asked
+to drop it, so they were to be Dolores and Constance henceforth, if not
+Dolly and Cons. Dolores was such a lovely name that Constance could not
+mangle it, and was sure there was some reason for it. The girl had, in
+fact, been named after a Spanish lady, whom her mother had known and
+admired in early girlhood, and to whom she had made a promise of naming
+her first daughter after her. No doubt Dolores did not know that Mrs.
+Mohun had regretted the childish promise which she had felt bound to
+keep in spite of her husband's dislike to the name, which he declared
+would be a misfortune to the child.
+
+Dolores was really proud of its peculiarity, and delighted to have any
+one to sympathize with her, in that and a great deal besides, which she
+communicated to her new friend in the window-seat of her room. When
+the two ladies went home, Constance told her sister that 'dear little
+Dolores was a remarkable character, sadly misunderstood among those
+common-place people, the Merrifields, and unjustly used, too, and she
+should do her best for her!'
+
+Meantime Gillian, finding herself not wanted, had repaired to the
+schoolroom.
+
+'Oh, it is of no use,' sighed Mysie, disconsolately. 'I've ever so
+much morning's work to make up, too. And I never shall! I've muzzled my
+head!'
+
+By which remarkable expression Mysie signified that fatigue, crying, and
+dinner had made her brains dull and heavy; but Gillian was a sensible
+elder sister.
+
+'Don't try your sum yet, then,' she said. 'Practise your scales for half
+an hour, while I do my algebra, and then we'll go over your German verbs
+together. I'll tell Miss Vincent, and she wont' mind, and I think mamma
+will be pleased if you try.'
+
+Gillian was too much used to noises not to be able to work an equation,
+and prepare her Virgil, to the sound of scales, and Mysie was a good
+deal restored by them and by hope.
+
+So when at length Constance had been summoned by her sister, who tore
+herself away from the arrangements, being bound to five-o'clock tea
+elsewhere, Mysie was discovered with a face still rather woe-begone, but
+hopeful and persevering, and though there still was a 'bill of parcels'
+where 11 and 3/4 lbs. of mutton at 13 and 1/2d. per lb. refused to come
+right, Lady Merrifield kissed her, said she had been a diligent child,
+and sent her off prancing in bliss to the old 'still-room' stove, where
+they were allowed a fire, basins, spoons, and strainers, and where the
+sugar lay in a snowy heap, and the blackberries in a sanguine pile.
+
+'There's partiality!' thought Dolores, and scowled, as she stood at the
+front door still gazing after Constance.
+
+'Won't you come, Dolly?' said Mysie. 'Or haven't you learnt your
+lessons?'
+
+'No,' said Dolly, making one answer serve for both questions.
+
+'Oh! then you can't. Shall I ask mamma to let you off?'
+
+'No, I don't care. I don't like messes! And what's the use if you
+haven't a cookery class?'
+
+'It's such fun,' said Val.
+
+'And our sisters did go to a cookery class at Dublin and taught Gill,'
+added Mysie.
+
+'But if you haven't done your lessons, you can't go,' said Valetta
+decidedly.
+
+Off they went, and Lady Merrifield presently crossed the hall, and saw
+Dolores' attitude.
+
+'My dear, are you waiting to say those verses?' she said kindly.
+
+'I hadn't time to learn them, I went to sleep,' said Dolores.
+
+'A very good thing too, my dear. Suppose we go over them together.'
+
+Aunt Lilias took the unwilling hand, led Dolores into the schoolroom,
+and for half an hour she went over the verses with her, explaining what
+was new to the girl, and vividly describing the agitation of Plymouth,
+and the flocks of people thronging in. 'I must show her that I will be
+minded, but I will make it pleasant to her, poor child,' she thought.
+
+And it could not have been otherwise than pleasant to her, but that she
+was reflecting all this time that she was being punished while Mysie was
+enjoying herself. Therefore she put the lid on her intellect, and was
+inconceivably stupid.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. -- PERSECUTION
+
+
+
+On Monday afternoon Dolores was sitting at the end of the long garden
+walk, upon a green garden-bench, with a crocodile's head and tail
+roughly carved. The shouts of the others were audible in the distance
+beyond the belt of trees. Aunt Lily had driven into the town to meet her
+sisters, taking Fergus with her, whereas Dolores had never been out in
+the carriage. There was partiality! Though, to be sure, Fergus was to
+have a tooth out! Harry and Gillian were playing with the rest, and
+she had been invited to join, but she had made answer that she hated
+romping, and on being assured that no romping was necessary, she replied
+that she only wanted to read in peace. She had refused the "Thorn
+Fortress," which she was told would explain the game, and had hunted out
+"Clare, or No Home," to compare her lot with that of the homeless one.
+
+Certainly, she had not yet been sent to bed with a box on the ear
+because a countess had shown symptoms of noticing her more than her
+ugly, over-dressed cousin. But then Aunt Lily would not allow her to
+walk down alone to the Casement Villas to see dear Constance, and would
+let that farmer keep all those dreadful cows in the paddock, so that
+even going escorted was a terror to her.
+
+Nor had her handsome mourning been taken from her and old clothes of
+her cousin substituted for it. No, but she had been cruelly pulled about
+between Mrs. Halfpenny and the Silverton dressmaker with a mouthful of
+pins; and Aunt Lily had insisted on her dress being trimmed with velvet,
+instead of the jingling jet she preferred.
+
+Did they intercept her letters? She had had one from her father, sent
+from Falmouth, but only one from Maude Sefton in ten days! Moreover, she
+had one from Constance in her apron pocket, arrived that very afternoon,
+asking her to come down with Gillian on the Sundays, that the friends
+might enjoy themselves together while the classes were going on; but she
+made sure that all were so jealous of her friendship with Constance that
+no consent would be given.
+
+She did not hear or notice the whisperings in the laurels behind her--
+
+'Do you see that sulky old Croat, smoking his pipe under the tree?'
+
+'No, he is a Black Brunswicker.'
+
+'Nonsense, Willie; the Black Brunswickers weren't till Bonaparte's
+time.'
+
+'I don't care, he is anything black and nasty; here goes!'
+
+'Oh stop; don't shoot. I believe he is only a vivandiere. Besides, it's
+treacherous--'
+
+'I tell you he is laying a train to blow up the tower. There!'
+
+An arrow struck the bench beside Dolores, who, more angry than she had
+ever been in her life, snatched it up, unheeding that it had no point
+to speak of, rushed headlong in pursuit, while, with a tremendous shout,
+Valetta and Wilfred flew before her to a waste overgrown place at the
+end of the kitchen garden.
+
+'We've shot a Croat!'
+
+'No, a Black Brunswicker.'
+
+'Oh ah! They are coming--the enemy! Into the fortress! Bar the wolf's
+passage!'
+
+And as Dolores struggled through the bushes, she saw the whole family
+dashing into an outhouse, and the door slammed. She pushed against it,
+but an unearthly compound of howls, yells, shouts and bangs replied.
+
+'Gillian! Harry, I say,' she cried in great anger; 'come out, I want to
+speak to you.'
+
+But her voice was lost in the war-whoops within, and the louder she
+knocked, the louder grew the din, till she walked off, swelling with
+grief and indignation. Mysie, after all her professions of friendship,
+to use her in this way! And Harry and Gillian, who should have kept the
+others within bounds!
+
+Slowly she crossed the lawn, just as Lady Merrifield, the other two
+aunts, and Fergus, all came out from the glass door of the drawing-room.
+Aunt Jane, a trim little dark-eyed woman, looking at two and forty much
+the same as she might have done at five and twenty; and Aunt Adeline,
+pretty and delicately fair, with somewhat of the same grace as Lady
+Merrifield, but more languor, and an air as if everything about her were
+for effect. Though not specially fond of theses aunts, Dolores was glad
+to have them as witnesses of her ill-usage.
+
+'There stands Dolly, like a statue of Diana, dart in hand,' exclaimed
+Aunt Adeline.
+
+'Yes,' said Dolores; 'I wish to know, Aunt Lilias, if Wilfred and
+Valetta are to call me names, and shoot arrows at me?'
+
+'What do you mean, my dear?'
+
+'They came at me while I was sitting quietly reading--there--and shot at
+me, and called me such horrid names I can't repeat them, and ran away.
+Then the others, Gillian and Harry and all, would not listen to me, but
+shut themselves up in an out-house and shouted at me.'
+
+'I think there must be some mistake, Dolores,' said her aunt. 'Where are
+they?'
+
+'Out beyond there,' said Dolores, pointing in the direction in which
+Fergus was running.
+
+Lady Merrifield set off with her, and the other two ladies followed more
+slowly.
+
+'I thought it would not do,' said Aunt Jane.
+
+'Lily's children are so rough,' added Aunt Adeline.
+
+'I am not so sure that the fault is theirs,' was the reply. 'She is a
+priggish little puss, who wants shaking up.'
+
+'Ah! here come the hordes,' sighed Adeline, shrinking a little, as the
+entire population, summoned by Fergus, came pouring forth to meet the
+advancing mother.
+
+'How is this, Wilfred? Have you been shooting arrows at your cousin?'
+
+'Mama!' cried Valetta, indignantly, 'he did not shoot at her; he only
+pretended, and shot the old crocodile-bench. He never meant any more. It
+was only play.'
+
+'Have you not been forbidden to shoot in the direction of any person?'
+
+'Nor I didn't!' said Wilfred. 'I only shot the crocodile. I never tried
+to hit her. She is quite big enough to miss.'
+
+'And she did look such a nice Croat, mamma,' added Valetta. 'We were
+scouts out of the Thorn Fortress, Willie and I, and it was such a jolly
+dodge to steal upon one of the enemy.'
+
+'You should have warned her.'
+
+Then it would not have been a surprise,' said Val, seriously.
+
+'Was she not at play with you?'
+
+'No, mamma,' said Mysie. 'We asked her, and she would not. I say,'
+pausing in consternation, 'Dolores, was it you that came and called at
+the door of the Wolf's passage?'
+
+'Of course. I wanted to show Gillian how Wilfred behaved to me.'
+
+I thought it was Fergus come home to be the enemy.'
+
+'Didn't you know her voice?' asked the mother
+
+'We were all making such a noise ourselves in the dark,' said Gillian,
+'that there was no hearing any one; and Primrose was rather frightened,
+so that Hal was attending to her. Indeed, Dolores, I am very sorry. If
+we had guessed that it was you, we would have opened the door at once,
+and then you would have known that it was all fun and play, and not have
+troubled mamma about it.'
+
+'Wilfred and Valetta knew,' said Dolores, rather sullenly.
+
+'Oh! but it was such fun,' said Val.
+
+'It was fun that became unkindness on your part,' said her mother. 'You
+ought not to have kept it up without warning to her. And what do I hear
+about names? I hope that was also misunderstanding of the game. What did
+you call her?'
+
+'Only a Croat,' said Valetta, indignantly, 'and a Black Brunswicker.'
+
+'Was that it, Dolores?'
+
+'Perhaps,' she muttered, disconcerted by a laugh from her Aunt Jane.
+
+'I do not know what you took them for,' said Lady Merrifield, 'but you
+see some part of this trouble arose from a mistake on you part. Now,
+Wilfred and Valetta, remember that is not right to force a person into
+play against her will. And as to the shooting near, but not at her,
+you both know perfectly well that it is forbidden. So give me your bow,
+Wilfred. I shall keep it for a week, that you may remember obedience.'
+
+Wilfred looked sullen, but obeyed. Dolores could not call her aunt
+unjust, but as she look round, she met glances that made her think it
+prudent to shelter herself among the elders. Aunt Jane asked what the
+game was.
+
+'The Thorn Fortress,' said Gillian. 'It comes out of that delightful
+S.P.C.K. book so called, where, in the 'Thirty Years' War,' all the
+people of a village took refuge from the soldiers in a field in the
+middle of a forest guarded by a tremendous hedge of thorns. Val had
+it for a birthday present, and the children have been acting it ever
+since.'
+
+'It has quite put out the Desert Island passion, which used to be a
+regular stage in these children's lives. Every voyage we have taken,
+somebody has come to ask whether there was any hope of being wrecked on
+one.'
+
+'Fergus even asked when we crossed from Dublin,' said Gillian.
+
+'He was put up to that, to keep up the tradition,' observed Harry.
+
+On reaching the house, the elders proceeded to five o'clock tea in
+the drawing-room, the juniors to gouter in the dining-room. As Dolores
+entered, she beheld a row of all her five younger cousins drawn
+up looking at her as if she had committed high treason, and she was
+instantly addressed--
+
+'Tell-take tit!' began Valetta.
+
+'Sneak!' cried Wilfred.
+
+'I will call her Croat!' added Fergus.
+
+'Worse than Croat! Bashi Bazouk!' exclaimed Valetta.
+
+'Worse than Crow!' chimed in Primrose.
+
+'Oh, Dolores! How could you?' said Mysie.
+
+'To get poor Willie punished!' said Val.
+
+Dolores stood her ground. 'It was time to speak when it came to shooting
+arrows at me.'
+
+'Hush! hush! Willie,' cried Mysie. 'I told you so. Now Dolores, listen.
+Nobody ever tells of anybody when it is only being tiresome and they
+don't mean it, or there never would be any peace at all. That's honour!
+Do you see? One may go to Gill sometimes.'
+
+'One's a sneak if one does,' put in Wilfred; but Mysie, unheeding went
+on--
+
+'And Gill can help without a fuss or going to mamma.'
+
+'Mamma always knows,' said Val.
+
+'Mamma knows all about everything,' said Mysie. 'I think it's nature;
+ad if she does not always take notice at the time, she will have it out
+sooner or later.' Then resuming the thread of her discourse: 'So you
+see, Dolly, we have made up our minds that we will forgive you this
+time, because you are an only child and don't know what's what, and
+that's some excuse. Only you mustn't go on telling tales whenever an
+evident happens.'
+
+Dolores thought it was she who ought to forgive, but the force against
+her was overpowering, though still she hesitated. 'But if I promise not
+to tell,' she said, 'how do I know what may be done to me?'
+
+'You might trust us,' cried Mysie, with flashing eyes.
+
+'And I can tell you,' added Wilfred, 'that if you do tell, it will be
+ever so much the worse for you--girl that you are.'
+
+'War to the knife! Cried Valetta, and everybody except Mysie joined in
+the outcry. 'War to the knife with traitors in the camp.'
+
+Mysie managed to produce a pause, and again acted orator. 'You see,
+Dolores, if you did tell, it would not be possible for mamma or Gill to
+be always looking after you, and I couldn't do you much good--and if all
+these three are set against you, and are horrid to you, and I couldn't
+do you much good--horrid to you, you'll have no peace in your life; and,
+after all, we only ask of you to give and take in a good-natured sort of
+way, and not to be always making a fuss about everything you don't like.
+It is the only way, I assure you.'
+
+Dolores saw the fates were against her, and said--
+
+'Very well.'
+
+'You promise?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Then we forgive you, and here's the box of chocolate things Aunt Ada
+brought. We'll have a cigar all round and be friends. Smoke the pipe of
+peace.'
+
+Dolores afterwards thought how grand it would have been to have replied,
+'Dolores Mohun will never be intimidated;' but the fact was that her
+spirit did quail at the thought of the tortures which the two boys
+might inflict on her if Mysie abandoned her to their mercy, and she was
+relieved, as well as surprised to find that her offence was condoned,
+and she was treated as if nothing had happened.
+
+Meantime Aunt Jane was asking in the drawing-room, 'How do you get on?'
+
+'Fairly well,' was Lady Merrifield's answer. 'We shall work together in
+time.'
+
+'What does Gill say?' asked the aunt, rather mischievously.
+
+'Well,' said the young lady, 'I don't think we get on at all, not even
+poor Mysie, who works steadily on at her, gets snubbed a dozen times a
+day, and never seems to feel it.'
+
+I hoped her father would have sent her to school,' said Aunt Adeline. 'I
+knew she would be troublesome. She has all her mother's pride.'
+
+'The proudest people are those who have least to be proud of,' said Aunt
+Jane.
+
+'School would have hardened the crust and kept up the alienation,' said
+Lady Merrifield.
+
+'Perhaps not. It might teach her to value the holidays, and learn that
+blood is thicker than water,' said Miss Jane.
+
+'It is always in reserve,' added Miss Adeline.
+
+'Yes, Maurice told her to send her if I grew tired of her, as he said,'
+replied Lady Merrifield, 'but of course I should not think of that
+unless for very strong reasons.'
+
+'Oh, mamma!' and Gillian remained with her mouth open.
+
+'Well?' said Aunt Jane.
+
+'I meant to have told you mamma, but Mr. Leadbitter came in about the
+G.F.S. and stopped me, and I have never seen you to speak to since.
+Yesterday you know, I stayed from evensong to look after the little
+ones, and you said Dolores might do as she pleased, so she stayed at
+home. The children were looking at the book of Bible Pictures, and it
+came out that Dolly knew nothing at all about Joshua and the walls of
+Jericho, nor Gideon and the lamps in the pitchers, nor anything else.
+Then, when I was surprised, she said that it was not the present system
+to perplex children with the myths of ancient Jewish history.'
+
+Gillian was speaking rapidly, in the growing consciousness that her
+mother had rather have had this communication reserved for her private
+ear--and her answer was, 'Poor child!'
+
+'Just what I should expect!' said Aunt Jane.
+
+'Probably it was jargon half understood, and repeated in defence of
+her ignorance,' said Lady Merrifield. 'She is an odd mixture of defiant
+loyalty and self-defence.'
+
+'What shall you do about this kind of talk?' asked her sister.
+
+'One must hear it sooner or later,' said Harry.
+
+'That is true,' returned his mother, 'but I suppose Fergus and Primrose
+did not hear or understand.'
+
+'Oh no, mamma. I know they did not, for they were squabbling because
+Primrose wanted to turn over before Fergus had done with Gideon.'
+
+'Then I don't think there is any harm done. If it comes before Mysie or
+Val I will talk to them, and I mean to take this poor child alone for a
+little while each day in the week and try to get at her.'
+
+'There's another thing,' said Gillian. 'Is she to go down with me always
+to Casement Cottages on Sunday afternoons when I take the class?'
+
+'To teach or to learn?' ironically exclaimed Aunt Jane.
+
+'Neither,' said Gillian. 'To chatter to Constance Hacket. They both
+spoke to me about it yesterday before I went home, and I believe
+Constance has written a note to her to ask her today! Fancy, that goose
+told me my sweet cousin was a dear, and that we didn't appreciate her.
+Even Miss Hacket gave me quite a lecture on kindness and consideration
+to an orphan stranger.'
+
+'Not uncalled for, perhaps,' said Aunt Jane. 'I hope you received it in
+an edifying manner.'
+
+'Now, Aunt Jane! Well, I believe I said we were as kind as she would let
+us be, especially Mysie.'
+
+Lady Merrifield here made the move to conduct her sisters to their
+rooms; Miss Mohun detained her when they had reached hers, and had left
+Adeline to rest on her sofa. The two, though very unlike, had still the
+habits of absolute confidential intimacy belonging to sisters next in
+age.
+
+'Lily,' said Miss Mohun, 'Gillian spoke of a note. Did Maurice give you
+any directions about this child's correspondence?'
+
+'You know I did not see him. I was so much disappointed. I would give
+anything to have talked her over with him.'
+
+'I am not sure that you would have gained much. I doubt whether he knows
+much about her, poor fellow. But the letters?'
+
+'He wrote that she had been a good deal with Professor Sefton's family,
+and he thought they might like to keep up their intercourse.'
+
+'Nothing about Flinders? He ought to have warned you.'
+
+'No. Who is he?'
+
+'A half-brother--no, a step-brother to poor Mary. He was the son by a
+former marriage of her father's first wife, and has been always a
+thorn in their sides. He is a low, dissipated kind of creature; writes
+theatrical criticisms for third-rate papers, or something of that kind,
+when he is at his best. I believe Mary was really fond of him, and
+helped him more than Maurice could well bear, and since her death the
+man has perfectly pestered him with appeals to her memory. I really
+believe one reason he welcomed this post was to get out of his reach.'
+
+'You always know everything Jenny. Now how did you know this?'
+
+'I called once in the midst of an interview between him and Mary. And
+afterwards I came on poor Maurice when he was really very much provoked,
+and had it all out; ad since her death--well, I saw him get a begging
+letter from the man, and he spoke of it again. I wish I had advised him
+to warn you against the wretch.'
+
+'I don't suppose he knows where the child is. He is no relation to her,
+you say?'
+
+'None at all, happily. But on that occasion, when I was an uncomfortable
+third, Maurice was very angry that she should have been allowed to call
+him Uncle Alfred; and Mary screwed up her little mouth, and evidently
+rather liked the aggravation to Mohun pride.'
+
+'Poor Maurice, so he had a skeleton! Well, I don't see how it can hurt
+us. The man probably knows nothing about us, and even if he could trace
+the girl, he must know that she can do nothing for him.'
+
+'You had better keep an eye on her letters. He is quite capable of
+asking for the poor child's half sovereigns. I wish Maurice had given
+you authority.'
+
+'Perhaps he spoke to her about it. At any rate, what he said of the
+Seftons is quite sufficient to imply that there is no sanction to any
+other correspondence.'
+
+'That is true. Really, Lily, I believe you are the most likely person
+to do some good with her, though I don't think you know what you are in
+for. But Gillian does!'
+
+'I believe it is very good for the children to have to exercise a little
+forbearance. In spite of all our knocking about the world, our family
+exclusiveness is pretty much what ours was in the old Beechcroft days--'
+
+'When Rotherwood and Robert Mohun were out only outsiders and the
+Westons came on us like new revelations!'
+
+'It is curious to look back on,' said Lady Merrifield. 'It seems to me
+that the system, or no system, on which we were brought up was rather
+passing away even then.'
+
+'Specks we growed,' said Jane. 'What do you call the system?'
+
+'Just that people thought it their own business to bring up their
+children themselves, and let the actual technical teaching depend upon
+opportunities, whereas now they get them taught, but let the bringing up
+take it chance.'
+
+'People lived with their children then--yes, I see what you mean, Lily.
+Poor Eleanor, intending with all her might to be a mother to us, brought
+us up, as you call it, with all her powers; but public opinion would
+never have suffered us to get merely the odd sort of teaching that she
+could give us. It was regular, or course; but oh! do you remember the
+old atlas, with Germany divided into circles, and everything as it was
+before the Congress of Vienna?'
+
+'You liked geography; I hated it.'
+
+'Yes, I was young enough to come in for the elder boys' old school
+atlases, which had some sense in them. It seems to me that we had more
+the spirit of working for ourselves according to our individual tastes
+than people have now. We learnt, they are taught.'
+
+'Well! and what did we learn?'
+
+'As much as we could carry,' said Aunt Jane, laughing. 'Assimilate, if
+you like it better; and I doubt if people will turn out to have done
+more now. What becomes of all the German that is crammed down girl's
+throats, whether they have a turn for languages or not? Do they ever
+read a German book? Now you learnt it for love of Fouque and Max
+Piccolomini, and you have kept it up ever since.'
+
+'Yes, by cramming it down my children's throats. But what I complain of,
+Jane, in the young folk that come across me is not over-knowledge, but
+want of knowledge--want of general culture. This Dolores, for instance,
+can do what she has been taught better than Mysie, some tings better
+than Gillian, but she has absolutely no interest in general knowledge,
+not even in the glaciers which she has seen; she does not know whether
+Homer wrote in Greek or Latin, considers "Marmion" a lesson, cannot tell
+a planet from a star, and neither knows nor cares anything about the two
+Napoleons. Now we seem to have breathed in such things. Why! I remember
+being made into Astyanax for a very unwilling Andromache (poor Eleanor)
+for caress, and being told to shudder at the bright copper coal-scuttle,
+before Harry went to school.'
+
+'Of course poor Maurice could not cultivate his child. Yet, after all,
+we grew up without a mother; but then the dear old Baron lived among us,
+and knew what we were doing, instead of shutting us up in a schoolroom
+with some one, with only knowledge, not culture. Those very late dinners
+have quite upset all the intelligent intercourse between fathers and
+children not come out.'
+
+'Yes, Jasper and I have felt that difficulty. But after all, Jenny, when
+I look back, I cannot say I think ours was a model bringing up. What a
+strange year that was after Eleanor's marriage!'
+
+'Ah! you felt responsible and were too young for it, but to me it was a
+very jolly time, though I suppose I was an ingredient in your troubles.
+Yes, we brought ourselves up; but I maintain that it was better
+alternative than being drilled so hard as never to think of anything but
+arrant idling out of lesson-time.'
+
+'Lessons should be lessons, and play, play, is one of the professor's
+maxims to which that poor child has treated us.'
+
+'Ah! on that system, where would have been all your grand heraldic
+pedigrees? I've got them still.'
+
+'Oh! Jenny, you good old Brownie, have you? How I should like to look
+at them again and show them the Gillian and Mysie. Do you remember the
+little scalloped line we drew round all the true knights?'
+
+'Ay! and where would have been all your romancing about Sir Maurice de
+Mohun, the pride of his name? For my part, I much prefer a cavalier
+dead two hundred years ago as the object of a girl's enthusiasm--if
+enthusiasm she must have--to the existing lieutenant, or even curate.'
+
+'Certainly; I should be sorry to have been bred up to history with
+individual interest and romance squeezed out of it. You see when Jasper
+came home from the Crimea he exactly continued mine.'
+
+'You have fulfilled your ideal better than falls to the lot of most
+people, even to the item of knighthood.'
+
+'Ah! you should have heard us grumble over the expense of it. And,
+after all, I dare say Sir Maurice found his knight's fee quite as
+inconvenient! Oh!' with a start, 'there's the first bell, and here have
+I been dawdling here instead of minding my business! But it is so nice
+to have you! I day, Jenny, we will have one of our good old games at
+threadpaper verses and all the rest tonight. I want you to show the
+children how we used to play at them.'
+
+And the party played at paper games for nearly two hours that evening,
+to the extreme delight of Gillian, Mysie, and Harry, to say nothing
+of their mother and aunts, who played with all their might, even Aunt
+Adeline lighting up into droll, quiet humour. Only Dolores was
+first bewildered, then believed herself affronted, and soon gave up
+altogether, wondering that grown-up people could be so foolish.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. -- G.F.S.
+
+
+
+The first thought of Dolores was that she should see Constance Hacket,
+when she heard 'Hurrah for a holiday!' resounding over the house.
+
+As she came out of her room Mysie met her. 'Hurrah! Aunt Jane has got us
+a holiday that we may help get ready for the G.F.S.! Mamma has sent down
+notes to Miss Vincent and Mr. Pollock. Oh! jolly, jolly!'
+
+And, obvious of past offences, Mysie caught her cousin's arms, and
+whirled her round and round in an exulting dance, extremely unpleasant
+to so quiet a personage. 'Don't!' she cried. 'You hurt! You make me
+dizzy!'
+
+'My certie, Miss Mysie!' exclaimed Mrs. Halfpenny at the same time,
+'ye're daft! Gae doon canny, and keep your apron on, for if I see a
+stain on that clean dress--'
+
+Mysie hopped downstairs without waiting to hear the terrible
+consequences.'
+
+Aunt Adeline did not come down to breakfast, but Aunt Jane appeared,
+fresh and glowing, just in time for prayers, having been with Gillian
+and Harry to survey the scene of operations, and to judge of the day,
+which threatened showers, the grass being dank and sparkling with
+something more than September dews.
+
+'The tables must be in the coach-house,' said Lady Merrifield. 'Happily,
+our equipages are not on a large scale, and we must not get the poor
+girls' best things drenched.'
+
+'No; and it is rather disheartening to have to address double ranks of
+umbrellas,' said Aunt Jane. 'Is the post come?'
+
+'It is always infamously late here,' said Harry. 'We complained, as the
+appointed hour is eight, but we were told 'all the other ladies were
+satisfied.' I do believe they think no one not in business has a right
+to wish for letters before nine.'
+
+'Here it comes, though,' said Gillian; and in due time the locked
+letter-bag was delivered to Lady Merrifield, and Primrose waited eagerly
+to act as postman.
+
+It was not the day for the Indian mail, but Aunt Jane expected some last
+directions, and Lady Merrifield the final intelligence as to the numbers
+of each contingent of girls. Dolores was on the qui vive for a letter
+from Maude Sefton, and devoured her aunt and the bag with her eyes. She
+was quite sure that among the bundle of post-cards that were taken out
+there was a letter. Also she saw her aunt give a little start, and
+put it aside, and when she demanded. 'Is there no letter for me?' Lady
+Merrifield's answer was,' None, my dear, from Miss Sefton.'
+
+Hot indignation glowed in Dolores's cheeks and eyes, more especially as
+she perceived a look pass between the two aunts. She sat swelling while
+talk about the chances of rain was passing round her, the forecasts in
+the paper, the cats washing their faces, the swallows flying low, the
+upshot being that it might be fine, but that emergencies were to be
+prepared for. All the time that Lady Merrifield was giving orders to
+children and servants for the preparations, Dolores kept her station,
+and the instant there was a vacant moment, she said fiercely--
+
+'Aunt Lilias, I know there is a letter for me. Let me have it.'
+
+'Your father told me you might have letter from Miss Sefton, and there
+is none from her,' said Lady Merrifield, with a somewhat perplexed air.
+
+'I may have letters from whom I choose.'
+
+'My dear, that is not the custom in general with girls of your age, and
+I know your father would not wish it. Tell me, is there any one you have
+reason to expect to hear from?'
+
+Dolores had an instinct that all the Mohuns were set against the person
+she was thinking of, but she had an answer ready, true, but which would
+serve her purpose.
+
+'There was a person, Herr Muhlwausser, that father ordered some
+scientific plates from--of microscopic zoophytes. He said he did not
+know whether anything would come of it, but, in case it should, he gave
+my address, and left me a cheque to pay him with. I have it in my desk
+upstairs.'
+
+'Very well, my dear,' said Lady Merrifield, 'you shall have the letter
+when it comes.'
+
+'The men are come, my lady, to put up the tables. Miss Mohun says will
+you come down?' came the information at that moment, sweeping away Aunt
+Lilias and everybody else into the whirl of preparation; while Dolores
+remained, feeling absolutely certain that a letter was being
+withheld from her, and she stood on the garden steps burning with hot
+indignation, when Mysie, armed with the key of the linen-press, flashed
+past her breathlessly, exclaiming--
+
+'Aren't you coming down, Dolly? 'Tis such fun! I'm come for some
+table-cloths.'
+
+This didn't stir Dolores, but presently Mysie returned again, followed
+by Mrs. Halfpenny, grumbling that 'A' the bonnie napery that she had
+packed and carried sae mony miles by sea and land should be waured on
+a wheen silly feckless taupies that 'tis the leddies' wull to cocker up
+till not a lass of 'em will do a stroke of wark, nor gie a ceevil answer
+to her elders.'
+
+Mysie, with a bundle of damask cloths under her arm, paused to repeat,
+'Are you not coming Dolly? Your dear Miss Constance is there looking for
+you?'
+
+This did move Dolores, and she followed to the coach-house, where
+everybody was buzzing about like bees, the tables and forms being
+arranged, and upon them dishes with piles of fruit and cakes,
+contributions from other associates. All the vases, great and small,
+were brought out, and raids were made on the flower garden to fill them.
+Little scarlet flags, with the name of each parish in white, were placed
+to direct the parties of guests to their places, and Harry, Macrae, and
+the little groom were adorning the beams with festoons. The men from
+the coffee-tavern supplied the essentials, but the ladies undertook the
+decoration, and Aunt Adeline, in a basket-chair, with her feet on a
+box, directed the ornamentation with great taste and ability. Constance
+Hacket had been told off to make up a little bouquet to lay beside each
+plate, and Dolores volunteered to help her.
+
+'Well, dearest, will you come to me on Sunday?'
+
+'I don't know. I have not been able to ask Aunt Lilias yet, and Gillian
+was very cross about it.'
+
+'What did she say?'
+
+'She said she did not think Aunt Lilias approved of visiting and
+gossiping on Sunday.'
+
+'Oh! now. What does Gillian do herself?' said Constance in a hurt voice.
+'She does come and teach, certainly, but she stays ever so long talking
+after the class is over. Why should we gossip more than she does?'
+
+'Yes; but people's own children can do no wrong.'
+
+There Constance became inattentive. Mr. Poulter had come up, and wanted
+to be useful, so she jumped up with a handful of nosegays to instruct
+him in laying them by each plate, leaving Dolores to herself, which
+she found dull. The other two, however, came back again, and the work
+continued, but the talk was entirely between the gentleman and lady,
+chiefly about music for the choral society, and the voices of the
+singers, about which Dolores neither knew nor cared.
+
+By one o'clock the long tables were a pretty sight, covered with piles
+of fruit and cakes, vases of flowers and little flags, establishments of
+teacups at intervals, and a bouquet and pretty card at every one of the
+plates.
+
+Then came early dinner at the house, and such rest as could be had after
+it, till the pony-chaise, waggonette, and Mrs. Blackburne's carriage
+came to the door to convey to church all whom they could carry, the rest
+walking.
+
+The church was a sea of neat round hats, mostly black, with a
+considerable proportion of feathers, tufts, and flowers. On their dark
+dresses were pinned rosettes of different-coloured ribbon, to show to
+which parish they belonged. There was a bright, short service, in which
+the clear, high voices of the multitudinous maidens quite overcame
+those of the choir boys, and then an address, respecting which Constance
+pronounced that 'Canon Fremont was always so sweet,' and Dolores
+assented, without in the least knowing what it had been about.
+
+Constance, who had driven down, was to have kept guard, in the walk from
+church, over the white-rosed Silverton detachment; but another shower
+was impending, and Miss Hacket, declaring that Conny must not get wet,
+rushed up and packed her into the waggonette, where Dolores was climbing
+after, when at a touch from Gillian, Lady Merrifield looked round.
+
+'Dolores,' she said, 'you forget that Miss Hacket walked to church.'
+
+Dolores turned on the step, her face looking as black as thunder, and
+Miss Hacket protested that she was not tired, and could not leave her
+girls.
+
+'Never mind the girls, I will look after them; I meant to walk. Don't
+stand on the step. Come down,' she added sharply, but not in time, for
+the horses gave a jerk, and, with a scream from Constance, down tumbled
+Dolores, or would have tumbled, but that she was caught between her
+aunt and Miss Hacket, who with one voice admonished her never to do
+that again, for there was nothing more dangerous. Indeed, there was more
+anger in Lady Merrifield's tone than her niece had yet heard, and as
+there was no making out that there was the least injury to the girl, she
+was forced to walk home, in spite of all Miss Hacket's protestations
+and refusals, which had nearly ended in her exposing herself to the same
+peril as Dolores, only that Lady Merrifield fairly pushed her in and
+shut the door on her. Nothing would have compensated to Dolores but that
+her Constance should have jumped out to accompany her and bewail her
+aunt's cruelty, but devotion did not reach to such an extent. Her aunt,
+however, said in a tone that might be either apology or reproof--
+
+'My dear, I could not let poor Miss Hacket walk after all she has done
+and with all she has to do today.'
+
+Dolores vouchsafed no answer, but Aunt Jane said--
+
+'All which applies doubly to you, Lily.'
+
+'Not a bit; I am not run about like all of you,' she answered, brightly.
+'Besides, it is such fun! I feel like Whit Monday at Beechcroft! Don't
+you remember the pink and blue glazed calico banners crowned with summer
+snowballs? And the big drum? What a nice-looking set of girls! How
+pleasant to see rosy, English faces tidily got up! They were rosy enough
+in Ireland, but a great deal too picturesque. Now these are a sort of
+flower of maidenhood--'
+
+'You are getting quite poetical, Lily.'
+
+'It's the effect of walking in procession--there's something quite
+exhilarating in it; ay, and of having a bit of old Beechcroft about me.
+Do tell me who that lady is; I ought to know her, I'm sure! Oh, Miss
+Smith, good morning. How many girls have you brought? Oh! the crimson
+rosettes, are they? York and Lancaster?--indeed. I'm glad we have
+some shelter for them; I'm afraid there is another shower. Have you no
+umbrella, my dear? Come under mine.'
+
+It was a fierce scud of hail, hitting rather than wetting, but Dolores
+had the satisfaction of declaring the edges of her dress to be damp and
+going off to change it, though Aunt Jane pinched the kilting and said
+the damp was imperceptible, and Wilfred muttered, 'Made of sugar, only
+not so sweet.'
+
+In fact, she hoped that Constance, who had told of her hatred to these
+great functions and willingness to do anything to avoid them, would
+avail herself of the excuse; but though the young lady must have seen
+her go, she never attempted to follow; and Dolores, feeling her own room
+dull, came down again to find the drawing-room empty, and on the next
+gleam of sunshine, she decided on going to seek her friend.
+
+What a hum and buzz pervaded the stable-yard! There was a coach-house
+with all its great doors open, and the rows of girls awakening from
+their first shy and hungry silence into laughter and talking. There
+were big urns and fountains steaming, active hands filling cups, all
+the cousins, all their congeners, and four or five clergymen acting
+as waiters, Aunt Adeline pouring out tea a the upper table for any
+associate who had time to swallow it, and Constance Hacket talking away
+to a sandy-haired curate, without so much as seeing her friend! Only
+Wilfred, at sight of his cousin again, getting up a violent mock cough,
+declaring that he thought she had gone to bed with congealed lungs or
+else Brown Titus, as the old women called it. His mother, however, heard
+the cough--which, indeed, was too remarkable a sound not to attract any
+one--and with a short, sharp word to him to take care, she put Dolores
+down under Aunt Ada's wing, and provided her with a lovely peach and a
+delicious Bath bun. Constance just looked up and nodded, saying, 'You
+dear little thing, I couldn't think what was become of you,' and then
+went on with her sandy curate, about--what was it?--Dolores know not,
+only that it seemed very interesting, and she was left out of it.
+
+Down came the rain, a hopeless downpour, and there was a consultation
+among the elders, some laughing, some doubtful looks, and at last Harry,
+with Macrae and one of the curates, disappeared. Then grace was sung,
+and speeches followed--one by the rector, Mr. Leadbitter, fatherly and
+prosy;--a paper read by the Branch Secretary, about affairs in general;
+and a very amusing speech by Miss Mohun, full of anecdotes of example
+and warning. 'You know,' she said, 'all the school story-books end--when
+the grown up books marry their people--with the good girl going out to
+service under her young lady, and there she lives happy ever after! But
+some of us know better! We don't know how far the marrying ones always
+do live very happy ever after--'
+
+'For shame, Jenny!' muttered Lady Merrifield.
+
+'But,' went on Miss Mohun, 'even you that have been lucky enough to get
+under your own young ladies know that life here is all new beginnings at
+the bottom, just as when you were very proud of yourselves for getting
+out of the infant school, you found it was only being at the bottom
+of the upper one; and I can tell the twelve-year-olds--I see some of
+them--that it is often a finer thing to be at the head of the school
+than the last in the house. Ay, you've got to work up there again, and
+it is a long business and a steady business, but it is to be done. I
+knew a girl, thirty-five years ago, that my sister-in-law took from
+school, and she was not a genius either, and I am quite sure she could
+not do rule-of-three, nor tell what is the capital of Dahomey, as I dare
+say every one here can do, but I'll tell you what she did, and that was,
+her best, and there she has been ever since; and the last time I saw
+her was sitting up in her housekeeper's room, in her silk gown, with her
+master's grandchildren hanging about her, respected and loved by us all.
+And I knew another, a much clever girl at school, with prettier ways to
+begin with, but--I'm sorry to say, her finger were too clever, and it
+was not very happy ever after, though she did right herself.' And
+then Aunt Jane went on to the difficulties of having to deal with
+such quantities of pots and pans, and knives and forks, and cloths and
+brushes, each with a use of its very own, just as if she had been a
+scullery-maid herself; telling how sense and memory must be brought to
+bear on these things just as much as in analyzing a sentence, and how
+even those would not do without the higher motive of faithfulness to
+Him whose servants we all are. Her finish was a picture of the roving
+servant girl, always saying, 'I don't like it,' and always seeking
+novelty, illustrated by her experience of a little maid who left one
+place because she could not sleep alone, and another because the little
+girl slept with her, a third because it was so lonesome, and a fourth
+because it was so noisy, and quitted her fifth within a half year
+because she could not eat twice cooked meat.
+
+Aunt Jane varied her voice in the most comical way, and the girls, as
+well as all her audience, laughed heartily.
+
+'Bravo, Jenny!' said a voice close to her, and a gentleman with a rather
+bald head, a fluffy, light beard touched with white, dancing eyes, and a
+slim, youthful figure, was seen standing in the group.
+
+Lady Merrifield and her sisters cried with one glad voice, 'Oh!
+Rotherwood!' holding out their hands.
+
+'Yes. I found I'd a few hours between the trains, so I ran down to look
+you up. I met Harry at the house, and he told me I should find Jane
+qualifying for the female parliament.'
+
+'It's such a pity you should fall on all this turmoil,' said Aunt Ada.
+
+'Pity! I wouldn't have missed Jenny's wisdom for the world. What is it,
+Lily? Temperance, or have you set up a Salvation Army?
+
+'G.F.S., of course, you Rotherwood of old! And now you are come, you
+shall save me from what has been my bugbear for the last week. You shall
+give the premiums.'
+
+'Come, it's no use making faces and pretending you know nothing about
+it,' added Miss Mohun. 'I know very well that Florence is deep in it!'
+
+'Ay, they'll have you over to repeat that splendid harangue about pots
+and pans!' said he, bowing at Lady Merrifield's introductions of him to
+the bystanders, and obediently accepting the sheaf of envelopes, while
+Mr. Leadbitter made it known that the premiums would be given by the
+Marquess of Rotherwood. Certainly it was a much more lively business
+than if Lady Merrifield had performed it, for he had something droll
+to observe to each girl. One he pretended to envy, telling her he
+had worked hard for may a year, and never got such a card as that for
+it--far less five shillings. Another he was sure kept her pans bright,
+and always knew which was which; a very little one was asked if she had
+gone from her cradle, and so on, always sending them away with a broad
+smile, and professing great respect for the three seven-year-card
+maidens who came up last. Then in a concluding speech he demanded--where
+were the premiums for the mistresses, who, he was quite sure, deserved
+them quite as much or more than the maids!
+
+While everybody was still laughing, Lady Merrifield asked Mr. Leadbitter
+to explain that as it was still raining hard, she must ask all to
+adjourn to the great loft over the stable, where they could enjoy
+themselves. Each associate was to gather her own flock and bring them
+in order. Lady Merrifield said she would lead the way, Lord Rotherwood
+coming with her, picking up little Primrose in his arms to carry her
+upstairs to the loft.
+
+Every one was moving. Dolores was among a crowd of strangers. She
+heard them saying how delightful Lord Rotherwood was, and charming
+and handsome and graceful Lady Merrifield, with her beautiful eyes. It
+worried Dolores, who thought it rather foolish to be pretty, except in
+the case of persecuted orphan, and, moreover, admiration of her
+aunt always seemed to her disparagement of her mother. And where was
+Constance?
+
+She followed the stream, and, climbing some stairs, came out into
+a large, long, empty hay-loft, over what had once been hunting
+stables--the children's wet-day play-place. The deputation dispatched to
+the house had managed to get up there the schoolroom piano, and one of
+the curates sat down to it, and began playing dance music, while Miss
+Mohun, Miss Hacket, and the other ladies began arranging couples for a
+country dance--all girls, of course, except that Lord Rotherwood danced
+with the tiny premium girl, and Harry with Primrose. Wilfred and Fergus
+could not be incited to make the attempt; Mysie offered herself to
+Dolores, but in vain. 'I hate dancing,' was all the answer she got,
+and she went off to persuade Lois, the nursery girl. Constance Hacket
+arranged herself on a chair, and looked out from between two curates;
+there was no getting at her.
+
+Then there came a pause; Lord Rotherwood spoke to Gillian, and must have
+asked her to point Dolores out, for presently he made his way to the
+little dark figure in the window, and, kindly laying his hand on her
+shoulder, asked whether she had heard from her father yet.
+
+'No, I suppose you can't,' he added. 'It is a great break-up for you;
+but you are a lucky girl to be taken in here! It reminds me of what
+Beechcroft used to be to me when I was a stray fish, though not quite so
+lonely as you are. Make the most of it, for there aren't many in these
+days like Aunt Lily there!'
+
+'He little knows,' thought Dolores, as a waltz began to be played.
+
+'They want an example,' he said. 'Come along. You know how, I'm sure--a
+Londoner like you!'
+
+Pairs were whirling about the floor in full career in a short time, to
+the astonishment of other maidens who had never seen dancing in their
+lives. Dolores, afraid to refuse, and certainly flattered, really was
+wonderfully exhilarated and brightened by her career wither good-natured
+cousin.
+
+'I do believe Cousin Rotherwood has shaken her out of the dumps,'
+observed Gillian to Aunt Jane, who returned--
+
+'He can do it if any one can.'
+
+The funny thing was the effect upon Constance, who, in the next pause,
+shook off her curates, advanced to Dolores, who was recovering her
+breath under the window, called her a dear thing whom she had not been
+able to get to all this time, sat rather forward with an arm round
+her waist for the next half-hour, and, when Sir Roger de Coverley was
+getting up, proposed that they should be partners, but not till she had
+seen Lord Rotherwood pair himself off with Mysie.
+
+'I must,' said he to Lady Merrifield, 'it's so like dancing with honest
+Phyl.'
+
+'The greatest compliment you could have, Mysie,' said her mother,
+looking very much pleased.
+
+The last yellow patches of evening sunshine on the sloping roof faded;
+watches were looked at, the music turned to the National Anthem,
+everybody stood up, or stood still, and sung it. Then at the close, Mr.
+Leadbitter stood by the piano and said--
+
+'One word more, my young friends. Some of you may have been surprised at
+this evening's amusement, but we want you to understand that there is
+no harm in dancing itself, provided that the place, the manner, and
+the companions are fit. I hope that you will all prove the truth of my
+words, by not taking this pleasant evening as an excuse for running
+into places of temptation. Now, good night, with many thanks to Lady
+Merrifield for the happy day she has given us.'
+
+A voice added, 'Three cheers for Lady Merrifield!' and the G.F.S. showed
+itself by no means backward in the matter of cheering. There was a
+hunting up of ulsters and umbrellas; one associate after another got her
+flock together, and clattered downstairs, either to get into vans, to
+walk to the station, or to disperse to their homes in the town.
+
+Meantime Lord Rotherwood had time to explain that he was on his way
+to fetch his wife home from some German baths, where she had gone to
+recruit after the season; and, as he meant to cross at night, had come
+to spend a few hours with his cousin. There was still an hour to spare,
+during which Lady Merrifield insisted that he must have more solid food
+than G.F.S. provided.
+
+'Lily,' said Miss Mohun, as the elders walked to the house together, 'it
+strikes me that Rotherwood could satisfy your mind about that letter. He
+would know the handwriting. You remember a certain brother--very much in
+law--of Maurice's?'
+
+'I have reason to do so,' said Lord Rotherwood. 'You don't mean that he
+has been troubling Lily?'
+
+'No; but from the nature of the animal it is much to be apprehended that
+he will,' said Miss Mohun, 'if he knows that the child is here.'
+
+'In fact,' said Lady Merrifield, 'Jane has made me suppress, till
+examination, a letter to her, in case it should be from him. It is a
+horrid thing to do. What do you think, Rotherwood?'
+
+'There should be no correspondence. Did not Maurice warn you? Then
+he ought. Look here, Lily. His wife--under strong compulsion from the
+fellow, I should think--begged me to find some employment for him. I got
+him a secretaryship to our Board of--what d'ye call it? I'll do Maurice
+the justice to say that he was considerably cool about it; but the end
+of it was that there was an unaccountable deficit, and my lady said it
+served me right. I was a fool, as I always am, and gave way to the poor
+woman about not bringing it home to him. And she insisted on making
+it up to me by degrees--out of her literary work, I fancy--for I don't
+think Maurice knew the extent of the peculation. Ever since I've been
+getting begging letters from the fellow at intervals. If he had the
+impertinence to molest you, Lily, simply refer him to me.'
+
+'And if he writes to the child?'
+
+'Return him the letter. Say she can have no such thing without her
+father's consent.'
+
+'Is this a case in point?' said Lady Merrifield, producing the letter.
+
+'No,' said he, holding it up in the waning light. 'I know the fellow's
+fist too well! This is a gentleman's hand.'
+
+'What a relief!' said Lady Merrifield.
+
+'Nay, don't be in a hurry,' said Miss Mohun. 'Don't give it to her
+unopened. Your only safety is in maintaining your right to see all the
+child's letters, except what her father specified.'
+
+'Don't you wish it was you, Brownie?' asked her cousin.
+
+'I hate it!' said Lady Merrifield; 'but I suppose I ought! However,
+there's no harm in this, that's a comfort; it is simply that the
+gentleman that the house is let to has found this note to her somewhere
+about, and thinks she would wish to have it. I think it is her mother's
+hand. How nice of him!'
+
+'Now, Lily, don't go and be too apologetic,' said Jane. 'Assert your
+right, or you'll have it all over again.'
+
+'Without Jenny to do prudence,' said Lord Rotherwood, while Lady
+Merrifield, hardly hearing either of them, hurried on in search of her
+niece, but they would have been satisfied if they could have heard her.
+
+'My dear, here's your letter. I am so sorry to have been too much
+hindered to look at it before. You must not mind, Dolly. I know it is
+very disagreeable; but every one who has the care of precious articles
+like young ladies is bound to look after them.'
+
+Dolores took the letter with a kind of acknowledgement, but no more,
+for its detention offended her, and she was aggrieved at the prospect of
+future inspection, as another cruel stroke inflicted upon her.
+
+Aunt Adeline was found in the drawing-room, where she had entertained
+such ladies as were afraid of the damp, or who did not approve of the
+dancing, and would not look on at it. Thence all went off to a merry
+meal, where the elders plunged into old stories, and went on capping
+each others' recollections and making fun, to the extreme delight of
+the young folk, who had often been entertained with tales of Beechcroft.
+Aunt Ada declared that she had not laughed so much for ten years, and
+Aunt Jane declared that it was too bad to lower their dignity and be so
+absurd before all these young things.
+
+'It's having four of the old set together!' said Lord Rotherwood; 'a
+chance one doesn't get every day. I wonder how soon Maurice and Phyllis
+will meet.'
+
+'It depends on whether the Zenobia touches at Auckland before going to
+the Fijis,' said Lady Merrifield.
+
+'There is at least a sort of neighbourhood between them,' said Miss
+Mohun, 'though it may be about as close as between us and Sicily.'
+
+'She is looking out for Maurice,' said Aunt Ada. 'She wrote, only it was
+too late, to propose his bringing Dolores to be at least nearer to him.'
+
+'Just like Phyllis!' ejaculated the marquess. 'You have one of your
+flock with something of her countenance, Lily.'
+
+'I am so glad you see it, Rotherwood. It is what I am always trying
+to believe in, and I hope the likeness is a little within as well as
+without--but we poor creatures who have been tumbled about the world get
+sophisticated, and can't attain to the sweet, blundering freshness of
+"Honest Simplicity."'
+
+'It is a plant that must be spontaneous--can't be grown to order.'
+
+'His lordship's carriage at the door,' announced Macrae.
+
+'Ah, well! Trains must be caught, I suppose. I'm glad you're settled
+here, Lilias. I feel as if a sort of reflex of old Beechcroft were
+attainable now.'
+
+'I hope it won't be a G.F.S. day next time you come!'
+
+'Oh, it was very jolly. I shall bring my child next time, if I can get
+her out of the clutches of the governesses for a day, but it is a hard
+matter. They look daggers at me if I put my head into the schoolroom.'
+
+'You always were a dangerous element there, you know.'
+
+'Poor dear Eleanor! What did I not make her go through! But she never
+went the length of one of my lady's governesses, who declared that
+she had as much call to interfere in my stable, as I had with her
+schoolroom.'
+
+'What mischief were you doing there?'
+
+'Well, if you must know, I was enlivening a very dry and Cromwellian
+abridgement with some of Lily's old cavalier anecdotes, so Lily was at
+the bottom of it, you see.'
+
+'But did she fall on you then and there?'
+
+'No, no. I trust my beard is too grey for that. But she looked at me
+with impressive dignity such as neither poor little Fly nor I could
+stand, and afterwards betook herself to Victoria, who, I am happy to
+say, sent her to the right about.'
+
+'As I am about to do,' said Lady Merrifield; 'for if you don't miss
+your train, it will be by cruelty to animals. No, you've not got time to
+shake hands with all that rabble. Be off with you.'
+
+'Ah! I shall tell Victoria that if she sees me tomorrow it's all owing
+to your unpitying punctuality,' said he, shaking himself into his
+overcoat.
+
+'Dear old fellow!' said Lady Merrifield, as she turned from the front
+door, while he drove off. 'He is like a gust of old Beechcroft air! But
+I should think Victoria had a handful.'
+
+'She knew what she was doing,' said Aunt Ada. 'I always thought she
+married him for the sake of breaking him in.'
+
+'And very well she has done it, too,' returned Aunt Jane. 'Only now and
+then he gets a holiday, and then the real creature breaks out again.
+But it is much better so. He would not have been of half so much good
+otherwise.'
+
+Lady Merrifield looked from one to the other, but said no more, for
+all the young folks were round her; but every one was so much tired,
+children, servants, and all, that prayers were read early, and all went
+to their rooms. Yet, tired as she was, Lady Merrifield sat on in her
+sister Jane's room, in her dressing-gown, talking according to another
+revival of olden time.
+
+'What did Ada mean about Rotherwood? Isn't he happy?'
+
+'Oh yes, very happy; and it is much the best thing that could have
+happened. It is only another of the proofs that life is very long,
+especially for men.'
+
+'Come, now, tell me all about it. You don't know how often I feel as if
+I had been buried and dug up again.'
+
+'There are things one can't write about. Poor fellow! he never really
+wanted to marry anybody but Phyllis.'
+
+'No! you don't mean it! I never knew it.'
+
+'No, for you were in the utmost parts of the earth; and he was very
+good, so that I don't believe honest Phyl herself, or any one without
+eyes, guessed it; but he had it all out with our father, who begged him,
+almost on that allegiance he had always shown, to abstain from beginning
+about it. You see, not only are they first cousins, but our mother and
+his father both were consumptive, and there was dear Claude even then
+regularly breaking down every winter, and Ada needing to be looked after
+like a hothouse plan. I'm sure, when I think of the last generation of
+Devereuxes, I wonder so many of us have been tough enough to weather
+the dangerous age; and there had been an alarm or two about Rotherwood
+himself. Well, he was very good, half from obedience, half from being
+convinced that it would be a selfish thing, and especially from being
+wholly convinced that Phyl's feelings were not stirred. That was the way
+I came to know about it, for papa took me out for a drive in the old gig
+to ask what I thought about her heart, and I could truly and honestly
+say she had never found it, cared for Rotherwood just as she did for
+Reggie, and was not the sort to think whether a man was attentive to
+her. Besides, she was eighteen, and he thirty-one, and she thought him
+venerable. I believe, if he had asked her then, she might have taken him
+(because Cousin Rotherwood wished it), but she would have had to fall in
+love in the second place instead of the first. Well, he was very good,
+poor old fellow, except that by way of taking himself off, and diverting
+his mind, he went dear-stalking with such unnecessary vehemence that a
+Scotch mist was very nearly the death of him, and he discovered that he
+had as many lungs as other people. If you could only have seen our dear
+old father then, how distressed and how guilty he felt, and how he used
+to watch Phyllis, and examine Alethea and me as to whether she seemed
+more than reasonably concerned for Rotherwood had come and hit the right
+nail on the head he might have carried her off.'
+
+'But he didn't.'
+
+'No; for, you see, he was ill enough to convince himself, as well as
+other people, that he was a consumptive Devereux after all.'
+
+'Oh yes! I remember the shock with which I heard like a doom that he was
+going the way of the others; and hen he and the dear Claude came out
+in his yacht to us at Gibraltar, and were so bright! We had a wonderful
+little journey into Spain together, and how Jasper enjoyed it! Little
+did I think I was never to see Claude here again. But it was true,
+was it not, that all Rotherwood's care gave the dear fellow much more
+comfort--perhaps kept him longer?'
+
+'I am sure it was so. Rotherwood soon got over his own attachment--the
+missing an English winter was all he needed; but he would hear of
+nothing but devoting himself to Claude. Papa and Claude were both uneasy
+at his going off from all his cares and duties, but I believe--and
+Claude knew it--that he actually could not settle down quietly while
+Phyllis remained unmarried, and that having Claude to nurse and carry
+about from climate was the comfort of his life. Or, I believe, dear
+Claude would have been glad to have been left in peace to do what he
+could. Well, then Phyllis and Ada went to stay in the Close with Emily,
+and Ada wrote conscious letters and came home bridling and blushing
+about Captain May, so that we were quite prepared for his turning up at
+Beechcroft, but not at all for what I saw before he had been ten minutes
+in the house, that it was Phyllis that he meant, and had meant all
+along! Dear Harry! it almost made up for its not being Rotherwood. Well,
+poor Ada! It hadn't gone too deep, happily, and I opened her eyes in
+time to hinder any demonstration that could have left pain and shame--at
+least, I think so; but poor Ada has had too many little fits for one to
+have told much more than another. I believe Phyl did tell Harry that
+he meant Ada, but she let herself be convinced to the contrary; and
+the only objection I have to it is his having taken that appointment
+at Auckland, and carried her out of reach of any of us. However, it was
+better for Rotherwood, and when she was gone, and his occupation over
+with our dear Claude, his mother was always at him to let her see him
+married before she died. And so he let her have her way. No, don't look
+concerned. Lady Rotherwood is an excellent, good woman, just the wife
+for him, and he knows it, and does as she tells him most faithfully and
+gratefully. They are pattern-folk from top to toe, and so is the boy.
+But the girl! He would have his way, and named her Phyllis--Fly he calls
+her. She is a little skittish elf--Rotherwood himself all over; and
+doesn't he worship her! and doesn't he think it a holiday to carry her
+off to play pranks with! and isn't he happy to get amongst a good lot of
+us, and be his old self again!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. -- MY PERSECUTED UNCLE
+
+
+
+Dolores was allowed to go to Casement Cottage on Sunday. It was always
+rather an awful thing to her to get through the paddock when the
+farmer's cattle turned out there. She did not mind it so much in the
+broad road and in the midst of a large party, with Hal among them, and
+no dogs; but alone with only one companion, and in the easy path which
+was the shortest way to the cottage, she winced and trembled at the
+little black, shaggy Scotch oxen, with white horns and faces that looked
+to her very wild and fierce.
+
+'Oh, Gillian, those creatures! Can't we go the other way?'
+
+'No; it is a great deal further round, and there's no time. They won't
+hurt. The farmer engaged not to turn out anything vicious here.'
+
+'But how can he be sure?'
+
+'Well, don't come if you don't like it,' said Gillian, impatiently. 'It
+is your own concern. I must go.'
+
+Dolores did not like the notion of Constance being told that she would
+not come because she was afraid of the oxen. She thought it very unkind
+of Gillian, but she came, and kept carefully on the side furthest from
+the formidable animals. And Gillian really was forbearing. She did make
+allowances for the London-bred girl's fears; and the only thing she did
+was, that when one of the animals lifted up its head and looked, and
+Dolores made a spring as if to run away, she caught the girl's arm,
+crying, 'Don't! That's the very way to make him run after you.'
+
+They got safe out of the paddock at last, and rang at the door. They
+were both kissed, Dolores with especial affectionateness, because the
+good ladies pitied her so much; and then while Miss Hacket and Gillian
+went off to their class, Constance took Dolores up into her own room,
+and began to tell her how disappointed she was not to have seen more of
+her at the Festival.
+
+'But those curates would not let me alone. I was obliged to attend to
+them.'
+
+And then she was very eager to know all about Lord Rotherwood, which
+rather amazed Dolores, who had been in the habit of hearing her father
+mention him as 'that mad fellow Rotherwood,' while her mother always
+spoke with contempt of people who ran after lords and ladies, and had
+been heard to say that Lord Rotherwood himself was well enough, but his
+wife was a mere fine lady.
+
+But Dolores had a matter on which she was very anxious.
+
+'Connie, do they always read one's letters first? I mean the old people,
+like Aunt Lily.'
+
+'What! has she been reading your letters?'
+
+'She says she always shall, except father's and Maude Sefton's, because
+papa spoke to her about that. She took a letter of mine the other day,
+and never let me have it till the evening, and I am sure Aunt Jane put
+her up to it.'
+
+'You poor darling!' exclaimed Constance. 'Was it anything you cared
+about?'
+
+'Oh no--not that--but there might be. And I want to know whether she has
+the right.'
+
+'I should not have thought Lady Merrifield would have been so like an
+old schoolmistress. Miss Dormer always did, the old cat! where I went to
+school,' said Constance. 'We did hate it so! She looked over every one's
+letters, except parents', so that we never could have anything nice,
+except by a chance or so.'
+
+'It is tyranny,' said Dolores, solemnly. 'I do not see why one should
+submit to it.'
+
+'We had dodges,' continued Constance, warming with the history of her
+school-days, and far too eager to talk to think of the harm she might be
+doing to the younger girl. 'Sometimes, when a lot of us went to a shop
+with one of the governesses, one would slip out and post a letter.
+Fraulein was so short-sighted, she never guessed. We used to call her
+the jolly old Kafer. But Mademoiselle was very sharp. She once caught
+Alice Bell, so that she had to make an excuse and say she had dropped
+something. You see, she really had--the letter into the slit.'
+
+'But that was an equivocation.'
+
+'Oh, you darling scrupulous, long-worded child! You aren't like the
+girls at Miss Dormer's, only she drove us to it, you know. You'll be
+horribly shocked, but I'll tell you what Louie Preston did. There was
+a young man in the town whom she had met at a picnic in the holidays--a
+clerk, he was, at the bank--and he used to put notes to her under the
+cushions at church; but one unlucky Sunday, Louie had a cold and didn't
+go, and she told Mabel Blisset to bring it, and Mabel didn't understand
+the right place, and went poking about, so that Miss Dormer found it
+out, and there was such a row!'
+
+'Wasn't that rather vulgar?' said Dolores.
+
+'Well, he was only a clerk, but he was a duck of a man, with regular
+auburn hair, you know. And he sang! We used to go to the Choral Society
+concerts, and he sang ballads so beautifully, and always looked at
+Louie!'
+
+'I should not care for anything of that sort,' said Dolores. 'I think it
+is bad form.'
+
+'So it is,' said Constance, seriously, 'only one can't help recollecting
+the fun of the thing, and what one was driven to in those days. Is there
+any one you are anxious to correspond with?'
+
+'Not in particular, only I can't bear to have Aunt Lilias meddling with
+my letters; and there's a poor uncle of mine that I know would not like
+her, or any of the Mohuns, to see his letters.
+
+'Indeed! Your poor mamma's brother?' cried Constance, full of curiosity.
+
+'Mind, it is in confidence. You must never tell any one.'
+
+'Never. Oh, you may trust me!' cried Constance.
+
+'Her half-brother,' said Dolores; and the girl proceeded to tell
+Constance what she had told Maude Sefton about Mr. Flinders, and how her
+mother had been used to assist him out of her own earnings, and how he
+had met her at Exeter station, and was so disappointed to have missed
+her father. Constance listened most eagerly, greatly delighted to have a
+secret confided to her, and promising to keep it with all her might.
+
+'And now,' said Dolores, 'what shall I do? If poor Uncle Alfred writes
+to me, Aunt Lilias will have the letter and read it, and the Mohuns are
+all so stuck up; they will despise him, and very likely she will never
+let me have the letter.'
+
+'Yes, but, dear, couldn't you write here, with my things, and tell him
+how it is, and tell him to write under cover to me?'
+
+'Dear Connie! How good you are! Yes, that would be quite delightful!'
+
+All the confidences and all the caresses had, however, taken quite as
+long as the G.F.S. class, and before Constance had cleared a space on
+the table for Dolores's letter, there was a summons to say that Gillian
+was ready to go home.
+
+'So early!' said Constance. 'I thought you would have had tea and stayed
+to evening service.'
+
+'I should like it so much,' cried Dolores, remembering that it would
+spare her the black oxen in the cross-path, as well as giving her the
+time with her friend.
+
+So they went down with the invitation, but Gillian replied that mamma
+always liked to have all together for the Catechism, and that she could
+not venture to leave Dolores without special permission.
+
+'Quite right, my dear,' said Miss Hacket. 'Connie would be very sorry to
+do anything against Lady Merrifield's rules. We shall see you again in a
+day or two.'
+
+And this is the way in which Constance kept her friend's secret. When
+Miss Hacket had done her further work with a G.F.S. young woman who
+needed private instruction to prepare her for baptism, the two sisters
+sat down to a leisurely tea before starting for evensong; in the first
+place, Constance detailed all she had discovered as to the connection
+with Lord Rotherwood, in which subject, it must be confessed, good Miss
+Hacket took a lively interest, having never so closely encountered a
+live marquess, 'and so affable,' she contended; upon which Constance
+declared that they were all stuck-up, and were very unkind and hard to
+poor darling Dolores.
+
+'I don't know. I cannot fancy dear Lady Merrifield being unkind to any
+one, especially a dear girl as good as an orphan,' said Miss Hacket,
+who, if not the cleverest of women, was one of the best and most
+warm-hearted. 'And, indeed, Connie, I don't think dear Gillian and Mysie
+feel at all unkindly to their cousin.'
+
+'Ah! that's just like you, Mary. You never see more than the outside,
+but then I am in dear Dolly's confidence.'
+
+'What do you mean, Connie?' said Miss Hacket, eagerly.
+
+Constance had come home from school with the reputation of being much
+more accomplished than her elder sister, who had grown up while her
+father was a curate of very straitened means, and thus, though her
+junior, she was thought wonderfully superior in discernment and
+everything else.
+
+'Well,' said Constance, 'what do you think of Lady Merrifield sending
+her to bed for staying late here that morning?'
+
+'That was strict, certainly; but you know she sent Mysie too. It was all
+my own thoughtlessness for detaining them,' said the good elder sister.
+'I was so grieved!'
+
+'Yes,' said Constance, 'it sounds all very well to say Mysie was treated
+in the same way, but in the afternoon Mysie was allowed to go and make
+messes with blackberry jam, while poor Dolly was kept shut up in the
+schoolroom!'
+
+Constance did not like Lady Merrifield, who had unconsciously snubbed
+some of her affectations, and nipped in the bud a flirtation with Harry,
+besides calling off some of the curates to be helpful. But Miss Hacket
+admired her neighbour as much as her sister would permit, and made
+answer--
+
+'It is so hard to judge, my dear, without knowing all. Perhaps Mysie had
+finished her lessons.'
+
+'Ah! I know you always are for Lady Merrifield! But what do you say,
+then, to her prying into all that poor child's correspondence?'
+
+'My dear, I think most people do think it advisable to have some check
+on young girl's letters. Perhaps Dolores's father desired it.'
+
+'He never put on any restrictions,' said Constance. 'I am sure he
+never would. Men don't. It is always women, with their nasty, prying,
+tyrannous instincts.'
+
+'I am sure,' returned Mary, 'one would not think a child like Dolores
+Mohun could have anything to conceal.'
+
+'But she has!' cried Constance.
+
+'No, my dear! Impossible!' exclaimed Miss Hacket, looking very much
+shocked. 'Why, she can't be fourteen!'
+
+'Oh! it is nothing of that sort. Don't think about that, Mary.'
+
+'No, no, I know, Connie dear; you would never listen to any young girl's
+confidence of that kind--so improper and so vulgar,' said Miss Hacket,
+and Constance did not think it necessary to reveal her knowledge of the
+post-office under the cushions at church, and other little affairs of
+that sort.
+
+'It is her uncle,' said Constance. 'Her mother, it seems, though quite
+a lady, was the daughter of a professor, a very learned man, very
+distinguished, and all that, but not a high family enough to please
+the Mohuns, and they never were friendly with her, or treated her as an
+equal.'
+
+'That couldn't have been Lady Merrifield,' persevered Miss Hacket. 'She
+lamented to me herself that she had been out of England for so many
+years that she had scarcely seen Mrs. Maurice Mohun.'
+
+'Well, there were the Miss Mohuns and all the rest!' said Constance.
+'Why, Dolores has only once been at the family place. And her mother had
+a brother, an author and a journalist, a very clever man, and the Mohuns
+have always regularly persecuted him. He has been very unfortunate,
+and Mrs. Maurice Mohun has done her utmost to help him, writing in
+periodicals and giving the proceeds to him. Wasn't that sweet? And now
+Dolores feels quite cut off from him; and she is so fond of him, poor
+darling for her mother's sake.'
+
+Tender-hearted as Miss Hacket was, she had seen enough of life to have
+some inkling of what being very unfortunate might sometimes mean.
+
+'I should think,' she said, 'that Lady Merrifield would never withhold
+from the child any letter it was proper she should have, especially from
+a relation.'
+
+'Yes, but I tell you she did keep back a letter on the festival day till
+she had looked at it. Poor Dolores saw it come, and she saw a glance
+pass between her and Miss Mohun, and she is quite sure, she says, her
+Aunt Jane had been poisoning her mind about this poor persecuted uncle,
+and that she shall never be allowed to hear from him.'
+
+'I don't suppose there can be much for him to say to her,' said Miss
+Hacket. Then, after a little reflection, 'Connie, my dear, I really
+think you had better not interfere. There may be reasons that this poor
+child knows nothing about for keeping her aloof from this uncle.'
+
+'Oh! but her mother helped him.'
+
+'She was his sister. That was quite another thing. Indeed, Connie,' said
+Miss Hacket, more earnestly, 'I am quite sure that you will use your
+influence--and you have a great deal of influence, you know--most kindly
+by persuading this dear child to be happy with the Merrifields and
+submit to their arrangements.'
+
+'You are infatuated with Lady Merrifield,' muttered Constance. 'Ah! how
+little you know!'
+
+Here the first warning note of the bell ended the discussion, and
+Constance did not think it necessary to tell her sister of the offer
+she had made to Dolores. In her eyes, Mary, who was the eldest of the
+family, had always been of the dull, grown-up, authoritative faction of
+the elders, while she herself was still one of the sweet junior party,
+full of antagonism to them, and ready to elude them in any way. Besides,
+she had promised her darling Dolores; and the thing was quite romantic;
+nor could any one call it blame-worthy, since it was nothing like a
+lover--not even a young man, but only a persecuted uncle in distress.
+
+So she awaited anxiously the next Sunday when Dolores's letter was to
+be written in her room. To tell the truth, Dolores could quite as easily
+have written in her own, and brought down the letter in her pocket, if
+she had been eager about the matter; but she was not, except under the
+influence of making a grievance. She had never written to Uncle Alfred
+in her life, nor he to her; and his visits to her mother had always led
+to something uncomfortable. Nor would she have thought about the subject
+at all if it had not been for the sore sense that she was cut off from
+him, as she fancied, because he belonged to her mother.
+
+Nothing particular had happened that week. There had been no very
+striking offences one way or the other; she was working better with her
+lessons and understanding more of Miss Vincent's methods. She perceived
+that they were thorough, and respected them accordingly, and she had had
+the great satisfaction of getting more good marks for French and German
+than Mysie. She had become interested in 'The Old Oak Staircase,' and
+began to look forward to Aunt Lily's readings as the best part of the
+day. But she had not drawn in the least nearer to any of the family.
+She absolutely disliked, almost hated, the quarter of an hour which Aunt
+Lily devoted to her religious teaching every morning, though nobody was
+present, not even Primrose. She nearly refused to learn, and said as
+badly as possible the very small portions she was bidden to learn by
+heart, and she closed her mind up against taking in the sense of the
+very short readings and her aunt's comments on them. It seemed to her
+to be treating her like a Sunday-school child, and insulting her mother,
+who had never troubled her in this manner. Her aunt said no word of
+reproach, except to insist on attention and accuracy of repetition; but
+there came to be an unusual gravity and gentleness about her in these
+lessons, as if she were keeping a guard over herself, and often a
+greatly disappointed look, which exasperated Dolores much more than a
+scolding.
+
+Mysie had left off courting her cousin, finding that it only brought
+her rebuffs, and went her own way as before, pleased and honoured when
+Gillian would consort with her, but generally paring with her younger
+sister.
+
+Dolores, though hitherto ungracious, missed her attentions, and decided
+that they were 'all falseness.' Wilfred absolutely did tease and annoy
+her whenever he could, Fergus imitated him, and Valetta enjoyed and
+abetted him. These three had all been against her ever since the affair
+of the arrow; but Wilfred had not many opportunities of tormenting her,
+for in the house there was a perpetual quiet supervision and influence.
+Mrs. Halfpenny was sure to detect traps in the passage, or bounces at
+the door. Miss Vincent looked daggers if other people's lesson books
+were interfered with. Mamma had eyes all round, and nobody dared to
+tease or play tricks in her presence. Hal, Gillian, and even Mysie
+always thwarted such amiable acts as putting a dead wasp into a shoe,
+or snapping a book in the reader's face; while, as to venturing into
+the general family active games, Dolores would have felt it like rushing
+into a corobboree of savages!
+
+There was one wet afternoon when they could not even get as far as to
+the loft over the stables; at least the little ones could not have done
+so, and it was decided that it would be very cruel to them for all the
+others to run off, and leave them to Mrs. Halfpenny; so the plan was
+given up.
+
+Partly because Lady Merrifield thought it very amiable in Mysie and
+Valetta to make the sacrifice, and partly to disperse the thundercloud
+she saw gathering on Wilfred's brow, she not only consented to a
+magnificent and extraordinary game at wolves and bears all over the
+house, but even devoted herself to keeping Mrs. Halfpenny quiet by
+shutting herself into the nursery to look over all the wardrobes, and
+decide what was to 'go down' in the family, and what was to be given
+away, and what must be absolutely renewed. It was an operation that Mrs.
+Halfpenny enjoyed so much, that it warranted her to be deaf to shrieks
+and trampling, and almost to forget the chances of gathers and kilting
+being torn out, and trap-doors appearing in skirts and pinafores.
+
+All that time Dolores sat hunched up in her own room, reading 'Clare,
+or No Home,' and realizing the persecutions suffered by that afflicted
+child, who had just been nearly drowned in rescuing her wickedest
+cousin, and was being carried into her noble grandfather's house, there
+to be recognized by her golden hair being exactly the colour it was when
+she was a baby.
+
+There were horrible growlings at times outside her door, and she
+bolted it by way of precaution. Once there was a bounce against it, but
+Gillian's voice might be heard in the distance calling off the wolves.
+
+Then came a lull. The wolves and bears had rushed up and down stairs
+till they were quite exhausted and out of breath, especially as Primrose
+had always been a cub, and gone in the arms of Hal or Gillian; Fergus
+at last had rolled down three steps, and been caught by Wilfred, who,
+in his character of bear, hugged and mauled him till his screams grew
+violent. Harry had come to the rescue, and it was decided that there
+had been enough of this, and that there should be a grand exhibition of
+tableaux from the history of England in the dining-room, which of course
+mamma was to guess, with the assistance of any one who was not required
+to act.
+
+Mama, ever obliging, hastily condemned two or three sunburnt hats and
+ancient pairs of shoes, to be added to the bundle for Miss Hacket's
+distribution, and let herself be hauled off to act audience.
+
+'But where's Dolly?' she asked, as she looked at the assemblage on the
+stairs.
+
+'Bolted into her room, like a donkey,' said Wilfred, the last clause
+under his breath.
+
+'Indeed, mamma, we did ask her, and gave her the choice between wolves
+and bears,' said Mysie.
+
+'Unfortunately she is bear without choosing,' said Gill.
+
+'A sucking of her paws in a hollow tree,' chimed in Hal.
+
+'Hush! hush!' said Lady Merrifield, looking pained; 'perhaps the choice
+seemed very terrible to a poor only child like that. We, who had the
+luck to be one of many, don't know what wild cats you may all seem to
+her.'
+
+'She never will play at anything,' said Val.
+
+'She doesn't know how to,' said Mysie.
+
+'And won't be taught,' added Wilfred.
+
+'But that's very dreadful,' exclaimed Lady Merrifield. 'Fancy a poor
+child of thirteen not knowing how to play. I shall go and dig her out!'
+
+So there came a gentle tap at the closed door, to which Dolores
+answered--
+
+'Can't you let me alone? Go away,' thinking it a treacherous ruse of the
+enemy to effect an entrance; but when her aunt said--
+
+'Is there anything the matter, my dear? Won't you let me in?' she was
+obliged to open it.
+
+'No, there's nothing the matter,' she allowed. 'Only I wanted them to
+let me alone.'
+
+'They have not been rude to you, I hope.'
+
+Dolores was too much afraid of Wilfred to mention the bouncing, so she
+allowed that no one had been rude to her, but she hated romping, which
+she managed to say in the tone of a rebuke to her aunt for suffering it.
+
+However, Aunt Lily only smiled and said--
+
+'Ah! you have not been used to wholesome exercise in large families. I
+dare say it seems formidable; but, my dear, you are looking quite pale.
+I can't allow you to stay stuffed up there, poking over a book all the
+afternoon. It is very bad for you. We are going to have some historical
+tableaux. They are to have one set, and I thought perhaps you and I
+would get up some for them to guess in turn.'
+
+Dolores was not in a mood to be pleased, but she did not quite dare to
+say she did not choose to make herself ridiculous, and she knew there
+was authority in the tone, so she followed and endured.
+
+So they beheld Alfred watching the cakes before the bright grate in the
+dining-room, and having his ears beautifully boxed. Also Knut and the
+waves, which were graphically represented by letting the wind in under
+the drugget, and pulling it up gradually over his feet, but these, Mysie
+explained, were only for the little ones. Rollo and his substitute doing
+homage to Charles the Simple, were much more effective; as Gillian in
+that old military cloak of her father's, which had seen as much service
+in the play-room as in the field, stood and scowled at Wilfred in the
+crown and mamma's ermine mantle, being overthrown by Harry at his full
+height.
+
+The excitement was immense when it was announced that mamma had a
+tableau to represent with the help of Dolores, who was really warming
+a little to the interest of the thing, and did not at all dislike being
+dressed up with one of the boy's caps with three ostrich feathers, to
+accompany her aunt in hood and cloak, and be challenged by Hal, who had,
+together with the bow and papa's old regimental sword, been borrowed to
+personate the robber of Hexham. Everybody screamed with ecstasy except
+Fergus, who thought it very hard that he should not have been Prince
+Edward instead of a stupid girl.
+
+So, to content all parties, mama undertook to bring in as many as
+possible, and a series from the life of Elizabeth Woodville was
+accordingly arranged.
+
+She stood under the oak, represented by the hall chandelier, with Fergus
+and Primrose as her infant sons, and fascinated King Edward on
+the rocking-horse, which was much too vivant, for it reared as
+perpendicularly as it could, and then nearly descended on its nose, to
+mark the rider's feelings.
+
+Then, with her hair let down, which was stipulated for, though, as she
+observed, nothing would make it the right colour, she sat desolate on
+the hearth, surrounded by as many daughters as could be spared from
+being spectators, as her youngest son was born off from her maternal
+arms by a being as like a cardinal as a Galway cloak, disposed tippet
+fashion, could make him.
+
+She could not be spared to put up her hair again before she had to
+forget her maternal feelings and be mere audience, while her two sons
+were smothered by Mysie and Dolores, converted into murderers one
+and two by slouched hats. Fergus, a little afraid of being actually
+suffocated, began to struggle, setting off Wilfred, and the adventure
+was having a conclusion, which would have accounted for the authentic
+existence of Perkin Warbeck, when--oh horror! there was a peal at the
+door-bell, and before there was a moment for the general scurry,
+Herbert the button-boy popped out of the pantry passage and admitted
+Mr. Leadbitter, to whom, as a late sixth standard boy, he had a special
+allegiance, and, having spied him coming, hurried to let him in out of
+the rain instantly.
+
+At least, such was the charitable interpretation. Harry strongly
+suspected that the imp had been a concealed spectator all the time, and
+had particularly relished the mischief of the discomfiture, which, after
+all, was much greater on the part of the Vicar than any one else, as
+he was a rather stiff, old-fashioned gentleman. Lady Merrifield only
+laughed, said she had been beguiled into wet day sports with the
+children, begged him to excuse her for a moment or two, and tripped
+away, followed by Gillian to help her, quickly reappearing in her lace
+cap as the graceful matron, even before Mr. Leadbitter had quite done
+blushing and quoting to Harry 'desipere in loco,' as he was assisted off
+with his dripping, shiny waterproof.
+
+After all no harm would have been done if--Harry and Gillian being
+both off guard--Valetta had not exclaimed most unreasonably in her
+disappointment--
+
+'I knew the fun would be spoilt the instant Dolores came in for it.'
+
+'Yes, Mr. Murderer, you squashed my little finger and all but smothered
+me,' cried Fergus, throwing himself on Dolores and dropping her down.
+
+'Don't! don't! you know you mustn't,' screamed valiant Mysie, flying to
+the rescue.
+
+'Murderers! Murderers must be done for,' shouted Wilfred, falling upon
+Mysie.
+
+'You shan't hurt my Mysie,' bellowed Valetta, hurling herself upon
+Wilfred.
+
+And there they were all in a heap, when Gillian, summoned by the
+shrieks, came down from helping her mother, pulled Valetta off Wilfred,
+Wilfred off Mysie, Mysie off Fergus, and Fergus off Dolores, who was
+discovered at the bottom with an angry, frightened face, and all her
+hair standing on end.
+
+'Are you hurt, Dolores? I am very sorry,' said Gillian. 'It was very
+naughty. Go up to the nursery, Fergus and Val, and be made fit to be
+seen.'
+
+They obeyed, crestfallen. Dolores felt herself all over. It would have
+been gratifying to have had some injury to complain of, but she had
+fallen on the prince's cushions, and there really was none. So she only
+said, 'No, I'm not hurt, though it is a wonder;' and off she walked
+to bolt herself into her own room again, there to brood on Valetta's
+speech.
+
+It worked up into a very telling and pathetic history for Constance's
+sympathizing ears on Sunday, especially as it turned out to be one of
+the things not reported to mamma.
+
+And on that day, Dolores, being reminded of it by her friend, sent a
+letter to Mr. Flinders to the office of the paper for which he worked in
+London, to tell him that if he wished to write to her as he had promised
+he must address under cover to Miss Constance Hacket, Casement Cottage,
+as otherwise Aunt Lilias would certainly read all his letters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. -- LETTERS
+
+
+
+Constance Hacket was very much excited about the address to Dolores's
+letter to her uncle. She had not noticed it at the moment that it was
+written, but she did when she posted it; and the next time she could get
+her young friend alone, she eagerly demanded what Mr. Flinders had to do
+with the Many Tongues, and why her niece wrote to him at the office.
+
+'He writes the criticisms,' said Dolores, magnificently; for though
+she despised pluming herself on any connection with a marquess, she
+did greatly esteem that with the world of letters. 'You know we are all
+literary.'
+
+'Oh yes, I know! But what kind of criticisms do you mean? I suppose it
+is a very clever paper?'
+
+'Of course it it,' said Dolores, 'but I don't think I ever saw it.
+Father never takes in society papers. I believe he does criticisms on
+plays and novels. I know he always has tickets for all the theatres and
+exhibitions.
+
+She did not say how she did know it, for a pang smote her as she
+remembered dimly a scene, when her father had forbidden her mother to
+avail herself of escort thus obtained. Nor was she sure that the word
+all was accurately the fact; but it was delightful to impress Constance,
+who cried, 'How perfectly delicious! I suppose he can get any article
+into his paper!'
+
+'Oh yes, of course,' said Dolores.
+
+'Did your dear mother write in it?'
+
+'No; it was not her line. She used to write metaphysical and scientific
+articles in the first-class reviews and magazines, and the Many Tongues
+is what they call a society paper, you know.'
+
+'Oh yes, I know. There are charming things about the Upper Ten Thousand.
+They tell all that is going on, but I hardly ever can see one. Mary
+won't take in anything about Church Bells, and we get the Guardian when
+it is a week old, and my brother James has done with it.'
+
+'Dear me! How dreadful!' said Dolores, who had been used to see all
+manner of papers come in as regularly as hot rolls. 'Why, you never can
+know anything! We didn't take in society papers, because father does not
+care for gossip or grandees. He has other pursuits. I can show you some
+of dear mother's articles. There's one called 'Unconscious Volition,'
+and another on the 'Progress of Species.' I'll bring them down next time
+I come.'
+
+'Have you read them?'
+
+'No; they are too difficult. Mother was so very clever, you know.'
+
+'She must have been,' said Constance, with a sigh; 'but how did she get
+them published?'
+
+'Sent them to the editor, of course,' said Dolores. 'They all knew her,
+and were glad to get anything that she wrote.'
+
+'Ah! that is what it is to have an introduction,' sighed Constance.
+
+'What! have you written anything?' cried Dolores.
+
+'Only a few little trifles,' said Constance, modestly. 'It is a great
+secret, you know, a dead secret.'
+
+'Oh! I'll keep it. I told you my secret, you know, so you might tell me
+yours.'
+
+And so to Dolores were confided sundry verses and tales on which
+Constance had been wont to spend a good deal of her time in that pretty
+sitting-room. She had actually sent her manuscripts to magazines, but
+she had heard no more of one, and the other had been returned declined
+with thanks--all for want of an introduction. Dolores was delighted to
+promise that as soon as she heard from Uncle Alfred, she would get him
+to patronize them, and the reading occupied several Sunday afternoons.
+Dolores suggested, however, that a goody-goody story about a choir-boy
+lost in the snow would never do for the Many Tongues, and a far more
+exciting one was taken up, called 'The Waif of the Moorland,' being the
+story of a maiden, whom a wicked step-mother was suspected of murdering,
+but who walked from time to time like the 'Woman in White.' There was
+only too much time for the romance; for weeks passed and there was no
+answer from Mr. Flinders. It was possible that he might have broken off
+his connection with the paper, only then the letter would probably have
+been returned; and the other alternative was less agreeable, that it
+was not worth his while to write to his niece. While as to Maude Sefton,
+nothing was heard of her. Were her letters intercepted? And so the
+winter side of autumn set in. Hal was gone to Oxford, and there had
+been time for letters to come from Mr. Mohun, posted from Auckland,
+New Zealand, where he had made a halt with his sister, Mrs. Harry May,
+otherwise Aunt Phyllis. Dolores was very much pleased to receive her
+letter, and to have it all to herself; but, after all, she was somewhat
+disappointed in it, for there was really nothing in it that might not
+have been proclaimed round the breakfast-table, like the public letters
+from that quarter of the family who were at Rawul Pindee. It told of
+deep-sea soundings and investigations into the creatures at the bottom
+of the sea, of Portuguese men-of-war, and albatrosses; and there were
+some orders to scientific-instrument makers for her to send to them--a
+very improving letter, but a good deal like a book of travels. Only at
+the end did the writer say, 'I hope my little daughter is happy among
+her cousins, and takes care to give her aunt no trouble, and to profit
+by her kind care. Your three cousins here, Mary, Lily, and Maggie, are
+exceedingly nice girls, and much interested about you; indeed, they wish
+I had brought you with me.'
+
+Dolores read her letter over and over and over, for the pleasure of
+having something all to herself, and never communicated a word about the
+miscroscopic monsters her father had described, but she drew her head
+back and reflected, 'He little knows,' when he spoke of her being happy
+among her cousins.
+
+Lady Merrifield likewise received a letter, about which she did not say
+much to her children, but Miss Mohun, who had had a much longer one,
+came over for the day to read this to her sister. In point of fact,
+she had paired in childhood with her brother Maurice. She had been
+his correspondent in school and college days, and being a person never
+easily rebuffed, she had kept up more intercourse with him and his wife
+than any others of the family had done, and he had preserved the habit
+of writing to her much more freely and unreservedly than to any one
+else. So the day after the New Zealand letters came, just as the
+historical reading and needlework were in full force, the schoolroom
+door was opened, and a brisk little figure stood there in sealskin coat
+and hat.
+
+Up jumped mamma. 'Oh! Jenny! Brownie indeed! How did you come? You
+didn't walk from the station?'
+
+'Yes, why not? Otherwise I should have been too soon, and have disturbed
+the lessons,' said Aunt Jane, in the intervals of the greeting kisses.
+'All well with the Indian folks?'
+
+'Oh yes; they've come back from the emerald valleys of Cashmere, and
+Alethea has actually sent me a primrose--just like an English one--that
+they found growing there. They did enjoy it so. Have you heard from
+Maurice?'
+
+'Yes, I thought you would like to hear about Phyllis, so, having enjoyed
+it with Ada, I brought it over for further enjoyment with you.'
+
+'That's a dear old Brownie! We've a good hour before dinner. Shall we
+read it to the general public, or shall we adjourn to the drawing-room?'
+
+"Oh! I assure you it is very instructive. Quite as much so as Miss
+Sewell's 'Rome.'"
+
+And Aunt Jane, whom Gillian had aided in disrobing herself of her
+outdoor garments, was installed by the fire, and unfolded a whole volume
+of thin, mauve sheets in Mr. Mohun's tiny Greek-looking handwriting.
+
+It was a sort of journal of his voyage. There were all the same accounts
+of the minute creatures that are incipient chalk, and their exquisite
+cells, made, some of coral, some of silex spicule from sponges; the
+some descriptions of phosphorescent animals, meduse, and the like, that
+Dolores had thought her own special treasure and privilege, only a great
+deal fuller, and with the scientific terms untranslated--indeed, Aunt
+Jane had now and then to stop and explain, since she had always kept up
+with the course of modern discovery. There was also much more about his
+shipmates, with one or two of whom Mr. Mohun had evidently made
+great friends. He told his sister a great deal about them, and his
+conversations with them, whereas he had only told Dolores abut one
+little midshipman getting into a scrape. Perhaps nothing else was to be
+expected, but it made her feel the contrast between being treated with
+real confidence and as a mere child, and it seemed to put her father
+further away from her than ever.
+
+Then came the conclusion, written on shore--
+
+'Harry May came on board to take me home with him. He is a fine, genial
+fellow and his welcome did one's heart good. I never did him justice
+before; but I see his good sense and superiority called into play out
+here. Depend upon it, there's nothing like going to the other end of the
+world to teach the value of home ties.'
+
+'Well done, Maurice,' exclaimed Lady Merrifield; but she glanced at
+Dolores and checked herself.
+
+Miss Mohun went on, 'Phyllis met me at the door of a pleasant,
+English-looking house, with all her tribe about her. She has the true
+'honest Phyl' face still, carrying me back over some thirty or forty
+years of life, and as you would imagine, she is a capital mother, with
+all her flock well in hand, and making themselves thoroughly useful
+in the scarcity of servants; though the other matters do not seem
+neglected. The eldest can talk like a well informed girl, and shows
+reasonable interest in things in general; but Phyllis wants to put
+finishing touches to their education, and her husband talks of throwing
+up his appointment before long, as he is anxious to go home while his
+father lives. I wish I had gone to Stoneborough before coming out here,
+now that I see what a gratification it would have been if I could have
+brought a fresh report of old Dr. May. (Somehow, I think there has
+been a numbness or obtuseness about me all these last two years which
+hindered me from perceiving or doing much that I now regret, since
+either the change or the wholesome atmosphere of this house has wakened
+me as it were. Among these ungracious omissions is what I now am much
+concerned to think of, that I never went to see Lilias when I committed
+my child to her charge; nor talked over her disposition. Not that I
+really understand it as I ought to have done when the poor child was
+left to me. I take shame to myself when Phyllis questions me about her),
+but as I watch these children with their parents I am quite convinced
+that the being taken under Lily's motherly wing is by far the best thing
+that could have befallen Dolores, and that my absence is for her real
+benefit as well as mine.'
+
+The part between brackets was omitted by Miss Mohun in the public
+reading, but the last sentence she did read, thinking it good for both
+parties to hear it. However, Dolores both disliked the conclusion to
+which her father had come, and still more that her aunt and cousins
+should hear it, though, after all, it was only Gillian and Mysie who
+remained to listen by the time the end of the letter was reached. The
+long words had frightened away Valetta as soon as her appointed task of
+work was finished.
+
+Aunt Lily did not see the omitted sentence till the two sisters were
+alone together later in the afternoon. It filled her eyes with tears.
+'Poor Maurice,' she said; 'he wrote something of the same kind to me.'
+
+'I expect we shall see him wonderfully shaken up and brightened when he
+comes home. The numbness he talks of was half of it Mary's dislike to us
+all, only I never would let her keep me aloof from him.'
+
+'I almost wish he had taken Dolores out to Phyllis. I am not in the
+least fulfilling his ideal towards her.'
+
+'Nor would Phyllis, unless the voyage had had as much effect on her as
+it seems to have had upon Maurice. So you don't get on any better?'
+
+'Not a bit. It is a case of parallel lines. We don't often have
+collisions--unless Wilfred gets an opportunity of provoking her.'
+
+'Why don't you send that boy to school?'
+
+'I shall after Christmas. He is quite well now, and to have him at home
+is bad both for himself and the others. He needs licking into shape
+as only boys can do to one another, and he is not a model for Fergus,
+especially since Harry has been away.'
+
+'What does he do?'
+
+'Nothing very brilliant, nor of the kind one half forgives for the
+drollery of it. Putting mustard into the custard was the worst, I think;
+inciting the dogs to bring the cattle down on the girls when they cross
+the paddock; shutting up their books when the places are found--those
+are the sort of things; putting that very life-like wild cat
+chauffe-pied with glaring eyes in Dolly's bed. I believe he does such
+things to all, but his sisters would let him torture them rather than
+complain, whereas Dolores does her best to bring them under my notice
+without actually laying an information, which she is evidently afraid to
+do. It is very unlucky that her coming should have been just when we
+had such an element about--for it really gives her some just cause of
+complaint.'
+
+'But you say he is impartial?'
+
+'Teasing is unfortunately his delight. He will even frighten Primrose,
+but I am afraid there is active dislike making Dolores his favourite
+victim; and then Val and Fergus, who don't tease actively on their own
+account, have come to enjoy her discomfiture.'
+
+"And you go on the principle of 'tolerer beaucoup?'"
+
+'I do; hoping that it is not laziness and weakness that makes me abstain
+from nagging about what is not brought before my eyes by the children or
+the police--I mean Gill, Halfpenny, and Miss Vincent. Then I scold, or
+I punish, and that I think maintains the principle, without danger to
+truth or forbearance. At least, I hope it does. I am pretty sure that
+if I punished Wilfred for every teasing trick I know, or guess at, he
+would--in his present mood--only become deceitful, and esprit de corps
+might make Val and Fergus the same, though I don't think Mysie's truth
+could be shaken any more than honest Phyl's.'
+
+'Besides, mutual discipline is not a thing to upset. Lily, I revere you!
+I never thought you were going to turn out such a sensible mother.'
+
+'Well, you see, the difficulty is, that what may work for one's
+own children may not work for other people's. And I confess I don't
+understand her persistent repulse of Mysie.'
+
+'Nor of you, the nasty little cat!' said Aunt Jane, with a little fierce
+shake of the head.
+
+'I do understand that a little. I am too unlike Mary for her to stand
+being mothered by me.'
+
+'There must be some other influence at work for this perverseness to
+keep on so long. Tell me, did she take up with that very goosey girl,
+that Miss Hacket?'
+
+'Oh yes; she goes there every Sunday afternoon. It is the only thing the
+poor child seem much to care about, and I don't think there can be any
+harm in it.'
+
+'Humph! the folly of girl is unfathomable! Oh! you may say what you
+like--you who have thrown yourself into your daughters and kept them
+one with you. You little know in your innocence the product of an
+ill-managed boarding-school!'
+
+'Nay,' said Lady Merrifield, a little hotly, 'I do know that Miss Hacket
+is one of the most excellent people in the world, a little tiresome and
+borne, perhaps, but thoroughly good, and every inch a lady.'
+
+'Granted, but that's not the other one--Constance is her name? My dear,
+I saw her goings on at the G.F.S. affair--If she had only been a member,
+wouldn't I have been at her.'
+
+'My dear Jenny, you always had more eyes to your share than other
+people.'
+
+'And you think that being an old maid has not lessened their sharpness,
+eh! Lily? Well, I can't help it, but my notion is that the sweet
+Constance--whatever her sister may be--is the boarding-school miss a
+little further developed into sentiment and flirtation.'
+
+'Nay, but that would be so utterly uncongenial to a grave, reserved,
+intellectual girl, brought up as Dolores has been.'
+
+'Don't trust to that! Dolores is an interesting orphan, and the notice
+of a grown-up young lady is so flattering that it carries off a great
+deal of folly.'
+
+'Well, Jenny, I must think about it. I hope I have done no harm by
+allowing the friendship--the only indulgence she has seemed to wish
+for; and I am afraid checking it would only alienate he still more! Poor
+Maurice, when he is trusting and hoping in vain!'
+
+'Three year is a long time, Lily; and you have no had three months of
+her yet--'
+
+The door opened at that moment for the afternoon tea, which was earlier
+than usual, to follow of Miss Mohun's reaching the station in time for
+her train. Lady Merrifield was to drive her, and it was the turn of
+Dolores to go out, so that she shared the refection instead of waiting
+for gouter. In the midst the Miss Hackets were announced, and there were
+exclamations of great joy at the sight of Miss Mohun; as she and Miss
+Hacket flew upon each other, and to the very last moment, discussed the
+all-engrossing subject of G.F.S. politics.
+
+Nevertheless, while Miss Mohun was hurrying on her sealskin in her
+sister's room, she found an opportunity of saying, 'Take care, Lily, I
+saw a note pass between those two.'
+
+'My dear Jenny, how could you? You were going on the whole time about
+cards and premiums and associates. Oh! yes, I know a peacock or a lynx
+is nothing to you, but how was it possible? Why, I was making talk to
+Constance all along, and trying to make Dolly speak of her father's
+letter.'
+
+'I might retort by talking of moles and bats! Did you never hear of
+the London clergyman whose silver cream-jug, full of cream too, was
+abstracted by the penitent Sunday school boy whom he was exhorting over
+his breakfast-table?'
+
+'I don't believe London curates have silver jugs or cream either!'
+
+'A relic of past wealth, like St. Gregory's one silver dish, and perhaps
+it was milk. Well, to descend to particulars. It was done with a meaning
+glance, as Dolores was helping her on with her cloud, and was instantly
+disposed of in the pocket.'
+
+'I wonder what I ought to do about it,' sighed Lady Merrifield, 'If I
+had seen it myself I should have no doubts. Oh! if Jasper were but here!
+And yet it is hardly a thing to worry him about. It is most likely to be
+quite innocent.'
+
+'Well, then you can speak of the appearance of secrecy as bad manners.
+You will have her all to yourself as you go home.'
+
+But when the aunts came downstairs, Dolores was not there. On being
+called, she sent a voice down, over the balusters, that she was not
+going.
+
+Aunt Jane shrugged her shoulders. There was barely time to reach the
+train, so that it was impossible to do anything at the moment; but in
+the Merrifield family bad manners and disrespect were never passed over,
+Sir Jasper having made his wife very particular in that respect; and as
+soon as she came home in the twilight, she looked into the school-room,
+but Dolores was not there, and then into the drawing-room, where she was
+found learning her lessons by firelight.
+
+'My dear, why did you not go with your Aunt Jane and me?'
+
+'I did not want to go. It was so cold,' said Dolores in a glum tone.
+
+'Would it not have been kinder to have found that out sooner? If I had
+not met the others in the paddock, and picked up Valetta, the chance
+would have been missed, and you knew she wanted to go.'
+
+Dolores knew it well enough. The reason she was in this room was that
+all the returning party had fallen upon her; Wilfred had called her a
+dog in the manger, and Gillian herself had not gainsayed him--but the
+general indignation had only made her feel, 'what a fuss about the
+darling.'
+
+'Another time, too,' added Lady Merrifield, 'remember that it would
+be proper to come down and speak to me instead of shouting over the
+balusters in that unmannerly way; without so much as taking leave of
+your Aunt Jane. If she had not been almost late for her train, I should
+have insisted.'
+
+'You might, and I should not have come if you had dragged me,' thought,
+but did not say, Dolores. She only stood looking dogged, and not
+attempting the 'I beg your pardon,' for which her aunt was waiting.
+
+'I think,' said Lady Merrifield, gently, 'that when you consider it a
+little, you will see that it would be well to be more considerate and
+gracious. And one thing more, my dear, I can have no passing of private
+notes between you and Constance Hacket. You see a good deal of each
+other openly, and such doings are very silly and missish, and have an
+underhand appearance such as I am sure your father would not like.'
+
+Dolores burst out with, 'I didn't,' and as Primrose at this instant ran
+in to help mamma take off her things, she turned on her heel and went
+away, leaving Lady Merrifield trusting to a word never hitherto in that
+house proved to be false, rather than to those glances of Aunt Jane,
+which had been always held in the Mohun family to be a little too
+discerning and ubiquitous to be always relied on; and it was a
+satisfactory recollection that at the farewell moment when Miss Jane
+professed to have observed the transaction, she had been heard saying,
+'Yes, it will never do to be too slack in inquiring into antecedents, or
+the whole character of the society will be given up,' and with her black
+eyes fixed full upon Miss Hacket's face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. -- THE EVENING STAR
+
+
+
+'Oh, Connie dear, I had such a fright! Do you know you must never
+venture to give me anything when any one is there--especially Aunt Jane.
+I am sure it was her, she is always spying about?'
+
+'Well, but dearest Dolly, I couldn't tell that she would be there, and
+when I got your letter I could not keep it back, you know, so I made
+Mary come up and call on Lady Merrifield for the chance of being able to
+give it to you--and I thought it was so lucky Miss Mohun was there, for
+she and Mary were quite swallowed up in their dear G.F.S.'
+
+'You don't know Aunt Jane! And the worst of it is she always makes Aunt
+Lilias twice as cross! I did get into such a row only because I didn't
+want to go driving with the two old aunts in the dark and cold, and be
+scolded all the way there and back.'
+
+'When you had a letter to read too!'
+
+'And then Aunt Lily said all manner of cross things about giving notes
+between us. I was so glad I could say I didn't, for you know I didn't
+give it to you, and it wasn't between us.'
+
+'You cunning child!' laughed Constance, rather amused at the sophistry.
+
+'Besides,' argued Dolores, 'what right has she to interfere between my
+uncle and my friends and me?
+
+'You dear! Yes, it is all jealousy!'
+
+'I have heard--or I have read,' said Dolores, 'that when people ask
+questions they have no right to put, it is quite fair to give them a
+denial, or at least to go as near the wind as one can.'
+
+'To be sure,' assented Constance, 'or one would not get on at all! But
+you have no told me a word about your letters.'
+
+'Father's letter? Oh, he tells me a great deal about his voyage, and all
+the funny creatures they get up with the dredge. I think he will be sure
+to write a book about them, and make great discoveries. And now he
+is staying with Aunt Phyllis in New Zealand, and he is thinking, poor
+father, how well off I must be with Aunt Lilias. He little knows!'
+
+'Oh, but you could write to him, dearest!'
+
+'He wouldn't get the letter for so long. Besides, I don't think I could
+say anything he would care about. Gentlemen don't, you know.'
+
+'No! gentlemen can't enter into our feelings, or know what it is to be
+rubbed against and never appreciated. But your uncle! Was the letter
+from him?'
+
+'Oh yes! And where do you think he is? At Darminster--editing a paper
+there. It is called the Darminster Politician. He said he sent a copy
+here.'
+
+"Oh yes, I know; Mary and I could not think where it came from. It had a
+piece of a story in it, and some poetry. I wonder if he would put in my
+'Evening Star.'"
+
+'You may read his letter if you like; you see he says he would run over
+to see me if it were not for the dragons.'
+
+'I wish he could come and meet you here. It would be so romantic, but
+you see Mary is half a dragon herself, and would be afraid of Lady
+Merrifield'--then, reading the letter,--'How droll! How clever! What a
+delightful man he must be! How very strange that all your family should
+be so prejudiced against him! I'll tell you what, Dolores, I will write
+and subscribe for the Darminster Politician my own self--I must see
+the rest of that story--and then Mary can't make any objection; I can't
+stand never seeing anything but Church Bells, and then you can read it
+too, darling.'
+
+'Oh, thank you, Connie. Then I shall have got him one subscriber, as
+he asks me to do. I am afraid I shan't get any more, for I thought
+Aunt Lily was in a good humour yesterday, and I put one of the little
+advertisement papers he sent out on the table, and she found it, and
+only said something about wondering who had sent the advertisement of
+that paper that Mr. Leadbitter didn't approve of. She is so dreadfully
+fussy and particular. She won't let even Gillian read anything she
+hasn't looked over, and she doesn't like anything that isn't goody
+goody.'
+
+'My poor darling! But couldn't you write and get your uncle to look at
+some of my poor little verses that have never seen the light?'
+
+'I dare say I could,' said Dolores, pleased to be able to patronize.
+'Oh, but you must not write on both sides of the paper, I know, for
+father and mother were always writing for the press.'
+
+'Oh, I'll copy them out fresh! Here's the 'Evening Star.' It was
+suggested by the sound of the guns firing at the autumn manoevres;
+here's the 'Bereaved Mother's Address to her Infant:'
+
+
+                'Sweet little bud of stainless white,
+                 Thou'lt blossom in the garden of light.'
+
+
+'Mary thought that so sweet she asked Miss Mohun to send it to Friendly
+Leaves, but she wouldn't--Miss Mohun I mean; she said she didn't think
+they would accept it, and that the lines didn't scan. Now I'm sure its
+only Latin and Greek that scan! English rhymes, and doesn't scan! That's
+the difference!'
+
+'To be sure!' said Dolores, 'but Aunt Jane always does look out for what
+nobody else cares about. Still I wouldn't send the baby-verses to Uncle
+Alfred, for they do sound a little bit goody, and the 'Evening Star'
+would be better.'
+
+The verses were turned over and discussed until the summons came to tea,
+poured out by kind old Miss Hacket, who had delighted in providing her
+young guests with buttered toast and tea cakes.
+
+Dolores went home quite exhilarated and unusually amiable.
+
+Her letter to her father was finished the next day. It contained the
+following information.
+
+'Uncle Alfred is at Darminster. He is sub-editor to the Politician, the
+Liberal county paper. I do not suppose Aunt Lilias will let me see him,
+for she does not like anything that dear mother did. There is a childish
+obsolete tone of mind here; I suppose it is because they have never
+lived in London, and the children are all so young of their age, and so
+rude, Wilfred most especially. Even Gillian, who is sixteen, likes quite
+childish games, and Mysie, who is my age, is a mere child in tastes, and
+no companion. I do wish I could have gone with you.'
+
+Lady Merrifield wrote by the same mail, 'Your Dolores is quite well, and
+shows herself both clever and well taught. Miss Vincent thinks highly of
+her abilities, and gets on with her better than any one else, except
+the daughter of our late Vicar, for whom she has set up a strong girlish
+friendship. She plainly has very deep affections, which are not readily
+transferred to new claimants, but I feel sure that we shall get on in
+time.'
+
+Miss Mohun wrote, 'Lily and I enjoyed your letter together. Dolly looks
+all the better for country life, though I am afraid she has not learnt
+to relish it, nor to assimilate with the Merrifield children as I
+expected. I don't think Lily has quite fathomed her as yet, but 'cela
+viendra' with patience, only mayhap not without a previous explosion. I
+fancy it takes a long time for an only child to settle in among a large
+family. It was a great pity you could not see Lily yourself. To my
+dismay I encountered Flinders in the street at Darminster last week. I
+believe he is on the staff of a paper there, happily Dolly does not know
+it, nor do I think he knows where she is.'
+
+In another three weeks, Constance was in the utmost elation, for 'On
+hearing the cannonade of the Autumn Manoeuvres' was in print, and Miss
+Hacket was so much delighted that justice should be done to her sister's
+abilities, that she forgot Mr. Leadbitter's disapproval, and ordered
+half a dozen copies of the Politician for the present, and one for the
+future.
+
+Dolores, walking home in the twilight, could not help showing Gillian,
+in confidence, the precious slip, though it was almost too dark to read
+the small type.
+
+'Newspaper poetry, I thought that always was trumpery,' said Gillian,
+making a youthfully sweeping assertion.
+
+'Many great poets have begun with a periodical press,' said Dolores,
+picking up a sentence which she had somewhere read.
+
+'I thought you hated English poetry, Dolly! You always grumble at having
+to learn it.'
+
+'Oh, that is lessons.'
+
+"'Il Penseroso,' for instance."
+
+'This is a very different thing.'
+
+'That it certainly is,' said Gillian, beginning to read--
+
+
+              'How lovely mounts the evening star
+               Climbing the sunset skies afar.'
+
+
+'What a wonderful evening! Why, the evening star was going up backward!'
+
+'You only want to make nonsense of it.'
+
+'It is not I that make nonsense!' said Gillian, 'why, don't you see,
+Dolly, which way the sun and everything moves?'
+
+'This is the evening star,' said Dolores, sulkily. 'It was just rising.'
+
+'I do believe you think it rises in the west.'
+
+'You always see it there. You showed it to me only last Sunday.'
+
+'Do you think it had just risen?'
+
+'Of course the stars rise when the sun sets.'
+
+Gillian could hardly move for laughing. 'My dear Dolores, you to be
+daughter to a scientific man! Don't you know that the stars are in the
+sky, going on all the time, only we can't see them till the sunlight is
+gone?'
+
+But Dolores was too much offended to attend, and only grunted. She
+wanted to get the cutting away from Gillian, but there was no doing so.
+
+
+              'The mist is rising o'er the mead,
+               With silver hiding grass and reed;
+               'Tis silent all, on hill and heath,
+               The evening winds, they hardly breathe;
+               What sudden breaks the silent charm,
+               The echo wakes with wild alarm.
+               With rapid, loud, and furious rattle,
+               Sure 'tis the voice of deadly battle,
+               Bidding the rustic swain to fly
+               Before his country's enemy.'
+
+
+'Did anybody ever hear of a sham fight in the evening?' cried the
+soldier's daughter indignantly. 'There, I can't see any more of it.'
+
+'Give it to me, then.'
+
+'You are welcome! Where did it come from? Let me look. C.H. Oh, did
+Constance Hacket write it? Nobody else could be so delicious, or so far
+superior to Milton.'
+
+'You knew it all the time, and that was the reason you made game of it.'
+
+'No, indeed it was not, Dolores. I did not guess. You should have told
+me at first.'
+
+'You would have gone on about it all the same.'
+
+'No, indeed, I hope not. I did not mean to vex you; but how was I to
+know it was so near your heart?'
+
+'I ought to have known better than to have shown it to you! You are
+always laughing at her and me all over the house--and now--'
+
+'Come, Dolly. I never meant to hurt your feelings. I will promise not to
+tell the others about it.'
+
+No answer. There was something hard and swelling in Dolores's throat.
+
+'Won't that do?' said Gillian. 'You know I can't say that I admire it,
+but I'm sorry I hurt you, and I'll take care the others don't tease you
+about it.'
+
+Dolores made hardly any answer, but it was a sort of pacification, and
+Gillian said not a word to the younger ones. Still she thought it no
+breach of her promise, when they were all gone to bed, and she the sole
+survivor, to tell her mother how inadvertently she had affronted Dolores
+by cutting up the verses, before she knew whose they were.
+
+'I am sorry,' said Lady Merrifield. 'Anything that tends to keep Dolores
+aloof from us is a pity.'
+
+'But, mama, I had no notion whose they were.'
+
+'You saw that she was pleased with them.'
+
+'Yes, but that was the more ridiculous. Fancy the evening star climbing
+up--up--you know in the sunset!'
+
+'Portentous, certainly! Yet still I wish you could have found it in your
+heart to take advantage of any feeler towards sympathy.'
+
+'How could I pretend to admire such stuff?'
+
+'You need not pretend; but there are two ways of taking hold of a thing
+without being untrue. If you had been a little wiser and more forbearing
+you need not have given Dolores such a shock as would drive her in upon
+herself. Depend upon it, the older you grow, the more dangerous you will
+find it to begin by hitting the blots.'
+
+Gillian looked on in some curiosity when the next day good Miss Hacket,
+enchanted with her dear Connie's success, trotted up to display the
+lines to Lady Merrifield, who on her side felt bound to set an example
+alike of tenderness and sincerity, and was glad to be able to observe,
+'The lines run very smoothly. This must be a great pleasure to her.'
+
+'Indeed it is! Connie is so clever. I always say I can't think where she
+got it from; but we always tried to give her very advantage, and she was
+quite a favourite pupil at Miss Dormer's. Is not it a sweet idea, the
+stillness of the evening broken by the sounds of battle, and then it
+proving to be only our brave defenders?'
+
+'Yes,' was the answer. 'I have often thought of that, and of what it
+might be to hear those volleys of musketry in earnest. It has made me
+very thankful.'
+
+So Miss Hacket went away gratified, and Gillian owned that it would have
+been useless to wound the good lady's feelings by criticism, though her
+mother made her understand that if her opinion had been asked, or Connie
+herself had shown the verses, it would have been desirable to point
+out the faults, in a kindly spirit. The wonder was, how they could have
+found their way into the paper, and they were followed by more with the
+like signature.
+
+Indeed, the great sensational tale, 'The Waif of the Moorland,' was
+being copied out of the books where it had been first written. Dolores
+had sounded Mr. Flinders on the subject, and he had replied that he
+could ensure its consideration by a publisher, but that her fair friend
+must be aware that an untried author must be prepared for some risk.
+
+Constance could hardly abstain from communicating her hopes to her
+sister; but Mr. Leadbitter--to whom the poetry was duly shown--had given
+such a character of the Darminster Politician that Miss Hacket besought
+Constance to have no more to do with it. Besides, she was so entirely a
+lady, and so conscientious, that all her tender blindness would not
+have prevented her from being shocked at encouraging, or profiting by, a
+surreptitious correspondence.
+
+Constance declared that Mr. Leadbitter's objection to the paper was
+merely political, and her sister was too willing that she should be
+gratified to protest any further. The copying had to be done in secret,
+since it was impossible to confess the hopes founded on Mr. Flinders,
+and it therefore lasted several weeks, each fresh portion being
+communicated to Dolores on Sunday afternoons. There were at first a
+few scruples on Constance's part whether this were exactly a Sunday
+occupation; but Dolores pronounced that 'the Sabbatarian system was
+gone out,' and after Constance had introduced the ghostly double of her
+vanished waif walking in a surpliced procession, she persuaded herself
+that there was a sufficient aroma of religion about the story to bring
+it within the pale of Sunday books.
+
+The days were shortening so that Lady Merrifield had doubts as to the
+fitness of letting the girls return in the dark, but Gillian would have
+been grieved to relinquish her class, and the matter was adjusted by the
+two remaining till evensong, when there was sure to be sufficient escort
+for them to come home with.
+
+Therewith arrived the holidays and Jasper, whose age came between those
+of Gillian and Mysie. Dolores had looked forward to his coming, for, by
+all the laws of fiction, he was bound to be the champion of the orphan
+niece, and finally to develop into her lover and hero. In 'No Home,'
+when Clare's aunt locked her up and fed her on bread and water for
+playing the piano better than her spiteful cousin Augusta, Eric, the boy
+of the family, had solaced her with cold pie and ice-creams drawn up
+in a basket by a cord from the window. He had likewise forced from his
+cruel mother the locket which proved Clare's identity with the mourning
+countess's golden-haired grandchild and heiress, and he had finally been
+rewarded with her hand, becoming in some mysterious manner Lord Eric.
+
+Jasper, however, or Japs, as his family preferred to call him, proved
+to be a big, shy boy, not at all delighted with the introduction of a
+stranger among his sisters, neither golden-haired nor all-accomplished,
+only making him feel his home invaded, and looking at him with her great
+eyes.
+
+'Is that girl here for good?' he asked, when he found himself with Harry
+and Gillian.
+
+'Yes, of course,' said the cousin, 'while her father is away, and that
+is for three years.'
+
+Jasper whistled.
+
+'Aunt Ada said,' added Gillian, 'that if she got too tiresome, mamma had
+Uncle Maurice's leave to send her to school.'
+
+'That would be no good to me,' said Jasper, 'for she would still be here
+in the holidays.'
+
+'Has she been getting worse?' asked Harry.
+
+'No, I don't know that she has,' said Gillian, 'except that she runs
+after that Constance more than ever. But, I say, Jasper, mamma says she
+is particularly anxious that there should be no teasing of her; and you
+can hinder Wilfred better than anybody can. She wants her to be really
+at home, and one--'
+
+But though Jasper was very fond both of mother and sister, he would not
+stand a second-hand lecture, and broke in with an inquiry about chances
+of rabbit-shooting.
+
+Among his juniors he heard more opinions and more undisguised, when the
+whole party had rushed out together to the stable-yard to inspect the
+rabbits and other live-stock.
+
+'And Dolly says you are a fright,' sighed Mysie, condoling with a very
+awkward-looking puppy which she was nursing.
+
+'She! she thinks everything a fright!' said Valetta.
+
+'Except Constance,' added Wilfred.
+
+'Who is ugliest of all!' politely chimed in Fergus.
+
+'Oh, Japs, she is such a nasty girl--Dolly, I mean!' cried Valetta.
+
+"You know you ought not to say 'nasty,'" exclaimed Mysie.
+
+'Well, but she is!' insisted Val. 'She squashed a dear little ladybird,
+and said it would sting!'
+
+'She really thought it would,' said Mysie.
+
+At which the young barbarians shouted aloud with contempt, and Valetta
+added. 'She is afraid of everything--cows and dogs and frogs.'
+
+'I got a whole match-box full of grasshoppers to shut up in her desk
+and make her squall,' said Wilfred, 'only the girls went and turned them
+out.'
+
+'It was so cruel to the poor grasshoppers,' said Mysie. 'One had his
+horn broken, and dragged his leg.'
+
+'What does she do?' asked Jasper.
+
+'She's always cross,' said Fergus.
+
+'And she won't play,' added Valetta. 'And never will lend us anything of
+hers.'
+
+'And she's a regular sneak,' said Wilfred. 'She wants to tell of
+everything--only we stopped that and she doesn't dare now.'
+
+'You see,' said Mysie, gravely, 'she has always lived alone and in
+London, and that makes her horribly stupid about everything sensible. We
+thought we should soon teach her to be nice; and mamma says we shall if
+we are patient.'
+
+'We'll teach her, won't we, Japs!' said Wilfred, aside, in an ominous
+voice.
+
+'She is only thirteen,' added Valetta, 'and she pretends to be grown up,
+and only to care for a grown-up young lady--that Constance Hacket.'
+
+'Yes,' added Mysie, 'only think--they write poetry!'
+
+'What rot it must be!' said Jasper. 'There's a man in my house that
+writes poetry, and don't they chaff him! And this must be ever so much
+worse.'
+
+'Oh, that it is,' said Valetta. 'I heard Mr. Poulter and Miss Vincent
+laughing about it like anything.'
+
+'But they get it put into print,' said Mysie, still impressed. 'Miss
+Hacket brought it up to give to mamma, and there's ever so much of it
+shut up in the drawing-room blotting-book with the malachite knobs. I
+can't think why they laugh--I think it is very pretty. Old Miss Hacket
+read me the one about "My Lost Dove."'
+
+'Mysie always will stick up for Dolores,' said Valetta in a grumbling
+voice.
+
+'I always meant her to be my friend,' said Mysie, disconsolately.
+
+'Well, I'm glad she's not,' said Jasper. 'What a sell it would have
+been for me to find you chummy with a stupid, poetry-writing,
+good-for-nothing girl like that, instead of my jolly old Mice!'
+
+And at that minute all Dolly's slights were fully compensated for!
+
+There was a lurking purpose in the boys' minds that if Dolores would
+not join in fun, yet still fun should be extracted from her. Jasper
+had brought home a box of Japanese fireworks, and Wilfred, who was
+superintending his unpacking, proposed to light the serpent and place it
+in Dolores's path as she was going up to bed; but Jasper was old enough
+to reply that he would have no concern with anything so low and snobbish
+as such a trick. In fact, there was in Jasper's mind a decided line
+between bullying and teasing, which did not exist as yet in Wilfred's
+conscience. And, altogether, Dolores was in a state of mind that made
+her stiff letters to her father betray low spirits and discontent.
+
+On Sunday, while waiting for the early dinner, Jasper and Mysie happened
+to be together in the drawing-room, and Mysie took the opportunity of
+showing her brother the different cuttings of poetry. The lines were
+smooth, and some had a certain swing in them such as Mysie, with an
+unformed taste, a love for Miss Hacket, and amazement that the words
+of a familiar acquaintance of her own should appear in print, genuinely
+admired. But the eyes of a youth exercised in 'chaffing' the productions
+of one of his fellow 'men' were infinitely more critical. Besides, what
+could be more shocking to the General's son than the confusion between
+the evening gun and the sham fight? And Mysie had been reduced
+to confusion for not detecting the faults, and then pardoned in
+consideration of being only a girl, by the time the gong summoned them
+to the Sunday roast beef.
+
+The dinner over, the female part of the family, scampered headlong
+upstairs, while Harry repaired with his mother to her room to talk over
+a letter from his father respecting his plans on leaving Oxford. The
+other boys hung about the hall, until Gillian and Dolores came down
+equipped for walking. 'Hollo, Gill! All right! Where's Mysie? We'll be
+off! Mysie! Mice! Mouse! Val!'
+
+'You must wait for them, Japs,' said Gillian. 'They are having their
+dresses changed; and, don't you remember, I always go to Miss Hacket's.'
+
+'Botheration! What for?'
+
+'You know very well.'
+
+'Oh yes. To help her to write touching verses about the sweet dead dove,
+with voice and plumage soft as love, eh? Only, Gill, I'm afraid
+your memory is failing, if you don't know the evening gun from rifle
+practice.'
+
+'Nonsense! that's no concern of mine,' said Gillian, opening the front
+door, very anxious to get Dolores away from hearing anything worse.
+
+'Oh, that's your modesty. Only such a conjunction could have produced
+such a scene that the evening star came up backwards to look at it!'
+
+'For shame, Jasper! How in the world did you get hold of that?'
+
+'Too sweet a thing not to meet with universal fame,' said Jasper, to
+whom it was exquisite fun to assume that Gillian devoted her Sunday
+afternoons to the concoction of such poetry with Constance Hacket,
+and thus to revenge himself for his disgust and jealousy at having his
+favourite companion and slave engrossed. Wilfred hopped about like an
+imp in ecstasy, grinning in the face of Dolores, whom Gillian longed to
+free from her tormentors. The shout was welcome, as Mysie and Valetta
+came tearing down the drive after them.
+
+'Japs! Japs! Oh, we couldn't come before because nurse would make us
+take off our Sunday serges. Come and let out the dogs. Mamma says we may
+see if there are any nice fir cones in the plantation to gild for the
+Christmas-tree.'
+
+'And you won't come?' said Jasper. 'The Muses must meet. What a poem you
+will produce!
+
+
+                'Hear I a cannon or a rifle,
+                 That is an unessential trifle!'
+
+
+'What nonsense boys do talk!' said Gillian, turning her back on them
+with regret; for much as she loved her class, she better loved a
+walk with Jasper, and here was Dolores on her hands in a state of
+exasperation, believing her to have broken her promise, and muttering,
+
+'You set him on.'
+
+'No, indeed I never did! You know I promised.'
+
+'There are plenty of ways of getting out of a promise.'
+
+'Speak for yourself, Dolores.'
+
+There were ten minutes of offended silence, and then Gillian said, 'This
+is nonsense! You may believe me, I was sorry I laughed at the first
+verses you showed me, and mamma said I ought not. We never spoke of it,
+but Miss Hacket has been giving mamma all the poems, and Jasper must
+have got at them. Don't you see?'
+
+'Oh yes, you say so,' said Dolores, sulkily.
+
+'You don't believe me!'
+
+'You promised that your brothers should never hear of it.'
+
+'I promised for myself. I couldn't promise for what was put into a
+newspaper and trumpeted all over the place,' said Gillian, really angry
+now.
+
+Dolores could not deny this, but she was hurt by the word trumpeted;
+and besides, her own slippery behaviour was weakening her trust in other
+people's sincerity, and she only gave a kind of grunt; but Gillian,
+recovering herself a little, and remembering her mother's words,
+proceeded to argue. 'Besides, it was me whom Jasper meant to tease, not
+you.'
+
+'I don't care which it was. He is as bad as the rest of them!'
+
+Gillian attempted no more conciliation, and they arrived in silence at
+the Casement Cottages, where Constance was awaiting her friend in the
+greatest excitement; for she had despatched 'The Waif of the Moorland'
+to Mr. Flinders in the course of the week, and had received a letter
+from him in return, saying that a personal interview with the gifted
+authoress would be desirable.
+
+'And I do long to see him; don't you, darling?
+
+'It is very hard that he should be kept away from me,' said Dolores,
+trying to stir up some tender feelings.
+
+'That it is, my poor sweet! I thought whether he could come to me for
+a merely literary consultation without Mary's knowing anything further
+about it, and then we could contrive for you to come down and meet him;
+but there are so many horrid prejudices that I suppose it would not be
+safe.'
+
+'I don't see how I could come down here without the others. Aunt Lily
+won't let me come alone, and though it is holiday time, that is no good,
+for those horrid boys are always about, and I see that Jasper is going
+to be worse even than Wilfred.
+
+Various ways and means were discussed, but no excuse seemed available
+for either Constance's going to Darminster, or for Mr. Flinders coming
+to Silverton, without exciting suspicion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. -- SECRET EXPEDITION
+
+
+
+'The Christmas-tree! Oh, mamma, do let it be the Christmas-tree. It is
+quite well. We've been to look at it.'
+
+'Christmas-trees have got so stale, Val,' said Gillian.
+
+'Rot!' put in Jasper.
+
+'Oh, please, please, mamma,' implored Valetta, 'please let it be the
+dear old Christmas-tree! You said I should choose because it will be my
+birthday.'
+
+'There is no need to whine, Val; you shall have your tree.'
+
+'I'm so glad!' cried Mysie. 'The dear old tree is best of all. I could
+never get tired of it if I lived to be a hundred years old.'
+
+'Such are institutions,' said their mother. 'I never heard of a
+Christmas-tree till I was twice your age.'
+
+'Oh, mamma! How dreadful! What did you do?'
+
+'I suppose it is all very well for you kids,' said Jasper, loftily,
+putting his hands in his pockets.
+
+'Perhaps something may be found interesting eve: to the high and mighty
+elders,' observed Lady Merrifield.
+
+'Oh! What, mamma?'
+
+Mamma, of course, only looked mysterious.
+
+'And,' added Val, 'mayn't we all go on a secret expedition and buy
+things for it?'
+
+'We've all been saving up,' added Mysie; 'and everybody knows every
+single thing in all the shop at Silverton.'
+
+'Besides,' added Gillian, 'the sconces will none of them hold, and
+almost all the golden globes got smashed in coming from Dublin, and one
+of the birds has its head off, and another has lost its spun-glass tail,
+and another its legs.'
+
+'A bird of Paradise,' said Lady Merrifield, laughing; 'but wasn't there
+a tree at Malta decked with no apparatus at all?'
+
+'Yes, but Alley and Phyl can do anything!'
+
+'I think we must ask Aunt Jane---'
+
+There was a howl. 'Oh, please, mamma, don't let Aunt Jane get all the
+things! We do so want to choose.'
+
+'You impatient monsters! You haven't heard me out, and you don't deserve
+it.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, I beg your pardon!' 'Oh, mamma, please!' 'Oh, mamma, pray!'
+cried the most impatient howlers, dancing round her.
+
+'What I was about to observe, before the interruption by the honourable
+members, was, that we might perhaps ask Aunt Jane and Aunt Ada to
+receive at luncheon a party of caterers for this same tree.'
+
+'Oh! oh! oh!' 'How delicious!' 'Hooray!' 'That's what I call jolly fun!'
+
+'And, mamma,' added Gillian, 'perhaps we might let Miss Hacket join.
+I know she wants to get up something for a G.F.S. class; but mamma was
+attending to Primrose, and the brothers burst in.
+
+'There goes Gill, spoiling it all!' exclaimed Wilfred.
+
+'That's always the way,' said Jasper. 'Girls must puzzle everything up
+with some philanthropic Great Fuss Society dodge.'
+
+'I am sure, Jasper,' said Gillian, 'I don't see why it should spoil
+anything to make other people happy. I thought we were told to make
+feasts not only for our own friends--'
+
+'Gill's getting just like old Miss Hacket,' said Wilfred.
+
+'Or sweet Constance,' put in Jasper. 'She'll be writing poems next.'
+
+'Hush! hush! boys,' said Lady Merrifield. 'I do not mean to interfere
+with your pleasure, 'but I had rather our discussions were not entirely
+selfish. Suppose, Gillian, we walked down to Casement Cottages, and
+consulted Miss Hacket.'
+
+This was done, in the company of all the little girls, for Miss Hacket's
+cats, doves, and gingerbread were highly popular; moreover, Dolores was
+glad of a chance sight of Constance.
+
+'My dear,' said Lady Merrifield, as Gillian walked beside her, 'you must
+be satisfied with giving Miss Hacket the reversion of our tree, and
+you and Mysie can go and help her. It will not do to make these kind of
+works a nuisance to your brothers.'
+
+'I did not think Jasper would have been so selfish as to object,' said
+Gillian, almost tearfully.
+
+'Remember that boys have a very short time at home, and cannot be
+expected to care for these things like those who work in them,' said
+Lady Merrifield. 'It will not make them do so, to bore them, and take
+away their sense of home and liberty. At the same time, they must not
+expect to have everything sacrificed to them, and so I shall make Jasper
+understand.'
+
+'You won't scold him, mamma?'
+
+'Can't you, any of you, trust me, Gill?'
+
+'Oh! mamma! Only I didn't want him to think. I wouldn't do everything
+he liked, except that I don't want him to be unkind about those poor
+girls.'
+
+Miss Hacket was perfectly enraptured at the offer of the reversion of
+the Christmas-tree and its trapping. Valetta's birthday was on the 28th
+of December and the tree was to be lighted on the ensuing evening
+for G.F.S. Moreover, the party would go to Rockstone as soon as an
+appointment could be made with Miss Mohun, to make selections at a great
+German fancy shop, recently opened there, and in full glory; and the
+Hacket sisters were invited to join the party, starting at a quarter
+to eight, and returning at a few minutes after seven, the element
+of darkness at each end only adding to the charm in the eyes of the
+children, and Valetta, with a little leap, repeated that it would be a
+real secret expedition.
+
+'Very secret indeed,' said her mother, 'considering how many it is known
+to--'
+
+'Yes, but it is, mamma, for everybody has a secret from everybody.'
+
+The words made Constance and Dolores look round with a start from their
+colloquy under the shade of the window-curtains, but no one was thinking
+of them. Just as the plans were settled, Constance came forward, saying,
+'Lady Merrifield, may I have dear Dolores to spend the day with me? We
+neither of us wish to join your kind party to Rockstone, and we should so
+enjoy being together.'
+
+'I had much rather stay,' added Dolores.
+
+'Very well,' said Lady Merrifield, reflecting that her sisters would be
+grateful for the diminution of the party, and that it would be easier to
+keep the peace without Dolores.
+
+The defection was hailed with joy by her cousins, though they were
+struck dumb at her extraordinary taste in not liking shopping.
+
+Jasper did look rather small when his mother assured him in private
+he might have trusted her to see that he was not to be incommoded with
+Gillian's girls, and he only observed, in excuse for his murmurs, that
+it made a man mad to see his sisters always off after some charity fad
+or other.
+
+"'Always' being a few hours once a week," she said.
+
+'Just when one wants her.'
+
+'Look here, my boy,' she said, 'you don't want your sisters to be
+selfish, useless, fine ladies--never doing any one any good. If they
+take up good works, they can't drop them entirely to wait on you.
+Gillian does give up a great deal, and it would be kinder to forbear a
+little, and not treat all she does as an injury to yourself.'
+
+'I only meant to get a rise out of her.'
+
+'You are quite welcome to do that, provided it is done in good nature.
+Gill is quite sound stuff enough to be laughed at! But, I say, my Japs,
+I should prefer your letting Dolores alone; she has not learned to be
+laughed at yet, and has not come even to the stage for being taught to
+bear it.'
+
+'She looks fit to turn the cream sour,' observed Jasper. 'I say, mamma,
+you don't want me to go on this shopping business, do you?'
+
+'Not by any means, sir.'
+
+Happily, the chance of a day's rabbit shooting presented itself at a
+warren some miles off, and Harry undertook the care of Wilfred, who gave
+his word of honour to obey implicitly and take no liberties with the
+guns. Fergus would gladly have gone with them, but he was still young
+enough to be sensible of the attractions of toy-shops. Only Primrose had
+to be left to the nursery, and there was no need to waste pity on her,
+for on such an occasion Mrs. Halfpenny would relax her mood, and lay
+herself out to be agreeable, when she had exhausted her forebodings
+about her leddyship making herself ill for a week gaun rampaging about
+with all the bairns, as if she was no better than one herself.
+
+'I shall let Miss Mohun do most of the rampaging, nurse; but, if it is
+fine, will you take Miss Primrose into the town and let her choose her
+own cards. I have given her a florin, and if you make the most of that
+for her, she will be as happy as going with us.'
+
+'That I will, my leddy. Bairns is easy content when ye ken how to sort
+'em.'
+
+'And, nurse, I believe there will be a box from Sir Jasper at the
+station. It may come home in the waggonette that takes us. Will you and
+Macrae get it safe into the store-room, for I don't want the children to
+see it too soon?'
+
+There was nothing but satisfaction in the house on the morning of the
+expedition. The untimely candle-light breakfast was only a fresh element
+of delight, and so was the paling gas at the station, the round, red sun
+peeping out through a yellow break between grey sky and greyer woods;
+the meeting Miss Hacket in her fur cloak, the taking of the tickets,
+the coughing of the train, the tumbling into one of the many empty
+carriages, the triumphant start,--all seemed as fresh and delicious as
+if the young people had never taken a journey before in all their lives.
+The fog in the valleys, the sleepy villages, the half-roused stations,
+all gave rise to exclamations, and nothing was regretted but that the
+windows would get clouded over.
+
+Even the waiting at the junction had its charms, for it was enlivened by
+a supplementary breakfast on rolls and milk! and at a few minutes past
+eleven the train was drawing up at Rockstone, and Aunt Jane, sealskins
+and all, was beckoning from the platform, hurrying after the carriage as
+it swept past, and holding out a hand to jump the party from the door.
+
+There she was, ready to take them to the most charming and cheapest
+shops, where the coins burning in those five pockets would go the
+furthest. Go in a cab? No, I thank you, it is far more delightful to
+walk. So mamma and Miss Hacket were stowed away in the despised vehicle,
+to make the purchases that nobody cared about, or which were to be
+unseen and unknown till the great day; while Aunt Jane undertook to
+guide the young people through the town, for her house was at the other
+end of it securing the Christmas-cards on the way, if nothin' else. For,
+though all the cards and gifts to mamma, and a good many besides, were
+of domestic manufacture, some had to be purchased, and she knew, this
+wonderful woman, where to get cards of former seasons at reduced prices
+to suit their youthful finances.
+
+Considerable patience was requisite before all the choices were made,
+and the balance cast between cards and presents, and Miss Mohun got her
+quartette past all the shop windows, to the seaside villa, shut in by
+tamarisks, which Aunt Adeline believed to be the only place that suited
+her health. Mamma and Miss Hacket had already arrived, and filled the
+little vestibule with parcels and boxes.
+
+Then the early dinner! The aunts had anticipated their Christmas turkey
+for that goodly company to help them eat it, but afterwards there
+was only time for a mince pie all round; for more than half the work
+remained to be done by all except mamma, who would stay and rest with
+Aunt Ada, having finished all that could not be deputed.
+
+However, first she had a conference in private with Aunt Jane, who
+undertook therein to come to Silverton for Valetta's birthday, and add
+astonishment and mystery sufficient to satisfy such of the public as
+were weary of Christmas-trees. She added, however, 'You will think I
+am always at you. Lily, but did you know that Flinders is living at
+Darminster?'
+
+'No; but it is five and twenty miles off, and he has never troubled us.'
+
+'Don't be too secure. He is in connection with that low paper--the
+Politician--which methinks, is the place where those remarkable poems of
+Miss Constance's have appeared.'
+
+'Is it not the way of poetry of that calibre to see the light in county
+papers?'
+
+'This seems to me of a lower calibre than is likely to get in without
+private interest.'
+
+'But to my certain knowledge the child has neither written to, nor heard
+of the man all this time.'
+
+'You don't know what goes on with her bosom friend.'
+
+'I am certain Miss Hacket would connive at nothing underhand. Besides, I
+have never seen any thing sly or deceitful in poor Dolores. She will not
+make friends with us, that is all, and that may be our fault.'
+
+'I only say, look out, you unsuspicious dame!'
+
+'Now, Jenny, satisfy my curiosity as to how you know all this. I am sure
+I never showed you those effusions. We have had trouble enough about
+them, for the children cut them up in a way Dolores has never forgiven.'
+
+'Oh! Miss Hacket sent them to me, to ask if 'Mollsey to her Babe'
+and 'The Canary' might not be passed on to Friendly Leaves. And as to
+Flinders, when I went to the G.F.S. Conference at Darminster I met the
+man full in the street, and, of course, I inquired afterwards how he
+came there. So there's nothing preternatural about it.'
+
+'It is well you did not live two hundred years ago, or you would
+certainly have been burnt for a witch.'
+
+'See what a witch I shall make on the 28th! But I hear those unfortunate
+children dancing and prancing with impatience on the stairs. I must go,
+before they have driven Ada distracted.'
+
+What would the two aunts have said, could they have seen Dolores and
+Constance, at that moment partaking of the most elaborate meal the
+Darminster refreshment-room could supply, at a little round marble
+table, in company with Mr. Flinders! They had not been obliged to start
+nearly so early as the other party, as the journey was much shorter, and
+with no change of line, so they had quietly walked to the station by ten
+o'clock, arrived at Darminster at half-past eleven, and have been met by
+the personage whom Dolores recognized as Uncle Alfred. Constance was a
+little disappointed not to see something more distinguished, and less
+flashy in style, but he was so polite and complimentary, and made such
+touching allusions to his misfortunes and his dear sister, that she soon
+began to think him exceedingly interesting, and pitied him greatly when
+he said he could not take them to his lodgings--they were not fit for
+his niece or her friend, who had done him a kindness for which he could
+never be sufficiently grateful, in affording him a glimpse of his dear
+sister's child. It made Dolores wince, for she never could bear the
+mention of her mother, it was like touching a wound, and the old
+sensation of discomfort and dislike to her uncle's company began to grow
+over her again, now that she was not struggling against Mohun opposition
+to her meeting him. He lionized them about the town, but it was a foggy,
+drizzly day, one of those when the fringe of sea-coast often enjoys
+finer weather than inland places; the streets were very sloppy, and
+Dolores and Constance did not do much beyond purchasing a few cards and
+some presents at a fancy shop, as they had agreed to do, to serve as an
+excuse for their expedition in case it could not be kept a secret,
+and most of the visit was made in the waiting-room at the station, or
+walking up and down the platform. As to the grand point, Mr. Flinders
+told Constance that her tale was talented and striking, full of great
+excellence; she might hope for success equal to Ouida's--but that he had
+found it quite impossible to induce a publisher to accept a work by an
+unknown author, unless she advanced something. He could guarantee the
+return, but she must entrust him with thirty pounds. Poor Constance! it
+was a fatal blow; she had not thirty pounds in the world; she doubted
+if she could raise the sum, even by her sister's help. Then Mr. Flinders
+sighed, and thought that if he represented the circumstances, the firm
+might be content with twenty--nay, even fifteen. Constance cheered up
+a little. She did think she could make up fifteen, after the 21st, when
+certain moneys became due, which she shared with her sister. She would
+be left very bare all the spring--but what was that to the return
+she was promised? Only Mr. Flinders impressed on her the necessity of
+secrecy--even from her sister--since, he said, if he were once known
+to have obtained such terms for a young authoress, he should be besieged
+for ever!
+
+'But, Uncle Alfred,' said Dolores, 'surely my father and mother, and
+all the other people I have known, did not pay to get their things
+published.'
+
+'My dear niece, you speak as one who has been with persons of high and
+established fame--the literary aristocracy, in fact. The doors once
+opened, Miss Hacket will, like them, make her own terms; but such doors,
+like many others, are only to be opened by a silver key.'
+
+There were other particulars which he talked over with the authoress in
+a promenade on the platform while Dolores was left in the waiting-room;
+but afterwards he indulged his niece with a tete-a-tete, asking her
+father's address, and mourning over the length of time it would take to
+obtain an answer from Fiji. Mr. Mohun had promised to help him, solemnly
+and kindly promised, for the sake of her whom they had both loved so
+much, and here he was, cut off and quite in extremity. Unfortunate as
+usual, through his determined enemies, a company in which he had shares
+had collapsed, he was penniless till his salary from the Politician
+became due in March. Meanwhile, he should be expelled from his lodging
+and brought to ruin if he could not raise a few pounds--even one.
+
+Dolores had nearly two pounds in her purse. Her father had left her
+amply provided, and she had not much opportunity of spending. She knew
+he had seen the gold when she was shopping, and when she had paid for
+the refreshments, which of course she had found she had to do. With some
+hesitation she said, 'If thirty shillings would be of any good to you--'
+
+'My dear, generous child, your dear mother's own daughter! It will be
+the saving of me temporarily! But among all your wealthy relatives,
+surely, considering your father's promise, you could obtain some advance
+until he can be communicated with!'
+
+'If he is still in New Zealand, we could telegraph, and hear directly.
+He did not know how long he should be there, for the ship had something
+to be done to it.'
+
+This did not suit Mr. Flinders. Such telegrams were very expensive, and
+it was too uncertain whether Mr. Mohun would be at Auckland. Surely,
+Lady Merrifield, whose husband was shaking the pagoda tree, would make
+an advance if she knew the circumstances.
+
+'I don't think she would,' said Dolores, 'I don't think they are very
+rich. There is only one horse and one little pony, and my cousins have
+such very tiny allowances.'
+
+'Haughty and poor! Stuck up and skimping. Yes, I understand. But I am
+not asking from her, only an advance, on your father's promise, which
+he would be certain to repay. Yes, quite certain! It is only a matter
+of time. It would save me at the present moment from utter ruin and
+destruction that would have broken your dear mother's heart. Oh! Mary,
+what I lost in you.' Then, as perhaps he saw reflection on Dolores's
+face, he added, 'She is gone, the only person who took an interest in
+me, so it matters the less, and when you hear again of your unhappy
+uncle you will know what drove him--'
+
+'If it was only an advance--I have a cheque,' began Dolores. 'If seven
+pounds would do you any good--'
+
+'It would be salvation!' he exclaimed.
+
+'Father left it with me,' pursued Dolores, considering, 'in case
+Professor Muhlwasser went on with his great book of coloured plates of
+microscopic marine zoophytes, and sent it in. I was to keep this and pay
+with it--'
+
+'Oh! Muhlwasser! you need not trouble about him. I saw his death in the
+paper a month ago.'
+
+'Then I really think I might send you the cheque, and write to my father
+why I did so.'
+
+'Ah! Dolly, I knew that your mother's daughter could never desert me.'
+
+More followed of the same kind, tending to make Dolores feel that she
+was doing a heroically generous thing, and stifling the lurking sense in
+her mind that she had no right to dispose of her father's money without
+his consent. The December day began to close in, the gas was lighted,
+Constance was seen disconsolately peeping out at the waiting-room door
+to see whether the private conference were over. They joined her again,
+and Mr. Flinders discoursed about the envy and jealousy of critics, and
+success being only attained by getting into a certain clique, till she
+began to look rather frightened; but reassured by the voluble list of
+names and papers to which he assured her of recommendations. Then he
+began to be complimentary, and she, to put on the silly tituppy kind of
+face and tone wherewith she had talked to the curates at the festival.
+Dolores began to find this very dull, and to feel neglected, perhaps
+also cross, and doubts came across her whether she might not get into
+a dreadful scrape about the money, which she certainly had no right to
+dispose of. She at last broke in with, 'Uncle Alfred, are you quite sure
+Professor Muhlwasser is dead?'
+
+'Bless your heart, child, he's as dead as Harry the Eighth,' said Mr.
+Flinders in haste;' died at Berlin, of fatty degeneration of the heart!
+Well, as I was saying, Miss Constance--'
+
+'But, uncle, I was thinking--'
+
+'Hush!' as a couple of ladies and a whole train of nurses and children
+invaded the waiting-room, 'it won't do to talk of such little matters
+in public places, you know. Would you not like a cup of tea, Miss
+Constance. Will you allow me to be your cavalier?'
+
+People were beginning to arrive in expectation of the coming train, and
+talk was not possible in the throng; at least, Mr. Flinders did not make
+it so. At last the train swept up, and he was hurrying to find places
+for the ladies, when there was a moment's glimpse of a handsome
+moustached face at a smoking-carriage window. Dolores started, and had
+almost exclaimed, 'Uncle Reginald;' but before the words were out of her
+mouth, Mr. Flinders had drawn her on swiftly, among all the numbers of
+people getting out and getting in, hurled her into a distant carriage,
+handed Constance in after her, and muttering something about forgetting
+an appointment, he vanished, without any of the arrangements about
+foot-warmers that he had promised.
+
+'Uncle Reginald!' again exclaimed Dolores, 'I am sure it was he!'
+
+'Oh dear! What an escape!' answered Constance, breathless with surprise,
+and settling herself with disgust and difficulty next to a fat old
+farmer, as three or four more people entered and jammed them close
+together.
+
+'Who is he?' she presently whispered.
+
+'Colonel Mohun. His regiment is at Galway. I know he talked of getting
+over this winter if he possibly could; but Aunt Lily went away before
+the post was come in.'
+
+'We shall have to take great care when we get out.'
+
+Here the train started, and conversation in undertones became
+impossible, more especially as two of the farmers in the carriage were
+coming back from the Smithfield Cattle Show, and were discussing the
+prize oxen with all their might. It was very stuffy and close. Constance
+looked ineffably fastidious and uncomfortable, and Dolores gazed at the
+clouded window, and dull little lamp overhead, put in to enliven the
+deepening twilight. This avoiding of Uncle Reginald brought more before
+her mind a sense of wrong-doing than anything that had gone before.
+She was fond of this uncle, who always made her father's house his
+headquarters when in London, and used to play with her when she was a
+small child, and always to take her to the Zoological Gardens, till she
+declared she was too old to care for such a childish show, and then he
+and her father both laughed at her so much that she would never have
+forgiven anybody else; and she found he enjoyed it for his own sake far
+more than she did. However, he always did take her out for walks and
+sights that were sure to be amusing with him. Father, too, was quite
+bright and alive when he was in the house, and thus Dolores had nothing
+but pleasant associations connected with this uncle, and had heard of
+the chances of his coming like a ray of light, though without much hope,
+since the state of Ireland had prevented him from being able even to
+run over to take leave of her father. And now he was come, she must hide
+from him like a guilty thing! There was no spirit of opposition against
+him in her mind, and thus she could feel that she was doing something
+sad and strange. Moreover, she began to feel that her promise about the
+cheque had been a rash one, and the echo of her father's voice came back
+on her, saying, 'Surely, Mary, you know better than to believe a word
+out of Flinders's mouth.'
+
+But then she thought of her mother's rare tears glistening in her eyes,
+and the answer, 'Poor Alfred! I cannot give him up. Everything has been
+against him.'
+
+It was quite dark before Silverton was reached, at half-past five, with
+three quarters of an hour to spare before the other travellers were
+expected. Most of their fellow passengers had got out at previous
+stations, so that Constance was able to open the door and jump out so
+perilously before the train had quite stopped, that a porter caught her
+with a sharp word of reproof. She grasped Dolores's hand and scudded
+across the platform, giving the return tickets almost before the
+collector was ready. A cautious guard even exclaimed, 'What's those two
+young women up to?' but was answered at once, 'They're all right! That's
+nought but one of the old parson's daughters, as have been out with a
+return to Darminster.'
+
+'A sweetheartin'?' demanded one of the bystanders, and there was a
+laugh.
+
+Constance heard the tones and vulgar laugh, though not the words, and
+she was in such a panic as she hurried down the steps that she did not
+stop to look out for a cab. The place was small, and they were not very
+plentiful at any time, and she was mortally afraid, though she hardly
+knew why, of being over-taken and questioned by Colonel Mohun, who might
+know his niece, though he would not know her; but Dolores was tired, and
+had a headache, and did not at all like the walk in the dirt, and fog,
+and dark, after turning from the gas lit station.
+
+'We were to have a cab, Constance.'
+
+'We can't,' was the answer, still hurrying on. 'He would come out upon
+us.'
+
+'He is much more likely to overtake us this way!' said Dolores, thinking
+of her uncle's long strides.
+
+'Well, we can't turn back now!' said Constance, getting almost into a
+run, which lasted till they were past the paddock gate. Dolores, panting
+to keep up with her, had half a mind to turn up there and go straight
+home; but there might be any number of oxen in the way, and almost
+worse, she might meet Jasper and Wilfred, or if Uncle Reginald overtook
+her, what would he think?
+
+The pair slackened their pace a little when they had satisfied
+themselves that the break in the dark hedge beside them was the gate.
+They heard wheels, and presently saw the lamps of a cab, bearing down,
+halt at the gate they had left behind, and turn in.
+
+'We should have been off first,' said Dolores.
+
+'If we could have got a cab in time?'
+
+'One can always get cabs.'
+
+'Oh! no, not at all for certain.'
+
+'This is a nasty, stupid, out-of-the-way place,' said Dolores, wanting
+to say something cross.
+
+'It isn't a vulgar place, full of traffic,' returned Constance, equally
+cross.
+
+'Well, I never meant to walk home in this way! I'm sure my feet are wet.
+I wish I had waited and gone with Uncle Regie.'
+
+'Now, Dolly, what do you mean? You would not have it all betrayed?'
+
+'I've a great mind to tell Uncle Regie all about it.'
+
+'Now, Dolly! When you said so much about the Mohun pride and scorn of
+your poor, dear uncle.'
+
+'Uncle Regie is not proud. And he would know what to do.'
+
+'But,' cried Constance, in a fright, 'you would never tell him! You
+promised that it should be a secret, and I should be in such a dreadful
+scrape with Lady Merrifield and Mary.'
+
+'Well! it was your doing, and you had all the pleasure of it,
+flourishing about the platform with him.'
+
+'How can you be so disagreeable, Dolores, when you know it was all on
+business. Though I do think he is the most interesting man I ever did
+see.'
+
+'Just because he flattered you.'
+
+However, there is no need to tell how many cross and quarrelsome things
+the two tired friends said to each other. They were sitting on opposite
+sides of the fire, one very gloomy, and the other very pettish, when
+the waggonette stopped at the gate, to put out Miss Hacket and take
+up Dolores. Hands pulled her up the step, and a hubbub of merry voices
+received her in the dark.
+
+'Good girl, not to keep us waiting.'
+
+'Oh, Dolly, Dolly, Macrae says Uncle Regie's come!'
+
+'Oh, Dolly, it has been such fun!'
+
+'Take care of my parcel!'
+
+'Ah, ha! you don't know what is in there.'
+
+'Here's something under my feet!'
+
+'Oh! take care! 'Tisn't my--'
+
+'Hush, hush, Val--'
+
+And so it went on till on the steps was seen in full light among the
+boys, Uncle Reginald, ready to lift every one out with a kiss.'
+
+'Ha! Dolly, is that you?' he said, as they came into the hall. 'I saw
+such a likeness of you at one station that I was as near as possible
+jumping out to speak to her. She had on just that fur tippet!'
+
+'That comes of living in Ireland, Regie,' said Aunt Lily. 'Once in a
+shop at Belfast, a lady darted up to me with "And it's I that am glad
+to see you, me dear. And how's me sweet little god-daughter? Oh! and
+it isn't yourself. And aren't you Mrs. Phelim O'Shaugnessy?'" And under
+cover of this, Dolores retreated to her own room. She took off her
+things, and then looked at the cheque.
+
+Professor Muhlwasser was a clever German, always at work on science,
+counting, in the most minute and accurate manner, such details as the
+rays in a sea anemone's tentacles, or the eggs in a shrimp's roe. He
+was engaged on a huge book, in numbers, of which Mr. Maurice Mohun had
+promised to take two copies--but whereas extravagances upon peculiar
+hobbies were apt not to be tolerated in the family, and it was really
+uncertain whether the work would ever be completed, Mr. Mohun had
+preferred leaving a cheque for the payment in his little daughter's
+hand, rather than entrust it to one of the brothers, who would have
+howled and growled at such a waste of good money on such a subject.
+Thus he had told Dolores to back the draft, get it changed, and send
+the amount by a postal order to Germany, if the books and account should
+come, which he thought very doubtful.
+
+And now the professor was dead, Dolores looked at the cheque, and
+supposed she could do as she pleased with it. Mother helped Uncle
+Alfred. Yes, but mother earned all she sent him herself! Perhaps he
+would not ask again. How much more he had talked to Constance than to
+herself. Dolly wished she had not seen him to get into this difficulty.
+She was tired, cold, and damp. Oh! if she had never gone, and not been
+half caught by Uncle Regie!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. -- A HUNT
+
+
+
+Dolores was glad to recollect, when she awoke, that Uncle Reginald was
+in the house. It was as if she had a friend of her own there who might
+enter into all the ill-usage she suffered, and whom she could even
+consult about Uncle Alfred, so far as she could do so without disclosing
+all the underhand correspondence. She called doing so betraying
+Constance, but, in truth, she shrank more from shocking him with what
+he might think very wrong--since, after all, he belonged to that
+hard-hearted generation of grown-up people who had no feeling nor
+understanding of one's troubles.
+
+As she went downstairs she was aware of an increasing hubbub, and
+frequently looking over the balusters, perceived the top of Primrose's
+wavy head above the close-cropped one of Uncle Regie, as, with her
+mounted on his shoulder, he careered round the hall, with a pack of
+others vociferating behind him.
+
+There was a lull, for Lady Merrifield came out of her room just as
+Dolores had paused; Primrose was put down, the morning salutations took
+place, and Dolores had her full share of them. She was even allowed to
+sit next her uncle at breakfast; but her rasher of bacon had not been
+half eaten, before she had perceived that, as to possessing him as she
+used to do at home, he was just as much everybody else's Uncle Regie as
+hers, for during the time of their being stationed at Belfast, he had
+been so often with them, that he was quite established as the prince of
+playfellows.
+
+'Uncle Regie, will you have a crack at the rabbits tomorrow? Brown said
+we might have a day, and we have been keeping it for you.'
+
+'Uncle Regie, the hounds meet at the Bugle this morning, won't you come
+and see them throw off?'
+
+'Oh, let me come too!' 'And me!' 'And me!'
+
+'My dear children,' exclaimed their mother, 'I can't have the whole
+tribe of little ones and girls going galloping after your uncle. You
+will only hinder him.'
+
+'No, no, Lily! the more Merrifields, the merrier the field. I'll drill
+them well. How far off is this Bugle?'
+
+'Not two miles over Furzy Common.'
+
+'Oh! not so far, Hal!'
+
+'That's nothing. Who is coming?'
+
+A general outbreak of 'Me's' ensued, but mamma laid an embargo on
+Primrose, who must stay at home and 'help her,' while Gillian looked
+wistful and doubtful, knowing that more efficient help than the little
+one's might be desirable.
+
+'You had better go, my dear,' said her mother, 'if you are not tired. I
+don't like to send Mysie and Val without some one to turn back with them
+if your uncle and the boys want to go further.'
+
+But whereas it was not nearly time to start, Uncle Reginald was
+dragged down to inspect all the live stock in the stable-yard, at their
+feeding-time, and went off with Val and Primrose clinging to his hands,
+and the general rabble surrounding him.
+
+Nothing could have been more alien to Dolores's taste than going out to
+a meet on foot through mud and mire--she who hated the being driven out
+to take a constitutional walk on the gravel road or the paved path! But
+she had some hope that while all the others ran off madly, as was
+their wont, she might secure a little rational conversation with Uncle
+Reginald. So she came down in hat and ulster, and was rewarded with
+'That's right, Doll; I'm glad to see they have taught you to take
+country walks.'
+
+'It is all compliment to you, Uncle Regie,' said Gillian. 'She hates
+them generally.'
+
+'Are we all ready? Where are Japs and Will?'
+
+'Gone to shut up the dogs; and Hal is not coming.'
+
+'Beneath his dignity, eh?'
+
+'I think he has some reading to do,' said Gillian.
+
+'Now mind, Reginald,' said Aunt Lily, coming on the scene, 'you are not
+to let those imps drag you farther than you like. It is a very different
+thing, remember, children, from going out with the hounds like a
+gentleman.'
+
+'Yes, mamma,' returned Fergus. 'If you would only let me have the pony!'
+
+'And send home the girls as soon as you find them in the way,' she
+added.
+
+'All right,' answered he, and off plunged the party; but Dolores soon
+found that she was not to be allowed much of Uncle Reginald's exclusive
+society. He did begin talking to her about her father's voyage, last
+letters, and intended departure from Auckland, but Valetta kept fast
+hold of his other hand, and the others were all round, every moment
+pointing out something--to them noticeable--and telling the story of
+some exploit, delighted when their uncle capped it with some boyish
+tales of Beechcroft, or with some droll, Irish story.
+
+With such talk, the strong, healthy young folk little heeded the surface
+mud or the lanes. Even Dolores when she heard her father's name in the
+reminiscences,' was interested for a time, and was always hoping that
+the others would fly off and leave her to her uncle; but she was much
+less used to country mud and stout boots than the others, and she had
+been very much tired by her expedition on the previous day, so that
+she had begun to find the way very long before they came out on an open
+green, with a few cottages standing a good way back in their gardens,
+and as their centre, one of the great old coaching inns of past days,
+now chiefly farmhouse, though a sign, bearing a golden bugle-horn upon a
+blue ground, stood aloft in front of it, over the heads of the speckled
+mass of tan, black, and white, pervaded with curved tails, over which
+the scarlet-coated whips kept guard, while shining horses, bearing red
+coats and black coats, boys, and a few ladies, were moving about, and
+carriages drew up from time to time.
+
+There was a long standing about, and Colonel Mohun, being a stranger
+there himself, kept his flock on the outskirts, only Jasper plunging
+in, at sight of a mounted schoolfellow, while Gillian and Mysie told the
+names of the few they recognized. At last there was a move, and Jasper
+came back to point out the wood they were going to draw, close at hand.
+Should they not all go on and see it?
+
+'Oh! let us! do come, Uncle Regie,' cried Mysie and Val.
+
+'Look here, Gill,' said the uncle, 'this child doesn't look fit to go
+any farther.'
+
+'I'm very tired, and so cold,' said Dolores.
+
+'Yes,' said Gillian, 'we ought to go home now.'
+
+Not me! not me;' cried the other two girls; 'Uncle Regie will take care
+of us.'
+
+'I think you must come,' said Gillian, 'mamma said you had better come
+home when I do.'
+
+'Yes,' said Wilfred, 'we don't want a pack of girls to go and get
+tired.'
+
+'We shall go into all sorts of places not fit for you,' said Jasper;
+'you wouldn't come back with a whole petticoat among you.'
+
+'And Val would be left stodged in a ditch for a month of Sundays,' added
+Wilfred.
+
+'I am afraid we had better part company, Gill,' said the colonel. 'I
+would take you on a little further, but this poor little Londoner won't
+have a leg to stand upon by the time she gets home.'
+
+'More shame for her to come out to spoil our fun,' muttered Valetta, too
+low for her uncle to hear.
+
+'Mamma will think we have gone quite far enough, thank you, uncle,' said
+the sage Gillian, 'and I think Fergus had better come too.'
+
+'That he had,' said Jasper. 'Fancy him over Peat Hill.'
+
+'He'll be left behind to be picked up as we come back,' said Wilfred.
+
+'No, no, no! I can keep up better than you can, Wil! Take me, Uncle
+Regie.' The little boy was so near a howl that good-natured Colonel
+Mohun's heart was touched, and he consented to let him come on, though
+Jasper argued, 'You'll have to carry him, uncle.'
+
+'No, I'll make you, master! Tell your mother not to wait luncheon for
+us, Gillian; we'll pick up something somewhere.'
+
+'Hurrah!' cried Wilfred and Fergus, to whom this was an immense
+additional pleasure.
+
+The girls turned away into the lane, Valetta indulging in an outrageous
+grumble. 'Why should Dolores have come out to spoil everything?'
+
+Dolores did not speak.
+
+'Just our one chance,' sighed Mysie, 'and perhaps we should have seen
+the fox.'
+
+'We may do that yet,' said Gillian; 'he may come this way.'
+
+'I don't care if he does,' said Valetta. 'I wanted to see them draw the
+copse. I believe Dolores did it on purpose to spoil our pleasure.'
+
+'Don't be so cross, Val,' said Mysie. 'She can't help being tired.'
+
+'Why did she come, then, when nobody wanted her?'
+
+'For shame, Val,' said Gillian, 'you know mamma would be very angry to
+hear you say anything so unkind.'
+
+'It's quite true, though,' muttered Valetta.
+
+'Never mind, Dolly, dear,' said Mysie, shocked. 'Val doesn't really mean
+it, you know.'
+
+'Yes, she does,' said Dolores, shaking her comforter off; 'you all do! I
+wish I had never come here.'
+
+Mysie tried in her own persevering way to argue again that Val was only
+put out, and disappointed at having to turn back, to which Valetta, in
+spite of Gillian's endeavour to silence her, added, 'So stupid of her to
+come out! What did she do it for?'
+
+Dolores, who hardly ever cried, was tired into crying now. 'You grudge
+me everything; you wouldn't let me speak one single word to Uncle Regie,
+and kept bothering about! I'll never do anything with you again! I
+won't.'
+
+'Did you want to speak to Uncle Regie?' asked Mysie.
+
+'To be sure I did! He is my uncle, that I knew ever so long before you
+did, and you never let him speak to me.'
+
+'Mrs. Halfpenny always put us on the high chair, with our faces to the
+wall when we were jealous,' remarked Valetta.
+
+'But did you want to say anything to him in particular?' said Mysie,
+revolving means of contriving a private interview.
+
+'That's no business of yours! I wish you would let me alone!' broke
+out Dolores, in a fretful fright lest any one should guess that she had
+anything on her mind.
+
+'To make up stories of us, of course,' growled Valetta, but Gillian
+here interposed, declaring with authority that if she heard another word
+before they reached the paddock gate, she should certainly tell mother
+how disgracefully they had been behaving. When Gillian said such things
+she kept her word. Besides, by way of precaution, she marched down the
+muddy middle of the road, with Dolores limping along the footpath on one
+side, and Val as far off as possible on the border of the ditch, on the
+other; the more inoffensive Mysie keeping by her side. They were all
+weary, and Dolores was very footsore also, by the time they reached
+home, at the very moment that the two Misses Hacket appeared coming up
+the drive. Lady Merrifield, having the day before invited the elder, as
+the purchases needed to be looked over, and preparations set in hand,
+and she did not then know that her brother was coming.
+
+Dolores scarcely knew whether she was glad to see Constance. She had
+many doubts and qualms about that cheque. And if she had spent any quiet
+time alone with her uncle, she might have laid enough of her trouble
+before him to get some advice or help; but to ask for an interview,
+especially when 'everybody' thought it was to make complaints, was too
+uncomfortable and alarming; and she was inclined to escape from thought
+of the whole subject altogether by taking action quickly.
+
+Gillian gave her uncle's message about not waiting; the dirty boots were
+taken off in the hall, and Constance followed her friend up to her room
+to take off her things.
+
+Dolores sat on the side of her bed, too much tired at first to be
+willing to move, Constance's pity elicited tears, and that they had all
+been so very unkind to her; they were angry at her getting tired,
+and they were jealous of her even speaking to Uncle Regie. Again
+this alarmed Constance, 'You weren't going to tell him about Mr.
+Flinders--you know you promised.'
+
+'He knows about him already, and he would tell me what to do.'
+
+'Oh! but that would never do, darling Dolly. You told me all the family
+were hard and unjust, and he would tell Lady Merrifield, and we should
+never be allowed to see each other again. And only think of my poor
+little secret! I didn't think you would have turned from your poor
+relation in misfortune for the sake of this grand Colonel.'
+
+The end of it was, that just as the gong was sounding, Dolores handed
+over to Constance an envelope directed to Mr. Flinders, and containing
+Mr. Maurice Mohun's cheque. It was off her mind now, she thought, as she
+shuffled down to dinner, lookup so pale and uneasy that her aunt made
+her have a glass of wine and some gravy soup to begin with, and, when
+dinner was over, turned all the parcels off the school-room sofa, and
+made her lie upon it during the grand unpacking, which was almost
+as charming as the purchasing, perhaps more so, since there was no
+comparison with costlier articles.
+
+There was not very much time. This was Friday and Christmas Day was on
+Monday, so there were only two more clear week-days before the birthday
+and Miss Hacket would be church-decorating on the morrow; but Lady
+Merrifield would not send her daughters to help, as there were plenty of
+hands without them, and they were too young to trust in a mixed set, who
+were not always sure to be reverent.
+
+Dinner had rested and refreshed them; they rejoiced in the absence of
+the man-kind, and Primrose was sent out for her walk while the numerous
+boxes and packages were opened, and displayed sconces and tapers,
+gilt balls and glass birds, oranges and bon-bons, disguised in every
+imaginable fashion. There was a double set of the tapers, and two relays
+of devices in sweets, for the benefit of the party of the second night,
+a list of whom Miss Hacket had brought, that heads might be counted, and
+any deficiency supplied in time through Aunt Jane. For Lady Merrifield
+had commissioned Gillian to lay in--unknown to the good lady--a stock
+of such treasures as are valuable indeed to the little maid: shell
+pin-cushions, Cinderella slippers holding thimbles, cases of hair-pins,
+queer housewives, and the like things, wonderfully pretty for the
+price, and which filled the kind heart of Miss Hacket with rapture and
+gratitude at such brilliant additions to her own home-made contrivances
+in the way of cuffs, comforters, and illuminated workbags, all
+beautifully neat; I though it was hard to persuade her of what Lady
+Merrifield averred, that such things ought to be far more precious than
+brilliant, shop-bought, ready-made ware, 'with no love-seed in it.'
+
+'It is very hard,' she said; 'how fancy shops try to spoil all one used
+to be able to do for one's friends. The purses, and the penwipers, and
+the needle-cases that were one's choicest presents in my youth, are all
+turned out now smart and tight and fashioned, but without a scrap of the
+honest old labour and love that went into them.'
+
+'But papa and mamma do care still,' cried Gillian; 'papa never will have
+any purse but the long ones mamma nets for him.'
+
+'And mamma always will have the old brown and blue carriage-bag that
+Aunt Phyllis worked,' chimed in Mysie, 'though Claude did say he would
+throw it into the sea when we crossed from Dublin for it looked like an
+old housekeeper's.'
+
+'Claude was in a superfine condition then--in awe of an old Sandhurst
+comrade. He would be gild enough to see the old brown bag now, poor
+fellow,' said Lady Merrifield, tenderly.
+
+So it went on, with merry chat and a good deal of real preparation, till
+the early darkness came on, and a great noise in the haul announced
+the return of 'the boys,' among whom Lady Merrifield still classed her
+colonel brother. They were muddy up to the eyes, but they had seen
+a great deal more than was easy to understand in their incoherent
+accounts. Wilfed had rolled into a wet ditch, and been picked out by his
+uncle and hung up to dry at a little village inn, where--this seemed
+to have been the supreme glory--they had made a meal on pigs'-liver
+and bread-and-cheese before plodding home again--losing their way
+under Wilfred's confident pilotage--finding themselves five miles from
+home--getting a cast in a cart for the two little boys just as Fergus
+was almost ready to cry--Colonel Mohun and Jasper walking alongside of
+the carter for two miles, and conversing in a friendly manner, though
+the man said he knew the soldier by his step, and thought it was a
+pool-trade. Finally, he directed them by a short cut, which proved to be
+through a lane of clay and pools of such an adhesive nature that Fergus
+had to be pulled out step by step by main force by his uncle, who
+deposited him on some stones at the other end, and then came back to
+assist the struggles of Wilfred, who was slowly proceeding with Jasper's
+help.
+
+'And that's the way we make you spend your Christmas holiday, Regie,'
+said Lady Merrifield.
+
+'Never mind. Lily; mud was a congenial element to us both in old
+times, you know, so no wonder your brood take to it like ducks or
+hippopotamuses. I say, we ought to have come in by the rear. Couldn't
+that imp of a buttons of yours come and scrape us before we go
+upstairs?'
+
+'You are certainly grown older, Regie. You never would have thought of
+that once.'
+
+'No more would you, Lily--so do yourself justice.'
+
+However, when five o'clock tea was spread in the drawing-room, and the
+Hacket ladies came in, Constance beheld such a splendid vision of a
+fine, fair, though sunburnt face, long, light moustaches, and tall
+figure, that she instantly assumed her most affected graces, and did not
+wonder the less that the Mohuns were all so very high.
+
+Dolores's strong desire for a private interview with her uncle died away
+when Constance carried off the cheque. She knew he would tell her she
+had no right to give it, and she did not want to be told so, nor to have
+any special inquiries made. She was not sorry that an invitation from a
+neighbour kept him and Hal out shooting all Saturday, and, on the other
+hand, she so far shrank from Constance's talk about Mr. Flinders as not
+to be vexed that it was too wet on Sunday afternoon for any going down
+to Casement Cottages.
+
+It was on that wet afternoon, however, that Uncle Reginald, crossing
+the hall for once without his tail of followers, saw her slowly dragging
+downstairs with a book in her hand.
+
+'Well, Miss Doll,' he said; 'you don't look very jolly! What's the
+matter?'
+
+'Nothing, Uncle Regie.'
+
+'I don't believe in nothing. Here,' sitting down on the stairs, with an
+arm round her, 'tell me all about it, Dolly, we are old chums, you know.
+Have you got into a row?'
+
+'Oh no!'
+
+'Is there anything I can put straight?'
+
+'No, thank you, Uncle Regie.'
+
+'There's something amiss!' said the good-natured, puzzled uncle. 'What
+is it? I should have thought you would have got on with these young
+folks like--like a house on fire.'
+
+'That's all you know about it,' thought Dolly. What she said was, 'One
+never does.'
+
+'I don't understand that generalization,' answered her uncle; then, as
+she did not answer, he added, 'I am sure your Aunt Lily is very anxious
+to make you happy. Have you anything to complain of?'
+
+'No,' said Dolores, 'I don't complain of anything.'
+
+She was thinking of Valetta's notion that she wanted to 'make up stories
+of them,' and therefore she said it in a manner which conveyed that she
+had a good deal to complain of, if she would, though really she would
+have been a good deal puzzled to produce a grievance that a man like
+Uncle Reginald would understand, though she had plenty for sympathy like
+Constance's.
+
+However, it was not to be expected that a private conference should last
+long in that house, and Mysie appeared at that moment, looking for her
+cousin, to say that 'Mamma was ready for her.' Dolores went off with
+more alacrity than usual, and Uncle Reginald beckoned up his other
+niece, and observed: 'I say, Mysie, what's the matter with Dolly?'
+
+'She is always like that, uncle,' answered Mysie.
+
+'Don't you hit it off with her, then?'
+
+'I can't, uncle,' said Mysie, looking up, with a sudden wink now and
+then to stop her tears. 'I thought we should have been such friends; but
+she won't let me. I didn't mean to be stupid and disagreeable, like the
+girls in 'Ashenden Schoolroom,' but she doesn't care for anybody but
+Miss Constance and Maude Sefton.'
+
+'I hope you are all very kind to her,' said Uncle Reginald, rather
+wistfully.
+
+'We try,' said Mysie, who was not going to betray Wilfred and Valetta,
+and could honestly say so of herself and Gillian.
+
+And there again came an interruption, in the shape of Gillian. 'Mysie,
+mamma says we may finish up our sacred illuminated cards, for it will be
+Sunday work.'
+
+'Oh, jolly!' cried Mysie, jumping up. 'And will you give me one rub of
+your real good carmine Gilly-flower, dear.'
+
+'And of my ultramarine, too,' responded Gillian, wherewith the two
+sisters disappeared, radiant with goodwill and gratitude; while poor
+Uncle Reginald, who had intended to devote this wet Sunday afternoon to
+writing to his brother that Dolores was perfectly happy and thriving in
+Lily's care, and like a sister to his other favourite, Mysie, remained
+disappointed and perplexed, wondering whether the poor little maiden
+were homesick, or whether no children could be depended on for kindness
+when out of sight, and deciding that he should defer his letter till
+he had seen a little more, and talked to his sister Jane, who could see
+through a milestone any day.
+
+It was understood that mamma preferred home-made cards to bought ones,
+so there was always a great manufacture of them in the weeks previous
+to Christmas, the comparative failures being exchanged among the younger
+members.
+
+The presents were always reserved for Valetta's birthday and the tree,
+and this rendered the circulation of the cards doubly interesting. In
+the immediate family alone, there were thirteen times thirteen, besides
+those coming from, and going to outsiders, so that it was as well that
+a good many should be of domestic manufacture, either with pencil and
+brush, or of tiny leaves carefully dried and gummed. And mamma had kept
+an album, with names and dates, into which all these home efforts were
+inserted, and nothing else! This year's series began with a little
+chestnut curl of Primrose's hair, fastened down on a card by Gillian,
+and rose to a beautiful drawing of a blue Indian Lotus lily, with a
+gorgeous dragon-fly on it, sent by Alethea. The Indian party had sent a
+card for every one--the girls, beautiful drawings of birds, insects, and
+scenery; the brother, a bundle of rice-paper figured with costumes,
+and papa, some clever pen-and-ink outlines of odd figures, which his
+daughters beguiled from him in his leisure moments!
+
+As to the home circle, it is enough to say that their performances were
+highly satisfactory to the makers, and were rewarded by mamma's kisses,
+and the text or verse she had secretly illuminated for each. She had no
+time to do more, and the series were infinitely prized and laid up as
+treasures. There were plenty of ornamental cards from without to be
+admired: the Brighton and Beechcroft aunts; the Stokesley cousins, and
+whole multitudes of friends pouring them in as usual; so that the entire
+review seemed to occupy all those free moments of the Christmas Day,
+when the young folks were neither at church, nor at meals, nor singing
+carols themselves, nor hearing the choir sing in the hall, nor looking
+over photograph books and hearing old family stories. This last
+occupation was received in the family as the regular evening pleasure,
+ending in all singing, 'When shepherds watch their flocks by night.'
+
+Dolores had a card from her aunt and each of her cousins, besides one of
+the parcel Uncle Reginald had brought. She did not think enough of the
+very bad drawing and smeared painting of the ambitious attempts she
+received, to feel at all disconcerted at having no reciprocity to offer.
+The only cards she had sent were to Constance Hacket, to Fraulein, and
+to Maude Sefton--the last with a sore sense of the long interval since
+she had heard.
+
+However, there was a card from Maude, but it was a very poor one,
+looking very much like a last year's possession, and the letter was not
+much better, being chiefly an apology for having been too busy to write.
+Maude was going to lectures with Nona Styles--Nona was such a darling
+girl--and breaking off because she was wanted to rehearse Cinderella
+with this same darling Nona.
+
+It made Dolores's heart go down farther, though there was a beautiful
+and unexpected card from Mrs. Sefton, one from her former servant,
+Caroline, also from Fraulein, and three or four from old friends of her
+mother, who had remembered the solitary girl. In truth, she had more
+beautiful ones than anybody else, but she kept these in their envelopes,
+and showed herself so much averse to free fingering and admiration of
+them that Lady Merrifield had to call off Valetta, remind her that her
+cousin had a right to her own cards, and hear in return that Dolores was
+so cross.
+
+'Dolly,' said Uncle Reginald, in a low voice, since he was permitted
+to look over the cards with her, 'I think I have found out part of your
+troubles.'
+
+She looked at him in alarm.
+
+He put his finger on a card bearing the words, 'Goodwill to men.'
+
+'Umph,' said she. 'I don't want everything of mine messed and spoilt.'
+
+And as his eye fell on Fergus's cards, he felt there was reason in what
+she said.
+
+Aunt Lily had taken her for a quarter of an hour that morning, trying to
+infuse the real thought underlying the joy that makes it Christmas, not
+only yule-tide. But it all fell flat--it was all lessons to her--imposed
+on her on a day that she had not been used to see made what she called
+'goody.' Last year her father had shut himself up after church, and she
+had spent the evening in noisy mirth with the Seftons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. -- AN EGYPTIAN SPHYNX
+
+
+
+Aunt Adeline was afraid of winter journeys as well as of the tumultuous
+festivities of Silverton; so at twelve o'clock. Colonel Mohun drove the
+pony-carriage to meet the little trim Brownie who stepped out of the
+station, the porter carrying behind her a huge thing, long, and swathed
+in brown paper. 'It is quite light; it won't hurt,' she said, 'It must
+go with us. Put your legs across it, Regie. That's right.'
+
+'Then what becomes of yours?'
+
+'Mine can go anywhere,' said Miss Mohun, crumpling herself up in some
+mysterious manner under the fur rug, while they drove off, her luggage
+sticking far off on either side of the splashboard.
+
+'What, in the name of wonder, are you smuggling in there?'
+
+'If you must know, it is the body of a mummy over whose dissection you
+will have to assist.'
+
+'Ah! Rotherwood is coming.'
+
+'Rotherwood!'
+
+'And his little girl. Just like him. Lily gets a note this morning from
+London, telling her to telegraph if she can't have them by the 5.20
+train. I've just been ordering a fly. It seems that Lady Rotherwood,
+going to meet Ivinghoe at the station, coming from school, found he had
+measles coming out! So they packed off his sister to Beechcroft without
+having seen him, and thence Rotherwood took her to London.'
+
+'And is having a fine frolic with her, no doubt; but he might as well
+have given Lily more notice, considering that a marquess or two makes
+more difference to her household than it does to his.'
+
+'Oh! she is glad enough, only in some trepidation as to how Mrs.
+Halfpenny may receive the unspecified maid that the child may bring.'
+
+'How jolly we shall be! I wish Ada had come.'
+
+'I tried to drag her out, but it gets harder and harder to shake her up.
+You must come back with me and see her.'
+
+'I say, Jane, have you seen Maurice's child lately?'
+
+'Not very. She wouldn't come with the others last week.'
+
+'What do you think about her? I thought leaving her with Lily would
+have been the making of her. Indeed, I told Maurice there could not be a
+better brought up set anywhere than the Merrifields, and that Lily would
+mother her like one of her own; and now I find her moping about, looking
+regularly down in the mouth. I got hold of her one day and tried to find
+out what was the matter, but she only said she would not complain. Can
+they bully her?'
+
+'I'll tell you what, Maurice, Lily is a great deal too kind to her. She
+has a kind of temper that won't let them make friends with her.'
+
+'Come now! She was a nice jolly little girl at home. She and I have had
+no end of larks together, and it is hard to blame her for fretting after
+her home, poor child--Aye! I know you never liked her, or she might have
+done better with you and Ada than turned in among a lot of imps.'
+
+'I'm thankful it was otherwise!'
+
+'Now do, Jane, set your mind to it. Don't be prejudiced, but make those
+sharp eyes of some use. I really feel bound to give Maurice an account
+of Dolly, and tell him what is best for her.'
+
+'I believe,' said Jane, 'that there is some counter-influence at work,
+and I am trying to find it out; but, after all, I believe patience is
+the only thing, and that Lily will conquer her if nobody meddles.'
+
+''Tis not Lily I am afraid of, but her children.'
+
+'Nonsense, Regie; one would think you had never been turned loose into
+school to be licked into shape.'
+
+'She is a girl, not a cub like me.'
+
+'A worse cub, for she has not your temper, sir, and, moreover, you had
+had the wholesome discipline of a large family. Besides, nobody teases
+but Wilfred. Gillian and Mysie behave like angels to the tiresome puss.'
+
+'Well, I'm bound to believe you, Jenny, but I don't like the looks of
+it.'
+
+Aunt Jane's mysterious parcel was greeted rapturously, and conveyed into
+the dining-room, which had a semi-circular end, filled with glass,
+and capable of being shut off with heavy curtains when the season made
+snugness desirable. This bay had been set apart from the first for her
+operations, the tree, whose second season it was, having been taken up
+and already erected in the centre of the room, not much the worse for
+last year's excursion, for, if rather stunted, that was all the better.
+No one was excluded from the decoration thereof, since that was the best
+part of the sport to those too old for the mystery--and yet young enough
+to fasten sconces where their candles would infallibly set fire to the
+twigs above them. The only defaulters were Jasper, who had preferred
+going down to the meadows with his gun; and Dolores, who had retired
+to the drawing-room with a book, on having a paper star removed from
+immediate risk of conflagration. 'They were determined not to let her
+help,' she said.
+
+So she only emerged when the workers halted for a merry, hurried meal in
+the schoolroom, where Jasper appeared, very late, very cross at having
+had to make himself fit to be seen, and, likewise, at having brought
+home no spoil, the snipes having been so malicious as to escape him.
+Having sallied forth before the post came in, it was only now that it
+broke on him that visitors were expected, and he did not like it at all.
+
+'I thought we had got rid of all the enemy!' he growled, at his end of
+the table.
+
+'That's what he calls Constance.' thought Dolores.
+
+'Polite,' observed Gillian.
+
+'This will be worse still, being lord and ladies grumbled on Jasper, 'I
+hate swells.'
+
+'Oh! but these aren't like horrid, common, fine lords and ladies,' cried
+Mysie; 'why, you know all mamma's old stories about the fun they had
+with cousin Rotherwood.
+
+'What's the good of that! That's a hundred years ago. He'll just make
+mamma and Uncle Regie of no good at all! And then there's a girl too--'
+(in a tone of inconceivable disgust) 'I don't want strange girls--an
+awful stuck-up swell of a Londoner, not able to do anything! I wish I
+had gone to spend Christmas with Bruce! I would if I had known it was to
+be like this.'
+
+The speech brought Mysie to the verge of tears. Aunt Jane's sharp ears
+heard it, and she looked at the head of the table, expecting to hear a
+rebuke; but Lady Merrifield turned a deaf ear on that side. Only after
+the meal, she called her son, 'Jasper,' she said, 'I want to send a note
+to Redford, if you like to ride over with it. You need not come home
+till eight o'clock, if it is moonlight, it the boys are disengaged, and
+if you do really wish to keep out of the way.'
+
+Jasper's eyes fell under hers.
+
+'Mamma, I don't want that.'
+
+'Only you said more than you meant, Japs. If it relieves your mind, it
+hurts other people. But I do want the note taken, so go and come back in
+time for the sports; which I don't think you will find much damaged.'
+
+Meantime, Aunt Jane had ensconced herself behind the curtains; where she
+admitted no one but Miss Vincent and Uncle Reginald, and in process
+of time, mamma and Macrae. The others were still fully employed in
+garnishing the tree, though it was only to bear lights, ornaments and
+sweets. All solid articles had been for some time past committed to a
+huge box, or ottoman, the veteran companion of the family travels, which
+stood in the centre of the bay. Into its capacious interior everybody
+had been dropping parcels of various sizes and shapes, with addresses in
+all sorts of hands, which were to find their destination on this great
+evening. This was part of the mystery that kept Mysie and Valetta in one
+continual dance and caper. It was all they could do not to peep between
+the curtains when the privileged mortals went in and out, bearing all
+sorts of mysterious loads well covered up from all eyes. Wilfred did
+make one attempt, but something extraordinary snapped at his nose, with
+a sharp crack, and drove him back with a start.
+
+A lamp had been taken thither, and there really was nothing more to do
+to the tree, the scraps of packing had been picked up, and the hands,
+tingling from fir-needle pricks, had been washed, though not without
+protest from Valetta that it wasn't worth while, and from Wilfred that
+it was all along of these horrid swells--!
+
+The sound of wheels summoned Lady Merrifield and her brother from the
+place of mystery, and they were in the hall when a fresh gust of keen
+air came in from the door, an ulstered figure hurried in, and something
+small and furred was put into the lady's embrace.
+
+'Here's my Fly, Lily--! Look, Fly, here they all are--all the cousins.
+Off with the hat. Let us see your funny little face.'
+
+It was a funny little smiling face, set in short, light, wavy hair, not
+exactly pretty, but with a bright, quaint, confiding look, as if used to
+be shown off by her father, and ready to make friends on the spot. 'And
+how is your boy?' as the round of greetings was completed, and the wraps
+thrown off.
+
+'Going on capitally, better than he deserves, the young scamp, for
+suppressing all symptoms for fear he should be hindered from coming
+home. His mother was in a proper fright, she showed him to the doctor on
+the way, who told her to put him to bed at once, and send his sister out
+of the house. She never set eyes on him, or I would not have brought her
+here.'
+
+'I am exceedingly glad you have,' said Lady Merrifield, bending for
+another kiss.
+
+'And Lily, I've done another awful thing. Victoria kept old nurse to
+help with Ivinghoe, and we brought the Swiss bonne, Louise, away with
+us, but the poor thing found her sister very ill in London, and I hadn't
+the heart to bring her away, so Phyllis said she would do for herself,
+if your maid, or some of them, would have an eye to her.'
+
+'There! I'm doubly glad, Rotherwood! If I had any fears it was not of
+you, or Phyllis; but that like Vich Ian Vhor, she should have her tail
+on. And, oh! Rotherwood, do you know what you are in for?'
+
+'High jinks of some sort, I've no doubt. We picked up a couple of boxes
+at Gunter's and Miller's with a view thereto. Who is master of the
+revels?'
+
+'Jane. She's too deep in preparations to come forth at present. Gillian,
+will you take Phyllis to the nursery, and take care of her. We are to
+have a very high tea at half-past six; but, Rotherwood, I promise that
+another day you shall have a respectable dinner in this house.'
+
+'Return to the prose of life, eh, Lily? Well, Fly, what do you think of
+it?'
+
+'Oh, daddy, aren't you glad we came?' she cried, dancing off, in
+Gillian's wake, arm-in-arm with Mysie and Valetta, while he called after
+her, 'Find the boxes, and make them over to the right quarter.'
+
+This was enough to make the whole bevy of children rush away, and only
+the three elders remained. Lord Rotherwood said, 'This is short notice.
+Lily; but I did not know Reginald was here, and I thought you might want
+help. Don't be frightened, only a queer thing has happened. I went to
+W.'s bank yesterday. I thought they looked at me as if something was
+up, and by-and-by one of the partners came and took me into his private
+room. There he showed me a cheque, and asked my opinion whether the
+writing was Maurice's. And I should say it decidedly was, but it was
+actually for seventy pounds, payable to order of Miss Dolores M. Mohun.'
+
+'Seventy!'
+
+'Yes, and dated the 19th of August.'
+
+'Just before Maurice went.'
+
+There was a sudden silence, for the door opened; but it was to admit
+Miss Mohun, who began, 'Oh! Rotherwood, you are too munificent. Why,
+what's the matter?' Lady Merrifield hastily explained, as far as she yet
+understood, what had brought him.
+
+'How did they get the cheque?' she asked.
+
+'Sent up from the country bank where it had been cashed--Darminster.'
+
+'Ah!' came from both the aunts.
+
+Lord Rotherwood went on. 'They asked me who Miss Dolores Mohun was, and
+I could do no otherwise than tell them, and likewise where to find her,
+but I explained that she is a mere child; and I told them I would come
+down here, so I hope you will have as little annoyance as possible.'
+
+'It is very good of you, Rotherwood, but I can't understand it at all.
+Was her name on the back?'
+
+'Certainly; I told them I thought the whole thing must be a well got up
+forgery, and a confidential clerk was to go down today to Darminster to
+try to find out who gave it in there.'
+
+'Darminster! Flinders!' ejaculated Miss Mohun.
+
+'Regie,' exclaimed Lady Merrifield; 'what did you say about having seen
+some one like Dolores at Darminster station?'
+
+'I was nearly jumping out after her. I should have said it was herself,
+if it had not been impossible. Why she was with you at Rockstone, and it
+was a pouring, dripping day,' said the colonel.
+
+'No, she was not. She begged to spend the day with Constance Hacket, and
+we picked her up as we came home. Poor child, what has she been doing? I
+have not looked after her properly.'
+
+'But need she have had anything to do with it?' said Colonel Mohun. 'How
+should a cheque of Maurice's come into her possession?'
+
+'She did tell me,' said Lady Merrifield,' that her father had left one
+with her to pay for some German scientific book that might be sent for
+him.'
+
+'I see, then!' cried Miss Mohun. 'That wretch Flinders must have got
+into communication with her, and induced her to fill up her father's
+cheque for him.'
+
+'But why should it be Flinders?' said Lord Rotherwood.
+
+'Jane found out that he is living at Darminster, and has been trying to
+put me on my guard,' returned Lady Merrifield.
+
+'It is all that fellow Flinders, depend upon it,' said Colonel Mohun.
+'He is quite capable of it, and you'll find poor Dolly has nothing to
+do with it. Quite preposterous. And look here, Lily, let the poor child
+alone to enjoy herself tonight. Most likely Rotherwood's clerk, or
+detective, or whatever he may be, will have ferreted out the rights of
+the matter at Darminster. I sincerely hope he will, and have Flinders
+in custody, and then you would have upset her and accused her all for
+nothing.'
+
+'I am glad you think so, Regie,' said Lady Merrifield. 'I am thankful
+enough to wait, and hope it will be explained without spoiling the
+children's evening.'
+
+'All right,' said the visitor; 'I only hope I have not spoilt yours.'
+
+'Oh! one learns to throw things off. I shall believe it is all Flinders,
+and none of it the child's,' said Lady Merrifield, carefully avoiding
+a glance that could show her any gesture of dissent on the part of her
+sister, and only looking up for her brother's nod of approval. 'Besides,
+how foolish it would be to worry myself when I have two such protectors!
+It was very good in you, Rotherwood, I only hope we shall take good care
+of your Fly, and that her mother will be satisfied about her.'
+
+'She knew the little woman and I should have a lark together,' said he.
+'The governess was safe out of reach, holiday-making, so I could have
+her all to myself. Victoria suggested her brother's, and we must go
+there before we have done, but business and the pantomime by good luck
+took us to London first. So when I wrote to you from the bank, I also
+let her know that I was obliged to take the little woman down here
+first. I couldn't take her to High Court till Louise is available
+again.'
+
+'So much the better, I'm sure.'
+
+'And what I was going to say is, that Rotherwood has been startlingly
+munificent and splendid,' said Aunt Jane. 'We shall have a set of new
+surprises.'
+
+'I don't in the least know what I brought. I only told each of them to
+put up such a box as they sent out for Christmas concerns. Do precisely
+what you please with them.'
+
+'Come and see, Lily, for I think there will be enough to reserve a fresh
+lot of things for Miss Hacket's affair. By-the-by, Regie, did you say it
+rained at Darminster?'
+
+'Poured all the way down.'
+
+'Well, we had it quite fine.'
+
+'Was it fine here?'
+
+'Yes, certainly,' said Lady Merrifield,' or Primrose would not have gone
+out. Take care of Rotherwood, Regie. You know his room.'
+
+And the two sisters crossed the hall, where the 'very high tea' was
+being laid; hearing from the regions above sounds of exquisite glee and
+merriment, as perfect and almost as inexpressive of anything else as the
+singing of birds, so that they themselves could not help answering with
+a laugh, before they vanished into the chamber of mystery.
+
+Indeed, Phyllis's conversation was like a fairy tale. Her brother's
+illness, which was not enough to damp any one's spirits, had prevented
+or hindered a grand children's party as the Butterfly's Ball, where she
+was to have been the Butterfly, and Lord Ivinghoe the Grasshopper, and
+all the children were to appear as one of the characters in Roscoe's
+pretty poem. Never was anything more delightful to the imagination of
+the little cousins, and they could not marvel enough at her seeming so
+little uneasy about anything so charming, and quite ready and eager
+to throw herself headlong into all their present enjoyments, making
+wonderful surmises as to the mystery in preparation.
+
+Dolores heard the laughing, and it did not suit with her vaguely uneasy
+and injured frame of mind; feeling dreadfully lonely too, as she came
+downstairs, dressed for the evening, but not knowing where to go, for
+the dining-room was engrossed, the schoolroom was dark and the fire out,
+the drawing-room occupied by the two gentlemen. She crouched down in
+one of the big arm-chairs on either side of the hearth in the hall, and
+began to read by the firelight. Presently Jasper came in from his ride,
+and began taking off his greatcoat, leggings, and boots, whistling as he
+did so, then, perceiving the tempting object of a black leg sticking out
+of the chair, he stole up across the soft carpet, and caught hold of the
+ankle. He received a vigorous kick in return (which perhaps he expected)
+but what he did not expect was the black figure that rose up in outraged
+dignity and indignation. 'For shame! I won't be insulted!'
+
+'Whew! I thought 'twas Val! I beg your pardon.'
+
+'I shall ask my aunt if I am to be insulted.'
+
+'Well, if you choose to take it in that way--A man can't do more than
+beg pardon! I'm sure I would never have presumed to touch you if I had
+known it was your Dolorousness.'
+
+And he turned to walk away, just as the babbling ripple of laughter
+began to flow downstairs, and a whole mass of little girls intertwined
+together was descending. 'I always hop,' said a voice new to him,
+'except on the great staircase, and mother doesn't like it there. But
+this is such a jolly stair. Can't you hop?'
+
+Hopping in a threefold embrace on a slippery stair was hardly a safe
+pastime, and before Jasper had time to utter more than' Holloa there!
+take care!' there descended suddenly on him an avalanche of little
+girls, 'knocking him off his feet, so that all promiscuously rolled down
+two or three steps together. Fergus and Primrose, who had somehow been
+holding on behind,' remained upright, but nevertheless screaming. The
+shrieks of the fallen were, however, laughter. There was a soft rug
+below, and by the time the gentlemen had rushed out of the dining-room,
+and the ladies from the curtained recess, giggling below and legs above
+were chiefly apparent.
+
+'Any one hurt?' was of course Lady Merrifield's cry.
+
+'Oh no, mamma. Only we are so mixed up we can't get up,' called out
+Mysie.
+
+'Is this arm you or me?' exclaimed Phyllis, following up the joke.
+
+'Come, sort yourselves, ladies and gentlemen,' said Lord Rotherwood.
+'What's this, a Fly's wing?'
+
+'No, it's mine,' cried Val, as his hand pulled her out, and the others
+extricated themselves, still laughing, go that they could hardly stand,
+and Fly declaring, 'Oh, daddy, daddy, it is such fun! I am so glad we
+came,' and taking a gratuitous leap into the air.
+
+'Every one to her taste,' said Lady Merrifield, 'I congratulate those to
+whom a compound tumble-down-stairs is felicity.'
+
+'She has found her congenial element, you see,' said her father, as the
+elders proceeded upstairs to their toilette.' 'Tis laughing-gas with her
+to be with other children, and the most laughingest of all are naturally
+yours, old Lily.'
+
+Meanwhile Jasper, risen on his stocking soles, looked all over at the
+little figure, dressed old picture fashion, in the simplest white frock
+with blue sash, and short-cut hair tied back with blue.
+
+'Well, you are a jolly little girl,' he said, 'and a cool customer, too!
+What do you mean by knocking a fellow over the first time you see him?'
+
+'And what do you mean by coming like a great--huge--big elephant in our
+way to stop up the stairs?' demanded Fly, in return.
+
+'Do you mean to insinivate that 'twas I that made you fall?' said
+Jasper--'I, that was quietly walking up the stairs, when down there came
+on me a shower--not cats and dogs, but worserer, far worserer! Why, I'm
+kilt! my nose is flat as a pancake, I shan't recover my beauty all the
+evening for the great swells that are coming.'
+
+'Jasper, Japs,' called his mother's warning voice, 'you must come up and
+dress, for tea is going in.'
+
+He obeyed, rushing two steps at a time; but meeting, at the bottom of
+the attic flight, his sister Gillian, he demanded, 'Gill, what awfully
+jolly little girl have they got down there?'
+
+'Why, Fly, of course, Lady Phyllis Devereux--'
+
+'No, no, nothing swell, a comical little soul, with no nonsense about
+her, in a white thing.'
+
+'Well, that's Phyllis. There's no one else there.'
+
+'I say. Gill, 'tis like sunshine and clouds. She and the other, I mean.
+Why, I gave a little pull to a foot I saw in the armchair, thinking
+it belonged to Val, and out breaks my Lady of the Rueful Countenance,
+vowing she'll complain that I've insulted her; and as to the other, the
+whole lot of them tumbled over me together on the stairs, and she did
+nothing but laugh and chaff.'
+
+'I hope she is not a romp,' said the staid Gillian, sagely, as she went
+downstairs.
+
+But on that score she was soon satisfied. Phyllis Devereux was a
+thorough little lady, wild and merry as she was, and enchanted to be
+in the rare fairyland of child companionship. And that indeed she
+had, Mysie and Valetta, between whose ages she stood, hung to
+her inseparably, and Jasper was quite transformed from his grim
+superciliousness into her devoted knight. At tea-time there was a
+competition for the seats next to her, determined by Valetta's taking
+one side, in right of the birthday, and Jasper the other, because he
+secured it, and Mysie gave way to him because he was Japs, and she
+always did. While Dolores laid up a store of moralizings on the
+adulation paid to the little lady of title, and at the same time
+speculated what concatenation of circumstances could ever make her Lady
+Dolores Mohun. On the whole, it would be more likely that her father
+should gain a peerage by putting down a Fijian rebellion than that it
+should be discovered that his mother, Lady Emily, had been the true
+heiress of the marquessate, and even so, an uncomfortable number of
+people must be disposed of before it could come to him. She had one
+consolation, however, for Uncle Reginald, always kind to her, was
+particularly affectionate this evening, as if he would not have that
+little foolish Fly set up before her.
+
+The tea and the tree both went off joyously. There is no need to
+describe the spectacle to folks who can count their Christmas-trees by
+the years of their life and the memorable part of this one was that much
+of the fruit that had been left hanging on it was now metamorphosed
+into something much more gorgeous--oranges had become eggs full of
+sugar-plums, gutta-percha monkeys grinned on the branches, golden
+flowers had sprung to life on the ends of the twigs, a lovely jewel-like
+lantern crowned the whole, and as to sweets, everybody--servants and
+all--had some delightful devices containing them, whether drum, bird, or
+bird's nest.
+
+Before the distribution was over, it was observed that Aunt Jane and
+Uncle Reginald, also Harry, had vanished from the scene. There was a
+pause, during which such tapers as began to burn perilously low, were
+extinguished, an operation as delightful apparently as the fixing them.
+Presently a horn was heard, and a start or shudder of mysterious ecstasy
+pervaded the audience, as a tall figure came through the curtains, and
+announced:
+
+'Ladies and gentlemen, I have the honour to inform you that a fresh
+discovery has been made in the secret chambers of the Pyramid of Chops,
+otherwise known as Te-Gun-Ter-ra. A mummy has been disinterred, which
+is about to be opened by the celebrated Egyptologist, Herr Professor
+Freudigfeldius, who has likewise discovered the means of making such
+a conjuration of the Sphynx that she will not only summon each of the
+present company by name, but will require of each of them to reply to a
+question. The penalty of a refusal is well known!'
+
+Therewith the curtains were drawn back, and a scene was presented which
+made some of the spectators start. Behind was the semblance of a wall
+marked with the joints of large stones, and lighted (apparently) with
+two brass lamps. On the floor lay extended an enormous mummy, with the
+regulation canvas case, and huge flaps of ears, between which appeared
+a small, painted face, and below lay a long, gaily coloured scroll in
+hieroglyphics. Exalted stiffly in a seat placed on a seeming block of
+stone, was a figure, with elbows, as it were glued to its sides, and
+hands crossed, altogether stone-coloured and monumental, and with the
+true Sphynx head, surrounded with beetles, lizards, and other mystic
+creatures (very chocolate-coloured). And beside her stood the Herr
+Professor, in a red fez, long dark gown, and spectacles, a flowing
+beard concealing the rest of his face. How delightful to see such an
+Egyptologist! Even though one perfectly knew the family beard and
+fez; also that the gown was papa's old dressing-gown, captured for the
+theatrical wardrobe. And how grand to hear him speak, even though his
+broken English continually became more vernacular.
+
+'Liebes Herrschaft,' he began, 'I would, nobles, gentry, and ladies say.
+You here see the embalmed rests of the celebrated monarch Nic-nac-ci-no.
+Lately up have I them graben, and likewise his tutelar Sphynx have
+found, and have even to give signs of animation compelled.'
+
+Touching the effigy with his wand, she emitted certain growls and
+hisses, which made Primrose hide her face in alarm at anything so
+uncanny, and Lord Rotherwood observe--
+
+'Nearly related to the cat-goddess Pasht; I thought so.'
+
+'There was something of the lion or cat in the Sphynx,' said Gillian,
+gravely, while the three little girls clasped each other's hands with
+delightful thrills of awe and expectation.
+
+'Observe,' continued the Professor, 'the outer case with the features of
+the deceased is painted. I should conclude that King Nic-nac, etcetera,
+had been of a peculiarly jolly--I mean frolich--nature, judging by the
+grin on his face. We proceed--'
+
+As he laid his hand on the wrapper, the Sphynx gave utterance to sounds
+so like the bad language of a cat that some looked round for one. The
+Professor waved at her, and she subsided. He turned back the covering,
+and demanded, 'Will the amiable Fraulein there. Mademoiselle Valetta,
+come and see what treasures she can discover in the secrets of the
+tomb?'
+
+Val, who in right of her birthday, had expected the first call, jumped
+up, but the Sphynx made awful noises as she advanced, and the Professor
+explained that she would have to answer the Sphynx's question first.
+
+'But I don't know Egyptian,' she observed.
+
+'Never mind, it will sound like English.'
+
+It did so, for it was, 'How many months old art thou, maiden?'
+
+Val's arithmetic was slightly scared. She clasped her hand nervously,
+and was indebted to the Professor for the sotto voce hint, 'twelve
+nines,' before she uttered 'a hundred and eight.'
+
+The Sphynx relapsed into stoniness, and the Herr Professor guided the
+hands, which trembled a little, to the interior of the mummy, whence
+they drew out a basket, labelled (wonderful to relate) 'Val,'
+and containing--oh! such treasures, a blue egg full of needlework
+implements, a new book, an Indian ivory case, a skipping-rope, a
+shuttlecock, and other delights past description. The exhibition of them
+was only beginning when the Professor called for Primrose, who was too
+much frightened to come alone, and therefore was permitted to be brought
+by Mrs. Halfpenny. The Sphynx was particularly amiable on this occasion,
+and only asked 'When Primroses came?' and as the little one, in her shy
+fright did not reply, nurse did so, with, 'Come, missie, can't you find
+a word to tell that mamma's Primrose came in spring.' This was allowed
+to pass, and Mrs. Halfpenny bore off her child, clutching a doll's
+cradle, stuffed with pretty things, and for herself a bundle wrapped up
+in a shawl from Sir Jasper himself.
+
+After Primrose was gone to bed, the Sphynx became much more ill-tempered
+and demonstrative, snarling considerably at the approach of some of
+the party, some of whom replied with convulsive laughter, some, such
+as Jasper, with demonstrations of 'poking up the Sphynx.' She had a
+question for everybody--Fly was asked, 'Which was best, a tree or a
+Butterfly's ball?' and answered, with truthful politeness, that where
+Mysie and Val were was best of all. She carried off a collection that
+had hastily been made of Indian curiosities, photographs of her two
+friends, and a book; and her father, after being asked, 'What was
+the best of insects?' and replying, 'On the whole, I think it is my
+housefly, even when she isn't a butterfly,' received a letter-weight
+of brass, fashioned like an enormous fly, which Lady Merrifield had
+snatched up from the table for the purpose. The maids giggled at the
+well-known conundrums proposed to them, and Dolores had a very easy
+question--' What was the weather this day week?'
+
+'A horrid wet day,' she promptly answered, and found herself endowed
+with a parcel containing some of the best presents of all, bangles from
+the Indian box, a beautiful pair of stork-like scissors, a writing-case,
+etc.
+
+'The Sphynx's invention is running low,' observed Jasper to Gillian,
+when the creature put the same question about last week's weather to
+Herbert, the page-boy, as a prelude to his discovering the treasures of
+the mummy, as a knife and an umbrella. His view of the weather was that
+it was 'A fine day ma'am! yes, a fine day.'
+
+Macrae came last, and the Sphynx asked him which of the two contrary
+views was right.
+
+'It was fine, ma'am, that I know. For I walked down with nurse, and
+little Miss Primrose into Silverton, to help to carry her in case she
+was tired, and we never had occasion to put up an umbrella.'
+
+Wherewith Macrae received his combination of gifts and retired; the
+mummy being completely rifled, and the construction of the body, a frame
+of light, open wicker-work, revealed. Aunt Jane had had it made at the
+basketmaker's, while as to the head and covering, her own ingenious
+fingers had painted and fashioned them. Everybody had to look at
+everybody's presents, a lengthened operation, and then there was a
+splendid game at blindman's-buff in the hall, in which all the elders
+joined, except mamma, who had to go and sit in the nursery with the
+restless and excited Primrose while Mrs. Halfpenny and Lots went down to
+the servants' festivity.
+
+When she came down again, it was to quiet the tempest of merriment,
+and send off the younger folks in succession to bed, till only the four
+elders and Hal remained on the scene, waiting till there was reason to
+think the household would be ready for prayers.
+
+'It was Dolores that you saw at Darminster, Reginald,' said Miss Mohun,
+quietly.
+
+'You Sphynx woman, how do you know?'
+
+'You said it was raining at Darminster.'
+
+'Yes, that it was, everywhere beyond the tunnel through the Darfield
+hills.'
+
+'Exactly, I know they make a line in the rainfall. Well, here it was
+dry, but Dolores called it a wet day.'
+
+'Now I call that too bad, Jane, to lay a trap for the poor child in the
+game,' cried Colonel Mohun, just as if they had still been boy and girl
+together.
+
+'It was to satisfy my own mind,' she said, colouring a little. 'I didn't
+want any one to act on it. Indeed, I think there will be no occasion.'
+
+'Besides,' he added, 'it is nothing to go upon! No doubt, if it wasn't
+raining, it was the next thing to it here, and bow was she to recollect
+at this distance of time? I won't have her caught out in that way!'
+
+'I am glad she has a champion, Regie,' said Lady Merrifield. 'Here come
+the servants.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. -- A CYPHER AND A TY.
+
+
+
+Dolores was coming down to breakfast the next morning when Colonel
+Mohun's door opened. He exclaimed, 'My little Dolly, good morning!'
+stooped down and kissed her.
+
+Then, standing still a moment, and holding her hand, he said--
+
+'Dolly, it was not you I saw at Darminster station?'
+
+It was a terrible shock. Some one, no doubt, was trying to set him
+against her. And should she betray Constance and her uncle? At any rate,
+almost before she knew what she was saying, 'No, Uncle Regie,' was out
+of her mouth, and her conscience was being answered with 'How do I know
+it was me that he saw? these fur capes are very common.'
+
+'I thought not,' he answered, kindly. 'Look here, Dolly, I want one word
+with you. Did your father ever leave anything in charge with you for Mr.
+Flinders? Did he ever speak to you about him?'
+
+'Never,' Dolores truly answered.
+
+'Because, my dear, though it's a hard thing to say, and your poor mother
+felt bound to him, he is a slippery fellow--a scamp, in fact, and if
+ever he writes to you here, you had better send the letter straight off
+to me, and I'll see what's to be done. He never has, I suppose?'
+
+'No,' said Dolores, answering the word here, and foolishly feeling the
+involvement too great, and Constance too much concerned in it for her
+to confess to her uncle what had really happened. Indeed, the first
+falsehood held her to the second; and there was no more time, for Lord
+Rotherwood was coming out of his room further down the passage. And
+after the greetings, as she went downstairs before the two gentlemen,
+she was sure she heard Uncle Regie say, 'She's all right.' What could it
+mean? Was a storm averted? or was it brewing? Could that spiteful Aunt
+Jane and her questions about the weather be at the bottom of it?
+
+The fun that was going on at breakfast seemed a mere roar of folly to
+her, and she had an instinct of nothing but getting away to Constance.
+She soon found that there would be opportunity enough, for the tree was
+to be taken down in a barrow, and all the youthful world was to carry
+down the decorations in baskets, and help to put them on. She dashed off
+among the first to put on her things, and then was disappointed to
+find that first all the pets were to be fed and shown off to Fly, who
+appreciated them far more than she had done--knew how to lay hold of a
+rabbit, nursed the guinea-pigs and puppies in turn, and was rapturous in
+her acceptance of two young guinea-pigs and one puppy.
+
+'I can keep them up in daddy's dressing-room while we are at High Court,
+and it will be such fun,' she said.
+
+'Will he let you?' asked Gillian, in some doubt.
+
+'Oh! daddy will always let me, and so will Griffin--his man, you know,
+only we left him in London because daddy said he would be in your
+butler's way, but I can't think why. Griffin would have helped about the
+tree and learnt to make a mummy when we have our party. Louise would not
+let me have them in the nursery, I know, but daddy and Griffin would,
+and I could go and feed them in the morning before breakfast. Griffin
+would get me bran! That is, if we do go to High Court; I wish we were to
+stay on here. There's nobody to play with at High Court, and grandpapa
+always keeps daddy talking politics, so that I can hardly ever get him!
+Mysie, whatever do you do with your father away in India?'
+
+'Yes, it is horrid. But then, there's mamma,' said Mysie, whispering,
+however, as she saw Dolores near, and feared to hurt her feelings.
+
+'Ah!' said Fly, with a tender little shake of her head; ''tis worse for
+her to have no mother at all! Is that why she looks so sad?'
+
+'Cross' is the word,' said Wilfred. 'I can't think what she is come
+bothering down here for!'
+
+'Oh! for shame, Wilfred!' said Fly. 'You should be sorry for her.' And
+she went up to Dolores, and by way of doing the kindest thing in the
+world, said--
+
+'Here's my new puppy. Is not he a dear? I'll let you hold him,' and she
+attempted to deposit the fat, curly, satiny creature in Dolores's arms,
+which instantly hung down stiff, as she answered, half in fright, 'I
+hate dogs!' The puppy fell down with a flop, and began to squeak, while
+the girls, crying, 'Oh! Dolly, how could you!' and 'Poor little pup!'
+all crowded round in pity and indignation, and Wilfred observed, 'I told
+you so!'
+
+'You'll get no change but that out of the Lady of the Rueful
+Countenance,' said Jasper.
+
+Mysie had for once nothing to say in Dolores's defence, being equally
+hurt for Fly's sake and the puppy's. Dolores found herself virtually
+sent to Coventry, as she accompanied the party across the paddock,
+only just near enough to benefit by their protection from the herd of
+half-grown calves which were there disporting themselves; and, as if to
+make the contrast still more provoking, Fly, who had a natural affinity
+for all animals, insisted on trying to attract them, calling, 'Sukkey!
+sukkey!' and hold out bunches of grass, in vain, for they only galloped
+away, and she could only explain how tame those at home were, and how
+she went out farming with daddy whenever he had time, and mother and
+Fraulein would let her out.
+
+The tree meantime came trundling down, a wonderful spectacle, with all
+its gilt balls and fir-cones nodding and dangling wildly, and its other
+embellishments turning upside down. There were greetings of delight at
+Casement Cottage, and Miss Hacket had kissed everybody all round before
+Gillian had time to present the new-comer, and then the good lady was
+shocked at her own presumption, and exclaimed--
+
+'I beg your ladyship's pardon! Dear me! I had no notion who it was!'
+
+'Then please kiss me again now you do know!' said Fly, holding up her
+funny little face to that very lovable kind one, and they were all soon
+absorbed in the difficulty of getting the tree in at the front door, and
+setting it up in the room that had been prepared for it.
+
+Dolores had hoped to confide her alarms to Constance's sympathetic
+ear, but her friend, who had written and dreamt of many a magnificently
+titled scion of the peerage, but had never before seen one in her own
+house, had not a minute to spare for her, being far too much engrossed
+in observing the habits of the animal. These certainly were peculiar,
+since she insisted on a waltz round the room with the tabby cat, and
+ascended a step-ladder, merrily spurning Jasper's protection, to insert
+the circle of tapers on the crowning chandelier. There was nothing left
+for Dolores to do but to sit by in the window-seat, philosophizing on
+the remarkable effects of a handle to one's name, and feeling cruelly
+neglected.
+
+Suddenly she saw a fly coming up to the gate. There was a general
+peeping and wondering. Then Uncle Reginald and a stranger got out and
+came up to the door. There was a ring--everybody paused and wondered for
+a moment; then the maid tapped at the door and said, 'Would Miss Mohun
+come and speak to Colonel Mohun a minute in the drawing-room?'
+
+There was a hush of dread throughout the room. 'Ah!' sighed Miss Hacket,
+looking at Gillian, and all the elders thought without saying that some
+terrible news of her father had to be told to the poor child. They let
+her go, frightened at the summons, but that idea not occurring to her.
+
+'There!' said Uncle Regie, 'she can set it straight. Don't be
+frightened, my dear; only tell this gentleman whether that is your
+writing.'
+
+The stranger held a strip so that she could only just see 'Dolores M.
+Mohun,' and she unhesitatingly answered 'Yes'--very much surprised.
+
+'You are sure?' said her uncle, in a tone of disappointment that made
+her falter, as she added, 'I think so.' At the same time the stranger
+turned the paper round, and she knew it for the cheque that had so
+long resided in her desk, but with dilated eyes, she exclaimed,
+'But--but--that was for seven pounds!'
+
+'That,' said the stranger, 'then, Miss Mohun, you know this draft?'
+
+'Only it was for seven,' repeated Dolores.
+
+'You mean, I conclude, that it was drawn for seven pounds, and that it
+was still for seven when it left your handy?'
+
+'Yes,' muttered Dolores, who was beginning to get very much frightened,
+at she knew not what, and to feel on her guard at all points.
+
+'There's nothing to be afraid of, my dear,' said Uncle Reginald,
+tenderly; 'nobody suspects you of anything. Only tell us. Did your
+father give you this paper?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'And when did you cash it?' asked the clerk.
+
+Dolores hung her head. 'I didn't,' she said.
+
+'But how did it get out of your possession?' said her uncle. 'You are
+sure this is your own writing at the back. It could surely not have been
+stolen from her?' he added to the stranger.
+
+'That could hardly be,' said that person. 'Miss Mohun, you had better
+speak out. To whom did you give this cheque?'
+
+There was a whirl of terror all round about Dolores, a horror of
+bringing herself first, then Uncle Alfred, Constance, and everybody else
+into trouble. She took refuge in uttering not a word.
+
+'Dolores,' said her uncle, and his tone was now much more grave and less
+tender, thus increasing her terror; 'this silence is of no use. Did you
+give this cheque to Mr. Flinders?'
+
+In the silence, the ticks of the clock on the mantel-piece seemed like a
+hammer beating on her ears. Dolores thought of the morning's flat denial
+of all intercourse with Flinders! Then the word give occurred to her
+as a loophole, and her mind did not embrace all the consequences of
+the denial, she only saw one thing at a time, 'I didn't give it,' she
+answered, almost inaudibly.
+
+'You did not give it?' repeated her uncle, getting angry and speaking
+loud. 'Then how did it get into his hands? Is there no truth in you?' he
+added, after a pause, which only terrified her more and more. 'Whom did
+you give it to?'
+
+'Constance!' The word came out she hardly knew how, as something which
+at least was true. Colonel Mohun knocked at the door of the room she
+had come from. It was instantly opened, and Miss Hacket began, 'The poor
+dear! Can I get anything for her, I am sure it is a terrible shock!'
+and as he stood, astonished, Gillian added, 'Oh! I see it isn't that. We
+were afraid it was something about Uncle Maurice.'
+
+'No, my dear, no such thing. Only would Miss Constance Hacket be kind
+enough to come here a minute?'
+
+'Oh! My apron! My fingers! Excuse me for being such a figure!' Constance
+ran on, as Colonel Mohun made her come across to the room opposite,
+where she looked about her in amazement. Was the stranger a publisher
+about to make her an offer for the 'Waif of the Moorland.' But Dolores's
+down-cast attitude and set, sullen face forbade the idea.
+
+'Miss Constance Hacket,' said the colonel, 'here is an uncomfortable
+matter in which we want your assistance. Will you kindly answer a
+question or two from Mr. Ellis, the manager of the.... Bank?'
+
+Then the manager politely asked her if she had seen the cheque before.
+
+'Yes--why--what's wrong about it? Oh! It is for seventy! Why, Dolores, I
+thought it was only for seven?'
+
+'It was for seven when you parted with it, then, Miss Hacket,' said the
+manager; 'let me ask whether you changed it yourself?'
+
+'No,' she said, 'I sent it to--' and there she came to a dead pause, in
+alarm.
+
+'Did you send it to Mr. Alfred Flinders?' said Mr. Ellis.
+
+'Yes--oh!' another little scream, 'He can't have done it. He can't be
+such a villain! Your own uncle, Dolores.'
+
+'He is no uncle of Dolores Mohun!' said the colonel. 'He is only the son
+of her mother's step-mother by her first marriage.'
+
+'Oh, Dolores, then you deceived me!' exclaimed Constance; 'you told
+me he was your own uncle, or I would never--and oh! my fifteen pounds.
+Where is he?'
+
+'That, madam,' said Mr. Ellis, gravely, 'I hope the police may discover.
+He has quitted Darminster after having cashed this cheque for seventy
+pounds. We have already telegraphed to the police to be on the look out
+for him, but I much fear that it will be too late.'
+
+'Oh! my fifteen pounds! What shall I do? Oh, Dolores, how could you? I
+shall never trust any one again!'
+
+Perhaps Uncle Reginald felt the same, but he only darted a look upon his
+niece, which she felt in every nerve, though to his eyes she only stood
+hard and stolid. The manager, who found Constance's torrent of words
+as hard to deal with as Dolores's silence, asked for pen and ink, and
+begged to take down Miss Hacket's statement to lay before a magistrate
+in case of Flinders's apprehension. It was not very easy to keep her
+to the point, especially as her chief interest was in her own fifteen
+pounds, of which Mr. Ellis only would say that she could prosecute the
+man for obtaining money on false pretences, and this she trusted meant
+getting it back again. As to the cheque in question, she told how
+Dolores had entrusted it to her to send to her supposed uncle, Mr.
+Flinders, to whom it had been promised the day they went to Darminster,
+and she was quite ready to depose that when it left her hands, it was
+only for seven pounds.
+
+This was all that the bank manager wanted. He thanked her, told Colonel
+Mohun they should hear from him, and went off in a hurry, both to
+communicate with the police, and to leave the young ladies to be dealt
+with by their friends, who, he might well suppose, would rather that he
+removed himself.
+
+'Put on your hat, Dolores,' said Colonel Mohun, gravely; 'you had better
+come home with me! Miss Hacket, excuse me, but I am afraid I must ask
+whether you have been assisting in a correspondence between my niece and
+this Flinders?'
+
+'Oh! Colonel Mohun, you will believe me, I was quite deceived. Dolores
+represented that he was her uncle, to whom she was much attached,
+and that Lady Merrifield separated her from him out of mere family
+prejudice.'
+
+'I am afraid you have paid dearly for your sympathy,' said the colonel.
+'It certainly led you far when you assisted your friend to deceive the
+aunt who trusted you with her.'
+
+The movement that was taking place seemed like licence to that roomful,
+burning with curiosity to break out. Mysie was running after Dolores to
+ask if she could do anything for her, but Colonel Mohun called her back
+with 'Not now, Mysie.' Miss Hacket came forward with agitated hopes that
+nothing was amiss, and, at sight of her, Constance collapsed quite. 'Oh,
+Mary,' she cried out, 'I have been so deceived! Oh! that man!' and she
+sunk upon a chair in a violent fit of crying, which alarmed Miss Hacket
+so dreadfully that she looked imploringly up to Colonel Mohun. He
+had meant to have left Miss Constance to explain, but he saw it was
+necessary to relieve the poor elder sister's mind from worse fears by
+saying, 'I am afraid it is my niece who deceived her, by leading her
+into forwarding letters and money to a person who calls himself a
+relation. He seems to have been guilty of a forgery, which may have
+unpleasant consequences. Children, I think you had better follow us
+home.'
+
+Dolores had come down by this time, and Colonel Mohun walked home, at
+some paces from her, very much as if he had been guarding a criminal
+under arrest. Poor Uncle Reginald! He had put such absolute trust in the
+two answers she had made him in the morning; and had been so sure of her
+good faith, that when the manager brought word that the cheque had
+been traced to Flinders, who had absconded, he still held that it was
+a barefaced forgery, entirely due to Flinders himself, and that Dolores
+could show that she had no knowledge of it, and he had gone down in the
+fly expecting to come home triumphant, and confute his sister Jane,
+who persisted in being mournfully sagacious. And he was indignant in
+proportion to the confidence he had misplaced; grieved, too, for his
+brother's sake, and absolutely ashamed.
+
+Once he asked, when they were within the paddock, out of the way of
+meeting any one, 'Have you nothing to say to me, Dolores?'
+
+It was not said in a manner to draw out an answer, and she made none at
+all.
+
+Again he spoke, as they came near the house:
+
+'You had better go up to your room at once. I do not know how to think
+of the blow this will be to your father.'
+
+It was so entirely what Dolores was thinking of, that it seemed to
+her barbarous to tell her of it In fact she was stunned, scarcely
+understanding what had happened, and too proud and miserable to ask for
+an explanation, for had not every one turned against her, even Uncle
+Reginald and Constance--and what had happened to that cheque?
+
+She did not see Uncle Reginald turn into the drawing-room, and letting
+himself drop despairingly into an armchair, say, 'Well, Jane, you were
+right, more's the pity!'
+
+'She really gave him the cheque!'
+
+'Yes, but at least it was only for seven. The rascal himself must have
+altered it into seventy. She and the other girl both agree as to that.
+There's been a clandestine correspondence going on with that scamp
+ever since she has been here, under cover to that precious friend of
+hers--that Hacket girl.'
+
+'Ah! you warned me, Jenny,' said Lady Merrifield 'But I'm quite sure
+Miss Hacket knew nothing of it.'
+
+'I don't suppose she did. She seemed struck all of a heap. Any way
+they've quarrelled now; the other one has turned King's evidence--has
+lost some money too, and says Dolores deceived her. She's deceived every
+one all round, that's the fact. Why she told me two flat lies this very
+morning--lies--there's no other name for it. What will you do with her,
+Lily?'
+
+'I don't know,' said Lady Merrifield, utterly shocked, and recollecting,
+but not mentioning, the falsehood told to her about the note. Lord
+Rotherwood said, 'Poor child,' and Colonel Mohun groaned, 'Poor
+Maurice.'
+
+'Then she did go to Darminster?' said Miss Mohun.
+
+'Yes; that came out from this Miss Constance, who seems to have been
+properly taken in about some publishing trash. Serve her right! But
+it seems Dolores beguiled her with stories about her dear uncle in
+distress. We left her nearly in hysterics, and I told the children to
+come away.'
+
+'What does Dolores say?' asked Jane.
+
+'Nothing! I could not get a word out of her after the first surprise at
+the alteration of the cheque. Not a word nor a tear. She is as hard--as
+hard as a bit of stone.'
+
+'Really,' said Lady Merrifield, 'I can't help thinking there's a good
+deal of excuse for her.'
+
+'What? That poor Maurice's wife was half a heathen, and afterwards the
+girl was left to chance?' said Colonel Mohun. 'I see no other. And you,
+Lily, are the last person I should expect to excuse untruth.'
+
+'I did not mean to do that, Regie; but you all say that poor Mary was
+fond of this man and helped him.'
+
+'That she did!' said Lord Rotherwood, 'and very much against the grain
+it went with Maurice.'
+
+'Then don't you see that this poor child, who probably never had the
+matter explained to her, may have felt it a great hardship to be cut off
+from the man her mother taught her to care for; and that may have led
+her into concealments?'
+
+'Well!' said Colonel Mohun, 'at that rate, at least one may be thankful
+never to have married.'
+
+'One--or two, Regie?' said Jane, as they all laughed at his sally. 'I
+think I had better go up and see whether I can get anything out of
+the child. Do you mean to have her down to dinner, Lily,' she added,
+glancing at the clock.
+
+'Oh yes, certainly. I don't want to put her to disgrace before all the
+children and servants--that is, if she is not crying herself out of
+condition to appear, poor child.'
+
+'Not she,' said Uncle Reginald.
+
+On opening the door, the children were all discovered in the hall, in
+anxious curiosity, not venturing in uncalled, but very much puzzled.
+
+Gillian came forward and said, 'Mamma, may we know what is the matter?'
+
+'I hardly understand it myself yet, my dear, only that Dolores and
+Constance Hacket have let themselves be taken in by a sort of relation
+of Dolores's mother, and Uncle Maurice has lost a good deal of money
+through it. It would not have happened if there had been fair and
+upright dealing towards me; but we do not know the rights of it, and you
+had better take no notice of it to her.'
+
+'I thought,' said Valetta, sagaciously, 'no good could come of running
+after that stupid Miss Constance.'
+
+'Who can't pull a cracker, and screams at a daddy long-legs,' added
+Fergus.
+
+'But, mamma, what shall we do?' said Gillian. 'I came away because Uncle
+Regie told us, and Constance was crying so terribly; but what is poor
+Miss Hacket to do? There is the tree only half dressed, and all the
+girls coming to-night, unless she puts them off.'
+
+'Yes, you had better go down alone as soon as dinner is over, and see
+what she would like,' said Lady Merrifield. 'We must not leave her in
+the lurch, as if we cast her off, though I am afraid Constance has been
+very foolish in this matter. Oh, Gillian, I wish we could have made
+Dolores happier amongst us, and then this would not have happened.'
+
+'She would never let us, mamma,' said Gillian.
+
+But Mysie, coming up close to her mother as they all went up the broad
+staircase to prepare for the midday meal, confessed in a grave little
+voice, 'Mamma, I think I have sometimes been cross to Dolly-more lately,
+because it has been so very tiresome.'
+
+Lady Merrifield drew the little girl into her own room, stooped down,
+and kissed her, saying, 'My dear child, these things need a great deal
+of patience. You will have to be doubly kind and forbearing now, for she
+must be very unhappy, and perhaps not like to show it. You might say
+a little prayer for her, that God will help us to be kind to her, and
+soften her heart.'
+
+'Oh yes, mamma; and, please, will you set it down for me?'
+
+'Yes, my dear, and for myself too. You shall have it before bed-time.'
+
+Aunt Jane had followed Dolores to her own room the girl, who was sitting
+on her bed, dazed, regretted that she had not bolted her door, as her
+aunt entered with the words, 'Oh, Dolores, I am very sorry I could not
+have thought you would so have abused the confidence that was placed in
+you.'
+
+To this Dolores did not answer. To her mind she was the person ill-used
+by the prohibition of correspondence, but she could not say so. Every
+one was falling on her; but Aunt Jane's questions could not well help
+being answered.
+
+'What will your father think of if?'
+
+'He never forbade me to write to Uncle Alfred' said Dolores.
+
+'Because he never thought of your doing such a thing. Did he give you
+this cheque?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'For yourself?'
+
+'N-n-o. But it was the same.'
+
+'What do you mean by that?'
+
+'It was to pay a man--a man's that's dead.'
+
+'That may be; but what right did that give you to spend the money
+otherwise? Who was the man?'
+
+'Professor Muhlwasser, for some books of plates.'
+
+'How do you know he is dead! Who told you so? Eh! Was it Flinders? Ah!
+you see what comes of trusting to an unprincipled man like that. If you
+had only been open and straightforward with Aunt Lily, or with any of
+us, you would have been saved from this tissue of falsehood; forfeiting
+your Uncle Reginald's good opinion, and enabling Flinders to do your
+father this great injury.' She paused, and, as Dolores made no answer,
+she went on again--'Indeed, there is no saying what you have not brought
+on yourself by your deceit and disobedience. If Flinders is apprehended,
+you will have to appear against him in court, and publicly avow that you
+gave away what your father trusted to you.'
+
+Dolores gave a little moan and start, and her aunt, perceiving that she
+had touched an apparently vulnerable spot, proceeded--'The only thing
+left for you to do is to tell the whole story frankly and honestly. I
+don't say so only for the sake of showing Aunt Lily that you are sorry
+for having abused her confidence. I wish I could think that you
+are; but, unless we know all, we cannot shield you from any further
+consequences, and that of course we should wish to do, for your father's
+sake.'
+
+Dolores did not feel drawn to confession, but she knew that when Aunt
+Jane once set herself to ask questions, there was no use in trying to
+conceal anything. So she made answers, chiefly 'Yes' or No,' and her
+aunt, by severe and diligent pumping, had extracted bit by bit what
+it was most essential should be known, before the gong summoned them.
+Dolores would rather have been a solitary prisoner, able to chafe
+against oppression, than have been obliged to come down and confront
+everybody; but she crept into the place left for her between Mysie and
+Wilfred. She had very little appetite, and never found out how Mysie
+was fulfilling her resolution of kindness by baulking Wilfred of sundry
+attempts to tease; by substituting her own kissing-crust for Dolly's
+more unpoetical piece of bread; and offering to exchange her delicious
+strawberry-jam tartlet for the black-currant one at which her cousin was
+looking with reluctant eyes.
+
+Mysie and Valetta were grievously exercised about their chances of
+returning to the G.F.S. Tree. Indeed Gillian went the length of telling
+them that Fly was behaving far better in her disappointment as to the
+Butterfly's Ball than they were as to this 'old second-hand tree.' Fly
+laughed and observed, 'Dear me, things one would like are always being
+stopped. If one was to mind every time, how horrid it would be! And
+there's always something to make up!'
+
+Then it occurred to Gillian, though not to her younger sisters, that
+Lady Phyllis Devereux lived in general a much less indulged, and more
+frequently disappointed, life than did herself and her sisters.
+
+However, there was great delight at that dinner-table. Jasper had ridden
+to get the letters of the second post, and Lord Rotherwood had his hands
+and his head full of them when he came in to luncheon--there being what
+Lady Merrifield called a respectable dinner in view. In the first place.
+Lord Ivinghoe was getting on very well, and was up, sitting by the fire,
+playing patience. Nobody was catching the measles, and quarantine
+would be over on the 9th of January. Secondly, 'Fly, shall you be very
+broken-hearted if I tell you.'
+
+'Oh, daddy, you wouldn't look like that if it was anything very bad!
+Lion isn't dead?'
+
+'No; but I grieve to say your unnatural grand-parents don't want you!
+Grandmamma is nervous about having you without mamma. What did we do
+last time we were there, Fly?'
+
+'Don't you remember, daddy? they said there was nothing for me to ride
+to the meet, and you and Griffin put the side-saddle on Crazy Kate, and
+we went out with the hounds, and I've got the brush up in my room!'
+
+'I don't wonder grandmamma is nervous,' observed Lady Merrifield.
+
+'Will you be nervous, Lily,' said Lord Rotherwood, 'if this same flyaway
+mortal is left on your hands till the 9th?'
+
+Dinner, manners, silence before company, and all, could not repress a
+general scream of ecstacy, which called forth the reply. 'I should think
+you and her mother were the people to be nervous.
+
+'Oh! my lady has been duly instructed in Merrifield perfections, and
+esteems you a model mother.'
+
+The children's nods and smiles said 'Hear, hear!'
+
+'Well, you've got it all in her own letter,' continued Lord Rotherwood.
+'You see, they've got a caucus at High Court, and a dinner, and I must
+go up there on Monday; but if you'll keep this dangerous Fly--'
+
+'I can answer for the pleasure it will give,'
+
+'Well then, I'll come back for her by the 9th, and you've Victoria's
+letter, haven't you?'
+
+'Yes, it is very kind of her.'
+
+'Then I shall expect you to be ready to start with me for the
+Butterfly's Ball. Eh, young ladies, what will you come out as?'
+
+'Oh daddy, daddy, is it? Has mamma asked them? Oh! it is more delicious
+than anything ever was. Mysie, Mysie, what will you be?'
+
+'The sly little dormouse crept out of his hole,' quoted Mysie, in a very
+low, happy voice.
+
+'And I will be a jolly old frog,' shouted Fergus, finding the ordinance
+of silence broken and making the most of it, on the presumption that
+the whole family were invited. However, the tone, rather than the
+uncomprehended words of his mother's answer, 'Nobody asked you, sir,'
+she said, reduced him to silence, and it became understood, through
+Fly's inquiries, that the invitation included Lady Merrifield must make
+her acceptance doubtful. And besides, the question which three were
+to go was the unspoken drawback to full bliss, and yet the delight was
+exceedingly great in the prospect, great enough to make the contrast of
+gloom in poor Dolores's spirit all the darker, as she sat, left out of
+everything, and she could not now say, with absolute injustice, though
+she still clung to the belief that there was more misfortune than fault
+in her disgrace.
+
+She crept away, shivering with unhappiness, to the schoolroom, while
+the others frisked off discussing the wonderful Butterfly's Ball. Lady
+Merrifield looked in on her, and she hardened herself to endure either
+another probing or fresh reproaches, but all she heard was, 'My dear, I
+cannot talk over this sad affair now, as I have to go out. But, if you
+can, I think you had better write to your father about it, and let him
+understand exactly how it happened. Or, if you had rather write than
+speak in explaining it to me, you can do so, and we can consider
+tomorrow what is to be done about it.'
+
+Then she went out with her brother and cousin to drive to some
+Industrial schools which Lord Rotherwood wanted to see.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. -- THE BUTTERFLY'S BALL.
+
+
+
+Miss Mohun went to the Casement Cottages with Gillian to see what the
+elder Miss Hacket might wish and whether they could be of use to her;
+the young people being left to exercise themselves within call in case
+the Tree was to be continued.
+
+This proved to be an act of great kindness, for poor Mary Hacket was
+suffering all the distress of an upright and honourable woman at her
+sister's abuse of confidence; and had felt as if Colonel Mohun's summons
+to his nieces was the close of all intimacy with such an unworthy
+household. Moreover, the evenings entertainment could not be given up
+and Gillian was despatched to summon the eager assistants, while Aunt
+Jane repeated her assurances that Lady Merrifield perfectly understood
+Miss Hacket's ignorance of the doings in Constance's room--listening
+patiently even when the tender-hearted woman began to excuse her sister
+for having accepted Dolores's lamentations at being cut off from her
+so-called uncle. 'Dear Connie is so romantic, and so easily touched,'
+she said, 'though, of course, it was very wrong of her to suppose that
+Lady Merrifield could do anything harsh or unkind. She is in great grief
+now, poor darling, she feels so bitterly that her friend led her into it
+by deceiving her about the relationship and character.'
+
+This, Aunt Jane did not think the worst part of the affair, and she said
+that the girl had been brought up to call the man Uncle Alfred, and very
+possibly did not understand that he was only so by courtesy, nor that he
+was so utterly untrustworthy.
+
+'I thought so,' said Mary Hacket. 'I told Connie that such a child could
+not possibly have been a willing party to his fraud--for fraud, I fear,
+it was--Miss Mohun. Do you think there is any hope of her recovering the
+sum she advanced.'
+
+'I am afraid there is not, even if the wretched man is apprehended.'
+
+'Ah! if she had only told me what she wanted it for!'
+
+'I hope it was all her own.'
+
+'Oh, Miss Mohun, no doubt you know that two sisters living together must
+accommodate one another a little, and Connie's dress expenses, at her
+age, are necessarily more than mine. But here come the dear children,
+and we ought to dismiss all painful subjects, though I declare I am so
+nervous I hardly know what I am about.'
+
+However, by Miss Mohun's help, the good lady rose to the occasion, and
+when once busy, the trouble was thrown off, so that no guests would have
+detected how unhappy she had been in the forenoon. Constance soon
+came down, and confided to Gillian a parcel directed to Miss D. Mohun,
+containing all the notes written to her, and all the books lent to her,
+by the false friend whom she had cast off, after which she threw herself
+into the interests of the present.
+
+The London ornaments, and the residue of the gifts and bonbons, made the
+Christmas-tree a most memorable one to the G.F.S. mind.
+
+As to Fly, she fraternized to a great extent with a very small maid,
+in a very long, brown dress, and very thick boots, who did not taste
+a single bonbon, and being asked whether she understood that they were
+good to eat, replied that she was keeping them for 'our Bertie and
+Minnie;' and, on encouragement, launched into such a description of her
+charges--the blacksmith's small children--that Lady Phyllis went back,
+not without regrets that she could not be a little nurse who had done
+with school at twelve years old, and spent her days at the back of a
+perambulator.
+
+'Oh, daddy,' she said, 'I do wish you had come down; it was such lovely
+fun--the best tree I ever saw. Why wouldn't you come?'
+
+'If thirty odd years should pass over that little head of yours, my Lady
+Fly, and you should then meet with Mysie and Val, maybe you will then
+learn the reason why.'
+
+'We will recollect that in thirty years' time.'
+
+'When our children go to a Christmas-tree.'
+
+'And we sit over the fire instead.'
+
+'Oh! but should we ever not care for a dear, delightful Christmas-tree?'
+
+'If we had each other instead.'
+
+'Then we would all go still together!'
+
+'And tell our little boys and girls all about this one, and the
+Butterfly's Ball!'
+
+'Perhaps our husbands would want us, and not let us go.'
+
+'Oh! I don't want a husband. He'd be in the way. We'd send him off to
+India or somewhere, like Aunt Lily's.'
+
+'Don't, Fly; it is not at all nice to have papa away.'
+
+'Oh yes, it would be ten hundred times better if he were at home.'
+
+Such were the mingled sentiments of the triad, as they went upstairs to
+bed, linked together in their curious fashion.
+
+Some time later, a bedroom discussion of affairs was held by Lady
+Merrifield and Miss Mohun, who had not had a moment alone together all
+day, to converse upon the two versions of the disaster which the latter
+had extracted from Dolores and Constance, and which fairly agreed,
+though Constance had been by far the most voluble, and somewhat
+ungenerously violent against her former friend, at least so Lady
+Merrifield remarked.
+
+'You should take into account the authoress's disappointed vanity.'
+
+'Yes, poor thing! How he must have nattered her!'
+
+'Besides, there is the loss of the money, which, I fear, falls as
+seriously on good Miss Hacket as on the goose herself.'
+
+'Does it, indeed? That must not be. How much is it?'
+
+'Fifteen pounds; and that foolish Constance fancies that poor Dolores
+assisted in duping her. I really had to defend the girl; though I am
+just as angry myself when I watch her adamantine sullenness.'
+
+'I am the person to be angry with for having allowed the intimacy, in
+spite of your warnings, Jenny.'
+
+'You were too innocent to know what girls are made of. Oh yes, you
+are very welcome to have six of your own, but you might have six dozen
+without knowing what a girl brought up at a second-rate boarding-school
+is capable of, or what it is to have had no development of conscience.
+What shall you do? send her to school?'
+
+'After that recommendation of yours?'
+
+'I didn't propose a second-rate boarding-school, ma'am. There's a High
+School starting after the holidays at Rockstone. Let me have her, and
+send her there.'
+
+'Ada would not like it.'
+
+'Never mind Ada, I'll settle her. I would keep Dolly well up to her
+lessons, and prevent these friendships.'
+
+'I suppose you would manage her better than I have been able to do,'
+said Lady Merrifield, reluctantly. 'Yet I should like to try again; I
+don't want to let her go. Is it the old story of duty and love, Jane?
+Have I failed again through negligence and ignorance, and deceived
+myself by calling weakness and blindness love?'
+
+'You don't fail with your own, Lily. Rotherwood runs about admiring
+them, and saying he never saw a better union of freedom and obedience.
+It was really a treat to see Gillian's ways tonight; she had so much
+consideration, and managed her sisters so well.'
+
+'Ah, but there's their father! I do so dread spoiling them for him
+before he comes home; but then he is a present influence with us all the
+time.'
+
+'They would all clap their hands if I carried Dolly off.'
+
+'Yes, and that is one reason I don't want to give her up; it seems so
+sad to send Maurice's child away leaving such an impression. One thing I
+am thankful for, that it will be all over before grandmamma and Bessie
+Merrifield come.'
+
+At that moment there was a knock at the door, and a small figure
+appeared in a scarlet robe, bare feet, and dishevelled hair.
+
+'Mysie, dear child! What's the matter? who is ill?'
+
+'Oh, please come, mamma, Dolly is choking and crying in such a dreadful
+way, and I can't stop her.'
+
+'I give up, Lily. This is mother-work,' said Miss Mohun.
+
+Hurrying upstairs, Lady Merrifield found very distressing sounds issuing
+from Dolores's room; sobs, not loud, but almost strangled into a perfect
+agony of choking down by the resolute instinct, for it was scarcely
+will.
+
+'My dear, my dear, don't stop it!' she exclaimed, lifting up the girl in
+her arms. 'Let it out; cry freely; never mind. She will be better soon,
+Mysie dear. Only get me a glass of water, and find a fresh handkerchief.
+There, there, that's right!' as Dolores let herself lean on the kind
+breast, and conscious that the utmost effects of the disturbance had
+come, allowed her long-drawn sobs to come freely, and moaned as they
+shook her whole frame, though without screaming. Her aunt propped her up
+on her own bosom, parted back her hair, kissed her, and saying she was
+getting better, sent Mysie back to her bed. The first words that were
+gasped out between the rending sobs were, 'Oh! is my--he--to be tried?'
+
+'Most likely not, my dear. He has had full time to get away, and I hope
+it is so.'
+
+'But wasn't he there? Haven't they got him? Weren't they asking me about
+him, and saying I must be tried for stealing father's cheque?'
+
+'You were dreaming, my poor child. They have not taken him, and I am
+quite sure you will not be tried anyway.'
+
+'They said--Aunt Jane and Uncle Reginald and all, and 'that dreadful man
+that came--'
+
+'Perhaps they said you might have to be examined, but only if he is
+apprehended, and I fully expect that he is out of reach, so that you
+need not frighten yourself about that, my dear.'
+
+'Oh, don't go!' cried Dolores, as her aunt stirred.
+
+'No, I'm not going. I was only reaching some water for you. Let me
+sponge your face.'
+
+To this Dolores submitted gratefully, and then sighed, as if under heavy
+oppression, 'And did he really do it?'
+
+'I am afraid he must have done so.'
+
+'I never thought it. Mother always helped him.'
+
+'Yes, my dear, that made it very hard for you to know what was right to
+do, and this is a most terrible shock for you,' said her aunt, feeling
+unable to utter another reproach just then to one who had been so loaded
+with blame, and she was touched the more when Dolores moaned, 'Mother
+would have cared so much.'
+
+She answered with a kiss, was glad to find her hand still held, and
+forgot that it was past eleven o'clock.
+
+'Please, will it quite ruin father?' asked Dolores, who had not outgrown
+childish confusion about large sums of money.
+
+'Not exactly, my dear. It was more than he had in the bank, and Uncle
+Regie thinks the bankers will undertake part of the loss if he will let
+them. It is more inconvenient than ruinous.'
+
+'Ah!' There was a faintness and oppression in the sound which made
+Lady Merrifield think the girl ought not to be left, and before long,
+sickness came on. Nurse Halfpenny had to be called up, and it was one
+o'clock before there was a quiet, comfortable sleep, which satisfied the
+aunt and nurse that it was safe to repair to their own beds again.
+
+The dreary, undefined self-reproach and vague alarms, intensified by the
+sullen, reserved temper, and culminating in such a shock, alienating the
+only persons she cared for, and filling her with terror for the future,
+could not but have a physical effect, and Dolores was found on the
+morrow with a bad head-ache, and altogether in a state to be kept in
+bed, with a fire in her room.
+
+Gillian and Mysie were much impressed by the intelligence of their
+cousin's illness when they came to their mother's room on the way to
+breakfast, and Mysie turned to her sister, saying, 'There Gill, you
+see she did care, though she didn't cry like us. Being ill is more than
+crying.'
+
+'Well,' said Gillian, 'it is a good deal more than such things as you
+and Val cry for, Mysie.'
+
+'It was a trial such as you don't understand, my dears,' said Lady
+Merrifield. 'I don't, of course, excuse much that she did, but she had
+been used to see her mother make every exertion to help the man.'
+
+'That does make a difference,' said Gillian, 'but she shouldn't have
+taken her father's money. And wasn't it dreadful of Constance to smuggle
+her letters? I'm quite glad Constance gets part of the punishment.'
+
+'Certainly, that might be just, Gillian, but unfortunately the loss
+falls infinitely more heavily upon Miss Hacket, who cannot afford the
+loss at all.'
+
+'Oh dear!' cried Mysie.
+
+'I'm very sorry,' said Gillian.
+
+'And, my dear girls, in all honour and honesty, we must make it up to
+her.'
+
+'Can't we save it out of our allowance?' said Mysie.
+
+'Sixpence a month from you, a shilling perhaps from Gill, how long would
+that take? No, my dear girls, I am going to put you to a heavy trial.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, don't!' cried Gillian, seeing what she was driving at.
+'Don't give up the Butterfly's Ball.'
+
+'Oh, don't!' implored Mysie, tears starting in her eyes. 'We never saw a
+costume ball, and Fly wishes it so.'
+
+'And I thought you had promised,' said Gillian.
+
+'Cousin Rotherwood assumes that I did; but I did not really accept.
+I told him I could not tell, for you know your Grandmamma Merrifield
+talked of coming here, and I cannot put her off. And now I see that it
+must be given up.'
+
+'It need only be calico!' sighed Gillian, sticking pins in and out of
+the pincushion.
+
+'Fancy dresses even in calico are very expensive. Besides, I could not
+go to a place like Rotherwood without at least two new dresses, and it
+is not right to put papa to more expense.'
+
+'Oh, mamma! couldn't you? You always do look nicer than any one,' said
+Mysie.
+
+'My dear, I am afraid nothing I have at present would be suitable for
+a General's wife at Lady Rotherwood's party, and we must think of what
+would be fitting both towards our hostess and papa. Don't you see?'
+
+'Ah! your velvet dress!' sighed Gillian.
+
+'My poor old faithful state apparel,' smiled Lady Merrifield. 'Poor
+Gill, you did not think again to have to mourn for it, but I don't know
+that even that could have been sufficiently revivified, though it was my
+cheval de bataille for so many years.
+
+For Lady Merrifield's black velvet of many years' usefulness, had been
+put on for her p.p.c. party at Belfast, when Gillian, in abetting Jasper
+in roasting chestnuts over a paraffin-lamp, had set herself and the
+tablecloth on fire, and had been extinguished with such damages as
+singed hair, a scar on Jasper's hands, and the destruction of her
+mother's 'front breadth.' There had been such relief and thankfulness at
+its being no worse that the 'state apparel' had not been much mourned,
+especially as the remains made a charming pelisse for Primrose; and in
+the retirement of Silverton, it had not been missed till the present
+occasion.
+
+'Do gowns cost so very much?' said Mysie.
+
+'Indeed they do, my poor Mouse. The lamented cost more than twenty
+pounds. I had been thinking whether I could afford the requisite
+garments--not quite so costly--and thought I might get them for about
+sixteen, with contrivance; but you see I feel it my fault that I let
+Dolores go and lead Constance to get cheated, and I cannot take the
+money out of what papa gives for household expenses and your education,
+so it must come out of my own personal allowance. Don't you see?'
+
+'Ye--es,' said Gillian, apparently intent on getting a big, black-headed
+pin repeatedly into the same hole, while Mysie was trying with all her
+might not to cry.
+
+'You are thinking it is very hard that you should suffer for Dolly's
+faults. Perhaps it is, but such things may often happen to you, my
+dears. Christians bear them well for love's sake, you know.'
+
+'And it is a little my fault,' said Gillian, thoughtfully; 'for it was I
+that let the chestnut fall into the lamp.'
+
+'I--I don't think I should have minded so much,' said Mysie, almost
+crying, 'if we had done it our own selves--and Fly too--for some very
+poor woman in the snow.'
+
+'I know that very well, Mysie, and this is a much harder trial, as you
+don't get the honour and glory of it; and, besides, you will have to
+take care to say not a word of this reason to Fly or Valetta, or any one
+else.'
+
+'Val will be awfully disappointed,' said Gillian.
+
+'Poor Val! But I should not have taken her anyway, so that matters
+the less. I should have taken Jasper, for that would have been more
+convenient than so many girls. In fact, I did not mean anybody to have
+heard of it till I had made up my mind, so that there would have been no
+disappointment; but that naughty Cousin Rotherwood could not keep it to
+himself; and so, my poor maidens, you have to bear it with a good grace,
+and to be treated as my confidential friends.'
+
+Mysie smiled and kissed her mother--Gillian cleared somewhat, but
+observing, 'I only wish it wasn't clothes;' tried to dismiss the subject
+as the gong began to sound, but Mysie caught her mother's dress, and
+said, 'Mayn't I tell Fly, for a great secret?'
+
+'No, my dear, certainly not. Fly is a dear little girl, but we don't
+know how she can keep secrets, and it would never do to let the
+Rotherwoods know; papa and Uncle William would be exceedingly annoyed.
+And only think of Miss Hacket's feelings if it came round. It will be
+hard enough to get her to take it now.'
+
+'Perhaps she won't,' flashed into the minds of both girls; but Mysie
+said entreatingly, 'One moment more, mamma, please! What can I say to
+Fly that will be the truth?'
+
+'Say that I find we cannot go, and that I had never promised,' said Lady
+Merrifield. 'I trust you, my dears.'
+
+And as she opened the door to hurry down to prayers, the two sisters
+felt the words very precious and inspiriting. Mysie lingered on the step
+and bravely asked Gillian whether her eyes looked like crying--
+
+'No, only a little twinkly,' answered the elder sister; 'they will be
+all right after prayers if you don't rub them.'
+
+'No, I won't, said Mysie; "I'll try to mean 'Thy will be done.' For I
+suppose it is His will, though it is mamma's."
+
+'I'm glad you thought of that, Mysie,' said Gillian; 'you see it is
+mamma's goodness.' And Gillian added to herself, "dear little Mysie
+too. If it had not been for her, I believe I should have 'grizzled' all
+prayer-time, and now I hope I shall attend instead."
+
+When everybody rose up from their knees, Lady Merrifield was glad to see
+two fairly cheerful faces. She tried to lessen the responsibility of the
+confidants, and to get the matter settled by telling Lord Rotherwood
+at once and publicly that she had thought his kind invitation over,
+and that she found she must not accept it. Perhaps she warily took the
+moment after she had seen the postman coming up the drive, for he had
+only time to say, 'Now, that's too bad, Lily, you don't mean it,' and
+she to answer, 'Yes, in sad earnest, I do,' before the letters came in,
+and the attention of the elders was taken off by the distribution.
+
+But Valetta whispered to Gillian, 'Not going; oh why?'
+
+'No; never mind, you wouldn't have gone, anyway--hush--' said Gillian,
+beginning, it may be, a little sharply, but then becoming dismayed as
+Valetta, perhaps a little unhinged by the late pleasures, burst forth
+into such a fit of crying as made everybody look up, and her mother tell
+her to go away if she could not behave better. Gillian, understanding
+a sign of the head as permission, led her away, hearing Lord Rotherwood
+observe,--
+
+'There, you cruel party!' before again becoming absorbed in his letter.
+
+'Oh dear!' sighed Fly, turning to Mysie as they rose from table, 'I am
+so sorry! It would have been so nice; and I thought we were safe, as
+mamma had written herself!'
+
+'Ah! but my mamma hadn't accepted,' said Mysie.
+
+Phyllis seemed to take this as final, and sighed, but Mysie presently
+exclaimed, 'I say! can't we all play at Butterfly's Ball in the hall
+after lessons?'
+
+'Lessons?' said Fly; 'but it's holiday-time?'
+
+'Mamma always makes us do a sort of little lesson, even in the holidays,
+as she says we get naughty. But I suppose you need not; and perhaps she
+will not make us now you are here.'
+
+Colonel Mohun and Lord Rotherwood were going to Darminster to see what
+was the state of the investigation about Mr. Flinders. They set out
+directly after breakfast, and after the feeding of the pets, where
+Valetta joined them, much consoled by the prospect of the extemporary
+Butterfly's Ball at home, Lady Phyllis, with her usual ready
+adaptability, repaired with the others to the schoolroom, where the
+Psalms and Lessons were read, and a small amount of French reading in
+turn from 'En Quarantaine' followed, with accompaniment of needlework or
+drawing, after which the children were free.
+
+Aunt Jane was going home to her Sunday school and the Rockstone
+festivities. She came down for her final talk with her sister just in
+time to perceive the folding up of three five-pound notes.
+
+'Lily,' she said, with instant perception, 'I could beat myself for what
+I told you yesterday.'
+
+Lady Merrifield laughed. 'The girls are very good about it!' she said.
+'Now you have found it out, see whether that note will make Miss Hacket
+swallow it.'
+
+'Can't be better! But oh. Lily, it is disgusting! Could not I rig up
+something fanciful for the children?'
+
+'That's not so much the point. 'The General's lady,' as Mrs. Halfpenny
+would say, is bound not to look like 'ane scrub,' as she would be
+unwelcome to Victoria, and what would be William's feelings? I could
+hardly have accomplished it even with this, and the catastrophe settles
+the matter.'
+
+'You could not get into my black satin?'
+
+'No, I thank you, my dear little Brownie,' said Lady Merrifield,
+elongating herself like a girl measuring heights.
+
+'Ada has a larger assortment, as well as a taller person,' continued
+Miss Jane, 'but then they are rather 'henspeckle,' and they have all
+made their first appearance at Rotherwood.'
+
+'No, no, thank you, my dear, Jasper would not like the notion--even if
+there was not more of me than of Ada. I have no doubt it is much better
+for us.'
+
+'Should you have liked it, Lily?'
+
+'For once in a way. For Rotherwood's sake, dear old fellow. Yes, I
+should.'
+
+'Ah, well! You are a bit of a grande dame yourself. Ada enjoys it, too,
+or I don't think I ever should go there.'
+
+'Surely Victoria behaves well to you?'
+
+'Far be it from me to say she is not exemplary in her perfect civility
+to all her husband's relations. Ada thinks her charming; but oh. Lily,
+you've never found out what it is to be a little person in a great
+person's house, and to feel one's self scrupulously made one of the
+family, because her husband is so much attached to all of them. There's
+nothing spontaneous about it! I dare say you would get on better, though
+You are not a country-town old maid; you would have an air of the world
+and of distinction even if you went in your old grey poplin.'
+
+'Well, I thought better of my lady.'
+
+'You ought not! She makes great efforts, I am sure, and is a pattern of
+graciousness and cordiality--only that's just what riles one, when one
+knows one is just as well born, and all the rest of it. And then I'm
+provided with the clever men, and the philanthropical folk to talk to. I
+know it's a great compliment, and they are very nice, but I'd ten times
+rather take my chance among them. However, now I've made the grapes sour
+for you, what do you think about Dolores? Will you send her to us?'
+
+'Not immediately, at any rate, dear Jane. It is very kind in you to wish
+to take her off our hands, but I do want to try her a little longer. I
+thought she seemed to be softening last night.'
+
+'She was as hard as ever when I went in to wish her good-bye.'
+
+'I thought she had too much headache for conversation when I went in
+last; I think this is a regular upset from unhappiness and reserve.'
+
+'Alias temper and deceitfulness.'
+
+'Something of both. You know the body often suffers when things are not
+thrown out in a wholesome explosion at once, but go simmering on; and I
+mean to let this poor child alone till she is well.'
+
+'Ah! here comes the pony-carriage. Well, Lily, send her to me if you
+repent.'
+
+The sisters came out to find the Butterfly's Ball in full action. Fly
+had become a Butterfly by the help of a battered pair of fairy wings,
+stretched on wire, which were part of the theatrical stock. 'The shy
+little Dormouse' was creeping about on all fours under a fur jacket,
+with a dilapidated boa for a long tail, but her 'blind brother the Mole'
+had escaped from her, and had been transformed into the Frog, by means
+of a spotted handkerchief over his back, and tremendous leap-frog jumps.
+Primrose, in another pair of fairy wings, was personating the Dragon-fly
+and all his relations, 'green, orange, and blue.' Valetta, in perfect
+content with the present, with a queer pair of ears, and a tail made
+of an old brush, sat up and nibbled as Squirrel. The Grasshopper was
+performing antics which made him not easily distinguishable from
+the Frog, and the Spider was actually descending by a rope from the
+balusters, while his mother, standing somewhat aghast, breathed a hope
+that 'poor Harlequin's' fall was not part of the programme. But she
+did not interfere, having trust in the gymnastics that were studied
+at school by Jasper, who had been beguiled into the game by Fly's
+fascinations.
+
+'A far more realistic performance than the Rotherwood Butterfly's Ball
+is likely to be,' said Aunt Jane, aside, as the various guests came up
+for her departing kiss. 'And much more entertaining, if they could only
+think so. Where's Gillian?'
+
+Gillian appeared on the stairs in her own person at the moment. She
+said Mrs. Halfpenny had called her, and told her that 'Miss Dollars' was
+crying, and that she did not think the child ought to be left alone
+long to fret herself, but Saturday morning needments called away nurse
+herself, so she had ordered in Miss Gillian as her substitute. Gillian
+was reading to her, and had only come away to make her farewells to Aunt
+Jane.
+
+'That is right, my dear,' said her mother; 'I will come and sit with her
+after luncheon.'
+
+For the whole youthful family were to turn out to superintend the
+replantation of the much-enduring fir, which, it was hoped, might
+survive for many another Christmas.
+
+However, Lady Merrifield could not keep her promise, for a whole party
+of visitors arrived just after the children's dinner was over.
+
+'And it's old Mrs. Norgood,' sighed Gillian, looking over the balusters,
+'and she always slays for ages!'
+
+'One of you young ladies must bide with Miss Dollars,' said Nurse
+Halfpenny, decidedly, 'or we shall have her fretting herself ill again.'
+
+'Oh, nursie, can't you?' entreated Gillian.
+
+'Me, Miss Gillian! How can I, when Miss Primrose is going out with
+the whole clamjamfrie, and all the laddies, into the wet plantations?
+Na--one of ye maun keep the lassie company. Ye've had your turn, Miss
+Gillian, so it should be Miss Mysie. It winna hurt ye, bairn, ye that
+hae been rampaging ower the house all the morning.'
+
+Mysie knew it was her turn, but she also knew that nurse always favoured
+Gillian and snubbed her. She had a devouring longing to be with her dear
+Fly, and a certain sense that she was the preferred one. Must another
+pleasure be sacrificed to that very naughty Dolores, whose misdemeanours
+had deprived them of the visit to Rotherwood. She looked so dismal that
+Gillian said good-naturedly, 'Really, Mysie, I don't think mamma would
+mind Dolores's being left a little while; I must go down to see about
+the Tree, because mamma gave me a message to old Webb, but I'll come
+back directly. Or perhaps Dolly is going to sleep, and does not want any
+one. Go and see.'
+
+Mysie on this crept quietly into the room, full of hope of escape, but
+Dolores was anything but asleep. 'Oh, are you come, Mysie? Now you'll go
+on with the story. I tried, but my eyes ache at the back of them, and I
+can't.'
+
+Mysie's fate was sealed. She sat down by the fire and took up the book,
+'A Story for the Schoolroom,' one of the new ones given from the Tree.
+It was the middle of the story, and she did not care about it at first,
+especially when she heard Fly's voice, and all the others laughing and
+chattering on the stairs.
+
+'Didn't they care for her absence?' and her voice grew thick, and her
+eyes dim; but Dolores must not think her cross and unwilling, and she
+made a great effort, became interested in the girls there described, and
+wondered whether staying with Fly would have turned her head, after the
+example of the heroine of the book.
+
+Dolores did not seem to want to talk. In fact, she was clinging to the
+reading, because she could not bear to speak or think of the state of
+affairs, and the story seemed, as it were, to drown her misery. She
+knew that her aunt and cousins were far less severe with her than she
+expected, but that could only be because she was ill. Had not Uncle
+Reginald turned against her, and Constance? It would all come upon her
+as soon as she came out of her room, and she was rather sorry to believe
+that she should be up and about to-morrow morning.
+
+Mysie read on till the short, winter day showed the first symptoms of
+closing in. Then Lady Merrifield came up. 'You here, little nurse?' she
+said. 'Run out now and meet the others. I'll stay with Dolly.' Mysie
+knew by the kiss that her mother was pleased with her; but Dolores
+dreaded the talk with her aunt, and made herself sleepy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. -- THE INCONSTANCY OF CONSTANCE.
+
+
+
+The two gentlemen who had gone to Darminster brought home tidings that
+the police who had been put on the track of Flinders had telegraphed
+that it was thought that a person answering to his description had
+embarked at Liverpool in an American-bound steamer.
+
+This idea, though very uncertain, was a relief, at least to all except
+the boys, who thought it a great shame that such a rascal should escape,
+and wanted to know whether the Americans could not be made to give him
+up. They did not at all understand their elders being glad, for the sake
+of Maurice Mohun and his dead wife, that the man should not be publicly
+convicted, and above all that Dolores should not have to bear testimony
+against him in court, and describe her own very doubtful proceedings.
+Besides, there would have been other things to try him for, since he had
+cheated the publishing house which employed him of all he had been able
+to get into his hands. There was reason to believe that he had heavy
+debts, especially gambling ones, and that he had become desperate since
+he no longer had his step-sister to fall back upon.
+
+Looking into his room, among other papers, a half-burnt manuscript was
+found upon his grate among some exhausted cinders, as if he had been
+trying to use the unfortunate 'Waif of the Moorland' to eke out his last
+fire. Moreover, the proprietor of the Politician told Colonel Mohun of
+having remonstrated with him on the exceeding weakness and poorness of
+the 'Constantia' poetry, 'which,' as that indignant personage added,
+'was evidently done merely as a lure to the unfortunate young lady.'
+
+The fifteen pounds had been accepted in an honourable and ladylike
+manner by the elder sister--but without any overpowering expression
+of gratitude. No doubt it was a bitter pill to her, forced down by
+necessity, and without guessing that it cost the donors anything.
+
+Dolores's mind was set at rest as to Flinders's evasion before night,
+and on the Sunday morning even Nurse Halfpenny could find out nothing
+the matter with her, so that she was obliged to make her appearance as
+usual. Uncle Reginald did not kiss her, he only gave a cold nod, and
+said 'Good morning.' Otherwise all went on as usual, and it was pleasant
+to find that Fly was as entirely used as they were to learning Collect
+and hymn, and copying out texts illustrating Catechism, and that she was
+expected to have them ready to repeat them to her mother some time
+in the afternoon. There was something, too, that Mysie could not have
+described, but which she liked, in the manner in which, on this morning,
+Dolores accepted small acts of good nature, such as finding a book
+for her, getting a new pen and helping her to the whereabouts of a
+Scriptural reference. It seemed for the first time as if she liked to
+receive a kindness, and her 'thank you' really had a sound of thanks,
+instead of being much more like 'I wish you would not.' Mysie felt
+really encouraged to be kind, and when, on setting forth to church,
+everybody was crowding round trying to walk with Fly, and Dolores was
+going along lonely and deserted, Mysie resigned her chance of one side
+of the favourite Phyllis, and dropped back to give her company to the
+solitary one. To her surprise and gratification, Dolores took hold of
+her hand, and listened quite willingly to her chatter about the schemes
+for the fortnight that Fly was to be left with them. Presently Constance
+was seen going markedly by the other gate of the churchyard, quite out
+of her usual way, and not even looking towards them.
+
+It was the last day of the old year, and, in the midst of the Christmas
+joy, there were allusions to it in the services and hymns. Something
+in the tune of 'Days and moments quickly flying,' touched some chord in
+Dolores's spirit, and set her off crying. She would have done anything
+to stop it, but there was no helping it, great round splashes came down,
+and the more she was afraid of being noticed, the worse the choking
+grew. At last, the very worst person--she thought--to take notice. Uncle
+Reginald, did so, and, under cover of a general rising, said sternly,
+'Stop that, or go out.'
+
+Stop that! Much did the colonel know about a girl's tears, or how she
+would have given anything to check them. But here was Aunt Lily edging
+down to her, taking her by the hand, leading her out, she did not know
+how, stopping all who would have come after them with help--then pausing
+a little in the open, frosty air.
+
+'Oh, Aunt Lily! I am very sorry!'
+
+'Never mind that, my dear. Do you feel poorly?'
+
+'Oh no; I'm quite well--only--'
+
+'Only overcome--I don't wonder--my dear--can you walk quietly home with
+me?'
+
+'Yes, please.'
+
+Nothing was said till they had passed the 'idle corner,' where men and
+half-grown lads smoked their pipes in anything but Sunday trim; and
+stared at the lady making her exit, till they were through the short
+street with shop windows closed, and a strong atmosphere of cooking,
+and had come into the quiet lane leading to the paddock. Then Lady
+Merrifield laid her hand on the girl's shoulder very gently, and said,
+'It was too much for you, my dear, you are not quite strong yet.'
+
+'Oh yes; I'm well. Only I am so very--very miserable,' and the gust of
+sobs and tears rushed on her again.
+
+'Dear child, I should like to be able to help you!'
+
+'You can't! I've done it! And--and they'll all be against me
+always--Uncle Regie and all!'
+
+'Uncle Regie was very much hurt, but I'm sure he will forgive you when
+he sees how sorry you are. You know we all hope this is going to be a
+fresh start. I am sure you were deceived.'
+
+'Yes,' said Dolores. 'I never could have thought he--Uncle Alfred--was
+such a dreadful man.'
+
+'I expect that since he lost your mother's influence and help he may
+have sunk lower than when you had seen him before. Did your father give
+you any directions about him?'
+
+'No. Father hated to hear of him' and never spoke about him if he could
+help it; and we thought it was all Mohun high notions because he wasn't
+quite a gentleman.'
+
+'I see. Indeed, my dear, though you have done very wrong, I have
+already felt that there was great excuse for you in trying to keep up
+intercourse with a person who belonged to your mother. I wish you had
+told me, but I suppose you were afraid.'
+
+'Yes' said Dolores. 'And I thought you were sure to be cross and harsh,'
+she muttered. And then suddenly looking up, 'Oh, Aunt Lily! everybody is
+angry but you--you and Mysie! Please go on being kind! I believe you've
+been good to me always.'
+
+'My dear, I've tried,' said Lady Merrifield, with fears in her brown
+eyes and a choke in her voice caressing the hand that had been put into
+hers. 'I have wished very much to make you happy with us; but the ways
+of a large family must be a trial to a new-comer.'
+
+Dolores raised her face for a kiss, and said, 'I see it now. But I did
+not like everything always, and I thought aunts were sure to be unkind.'
+
+'That was very hard. And why?'
+
+She was heard to mutter something about aunts in books always being
+cross.
+
+'Ah! my dear! I suppose there are some unkind aunts, but I am sure there
+are a great many more who wish with all their hearts to make happy homes
+for their nieces. I hope now we may do so. I have more hope than ever I
+had, and so I shall write to your father.'
+
+'And please--please,' cried Dolores, 'don't let Uncle Regie write him a
+very dreadful letter! I know he will.'
+
+'I think you can prevent that best yourself, by telling Uncle Regie how
+sorry you are. He was specially grieved because he thinks you told him
+two direct falsehoods.'
+
+'Oh! I didn't think they were that,' said Dolores, 'for it was true that
+father did not leave anything with me for Uncle Alfred. And I did not
+know whether it was me whom he saw at Darminster. I did tell you one
+once, Aunt Lily, when you asked if I gave Constance a note. At least,
+she gave it to me, and not I to her. Indeed, I don't tell falsehoods,
+Aunt Lily--I mean I never did at home, but Constance said everybody said
+those sort of things at school, and that one was driven to it when one
+was---'
+
+'Was what, my dear?'
+
+'Tyrannized over,' Dolores got out.
+
+'Ah! Dolly, I am afraid Constance was no real friend. It was a great
+mistake to think her like Miss Hacket.'
+
+'And now she has sent back all my notes, and won't look at me or speak
+to me,' and Dolores's tears began afresh.
+
+'It is very ungenerous of her, but very likely she will be very sorry to
+have done so when her first anger is over, and she understands that you
+were quite as much deceived as she was.'
+
+'But I shall never care for her again. It is not like Mysie, who never
+stopped being kind all the time--nor Gillian either. I shall cut her
+next time!'
+
+'You should remember that she has something to forgive. I don't want you
+to be intimate with her but I think it would be better if, instead of
+quarrelling openly, you wrote a note to say that you were deceived and
+that you are very sorry for what you brought on her.'
+
+'I should not have gone on with it but for her and Her stupid poems!'
+
+'Can you bear to tell me how it all was, my dear? I do not half
+understand it.'
+
+And on the way home, and in Lady Merrifield's own room Dolores found
+it a relief to pour forth an explanation of the whole affair, beginning
+with that meeting with Mr. Flinders at Exeter, of which no one had
+heard, and going on to her indignation at the inspection of her letters;
+and how Constance had undertaken to conduct her correspondence, 'and
+that made it seem as if she must write to some one,'--so she wrote to
+Uncle Alfred. And then Constance, becoming excited at the prospect of
+a literary connection, all the rest followed. It was a great relief to
+have told it all, and Lady Merrifield was glad to see that the sense of
+deceit was what weighed most heavily upon her niece, and seemed to have
+depressed her all along. Indeed, the aunt came to the conclusion
+that though Dolores alone might still have been sullen, morose and
+disagreeable, perhaps very reserved, she never would have kept up
+the systematic deceit but for Constance. The errors, regarded as sin,
+weighed on Lady Merrifield's mind, but she judged it wiser not to press
+that thought on an unprepared spirit, trusting that just as Dolores had
+wakened to the sense of the human love that surrounded her, hitherto
+disbelieved and disregarded, so she might yet awake to the feeling of
+the Divine love and her offence against it.
+
+The afternoon was tolerably free, for the gentlemen, including the elder
+boys, walked to evensong at a neighbouring church noted for its musical
+services, and Lady Merrifield, as she said, 'lashed herself up' to go
+with Gillian, carry back the remnant of the unhappy 'Waif,' and 'have it
+out' with Constance, who would, she feared, never otherwise understand
+the measure of her own delinquency, and from whom, perhaps, evidence
+might be extracted which would palliate the poor child's offence in
+the eyes of Colonel Mohun. Both the Hacket sisters looked terribly
+frightened when she appeared, and the elder one made an excuse for
+getting her outside the door to beseech her to be careful, dear
+Constance was so nervous and so dreadfully upset by all she had
+undergone. Lady Merrifield was not the least nervous of the two, and she
+felt additionally displeased with Constance for not having said one word
+of commiseration when her sister had inquired for Dolores. On returning
+to the drawing-room, Lady Merrifield found the young lady standing by
+the window, playing with the blind, and looking as if she wanted to make
+her escape.
+
+'I do not know whether you will be sorry or glad to see this,' said Lady
+Merrifield, producing a half-burnt roll of paper. 'It was found in
+Mr. Flinders's grate, and my brother thought you would be glad that it
+should not get into strange hands.'
+
+'Oh, it was cruel! it was base! What a wicked man he is!' cried
+Constance, with hot tears, as she beheld the mutilated condition of her
+poor 'Waif.'
+
+'Yes, it was a most unfortunate thing that you should have run into
+intercourse with such an utterly untrustworthy person.'
+
+'I was grossly deceived, Lady Merrifield!' said Constance, clasping her
+hands somewhat theatrically.
+
+'I shall never believe in any one again!'
+
+'Not without better grounds, I hope,' was the answer. 'Your poor little
+friend is terribly broken down by all this.'
+
+'Don't call her my friend. Lady Merrifield. She has used me shamefully!
+What business had she to tell me he was her uncle when he was no such
+thing?'
+
+'She had been always used to call him so.'
+
+'Don't tell me, Lady Merrifield,' said Constance, who, after her first
+fright, was working herself into a passion. 'You don't know what
+a little viper you have been warming, nor what things she has been
+continually saying of you. She told me--'
+
+Lady Merrifield held up her hand with authority.
+
+'Stay, Constance. Do you think it is generous in you to tell me this?'
+
+'I am sure you ought to know.'
+
+'Then why did you encourage her?'
+
+'I pitied her--I believed her--I never thought she would have led me
+into this!'
+
+'How did she lead you?'
+
+'Always talking about her precious, persecuted uncle. I believe she was
+in league with him all the time!'
+
+'That is nonsense,' said Lady Merrifield, 'as you must see if you
+reflect a little. Dolores was too young to have been told this man's
+real character; she only knew that her mother, who had spent her
+childhood with him, treated him as a brother, and did all she could for
+him. Dolores did very wrongly and foolishly in keeping up a connection
+with him unknown to me; but I cannot help feeling there was great excuse
+for her, and she was quite as much deceived as you were.'
+
+'Oh, of course, you stand by your own niece, Lady Merrifield. If you
+knew what horrid things she said about your pride and unkindness, as she
+called it, you would not think she deserved it.'
+
+'Nay, that is exactly what does most excuse her in my eyes. Her fancying
+such things of me was what did prevent her from confiding in me.'
+
+Constance had believed herself romantic, but the Christian chivalry of
+Lady Merrifield's nature was something quite beyond her. She muttered
+something about Dolores not deserving, which made her visitor really
+angry, and say, 'We had better not talk of deserts. Dolores is a mere
+child--a mother-less child, who had been a good deal left to herself for
+many months. I let her come to you because she seemed shy and unhappy
+with us, and I did not like to deny her the one pleasure she seemed to
+care for. I knew what an excellent person and thorough lady your sister
+is, and I thought I could perfectly trust her with you. I little thought
+you would have encouraged her in concealment, and--I must say--deceit,
+and thus made me fail in the trust her father reposed in me.'
+
+'I would never have done it,' Constance sobbed, 'but for what she said
+about you. Lady Merrifield!'
+
+'Well, and even if I am such a hard, severe person, does that make it
+honourable or right to help the child I trusted to you to carry on this
+underhand correspondence?'
+
+Constance hung her head. Her sister had said the same to her, but she
+still felt herself the most injured party, and thought it very hard
+that she should be so severely blamed for what the girls at her school
+treated so lightly. She said, 'I am very sorry. Lady Merrifield,' but
+it was not exactly the tone of repentance, and it ended with: 'If it had
+not been for her, I should never have done it.'
+
+'I suppose not, for there would have been no temptation. I was in
+hopes that you would have shown some kindlier and more generous feeling
+towards the younger girl, who could not have gone so far wrong without
+your assistance, and who feels your treatment of her very bitterly. But
+to find you incapable of understanding what you have done, makes me all
+the more glad that the friendship--if friendship it can be called--is
+broken off between you. Good-bye. I think when you are older and wiser,
+you will be very sorry to recollect the doings of the last few months.'
+
+Lady Merrifield walked away, and found on her return that Dolores had
+succeeded in writing to her father, and was so utterly tired out by the
+feelings it had cost her that she was only fit to lie on the sofa and
+sleep.
+
+Gillian was, of course, not seen till she came home from evening
+service.
+
+'Oh, mamma,' she said, 'what did you do to Constance?'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'Well, I heard you shut the front door. And presently after there came
+such a noise through the wall that all the girls pricked up their ears,
+and Miss Hacket jumped up in a fright. If it had been Val, one would
+have called it a naughty child roaring.'
+
+'What! did I send her into hysterics?'
+
+'I suppose, as she is grown up, it must have the fine name, but it
+wasn't a bit like poor Dolly's choking. I am sure she did it to make her
+sister come! Well, of course, Miss Hacket went away, and I did the best
+I could, but what could one do with all these screeches and bellowings
+breaking out?'
+
+'For shame. Gill!'
+
+'I can't help it, mamma. If you had only seen their faces when the
+uproar came in a fresh gust! How they whispered, and some looked
+awestruck. I thought I had better get rid of them, and come home myself;
+but Miss Hacket met me, and implored me to stay, and I was weak-minded
+enough to do so. I wish I hadn't, for it was only to be provoked past
+bearing. That horrid girl has poisoned even Miss Hacket's mind, and she
+thinks you have been hard on her darling. You did not know how nervous
+and timid dear Connie is!'
+
+'Well, Gill, I confess she made me very angry, and I told her what I
+thought of her.'
+
+'And that she didn't choose to hear!'
+
+'Did you see her again?'
+
+'No, I am thankful to say, I did not. But Miss Hacket would go on all
+tea-time, explaining and explaining for me to tell you how dear Connie
+is so affectionate and so easily led, and how Dolores came over her with
+persuasions, and deceived her. I declare I never liked Dolly so well
+before. At any rate, she doesn't make professions, and not a bit
+more fuss than she can help. And there was Miss Hacket getting brandy
+cherries and strong coffee, and I don't know what all, because dear
+Connie was so overcome, and dear Lady Merrifield was quite under a
+mistake, and so deceived by Dolores. I told Miss Hacket you were never
+under a mistake nor deceived.'
+
+'You didn't, Gillian!'
+
+'Yes, I did, and the stupid woman only wanted to kiss me (but I wouldn't
+let her) and said I was very right to stand up for my dear mamma. As if
+that had anything to do with it! What are you laughing at, mamma? Why,
+Uncle Regie is laughing, and Cousin Rotherwood! What is it?'
+
+'At the two partisans who never stand up for their own families,' said
+Uncle Regie.
+
+'But it's true!' cried Gillian.
+
+'What! that I am never mistaken nor deceived?' said Lady Merrifield.
+
+'Except when you took Miss Constance for a sensible woman, eh?' said her
+brother.
+
+'That I never did! But I did take her for a moderately honourable one.'
+
+'Well, that was a mistake,' owned Gillian. 'And Miss Hacket is as bad!
+There's no gratitude---'
+
+'Hush!' broke in her mother; and Gillian stopped abashed, while Lady
+Merrifield continued, 'I won't have Miss Hacket abused. She is only
+blinded by sisterly affection.'
+
+'I don't think I can go there again,' said Gillian, 'after what she said
+about you.'
+
+'Nonsense!' said her mother. 'Don't be as bad as Constance in trying to
+make me angry by telling me all poor Dolly's grumblings.'
+
+'Follow your mother's example, Gillian,' said Lord Rotherwood, 'and, if
+possible, never hear, certainly never attend to, what any one says of
+you behind your back.'
+
+'Is said to have said of you, you should add, Rotherwood,' put in the
+colonel. 'It is a decree worse than eavesdropping.'
+
+'Oh, Regie!' exclaimed his sister.
+
+'Well, not perhaps for your own honour and conscience, but the keyhole
+is a more trustworthy medium than the reporter.'
+
+'That's a strong way of stating it, but, at any rate, the keyhole has no
+temper nor imagination, or prejudice of its own,' said Lady Merrifield.
+
+'No, and as far as it goes, it enables you to judge of the frame in
+which the words, even if correctly reported, were spoken,' added Colonel
+Mohun.
+
+'The moral of which is,' said Lord Rotherwood, drolly, 'that Gillian
+is not to take notice of anyone's observations upon her unless she has
+heard them through the keyhole.'
+
+'And so one would never hear them at all.'
+
+'Q. E. D.,' said Lord Rotherwood. 'And now, Lily, do you. ever sing
+the two evening-hymns. Ken and Keble, now, as the family used to do
+on Sundays at the Old Court, long ere the days of 'Hymns Ancient and
+Modern'?
+
+'Don't we?' said Lady Merrifield. 'Only all our best voices will be
+singing it at Rawul Pindee!'
+
+And, as she struck a note on the piano, all the younger people still up,
+Mysie, Phyllis, Wilfred and Valetta, gathered round from the outer
+room to join in their evening Sunday delight. Fly put her hand into her
+father's and whispered, 'You told me about it, daddy.' He began to sing,
+but his voice thickened as he missed the tones once associated with it.
+And Lady Merrifield, too, nearly broke down as with all her heart she
+sang, hopefully,
+
+
+                   'Now Lord, the gracious work begin.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. -- THE STONE MELTING.
+
+
+
+It was with a strange feeling that Dolores woke on the New Year's
+morning, that something was very sad and strange, and yet that there was
+a sense of relief. For one thing, that terrible confession to her father
+was written, and was no longer a weight hanging over her. And though his
+answer was still to come, that was months away. There was Uncle Regie
+greatly displeased with her; there was Constance treating her as a
+traitor; there was the mischief done, and yet something hard and heavy
+was gone? Something sweet and precious had come in on her! Surely
+it was, that now she knew and felt that she could trust in Aunt
+Lilias--yes, and in Mysie. She got up, quite looking forward to meeting
+those gentle, brown eyes of her aunt's, that she seemed never before to
+have looked into, and to feeling the sweet, motherly kiss which had so
+mud, more meaning in it now, as almost to make up for Uncle Reginald's
+estrangement.
+
+She even anticipated gladly those ten minutes alone with her aunt, which
+she used to dislike so much, hoping that the holiday-time would not
+hinder them. Really wishing to please her aunt, she had learnt her
+portion perfectly, and Lady Merrifield showed that she appreciated the
+effort, though still it was more a lesson than a reality.
+
+'My dear!' she said, 'I am afraid this is another blow for you--it came
+this morning.'
+
+It was the account from Professor Muhlwasser's German publisher,
+amounting to a few shillings more than six pounds. And an announcement
+that the books were on the way.
+
+'Oh,' cried Dolores, 'I thought he was dead! He told me so! Uncle
+Alfred, I mean! And it was only to get the money! How could he be so
+wicked?'
+
+'I am afraid that was all he cared for.'
+
+'And what shall I do. Aunt Lily? Will you pay it, please, and take all
+my allowance till it is made up?'
+
+'I think it will be more comfortable for you if I do something of that
+sort, though I don't think you should go entirely without money. You
+have a pound a quarter. I was going to give you yours at once.'
+
+'Oh, take it--pray--'
+
+'Suppose I give you five shillings, instead of twenty. I do not think it
+well to leave you with nothing for a year and a half, and this is nearly
+what Mysie has.'
+
+'A shilling a month--very well. I wish I could pay it all at once!'
+
+'No doubt you do, my dear, but this will keep you in mind for a long
+time what a dangerous thing you did in giving away money you had no
+right to dispose of.'
+
+'Yes,' said Dolores. 'Mother earned money for him. I know she never took
+father's without asking him; but I couldn't earn, and couldn't ask.'
+
+Lady Merrifield kissed her, for very joy, to hear no sullenness in her
+tone; and then all went to church together on the New Year's day that
+was to be the beginning of better things. Lord Rotherwood had just time
+to go before meeting the train which was to take him to High Court,
+leaving his Fly too much used to his absences to be distressed about
+them, and, in fact, somewhat crazy about a notion which Gillian had
+started that morning, of getting up a little play to surprise him when
+he came back for Twelfth Day, as he promised to do.
+
+Mamma declared that if it was in French, and the words were learnt every
+morning before half-past eleven, it should supersede all other lessons;
+but such was the hatred of the whole boy faction to French, that they
+declared they had rather do rational sensible lessons twice over than
+learn such rot, and this carried the day. The drama proposed was
+that one in an old number of 'Aunt Judy,' where the village mayor is
+persuaded by the drummer to fine the girls for wearing lace caps. The
+French original existed in the house, and Fly started the idea that the
+male performers should speak English and the female French; but this was
+laughed down.
+
+In the midst Uncle Reginald came to the door and called, 'Lilias, can
+you speak to me a minute?'
+
+Lady Merrifield went out into the hall to him.
+
+'Here's a policeman come over, Lily. They have got the fellow!'
+'Flinders?'
+
+
+'Yes; arrested him on board a steamer at Bristol.'
+
+'Oh, I wish they had let it alone!'
+
+'So do I. They are bringing him back. The Darminster City bench
+sits to-day, and they want that unlucky child over there to make her
+deposition for his committal.'
+
+'Can't they commit him without her?'
+
+'Not for the forgery. The bank people are bent on prosecuting for that,
+and we can't stop them. I suppose she can be depended on?'
+
+'Reginald, don't! I told you the deceit was an unnatural growth from
+Constance's pseudo sentiment.'
+
+'Well, get her ready to come with me,' said the colonel, with a gesture
+of doubt; 'we must catch the 12.50. The superintendent brought a fly.'
+
+'You will frighten her out of her senses. I can't let her go alone with
+you in this mood.'
+
+'As you please, if you choose to knock yourself up. I'll tell the
+superintendent, and walk on to the station. You've not a moment to lose,
+so don't let her stand dawdling and crying.'
+
+It was a hard task for Lady Merrifield. She called Dolores, whom Mysie
+was inviting to be one of the village maidens, and bade her put on her
+things quickly. She ordered cold meat and wine into the dining-room,
+called Gillian into her room, and explained while dressing, and bade her
+keep the others away. Then, meeting Dolores on the stairs took her into
+the dining-room and made her swallow some cold beef, and drink some
+sherry, before telling her that the magistrates at Darminster wanted
+to ask her some questions. Dolores looked pale and frightened, and
+exclaimed,
+
+'Oh, but he has got away!'
+
+'My dear, I am grieved to say that he has not.'
+
+Dolores understood, and submitted more quietly and resignedly than her
+aunt had feared. She was a barrister's daughter, and once or twice her
+father had taken her and her mother part of the way on circuit with him,
+and she had been in court, so that she had known from the first that if
+her uncle were arrested there was no choice but that she must speak out.
+So she only trembled very much and said--
+
+'Aunt Lily, are you going with me?'
+
+'Indeed I am, my poor child. Uncle Regie is gone on.'
+
+No more was spoken then, but Dolores put her cold hand into her aunt's
+muff.
+
+Gillian kept all the flock prisoned in the schoolroom. Wilfred, Val, and
+Fergus rushed to the window, and were greatly disappointed not to see a
+policeman on the box, 'taking Dolores to be tried'--as Fergus declared,
+and Wilfred insisted, just because Gillian and Mysie contradicted it
+with all their might. He continued to repeat it with variations and
+exaggerations, until Jasper heard him, and declared that he should have
+a thorough good licking if he said so again, administering a cuff by way
+of earnest. Wilfred howled, and was ordered not to be such an ape, and
+Fly looked on in wonder at the domestic discipline.
+
+The superintendent had, in fact, walked on with Uncle Reginald, and
+Dolores saw nothing of him, but was put into an empty first-class
+carriage, into which her aunt followed her, but her uncle,
+observing, 'You know how to manage her, Lily,' betook himself to a
+smoking-carriage, and left them to themselves.
+
+Dolores was never a very talking girl, and the habit of silence had
+grown upon her. She leant against her aunt and she put her arm round
+her, and did not attempt to say anything till she asked,
+
+'Will he be there?'
+
+'I don't know, I am afraid he will. It is very sad for you, my poor
+Dolly; but we must recollect that, after all, it may be much better
+for him to be stopped now than to go on and get worse and worse in some
+strange country.'
+
+Dolores did not ask what she was to do, she knew enough already about
+trials to understand that she was only to answer questions, and she
+presently said,
+
+'This can't be his trial. There are no assizes now.'
+
+'No, this is only for the committal. It will very soon be over, if you
+will only answer quietly and steadily. If you do so, I think Uncle Regie
+will be pleased, and tell your father! I am sure I shall!'
+
+Dolores pressed up closer and laid her cheek against the soft sealskin.
+In the midst of her trouble there was a strange wonder in her. Could
+this be really the aunt whom she had thought so cruel, unjust, and
+tyrannical, and from whom she had so carefully hidden her feelings?
+Nobody got into the carriage, and just before reaching Darminster, Lady
+Merrifield made a great effort over her own shyness and said,
+
+'Now, Dolly, we will pray a little prayer that you may be a faithful
+witness, and that God may turn it, all to good for your poor uncle.'
+
+Dolores was very much surprised, and did not know whether she liked it
+or not, but she saw her aunt's closed eyes and uplifted hands, and she
+tried to follow the example.
+
+The train stopped, and her uncle came to the door, looking inquiringly
+at her.
+
+'She will be good and brave,' said her aunt; and quickly passing across
+the platform, Dolores found herself beside her aunt, with her uncle
+opposite in another fly.
+
+Things had been arranged for them considerately, and after they came to
+the Guildhall, where the city magistrates were sitting, Colonel Mohun
+went at once into court; the others were taken to a little room, and
+waited there a few minutes before Colonel Mohun came to call for his
+niece. It was a long room, with a rail at one end, and Dolores knew,
+with a strange thrill which made her shudder, that Mr. Flinders was
+there, but she could not bear to look at him, and only squeezed hard at
+the hand of her aunt, who asked, in a somewhat shaky voice, if she might
+come with her niece.
+
+'Certainly, certainly. Lady Merrifield,' said one of the magistrates,
+and chairs were set both for her and Colonel Mohun.
+
+'You are Miss Mohun, I think--may I ask your Christian name in full?'
+And then she had to spell it, and likewise tell her exact age, after
+which she was put on oath--as she knew enough of trials to expect.
+
+'Are you residing with Lady Merrifield?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'But your father is living?'
+
+'Yes, but he is in the Fiji Islands.'
+
+'Will you favour us with his exact name?'
+
+'Maurice Devereux Mohun.'
+
+'When did he leave England?'
+
+'The fifth of last September.'
+
+'Did he leave any money with you?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'In what form?'
+
+'A cheque on W----'s Bank.
+
+'To bearer or order?'
+
+'To order.'
+
+'What was the date?'
+
+'I think it was the 31st of August, but I am not sure.'
+
+'For how much?'
+
+'For seven pounds.'
+
+'When did you part with it?'
+
+'On the Friday before Christmas Day.'
+
+'Did you do anything to it first?'
+
+'I wrote my name on the back.'
+
+'What did you do with it.'
+
+'I sent it to--' her voice became a little hoarse, but she brought out
+the words--'to Mr. Flinders.'
+
+'Is this the same?'
+
+'Yes--only some one has put 'ty' to the 'seven' in writing, and 0 to the
+figure 7.'
+
+'Can you swear to the rest as your father's writing and your own?'
+
+The evidence of the banker's clerk as to the cashing of the cheque had
+been already taken, and the magistrate said, 'Thank you. Miss Mohun, I
+think the case is complete, and we need not trouble you any more.'
+
+But the prisoner's voice made Dolores start and shudder again, as he
+said,
+
+'I beg your pardon, sir, but you have not asked the young lady'--there
+was a sort of sneer in his voice--'how she sent this draft.'
+
+'Did not you send it direct by the post?' demanded the magistrate.
+
+'No; I gave it to--' Again she paused, and the words 'Gave it to--?'
+were authoritatively repeated, so that she had no choice.
+
+'I gave it to Miss Constance Hacket to send.'
+
+'You will observe, sir,' said Flinders, in a somewhat insolent tone,
+'that the evidence which the witness has been so ready to adduce is
+incomplete. There is another link between her hands and mine.'
+
+'You may reserve that point for your defence on your trial,' rejoined
+the magistrate. 'There is quite sufficient evidence for your committal.'
+
+There was already a movement to let Dolores be taken away by her uncle
+and aunt, so as to spare her from any reproach or impertinence that
+Flinders might launch at her. She was like some one moving in a dream,
+glad that her aunt should hold her hand as if she were a little child,
+saying, as they came out into the street, 'Very clearly and steadily
+done, Dolly! Wasn't it, Uncle Regie?'
+
+'Yes,' he said, absently. 'We must look out, or we shan't catch the 4.50
+train.'
+
+He almost threw them into a cab, and made the driver go his quickest,
+so that, after all, they had full ten minutes to spare. It made Dolores
+sick at heart to go near the waiting and refreshment-rooms where she and
+Constance had spent all that time with Flinders; but she could not bear
+to say so before her uncle, and he was bent on getting some food for
+Lady Merrifield.
+
+'Not soup, Regie; there might not be time to swallow it. A glass of milk
+for us each, please; we can drink that at once, and anything solid that
+we can take with us. I am sure your mouth must be dry, my dear.'
+
+Very dry it was, and Dolores gladly swallowed the milk, and found, when
+seated in the train, that she was really hungry enough to eat her full
+share of the sandwiches and buns which the colonel had brought in with
+him; and then she sat resting against her aunt, closed her eyes, and
+half dozed in the rattle of the train, not moving in the pause at the
+stations, but quite conscious that Colonel Mohun said, 'Not a spark of
+feeling for anybody, not even for that man! As hard as a stone!'
+
+'For shame, Regie!' said her aunt. 'How angry you would have been if she
+had made a scene.'
+
+'I should have liked her better.'
+
+'No, you wouldn't, when you come to understand. There's stuff in her,
+and depth too.'
+
+'Aye, she's deep enough.'
+
+'Poor child!' said Lady Merrifield, tenderly. And then the train went
+on, and the noise drowned the voices, so that Dolores only partly heard,
+'You will see how she will rise,' and the answer, 'You may be right; I
+hope so. But I can't get over deliberate deceit.'
+
+He settled himself in his corner, and Lady Merrifield durst not move nor
+raise her voice lest she should break what seemed such deep slumber,
+but which really was half torpor, half a dull dismay, holding fast eyes,
+lips, and limbs, and which really became sleep, so that Dolores did not
+hear the next bit of conversation during the ensuing halt.
+
+'I say, Lily, I did not like the fellow's last question. He means to
+give trouble about it.'
+
+'I was sorry the other name was brought in, but it must have come sooner
+or later.'
+
+'That's true; but if she can't swear to the figures on the draft, ten to
+one that the fellow will get off.'
+
+'You don't doubt--'
+
+'No, no; but there's the chance for the defence, and he was sharp enough
+to see it.'
+
+'There is nothing to be said or done about it, of course.'
+
+'Of course not. There's nothing for it but to let it alone.'
+
+They went on again, and when the train reached Silverton, Dolly was
+dreaming that her father had come, and that he said Uncle Alfred should
+be hanged unless she found the money for Professor Muhlwasser. She even
+looked about for him, and said, 'Where's father?' when she was wakened
+to get out.
+
+Gillian came up to her mother's room to hear what had happened, and to
+give an account of the day, which had gone off prosperously by Harry's
+help. He had kept excellent order at dinner, and 'there's something
+about Fly which makes even Wilfred be mannerly before her.' And then
+they had gone out and had made Fly free of the Thorn Fortress.
+
+'My dear, that must have been terribly damp and cold at this time of
+year.'
+
+'I thought of that, mamma, and so we didn't sit down, and made it a
+guerrilla war; only Fergus couldn't understand the difference between
+guerrillas and gorillas, and would thump upon himself and roar when they
+were in ambush.'
+
+'Rather awkward for the ambush!'
+
+'Yes, Wilfred said he was a traitor, and tied him to a tree, and then
+Fly found him crying, and would have let him out; but she couldn't get
+the knots undone; and what do you think? She made Wilfred cut the string
+himself with his own knife! I never knew such a girl for making every
+one do as she pleases. Then, when it got dark, we came in, and had a
+sort of a kind of a rehearsal, only that nobody knew any of the parts,
+or what each was to be.'
+
+'A sort of a kind, indeed, it must have been!'
+
+'But we think the play will be lovely! You can't think how nice Fly
+was. You know we settled for her to be Annette, the dear, funny, naughty
+girl, but as soon as she saw that Val wanted the part, she said she
+didn't care, and gave it up directly, and I don't think we ought to let
+her, and Hal thinks so too; and all the boys are very angry, and say
+Val will make a horrid mess of it. Then Mysie wanted to give up the good
+girl to Fly, and only be one of the chorus, but Fly says she had rather
+be one of the chorus ones herself than that. So we settled that you
+should fix the parts, and we would abide by your choice.'
+
+'I hope there was no quarrelling.'
+
+'N--no; only a little falling upon Val by the boys, and Fly put a stop
+to that. Oh, mamma, if it were only possible to turn Dolly into Fly! I
+can't help saying it, we seemed to get on so much better just because
+we hadn't poor Dolly to make a deadweight, and tempt the boys to be
+tiresome: while Fly made everything go off well. I can't describe it,
+she didn't in the least mean to keep order or interfere, but somehow
+squabbles seem to die away before her, and nobody wants to be
+troublesome.'
+
+'Dear little thing! It is a very sweet disposition. But, Gill, I do
+believe that we shall see poor Dolly take a turn now!'
+
+'Well! having quarrelled with that Constance is in her favour!'
+
+'Try and think kindly of her trouble. Gill, and then it will be easier
+to be kind to her.'
+
+Gillian sighed. Falsehood and determined opposition to her mother were
+the greatest possible crimes in her eyes; and at her age it was not easy
+to separate the sin from the sinner.
+
+New Year's night was always held to be one of especial merriment, but
+Lady Merrifield was so much tired out by her expedition that she hardly
+felt equal to presiding over any sports, and proposed that instead the
+young folk should dance. Gillian and Hal took turns to play for them,
+and Uncle Reginald and Fly were in equal request as partners. It was
+Mysie who came to draw Dolores out of her corner, and begged her to
+be her partner--'If you wouldn't very much rather not,' she said, in a
+pleading, wistful, voice.
+
+Dolores would 'very much rather not;' but she saw that Mysie would be
+left out altogether if she did not consent, as Hal was playing and Uncle
+Regie was dancing with Primrose. She thought of resolutions to turn over
+a new leaf, and not to refuse everything so she said, 'Yes, this once,'
+and it was wonderful how much freshened she felt by the gay motion, and
+perhaps by Mysie's merry, good-natured eyes and caressing hand. After
+that she had another turn with Gillian and one with Hal, and even one
+with Fergus because, as he politely informed her, no one else would have
+him for a quadrille. But, just as this was in progress, and she could
+not help laughing at his ridiculous mistakes and contempt of rules
+she met Uncle Reginald's eye fixed on her in wonder 'He thinks I don't
+care,' thought she to herself. All her pleasure was gone, and she moved
+so dejectedly that her aunt, watching from the sofa, called her and told
+her she was over-tired, and sent her to bed.
+
+Dolores was tired, but not in the way which made it harder instead of
+easier to sleep, or, rather, she slept just enough to relax her full
+consciousness and hold over herself, and bring on her a misery of terror
+and loneliness, and feeling of being forsaken by the whole world. And
+when she woke fully enough to understand the reality, it was no better;
+she felt, then, the position she had put herself into, and almost saw
+in the dark, Flinders's malicious vindictive glance Constance's anger,
+Uncle Regie's cold, severe look and, worse than all, her father reading
+her letter'
+
+She fell again into an agony of sobbing, not without a little hope
+that Aunt Lily would be again brought to her side. At last the door was
+softly pushed open in the dark, but it was not Aunt Lily, it was Mysie's
+little bare feet that patted up to the bed, her arms that embraced,
+her cheek that was squeezed against the tearful one--'Oh, Dolly, Dolly!
+please don't cry so sadly!'
+
+'Oh! it is so dreadful, Mysie!'
+
+'Are you ill--like the other night?'
+
+'No--but--Mysie--I can't bear it!'
+
+'I don't want to call mamma,' said Mysie, thoughtfully, 'for she is so
+much tired, and Uncle Regie and Gill said she would be quite knocked up,
+and got her to come up to bed when we went. Dolly, would it be better if
+I got into your bed and cuddled you up?'
+
+'Oh yes! oh yes! please do, there's a dear good Mysie.'
+
+There was not much room, but that mattered the less, and the hugging
+of the warm arms seemed to heal the terrible sense of being unloved and
+forsaken, the presence to drive away the visions of angry faces that had
+haunted her; but there was the longing for fellow-feeling on her, and
+she said, 'That's nice! Oh, Mysie! you can't think what it is like!
+Uncle Regie said I didn't care, and he could never forgive deliberate
+deceit--and I was so fond of Uncle Regie!'
+
+'Oh! but he will, if you never tell a story again,' said Mysie--and,
+as she felt a gesture implying despair--'Yes, they do; I told a story
+once.'
+
+'You, Mysie! I thought you never did?'
+
+'Yes, once, when we were crossing to Ireland and nurse wouldn't let
+Wilfred tie our handkerchiefs together and fish over the side, and
+he was very angry, and threw her parasol into the sea when she wasn't
+looking; and I knew she would be so cross, that when she asked me if I
+knew what was become of it, I said 'No,' and thought I didn't, really.
+But then it came over me, again and again, that I had told a story, and,
+oh! I was so miserable whenever I thought of it--at church, and saying
+my prayers, you know; and mamma was poorly, and couldn't come to us at
+night for ever so long, but at last I could bear it no longer, I heard
+her say, 'Mysie is always truthful,' and then I did get it out, and told
+her. And, oh! she and papa were so kind, and they did quite and entirely
+forgive me!'
+
+'Yes, you told of your own accord; and they were your own--not Uncle
+Regie. Ah! Mysie, everybody hates me. I saw them all looking at me.'
+
+'No, no! Don't say such things. Dolly. None of us do anything so
+shocking.'
+
+'Yes, Jasper does, and Wilfred and Val!'
+
+'No! no! no! they don't hate; only they are tiresome sometimes; but if
+you wouldn't be cross they would be nice directly--at least Japs and
+Val. And 'tisn't hating with Willie, only he thinks teasing is fun.'
+
+'And you and Gillian. You can only just bear me.
+
+'No! no! no!' with a great hug, 'that's not true.'
+
+'You like Fly ever so much better!'
+
+'She is so dear, and so funny,' said Mysie, the truthful, 'but somehow,
+Dolly dear, do you know, I think if you and I got to love one another
+like real friends, it would be nicer still than even Fly--because
+you are here like one of us, you know; and besides, it would be more,
+because you are harder to get at. Will you be my own friend. Dolly?'
+
+'Oh, Mysie, I must!' and there was a fresh kissing and hugging.
+
+'And there's mamma,' added Mysie.
+
+'Yes, I know Aunt Lily does now; but, oh! if you had seen Uncle Alfred's
+face, and heard Uncle Regie,' and Dolly began to sob again as they
+returned on her. 'I see them whenever I shut my eyes!'
+
+'Darling,' whispered Mysie, 'when I feel bad at night, I always kneel up
+in bed and say my prayers again!'
+
+'Do you ever feel bad?'
+
+'Oh yes, when I'm frightened, or if I've been naughty, and haven't told
+mamma. Shall we do it, Dolly?'
+
+'I don't know what that has to do with it, but we'll try.'
+
+'Mamma told me something to say out of.'
+
+The two little girls rose up, with clasped hands in their bed, and Mysie
+whispered very low, but so that her companion heard, and said with her a
+few childish words of confession, pleading and entreating for strength,
+and then the Lord's Prayer, and the sweet old verse:--
+
+
+         'I lay my body down to sleep,
+          I give my soul to Christ to keep,
+          Wake I at morn, as wake I never,
+          I give my soul to Christ for ever.'
+
+
+'Ah! but I am afraid of that. I don't like it,' said Dolores, as they
+lay down again.
+
+'It won't make one never wake,' returned Mysie; 'and I do like to give
+my soul to Christ. It seems so to rest one, and make one not afraid.'
+
+'I don't know,' said Dolores; 'and why did you say the Lord's Prayer?
+That hasn't anything to do with it!'
+
+'Oh, Dolly, when He is our Father near, though our own dear fathers
+are far away, and there's deliver us from evil--all that hurts us, you
+know-and forgive us. It's all there.'
+
+'I never thought that,' said Dolores. 'I think you have some different
+prayers from mine. Old nurse taught me long ago. I wish you would always
+say yours with me. You make them nicer.'
+
+Mysie answered with a hug, and a murmured 'If I can,' and offered to
+say the 121st Psalm, her other step to comfort, and, as she said it, she
+resolved in her mind whether she could grant Dolores's request; for
+she was not sure whether she should be allowed to leave her room before
+saying her own, and she I knew enough of Dolores by this time to be
+aware that to say she would ask mamma's leave would put an end to all.
+'I know,' was her final decision; 'I'll say my own first, and then come
+to Dolly's room.'
+
+But by that time Dolores was asleep, even if Mysie had not been too
+sleepy to speak.
+
+She meant to have rushed to the room she shared with Valetta before it
+was time to get up, but Lots found the black head and the brown together
+on Dolores's pillow, wrapped in slumber; and though Mysie flew home as
+soon as she was well awake, Mrs. Halfpenny descended on her while she
+was yet in her bath, and inflicted a sharp scolding for the malpractice
+of getting into her cousin's bed.
+
+'But Dolly was so miserable, nurse, and mamma was too tired to call.'
+
+'Then you should have called me, Miss Mysie, and I'd have sorted her
+well! You kenned well 'tis a thing not to be done and at your age; ye
+should have minded your duties better.'
+
+And nurse even intercepted Mysie on her way to Dolores's room, and
+declared she would have no messing and gossiping in one another's rooms.
+Miss Mysie was getting spoilt among strangers.
+
+Mysie went down with a strong sense of having been disobedient, as well
+as of grief for Dolores's disappointment. Happily mamma was late that
+morning, and nobody was in her room but Primrose. Poor Mysie had soon,
+with tears in her eyes, confessed her transgression. Her mother's tears,
+to her great surprise, were on her cheek together with a kiss. 'Dear
+child, I am not displeased. Indeed, I am not; I will tell nurse. It must
+not be a habit, but this was an exception, and I am only thankful you
+could comfort her.
+
+'And, mamma, may I go now to her. She said I could help her to say her
+prayers, and I think she only has little baby ones that her nurse taught
+her and she doesn't see into the Lord's Prayer.'
+
+'My dear, my dear, if you can help her to pray you will do the thing
+most sure to be a blessing to her of all.'
+
+And when Mysie was gone, Lady Merrifield knelt down afresh in
+thankfulness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. -- MYSIE AND DOLORES.
+
+
+
+Things were going on more quietly at Silverton. That is to say, there
+were no outward agitations, for the house was anything but quiet. Lady
+Merrifield had no great love for children's parties, where, as she said,
+they sat up too late, to eat and drink what was not good for them, and
+to get presents that they did not care about; and though at Dublin
+it had been necessary on her husband's account to give and take such
+civilities, she had kept out of the exchange at Silverton. But, on the
+other hand, there were festivals, and she promoted a full amount of
+special treats at home among themselves, or with only an outsider
+or two, and she endured any amount of noise, provided it was not
+quarrelsome, over-boisterous, or at unfit times.
+
+There was the school tea, and magic-lantern, when Mr. Pollock acted as
+exhibitor, and Harry as spokesman, and worked them up gradually from
+grave and beautiful scenes like the cedars of Lebanon, the Parthenon and
+Colosseum, with full explanations, through dissolving views of cottage
+and bridge by day and night, summer and winter, of life-boat rescue,
+and the siege of Sevastopol, with shells flying, on to Jack and
+the Beanstalk and the New Tale of a Tub, the sea-serpent, and the
+nose-grinding! Lady Phyllis's ecstacy was surpassing, more especially as
+she found her beloved little maid-of-all-work, and was introduced to all
+that small person's younger brothers and sisters.
+
+Here they met Miss Hacket, who was in charge of a class. She comported
+herself just as usual, and Gillian's dignity and displeasure gave way
+before her homely cordiality. Constance had not come, as indeed nothing
+but childhood, sympathy with responsibility for childhood, could make
+the darkness, stuffiness, and noise of the exhibition tolerable. Even
+Lady Merrifield trusted her flock to its two elders, and enjoyed a
+tete-a-tete evening with her brother, who profited by it to advise her
+strongly to send Dolores to their sister Jane before harm was done to
+her own children.
+
+'I would not see that little Mysie of yours spoilt for all the world,'
+said he.
+
+'Nor I; but I don't think it likely to happen.'
+
+'Do you know that they are always after each other, chattering in their
+bedrooms at night. I hear them through the floor.'
+
+'Only one night--Mysie told me all about it--I believe Mysie will do
+more for that poor child than any of us.'
+
+Uncle Regie shrugged his shoulders a little.
+
+'Yes, I know I was wrong before, when I wouldn't take Jane's warning;
+but that was not about one of my own, and, besides, poor Dolores is very
+much altered.'
+
+'I'll tell you what, Lily, when any one, I don't care who, man, or
+woman, or child, once is given up to that sort of humbug and deceit,
+carrying it on a that girl, Dolores, had done, I would never trust again
+an inch beyond what I could see. It eats into the very marrow of the
+bones--everything is acting afterwards.'
+
+'That would be saying no repentance was possible--that Jacob never could
+become Israel.'
+
+'I only say I have never seen it.'
+
+'Then I hope you will, nay, that you do. I believe your displeasure is
+the climax of all Dolly's troubles.'
+
+But Colonel Reginald Mohun could not forgive the having been so entirely
+deceived where he had so fully trusted; and there was no shaking his
+opinion that Dolores was essentially deceitful and devoid of feeling and
+that the few demonstrations of emotion that were brought before him were
+only put on to excite the compassion of her weakly, good-natured aunt,
+so he only answered, 'You always were a soft one Lily.'
+
+To which she only answered, 'We shall see knowing that in his present
+state of mind he would only set down the hopeful tokens that she
+perceived either to hypocrisy on the girl's side, or weakness on hers.
+
+Dolores had indeed gone with the others rather because she could
+not bear remaining to see her uncle's altered looks than because she
+expected much pleasure. And she had the satisfaction of sitting by
+Mysie, and holding her hand, which had become a very great comfort
+in her forlorn state--so great that she forebore to hurt her cousin's
+feelings by discoursing of the dissolving views she had seen at a London
+party. Also she exacted a promise that this station should always be
+hers.
+
+Mysie, on her side, was in some of the difficulties of a popular
+character, for Fly felt herself deserted, and attacked her on the first
+opportunity.
+
+'What does make you always go after Dolly instead of me, Mysie? Do you
+like her so much better?'
+
+'Oh no! but you have them all, and she has nobody.'
+
+'Well, but she has been so horridly naughty, hasn't she?'
+
+'I don't think she meant it.'
+
+'One never does. At least, I'm sure I don't--and mamma always says it is
+nonsense to say that.'
+
+'I'm not sure whether it is always,' said Mysie, thoughtfully, 'for
+sometimes one does worse than one knows. Once I made a mouse-trap of a
+beautiful large sheet of bluey paper, and it turned out to be an order
+come down to papa. Mamma and Alethea gummed it up as well as ever they
+could again, but all the officers had to know what had happened to it.'
+
+'And were you punished?'
+
+'I was not allowed to go into papa's room without one of the elder ones
+till after my next birthday, but that wasn't so bad as papa's being so
+vexed, and everybody knowing it; and Major Denny would talk about mice
+and mouse-traps every time he saw me till I quite hated my name.'
+
+'And I'm sure you didn't mean to cut up an important paper.'
+
+'No; but I did do a little wrong, for we had no leave to take anything
+not quite in the waste basket, and this had been blown off the table,
+and was on the floor outside. They didn't punish me so much I think
+because of that. Papa said it was partly his own fault for not securing
+it when he was called off. You see little wrongs that one knows turn
+out great wrongs that one would never think of, and that is so very
+dreadful, and makes me so very sorry for Dolores.'
+
+'I didn't think you would like a cross, naughty girl like that more than
+your own Fly.'
+
+'No, no! Fly, don't say that. I don't really like her half so well, you
+know, only if you would help me to be kind to her.'
+
+'I am sure my mother wouldn't wish me to have anything to do with her.
+I don't think she would have let me come here if she had known what sort
+of girl she is.'
+
+'But your papa knew when he left you--'
+
+'Oh, papa! yes; but he can never see anything amiss in a Mohun; I
+heard her say so. And he wants me to be friends with you; dear, darling
+friends like him and your Uncle Claude, Mysie, so you must be, and not
+be always after that Dolores.'
+
+'I want to be friends with both. One can have two friends.'
+
+'No! no! no! not two best friends. And you are my best friend, Mysie,
+ever so much better than Alberta Fitzhugh, if only you'll come always to
+me this little time when I'm here, and sit by me instead of that Dolly.'
+
+'I do love you very much, Fly.'
+
+'And you'll sit by me at the penny reading to-night?'
+
+'I promised Dolly. But she may sit on the other side.'
+
+'No,' said Phyllis, with jealous perverseness. 'I don't care if that
+Dolly is to be on the other side, you'll talk to nobody but her! Now,
+Mysie, I had been writing to ask daddy to let you come home with me, you
+yourself, to the Butterfly's Ball, but if you won't sit by me, you may
+stay with your dear Dolores.'
+
+'Oh, Fly! When you know I promised, and there is the other side.'
+
+But Fly had been courted enough by all the cousinhood to have become
+exacting and displeased at having any rival to the honour of her
+hand--so she pouted and said, 'I don't care about it, if you have her. I
+shall sit between Val and Jasper.'
+
+One must be thirteen, with a dash of the sentiment of a budding
+friendship, to enter into all that 'sitting by' involves; and in Mysie's
+case, here was her compassionate promise standing not only between
+her and the avowed preference of one so charming as Fly, but possibly
+depriving her of the chances of the wonders of the Butterfly's Ball. No
+wonder that disconsolate tears came into her eyes as she uttered another
+pleading, 'Oh, Fly, how can you?'
+
+'You must choose,' said the offended young lady; 'you can't have us
+both.'
+
+To which argument she stuck, being offended as well as scandalized at
+being set aside for such a culprit as Dolores, whose misdemeanours and
+discourtesy were equally shocking to her imagination.
+
+Mysie could confide her troubles to no one, for she was aware that
+caring about sitting together was treated by the elders as egregious
+folly; but a promise was a promise with her, and she held staunchly to
+her purpose, though between Dolores and Miss Vincent she lost all those
+delightful asides which enhanced the charms of the amusing parts of the
+penny reading and beguiled the duller ones--of which there were many,
+since it was more concert than penny reading, people being rather shy of
+committing themselves to reading--Hal, Mr. Pollock and the schoolmaster
+being the only volunteers in that line.
+
+Gillian had, sorely against the grain, to play a duet with Constance
+Hacket. The two young ladies had met one another with freezing civility
+in the classroom, and to those who understood matters, the stiffness of
+their necks and shoulders, as they sat at the piano, spoke unutterable
+things. But there had never been any real liking between Constance and
+the younger Merrifields, and the mother did not trouble herself much
+about this, knowing that the vexation of the elder sister, about whom
+she did care, would pass off with friendly intercourse.
+
+Fly's displeasure did not last long, for Mysie bad more attractions for
+her than any one else, and she was a good-humoured creature. There was a
+joyous Twelfth-Night, with home-made cake and home-characters, prepared
+by mamma and Gillian, and followed up by games, in which Dolores had
+a share, promoted by her aunt, who was very anxious to keep her from
+feeling set apart from every one; but this was difficult to manage, as
+she was so generally disliked, that even Gillian was only good-natured
+to her in accordance with her mother's desire that she should not be
+treated as 'out of the pale of humanity.' Mysie alone sought her out and
+brought her forward with any real earnestness, and good little Mysie
+had a somewhat difficult part to play between kindness to her and Fly's
+occasional little jealous tiffs and decided disapproval. Mysie never
+thought, however, about the situation or its difficulties, she simply
+followed the moment's call of kindness to Dolores, and, when it was
+possible, followed her own inclinations, and enjoyed Fly's lively
+society.
+
+And Dolores was certainly softening and improving. A word to Mrs.
+Halfpenny had secured the two girls being permitted to say their prayers
+together in Dolores's room unmolested; and what was a reality to a
+contemporary became less and less to Dolores a mere lesson imposed by
+the authority of an elder. That link between religious instruction and
+daily life, which is all important, yet so difficult to find, was being
+gradually put into Dolores's hands by her little cousin-friend. Lady
+Merrifield hoped and guessed it might be thus, from the questions that
+Mysie asked her at times, and from the quickened attention Dolores
+showed to her religious lessons, and her less dull and indifferent air
+at church.
+
+It could not be said that she was different with the others. She was
+depressed, and wanted spirits for enjoyment, nor would active romping
+diversions ever be pleasant to her. She had not the nature for them,
+and was not young enough to learn to like them. It could not but seem
+foolish to her to race about as a Croat or a savage, and she only beheld
+with wonder Gillian's genuine delight in games not merely entered into
+for the sake of the little ones. But there was a strong devotion growing
+up in her to her aunt and to Mysie, and what they asked of her she
+did--even when on a wet day her aunt condemned her to learn battledore
+and shuttle-cock of Gillian, who was equally to be pitied for the
+awkwardness of her pupil and the banter of her brothers, while Dolly
+picked up her shuttlecock and tossed it off with grim determination, as
+if doing penance for this dismal half hour. She managed better in the
+games where ready sharpness of intellect or memory was wanted, and she
+liked these, and would have liked them still better if Uncle Reginald
+had not always looked astonished if she laughed.
+
+She did her part, too, in the little play, being one of the chorus
+of the maidens who 'make a vow to make a row.' Lady Merrifield had,
+according to the general request, saved disputes by casting the parts,
+Gillian being the sage old woman who brought the damsels to reason. Fly,
+the prime mover of the tumult, and Mysie, her confidante, while Val and
+Dolly made up the mob. A little manipulation of skirts, tennis-aprons,
+ribbons, and caps made very nice peasant costumes. Hal was the
+self-important Bailli, and Jasper the drummer, the part of gens-d'armes
+being all that Wilfred and Fergus could be trusted with.
+
+Lord Rotherwood came back, and his little daughter's ecstacy was goodly
+to see, as she danced about her daddy, almost bursting with the secret
+of what he was to see after dinner, and showing herself so brilliantly
+well and happy that he congratulated himself upon her mother's
+satisfaction.
+
+While the elders were at dinner, Gillian, with Miss Vincent's help,
+finished off the arrangements. There were no outsiders, except the Vicar
+and Mr. Pollock who had been asked to dinner, for Lady Merrifield said
+she never liked to make her children an exhibition.
+
+'You are an old-fashioned Lily,' said her cousin, 'and happily not
+concerned with popularity. It is a fine thing to be able to consult
+one's children's absolute best.'
+
+The performance went off beautifully--at least so thought both actors
+and spectators. The dignity of the Bailli and the meddling of the
+drummer were alike delightful; Fly was charmingly arch and mutinous;
+Mysie very straightforward; and the least successful personation was
+that of Gillian, who had a fit of stage-fright, forgot sentences, and
+whirred her spinning-wheel nervously, all the worse for being scolded by
+her brothers behind the scenes, and assured that she was making a mull
+of the whole affair. And she had been so spirited at the rehearsals,
+but she was at a self-conscious age, and could not forget the four
+spectators. Very little was required of Dolores, but that little she
+did simply and well, and Lord Rotherwood, after watching her all the
+evening, observed to Lady Merrifield, 'I should say your difficulties
+were diminishing, are they not? The thunder-cloud seems to be a little
+lightened.'
+
+'I am so glad you think so, Rotherwood. I feel sure that all this
+distress has drawn her nearer to us, only Regie won't believe it.'
+
+'Regie is prejudiced.'
+
+'Is he? I thought him specially fond of Maurice's child, and that this
+was revulsion of feeling; but what I am afraid of is, that he will never
+believe in her or like her again, whatever she may be, and she is really
+fond of him.'
+
+'Yes, Reginald is not over disposed to believe in any woman's
+truth--outside his own family and sisters. Poor fellow! I can't say he
+was well used.'
+
+'What? I suppose he has bad his romance like other people--his little
+episode, as my husband calls it.'
+
+'Yes; and I am afraid we were accountable for it. You remember we were
+at Harthope Castle for the first two years after I was married, while
+Rotherwood was brought up to the requirements of the Victorian age.
+
+The --th was quartered at Harfield, within easy distance, and a splendid
+looking fellow like Regie was invaluable to Victoria, whenever she
+wanted anything to go off well. Well, in those days I had a ward, my
+mother's great niece, Maude Conway. A pretty winsome creature it was,
+and an heiress in a moderate sort of way, and poor old Redge, after all
+his little affairs, and he had had his share of them, was evidently in
+for it at last. Victoria thought, as well as myself, it was the best
+thing for them both. He was the sound-hearted, good fellow to keep her
+matters straight, and she had enough for comfort without overweighting
+the balance. So they were engaged but unluckily they had to wait till
+she was of age, about eight months off, and they were both ridiculously
+shy, and would not have the thing known, though Victoria said it was
+unwise. I don't think even Jane suspected it.'
+
+'No; I don't think she could have done so.'
+
+'Well, there was the season, and Victoria was not in condition for going
+out, and Maude was all for staying quietly with her; but old Lady Conway
+came about--a regular schemer--a woman I never could abide. She had
+married off her own daughters, and wanted her niece to practise on, that
+was the fact. Victoria says she always knew that she, Maude I mean, was
+very impressionable and impulsive, and so she wanted to have her out of
+harm's way; but one could not prevent her aunt from getting hold of her
+and taking her out. Then people told us of her goings on with that scamp
+Clanmacklosky and that sister of his. Victoria talked to her by the
+yard, but she denied it, and we thought it all gossip. Regie came up for
+a couple of nights, and she was as sweet on him as ever, and sent him
+away thinking it all right; but the end of it was, she fought off going
+down to Rotherwood with us, but went to Brighton with Lady Conway, and
+the next thing we heard was that she wrote to throw Reginald over, and
+she married Clanmacklosky a month after she was twenty-one! I don't
+think I ever saw Victoria so cut up, for we had really liked the girl
+and thought well of her. To this hour I believe it was all that woman's
+doing, and that poor Maude has supped sorrow. She has lost all her good
+looks.'
+
+'And Regie has never got over it?'
+
+'Not so as to believe in a woman again.'
+
+'He used to be rather a joke for susceptibility, and was still a regular
+boy when we went out to Gibraltar. I thought him much graver.'
+
+'Exactly; since that affair his soul has gone into his regiment. It's a
+wife to him, and luckily he got his promotion in time, so as not to be
+shelved.'
+
+'I suppose it was really an escape.'
+
+'I don't know--she would have done very well in his hands. She is the
+sort of woman to be as you make her, and even now is a world too good
+for Clan. Victoria can never be quite cordial with her, but I can't see
+the poor harassed thing without thinking what a sweet creature she once
+was, and wishing I'd had the sense to look after her better. But what
+I came here for, Lily, was to say you must let me have that Mysie of
+yours, since you won't come yourself to this concern of ours. I'm afraid
+you won't think much good has come of us, but we couldn't do the Country
+Mouse much harm in a fortnight; and you know it is the wish of my heart
+that my lonely Fly should grow up on such terms with your flock as
+Florence and I did with you all.'
+
+He pleaded quite piteously, and he was backed up by a letter from his
+wife, very grateful for her little Phyllis's happy visit, reiterating
+the invitation to Lady Merrifield, and begging that if she still could
+not come herself, she would at least send Jasper and Mysie for the
+Butterfly's Ball. Mysie's fancy dress would be ready for her, only
+waiting for the final touches after it was tried on. Lady Florence
+Devereux, too, was near at hand, and wrote to promise to look after
+Mysie.
+
+There was no refusing after this. Lady Florence was not far from being
+like a sister to her cousins. She had tended her mother's old age, and
+had subsequently settled down into the lady of all work of Rotherwood
+parish. Lady Merrifield had much confidence in her, and indeed all she
+saw of Fly gave her a great respect for Lady Rotherwood's management
+of her child. Harry was going to his uncle's at Beechcroft for some
+shooting, and would bring Mysie home when Jasper went back to school.
+
+So Gillian was called to her mother's room to be told first of the
+arrangement, which certainly in some aspects was rather hard on her.
+
+'I could not help it, my dear,' said Lady Merrifield, 'without
+absolutely asking for an invitation for you.'
+
+'No, mamma; and it is Mysie who is Fly's friend, being the same age and
+all. It is quite right, and I understand it.'
+
+'My dear, I am so glad I can do such a thing as this. If there were
+small jealousies among you, I could not venture on letting you be set
+aside, for I know the disappointment was quite as great to you as to
+Mysie, when we gave it up.'
+
+'But she was better about it than I,' said Gillian; 'mamma, your
+trusting me in that way is better than a dozen balls. Besides, I know
+I should hate being there without you; I'm a great old thing, as Jasper
+says, neither fish nor fowl, you know, not come out, and not a little
+girl in the schoolroom, and it would be very horrid going to a grand
+place like that on one's own account.'
+
+'That's right, Gillyflower. 'Tis very wholesome to discover the sourness
+of the grapes. And as I think grandmamma is really coming, I shall want
+you at home, and to look after Dolores.'
+
+'That's the worst of it, mamma; I shall never get on with her as Mysie
+does.'
+
+'We must do our best, for I do think really the poor child is
+improving.'
+
+'Lessons will begin again! That's one comfort,' said Gillian, rather
+quaintly, thinking of the length of time that Dolores would thus be off
+her hands.
+
+'And now call Mysie. I must speak to her.'
+
+As for Mysie, she was in a state of rapture. She knew her bliss before
+her mother had communicated it, for Lord Rotherwood could not refrain
+from telling his daughter that consent was gained, and Fly darted
+headlong to embrace Mysie, dance round her and rejoice. The boys
+declared that Mysie at once sprang into the air like a chamois, and that
+her head touched the ceiling, but this is believed to be a figment of
+Jasper's.
+
+It was only on the summons to her mother's room that Mysie discovered
+that Gillian was not going with her. It dimmed the lustre of her delight
+for a little while, 'Oh, Gill, aren't you very sorry? You ought to have
+had the first turn.'
+
+'Never mind, Mysie, you are Fly's friend,'--and the two sisters' looks
+at one another at that moment were a real pleasure to their mother.
+
+Mysie was of a less shy nature than Gillian, as well as at a less
+awkward age, so that the visiting without her mother was less
+formidable, and she rushed about wild with delight; but Dolores was very
+disconsolate.
+
+'Every one I care for goes away and changes,' she said in her melancholy
+little sentiment.
+
+'But it's only for a fortnight, Dolly, I don't think I could change so
+fast.'
+
+'Oh yes, you will, among all those swells. You like Fly ever so much
+better than me.'
+
+Mysie looked grieved and puzzled, but then exclaimed, in the tone of a
+discovery, 'There are different sorts of likings, Dolly, don't you see.
+I do love Fly very much, but you know you are like a sort of almost twin
+sister to me. I like her best, but I care about you most!'
+
+With which curious distinction Dolores had to put up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. -- A SADDER AND A WISER AUTHORESS.
+
+
+
+Colonel Mohun took Wilfred to his school, which began its term earlier
+than did Jasper's, and Silver-ton was wonderfully quiet. The elder Mrs.
+Merrifield was not to come for nearly a week, so that it would have been
+possible for her daughter-in-law to go to the Rotherwood festivities
+without interfering with her visit, but this no one except Gillian and
+Mysie knew, and they kept the secret well.
+
+The departure of the boys was a great relief to Dolores. Her aunt did
+not rank her with Valetta and Fergus, but let her consort with herself
+and Gillian, and this suited her much better. Even Gillian allowed that
+she was ever so much nicer when there was no one to tease her. It was
+true that Jasper certainly, and perhaps Wilfred, would not have molested
+her if she had not offended the latter, and offered herself as fair
+game; but Gillian, who had to forestall and prevent their pranks, could
+not feel their absence quite the privation her sisterly spirit usually
+did!
+
+Valetta and Fergus were harmless without them, but they were forlorn,
+being so much used to having their sports led by their two seniors that
+they hardly knew what to do without them, and the entreaty, or rather
+the whine, 'I want something to do,' was heard unusually often. This led
+to Gillian's being often called off to attend to them during the course
+of wet days that ensued, and thus Dolores was a good deal alone with her
+aunt, who was superintending her knitting a pair of silk stockings to
+send out to her father, it was hoped in time for his next birthday.
+
+At the first proposal, Dolores looked dull and unwilling, and at last
+she squeezed out, 'I don't think father will ever want me to do anything
+for him again.'
+
+'My poor child, do you think a father does not forgive and love all the
+more one who is in deep sorrow for a fault?'
+
+'I don't think my letter seemed sorry! I was not half so sorry then as I
+am now,' then at a kind word from her aunt her eyes overflowed, and she
+said, 'No, I wasn't; I didn't know how good you were, or how bad I was!'
+
+And when Aunt Lily kissed her, she put her arms round the kind neck that
+bent down to her, and laid her head against it, as if it was quite a
+rest to feel that love. Her aunt encouraged her to write again to her
+father, and to try to express something of her grief and entreaty
+for forgiveness, and she was somewhat cheered after this; as though
+something of the load on her mind was removed. One day she brought down
+all the books in her room and said, 'Please, Aunt Lily, look at them,
+and let them be with the rest in the schoolroom, I want to be just like
+the others.'
+
+Lady Merrifield was much pleased with this surrender. Some of the books
+were really well worth having and reading, indeed, the best of them
+she knew, but there were eight or ten which she suspected of being what
+Mysie called silly stories, and she kept them back to look over. She
+had been trying in this quiet interval to get Dolly to read something
+besides mere childish stories for recreation; and when she saw how well
+worn the story books were, and how untouched the 'easy history,' and the
+books about animals and foreign countries were, she saw why so clever a
+girl as Dolores seemed so stupid about everything she had not learnt as
+a lesson, and entirely ignorant of English poetry.
+
+Lady Merrifield read to her and Gillian in the evenings, and how they
+did enjoy it, and bemoaned the coming of grandmamma, to spoil their
+snugness and occupy 'mamma.' For Dolores began so to call Lady
+Merrifield. She had never so termed her own mother, and it seemed to
+her that with the words 'Aunt Lily' she put away all sorts of foolish,
+sinister feelings.
+
+'Mrs. Merrifield was a wonderful old lady, brisk of mind and body,
+though of great age. She had been spending Christmas with her eldest
+son, the Admiral, at Stokesley, and was going to take on her way the
+daughter-in-law, of whom she knew but little in comparison; and with her
+she brought the granddaughter, Elizabeth Merrifield, who--since her own
+daughter had died--generally lived with her in London, to take care of
+her.
+
+'It will be all company and horrid, and nobody will be allowed to make a
+noise!' sighed Valetta to Fergus, as the waggonette, well shut up, drove
+to the door.
+
+'There's cousin Bessie,' said Fergus.
+
+'Oh, cousin Bessie is thirty-four, and that is as bad as being as old as
+grandmamma!'
+
+And they hung back while the old lady was helped out, and brought across
+the hall into the warm drawing-room before her fur cloak was taken off.
+There was a quiet little person with her, and Val whispered, 'She'll be
+just like Aunt Jane.'
+
+But the eyes that Bessie turned on her cousins were not at an like Aunt
+Jane's little searching black ones. They were of a dark shade of grey,
+and had a wonderful softness and sweetness in them. Gillian knew her
+a little already, but very little, for there had always been the elder
+sisters at their former short meetings. Mamma lamented that there should
+be so few grandchildren at home to be shown, though, as she said, 'the
+full number might have been too noisy.'
+
+Grandmamma shook her head. 'I like the house full,' she said, 'I'm all
+right, but it is a pity to see the nest emptied, like Stokesley, now.
+Nobody left at home but Susan and little Sally! Make the most of them
+while you have them about you!'
+
+The old lady was quite delighted to find Primrose so nearly a baby, and
+to have one grandchild still quite as small or smaller than some of
+her great grandchildren whom she had never seen. Her great pleasure,
+however, soon proved to be in talking about her son Jasper, and hearing
+all his wife could tell her about his life in India; and as Lady
+Merrifield liked no other subject so well, they were very happy
+together, and quite absorbed.
+
+Meanwhile Bessie made herself a companion to Gillian and Dolores, and
+though so much older, seemed to consider herself as a girl like them.
+Then, living for the most part in town, she could talk about London
+matters to Dolly, and this was a great treat, while yet she had country
+tastes enough to suit Gillian, and was not in the least afraid of a
+long walk to the fir plantations to pick up Weymouth pine cones, and the
+still more precious pinaster ones.
+
+For the first time Gillian began to see Dolores as Uncle Reginald used
+to know her, free from that heavy mist of sullen dislike to everything
+and everybody. It seemed to bring them together, but, in spite of
+Bessie's charms, they both continually missed Mysie, out of doors and
+in, in schoolroom and drawing-room, and, above all, in Dolly's bedroom.
+She seemed to be, as Gillian told Bessie, 'a sort of family cement,
+holding the two ends, big and little, together;' and Bessie responded
+that her elder sister Susan was one of that sort.
+
+The evenings now were quite unlike the usual ones. Dinner was late, and
+the two girls came down to it. Afterwards the young ones sat round the
+fire in the hall, where Bessie, who was a wonderful story-teller, kept
+Fergus and Valetta quiet and delighted, either with invented tales or
+histories of the feats of her own brothers and sisters, who were so
+much older than their Silverton first cousins as to be like an elder
+generation.
+
+When the two young ones were gone to bed, the others came into the
+drawing-room, where mamma and grandmamma were to be found, either going
+over papa's letters, or else Mrs. Merrifield talking about her Stokesley
+grandchildren, the same whose pranks Bessie had just been telling, so
+that it was not easy to believe in Sam, a captain in the navy. Harry
+and John farming in Canada, David working as a clergy-man in the Black
+Country, George in a government office, Anne a clergyman's wife, and
+mother to the great grandchildren who were always being compared to
+Primrose, Susan keeping her father's house, and Sarah, though as old as
+Alethea, still treated as the youngest--the child of the family.
+
+The bits of conversation came to the girls as they sat over their work,
+and Bessie would join in, and tell interesting things, till she saw that
+grandmamma was ready for her nap, and then one or other gave a little
+music, during which Dolly's bed-time generally came.
+
+'You can't think how grateful I am to you for helping to brighten up
+that poor child in a wholesome way!' said Lady Merrifield to Bessie,
+under cover of Gillian's performance.
+
+'One can't help being very sorry for her,' said Elizabeth, who knew what
+was hanging over Dolly.
+
+'Yes, it is a terrible punishment, especially as she has a certain
+affection for her step-uncle, or whatever he should be called, for her
+mother's sake. It really was a perplexed situation.'
+
+'But why did she not consult you?'
+
+'Do you know, I think I have found out. She held aloof from us all,
+and treated us--especially me--as if we were her natural enemies, and
+I never could guess what was the reason till the other day; she
+voluntarily gave me up all her books to be looked over and put into the
+common stock, which you saw in the schoolroom.'
+
+'You look over all the children's books?'
+
+'Yes. While we were wandering, they did not get enough to make it a very
+arduous task, and now I find that they want weeding. If children read
+nothing but a multitude of stories rather beneath their capacity, they
+are likely never to exert themselves to anything beyond novel reading.'
+
+'That is quite true, I believe.'
+
+'Well, among this literature of Dolly's I found no less than four
+stories based on the cruelty and injustice suffered by orphans from
+their aunts. The wicked step-mothers are gone out, and the barbarous
+aunts are come in. It is the stock subject. I really think it is cruel,
+considering that there are many children who have to be adopted into
+uncles' families, to add to their distress and terror, by raising this
+prejudice. Just look at this one'--taking up Dolly's favourite, 'Clare;
+or No Home'--'it is not at all badly written, which makes it all the
+worse.'
+
+'Oh, Aunt Lilias,' cried Bessie, whose colour had been rising all this
+time. 'How shall I tell you? I wrote it!'
+
+'You! I never guessed you did anything in that line.'
+
+'We don't talk about it. My father knows, and so does grandmamma, in a
+way; but I never bring it before her if I can help it, for she does not
+half like the notion. But, indeed, they aren't all as bad as that! I
+know now there is a great deal of silly imitation in it; but I
+never thought of doing harm in this way. It is a punishment for
+thoughtlessness,' cried poor Bessie, reddening desperately, and with
+tears in her eyes.
+
+'My dear, I am so sorry I said it! If I bad not one of these aunts, I
+should think it a very effective story.'
+
+'I'm afraid that's so much the worse! Let me tell you about it, Aunt
+Lilias. At home, they always laughed at me for my turn for dismalities.'
+
+'I believe one always has such a turn when one is young.'
+
+'Well, when I went to live with grandmamma, it was very different from
+the houseful at home, I had so much time on my hands, and I took to
+dreaming and writing because I could not help it, and all my stories
+were fearfully doleful. I did not think of publishing them for ever so
+long, but at last when David terribly wanted some money for his mission
+church, I thought I would try, and this Clare was about the best. They
+took it, and gave me five pounds for it, and I was so pleased and never
+thought of its doing harm, and now I don't know how much more mischief
+it may have done!'
+
+'You only thought of piling up the agony! But don't be unhappy about it.
+You don't know how many aunts it may have warned.'
+
+'I'm afraid aunts are not so impressionable as nieces. And, indeed,
+among ourselves story-books seemed quite outside from life, we never
+thought of getting any ideas from them any more than from Bluebeard.'
+
+'So it has been with some of mine, while, on the other hand, Dolores
+seemed to Mysie an interesting story-book heroine--which indeed she is,
+rather too much so. But you have not stood still with Clare.'
+
+'No, I hope I have grown rather more sensible. David set me to do
+stories for his lads, and, as he is dreadfully critical, it was very
+improving.'
+
+'Did you write 'Kate's Jewel'? That is delightful. Aunt Jane gave it
+to Val this Christmas, and all of us have enjoyed it! We shall be quite
+proud of it--that is--may I tell the children?'
+
+'Oh, aunt, you are very good to try to make me forget that miserable
+Clare. I wonder whether it will do any good to tell Dolores all about
+it. Only I can't get at all the other girls I may have hurt.'
+
+'Nay, Bessie, I think it most likely that Dolores would have been an
+uncomfortable damsel, even if Clare had remained in your brain. There
+were other causes, at any rate, here are three more persecuted nieces
+in her library. Besides, as you observed, everybody does not go to
+story-books for views of human nature, and happily, also, homeless
+children are commoner in books than out of them, so I don't think the
+damage can be very extensive.'
+
+'One such case is quite enough! Indeed, it is a great lesson to think
+whether what one writes can give any wrong notion.'
+
+'I believe one always does begin with imitation.'
+
+'Yes, it is extraordinary how little originality there is in the
+world. In the literature of my time, everybody had small hands and high
+foreheads, the girls wanted to do great things, and did, or did not do,
+little ones, and the boys all took first classes, and the fashion was
+to have violet eyes, so dark you could not tell their colour, and golden
+hair.'
+
+'Whereas now the hair is apt to be bronze, whatever that may be like.'
+
+'And all the dresses, and all the complexions, and all the lace, and all
+the roses, are creamy. Bessie, I hope you don't deal in creaminess!'
+
+'I'm afraid skim milk is more like me, and that you would say I had
+taken to the goody line. I never thought of the responsibility then,
+only when I wrote for David's classes.'
+
+'It is a responsibility, I suppose, in the way in which every word
+one speaks and every letter one writes is so. And now--here is Gillian
+finishing her piece. How far is it a secret, my dear.'
+
+'It need not be so here, Aunt Lilias. Only my people are rather
+old-fashioned, you know, and are inclined to think it rather shocking of
+me, so it ought not to go beyond the family, and especially don't 'let
+her,' indicating her grandmother, 'hear about it. She knows I do such
+things--it would not be honest not to tell her--but it goes against the
+grain, and she has never heard one word of it all.'
+
+It appeared that Bessie daily read the psalms and lessons to grandmamma,
+followed up by a sermon. Then, with her wonderful eyes, Mrs. Merrifield
+read the newspaper from end to end, which lasted her till luncheon,
+then came a drive in the brougham, followed by a rest in her own room,
+dinner, and then Bessie read her to sleep with a book of travels or
+biography, of the old book-club class of her youth. Her principles were
+against novels, and the tale she viewed as only fit for children.
+
+Lady Merrifield could not help thinking what a dull life it must be for
+Bessie, a woman full of natural gifts and of great powers of enjoyment,
+accustomed to a country home and a large family, and she said something
+of the kind. 'I did not like it at first,' said Bessie, 'but I have
+plenty of occupations now, besides all these companions that I've made
+for myself, or that came to me, for I think they come of themselves.'
+
+'But what time have you to yourself?'
+
+'Grandmamma does not want me till half-past ten in the morning, except
+for a little visit. And she does not mind my writing letters while she
+is reading the paper, provided I am ready to answer anything remarkable.
+I am quite the family newsmonger! Then there's always from four to
+half-past six when I can go out if I like. There's a dear old governess
+of ours living not far off, and we have nice little expeditions
+together. And you know it is nice to be at the family headquarters in
+London, and have every one dropping in.'
+
+'Oh dear! how good you are to like going on like that,' said Gillian,
+who had come up while this was passing; 'I should eat my heart out; you
+must be made up of contentment.'
+
+Elizabeth held up her hand in warning lest her grandmother should be
+wakened, but she laughed and said, 'My brothers would tell you I used to
+be Pipy Bet. But that dear old governess. Miss Fosbrook, was the
+making of me, and taught me how to be jolly like Mark Tapley among the
+rattlesnakes,' she finished, looking drolly up to Gillian.
+
+'And, Gill, you don't know what Bessie has made her companions instead
+of the rattlesnakes,' said Lady Merrifield. 'What do you think of
+"Kate's Jewel?"'
+
+Gillian's astonishment and rapture actually woke grandmamma; not
+that she made much noise, but there was a disturbing force about her
+excitement; and the subject had to be abandoned.
+
+As the great secret might be shared with Dolores, though not with the
+younger ones, whose discretion could not be depended upon, Gillian could
+enter upon it the more freely, though she was rather disappointed that
+an author was not such an extraordinary sight to Dolly as to herself.
+But it was charming to both that Bessie let them look at the proofs of
+the story she was publishing in a magazine; and allowed them as well as
+mamma, to read the manuscript of the tale, romance, or novel, whichever
+it was to be called, on which she wished for her aunt's opinion.
+
+Bessie took care, when complying with the girls' entreaty, that she
+would tell them all she had written; to observe that, she thought
+'Clare' a very foolish book indeed, and that she wished heartily she had
+never written it. Gillian asked why she had done it?
+
+'Oh,' said Dolores, 'things aren't interesting unless something horrid
+happens, or some one is frightened, or very miserable.'
+
+'I like things best just and exactly as they really are--or were,' said
+Gillian.
+
+'The question between sensation and character,' said Bessie to her aunt.
+'I suppose that, on the whole, it is the few who are palpably affected
+by the mass of fiction in the world; but that it is needful to take
+good care that those few gather at least no harm from one's work--to be
+faithful in it, in fact, like other things.'
+
+And there was no doubt that Bessie had been faithful in her work ever
+since she had realized her vocation. Her lending library books, written
+with a purpose, were excellent, and were already so much valued by
+Miss Hacket, that Gillian thought how once she should have felt it a
+privation not to be allowed to tell her whence they came; but to her
+surprise on the Sunday, instead of the constraint with which of late she
+had been treated at tea-time, the eager inquiry was made whether this
+was really the authoress, Miss Merrifield?
+
+Secrets are not kept as well as people think. The Hackets' married
+sister was a neighbour of Bessie's married sister, and through these
+ladies it had just come round, not only who was the author of 'Charlie's
+Whistle,' etc., but that she wrote in the ---- Magazine, and was in the
+neighbourhood.
+
+All offences seemed to be forgotten in the burning desire for an
+introduction to this marvel of success. Constance had made the most of
+her opportunities in gazing at church; but if she called, would she be
+introduced?
+
+'Of course,' said Gillian, 'if my cousin is in the room.' She spoke
+rather coldly and gravely, and Miss Hacket exclaimed--
+
+'I know we have been a little remiss, my dear, I hope Lady Merrifield
+was not offended.'
+
+'Mamma is never offended,' said Gillian--'but, I do think, and so would
+she and all of us, that if Constance comes, she ought to treat Dolores
+Mohun--as--as usual.'
+
+The two sisters were silent, perhaps from sheer amazement at this
+outbreak of Gillian's, who had never seemed particularly fond of her
+cousin. Gillian was quite as much surprised at herself, but something
+seemed to drive her on, with flaming cheeks. 'Dolores is half
+broken-hearted about it all. She did not thoroughly know how wrong it
+was; and it does make her miserable that the one who went along with her
+in it should turn against her, and cut her and all.'
+
+'Connie never meant to keep it up, I'm sure,' said Miss Hacket; 'but she
+was very much hurt.'
+
+'So was Dolly,' said Gillian.
+
+'Is she so fond of me?' said Constance, in a softened tone.
+
+'She was,' replied Gillian.
+
+'I'm sure,' said Miss Hacket, 'our only wish is to forget and forgive as
+Christians. Lady Merrifield has behaved most handsomely, and it is
+our most earnest wish that this unfortunate transaction should be
+forgotten.'
+
+'And I'm sure I'm willing to overlook it all,' said Constance. 'One must
+have scrapes, you know; but friendship will triumph over all.'
+
+Gillian did not exactly wish to unravel this fine sentiment, and was
+glad that the little G.F.S. maid came in with the tea.
+
+Lady Merrifield was a good deal diverted with Gillian's report,
+and invited the two sisters to luncheon on the plea of their slight
+acquaintance with Anne--otherwise Mrs. Daventry--with a hint in the note
+not to compliment Mrs. Merrifield on Elizabeth's production.
+
+Then Dolores had to be prepared to receive any advance from Constance.
+She looked disgusted at first, and then, when she heard that Gillian had
+spoken her mind, said, 'I can't think why you should care.'
+
+'Of course I care, to have Constance behaving so ill to one of us.'
+
+'Do you think me one of you, Gillian?'
+
+'Who, what else are you?'
+
+And Dolores held up her face for a kiss, a heartier one than had ever
+passed between the cousins. There was no kiss between the quondam
+friends, but they shook hands with perfect civility, and no stranger
+would have guessed their former or their present terms from their
+manner. In fact, Constance was perfectly absorbed in the contemplation
+of the successful authoress, the object of her envy and veneration, and
+only wanted to forget all the unpleasantness connected with the dark
+head on the opposite side of the table.
+
+'Oh Miss Merrifield,' she asked, in an interval afterwards, when hats
+were being put on, 'bow do you make them take your things?'
+
+'I don't know,' said Bessie, smiling. 'I take all the pains I can, and
+try to make them useful.'
+
+'Useful, but that's so dull--and the critics always laugh at things with
+a purpose.'
+
+'But I don't think that is a reason for not trying to do good, even in
+this very small and uncertain way. Indeed,' she added, earnestly. 'I
+have no right to speak, for I have made great mistakes; but I wanted to
+tell you that the one thing I did get published, which was not written
+conscientiously--as I may say--but only to work out a silly, sentimental
+fancy, has brought me pain and punishment by the harm I know I did.'
+
+This was a very new idea to Constance, and she actually carried it away
+with her. The visit had restored the usual terms of intercourse with the
+Hackets, though there was no resumption of intimacy such as there had
+been, between Constance and Dolores. It had, however, done much to make
+the latter feel that the others considered themselves one with them, and
+there was something that drew them together in the universal missing of
+Mysie, and eagerness for her letters.
+
+These were, however, rather disappointing. Mysie had not a genius for
+correspondence, and dealt in very bare facts. There was an enclosure
+which made Lady Merrifield somewhat anxious:
+
+
+'My Dear Mamma, 'This is for you all by yourself. I have been in sad
+mischief, for I broke the conservatory and a palm-tree with my umbrella;
+and I did still worse, for I broke my promise and told all about what
+you told me never to. I will tell you all when I come home, and I hope
+you will forgive me. I wish I was at home. It is very horrid when they
+say one is good and one knows one is not; but I am very happy, and Lord
+Rotherwood is nicer than ever, and so is Fly. 'I am your affectionate
+and penitent and dutiful little daughter,
+
+'MARIA MILLICENT MERRIFIELD.'
+
+
+With all mamma's intuitive knowledge of her little daughter's mind
+and forms of expression, she was puzzled by this note and the various
+fractures it described. She obeyed its injunctions of secrecy, even with
+regard to Gillian and Bessie, though she could not help wishing that the
+latter could have seen and judged of her Mysie.
+
+Grandmamma was somewhat disappointed to have missed her eldest grandson,
+but she was obliged to leave Silverton two days before his return with
+his little sister. She had certainly escaped the full tumult of the
+entire household, but Bessie observed that she suspected that it might
+have been preferred to the general quiescence.
+
+In spite of all the regrets that Bessie's more coeval cousins, Alethea
+and Phyllis were not at home, she and her aunt each felt that a new
+friendship had been made, and that they understood each other, and
+Bessie had uttered her resolution henceforth always to think of the
+impression for good or evil produced on the readers, as well as of the
+effectiveness of her story. 'Little did I suppose that 'Clare' would
+add to any one's difficulties,' she said, 'still less to yours, Aunt
+Lilias.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. -- CONFESSIONS OF A COUNTRY MOUSE.
+
+
+
+Here were the travellers at home again, and Mysie clinging to her
+mother, with, 'Oh, Mamma!' and a look of perfect rest. They arrived at
+the same time as Dolores had come, so late that Mysie was tired out,
+and only half awake. She was consigned to Mrs. Halfpenny after her first
+kiss, but as she passed along the corridor, a door was thrown back, and
+a white figure sprang upon her. 'Oh, Mysie! Mysie!' and in spite of the
+nurse's chidings, held her fast in an embrace of delight. Dolores had
+been lying awake watching for her, and implored permission at least to
+look on while she was going to bed!
+
+Harry meanwhile related his experiences to his mother and Gillian over
+the supper-table. The Butterfly's Ball had been a great success. He had
+never seen anything prettier in his life. Plants and lights had been
+judiciously disposed so as to make the hall a continuation of the
+conservatory, almost a fairy land, and the children in their costumes
+had been more like fairies than flesh and blood, pinafore and
+bread-and-butter beings. There was a most perfect tableau at the opening
+of the scenery constructed with moss and plants, so as to form a bower,
+where the Butterfly and Grasshopper, with their immediate attendants,
+welcomed their company, and afterwards formed the first quadrille, Lady
+Phyllis, with Mysie and two other little girls staying in the house,
+being the butterflies, and Lord Ivinghoe and three more boys of the same
+ages, the grasshoppers, in pages' dresses of suitable colours.
+
+'I never thought,' said Harry, 'that our little brown mouse would come
+out so pretty or so swell.'
+
+'She wanted to be the dormouse,' said Gillian.
+
+'That was impracticable. They were all heath butterflies of different
+sorts, wings very correctly coloured and dresses to correspond. Phyllis
+the ringlet with the blue lining, Mysie, the blue one, little Lady
+Alberta, the orange-tip, and the other child the burnet moth.'
+
+'How did Mysie dance?'
+
+'Very fairly, if she had not looked so awfully serious. The
+dancing-mistress, French, of course, had trained them, it was more
+ballet than quadrille, and they looked uncommonly pretty. Uncle William
+granted that, though he grumbled at the whole concern as nonsense, and
+wondered you should send your nice little girl into it to have her head
+turned.'
+
+'Do you think she was happy?'
+
+'Oh, yes, of course. She always is, but she was in prodigious spirits
+when we started to come home. Lady Rotherwood said I was to tell you
+that no child could be more truthful and conscientious. Still somehow
+she did not look like the swells. Except that once, when she was got
+up regardless of expense for the ball, she always had the country mouse
+look about her. She hadn't--'
+
+'The 'Jenny Say Caw,' as Macrae calls it?' said his mother. 'Well, I can
+endure that! You need not look so disgusted, Gill. You didn't hear of
+her getting into any scrape, did you?'
+
+'No,' said Hal. 'Stay, I believe she did break some glass or other,
+and blurted out her confession in full assembly, but I was over at
+Beechcroft, and I am happy to say I didn't see her.'
+
+Mysie's tap came early to her mother's door the next morning, and it was
+in the midst of her toilette that Lady Merrifield was called on to hear
+the confession that had been weighing on the little girl's mind.
+
+'I was too sleepy to tell you last night, mamma, but I did want to do
+so.'
+
+'Well, then, my dear, begin at the beginning, for I could not understand
+your letter.'
+
+'The beginning was, mamma, that we had just come in from our walk, and
+we went out into the schoolroom balcony, because we could see round the
+corner who was coming up the drive. And we began playing at camps, with
+umbrellas up as tents. Ivinghoe, and Alberta, and I. Ivy was general,
+and I was the sentry, with my umbrella shut up, and over my shoulder. I
+was the only one who knew how to present arms. I heard something coming,
+and called out, 'Who goes there?' and Alberta jumped up in such a hurry
+that the points other tent--her umbrella, I mean--scratched my face,
+and before I could recover arms, over went my umbrella, perpendicular,
+straight smash through the glass of the conservatory, and we heard it.'
+
+'And what did you do? Of course you told!'
+
+"Oh yes! I jumped up and said, 'I'll go and tell Lady Rotherwood.' I
+knew I must before I got into a fright, and Ivinghoe said I couldn't
+then, and he would speak to his mother and make it easy for me, and Ply
+says he really meant it; but I thought then that's the way the bad ones
+always get the others into concealments and lies. So I wouldn't listen a
+moment, and I ran down, with him after me, saying, 'Hear reason, Mysie.'
+And I ran full butt up against some-body--Lord Ormersfield it was,
+I found--but I didn't know then. I only said something about begging
+pardon, and dashed on, and opened the door. I saw a whole lot of
+fine people all at five-o'clock tea, but I couldn't stop to get more
+frightened, and I went up straight to Lady Rotherwood and said, 'Please,
+I did it.' Mamma do you think I ought not?"
+
+'There are such things as fit places and times, my dear. What did she
+say?'
+
+"At first she just said, 'My dear, I cannot attend to you now, run
+away;' but then in the midst, a thought seemed to strike her, and she
+said, rather frightened, 'Is any one hurt?' and I said, Oh no; only
+my umbrella has gone right through the roof of the conservatory, and
+I thought I ought to come and tell her directly. 'That was the noise,'
+said some of the people, and everybody got up and went to look. And
+there were Fly and Ivy, who had got in some other way, and the umbrella
+was sticking right upright in the top of one of those palm-trees with
+leaves like screens, and somebody said it was a new development of
+fruit. Lady Rotherwood asked them what they were doing there, and Ivy
+said they had come to see what harm was done. Dear Fly ran up to her and
+said, 'We were all at play together, mother; it was not one more than
+another;' but Lady Rotherwood only said, 'That's enough, Phyllis, I will
+come to you by-and-by in the schoolroom,' and she would have sent us
+away if Cousin Rotherwood himself had not come in just then, and asked
+what was the matter. I heard some of the answers; they were very odd,
+mamma. One was, 'A storm of umbrellas and of untimely confessions;' and
+another was, 'Truth in undress.'"
+
+'Oh, my dear? I hope you were fit to be seen?'
+
+'I forgot about that, mamma, I had taken off my ulster, and had my
+little scarlet flannel underbody, so as to make a better soldier.'
+
+'Oh!' groaned Lady Merrifield.
+
+'And then that dear, good Fly gave a jump and flew at him, and said,
+'Oh, daddy, daddy, it's Mysie, and she has been telling the truth
+like--like Frank, or Sir Thomas More, or George Washington, or anybody.'
+She really did say so, mamma.'
+
+'I can quite believe it of her, Mysie! And how did Cousin Rotherwood
+respond?'
+
+'He sat down upon one of the seats, and took Fly on one knee and me on
+the other, though we were big for it--just like papa, you know--and made
+us tell him all about it. Lady Rotherwood got the others out of the
+way somehow--I don't know how, for my back was that way, and I think
+Ivinghoe went after them, but there was some use in talking to Cousin
+Rotherwood; he has got some sense, and knows what one means, as if
+he was at the dear, nice playing age, and Ivinghoe was his stupid old
+father in a book.'
+
+'Exactly,' said Lady Merrifield, delighted, and longing to laugh.
+
+'But that was the worst of it,' said Mysie, sadly; 'he was so nice that
+I said all sorts of things I didn't mean or ought to have said. I told
+him I would pay for the glass if he would only wait till we had helped
+Dolores pay for those books that the cheque was for, because the man
+came alive again, after her wicked uncle said he was dead, and so
+somehow it all came out; how you made up to Miss Constance and couldn't
+come to the Butterfly's Ball for want of new dresses.'
+
+'Oh, Mysie, you should not have said that! I thought you were to be
+trusted!'
+
+'Yes, mamma, I know,' said Mysie, meekly. 'I recollected as soon as I
+had said it; and told him, and he kissed me and promised he would never
+tell anyone, and made Fly promise that she never would. But I have
+been so miserable about it ever since, mamma; I tried to write it in a
+letter, but I am afraid you didn't half understand.'
+
+'I only saw that something was on your mind, my dear. Now that is all
+over, I do not so much mind Cousin Rotherwood's knowing, he has always
+been so like a brother; but I do hope both he and Fly will keep their
+word. I am more sorry for my little girl's telling than about his
+knowing.'
+
+'And Ivinghoe said my running in that way on all the company was worse
+than breaking the glass or the palm-tree. Was it, mamma?'
+
+'Well, you know, Mysie, there is a time for all things, and very likely
+it vexed Lady Rotherwood more to be invaded by such a little wild colt.'
+
+'But not Cousin Rotherwood himself, mamma,' said Mysie, 'for he said I
+was quite right, and an honourable little fellow, just like old times.
+And so I told Ivy. And he said in such a way, 'Every one knew what his
+father was.' So I told him his father was ten thousand times nicer than
+ever he would be if he lived a hundred years, and I could not bear him
+if he talked in that wicked, disrespectful way, and Fly kissed me for
+it, mamma, and said her daddy was worth a hundred of such a prig as he
+was.'
+
+'My dear, I am afraid neither you nor Fly showed your good manners.'
+
+'It was only Ivinghoe, mamma, and I'm sure I don't care what he thinks,
+if he could talk of his father in that way. Isn't it what you call
+metallical--no--ironical?'
+
+'Indeed, Mysie, I don't wonder it made you very angry, and I can't be
+sorry you showed your indignation.'
+
+'But please, mamma, what ought I to have done about the glass?'
+
+'I don't quite know; I think a very wise little girl might have gone to
+Cousin Florence's room and consulted her. It would have been better than
+making an explosion before so many people. Florence was kind to you, I
+hope.'
+
+'Oh yes, mamma, it was almost like being at home in her room; and she
+has such a dear little house at the end of the park.'
+
+A good deal more oozed out from Mysie to different auditors at different
+times. By her account everything was delightful, and yet mamma concluded
+that all had not absolutely fulfilled the paradisiacal expectation with
+which her country mouse had viewed Rotherwood from afar. Lady Rotherwood
+was very kind, and so was the governess, and Cousin Florence especially.
+Cousin Florence's house felt just like a bit of home. It really was the
+dearest little house--and fluffy cat and kittens, and the sweetest
+love birds. It was perfectly delicious when they drank tea there, but
+unluckily she was not allowed to go thither without the governess or
+Louise, as it was all across the park, and a bit of village.
+
+And Fly? Oh, Fly was always dear and good and funny; but there was
+Alberta to be attended to, and other little girls sometimes, and it was
+not like having her here at home; nor was there any making a row in
+the galleries, nor playing at anything really jolly, though the great
+pillars in the hall seemed made for tying cords to make a spider's web.
+It was always company, except when Cousin Rotherwood called them into
+his den for a little fun. But he had gentlemen to entertain most of the
+time, and the only day that he could have taken them to see the farm and
+the pheasants, Lady Rotherwood said that Phyllis was a little hoarse and
+must not get a cold before the ball.
+
+And as to the Butterfly's Ball itself? Imagination had depicted a
+splendid realization of the verses, and it was flat to find it merely a
+children's fancy ball, no acting at all, only dancing, and most of the
+children not attempting any characteristic dress, only with some insect
+attached to head or shoulder; nothing approaching to the fun of the
+rehearsal at Silverton, as indeed Fly had predicted. The only attempt
+at representation had cost Mysie more trouble than pleasure, for the
+training to dance together had been a difficult and wearisome business.
+Two of the grass-hoppers had been greatly displeased about it, and
+called it a beastly shame, words much shocking gentle Mysie from
+aristocratic lips. One of them had been as sulky, angry, and
+impracticable as possible, just like a log, and the other had consoled
+himself with all manner of tricks, especially upon the teacher and on
+Ivinghoe. He would skip like a real grasshopper, he made faces that set
+all laughing, he tripped Ivinghoe up, he uttered saucy speeches that
+Mysie considered too shocking to repeat, but which convulsed every one
+with laughter, Fly most especially, and her governess had punished her
+for it. 'She would not punish me,' said Mysie, 'though I know I was just
+as bad, and I think that was a shame!' At last the practising had to be
+carried on without the boys, and yet, when it came to the point, both
+the recusants behaved as well and danced as suitably as if they had
+submitted to the training like their sisters! And oh! the dressing, that
+was worse.
+
+'I did not think I was so stupid,' said Mysie, 'but I heard Louise tell
+mademoiselle that I was trop bourgeoise, and mademoiselle answered that
+I was plutot petite paysanne, and would never have l'air de distinction.
+
+'Abominable impertinence!' cried Gillian.
+
+"They thought I did not understand,' said Mysie, 'and I knew it was
+fair to tell them, so I said, 'Mais non, car je suis la petite souris de
+compagne.'"
+
+'Well done, Mysie!' cried her sister.
+
+'They did jump, and Louise began apologizing in a perfect gabble, and
+mademoiselle said I had de l'esprit, but I am sure I did not mean it.'
+
+'But how could they?' exclaimed Gillian. 'I'm sure Mysie looks like a
+lady, a gentleman's child--I mean as much as Fly or any one else.'
+
+'I trust you all look like gentlewomen, and are such in refinement and
+manners, but there is an air, which comes partly of birth, partly of
+breeding, and that none of you, except, perhaps, Alethea, can boast of,
+and about which papa and I don't care one rush.'
+
+'Has Fly got it, mamma?' said Valetta. 'She seemed like one of
+ourselves.'
+
+'Oh, yes,' put in Dolores. 'It was what made me think her stuck up. I
+should have known her for a swell anywhere.'
+
+'I'm sure Fly has no airs!' exclaimed Val, hotly, and Gillian was ready
+to second her; but Lady Merrifield explained. 'The absence of airs is
+one ingredient, Val, both in being ladylike, and in the distinction in
+which the maid justly perceived our Mouse to be deficient. Come, you
+foolish girls, don't look concerned. Nobody but the maid would have ever
+let Mysie perceive the difference.'
+
+Mysie coloured and answered, 'I don't know; I saw the Fitzhughs look at
+me at first as if they did not think I belonged, and Ivinghoe was always
+so awfully polite that I thought he was laughing at me.'
+
+'Ivinghoe must be horrid,' broke out Valetta.
+
+'The Fitzhughs said they would knock it out of him at Eton,' returned
+Mysie. 'They got very nice after the first day, and said Fly and I were
+twice as jolly fellows as he was.'
+
+It further appeared that Mysie had had plenty of partners at the ball,
+and on all occasions her full share of notice, the country neighbours
+welcoming her as her mother's daughter, but most of them saying she
+was far more like her Aunt Phyllis than her own mother. The dancing and
+excitement so late at night had, however, tired her overmuch, she had
+cramp all the remainder of the night, could eat no breakfast the next
+day, and was quite miserable.
+
+'I should like to have cried for you, mamma' she said, 'but they were
+all quite used to it, and not a bit tired. However, Cousin Florence came
+in, and she was so kind. She took me to the little west room, and made
+me lie on the sofa, and read to me till I went to sleep, and I was all
+right after dinner and had a ride on Fly's old pony, Dormouse. She
+has the loveliest new one, all bay, with a black mane and tail, called
+Fairy, but Alberta had that. Oh it was so nice.'
+
+Altogether Lady Merrifield was satisfied that her little girl had not
+been spoilt for home by her taste of dissipation, though she did not
+hear the further confidence to Dolores in the twilight by the schoolroom
+fire.
+
+'Do you know, Dolly, though Fly is such a darling, and they all wanted
+to be kind as well as they knew how, I came to understand how horrid you
+must have felt when you came among the whole lot of us.'
+
+'But you knew Fly already?'
+
+'That made it better, but I don't like it. To feel one does not belong,
+and to be afraid to open a door for fear it should be somebody's room,
+and not quite to know who every one is. Oh, dear! it is enough to make
+anybody cross and stupid. Oh, I am so glad to be back again.'
+
+'I'm sure I am glad you are,' and there was a little kissing match.
+'You'll always come to my room, won't you? Do you know, when Constance
+came to luncheon, I only shook hands, I wouldn't try to kiss her. Was
+that unforgiving?'
+
+'I am sure I couldn't,' said Mysie; 'did she try?'
+
+'I don't think so; I don't think I ever could kiss her; for I never
+should have said what was not true without her, and that is what makes
+Uncle Reginald so angry still. He would not kiss me even when he
+went away. Oh, Mysie! that's worse than anything,' and Dolores's face
+contracted with tears very near at hand. 'I did always so love Uncle
+Regie, and he won't forgive me, and father will be just the same.'
+
+'Poor dear, dear Dolly,' said Mysie, hugging her.
+
+'But you know fathers always forgive, and we will try and make a little
+prayer about it, like the Prodigal Son's, you know.'
+
+'I don't blow properly,' said Dolores.
+
+'I think I can say him,' said Mysie, and the little girls sat with
+enfolded arms, while Mysie reverently went through the parable.
+
+'But he had been very wicked indeed,' objected Dolores, 'what one calls
+dissipated. Isn't that making too much of such things as girls like us
+can do.'
+
+'I don't know,' said Mysie, knitting her young brows; 'you see if we are
+as bad as ever we can be while we are at home, it is really and truly
+as bad in us ourselves as in shocking people that run away, because it
+shows we might have done anything if we had not been taken care of. And
+the poor son felt as if he could not be pardoned, which is just what you
+do feel.'
+
+'Aunt Lily forgives me,' said Dolores, wistfully.
+
+'And your father will, I'm sure,' said Mysie, 'though he is yet a great
+way off. And as to Uncle Regie, I do wish something would happen that
+you could tell the truth about. If you had only broken the palm-tree
+instead of me, and I didn't do right even about that! But if any
+mischief does happen, or accident, I promise you, Dolly, you shall have
+the telling of it, if you have had ever so little to do with it, and
+then mamma will write to Uncle Regie that you have proved yourself
+truthful.'
+
+Dolores did not seem much consoled by this curious promise, and Mysie's
+childishness suddenly gave way to something deeper. 'I suppose,' she
+said, 'if one is true, people find it out and trust one.'
+
+'People can't see into one,' said Dolly.
+
+'Mamma says there is a bright side and a dark side from which to look at
+everybody and everything,' said Mysie.
+
+'I know that,' said Dolores; 'I looked at the dark side of you all when
+I came here.'
+
+'Some day,' said Mysie, 'your bright side will come round to Uncle
+Regie, as it has to us, you dear, dear old Dolly.'
+
+'But do you know, Mysie,' whispered Dolores, in her embrace, 'there's
+something more dreadful that I'm very much afraid of. Do you know
+there hasn't been a letter from father since he was staying with Aunt
+Phyllis--not to me, nor Aunt Jane, nor anybody!'
+
+'Well, he couldn't write when he was at sea, I mean there wasn't any
+post.'
+
+'It would not take so long as this to get to Fiji; and besides. Uncle
+Regie telegraphed to ask about that dreadful cheque, and there hasn't
+been any answer at all.'
+
+'Perhaps he is gone about sailing somewhere in the Pacific Ocean; I
+heard Uncle William saying so to Cousin Rotherwood.' He said, 'Maurice
+is not a fellow to resist a cruise.'
+
+'Then they are thinking about it. They are anxious.'
+
+'Not very,' said Mysie, 'for they think he is sure to be gone on a
+cruise. They said something about his going down like a carpenter into
+the deep sea.'
+
+'Making deep-sea soundings, like Dr. Carpenter! A carpenter, indeed!'
+said Dolores, laughing for a moment. 'Oh! if it is that, I don't mind.'
+
+The weight was lifted, but by-and-by, when the two girls said their
+prayers together, poor Dolores broke forth again, 'Oh, Mysie, Mysie,
+your papa has all--all of you, besides mamma, to pray that he may be
+kept safe, and my father has only me, only horrid me, to pray for him,
+and even I have never cared to do it really till just lately! Oh, poor,
+poor father! And suppose he should be drowned, and never, never have
+forgiven me!'
+
+It was a trouble and misery that recurred night after night, though
+apparently it weighed much less during the day--and nobody but Mysie
+knew how much Dolores was suffering from it. Lady Merrifield was
+increasingly anxious as time went on, and still no mail brought letters
+from Mr. Mohun, but confidence based on his erratic habits, and the
+uncertainty of communication began to fail. And as she grieved more for
+the possible loss, she became more and more tender to her niece, and
+strange to say, in spite of the terror that gnawed so achingly every
+night, and of the ordeal that the Lent Assizes would bring, Dolores was
+happier and more peaceful than ever before at Silverton, and developed
+more of her bright side.
+
+'I really think,' wrote Lady Merrifield to Miss Mohun, 'that she is
+growing more simple and child-like, poor little maid. She is apparently
+free from all our apprehensions about dear Maurice, and I would not
+inspire her with them for the world. Neither does she seem to dread
+the trial, as I do for her, nor to guess what cross-examination may be.
+Constance Hacket has been subpoenaed, and her sister expatiates on her
+nervousness. It is one comfort that Reginald must be there as a witness,
+so that it is not in the power of Irish disturbances to keep him from
+us! May we only be at ease about Maurice by that time!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. -- IN COURT AND OUT.
+
+
+
+How Dolores's heart beat when Colonel Mohun drove up to the door! She
+durst not run out to greet him among her cousins; but stood by her aunt,
+feeling hot and cold and trembling, in the doubt whether he would kiss
+her.
+
+Yes, she did feel his kiss, and Mysie looked at her in congratulation.
+But what did it mean? Was it only that it came as a matter of course,
+and he forgot to withhold it, or was it that he had given up hopes of
+her father, and was sorry for her? She could not make up her mind, for
+he came so late in the evening that she scarcely saw him before bedtime,
+and he did not take any special notice of her the next morning. He had
+done his best to save her from being long detained at Darminster, by
+ascertaining as nearly as possible when Flinders's case would come on,
+and securing a room at the nearest inn, where she might await a summons
+into court. Lady Merrifield was going with them, but would not take
+either of her daughters, thinking that every home eye would be an
+additional distress, and that it was better that no one should see or
+remember Dolores as a witness.
+
+Miss Mohun met the party at the station, going off, however, with her
+brother into court, after having established Lady Merrifield and her
+niece in an inn parlour, where they kept as quiet as they could, by the
+help of knitting, and reading aloud. Lady Merrifield found that
+Dolores had been into court before, and knew enough about it to need no
+explanation or preparation, and being much afraid of causing agitation,
+she thought it best only to try to interest her in such tales as
+'Neale's Triumphs of the Cross,' instead of letting her dwell on what
+she most dreaded, the sight of the prisoner, and the punishment her
+words might bring upon him.
+
+The morning ended, and Uncle Reginald brought word that his case would
+come on immediately after luncheon. This he shared with his sister
+and niece, saying that Jane had gone to a pastrycook's with--with
+Rotherwood--thinking this best for Dolly. He seemed to be in strangely
+excited spirits, and was quite his old self to Dolores, tempting her to
+eat, and showing himself so entirely the kind uncle that she would have
+been quite cheered up if she had not been afraid that it was all out of
+pity, and that he knew something dreadful.
+
+Lord Rotherwood met them at the hotel entrance, and took his cousin
+on his arm; Dolores following with her uncle, was sure that she gave
+a great start at something that he said; but she had to turn in a
+different direction to wait under the charge of her uncle, who treated
+her as if she were far more childish and inexperienced in the ways of
+courts than she really was, and instructed her in much that she knew
+perfectly well; but it was too comfortable to have him kind to her for
+her to take the least offence, and she only said 'Yes' and 'Thank you'
+at the proper places.
+
+The sheriff, meantime, had given Lord Rotherwood and Lady Merrifield
+seats near the judge, where Miss Mohun was already installed. Alfred
+Flinders was already at the bar, and for the first time Lady Merrifield
+saw his somewhat handsome but shifty-looking face and red beard, as
+the counsel for the prosecution was giving a detailed account of his
+embarrassed finances, and of his having obtained from the inexperienced
+kindness of a young lady, a mere child in age, who called him uncle,
+though without blood relationship, a draft of her father's for seven
+pounds, which, when presented at the bank, had become one for seventy.
+
+As before, the presenting and cashing of the seventy pounds was sworn to
+by the banker's clerk, and then Dolores Mary Mohun was called.
+
+There she stood, looking smaller than usual in her black, close-fitting
+dress and hat, in a place meant for grown people, her dark face pale and
+set, keeping her eyes as much as she could from the prisoner. When the
+counsel spoke she gave a little start, for she knew him, as one who had
+often spent an evening with her parents, in the cheerful times while
+her mother lived. There was something in the familiar glance of his eyes
+that encouraged her, though he looked so much altered by his wig and
+gown, and it seemed strange that he should question her, as a stranger,
+on her exact name and age, her father's absence, the connection with the
+prisoner, and present residence. Then came:
+
+'Did your father leave any money with you?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'What was the amount?'
+
+'Five pounds for myself; seven besides.'
+
+'In what form was the seven pounds?'
+
+'A cheque from W.'s bank.'
+
+'Did you part with it?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'To whom?'
+
+'I sent it to him.'
+
+'To whom if you please?'
+
+'To Mr. Alfred Flinders.' And her voice trembled.
+
+'Can you tell me when you sent it away?'
+
+'It was on the 22nd of December.'
+
+'Is this the cheque?'
+
+'It has been altered.'
+
+'Explain in what manner?'
+
+'There has 'ty' been put at the end of the written 'seven,' and a cipher
+after the figure 7 making it 70.'
+
+'You are sure that it was not so when it went out of your possession?'
+
+'Perfectly sure.'
+
+Mr. Calderwood seemed to have done with her, and said, 'Thank you;' but
+then there stood up a barrister, whom she suspected of being a man her
+mother had disliked, and she knew that the worst was coming when he
+said, in a specially polite voice too, 'Allow me to ask whether the
+cheque in question had been intended by Mr. Mohun for the prisoner?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'Or was it given to you as pocket-money?'
+
+'No, it was to pay a bill.'
+
+'Then did you divert it from that purpose?'
+
+'I thought the man was dead.'
+
+'What man?'
+
+'Professor Muhlwasser.'
+
+'The creditor?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+Mr. Calderwood objected to these questions as irrelevant; but the
+prisoner's counsel declared them to be essential, and the judge let
+him go on to extract from Dolores that the payment was intended for an
+expensive illustrated work on natural history, which was to be published
+in Germany. Her father had promised to take two copies of it if it were
+completed; but being doubtful whether this would ever be the case,
+he had preferred leaving a draft with her to letting the account be
+discharged by his brother, and he had reckoned that seven pounds would
+cover the expense.
+
+'You say you supposed the author was dead. What reason had you for
+thinking so?'
+
+'He told me; Mr. Flinders did.'
+
+'Had Mr. Mohun sanctioned your applying this sum to any other purpose
+than that specified?'
+
+'No, he had not. I did wrong,' said Dolores, firmly.
+
+He wrinkled up his forehead, so that the point of his wig went upwards,
+and proceeded to inquire whether she had herself given the cheque to the
+prisoner.
+
+'I sent it.'
+
+'Did you post it?'
+
+'Not myself. I gave it to Miss Constance Hacket to send it for me.'
+
+'Can you swear to the sum for which it was drawn when you parted with
+it?'
+
+'Yes. I looked at it to see whether it was pounds or guineas.'
+
+'Did you give it loose or in an envelope?'
+
+'In an envelope.'
+
+'Was any other person aware of your doing so?'
+
+'Nobody.'
+
+'What led you to make this advance to the prisoner?'
+
+'Because he told me that he was in great distress.'
+
+'He told you. By letter or in person?'
+
+'In person.'
+
+'When did he tell you so?'
+
+'On the 22nd of December.'
+
+'And where?'
+
+'At Darminster.'
+
+'Let me ask whether this interview at Darminster took place with the
+knowledge of the lady with whom you reside?'
+
+'No, it did not,' said Dolores, colouring deeply.
+
+'Was it a chance meeting?'
+
+'No--by appointment.'
+
+'How was the appointment made?'
+
+'We wrote to say we would come that day.'
+
+'We--who was the other party?'
+
+'Miss Constance Hacket.'
+
+'You were then in correspondence with the prisoner. Was it with the
+sanction of Lady Merrifield?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'A secret correspondence, then, romantically carried on--by what means?'
+
+'Constance Hacket sent the letters and received them for me.'
+
+'What was the motive for this arrangement?'
+
+'I knew my aunt would prevent my having anything to do with him.'
+
+'And you--excuse me--what interest had you in doing so?'
+
+'My mother had been like his sister, and always helped him.'
+
+All these answers were made with a grave, resolute straightforwardness,
+generally with something of Dolores's peculiar stony look, and only
+twice was there any involuntary token of feeling, when she blushed at
+confessing the concealment from her aunt, and at the last question, when
+her voice trembled as she spoke of her mother. She kept her eyes on her
+interrogators all the time, never once glancing towards the prisoner,
+though all the time she had a sensation as if his reproachful looks were
+piercing her through.
+
+She was dismissed, and Constance Hacket was brought in, looking about
+in every direction, carrying a handkerchief and scent bottle, and not
+attempting to conceal her flutter of agitation.
+
+Mr. Calderwood had nothing to ask her but about her having received the
+cheque from Miss Mohun and forwarded it to Flinders, though she could
+not answer for the date without a public computation back from Christmas
+Day, and forward from St. Thomas's. As to the amount--
+
+'Oh, yes, certainly, seven pounds.'
+
+Moreover she had posted it herself.
+
+Then came the cross-examination,
+
+'Had she seen the draft before posting it?'
+
+'Well--she really did not remember exactly.'
+
+'How did she know the amount then?'
+
+'Well, I think--yes--I think Dolores told me so.'
+
+'You think,' he said, in a sort of sneer. 'On your oath. Do you know?'
+
+'Yes, yes, yes. She assured me! I know something was said about seven.'
+
+'Then you cannot swear to the contents of the envelope you forwarded?'
+
+'I don't know. It was all such a confusion and hurry.'
+
+'Why so?'
+
+'Oh! because it was a secret.'
+
+The counsel of course availed himself of this handle to elicit that the
+witness had conducted a secret correspondence between the prisoner
+and her young friend without the knowledge of the child's natural
+protectors. 'A perfect romance,' he said, 'I believe the prisoner is
+unmarried.'
+
+Perhaps this insinuation would have been checked, but before any one had
+time to interfere, Constance, blushing crimson, exclaimed, 'Oh! Oh! I
+assure you it was not that. It was because she said he was her uncle and
+that they ill-used him.'
+
+This brought upon her the searching question whether the last witness
+had stated the prisoner to be really her uncle, and Constance replied,
+rather hotly, that she had always understood that he was.
+
+'In fact, she gave you to understand that the prisoner was actually
+related to her by blood. Did you say that she also told you that he was
+persecuted or ill-used by her other relations?'
+
+'I thought so. Yes, I am sure she said so.'
+
+'And it was wholly and solely on these grounds that you assisted in this
+clandestine correspondence?'
+
+'Why--yes--partly,' faltered Constance, thinking of her literary
+efforts, 'so it began.'
+
+There was a manifest inclination to laugh in the audience, who naturally
+thought her hesitation implied something very different; and the judge,
+thinking that there was no need to push her further, when Mr. Calderwood
+represented that all this did not bear on the matter, and was no
+evidence, silenced Mr. Yokes, and the witness was dismissed.
+
+The next point was that Colonel Reginald Mohun was called upon to attest
+that the handwriting was his brother's. He answered for the main body
+of the draft, and the signature, but the additions, in which the forgery
+lay, were so slight that it was impossible to swear that they did not
+come from the hand of Maurice Mohun.
+
+'Had application been made to Mr. Mohun on the subject?'
+
+'Yes, Colonel Mohun had immediately telegraphed to him at the address in
+the Fiji Islands.'
+
+'Has any answer been received?'
+
+'No!' but Colonel Mohun had a curious expression in his eyes, and Mr.
+Calderwood electrified the court by begging to call upon Mr. Maurice
+Mohun.
+
+There he was in the witness-box, looking sunburnt but vigorous. He
+replied immediately to the question that the cheque was his own, and
+that it had been left under his daughter's charge, also that it had been
+for seven pounds, and the 'ty' and the cypher had never been written by
+him. The prisoner winced for a moment, and then looked at him defiantly.
+
+The connection with Alfred Flinders was inquired into and explained, and
+being asked as to the term 'Uncle,' he replied, 'My daughter was allowed
+to get into the habit of so terming him.'
+
+The sisters saw his look of pain, and Jane remembered his strong
+objection to the title, and his wife's indignant defence of it.
+
+Dolores stood trembling outside in the waiting-room, by her Uncle
+Reginald, from whom she heard that her father had come that morning from
+London with Lord Rotherwood, but that it had been thought better not to
+agitate her by letting her know of it before she gave her evidence.
+
+'Has he had my letter?' she asked.
+
+'No; he knew nothing till he saw Rotherwood last night.'
+
+All the misery of writing the confession came back upon poor Dolores,
+and she turned quite white and sick, but her uncle said kindly, 'Never
+mind, my dear, he was very much pleased with your manner of giving
+evidence. Such a contrast to your friend's. Faugh!'
+
+In a few more seconds Mr. Mohun had come out. He took the cold,
+trembling hands in his own, pressed them close, met the anxious eyes
+with his own, full of moisture, and said, 'My poor little girl,' in a
+tone that somehow lightened Dolly's heart of its worst dread.
+
+'Will you go back into court?' asked the colonel.
+
+'You don't wish it, Dolly?' said her father.
+
+'Oh no! please not.'
+
+'Then,' said the colonel, 'take your father back to the room at the
+hotel, and we will come to you. I suppose this will not last much
+longer.'
+
+'Probably not half an hour. I don't want to see that fellow either
+convicted or acquitted.'
+
+Then Dolores found herself steered out of the passages and from among
+the people waiting or gazing, into the clearer space in the street, her
+father holding her hand as if she had been a little child. Neither of
+them spoke till they had reached the sitting-room, and there, the first
+thing he did when the door was shut, was to sit down, take her between
+his knees, put an arm round her, and kiss her, saying again, 'My poor
+child!'
+
+'You never got my letter!' she said, leaning against him, feeling the
+peace and rest his embrace gave.
+
+'No; but I have heard all. I should have warned you, Dolly; but I never
+imagined that he could get at you there; and I was unwilling to accuse
+one for whom your mother had a certain affection.'
+
+'That was why I helped him,' whispered Dolores.
+
+'I knew it,' he said kindly. 'But how did he find you out, and how had
+he the impertinence to write to you at your Aunt Lily's--'
+
+'I wrote to him first,' she said, hanging down her head.
+
+'How was that? You surely had not been in the habit of doing so whilst I
+was at home.'
+
+'No; but he came and spoke to me at Exeter, the day you went away. Uncle
+William was not there, he had gone into the town. And he--Mr. Flinders,
+said he was going down to see you, and was very much disappointed to
+hear that you were gone.'
+
+'Did he ask you to write to him?'
+
+'I don't think he did. Father, it seems too silly now, but I was very
+angry because Aunt Lilias said she must see all my letters except yours
+and Maude Sefton's, and I told Constance Hacket. She said she would send
+anything for me, and I could not think of any one I wanted to write to,
+so I wrote to--to him.'
+
+'Ah! I saw you did not get on with your aunt,' was the answer, 'that was
+partly what brought me home.' And either not hearing or not heeding
+her exclamation, 'Oh, but now I do,' he went on to explain that on his
+arrival at Fiji he had found that circumstances had altered there, and
+that the person with whom he was to have been associated had died, so
+that the whole scheme had been broken up. A still better appointment
+had, however, been offered to him in New Zealand, on the resignation
+of the present holder after a half-year's notice, and he had at once
+written to accept it. A proposal had been made to him to spend the
+intermediate time in a scientific cruise among the Polynesian Islands;
+but the letters he had found awaiting him at Vanua Levu had convinced
+him that the arrangements he had made in England had been a mistake, and
+he had therefore hurried home via San Francisco, as fast as any letter
+could have gone, to wind up his English affairs, and fetch his daughter
+to the permanent home in Auckland, which her Aunt Phyllis would prepare
+for her.
+
+Her countenance betrayed a sudden dismay, which made him recollect that
+she was a strangely undemonstrative girl; but before she had recovered
+the shock so as to utter more than a long 'Oh!' they were interrupted by
+the cup of tea that had been ordered for Dolores, and in a minute more,
+steps were heard, and the two aunts were in the room. 'Seven years,'
+were Jane's first words, and 'My dear Maurice,' Lady Merrifield's, 'Oh!
+I wish I could have spared you this,' and then among greetings came
+again, 'Seven years,' from the brother and cousin who had seen the
+traveller before.
+
+'I'm glad you were not there, Maurice,' said Lady Merrifield. 'It was
+dreadful.'
+
+'I never saw a more insolent fellow!' said Lord Rotherwood.
+
+'That Yokes, you mean,' said Miss Mohun. 'I declare I think he is worse
+than Flinders!'
+
+'That's like you women, Jenny,' returned the colonel; 'you can't
+understand that a man's business is to get off his client!'
+
+'When he gave him up as an honest man altogether!' cried Lady
+Merrifield.
+
+'And cast such imputations!' exclaimed Aunt Jane. 'I saw what the wretch
+was driving at all the time of the cross-examination; and if I'd been
+the judge, would not I have stopped him?'
+
+'There you go. Lily and Jenny!' said the colonel, 'and Rotherwood just
+as bad! Why, Maurice would have had to take just the same line if he had
+been for the defence.'
+
+'He would not have done it in such a blackguard fashion though,' said
+Lord Rotherwood.
+
+'I saw what his defence would be,' said Mr. Mohun, briefly.
+
+'There!' said Colonel Mohun, with a boyish pleasure in confuting his
+sisters; but they were not subdued.
+
+'Now Maurice,' cried Jane, 'when that man was known to be utterly
+dishonourable and good for nothing, was it fair--was it not contrary to
+all common sense--to try to cast the imputation between those two poor
+girls? So the judge and jury felt it, I am happy to say! but I call it
+abominable to have thrown out the mere suggestion--'
+
+'Nay now, Jane,' said the colonel, 'if the man was to be defended at
+all, how else was it to be done?'
+
+'I wouldn't have had him defended at all! but, unfortunately, that's his
+right as an Englishman.'
+
+'That's another thing! But as the cheque did not alter itself, one of
+the three must have done it, and nothing was left but to show that there
+had been an amount of shuffling, and--in short, nonsense--that might
+cast enough doubt on their evidence to make it insufficient for a
+conviction.'
+
+'Reginald! I can't think how you can stand up for such a wretch, a
+vulgar wretch,' cried Miss Mohun. 'You put it delicately, as a gentleman
+who had the misfortune to be counsel in such a case might do, but he was
+infinitely worse than that, though that was bad enough.'
+
+'It was Yokes,' put in Mr. Mohun; 'but what did he say?' looking
+anxiously at his daughter.
+
+'It was not so bad about her,' said her uncle, 'he only made her out a
+foolish child, easily played upon by everybody, and possibly ignorant
+and frightened, or led away by her regard for her supposed relation. It
+was the other poor girl--
+
+'The amiable susceptibilities of romantic young ladies!' broke out Lady
+Merrifield. 'Oh, the creature!' To think of that poor foolish Constance
+sitting by to hear it represented that the expedition to Darminster, and
+all the rest of it, was because she was actually touched by that fellow.
+I really felt ready to take her part.'
+
+'She had certainly brought it on herself,' said Aunt Jane; 'but it was
+atrocious of him and if the other counsel had only known it, he stopped
+the cross examination just at the wrong time, or it would have come out
+that it was literary vanity that was the lure. No doubt he would have
+made a laughing-stock of that, but it would not have been as bad as the
+other.'
+
+'Poor thing,' said Lady Merrifield; 'it was a trying retribution for
+schoolgirl folly and want of conscientiousness. I should think she was a
+sadder and a wiser woman.'
+
+'He must have overdone it,' said Mr. Mohun, 'he is a vulgar fellow, and
+always does so; but, as Reginald says, the only available defence was
+to enhance the folly and sentiment of the girls; but of course the judge
+charged the other way--
+
+'Entirely,' said Lord Rotherwood, 'he brought Dolly rather well out of
+it, saying that as he understood it, a young girl who had seen a needy
+connection assisted from her home might think herself justified in
+corresponding with him, and even in diverting to his use money left in
+her charge, when it was probable that it would not be required for the
+original object. He did not say it was right, but it was an error of
+judgment by no means implying swindling--in fact. He disposed of Miss
+Hacket in the same way--foolish, sentimental, unscrupulous, but not to
+that degree. Girls might be silly enough in all conscience, but not so
+as to commit forgery or perjury. That was the gist of it, and happily
+the jury were of the same opinion.'
+
+'Happily? Well, I suppose so,' said Mr. Mohun, with a certain
+sorrowfulness of tone, into which his little daughter entered.
+
+'I say, Rotherwood,' exclaimed the colonel, as the town clock's two
+strokes for the half-hour echoed loudly, 'if you mean to catch the 4.50,
+you must fly.'
+
+'Fly!' he coolly repeated. 'Tell Mysie, Lily, that Fly has never ceased
+talking of her. That child has been saving her money to fit out one of
+Florence's orphan's. She--'
+
+'Rotherwood,' broke in Mr. Mohun, 'your wife charged me to see that you
+were in time for that dinner. A ministerial one.'
+
+'Don't encourage him, Lily,' chimed in the colonel. 'I'll call a cab.
+See him safe off, Maurice.'
+
+And off he was hunted amid the laughter of the ladies; the manner of all
+to one another was so exactly what it had been in the old times.
+
+'I could hardly help telling him to take care, or Victoria would never
+let him out again,' said Miss Mohun. 'Poor old fellow, it would have
+been a fine chance for him with four of us together.'
+
+'You can come back with us, Jenny!'
+
+'I brought my bag in case of accidents.'
+
+'And we'll telegraph to Adeline to join us tomorrow,' said Mr. Mohun,
+who seemed to have been seized with a hunger for the sight of his
+kindred.
+
+'Telegraph! My dear Maurice, Ada's nerves would be torn to smithereens
+by a telegram without me to open it for her. I've a card here to post to
+her; but I expect that I must go down tomorrow and fetch her, which will
+be the best way, for I have a meeting.'
+
+'Jenny, I declare you are a caution even to Miss Hacket,' said Colonel
+Reginald, re-entering.
+
+'Well, Ada always was the family pet. Besides, I told you I had a G.F.S.
+meeting. Did you get a cab for us; Lily has had quite walking enough.'
+
+The ladies went in a cab, while the gentlemen walked. There was not much
+time to spare, and in the compartment into which the first comers
+threw themselves, they found both the Hacket sisters installed, and the
+gentlemen coming up in haste, nodded and got into a smoking-carriage, on
+seeing how theirs was occupied.
+
+'Oh, we could have made room,' said Constance, to whom a gentleman was a
+gentleman under whatever circumstances.
+
+'Dear Miss Dolores's papa! Is it indeed?' said Miss Hacket.
+
+'So wonderfully interesting,' chimed in Constance. And they both made a
+dart at Dolores to kiss her in congratulation, much against her will.
+
+The train clattered on, and Lady Merrifield hoped it would hush all
+other voices, but neither of the Hackets could refrain from discussing
+the trial, and heaping such unmitigated censure on the counsel for the
+prisoner, that Miss Mohun felt herself constrained to fly in the face of
+all she had said at the hotel, and to maintain the right of even such an
+Englishman to be defended, and of his advocate to prevent his conviction
+if possible. On which the regular sentiment against becoming lawyers was
+produced, and the subject might have been dropped if Constance had
+not broken out again, as if she could not leave it. 'So atrocious, so
+abominably insolent, asking if he was unmarried.'
+
+'Evidently flattered!' muttered Aunt Jane, between her teeth, and
+unheard; but the speed slackened, and Constance's voice went on,
+
+'I really thought I should have died of it on the spot. The bare idea of
+thinking I could endure such a being.'
+
+'Well,' said Dolores, just as the clatter ceased at a little station.
+'You know you did walk up and down with him ever so long, and I am sure
+you liked him very much.'
+
+An indignant 'You don't understand' was absolutely cut off by an
+imperative grasp and hush from Miss Hacket the elder; Aunt Jane was
+suffocating with laughter, Lady Merrifield, between that and a certain
+shame for womanhood, which made her begin to talk at random about
+anything or everything else.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII. -- NAY.
+
+
+
+'What a mull they have made of it!' were Mr. Maurice Mohun's first words
+when he found the compartment free for a tete-a-tete with his brother.
+
+'All's well that ends well,' was the brief reply.
+
+'Well, indeed! Mary would not have thought so.' To which the colonel had
+nothing to say.
+
+'It serves me out,' his brother went on presently. 'I ought to have done
+something for that wretched fellow before I went, or, at any rate, have
+put Dolly on her guard; but I always shirked the very thought of him.'
+
+'Nothing would have kept him out of harm's way.'
+
+'It might have kept the child; but she must have been thicker with him
+than I ever knew. However I shall have her with me for the future, and
+in better hands.'
+
+'You really mean to take her out?'
+
+'That's what brought me home. She isn't happy; that is plain from her
+letters; and Jane does not know what to make of her, nor Lilias either.'
+
+'When were your last letters dated?'
+
+'The last week in September.'
+
+'Early days,' muttered the colonel.
+
+'I thought it an experiment, you know; but you said so much about Lily's
+girls being patterns, that I thought Jasper Merrifield might have made
+her more rational and less flighty, and all that sort of thing; but of
+course it was a very different tone from what the child was used to, and
+you couldn't tell what the young barbarians were out of sight.'
+
+'So I began to think last winter; but I fancy you will find that she and
+Lily understand one another a good deal better than they did at first.'
+
+'I thought she did not receive my intelligence as a deliverance. I am
+glad if she can carry away an affectionate remembrance, but I want to
+have her under my own eye.'
+
+'I suppose that's all right,' was the half reluctant reply.
+
+'There's Phyllis. She is full of good sense, with no nonsense about her
+or May, and her girls are downright charming.'
+
+'Very likely; but I say, Maurice, you must not underrate Lilias. She has
+gone through a good deal with Dolores, and I believe she has been the
+making of her. You've had to leave the poor child a good deal to herself
+and Fraulein, and, as you see by this affair, she had some ways that
+made it hard for Lily to deal with her at first.'
+
+Her father plainly did not like this. 'There was no harm in the poor
+child, but as I should have foreseen, there's always an atmosphere of
+sentiment and ritual and flummery about Lilias, totally different from
+what she was used to.'
+
+Colonel Mohun had nearly said, 'So much the better,' but turned it into,
+'I think you will change your opinion.'
+
+Brothers and sisters, and cousins, whatever they may be to the external
+world, always remain relatively to each other pretty much as they knew
+one another when a single home held them all. The familiar Christian
+names seemed to revive the old ways, and it was amusing to see the
+somewhat grave and silent colonel treated by his elder brother as the
+dashing, heedless boy, needing to be looked after, while his sister Jane
+remained the ready helper and counsellor, and Lady Merrifield was
+still in his eyes the unpractical, fanciful Lily with an unfortunately
+suggestive rhyme to her name.
+
+Perhaps it maintained him in this opinion, that when he had answered
+all questions about Captain and Mrs. Harry May, and had dilated on their
+pretty house in the suburbs of Auckland, his sisters expected him to
+tell of the work of the Church among the Maoris and Fijians. He laughed
+at them for thinking colonists troubled their heads about natives.
+
+'I know Phyllis does. One of Harry May's brothers went out as a
+missionary.'
+
+'Disenchanted and came home again when his wife came into a fortune.'
+
+'Not a bit of it,' said Aunt Jane. 'I know him and all about him. He
+stayed till his health broke, and now he is one of the most useful men
+in the country. He is coming to speak for the S.P.G. at Rockquay, Lily;
+and you must come and meet him and his charming wife. They will tell you
+a very different story about Harry's doings.'
+
+'Well,' allowed Mr. Mohun, 'there are apparitions of brown niggers
+done up as smart as twopence prancing about the house. Perfectly
+uninteresting, you know, the savage sophisticated out of his
+picturesqueness. I made a point of asking no questions, not knowing what
+I might be let in for.'
+
+'Then you heard nothing of Mr. Ward, the Melanesian missionary, whom
+Phyllis keeps a room for when he comes to New Zealand to recruit.'
+
+'The man who was convicted of murder on circumstantial evidence! Oh yes.
+I heard of him. I believe the labour-traffic agents heartily wish him at
+Portland still, he makes the natives so much too sharp.'
+
+'Aye,' said the colonel, 'as long as Britons aren't slaves they have no
+objection to anything but the name for other people.'
+
+'Wait till you get out there, Regie, and see what they all say about
+those lazy fellows--except, of course, ladies and parsons, and a few
+whom they've bitten, like May.'
+
+'The few are on the Christian side, of course,' said Lady Merrifield,
+with irony in her tone.
+
+Indeed, she was not at all sure that half this colonial prejudice was
+not assumed in order to tease her, just as in former times her brother
+would make game of her enthusiasms about school children; for he was
+altogether returned to his old self, his sister Jane, who had seen the
+most of him, testifying that the original Maurice had revived, as never
+in the course of his married life.
+
+Dolores tried to forget or disbelieve the words she had heard about his
+having come to fetch her away, and said no word about them until they
+had been unmistakably repeated. Then she felt a sort of despair at the
+idea of being separated from her aunt and Mysie, for indeed they had
+penetrated to affections deeper than had ever been consciously stirred
+in her before. Yet she was old enough to shrink from allowing to her
+father that she preferred staying with them to going with him, and it
+was to her Aunt Jane that she had recourse. That lady, after returning
+from her expedition to bring her sister Adeline to Silverton, was
+surprised by a timid knock at the door, and Dolores's entrance.
+
+'Oh, if you please, Aunt Jane, may I come in? I do so want to speak to
+you alone. Don't you think it is a sad pity that I should go away from
+the Cambridge examination? Could not you tell my father so?'
+
+'You want to stay for the Cambridge examination,' said Aunt Jane, a
+little amused at the manner of touching on the subject, though sorry for
+the girl.
+
+'I have been taking great pains under Miss Vincent, and it does seem a
+pity to miss it.'
+
+'I don't think it will make much difference to you.'
+
+'Oh, but I do want to be thoroughly well educated. I meant to go through
+them all, like Gillian and Mysie, and I am sure father must wish it too.
+I know he meant it when he went out last year.'
+
+'Yes, he did,' said Miss Mohun. 'It was very unlucky that he did not get
+any of our later letters.'
+
+'I have tried to tell him that it is all different now, but he does not
+seem to care,' said Dolores.
+
+'He has quite made up his mind,' said her aunt.
+
+'Has he quite?' said Dolores. 'I thought perhaps if you talked to him
+about the examination and the confirmation too--'
+
+'But, Dolly, you are not going to a heathen country. Your confirmation
+will be as much attended to in New Zealand as here.'
+
+'Oh, but I should be confirmed with Mysie, and Aunt Lily would read with
+me, and help me!'
+
+'Yes, I see.'
+
+'Do please tell him. Aunt Jane. He heeds what you say more than any one.
+Do tell him that the only hope of my being good is if I stay with Aunt
+Lily just these few years!'
+
+'Ah, Dolly, that is what you really mean and care about--not the
+Cambridge business.'
+
+'Of course it is. Please tell him, Aunt Jane--somehow I can't--that I
+was bad and foolish when I wrote all the letters he had; but now I know
+better, and--and--I don't want to vex him, but I shall be ever so much
+better a daughter to him if he will leave me with Aunt Lily, to learn
+some of her goodness'--and there were tears in her eyes, for these
+months had softened her greatly.
+
+'My poor Dolly!' said Aunt Jane, much more tenderly than she generally
+spoke. 'I am very sorry for you. I do think Aunt Lily has been the
+making of you, and that it is very hard that you should have to be
+uprooted from her, just as you had learnt to value her, I will tell your
+father so; but honestly, I do not think it is likely to make him change
+his mind.'
+
+Miss Mohun sought her brother out the next day, and told him that they
+had all been waiting in patience when thinking that his daughter's
+residence at Silverton was an unsuccessful experiment. The explosion she
+had predicted had come, and Dolores had been a different creature ever
+since, owing to Lady Merrifield's management of her in the crisis; and
+she added that the girl was most unwilling to leave her aunt, and that
+she herself thought it would be much better to leave her for a few years
+to the advantages of her present training, where her affections had been
+gained. Mr. Mohun could not see it in the same light. The intimacy with
+Constance Hacket was in his eyes a folly, consequent on his sister's
+passion for Sunday schools and charities; and Jane, being infected
+with the like ardour, he disregarded her explanations. The underhand
+correspondence could not have been carried on without great blindness
+and carelessness, or, at least, injudiciousness, on Lady Merrifield's
+part, and there was no denying that she had trusted to a sense of honour
+that was nonexistent. Nor did he appreciate Jane's argument that the
+conquest of the heart and will had thus been far more thoroughly gained
+than it would have been by constant thwarting and watching. It was hard
+to forgive such an exposure as had taken place, or to believe that it
+had not been brought about by unjustifiable errors, more especially as
+Lady Merrifield was the first to accuse herself of them. Moreover, he
+had become sensible of a strong natural yearning for the presence of
+his only child, and he had been so much struck with his sister Phyllis's
+family that he sincerely believed himself consulting the girl's best
+interests. He was by no means an irreligious or ungodly man, but he had
+always thought his sister Lilias more or less of an enthusiast, and he
+did not wish to see Dolores the same. Perhaps, indeed, the poor child's
+manifest clinging to her aunt and cousins made him all the more resolute
+to remove her before her affection should be entirely weaned from
+himself.
+
+He made his headquarters at Silverton, and during the next two months
+modified his opinions so far as to confess to his sister Jane that
+Lilias was a much more sensible woman than he had believed her, and had
+her children well in hand. He even allowed that Dolores was improved,
+and owed much to her kindness; and when the first sting of the exposure
+was over, he could see that the treatment had been far from injudicious
+as regarded the girl's own character. He was even glad that warm love
+and friendship had grown up towards her aunt and cousins; but all this
+left his purpose unchanged; although, after the first, nothing was said
+about it, Dolores tried to forget it, and hoped that the sight of her
+going on well and peaceably would convince him of the inexpediency of
+disturbing her. She could not even mention it to Mysie, lest the dread
+should become a reality by being uttered. So no more passed on the
+subject till it became necessary to take her outfit in hand, and he
+also wished to take her to Beechcroft, that the old family home which he
+regarded with fresh tenderness might be impressed on her memory.
+
+Then, though she never durst directly oppose the fate which he destined
+for her, she surprised him by a violent burst of tears and sobbing, and
+an entreaty that he would not take her away from Aunt Lily and Mysie a
+moment sooner than could be helped.
+
+She clung to everything, even to the guinea-pigs, and she was the first
+in the Easter holidays to beg for the 'Thorn Fortress.' Indeed, Mysie
+was a little shocked at her grief, as disloyal and unfilial. 'One ought
+not to mind going anywhere with one's father,' she said; 'we all thought
+it a great honour for Phyllis and Alethea.'
+
+'They are grown up!' said Dolores, 'and Aunt Lily does get into one so!
+Oh, don't say there's Aunt Phyllis. I hate the very name of her.'
+
+'She must be nice,' said Mysie, 'Whenever the 'grown-ups' are pleased
+with me they say I am getting like her, as if it was the best thing one
+could be.'
+
+'But I don't want Mysie old and grown up, I want my Mysie now, as you
+are!--And you'll forget and leave off writing, like Maude Sefton.'
+
+'Never!' cried Mysie. 'Eight across the world you will always be my own
+twin cousin.'
+
+The wishes of the girl were so far fulfilled that Lady Merrifield took
+her to London to provide her outfit, and Mysie accompanied them. A room
+and its dressing-room received the three at old Mrs. Merrifield's, and
+the two cousins thought their close quarters ineffably precious.
+
+Mysie was introduced to Maude Sefton, who seemed entirely unconscious
+of her treachery to friendship. 'One had so little time, and couldn't
+always be writing,' she said, when Dolores reproached her; 'exercises
+were enough to tire out one's hand!'
+
+They also drank tea with Lady Phyllis Devereux and her governess. Fly
+could not pour forth questions and reminiscences fast enough about
+all the beloved animals at Silverton, not forgetting the little G.F.S.
+nursemaid, for whom she had actually made an apron in her plain-work
+lessons. Moreover, she deemed Dolores's fate most enviable, to be
+going off with her father to strange countries, away from lessons, and
+masters, and towns. It would be almost as good as Leila on the island.
+
+As to the Beechcroft visit, Mr. and Mrs. Mohun collected all the
+brothers and sisters in England there for a week, and still Mysie and
+Dolores were allowed to be together, squeezed into a corner of Lady
+Merrifield's room. It was high summer, bright and glowing, and so dry,
+and even the invalidish sisters, Lady Henry Gray and Miss Adeline Mohun
+could not object to the sitting out on the lawn, among the dragonflies,
+as in days of yore.
+
+Much of old thought and feeling was then and there taken up again, and
+it was on one of the last evenings of the visit that Mr. Mohun, walking
+up and down the alley with Lady Merrifield, said--
+
+'Well, Lily, I think my determination to take Dolly away was hasty. I
+cannot leave her now, but if I had understood all that I see at present,
+I should have been both content and grateful to have her among your
+children. I am afraid I have been ungracious.'
+
+'I never thought so, Maurice. It is quite right that she should be with
+you, and Phyllis will do every-thing for her much better than I.'
+
+'Poor child! I believe she is very sorry to go,' said Mr. Mohun; 'but,
+at any rate, she will remember Silverton as, I hope, a lasting influence
+on her life.'
+
+Dolores truly believed that so it would be, and that her aunt's guidance
+would be always looked back upon as the turning-point of her life.
+
+'It is my own fault,' she said, as on the last night she clung tearfully
+to Lady Merrifield; 'if I had behaved better I might have gone on just
+like one of your own.'
+
+'You will still be in my heart like one of my own, dear child,' said
+Lady Merrifield. 'We know the way in which we all can hold together as
+one; keep to that, and the distance apart will matter the less.'
+
+And as they watched Dolores and her father driven away to the station
+the next morning, Jane Mohun laid her hand on her sister's arm and said,
+'You thought you had made a great failure. Lily, but is not the other
+side of a failure often a success?'
+
+By-and-by came letters from Dolores. She seemed after the first to have
+enjoyed her journey, for, as she wrote to Lady Merrifield, in a letter,
+very private, and all to her own self, 'Father was so very good and kind
+to me, I don't know how to tell you. It was as if a little bit of mother
+had got into him, and now I am here I think I shall like the Mays.
+Indeed, I am trying to remember your advice, and not beginning by hating
+everybody and thinking who they are not. Aunt Phyllis is very nice
+indeed, and sometimes her eyes and mouth get like Mysie's, and her voice
+is just exactly yours. Only she is plump and roundabout, not a dear,
+tall, graceful figure like my White Lily Aunt. Please don't call
+it nonsense, for indeed I mean it, and Aunt Phyllis does like your
+photograph so much. I have the whole group hung up in my room, and you
+over it, and I wish you all good morning every day, for I never, never,
+as long as I live, shall love anybody like you and Mysie.'
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Two Sides of the Shield, by Charlotte M. Yonge
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