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 wont have them, said Dolores; Im not going to let her have my books to take away.
You dont think she would take them away, when she said she wouldnt? said Mysie, hotly.
Why, what would she do if she didnt happen to approve of them?
Only tell us not to read them.
And wouldnt 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, shes my great friend, has lots given to her, but nobody bothers about reading them. They arent grown-up books, you know.
How stupid, said Val. You had better read the Talisman, and then youll see how nice a grown-up book is.
The Talisman! Why, Maude Seftons 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 Seftons not stupid! said Dolores, in wrath; butbut the book is stupid and out of date!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 dont know what advantages are, said Dolores.
Theres 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, Valettas voice arose.
Mamma, what are advantages?
Dont you know, Val?
Dolores says we havent any. And I said we have. And she says I dont 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.
Im sure I know, cried Fergus.
Well, what are they? asked Harry.
Having mamma! cried the little boy.
Hear, hear! Thats right, Fergy man! Couldnt 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 wasnt what I meant, returned Dolores, a little contemptuously.
What did you mean? said Mysie.
Why, youve 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!
Thats a pity, said Gillian, turning round on her. Perhaps you dont 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.
Jacks not here, said Gillian; besides, it is down, not up the hill, and Im sure I dont want to draw a pail of water.
NoSancho 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.
Dont Fred, said Gillian. Youll frighten them.
Little donkeys! said Wilfred.
If they were, we shouldnt 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.
Thats just her view, said mamma, laughing; she thinks you spoil everything.
Oh, thats 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 wouldnt 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 dont like to vex her when she thinks she is doing her duty.
She wouldnt 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 couldnt get another, said Mysie.
And havent 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 thingwhats it namethe tawse?
And does she go at you with that dreadful thingwhats it namethe tawse?
Ah! youll 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? Maudes nurse used to be horrid and slap her, and when her mother found it out the woman was sent away directly.
Nurse Halfpenny isnt that sort, said Mysie. Her husband was papas 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 hadnt watched her day and night, and so Gillians her favourite, except the youngest, and she is ever so good, you know. Ive heard the ladies, when we were with the dear old 111th, telling mamma how they envied her her trustworthy treasure.
Im sure they might have had her at half-price, said Wilfred. Shes be dear at a farthing!
At that moment Mrs. Halfpennys voice was heard demanding if it were really her ladyships 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 Ill 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 cant come to much harm.
Well, if its your wish, maam, my leddy; what must be, must, but I know how it will beyoull come back tired out, fit to drop, and Miss Val and Miss Primrose wont have a rag fit to be seen on them. But if its your will, what must be must, for youre no better than a bairn yourself, generals lady though you be, and G.C.B.
No, nurse, youll be G.C.B.Grand Commander of the Bathwhen 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 nohowas I dont like them, said Dolores.
Oh, very well, please yourself then, miss, if thats 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 dont 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 cousins 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 oclock 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 therell be a report.
A report!
Yes, Nurse Halfpenny reports us whenever she doesnt find our rooms tidy, and then we get a bad mark. Perhaps mamma wouldnt give you one this first day, but it is best to make sure. Shall I help you, or you wont have time to eat any pears?
Dolores was thankful for help, and the books were scrambled in anyhow on the shelves; for Mysies good nature was endangering her share of the afternoons gouter, though perhaps it consoled her that her curiosity was gratified by a hasty glance at the backs of her cousins 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 dont. They are such fun. You cant 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 Hals shoulders, and a curtain over them to hide Hals face. Oh dear, I wish I hadnt told you! You would have been a new person to show it to.