The latter probably. She has the reputation of being very affected!!!
Poor dear! I heard that she was a great trial to dear Mrs. Brownlow, said Mary, in an imitative voice. Why, do you know, she sometimes is up and out with her children before six oclock in the morning; and then Colonel Brownlow went in one day at twelve oclock, and found the whole family fast asleep on different sofas.
The sensible way, too, to spend such days as these. To go out in the cool of the morning, and take a siesta, is the only rational plan!
Im afraid one must conform to ones neighbours ways.
Trust a woman for being conventional.
I confess I did not like the tone in which my poor Carey was spoken of. I am afraid she can hardly have taken care enough not to be thought flighty.
Mary! you are as absurd as the rest of them!
Why? what have you seen of her?
Nothing, I tell you, except once meeting her in the street, and once calling on her to ask whether her boy should learn German. And David Ogilvie spoke with a vehemence that somewhat startled his sister.
It was a July evening, and though the walls of the schoolmasters house were thick, it was sultry enough within to lead the brother and sister out immediately after dinner, looking first into the play-fields, where cricket was of course going on among the bigger boys, but where Mary looked in vain for her friends sons.
No, they are not much of cricketers, said her brother; they are small for it yet, and only take their turn in watching-out by compulsion. I wish the senior had more play in him. Shall we walk on by the river?
So they did, along a paved causeway which presently got clear of the cottages and gables of old factories, and led along, with the brightly glassy sheet of water on one side, and the steep wooded slope on the other, loose-strife and meadow-sweet growing thickly on the bank, amid long weeds with feathery tops, rich brown fingers of sedge, and bur-reeds like German morgensterns, while above the long wreaths of dog-roses projected, the sweet honeysuckle twined about, and the white blossoms of travellers joy hung in festoons from the hedge of the bordering plantation. After a time they came on a kind of glade, opening upwards though the wood, with one large oak-tree standing alone in the centre, and behold! on the grass below sat or lay a companyMrs. Joseph Brownlow in the midst, under the obnoxious mushroom-hat, reading aloud. Radiating from her were five boys, the biggest of all on his back, with his hat over his eyes, fast asleep; another cross-legged, with a basket between his knees, dividing his attention between it and the book; two more lying frog-like, with elbows on the ground, feet erected behind them, chin in hand, devouring the narrative with their eyes; the fifth wriggling restlessly about, evidently in search of opportunities of mischief or of tormenting tricks. Just within earshot, but sketching the picturesque wooden bridge below, sat one girl. The little one, with her youngest brother, was close at their mothers feet, threading flowers to make a garland. It was a pretty sight, and so intent were most of the party on their occupations that they never saw the pair on the bank till Joe, the idler, started and rolled round with Hollo! when all turned, it may be feared with muttered growls from some of the boys; but Carey herself gave a cry of joy, ran down the bank like a girl, and greeted Mary Ogilvie with an eager embrace.
You are holding a Court here, said the school-master.
We have had tea out here. It is too hot for indoors, and I am reading them the Water Babies.
To a large audience, I see.
Yes, and some of which are not quite sure whether it is fact or fiction. Come and sit down.
The boys will hate us for breaking up their reading, said Mary.
Why should not we listen! said her brother.
Dont disturb yourselves, boys; weve met before to-day.
Bobus and Jock were, however, on their feet, and Johnny had half risen; Robin lay still snoring, and Joe had retreated into the wood from the alarming spectacle of the schoolmaster abroad.
After a greeting to the two girls, who comported themselves, according to their ages, as young ladies might be expected to do, the Ogilvies found accommodation on the roots of the tree, and listened. The Water Babies were then new, and Mr. Ogilvie had never heard them. Luckily the reading had just come to the history of the Do as You Likes, and the interview between the last of the race and M. Du Chaillu diverted him beyond measure. He laughed so much over the poor fellows abortive attempt to say Am I not a man and a brother? that his three scholars burst out into a second edition of shouts of laughter at the sight of him, and thus succeeded in waking Robin, who, after a great contortion, sat up on the grass, and, rubbing his eyes, demanded in an injured tone what was the row?
The Last of the Do as You Likes, said Armine.
Oh I sayisnt it jolly, cried Jock, beating his breast gorilla-fashion and uttering a wild murmur of Am I not a man and a brother? then tumbling head over heels, half in ecstasy, half in imitation of the fate of the Do as You Like, setting everybody off into fits again.
Its just what Robin is coming to, observed Bobus, as his namesake stretched his arms and delivered himself of a waking howl; then suddenly becoming conscious of Mr. Ogilvie, he remained petrified, with one arm fully outstretched, the other still lifted to his head.
Never mind, Brownlow maximus, said his master; it was hardly fair to surprise you in private life, was it?
The boy made no answer, but scrambled up, sheepish and disconcerted; and indeed the sun was entirely down and the dew almost falling, so that the mother called to the young ones to gather up their things and come home.
Such a collection! Bobus picked up a tin-case and basket full of flowers, interspersed with bottles of swimming insects. The trio and Armine shouldered their butterfly-nets, and had a distribution of pill-boxes and bottles, in some of which were caterpillars intended to live, in others butterflies dead (or dying, it may be feared) of laurel leaves. Babie had a mighty nosegay; Janet put up the sketch, which showed a good deal of power; and the whole troop moved up the slope to go home by the lanes.
What collectors you are! said Mr. Ogilvie.
For the museum, answered Armine, eagerly.
Havent you seen our museum? cried Barbara, who had taken his hand. Oh, it is such a beauty! We have got an Orobanche major, only it is not dry yet.
Im afraid Babie likes fine words, said her mother; but our museum is a great amusement to us Londoners.
They all walked home together, talking merrily, and Mr. and Miss Ogilvie came in with them, on special entreaty, to share the suppermilk, fruit, bread and butter and cheese, and sandwiches, which was laid out on the round table in the octagon vestibule, which formed the lowest story of the tower. It was partaken of standing, or sitting at case on the window-seats, a form or two, an old carved chair, or on the stairs, the children ascending them after their meal, and after securing in their own fashion their treasures for the morrow. The two cousins had already bidden good-night at the gate and gone home, and the Ogilvies followed their example in ten minutes, Caroline begging Mary to come up to her as soon as Mr. Ogilvie was disposed of by school hours.
But you will be busy? said Mary.
Never mind, I am afraid we are not very regular, said Carey.
It was by this time ten oclock, and the two younger children were still to be heard shouting to one another up stairs about the leaves for their chrysalids. So when Mary came up the hill at half-past ten the next morning, she was the less surprised to find these two only just beginning breakfast, while their mother was sitting at the end of the table knitting, and hearing Janet repeat German poetry. The boys had long been in school.
It was by this time ten oclock, and the two younger children were still to be heard shouting to one another up stairs about the leaves for their chrysalids. So when Mary came up the hill at half-past ten the next morning, she was the less surprised to find these two only just beginning breakfast, while their mother was sitting at the end of the table knitting, and hearing Janet repeat German poetry. The boys had long been in school.
Caroline jumped up and threw her arms round Marys neck, declaring that now they would enjoy themselves. We are very late, she added, but these late walks make the little people sleep, and I think it is better for them than tossing about, hot and cross.
Mary was rather entertained at this new code, but said nothing, as Carey pointed out to the children how they were to occupy themselves under Janets charge, and the work they had to do showed that for their age they had lost no time.
The drawing-room showed indeed a contrast to the chaotic state in which it had been left. It was wonderfully pleasant-looking. The windows of the deep bay were all open to the lawn, shaded with blinds projecting out into the garden, where the parrot sat perched on her pole; pleasant nooks were arranged in the two sides of the bay window, with light chairs and small writing-tables, each with its glass of flowers; the piano stood across the arc, shutting off these windows into almost a separate room; low book-cases, with chiffonier cupboards and marble tops, ran round the walls, surmounted with many artistic ornaments. The central table was crowned with a tall glass of exquisitely-arranged grasses and wild flowers, and the choice and graceful nicknacks round it were such as might be traced to a London life in the artist world, and among grateful patients.
Brackets with vases and casts here and there projected from the walls, and some charming crayons and water-colours hung round them. The plastered walls had already been marked out in panels, and a growth of frescoes of bulrushes, ivy, and leaves of all kinds was beginning to overspread them, while on a nearer inspection the leaves proved to be fast becoming peopled with living portraits of butterflies and other insects; indeed Mary started at finding herself in, as she thought, unpleasant proximity to a pair of cockchafers.
Ah! I tell the children that we shall be suspected of putting those creatures there as a trial to the old ladies nerves, said Caroline, laughing.
I confess they are startling to those who dont like creeping things! Have you many old ladies, Carey?
Not very many. I fancy they dont take to me more than I take to them, so we are mutually satisfied.
But is that a good thing? said Mary anxiously.
I dont know, said Carey, indifferently. At least I do know, she added, that I always used to be told I didnt try to make small talk, and I can do it less than ever now that it is the smallest of small, and my heart faints from it. Oh Mary!
My poor dear Caroline! But you say that you were told you ought to do it?
Well, yes. Dear granny wished it; but I think that was rather with a view to Joes popularity, and we havent any patients to think of now. I should think the less arrant gossip the children heard, the better.
But is it well to let them despise everybody?
Then the less they see of them, the better!
For shame, Carey!
Well, Mary, I dare say I am naughty. I do feel naughtier now than ever I did in my life; but I cant help it! It just makes me mad to be worried or tied down, and she pushed back her hair so that her unfortunate cap was only withheld from tumbling entirely off by the pin that held it.
Oh, that wretched cap! she cried, jumping up, petulantly, and going to the glass to set it to rights, but with so hasty a hand that the pin became entangled in her hair, and it needed Marys quiet hand to set it to rights; its just an emblem of all the rest of it; I wouldnt wear it another day, but that Im afraid of Ellen and Robert, and it perfectly drives me wild. And I know Joe couldnt have borne to see me in it. At the Irishism of which she burst out laughing, and laughed herself into the tears that had never come when they were expected of her.
Mary caressed and soothed her, and told her she could well guess it was sadder to her now than even at first.
Well, it is, said Carey, looking up. If one was sent out to sea in a boat, it wouldnt be near so bad as long as one could see the dear old shore still, as when one had got outout into the wide openwith nothing at all.
And she stretched out her hands with a dreary, yearning gesture into the vacant space, such as it went to her friends heart to see.
Ah! but theres a haven at the end.
I suppose there is, said Carey; but its a long way off, and theres dying first, and when people want to begin about it, they get so conventional, and if theres one thing above another that I cant stand, it is being bored.
My poor child!
There, dont be angry with me, because Im telling you just what I am!
Before any more could be said Janet opened the door, saying, Mother, Emma wants to see you.
Oh! I forgot, cried Carey, hurrying off, while Janet came forward to the guest in her grown-up way, and asked
Have you been to the Water-Colour Exhibition, Miss Ogilvie?
Yes; Mr. Acton took me one Saturday afternoon.
Oh! then he would be sure to show you Nita Rays picture. I want so much to know how it strikes people.
And Janet had plunged into a regular conversation about exhibitions, pictures, artists, concerts, lectures, &c., before her mother came back, talking with all the eagerness of an exile about her native country. As a governess in her school-room, Miss Ogilvie had had little more than a key-hole view of all these things; but then what she had seen and heard had been chiefly through the Actons, and thus coincided with Janets own side of the world, and they were in full discussion when Caroline came back.
There, Ive disposed of the butcher and baker! she said. Now we can be comfortable again.
Mary expected Janet to repair to her own lessons, or to listen to those scales which Babie might be heard from a distance playing; but she only appealed to her mother about some picture of last year, and sat down to her drawing, while the conversation on pictures and books continued in animated style. So far from sending her away, Mary fancied that Carey was rather glad to keep to surface matters, and to be prevented from another outbreak of feeling.
The next interruption was from the children, each armed with a pile of open books on the top of a slate. Carey begged Mary to wait, and went outside the window with them, sitting down under a tree whence the murmured sounds of repetition could be heard, lasting about twenty minutes between the two, and then she returned, the little ones jumping on each side of her, Armine begging that Miss Ogilvie would come and see the museum, and Barbara saying that Jock wanted to help to show it off.
Well, run now and put your own corners tidy, suggested their mother. If Jock does not stay in the playground, he will come back in a quarter of an hour.
And Mr. Ogilvie will come then. I invited him, said Babie.
At which Carey laughed incredulously; but Janet, observing that she must go and see that the children did not do more harm than good, walked off, and Mary said
I should not wonder if he did act on the invitation.
I hope he will. It would have only been civil in me to have asked him, considering that I have taken possession of you, said Caroline.