TWO PROVERBS.
Hester Thornton and Annie Forest had been educated at the same
school--the well-known Lavender House. The fame of this school, the
noble character of its mistress, the excellent training which each girl
who went there received, formed a recommendation for each young student
in after life. Hester and Annie had gone through severe storms in these
early days. Their friendship had been cemented under the influence of
great trouble. It was exactly a year now since Hester had been suddenly
sent for from her busy and happy school life to take care of her father
through a dangerous illness. He found her company so sweet, her skill
and tact in managing his house so great, that he resolved not to allow
her to go back to school again. Annie Forest was now, therefore, the
head girl at Lavender House. She was Mrs. Willis's right hand; her help
and support in every way. Annie was as great a favourite as of old, and
as love and kindness had developed all the best side of her character,
she was no longer the tomboy of the school, nor the one who was
invariably the ringleader when mischief was afloat. She was still
impulsive, however--eager, impatient--for such a nature as hers must
fight on to the end of the chapter. She did not possess Hester
Thornton's steady principles, and would always be influenced, whether
for good or evil, by her companions. She was only to spend one more term
at school; the future, after that, was practically unknown to her.
"I wish you'd tell me about Nan," said Hester, on the first evening of
Annie's visit to the Grange. "I don't know why, but I feel a little
anxious about her."
"You need not be," replied Annie. "She is a dear, jolly little pet, and
as open as the day."
"She seems to get wilder and wilder," replied Hester. "You must have
noticed, Annie, how she irritates my father."
"Of course I did," replied Annie. "Do you know, Het, that I had the
unbounded cheek to give him a piece of my mind this evening?"
Annie was seated on the side of Hester's bed. She was in a blue
dressing-gown, and her dark hair, in a mass of rebellious curls, was
falling about her shoulders.
"I forgot that Nan was in the room," she said, putting her finger to her
lips and glancing in the direction of Nan's small bed. "The little
monkey may be awake, and I don't want her to hear my nonsense."
"She is sound asleep," replied Hester. "If she were awake, she would
soon acquaint us with the fact."
"Shall I tell you what I really said to your father?" continued Annie.
"I don't know that I want to hear. I hope you did not shock him, for he
is prepared to like you very much."
"I am prepared to like him. I think he is a delightful host; but, oh,
_how_ I should hate him for a father."
"Annie!"
Hester's delicate face flushed crimson, her eyes flashed an angry light.
Annie jumped off the bed and ran to her friend's side.
"Now you are angry with me," she said; "but if I told him the truth, I
may surely tell you. I know you are as good as an angel, but I am quite
certain that he ruffles you up the wrong way."
"Don't, Annie," said Hester, in a voice of pain.
She walked to the window as she spoke, drew up the blind, and looked
out. The night was dark, but innumerable stars could be seen in the
deep, unfathomable vault of the sky. Hester clenched one of her hands
tightly together. Annie stood and watched her.
"I would not hurt you for the world," she said. "I am sorry, very sorry;
the fact is, I love you with all my heart, but I don't understand you."
"Yes you do, too well," replied Hester; "but there are some things I
cannot and will not talk about even to you. Now let me take you to your
room, the hour is very late."
Annie's pretty room was just on the other side of the passage. Hester
took her to it, saw that she had every comfort, and wished her
good-night. She then stood for a moment, with a look of irresolution on
her face, in the corridor.
"I don't believe nurse is in bed; I will go and speak to her," she said
to herself. "I thought the day when I welcomed Nan back from school, and
when Annie came to visit me, would be quite the happiest day of my life,
but it would never do to make my father's home uncomfortable for him."
She reached the baize door, opened it, and soon found herself in the old
nursery. She was right, nurse was not yet in bed.
"Well, now, my deary!" exclaimed the old woman, "and why are you losing
your beauty sleep in this fashion? When I was young things used to be
very different. Girls had to be in bed by ten o'clock sharp to keep away
the wrinkles, but now they're all agog to burn the candle at both ends.
It don't pay, Miss Hetty, my pet, it don't pay."
"I'm all right, nursey," replied Hester. "I'm the quietest and most
jog-trot girl in the world as a rule. Of course I'm excited to-night,
because Nan has come back."
"Bless her dear heart!" ejaculated nurse; "but I'm not to say satisfied
about her hair, Miss Hetty. I don't believe it's pointed often enough. I
found a lot of split ends when I was combing it out to-night."
"Oh, I think Nan is all right in every way," replied Hester. "No one
could be kinder to her than Mrs. Willis, and she is very happy at
school. Nurse, I've just come here for a moment to ask you to be very
careful what you say to Nan about my father. You see, the object of my
life is to make him happy, and to be a good daughter to him, and, in
short, to try to take my mother's place."
"Eh, dear, we all know that," replied nurse, "and a sweeter young
mistress there couldn't be. Why, there isn't a servant in the house who
wouldn't do anything in the world for you, Miss Hetty; and everything in
apple-pie order, and the meals served regular and beautiful, and inside
and out perfect order, and all because there's an old head on young
shoulders. There, perhaps it isn't a compliment I'm paying you, my
dearie, but in one sense it is."
"Do you really think I manage well?" asked the girl, an anxious tone in
her voice.
"Manage well? You manage beautiful. Your own mother, if she were alive,
couldn't do better."
"I can never forget my mother," replied Hester, tears rising to her
eyes. "Well, nurse, you will be very careful what you say to Nan. The
object of my life is to make my father happy. If I can do that, I am
content."
"You do, you do," replied the old woman. "No mortal can do more than
their best, and you do that. Now, good-night, Miss Hester."
Hester took up her candle and went away. Nurse stood and watched the
pretty young figure as it disappeared down the corridor.
"There," she said to herself as she began to prepare for her own bed.
"There's another victim. Don't I know what my mistress was, and don't I
know that Sir John's coldness and sharpness and no-heartedness just
hurried her into her grave? Never a bit of real hearty love could he
give to anyone. Just as just could be--righteous as righteous could be,
but hard as a flint. My mistress drooped and faded and died, and Miss
Hester will follow in her footsteps if I don't look after her.
Sometimes I wish the master _would_ marry again, and that he'd get a
tartar of a wife. He might think of another wife if things were a bit
uncomfortable here, but that they never will be while Miss Hetty is at
the helm. She's a born manager, bless her, with her gentle ways and her
firm words and her pretty little dignity. Miss Nan's business in life,
it seems to me, is to set places all in a muddle, and Miss Hetty's to
smooth them out again. Of course it's due to Miss Hetty to be mistress
of the Grange, but sometimes I fear the life is too much for her, and
she'll fret and fade like her mother before her; if I really thought
that, I'd set my wits to work, old as I am, to get a real _selfish wife_
for the master, who'd teach him a thing or two, for that's what he
wants."
At this stage in her meditations, nurse laid her head on her pillow and
was soon fast asleep.
The next morning promised a perfect day, and Hester, Annie, and Nan met
in high spirits in the breakfast-room. The post had not yet arrived, but
a letter was lying on Hester's plate.
"That's in dad's writing," said Nan, going up and examining it
critically; "now what's up?"
Hester took the letter and opened it. It contained a few brief words.
She read them with a sinking of heart which she could not account for--
"MY DEAR HETTY,--Your young companions will make the house quite
gay for you. I shall, therefore, take the opportunity of going from
home for a few days. I will send you a line to let you know when
you may expect me back.--Your affectionate father, JOHN THORNTON.
"P.S.--I shall have left before you are down in the morning. Give
my love to Nan, and wish Miss Forest good-bye for me. By the way,
she is interested in Australia, so will you show her where Henry
Kingsley's novels are to be found in the library?"
Nan, who had been peeping over Hester's shoulder while she was reading,
now suddenly clapped her hands, shouted "hurrah" at the top of her
voice, and, running up to Annie, began to waltz round and round the
breakfast-table with her.
"Oh, oh!" she exclaimed, "then little girls _may_ be heard as well as
seen. Annie, there are two proverbs which are the bane of my life. I
wonder dad has not had them both illuminated and framed and hung up in
my nursery. One of them is: 'Little girls should be seen and not heard.'
What a detestable old prig the person must have been who invented that
proverb! I ask you, Annie, what would life be without little girls and
their chatter? The other proverb is nearly as objectionable. This is it:
'Make a page of your own age.' According to dad, that only applies to
little girls, and it means that they must always be fagging round,
hunting for slippers and spectacles and newspapers and books for the
older people who are past the age for paging, and that no one is ever to
wait on _them_, however tired or however disinclined to stir they may
happen to be. Now there'll be no one to make me page, and no one to keep
me silent. Oh, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! what a dear old dad to absent
himself in this obliging manner."
"For my part, I am very sorry," said Annie, for Hester had passed her on
the letter to read.
Hester said nothing, and breakfast began, Nan wasting as usual a
prodigal amount of energy and spirits even over the operation of eating,
Hester looking a little pale and a little thoughtful, Annie in a state
of suppressed high spirits, which a slight awe which she still felt at
times for Hester Thornton kept rather in check.