HESTER SPEAKS HER MIND.
The next day was Sunday, and Susy, notwithstanding her strong
inclinations, was forced to submit to Sir John Thornton's decree that
she should not visit the Towers that day. Hester had sent a hurried note
to Molly apprizing her of Susy's arrival, and begging of her, if she
valued her peace of mind, not to come near the Grange on this dreadful
Sunday.
It passed somehow. Poor Hester always, during the remainder of her life,
looked back upon it as a day of hopeless worry and confusion of brain.
Everyone seemed to be playing the game of cross-purposes with everyone
else. Sir John kept on assuring himself that he was the happiest man in
existence, while Mrs. Bernard Temple and Antonia evidently trod on his
corns at each step he took. Susy, in her moments of wakefulness, was sly
and watchful. Antonia was absolutely indifferent to everything but high
art. Mrs. Bernard Temple was busy as busy could be making hay while the
sun shone. She guessed shrewdly--perhaps her experiences with the late
Mr. Bernard Temple helped her--that it was during the time of courtship
when most of her wishes would be carried out. She insisted, therefore,
on going carefully into the many alterations which she proposed to make
in the Grange, and Sir John, notwithstanding his innate aversion to fuss
of any kind, was forced to listen to her demands, and, as he was really
attached to her, she soon got him to say yes to her different proposals.
Nan and Hester, Annie and Nora, kept as much together as possible. This
was made easy for them by kind Mrs. Willis, who not only kept Susy in
considerable awe, but contrived to interest Antonia by allowing her to
talk art to her by the hour. Antonia used a jargon which Mrs. Willis did
not in the least understand, but even Antonia was not proof against the
gracious sympathy of this high-minded woman.
The girls had, therefore, plenty of time for self-pity. Annie was the
very soul of sympathy, and it was a comfort to poor Nora and Hester to
pour out their sorrows in her affectionate ears. As for Nan, she took
refuge a good part of the time with Mrs. Martin, who shook her fists,
when Nan was not looking, at the backs of Sir John and Mrs. Bernard
Temple as they walked down one of the lawns side by side.
"She's his match!" murmured the old woman. "She'll give it to him; now
he'll know what a selfish wife means! He have 'ad his turn of the other
kind, and now he'll know what the selfish sort is. Serve him right, I
say; serve him well right!"
At last the weary Sunday came to an end and on Monday, after breakfast,
Susy announced her intention of going over to the Towers.
"I suppose I can have a carriage?" she said, turning to Sir John, who
paused in his exit from the dining-room to give her his polite
attention.
"I suppose I can have a carriage?" she repeated.
Annie interrupted--
"The Towers is scarcely a mile away across the fields," she said.
"I don't think I can walk a mile," replied Susy; "my muscles are awfully
weak--I dare not strain them."
"You can have a carriage with pleasure," said Sir John. "I will order
one to be round at whatever hour you wish to name."
"At once, please," said Susy; "there's a good deal to be done. I've to
measure all the rooms for carpets and druggets."
"You surely won't cover the rooms with carpets?" exclaimed Antonia. "I
never heard of anything so Philistine. Oak parquetry, with rugs that
slip about, is the only thing admissible. Better bare boards than
carpets--carpets are simply atrocious!"
When Antonia began to speak, Sir John was heard to slam the door behind
him; he had had quite enough of this young lady.
An eager discussion followed his departure, and it was finally decided
that Susy, Hester, and Antonia, accompanied by Annie Forest, should
drive over to the Towers.
"My part in the expedition will be this," exclaimed Annie, taking Hester
aside for a moment. "I'll collect every single Lorrimer child I can lay
hold of and carry them away to the most remote part of the grounds I
can find, to be out of the reach of that detestable Susy and the torture
she means to inflict. I should recommend you, Hester, to come with us."
"I'd like to very much," replied Hester, with a faint smile; "but I
think I must stay with Mrs. Lorrimer and Molly. I don't know that I
shall be the least comfort to them, but somehow I can't desert them."
A few moments later the little party drove off, and in the course of
half-an-hour they arrived at the Towers. There was a winding and rather
steep beech avenue, leading up to the older part of the mansion. Owing
to the sad state of Squire Lorrimer's finances, this avenue was by no
means in a state of complete repair. Hester turned her fleet little
ponies--for she was driving--into it. They were spirited, but always
well-behaved; on this occasion, however, they started violently, for
Antonia was heard to utter a piercing shriek of rapture.
"Oh, those briars," she exclaimed--"those heavenly, heavenly, artistic
briars! Stop the carriage, I beg of you, Miss Thornton! I must cut some
without a moment's delay!"
"We can't stop on the side of a hill, Antonia," said Susy. "The ponies
are fretting already, and nothing would induce them to stand still. You
don't want us to be killed, I suppose, for the sake of an odious briar?"
The only answer Antonia made was to press her bony right hand with
unnecessary force on Susy's right arm and vault from the carriage.
"Go on," she said, waving her hand to Hester; "I'll follow you
presently. You don't suppose I'm going to lose a chance of this kind! I
have brought my colour-box with me, and I mean to make a study of those
briars before I go another step."
Suiting her action to her words, Antonia had already seated herself on a
steep bank and was unfastening her portfolio.
"What a show she'll be when she does arrive," exclaimed Susy. "She'll
probably bring three or four enormous briars into the house with her;
but we may be thankful to be rid of her for a little, for she is so
painfully positive. I place the greatest faith, of course, in her
opinions, for she really is a magnificently ugly artist, and ugly art
is, of course, the only correct thing now; but I do think we might have
the bedrooms comfortable, don't you, Hester? With my tendency to forty
winks at odd moments, I think it is scarcely safe to have every room
covered with oak parquetry and rugs that slip about. The doctor says I
am very deficient in muscle, and if I fell I might break a bone rather
badly--don't you think so, Hester?"
"Yes, I do!" said Hester. "I think you had better furnish the Towers
exactly as you please, and not take any opinions from Antonia!"
They had reached the brow of the hill now, and Hester was resting her
ponies for a moment.
"How fiercely you speak," said Susy in an aggrieved tone. "Aren't you
really interested in me and my future? Coming to the Towers is a very
important step for me. I shall be the mistress, and in a position of
great distinction. Father says I must entertain, and I hate
entertaining, for it rouses one up so dreadfully; but I do think that
you, as an old schoolfellow, might take a little interest in me."
"Listen to me for a moment," said Hester; "I want to say something."
"Oh, how appallingly solemn you are! I wish I had a lollipop to stop
your mouth with."
"You must listen," said Hester in a firm voice; "I'm not joking. Times
come in all lives when one cannot joke. I did not love you as my
schoolfellow, Susy, and, frankly, I do not love you now; but, when you
come to the Towers, I'll do everything in my power to help you, not
because I like to do this, but because it's right. I can help you in
many ways, for you don't know anything of county society; and, coming
after such an old and popular family as the Lorrimers, people will be
very apt to cut you if you are not careful. My father and I know
everyone in the place, and we can get them to be kind to you if--if you
deserve it; but that depends altogether on how you treat the Lorrimers
now."
"Bravo," burst from Annie, who was sitting in the back seat, but who
overheard Hester's words.
"Don't interrupt me, Annie, please," said Hester.
"The Lorrimers are my dearest friends," continued Hester. "Molly
Lorrimer, whom you have not yet seen, and Annie, here, are the two
greatest girl friends I have in the world. It is a great, great sorrow
to the Lorrimers to leave the home where they and their people have
lived before them for hundreds of years, and until they leave the place
you ought not to talk before them of the way you mean to furnish the
Towers when you are in possession. You ought to regard their feelings;
and if you wish to please me, and if you wish me to help you by-and-by,
you will. Remember, you are not in possession yet. The Towers is not
your place yet."
"Well, I never!" exclaimed Susy. "Why, you've turned into an orator;"
but Hester's words had subdued her a good deal, for if she had one
source of envy, it was the envy which _parvenus_ like her give to the
old county people, and if there was an ambition in her stagnant soul, it
was to be considered a county person herself.
Accordingly, when the party entered one of the drawing-rooms of the
Towers, and Molly, looking pale and anxious, came forward, and Mrs.
Lorrimer received Susy with that gentle kindness which always
characterised her, the young lady had not a word to say. She sank down
on an ottoman in the centre of the room and gazed vacantly around her.
A whoop from Boris was heard outside. Annie rushed to the door to be
greeted by him and the other children, and carried away in their midst.
Mrs. Lorrimer asked Susy if she would like to see over the house.
"Yes, please," replied Susy; "I have brought the tapes and measures."
She stopped, for Hester had given her a heavy frown.
"If its really inconvenient, I needn't do anything to-day," she said,
sinking back into her seat.
Mrs. Lorrimer looked puzzled, and Molly opened her brown eyes very wide.
Just then there came an interruption, in the shape of two individuals
who entered the drawing-room by separate doors. One of them was Jane
Macalister, who carried a duster in her hand, and had a large smut on
her forehead. The other was Antonia, whose hat had fallen off, and who
trailed two enormous briars behind her.
The priestess of high art and the priestess of domestic economy, met
almost in the centre of the room.
"Good gracious me," exclaimed Jane Macalister, "who in the world are
you, my dear, and what, in the name of all that's orderly, are you
bringing those abominable briars into the house for?"
"Abominable?" exclaimed Antonia; "these briars abominable? Oh, what
crass ignorance one comes across in this benighted land. My name is
Antonia Bernard Temple, and I am an art student. I claim nothing higher.
I shall be an art student as long as I breathe."
"And my name is Jane Macalister," replied poor Jane, her whole face
growing scarlet with vexation, "and I claim nothing higher than the love
of order and decent neatness. Give me those briars, child, and don't
lumber the room with such messes."
Before Antonia could utter a word of remonstrance, Jane had whipped her
duster round the briars and had rushed out of the room with them.
For a moment Antonia felt inclined to pursue her; but as she was
preparing to move, her large gaze was attracted by a couple of huge
Chinese dragons which were reposing under one of the tables.
"Oh, you loves! you darlings! you adorables!" she shrieked. "Here,
indeed, is a prize."
She made a rush to the objects of her worship, and kneeling down on the
floor opposite to them, whipped out her sketching materials preparatory
to work.
"Tony, you must at least allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Lorrimer
before you begin to sketch," said Susy, who had perfectly recovered her
own equanimity in the amusement which Antonia's conduct afforded her.
"Yes, yes, anything," muttered Antonia "Oh, these dragons are a prize;
they are a prize. Yes, Susy, what is it you want?"
"Get up," said Susy, "and come and be introduced."
She pulled Antonia by her sleeve, who rose in a sort of dream and
approached Mrs. Lorrimer, looking like a person in a trance.
"This is my friend, Antonia Bernard Temple," exclaimed Susy, addressing
Mrs. Lorrimer.
"I am glad to see you, my dear," said Mrs. Lorrimer in her sweet voice;
"and I am pleased to find that you appreciate the old china."
"The dragons? Superb; Ruskinesque," exclaimed Antonia. "You don't mind
if I go back to them? I must seize the opportunity of transferring them
to my note book. Oh, what a heavenly room this is! Old, disorderly,
worn, dim with the hue of ages. An artist might grovel in this
room--grovel with delight!"
"Well, go back and grovel over the dragons," exclaimed Susy, giving her
friend a playful poke.
Antonia hurried to obey. Her work instantly absorbed her; she saw
nothing else.
"Isn't she killing?" exclaimed Susy, addressing poor surprised Mrs.
Lorrimer. "She's to be a sort of sister to Hester in the future; she's
to live at the Grange. She's the daughter of Sir John Thornton's
_fiancee_. Don't you love the word _fiancee?_ I do. Did you know that at
school we called Hetty Prunes and Prism? Fancy Prunes and Prism and the
Priestess together. Its almost too killing."
Mrs. Lorrimer, gentle as she was, was also the soul of quiet dignity.
She made no reply whatever to Susy's outburst with regard to Antonia, but
gently led the conversation to matters of every-day interest.
"This is our largest drawing-room," she said, "but we have two others
leading into it. The farthest drawing-room takes you into the
dining-room, and that again into the library and morning-room. All our
reception-rooms open one into the other. You will notice that they are
built round the central hall, which is almost octagon in shape. I am
sure you would like to see the house, and I do not at all object to
showing it to you. Ah! here comes Jane Macalister. I'm sure she will
have great pleasure in taking you round. Jane, dear, come here."
Jane came up at once. She still wore her smut, but the duster was gone.
"Jane, let me introduce you to Miss Drummond. Her father is the new
owner of the Towers; Miss Drummond would like to see over the house, if
it would not trouble you too much to show her round."
"Trouble me," exclaimed Jane; "_that_ doesn't trouble me. Come, child,
this way. I'll go in front and you can follow. This is the smaller
drawing-room. It was here that Charles the Second passed a night in the
year of grace--"
"Oh, for heaven's sake," exclaimed Susy, stopping her ears, "don't go
into dates; the whole thing is confusing enough without dates."
Jane favoured her with a quick, contemptuous glance.
"I shan't dream of instructing you if you don't wish it, my dear," she
said. "Those who like ignorance, in ignorance they shall remain, as far
as Jane Macalister is concerned. Well, then, here's a room with three
windows and four walls and a ceiling and a floor. The furniture won't
belong to you, so you needn't look at it. Now come on. This room we also
use as a drawing-room, but _you_ needn't unless you like."
"Do stop, pray!" exclaimed Susy. "I can't rush through the place like
this. You are not a Lorrimer, are you?"
"No, I'm a Macalister, of the clan of----"
"Oh, please, I don't want to hear about the clan. What I wanted to say
was this, that I have got the tapes and measures in my pocket; Hester
tells me I mustn't use them on account of paining the Lorrimers, but as
you are not one, of course you won't mind. I see you have got carpets on
all the floors."
"Yes, why not? Carpets are put on most floors--at least they used to be
when I was young."
"But Antonia says that we ought to have parquetry and slippery rugs."
"And do you mean to tell me," exclaimed Jane, "that you are going to
heed the words of that poor daft lassie? It's nothing to me what you do,
of course, but that poor girl has not got her proper wits, and if I were
you I would try to follow someone with a grain of sense."
Susy laughed heartily.
"Antonia is as right as anyone else," she said "only she has a passion
for art."
"Preserve me from such a craze," exclaimed Jane. "How much longer are we
to stand in the middle of this floor while we talk about tapes and
measurements and that silly girl?"
"But may I measure?"
"You may do anything you please, provided you don't injure the
furniture."
"And it won't hurt your feelings?"
"No, you couldn't touch 'em. I'll sit here and wait till you have done."
Jane flung herself on a hard chair as she spoke, and drawing a long
stocking out of her pocket, began to knit furiously.
Susy, who had about as much idea of measuring a room as she had of
turning the heel of a stocking took her tapes out of her pocket and
began an impossible task.
Jane watched her in silence for a moment or two, but Susy's futile
attempts were too much for this deft, managing creature.
"Why don't you foot it?" she exclaimed. "My word, I never saw such a way
to set to work. Here, you want the length of the room. I'll do it for
you. Take your pencil and paper and jot down what I say. You haven't got
any? That's a nice way of doing business. Well, then, I hope you have a
good memory. I always measure a yard as I walk. Now, then, you count.
Here I begin--one, two, three--are you counting?"
"No," said Susy; "I'm greatly obliged, but you confuse me awfully. I
won't do any more measuring to-day; I shouldn't sleep for a week if I
had to keep all that in my head. Some men must come down from Liberty's
or Morris's. Antonia prefers Morris, she says he's the most _chic_."
"I don't know what you mean by chick," said Jane Macalister, "unless you
allude in some mysterious way to the fowls; but I am glad you've got
sense enough not to undertake what Providence has given you no aptitude
for. Now, do you or do you not want to see the rest of the house? To a
person like you, it's just like any other house, only nothing like so
modern and nothing like so comfortable. There's a ghost in the
tower----"
"A ghost," shrieked Susy; "I tremble at ghosts, I'm in terror at them; I
won't go near the tower."
"I don't want to drag you there against your will. It's my private
opinion that the ghost is made up of rats, but be that as it may,
there's an awful scrimmage in the old tower at night. Now, then, will
you see it, or will you not?"
"I think I won't," said Susy. "The Towers seems to be, from what you
say, much like any other place. I hope my father has not been induced to
pay too much for it."
"Hoots! he has got a place that mere money couldn't purchase unless the
Lorrimers had come to grief. Don't you talk of what you know nothing
about, child. The Towers is the Towers, sacred with memory and
beautiful----; do you know why the Towers is beautiful, Miss Susy
Drummond?"
"No, I'm sure I don't," said Susy, staring in astonishment at Jane, who
had stalked up to her now and was staring her full in the face.
"Well, then, perhaps I'd better tell you, if it is for the last time.
The Towers is beautiful because for hundreds of years brave men have
been born here and gentle noble women have lived here, and their
influence has got somehow into the walls and into the furniture, and it
pervades the rooms inside and out. It's bad to go against that kind of
spirit and you and your father had better be careful when you come here,
or you may rake up ghosts that you won't much care about. Now, if
you'll have the goodness to go back to the others--you'll find them in
the front drawing room. I'll return to my duties, which at the present
moment consist of shelling peas and chucking raspberries. That's your
way, Miss Susan Drummond, through that door, and if you're wise you'll
remember my words."