"Dr Bolter, ma'am," said the elderly manservant, seeking Miss
Twettenham the next afternoon, as she was sunning herself in a favourite
corner of the garden, where a large heavily-backed rustic seat stood
against the red-brick wall.
The pupils were out walking with her two sisters--all save Helen Perowne
and Grey Stuart, who were prisoners; and Miss Twettenham was just
wondering how it was that a little tuft of green, velvety moss should
have fallen from the wall upon her cap, when the old serving-man came
up.
"Dr Bolter! Dear me! So soon!" exclaimed the old lady, glancing at
Helen Perowne, book in hand, walking up and down the lawn, while Grey
Stuart was at some little distance, tying up the blossoms of a flower.
Miss Twettenham entered the drawing-room, and then stood gazing in
wonder at the little plump, brisk-looking man, with a rosy face, in
spite of the deep bronze to which it was burned by exposure to the sun
and air.
He was evidently about seven or eight and forty, but full of life and
energy; a couple of clear grey eyes looking out from beneath a pair of
rather shaggy eyebrows--for his face was better supplied with hirsute
appendages than his head--a large portion of which was very white and
smooth, seeming to be polished to the highest pitch, and contrasting
strangely with his sunbrowned face.
As Miss Twettenham entered, the little doctor was going on tiptoe, with
open hands, towards the window, where he dexterously caught a large fly,
and after placing it conveniently between the finger and thumb of his
left hand, he drew a lens from his waistcoat pocket, and began examining
his prize.
"Hum! Yes," he said, in a low, thoughtful tone, "decided similarity in
the trunk. Eyes rather larger. Intersection of--I beg your pardon!
Miss Twettenham?"
The lady bowed, and looked rather dignified. Catching flies and
examining them in her drawing-room by means of a lens was an unusual
proceeding, especially when there were so many much worthier objects for
examination in the shape of pupils' drawings and needlework about the
place.
Miss Twettenham softened though directly, for the manners of Dr Bolter
were, she owned, perfect. Nothing could have been more gentlemanly than
the way in which he waited for her to be seated, and then, after a
chatty introduction, came to the object of his visit.
"You see, my dear madam, it happens so opportunely my being in England.
Perowne and Stuart are both old friends and patients, and of course they
did not like the idea of their daughters being entrusted to comparative
strangers."
"So you will be friend, guardian, and medical attendant all in one?"
said Miss Twettenham, smiling.
"Exactly," said the little doctor. "I have never seen them; they are
quite schoolgirls--children, I suppose?"
"Ye-es," said Miss Twettenham, who had a habit of measuring a young
lady's age by its distance from her own, "they are very young."
"No joke of a task, my dear madam, undertaking the charge of two young
ladies--and I hope from my heart they are too young and plain to be
attractive--make it difficult for me."
There was a bright red spot on each of Miss Twettenham's cheeks, and she
replied with a little hesitation:
"They are both young, and you will find in Miss Stuart a young lady of
great sweetness and promise."
"Glad to hear it, my dear madam. Her father is a very dry Scot, very
quaint and parsimonious, but a good fellow at heart."
"Most punctual in his payments," said Miss Twettenham, with dignity.
"Oh, of course, of course!" said Dr Bolter. "More so, I'll be bound,
than Perowne."
"Mr Perowne is not so observant of dates as Mr Stuart, I must own, Dr
Bolter," said Miss Twettenham.
"No, my dear madam; but he is as rich as a Jew. Very good fellow,
Perowne?"
Miss Twettenham bowed rather stiffly.
"Well, my dear madam, I am not going to rob you of your pupils for
several weeks yet, but I should like to make their acquaintance and get
them a little used to me before we start on our long voyage."
"They are in the garden, Dr Bolter," said Miss Twettenham, rising. "I
will have them sent for--or would you--"
"Like to join them in the garden? Most happy!"
Miss Twettenham led the way towards a handsome conservatory, through
which there was a flight of steps descending to the lawn.
"Dear me! ah, yes!" exclaimed the doctor. "Very nice display of
flowers! Would you allow me? My own collections in the jungle--
passiflora--convolvulaciae--acacia."
He drew some dry seeds from his pocket, and placed them in the old
lady's hand, she taking them with a smile and a bow; after which they
descended to the soft, velvety, well-kept lawn.
"Most charming garden!" said the doctor--"quite a little paradise! but
no Eves--no young ladies!"
"They are all taking their afternoon walk except Miss Stuart and Miss
Perowne," replied the old lady. "Oh!"
She uttered a sharp ejaculation as a stone struck her upon the
collarbone and then fell at the doctor's feet, that gentleman picking it
up with one hand as he adjusted his double eyeglass with the other.
"Hum! ha!" he said drily. "We get our post very irregularly out in the
East; but they don't throw the letters at us over the wall."
Miss Twettenham's hands trembled as she hastily snatched the stone, to
which a closely-folded note was attached by an india-rubber band, from
the Doctor's hands.
"What will he think of our establishment?" mentally exclaimed the poor
little old lady, as she glanced at the superscription, and saw that it
was for Helen Perowne. "I have never had such a thing occur since Miss
Bainbridge was sent away."
"So Miss Perowne receives notes thrown to her over the garden wall, eh?"
said the little doctor severely.
"Indeed, Dr Bolter--I assure you--I am shocked--I hardly know--the
young ladies have been kept in--I only discovered--"
"Hum!" ejaculated the doctor, frowning. "I am rather surprised. Let me
see," he continued. "I suppose that fair-haired girl stooping over the
flower-bed yonder is Miss Perowne, eh?"
"My sight is failing," stammered Miss Twettenham, who was terribly
agitated at the untoward incident; "but your description answers to Miss
Stuart."
"And that's Miss Stuart is it? Hum! Too far off to see what she is
like. Then I suppose that tall dark girl on the seat is Miss Perowne?"
"Tall and dark--yes," said Miss Twettenham, in an agitated way. "Is she
sitting down? You said tall?"
"Hum! no," said the doctor, balancing his glasses; "she is standing
right on the top of the back of a seat, and seems to be looking over the
garden wall."
"Oh!"
"Bless my heart! Hum! Sham or real?" muttered the doctor.
Real enough, for the agitation had been too much for the poor old lady,
so proud of the reputation of her school. A note over the garden wall--
a young lady looking over into the lane, perhaps in conversation with a
man, and just when a stranger had arrived to act as escort for two
finished pupils. It was too much.
For the first time for many years Miss Twettenham had fainted away.