"Well, Jasper," said Evelyn in a very eager voice to her maid that first
night, "and how do you like it all?"
"How do you like it, Evelyn?" was the response.
"That is so like you, Jasper!" replied the spoilt little girl. "When all
is said and done, you are not a scrap original. You make me like you--I
cannot help myself--but in some ways you are too cautious to please me.
You don't want to say what you think of the place until you know my
opinion. Well, I don't care; I'll tell you out plump what I think of
everything. The place is horrid, and so are the people. I wish--oh! I
wish I was back again on the ranch with mother."
Jasper looked down rather scornfully at the small girl, who, in a rich
and elaborately embroidered dressing-gown, was kneeling by the fire.
Evelyn's handsome eyes, the only really good feature she possessed, were
fixed full upon her maid's face.
"The Castle is too stiff for me," she said, "and too--too airified and
high and mighty. Mother was quite right when she spoke of Castle
Wynford. I don't care for anybody in the place except Uncle Ned. I don't
know how I shall live here. Oh Jasper, don't you remember the evenings
at home? Cannot you recall that night when Whitefoot was ill, and you
and mothery and I had to sit up all through the long hours nursing her,
and how we thought the dear old moo-cow would die! Don't you remember
the mulled cider and the gingerbread and the doughnuts and the
apple-rings? How we toasted the apple-rings by the fire, and how they
spluttered, and how good the hot cider was? And don't you remember how
mothery sang, and how you and I caught each other's hands and danced,
and dear old Whitefoot looked up at us with her big, sorrowful eyes? It
is true that she died in the morning, but we had a jolly night. We'll
never have such times any more. Oh, I do wish my own mothery had not
died and gone to heaven! Oh, I do wish it--I do!"
Evelyn crossed her arms tightly on her breast and began to sway herself
backwards and forwards. Tears streamed from her eyes; she did not
attempt to wipe them away.
"Now then, it is my turn to speak," said Jasper. "I tell you what it is,
Eve; you are about the biggest goose that was ever born in this world.
Who would compare that stupid, rough old ranch with this lovely,
magnificent house? And it is your own, Eve--or rather it will be your
own. I took a good stare at the Squire, and I do not believe he will
live to be very old; and whenever he dies you are to take possession--you
and I together, Eve love--and out will go her ladyship, and out will go
proud Miss Audrey. That will be a fine day, darling--a day worth living
for."
"Yes," said Evelyn slowly; "and then we'll alter things. We'll make the
Castle something like the ranch. We'll get over some of our friends, and
they shall live in the house. Mr. and Mrs. Petrie, who keep the egg-farm
not a mile from the ranch, and Mr. Thomas Longchamp and Pete and Dick
and Tom and Michael. I told them all when I was going away that when I
was mistress of the Castle they should come, and we'll go on much as we
went on at the ranch. If mothery up in heaven can see me she will be
glad. But, Jasper, why do you speak in that scornful way of my cousin
Audrey? I think she is very beautiful. I think she is quite the most
beautiful girl I have ever looked at. As to her being stately, she
cannot help being stately. I wish I could walk like her, and talk like
her, and speak like her; I do, Jasper--I do really."
"Let me see," said Jasper in a contemplative tone. "You are learning to
love her, ain't you?"
"I don't love easily. I love my own darling mothery, who is not dead at
all, for she is in heaven with father; and I love you, Jasper, and my
uncle Edward."
"My word! and why him?"
"I cannot help it; I love him already, and I'll love him more and more
the longer I see him and the more I know him. My father must have been
like that--a gentleman--a perfect gentleman. Oh! I was happy at the ranch,
and mothery was like no one else on the wide earth, but it gave me a
sort of quiver down my spine when Uncle Edward took my hand, and when he
kissed me. He is like what father was. Had father lived I'd have spent
all my days here, and I'd have been perhaps quite as graceful as Audrey,
and nearly as beautiful."
"You will never be like her, so you need not think it. You are squat
like your mother, and you ain't got a decent feature in your face except
your eyes, and even they are only big, not dark; and your hair is skimpy
and your face white. You are a sort of mix'um-gather'um--a sort of
betwixt-and-between--neither very fair nor very dark, neither very short
nor very tall. You are thick-set, just the very image of your mother,
and you will always be thick-set and always mix'um-gather'um as long as
you live. There! I have spoken. I ain't going to be afraid of you. You
had better get into bed now, for it is late. You want your beauty-sleep,
and you won't get it unless you are quick. Now march! Put on your
night-dress and step into bed."
"I have got to say my prayers first," said Evelyn, "and----" She paused
and looked full at her maid. "I have got to say something else. If you
talk like that I won't love you any more. You are not to do it. I won't
have it."
"Won't she, then?" said Jasper. Her whole manner changed. "And have I
hurt her--have I--the little dear? Come to me, my darling. Why, you are
all trembling! Did you think I meant a word I said? Don't you know that
you are the jewel of my eyes and the core of my heart and all the rest?
Did your mother leave you to me for nothing, and would I ever leave you,
sweetest and best? And if it is squat you are, there is no one like you
for determination and fire of spirit. Eh, now, come to my arms and I'll
rock the bitterness out of you, for it is puzzled you are, and fretted
you are, and you shall not be--no, you shall not be either one or the
other ever again while old Jasper lives."
Evelyn's eyes, which had flashed an almost ugly fire, now softened. She
looked at Jasper as if she meant to resist her. Then she wavered, and
came almost totteringly across the room, and the next moment the strange
woman had clasped the girl to her embrace and was rocking her backwards
and forwards, Evelyn's head lying on her breast just as if she were a
baby.
"Now then, that's better," said Jasper. "I'll undress you as though we
were back again on the ranch, and when you are snug and safe in your
little white bed we'll have a bit of fun."
"Fun!" said Evelyn. "What?"
"Don't you know how you like a stolen supper? I have got chocolate here,
and a little pot, and a jug of cream, and a saucepan, and I'll make a
rich cup for you and another for myself; and here's a box of cakes, all
sorts and very good. While you are sipping your chocolate I'll take off
Miss Audrey and Lady Frances for you. The door is locked; no one can see
us. We'll be as snug as snug can be, and we'll have our fun just as if
we were back at the ranch."
Evelyn was now all laughter and high spirits. She had no idea of
restraining herself. She called Jasper her honey and her honey-pot, and
kissed the good woman several times. She superintended the making of the
chocolate with eager words and many directions. Finally, a cup of the
rich beverage was handed to her, and she sipped it, luxuriously curled
up against her snowy pillows, and ate the sweet cakes, and watched
Jasper with happy eyes.
"So it is Miss Audrey you'd like to take after?" said Jasper. "You think
you are not a patch on her. To be sure not--wait and we'll see."
In an instant Jasper had transformed her features to a comical
resemblance of Audrey's. She spoke in mincing tones, with just
sufficient likeness to Audrey to cause Evelyn to scream with mirth. She
took light, quick steps across the room, and imitated Audrey's very
words. All of a sudden she changed her manner. She now resembled Miss
Sinclair, putting on the slightly precise language of the governess,
adjusting her shoulders and arranging her hands as she had seen Miss
Sinclair do for a brief moment that evening. Her personation of Miss
Sinclair was as good as her personation of Audrey, and Evelyn became so
excited that she very nearly spilt her chocolate. But her crowning
delight came when all of a sudden, without the slightest warning, Jasper
became Lady Frances herself. She now sailed rather than walked across
the apartment; her tones were stately and slow; her manner was the sort
which might inspire awe; her very words were those of Lady Frances. But
the delighted maid believed that she had a further triumph in store,
for, with a quick change of mien, she now had the audacity to personate
the Squire himself; but in one instant, like a flash, Evelyn was out of
bed. She put down her chocolate-cup and rushed towards Jasper.
"The others as much as you like," she said, "but not Uncle Ned. You dare
not. You sha'n't. I'll turn you away if you do. I'll hate you if you do.
The others over and over again--they are lovely, splendid, grand--it puts
heart in me to see you--but not Uncle Ned."
Jasper looked in astonishment at the little girl.
"So you love him as much as that already?" she said. "Well, as you
please, of course."
"Don't be cross, Jasper," said Evelyn. "I can stand all the others; I
can even like them. I told Audrey to-night how splendidly you can mimic,
and you shall mimic her to her face when I know her better. Oh, it is
killing--it is killing! But I draw the line at Uncle Ned."