THE FIRST DAY
We shall be what you will make us;
Make us wise, and make us good!
Make us strong for time of trial,
Teach us temperance, self-denial,
Patience, kindness, fortitude!'--MARY HOWITT.
It was, perhaps, just as well that Mr. Crayshaw had to start for London
next morning before Godfrey was awake, so that he did not see his young
cousin again. He had a talk with Angel, and gave her some money for
the housekeeping expenses of the next fortnight, and was a good deal
surprised to find how sensible and business-like she could be.
'Cousin Crayshaw really sees how you are beginning to grow up, Angel,'
said Betty admiringly, as they came back up the garden path together
after seeing their cousin off. 'I wish he talked to me like that.
Angel dear, what a lot of money! I don't think that is economy, do
you? I should think we might put by a good deal of it for Godfrey to
use by-and-bye. Do let's see if we can't save out of it.'
But Angel thought not. She felt she hardly knew enough yet about
housekeeping to cut the expenses down lower than her guardian thought
fit.
'I must go and talk to Penny,' she said, 'and will you wash the
breakfast china and listen for Godfrey moving?'
The breakfast china was a beautiful old set which had been a wedding
present to the girls' grandmother, and which Miss Crayshaw in her
lifetime had always washed herself, so Betty felt important as she tied
on an apron and fetched her hot water.
Angel finished her housekeeping talk and went upstairs to see if
Godfrey were still asleep. She opened the bedroom door softly lest she
should wake him, but to her surprise he was up and dressed, and
kneeling by the bed saying his prayers. He had been taught that at any
rate, Angel thought joyfully, and she drew back reverently, not liking
to disturb him. But she could not help hearing the last words:
'I will promise to be a very good boy, and if I may not go back to
Biddy I would like to go up the ladder to-day, but I should like Biddy
best.'
He rose to his feet the next minute and turning his head caught sight
of Angel. A half-pleased, half-startled look came over his face.
'Good morning, Godfrey dear,' said his young aunt, coming forward.
The boy put his hands behind him and looked straight at her with his
wide grey eyes.
'Good morning,' he said; 'you've come down the ladder for me, I
suppose. I like Biddy best, but it can't be helped. Where is the
ladder? Are you to go first or am I?'
'What ladder, dear?' said Angelica, dreadfully puzzled.
'What a stupid angel you are!' said the little boy impatiently; 'the
ladder you and the others go up and down to Heaven on, of course, like
the picture in Biddy's Bible; the ladder you took my papa and mamma up,
and Biddy's father, and Corporal O'Roone, and all the others you angels
take care of.'
'He must mean Jacob's ladder,' thought Angel. 'I didn't come down that
ladder, Godfrey dear,' she said.
Godfrey shook his head.
'I didn't know angels told stories,' he said reproachfully; 'you know
you are one, I heard that other call you it.'
'It is only short for my long name,' explained the girl; 'my name is
Angelica, Godfrey,--your aunt Angelica, your aunt Angel.'
'I never heard they were aunts,' said Godfrey doubtfully; 'Biddy said
just angels.'
'Who is Biddy?' asked Angel, to escape from the difficulty.
'She takes care of me and sometimes of my papa,' said Godfrey readily.
'She takes care of everybody that you angels aren't taking care of.
She took care of her father till the angels did it instead, and then
she went to church and promised to take care of Corporal O'Roone till
the angels got him too. I would rather go back to Biddy, but if I
can't I suppose I must go up the ladder with you to my papa.'
It was a queer sort of muddle altogether, and Angel hardly knew whether
she felt more like laughing or crying over it. She sat down in the
window and drew Godfrey towards her.
'Dear,' she said, 'you have made a mistake. I am not that sort of
angel. I hope they take care of you and me and all of us here on
earth, as well as where your papa is. But I don't want you to go away.
I want you to stay here and be happy with me.'
Godfrey looked at her steadily through his lashes.
'What are you?' he asked abruptly; 'are you a lady?'
'Yes, I think--I hope so,' said Angel.
'Last night I thought you were a white witch, like the ones in Biddy's
stories,' said the child, 'and I wanted you to make wings for me. Are
you sure, sure you can't? I want to go back.'
His lips began to quiver, and Angel drew him close to her.
'I can't send you back, dear,' she said tenderly; 'couldn't you try to
be happy with me? I want to love you very much.'
'Does _he_ live here?' asked Godfrey abruptly.
'Cousin Crayshaw do you mean?' asked Angel, in some alarm. 'No; he
comes to see us and help us, and tell us what to do.'
'I shall kill him next time he comes,' said Godfrey, calmly; 'I shall
hold on to his leg and bite him till he dies.'
'Oh, no, I'm sure you won't!' said Angelica, in dismay; 'no angels will
want to be near you, Godfrey, if you wish such unkind things as that.'
'Won't you want to be near me?' asked Godfrey doubtfully.
'I shall be very unhappy,' said Angel, and she added quickly, 'but
by-and-bye we can talk about everything. Come down and have breakfast
and see your other aunt.'
Godfrey looked at her steadily again for a minute, then he suddenly put
his little hand in hers.
'I will go with you,' he said, and Angel kissed him with all her heart
and led him downstairs. He was very quiet while he ate his
bread-and-milk under the eyes of both aunts, and with Penelope making
constant excuses to pop in and out of the room; but his great eyes took
note of everything, and now and then he asked some quick question or
said decidedly what he liked or did not like. He was very quick, Angel
thought, as she watched him, nothing seemed to escape him, and his
thoughts flew faster than she could follow. He would be very clever,
she said to herself, and her heart failed her a little, for she was not
clever, she knew. She was slow at understanding things, afraid of
deciding quickly; would she ever be able to guide any one else? She
thought about it that afternoon, when Betty had taken her nephew out
for a walk and she was busy darning his stockings. They were in
dreadful holes, and Angel, as she sat in the parlour window seat with
the basket by her side, remembered what she had heard about the way
boys wore out their clothes. It made her think of the plans she and
Betty used to arrange in their schooldays for mending Bernard's things
and taking care of him when he should come home. How little she had
dreamt that the mending would be done for Bernard's son! Godfrey had
not talked about his father, and Angel had asked no questions and had
checked Betty and Penelope. If he should confide in them and tell them
about his West Indian home, she would wait and let him do it in his own
good time. Just now, everything was strange to him, and she wanted to
let him take it in and get used to it all; she could not look for him
to love them and be at home with them quite yet. You see, if she was
not very quick, she was a very patient person, this Angel; she was
content to wait and let her flowers grow, and trust to sun and rain to
do the work, without wanting to help by digging them up every day or
two to see how the roots looked. And so she sat and thought her gentle
thoughts in the creeper-framed window, until she began to wonder where
Betty and Godfrey were, and decided to go and meet them. She went down
the road, where the wind blew fresh across the common, past one or two
cottages, with a word here and there to the children playing at the
doors, till she came in sight of the old 'Royal Oak,' the village inn,
standing back from the road. In front of the inn was the tree which
gave the name both to the house and the village, a noble old oak,
hollow inside and propped up with iron supports, but still green above.
A tree with a history it was, a tree which could have told many a tale,
if it could have spoken, of generations who had passed away, while
still its leaves budded fresh and green spring-time after spring-time,
and dropped in a russet carpet when the November frosts touched them
with cold fingers. But there seemed to be some unusual excitement
going on about the oak to-day; a little crowd was collected beneath it:
Mr. Collins the innkeeper, and the men and maids, John Ware the miller,
pretty Patty Rogers, Nancy's elder sister, Nancy herself, who was
always in the forefront when anything was going on, two or three women
from the cottages, and, what startled Angel most, Betty, with her shady
hat tumbling down her back, gazing up anxiously into the tree, but not
Godfrey. Angel quickened her steps and looked where they were looking,
and as she drew nearer she heard a chorus of voices.
'Come down, come down, Godfrey, dear Godfrey, you naughty, naughty
little boy, come down!'
'Come down, young master; the bough's rotten, 'twon't bear you.'
'Oh, bless him, he'll break his neck, the wood's just tinder! I can't
look at him.'
And here Nancy, who loved to have anything, bad or good, to tell,
caught sight of Angel and came flying to meet her.
'Oh please, Miss Angelica,' she panted, 'the young gentleman's up the
tree and he won't come down nor they can't fetch him, and Mrs. Taylor
says he's safe to break his neck, miss--nothing can't save him.'
And then came Betty in a flood of tears.
'Angel, tell him to come down, tell him to come down; he won't listen
to me; he'll be killed, he'll be killed!'
'Safe to be!' echoed all the women, as Angel reached the group.
Naughty Godfrey was up the tree in a place that certainly seemed unsafe
enough. He was astride upon a bough that did indeed look fearfully
rotten, and, though the men below would gladly have gone after him, no
one heavier than the slim little boy could have climbed up there in
safety.
'The wonder is how he got there, not being a cat,' remarked Ware the
miller, who was of a rather dismal turn of mind, 'but he'll want nine
lives if he's to get down with a whole skin.'
Angel turned pale as she looked up at him, but she called to him
quietly, 'Godfrey, come down at once.'
Godfrey looked down at the sound of her voice, and she thought he
looked rather scared.
'I'm going to stop up here,' he said.
'No, you are to come down,' said Angel gravely.
He made a little movement as if he were coming, resting his toe for an
instant on a lower bough. As he did so the rotten wood snapped and the
branch came down at Angel's feet, leaving Godfrey astride on the bough
above, with his feet dangling, while his own seat cracked dangerously.
There was a fresh chorus from below.
'The bough's breaking; come down, sir, come down!'
'No, don't move, sir, it'll break if you do; don't stir for your life!'
'Godfrey, keep quite still'--this was from Angel. 'Betty, don't cry;
please all of you be quiet, you startle him.'
'Right for you, Miss Angelica,' said the innkeeper; 'hold your tongues,
you stupids, if you can. Get into the house and fetch a couple of
mattresses and put them here, and look alive about it, will you?'
'You'd best stand a bit back, Miss Angelica,' said the miller, 'else
you'll have young master on your head, and there'll be two of you. I'd
go up after him if it wouldn't come hard on my wife and six children,
one in arms. One must mind one's neck a bit when one's a father,
missy.'
'I'd be up after him this minute if the bough'd bear me,' said the
innkeeper doubtfully.
Angel answered none of them. She stood still with her white face
raised to the little figure in his dangerous position over her head.
He was frightened enough himself now, clinging tightly to the cracking
bough and looking fearfully down at the ground beneath him.
'Don't look down, Godfrey,' called Angel encouragingly; 'sit quite
still, and we will help you directly.'
At the same moment Peter Rogers came suddenly pushing through the group
with a rope in his hand, He said not a word but went up the tree like a
squirrel.
''Taint no good, Pete,' the miller began, 'the bough won't bear you.'
Angel clutched his coat.
'Be quiet,' she said almost sharply; 'we can't do anything; be quiet.'
Every one obeyed her, and held their breath as Pete climbed to the
higher boughs above Godfrey, which, though slender for his weight,
looked safer than the dead ones. He fastened the rope where it seemed
secure and dropped the end down to the little boy.
'Tie it tight round your waist, young master,' he said; 'tie it in two
or three knots.'
Those below would have given directions too, but Angel stopped them
again.
'Hush! let Pete tell him; don't confuse him.'
There was dead silence again, while Godfrey, looking up at Peter,
struggled with his little fingers over the stiff rope. The maids came
out while he was doing it, and, at their master's sign, put down the
mattresses silently under the tree.
'Now come back, sir,' said Peter from above. 'Mind, you can't fall,
the rope's tight, and I'll have you in a minute. Don't look down, and
come along gently.'
His quiet voice seemed to give Godfrey confidence and he obeyed,
pushing himself along the bough. Betty hid her face against Angel, and
squeezed her sister's fingers till they were hot and sore. The miller
puffed with excitement and began to say something, when the innkeeper
clapped his big hand over his mouth. It did not really last a minute,
but it seemed an hour before Peter, standing firm in a fork of the
tree, could reach the child and drag him towards him, even as the
branch on which Godfrey had been sitting crashed down on to the
mattress at Angelica's feet. Another minute, and Peter was helping the
little boy down the tree, amid a chorus of congratulation from below.
Every one had something to say, some comment to make, except Angel, who
just took tight hold of Godfrey's hand, as he stood quite quiet,
hanging his head in the midst. She checked Betty with a gentle touch
when she would have seized hold of him, though she was wanting
dreadfully to hug him herself.
'Thank you all very much,' she said softly, to the people round her.
'I think we will go home now; come, Godfrey.' And she led him away
with Betty following. After a minute or two she said:
'Godfrey, you have given us a most terrible fright. We must be very
thankful you were not killed.'
'The other angels saw to me,' said Godfrey.
'Yes, but we mustn't look for angels to take care of us when we go into
dangerous places where we have no business to be. Why did you climb
the tree, Godfrey?'
'Because she said I couldn't,' said Godfrey stoutly.
'Do you mean your Aunt Elizabeth? It was very naughty of you to do
what she told you not. We must take you home now and leave you with
Penny because we can't trust you.'
All the time her kind heart was aching over the terribleness of having
to be severe with him on the very first day, the longing to catch him
up and kiss him and cry over him. But she kept on saying to herself,
'We must--we must, there is nobody else to do it,' and so she managed
to be firm. She took Godfrey home, talked to him tenderly and gravely,
and left him in the little room where Penny sat sewing. She felt as if
she had not said half she meant, as if she had made a thousand
mistakes, though she had tried her very best to be wise. Godfrey had
listened silently to all she said; he would think about it, Angel
hoped, and perhaps by-and-bye he would say something; she must just
wait. Then she went to find her sister. Betty had not come into the
house, and Angel, going out to look for her, heard sounds of sobbing by
the arbour. Everything Betty did was always done vehemently, and there
she was now, lying full length on the grass, with her head on
Demoiselle Jehanne's stone shoulder, crying as if her heart would break.
'Betty dear, don't lie there, the grass is damp,' said Angelica,
leaning over her. Betty left Miss Jane to throw her arms round her
sister.
'Oh, Angel,' she sobbed, 'I can't--I can't ever be it! It's no use, I
can't be a maiden aunt, I know I never shall. This first day, this
very first, he's nearly killed himself. Oh, Angel, if I shut my eyes,
I can see him with his darling neck broken, and the funeral, and Cousin
Crayshaw coming down to it and looking "I told you so." And perhaps
wicked people, who might think we want his money, might say we planned
it, like the Babes in the Wood's uncle, and there might be a trial, and
you and me tried for making away with Bernard's little boy.'
'Betty, Betty,' gasped Angel, who never could follow the pace of
Betty's imagination, 'don't say such dreadful things! Godfrey's quite
safe, and I'm sure you couldn't help it.'
'That's the worst of it, I couldn't help it,' sobbed Betty; 'I can't
make him do as I tell him, and he won't--he won't--he won't call me
Aunt Elizabeth,' and she watered Miss Jane's convolvulus with fresh
tears.
'I am thinking,' said Angel hesitatingly, 'that perhaps we expected a
little too much to begin with; you see, we had had no practice before,
so perhaps it is natural we should make a few mistakes.'
'But we don't want to practise on Godfrey,' wailed Betty, 'and, if he
gets killed while we're learning, where will be the use of us getting
wise about it? Fancy us left to get quite old, two wise maiden aunts
with no nephew to be aunt to, and all Godfrey's dreadful money for our
own, and people thinking we liked it.'
The picture was altogether too dreadful for Angel to fancy at all.
'Don't you think perhaps it's better not to think about such dreadful
things happening?' she said hesitatingly; 'and Betty, do you know, I've
just remembered that I don't think we half thanked Pete properly.
Shall we go down to the Place and see if we can find him?'
'I think we'd better,' said Betty, rising; 'I'm sure I ought, for he's
saved Godfrey's neck from being broken, and me from either dying of a
broken heart or going quite mad. Fancy if you'd had to live alone,
Angel, or to come and see me in an asylum, perhaps talk to me through
bars. Yes, I think we'd better go and thank Pete.'
Angelica put her sister's tangled curls straight and tied on her hat,
and they went together rather slowly and mournfully down the road to
Oakfield Place.
They were quite at home there, and went in through the garden to the
back of the house, where Patty was feeding chickens in the orchard with
Nancy helping her. Nancy came running to meet the young ladies,
stopping in dismay at sight of Betty's tear-stained face, and Patty
asked anxiously if the young gentleman were hurt.
'Oh no, not at all, thank you,' said Angel, 'only he frightened us a
good deal. Is Peter in, Patty? We wanted to thank him for being so
sensible and helping Godfrey so cleverly.'
Pete would be in directly, Patty thought; he had just gone to the mill,
he was bound to be back soon. Mother was making the lavender bags in
the storeroom, wouldn't the young ladies step in? she'd be fine and
pleased; and she showed them into the house and held back Nancy, who
would have followed, since she never would learn when she wasn't
wanted. The store-room was a long, low room, running along the back of
the house and looking on to the garden. To-day it was full of the
clean, pleasant scent of lavender; there were great trays of dried
lavender on the long table, and Martha Rogers sat stitching away at
muslin bags to put it in. Every year those lavender bags were made at
Oakfield Place; they were all alike, of black muslin bound with
lilac-coloured ribbon. Old Mrs. Maitland had made them herself up to
the last year she lived; there were great stores of beautiful linen in
the house, sheets and towels and table-cloths which she and her sisters
had stitched at in their young days, and they were all stowed away in
big presses, with the fragrant lavender between them, until the captain
should bring a wife home to Oakfield and want them. The lavender bags
which she did not use herself Mrs. Maitland gave to her friends; there
was no one she had been fond of who did not possess several of the
little sweet-scented presents. Miss Amelia Crayshaw had had plenty of
them, and Angel and Betty had received one each, long ago, one day when
they had been to drink tea at the Place with their cousin before Mrs.
Maitland died. And as long as they lived the scent of lavender would
always bring back to them the old house, and the sunny sloping garden,
and the long, low store-room, with its deep window seats and shelves
and presses, and Martha stitching away at black muslin and lilac
ribbon. For the captain liked to know that things were done still as
they had been in his mother's lifetime, and so the lavender was
gathered every year, and the bags were made to put among the stores of
linen which was waiting, all snowy and fragrant, till the master of the
house came home.
Martha Rogers was a tall, comely woman, with capable hands and a
sensible motherly face. And, indeed, she had mothered and cosseted
many a child besides her own three, and Angel and Betty Wyndham were
among the number. Often and often when they were little girls they had
come to Martha with their troubles, for Cousin Amelia, though she was
always kind, seemed to have forgotten the long ago time when she was a
child, when little things looked so big, and a broken doll or a wet
birthday made all the world dark for a little while. And Penny, though
she was quite ready to pet and comfort them, never had very much to
suggest except kisses and sugar and a bit of cake. But Martha Rogers,
though she was so big and wise and busy, had that beautiful power,
which we must all learn if we are going to be helpful, sympathizing
people, of remembering what it was like to be little and shy and
stupid, and never talked about it being a waste of time and tears to
cry over playthings, or thought that people could be comforted by
sweetmeats and advice not to spoil their pretty eyes. There was a sort
of strong, happy feeling about her very presence, and Angel and Betty
felt it to-day as they came into the lavender-scented store-room.
Martha gave them a hearty welcome as usual.
'Come in, Miss Angel, come in, Miss Betty dear; 'tis a while since I
saw you. Sit ye down here, Miss Angel, out of the draught. Bless your
heart, my dear, where are your roses? But, of course, Patty's just
told me the fright you've got about the young gentleman--a little Turk,
to be sure; but there, boys will be boys, won't they, and never easy
till they're in mischief one way or the other.'
Angel began to answer her, and then suddenly, at the kind hearty words,
her composure broke down, and she dropped her face in her hands and
cried as Betty had done.
'It's my fault, Martha,' faltered Betty, in explanation, 'it was me he
was with, and I couldn't stop him doing it. And he's got nobody but us
to look to, you know, and how are we ever going to teach him?'
Martha Rogers looked from one of the sisters to the other, and then she
stuck her needle into the black muslin and came over to Angelica, and
began stroking her bowed head with her broad tender hand.
'Poor dears! poor little ladies!' she said gently; 'bless your hearts,
my dears, if you take on like this every time the young gentleman takes
a frolic you'll have your hair white before you're twenty.'
'But, Martha,' sighed Betty, 'you know he did what I told him not to
do.'
'Ay, did he, Miss Betty dear; and many's the time, I doubt, he'll take
his own way again, like the rest of us, and be sorry for it, sure
enough.'
'But if I can't make him obey me,' said Betty dolefully, 'there's
nobody but us, you know.'
'Miss Betty dear, not all the King's army and navy can't make the
smallest bit of a child obey them if he won't. You can tell a child
what's right and punish him if he does wrong, but you can't make him do
what you want, like you can drive a nail into a board. I'll warrant
you've told him he's been a bad boy and put you both about, and scared
everybody.'
'Yes, I told him,' said Angel, lifting her face, 'but, Martha, I don't
know if he minded.'
'He'll mind by-and-bye, if he didn't then, Miss Angelica, and be worse
vexed to think he's hurt you than to have nigh broken his neck.'
Angel looked gravely up at her.'
'Martha,' she said simply, 'you are always so good to us, and you know
we have to be everything to Godfrey, and we have no one else to ask, so
you will tell me what you think. Of course we want Godfrey to obey us
for love--it would break my heart if he didn't love us--but still he
must be punished if he does wrong, and there is no one else to do it.
Sha'n't we find it very hard to make him care for us, and yet treat him
rightly and wisely?'
Martha Rogers sat down again in the chair where she had been stitching
the lavender bags, but she did not take up her work. She smoothed her
large apron down thoughtfully once or twice and then she began to speak
slowly, looking beyond Angel out of the window.
'You'll pardon me, Miss Angelica, I'm only just one that's been a child
myself and seen myself over again in my own children, but this is how
it seems to me. I think when we're bits of boys and girls, before
we've learnt much of how other folks do things, the Lord gives us a
very good notion of what's fair and right, and we look to see older
folks have the same. When I was a young wife, Miss Angel, and Patty
yonder was in her cradle, my grannie, that brought me up, said much the
same thing to me. "Martha," says she, "yon little lass'll meet a many
unfair things, and a many contrairy things to puzzle her before she's a
grown woman; don't let her meet 'em in her mother, my dear. Let her
have some one she can hold on to, and reckon on to blame her when she's
wrong and praise her when she's right. If she breaks your best jug by
accident don't go for to scold her, but if she takes a bit of sugar on
the sly ye may take the birch to her." If young master's like most of
the little lads I've known, Miss Angel, he'll put them first that loves
him well enough to put what's fair before what's pleasant for him or
for them.'
'But, Martha,' said Angel earnestly, 'you were older than we are, and
you had your grannie to ask, and we are so afraid of making mistakes.'
'Miss Angelica, you'll forgive me for what I'm going to say. I'm not
making light, missy dear, but what can you do more than do your best,
and show him what's right and punish him when he's wrong, and say your
prayers for him, and love him all you can; but remember all the time
that there's One wiser than you loves him better still.'
And here Martha took up the lavender bag and began stitching away at
the lilac ribbon binding. But she had to leave off after a minute, for
Betty sprang up suddenly and put her arms round her neck and kissed
her, and Angel looked at her across the table with earnest, grateful
eyes.
'Thank you, Martha, so very much,' she said; 'you do help us so
beautifully, better than any one else could!'
'I just tell you what I told myself, Miss Angel dear, and, mind you, my
dear young ladies, I don't believe we've ever a job given us to do but
we're taught the way, so we really want to learn.'
Just at this moment Peter came in from the mill, and the two young
ladies thanked him till he got red to the tips of his ears. It was
nothing at all to do, he said, and he was glad the young master was
none the worse, and a first-rate climber he was, that he was, and him
such a little bit of a fellow. And so the girls went away, very much
more cheerful than they had come.
'We won't say any more about it to Godfrey,' Angelica said on the way
home; 'it's just as Martha says, we can't make him say he's sorry, and
if he is he'll tell us so by-and-bye, and it'll be worth waiting for,
won't it?'
So the two waited, and in the evening they had their reward. Angelica
put Godfrey to bed and heard him say his prayers, adding herself a few
words of thanksgiving for his preservation that day. When she leaned
over him to say good-night, he asked in his sudden way:
'If I had tumbled down and my head had been broken off would you have
cried?'
'Indeed I should,' said Angel gravely; 'I am afraid to think about it
even.'
'But I wasn't a good boy then,' went on Godfrey, with his wide grey
eyes studying her face; 'are you going on loving me?'
'My little Godfrey, I shall go on loving you as long as I live, and
longer, longer, dear.'
The next moment he put his arms round her and gave her his first real
kiss.
'I love you,' he said gravely; 'I won't make you and the other angels
cry. You can tell the other one, the Aunt Betty, that I won't climb up
that tree again.'
'Yes, that I will,' Angel said joyfully, and she went downstairs to the
parlour where Betty was reading and Penny clearing away supper, with
her quiet face glowing with happiness.
'Betty,' she said, 'Godfrey is quite sorry now for frightening us. He
told me to tell you that he wouldn't do it again.'
'Bless him!' exclaimed Penny, almost dropping the lamp.
'Darling!' cried Betty, letting her book tumble into the fender.
'Angel, did he--did he say "Aunt Elizabeth"?'
'Well, no,' said Angel, picking the book up and dusting off the ashes;
'but, Betty, do you know, I think perhaps we'd better not make a fuss
about that if he thinks the other sounds nicer; if we're too strict
about little things we sha'n't know what to do about big ones, I think.'
'I thought perhaps he'd find "Aunt Elizabeth" easier to respect,' said
Betty a little regretfully.
'I think he'll respect the person and not mind about the name,' said
Angel, and she added thoughtfully, looking into the fire, 'I really
mind more about my own name, because I'm afraid he mixes me up with
what he has learnt about guardian angels, but I must just wait, and
he'll find out his mistake all in good time.'
Old Penny was carrying the supper tray out of the room, and, as she
stopped to shut the door after her, she remarked to herself:
'Bless your heart, my dear, if young master makes no worse mistakes
than that in his life he won't go far wrong!'
[Illustration: Chapter IV headpiece]