STONEGATE.
"The Esplanade did you say, girls?" asked Mrs. Woburn, entering at that
moment.
"No, mamma, we don't care about it; any other place will do," replied
Julia sulkily.
"We will walk along the beach to Brill Head then," said Mrs. Woburn,
"and I dare say Ernest would like to accompany us; he will find plenty
of specimens there."
"Shall I stay at home, Aunt Annie?" asked Ruth timidly.
"Certainly not, unless you wish it; Julia has been longing to have you
for a companion, and this will be such a delightful walk."
But the pleasure of the walk was gone for Ruth. Julia was quiet, and
scarcely spoke to any one, and her mother could not understand what was
the matter, and although she tried her best to bring back the look of
delight to her niece's face, she was not successful. It was not until
they reached Brill Head, and Ernest began his search for specimens, that
Ruth recovered her wonted liveliness, and the sunshine returned to her
face and the gladness to her heart, and she felt so full of life and
energy that she challenged Rupert to a race.
"Just look at her, mamma!" exclaimed Julia, who was sitting beside her
mother on a rustic seat. "Did you ever see any one so wild and vulgar?
And that frightful dress, as old-fashioned as possible! To think of our
going on the Esplanade with her!"
"Is that the reason you did not wish to go there?"
"Of course it was. Every one would have stared at her antiquated dress.
Indeed, she is altogether old-fashioned; she actually asked me last
night if I had any dolls, and if I went to Sunday-school. I didn't think
that having a poor relation to live with us would be quite so annoying
and humiliating."
Mrs. Woburn was very seldom angry with her spoilt child, but now she was
thoroughly roused, and said in low distinct tones, "Remember, Julia,
that you speak of my brother's daughter. While Ruth is here she will be
treated as your sister. You little know what you owe to your uncle, and
if I ever hear you speak in that contemptuous way of any of his family I
will send you to your room at once."
Such a threat was quite strange to Julia, who at fourteen began to
consider herself almost grown-up, and quite above reproof or punishment;
but it was sufficiently determined to prevent her making any more
remarks of the sort in her mother's hearing, though it did not increase
her affection for her cousin.
During the walk home Ruth was merry as ever, romping with Rupert,
chatting with that usually shy lad, Ernest, and planning an afternoon on
the shore to collect sea-weeds. But Julia walked slowly beside her
mother, so evidently determined to be silent that the rest of the party
tacitly agreed to leave her to herself.
Mr. Woburn and his eldest son, Gerald, arrived at Stonegate that
afternoon, and Ruth saw them for the first time. She soon felt at home
with her uncle, a plain-featured, middle-aged man of business, but with
his son she felt wonderfully shy. It seemed hardly possible that the
handsome young man with the dark moustache and manly bearing could be
her cousin. She had expected to see a boy two or three years older than
Will, but still a boy, not a polite and self-possessed young man, who by
his way of speaking to her made her feel a very little girl indeed.
"How have you been improving the shining hours, my lad?" was his
greeting to Ernest.
"He has been down on the shore collecting shells for Ruth," said Julia
mischievously.
"Ernest becoming a lady's man! Dear me! the country cousin is working
wonders," he cried in feigned surprise.
Ruth felt the hot blood rushing to her cheeks, though she tried to look
as if she had not heard the remark; but it spoilt her pleasure in
seeking for shells, and she decided mentally that she should never like
Cousin Gerald. The arrival of her brother seemed to have restored
Julia's good-humour, and when in the evening he proposed a stroll on the
pier she gladly assented, and the whole party set out to hear the band
which played there two or three evenings in the week.
Ruth thought that she had never known anything so charming as that
evening. It was so pleasant to sit in a sheltered corner listening to
the finest music she had ever heard, played by a military band and
accompanied by the gentle splash of the waves against the pier; to feel
the cool fresh sea-breeze blowing around her, and to see the gay dresses
of the ladies as they walked up and down talking to their friends, until
by-and-by the quiet stars came out and the silver moon shone upon the
scene.
Julia was not contented to sit still and look on; she begged Gerald to
let her promenade with him, and for a few minutes he gratified her whim;
but Ruth, although she had changed the dress which had proved so
obnoxious that morning, did not consider herself to be attired richly
enough to mingle with the gay throng that passed and re-passed her in
her quiet corner.
"What do you think of Gerald?" asked Julia, when the two girls had
retired to their bedroom that evening. "Is he not very handsome?"
"Yes," said Ruth, glad that her cousin had asked a question to which she
could give her assent so easily. "But I didn't know that he was so old;
I expected he would be a boy."
"He is only nineteen," said Julia; "but I am sure he looks older."
"Only nineteen! Why, Will is seventeen, and he is quite a boy compared
with Cousin Gerald."
"That is very likely, for he has been brought up in the country, and
that makes a great difference. Now I am sure that Gerald knows quite as
much as most men do, and I think it is too bad for father to treat him
like a boy."
"Does he?" asked Ruth innocently.
"Yes; he won't even allow him to have a latch-key, and then he complains
if Gerald is rather late home in the evening, and he has to sit up for
him. And even mamma annoys him dreadfully sometimes by calling him 'her
dear boy.'"
"I thought mothers did that even when their sons were quite grown up,"
said Ruth.
"I don't think they should," was Julia's reply. "But it is quite too bad
of papa to expect poor Gerald to slave away in that office all day. He
is quite a tyrant, and grudges the poor fellow any pleasure."
"Julia! Julia! I am sure it is very wrong of you to talk in that way of
your parents," cried Ruth reproachfully. "Don't you know the Bible says,
'Honour thy father and mother'?"
"What an old-fashioned, tiresome creature you are!" muttered Julia in a
sleepy voice.