'IT'S ANOTHER SNAIL'
It was the next morning at breakfast that another strange thing
happened. It was when the letters came.
We did not get them quite so early as at home, for it would have brought
the postman a good deal out of his way to come down to the Hut, so it
had been arranged for him to leave them at the lodge, and for them to be
sent on from there.
This morning there were only two: one for mamma--a long one, it seemed,
but not a foreign one, as I saw by a glance at the thick paper while she
was reading it. But I had not noticed anything about Taisy's, and when a
queer kind of little gasp made me look round at her, my first thought
was that there was bad news of papa, which some one had somehow sent
first to her--Taisy--for her to 'break it,' as they say, to mamma.
And my heart began to beat furiously, and no wonder, I think, for Taisy
was as white as the tablecloth, and was evidently on the point of
bursting into tears.
'Taisy, Taisy,' I whispered. Luckily she was sitting next me, so that I
could speak to her in a low voice without being overheard. 'Is it--oh,
is it, anything wrong with papa?' and I felt myself clasping my hands
together under the table in an agony of terror.
_My_ face brought back Taisy's presence of mind.
'No, no,' she said. 'Nothing of that kind--nothing wrong really. I know
I am very silly,' and already the colour was coming back to her cheeks,
for she was not a nervous or delicate girl at all. 'It is only--oh, I
must tell auntie first, and then you will understand the sort of fright
I got.'
She stopped abruptly, for just then mamma looked up from her letter and
spoke to Taisy. She was smiling a little, which made me feel all the
more puzzled as to what was the matter with Taisy when I heard her reply
to mamma's question, 'Have you too a letter from your grandmother?'
'Yes, auntie,' as if the two words were all she could force herself to
say.
Still, mamma did not notice her peculiar manner. She herself turned
again to her letter.
'I must say my respect for our gypsy has risen,' she remarked, 'though I
suppose it is really only a rather odd coincidence.'
At this Taisy's colour changed again and her lips began to quiver. And,
happening to glance across the table, I saw that Esme's mouth was wide
open, and that she was staring gravely at Taisy, in a way quite unusual
with her. I could not make it out at all.
Breakfast was over by this time. Mamma turned to the children.
'Run off, dears, but don't be very long. You have just time for a little
blow before Taisy and Ida are ready for lessons.'
'But, mamma,' began Esme, 'I want to speak to Taisy first.'
'No "buts," Esme,' said mamma decidedly. We were well used to them.
'Taisy won't be ready to speak to you just yet. Run off at----' she had
not time to finish the sentence before she at last noticed Taisy; the
tears were really starting by now, and her breath came in little chokes.
'Go, children,' mamma repeated, looking startled, 'and Geordie, dear,
you had better be getting ready for Kirke.'
Geordie, big boy as he was, was very obedient. He got up, first catching
hold of Denzil by his sailor collar, to make him hurry up.
He--George--must have been as puzzled as any one, for he had no idea of
course what the letters contained. But he contented himself with a kind
of reassuring nod to Taisy as he left the room, and a sign to me as he
gave a little gesture of the hand in her direction, as much as to say,
'Be good to her, Ida.'
Then Taisy broke down and fairly sobbed. Mamma got up and came round to
her.
'My dearest child,' she said, 'what _is_ the matter? It has something to
do with your grandmother's letter, I can see. Do you dislike this
boy--what is his name--oh yes, Rolf--Rolf Dacre--that she writes about?'
'Oh no, no, indeed. He is a very nice boy, as nice as he can be,' Taisy
replied, amidst her tears. 'It isn't that at all. It's--it's about the
gypsy--the saying it like a prophecy--it wasn't right. I--I shouldn't
have done it, but I thought it was no harm, only fun;' and she began
sobbing again.
For a moment or two mamma and I stared at each other, as if we thought
Taisy was losing her wits. Then gradually light began to break in upon
us.
"_You_ shouldn't have done it," you say, dear,' mamma repeated. 'Do you
mean--can you mean----'
Taisy nodded.
'Yes,' she said; 'you have guessed it, I see. But please do not be angry
with me. I meant no harm.'
'Then _you_ were the gypsy,' mamma exclaimed, as if she could scarcely
believe it.
'And,' I added, 'the little boy was--oh, he was Esme, I suppose. That
was why she was looking so queer at breakfast.'
'Was she?' said Taisy, 'I didn't notice. Yes, she was the little boy. I
did not mean to mix her up in it, but she came poking about when the
boys were helping me to dress up, and we thought the best way to keep
her quiet was for her to join in it. But, auntie--I was going to tell
you all about it to-day--you believe me, don't you?' and she lifted such
an appealing, tear-stained face to mamma, that mamma could not help
patting it reassuringly and kissing her.
'It was very cleverly done--very,' she said. 'And I see no harm in a
little trick of the kind if not carried too far. The only thing is--Why
did you not unmask yourself at once? Perhaps--for Esme's sake--it would
have been better not to keep up the mystification so long.'
'I know,' said Taisy, calmer now, but speaking very humbly, 'that is
what I did wrong. It might have led to her telling what was untrue. Last
night when you were pitying the child--who was _not_ my son or
grandson'--and here Taisy's sunny nature broke out again in one of her
own merry laughs--'I could _scarcely_ keep it in.'
'But why did you, then?' I asked.
'Oh, that is what I wanted to explain! I had a sort of wager with
Geordie. He said I might take you both in _once_, but certainly not
twice, and he dared me to try it. So I made a second plan. I was coming
again to-day--quite differently--dressed like a rather old-maidish lady,
who wanted to know if you would let her have rooms here, as the sea-air
and pine-wood air would be so good for her. I meant to have made her
very pertinacious, and very funny, and I wanted you to get quite cross
with her, auntie dear,' and Taisy could not help a little sigh of
regret. 'That was why the gypsy foretold that you were going to have
another unexpected visitor. I wasn't quite happy about it. When I woke
in the night, I felt as if I was carrying the trick too far, as you say.
And then when I got Granny's letter about another _real_ visitor, all of
a sudden I felt so frightened--as if my joke had been turned into
earnest as a punishment for my--my daring to predict anything.'
'Yes, I understand,' said mamma; 'but do not get exaggerated about it.'
Then she was silent for a moment or two and seemed to be thinking it
over.
'Was Esme to have come again?' I asked.
Taisy shook her head.
'Oh no--it was on condition of her keeping quite out of the way the
second time--for of course she would have begun giggling if she had seen
me, and spoilt it all--that I let her act the gypsy boy.'
'I think,' said mamma, 'that I must unconsciously have recognised
something about her--that it was some feeling of that kind that made me
so sorry for the boy. But about the whole affair--well, yes, Taisy dear.
Perhaps it was scarcely right--not _quite_ respectful to one so much
older than you as I am to let it go on so long. And not quite a good
thing for Esme.'
'I know--I see,' said Taisy very penitently.
'But,' mamma continued, 'don't exaggerate it now. I will--and you will
help me to do so--put it all right by a little explanation to Esme. And
don't get it into your head that the coincidence of a real visitor being
proposed to us is in any way a "punishment" to you for your piece of
fun, though I can understand your feeling startled.'
'Oh!' exclaimed Taisy, 'I shall never forget what I felt when I opened
Granny's letter and saw what it was about.'
'Then,' said mamma, 'you had no sort of idea that the thing was the
least possible?'
'Not the very slightest,' Taisy replied. 'You see it has happened
unexpectedly to every one.'
'Yes,' said mamma, glancing again at her letter; 'but you know Rolf?'
'I have not seen him for more than a year,' said Taisy. 'He spent one or
two short holidays with us when his aunt, Miss Merry, was with Granny.
He is a very nice boy. I am sure George would like him, though he is two
years or so older than Dods.'
I was growing rather impatient by this time to hear all about the
contents of the letters which had caused such a sensation.
'Do tell me about it, mamma,' I said. 'Is it some one else coming to
stay with us? Where _could_ we put any one?'
Taisy began to laugh.
'That's the fun of it,' she said. 'It's another snail--some one who will
bring his house with him!'
Mamma laughed too, but I could see that she was thinking over the new
proposal, whatever it was, rather seriously. Then between them they told
me all about it.
It appeared that Aunt Emmeline's friend, Miss Merry, had a nephew, the
son of a sister, much, much younger than herself, who had died some
years ago. The boy's father was in India, so he sometimes, though not
always, spent his holidays with his aunt. And this spring something had
happened--I forget what exactly--illness at his school, or his leaving
school for some reason, sooner than had been expected--which left him
with nowhere to go to for some time.
'As ill-luck would have it,' Lady Emmeline wrote to mother, 'just as
Taisy had gone to you, and Bertha Merry and I were settled cosily
together, down comes this thunderbolt in the shape of a great
hobbledehoy of a boy, who would be utterly out of his element with two
elderly ladies and sure to get into mischief. Not that he is not a nice
fellow and a good boy--I know him to be both, otherwise I would
certainly not propose what I am going to do.'
And this was the proposal which she had written about--she or Miss
Merry, or both perhaps--to Taisy too--that Rolf should come to us at the
Hut, and join Geordie, if possible, in his lessons with Mr. Lloyd, and
be just one of the family for the time. _He_ would be as happy as a boy
could be; of that his aunt was sure, and would do anything in his power,
like a big brother, to help mamma with the younger ones. But the fun of
the thing was, that he would bring his room with him! There would be no
difficulty about the expense of it. His father was rich and Rolf an only
child, and his aunt was free to spend whatever she thought right upon
him, and being a very energetic little woman, as I think many old maids
are, she had already written to some place where such things were to be
got, to get sizes and prices and everything required for a neat little
iron room, fitted up as a bedroom; and if mamma was so very, very kind
as to agree to take him in, Rolf would be ready to come the very next
week.
Of course we talked it over a lot. It had to be considered if Hoskins
and Margery could manage another guest, and we were almost surprised to
find how pleased Hoskins was about it. 'Miss Theresa,' she said, 'was
such a help; there had not seemed half so much to do since she came. And
the weather was getting so nice and mild, we would scarcely need fires
at all soon, except perhaps 'a little bit, of an evening in the
drawing-room.' And it would be such a good thing for Master George to
have a companion a little older than himself before going to school,
which mamma in her own mind had already thought the same about.
I never knew Hoskins quite so cheery about anything. I think the truth
was, that she had thoroughly enjoyed the gypsy mystification which had
been confided to her. And I believe, at the bottom of her heart, she
thought that somehow or other Taisy had had a sudden gift of prediction,
and that it would be very unlucky to refuse to receive the unlooked-for
visitor.
Anyhow it ended in mamma's writing to Aunt Emmeline and Miss Merry,
consenting pleasantly to Rolf's joining us, provided he promised, or
they for him, to be content with our present very simple quarters and
way of living.
'That I am sure he will be,' said Taisy, who had quite recovered her
spirits by the time, or rather long before, the letters were written.
'Any boy would be a goose who wasn't delighted with the Hut, and Rolf is
certainly not a goose.'
The only person who did not seem quite pleased about it was George. At
first I thought this very strange, as naturally you would have expected
him to be very delighted at the idea of a companion of his own standing,
so to say, which he had never had. But Dods was a queer boy in some
respects. He is less so now on the whole, though he is just as dear and
'old-fashioned,' in nice ways, as ever, and I do think the _right_ ways
in which he has changed are a good deal thanks to Rolf.
Perhaps Geordie was a little jealous of him before he came, without
knowing it. It was not unnatural, considering everything. Poor old Dods,
you see, had been left by papa in his own place, as the 'man' of the
party, and we had all got into the habit of looking to him and even
asking his opinion as if he were much older than he really was. And then
he was so devoted to Taisy; he looked upon himself as a sort of knight
to her, I do believe, for down below his matter-of-factness and
practicalness, I know now that there is a good deal of romance, and
what I can only call poeticalness in dear Geordie, so that the idea of a
big, handsome, rather dashing fellow coming to take place above him must
have been rather trying.
I shall never forget the day Rolf arrived. I had been feeling sorry for
Geordie, as I had begun to understand his rather disagreeable manner
about Rolf, and yet provoked with him too. I did not see after all, I
thought to myself, why he should mind Rolf's coming, any more than I
minded Taisy. For though Taisy was our own cousin and we loved her
dearly, she could not but take a _little_ the place of eldest daughter
with mamma, and if she had not been so sweet, it might have been
uncomfortable.
And after all, Rolf was a stranger--and only to be with us a short time.
There was far less chance of his really interfering with Geordie's own
place.
These things however are not often set straight by reasoning about them.
It is the people themselves--their characters and ways and
feelings--that put it all right if it is to be put right.
And just as Taisy's brightness and unselfishness and simpleness--I can't
find a better word--kept away any possibility of jealousy of her on my
own part, so it was with Rolf. He and she were no sort of relation to
each other, and yet in some ways they were very alike. I never did know,
and I am sure I never shall know, any one with such a thoroughly
straightforward, unfanciful, and yet very loving and sympathising heart
as Rolf. When I think--but no, I must not allude to that yet--I could
scarcely bear to write of these past happy days if I did.
But I am wandering away from the day of Rolf's arrival. It was not of
course a 'balloon surprise,' as Dods called Taisy's shooting down upon
us as she had done, for we knew exactly what train he was coming by, and
everything. And it was not so like a 'snail's visit,' which was Taisy's
own name for hers, as in this case the house came before the snail--the
day before.
It was a different kind of thing from the parish room--that very
substantial affair. This was more like a strong, stout kind of
tent--only it did not go up to a quite small point at the top, as I had
imagined all tents do. But it was partly made of stretched canvas, with
iron rods and bars, and the men who put it up told us it was fireproof
as well as waterproof, which mamma was very glad to hear, especially
when she saw that a small stove was among the furnishings that came with
it.
George was very pleased to find that the men from Kirke who had received
full directions about it all, from the makers, had instructions to set
it up wherever we thought best. It almost reconciled him, I could see,
to the idea of the stranger boy's visit--even to being pleased at it.
And we three--Taisy and Geordie and I--were not long in finding the best
place for the new addition to our encampment. We made it a sort of
match, on the other side, to Taisy's waggon, though, as it was much
prettier to look at, it was placed so that a bit of it showed from the
front of the house in a rather picturesque way.
Inside it really was awfully nice when we got the things unpacked. There
was everything that could be wanted for camping out, for I don't think
the people had understood that only an additional bedroom was required.
They had even sent pots and pans and things like that for cooking, if
required, on the stove.
'All the better,' said Hoskins, whose face grew beamier and beamier with
every article that appeared. 'I shall not be put about now if anything
goes wrong with the kitchen fire, as has been at the back of my mind now
and then. Master Dacre, by what Miss Theresa says, isn't one to grumble
if we had to do a bit of cooking in his room, once in a way.'
'No, indeed,' said Taisy laughing; 'he'd think it the best of fun and be
quite ready to act kitchen-maid.'
She declared she was getting quite jealous, as all the perfectly new and
fresh furniture and fittings were set in their places, for of course her
waggon had been provided with what she required in rather a makeshift
way. There were tables and chairs and hanging presses and bookshelves
all made to fold up into next to no compass; a squashy bath, which I did
_not_ envy, as I was sure it would topple over and all the water be
spilt. And there was a lovely red carpet, or strips of it, so thick and
firm, which I _did_ envy, as what we had in our rooms was rather shabby,
and two or three rugs, which, by the bye, soon found their way to the
inside of the Hut, when Rolf discovered that we liked them, declaring
that they were always kicking about in his way.
'Yes,' said mamma, when we summoned her to see and admire, 'it is
wonderfully nice. And I am glad it has all come the day before. It makes
it seem more like Rolf's being our guest, that his room should be all
ready to receive him.'
Then Esme made us laugh. She had been standing gazing at it all with her
mouth wide open, as was her way when very much interested or very
admiring. And then she said, solemnly for once--
'He must be very--termenjously rich!'
After all, something of a surprise _did_ come with Rolf, which I must
now tell about.