THE MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY.
"Thank you, dear. You have done me good," returned Averil, gratefully,
when Annette had finished her little story.
"Ah! that is well, my cousin."
"No one has done me so much good before. But, Annette, you must call me
Averil. We are strangers no longer. We must be sisters to each other.
Lottie, too; there is no need to call her Miss Jones."
"I will remember. I will do anything that pleases you. Every day I
shall grow more English. I shall learn your ways."
"I hope you and Lottie will be good friends."
"But why not? Already I feel to love her. She is bright--she has a
sweet temper; and then, how she plays!"
"And you long to play, too?"
"Surely. And to sing; above all things, to sing. Oh, my cousin--I mean,
Averil--what does that look mean? Is it that you will altogether crush
me with kindness? I am to dwell in this fine house, and I am to dress
as grandly as the consul's lady used to dress. And still that is not
enough?"
"No, certainly. We must think of better things than clothes. Annette,
shall you think me hard if I give you books to read?"
"Books? Ah! they will content me much. Never have I had time to read,
except on Sunday."
"Lottie and I read history together. Why should you not join us,
Annette? And then I have begun to teach her French. Poor Lottie's
education has been sadly neglected. And she is so clever, and feels her
deficiencies so deeply."
"Stay, my cousin--I have a notion," and Annette's eyes were sparkling
with eagerness. "Already I have an idea. Why should we not make the
exchange? Miss Jones--Lottie, I mean--shall teach me my notes in music,
and I will read and talk French with her. Ah! that pleases you," as
Averil smiled. "You think it a good idea?"
"Excellent! Lottie is used to teaching. You will not need a master
for at least a year. But there is only one obstacle in this charming
scheme: How is Lottie to find time for all this?"
"I have thought of that, too," returned Annette, gravely. "Listen, my
cousin. Ah! you shake your head. I shall learn to say Averil by and by.
For myself, I love work. I can mend, I can darn--even my mother praised
me, and she was hard to please. I will share Lottie's tasks. When two
work, the labor is sooner ended. We can talk French. Our tongues will
be at liberty, though our hands are busy. Ah! this, too, contents you.
I am happy that I have already found out a way to please you."
"My dear child!" Averil was almost too touched to say more. She felt
a generous delight as this beautiful nature, at once so simple and so
child-like, unfolded itself before her. It was her secret trouble that
so few natures satisfied and responded to her own. All her life she
had hungered and thirsted for sympathy, though she had long ago ceased
to expect it. Her father had loved her, but he had formed other ties,
regardless of his child's best interests. Averil's home life had been
terribly isolated. Her large nature had been compelled to create its
own interests. For Lottie she felt the affection that she would have
bestowed on a young sister. Lottie's gay, healthy nature, with its
robust sweetness, was a singularly youthful one. She leaned on Averil,
and depended on her for all her comforts. But it may be doubted if she
understood Averil's strange, sensitive temperament. With all Lottie's
devotion, her dog-like fidelity, her loyal submission, she failed to
give Averil what she required.
Annette was young too, but she had been early schooled in adversity,
and its bitter lessons had been tempered by the watchful love of an
earthly parent. Until lately, Annette had not suffered alone. "My
mother and I." In spite of privations, that dual existence had been
sweet. Annette's cheek had grown pale and thin, but her heart had
kept young. No unkindness had frozen her young energies; no galling
restrictions, no want of sympathy, had driven her back upon herself.
She was like a closed-up flower; the sunshine would soon open the
blossom.
"She is different from Lottie. She is older, graver, more intense,"
thought Averil. "Last night I thought her interesting; the French word
_spirituelle_ seemed to express her perfectly. To-night I have found
out that there are still depths to be sounded. I must not allow myself
to expect too much. She may disappoint me, as others have done. It is
not wise to demand too much of human nature. But already I feel to love
her."
They did not talk much after this. Averil was obliged to own that she
was weary, and that her head ached, and after a little she retired to
bed.
Annette was almost too excited to sleep. She had found a way to make
herself useful. "Ah! they should see, these dear people, how she could
work." Annette was not a bit dismayed at the thought of the task she
had set herself; the thin, slender fingers were longing to achieve
those marvelous feats of invisible darning, those dainty hem-stitched
borders and delicate embroideries. Annette would not be daunted by any
amount of dilapidated lace and frayed flounces. Like Alexander the
Great, she was longing for new worlds to conquer--those regions that
belonged to her woman's kingdom. "Ah! they shall see! they shall see!"
she said to herself a dozen times before she fell asleep.
When Annette entered the dining-room the next morning she was surprised
to find Maud occupying Averil's place. Her anxious inquiries were
answered carelessly.
"Averil had the headache. She was having breakfast in her own room.
Oh, there was no need to be so concerned," as Annette plied her with
questions. "Averil was often ailing. She had wretched health. Any one
could see at a glance what a sickly little person she was. It was her
own fault. If she would only rest more, and winter abroad, and not
be running out in all weathers to see all sorts of people, she would
do very well;" and here Maud gave her favorite shrug, that was so
expressive, and turned a cold shoulder on Annette.
No one else addressed her. Mrs. Willmot read her letters, and conversed
with her daughters. Lottie scarcely spoke. She ate her breakfast
hurriedly, and left the room as soon as possible. Annette followed her.
"Why is it that you are making such haste?" she asked. "Is it that you
have your music to practice?"
"No, indeed," returned Lottie, stretching her arms a little wearily;
"but I have work to do that will occupy me for the rest of the day.
Ah! how I do hate work--at least, how I long sometimes to do something
better. Oh, that concert, Miss Ramsay, was glorious! I could scarcely
sleep afterward. I think I am crazy about music. I want to try over
something I heard on the grand piano; but Georgina would be so vexed to
hear me. She and Maud want their dresses for to-morrow, and there is
ever so much to do to them."
"Never mind; I will help you. I will fetch my new work-basket, and you
shall show me your room, and you will see how much sooner the work will
be done."
"Will you really?"--and Lottie's face brightened, and her dimples came
into full play. "How good-natured you are, Miss Ramsay!"
"If I call you Lottie, you must say Annette also. Averil, my
cousin, thinks it is not well to be stiff. Oh! is this your room?
It is almost as pretty as mine. You have a writing-table also; and
what a dear little round table for work! Those are the dresses, I
suppose?"--looking at some flimsy white garments on the bed, and she
listened to Lottie's instructions gravely.
How the girls' tongues unloosed as their needles flew through the
soft stuff! Lottie had so much to say about the concert. Her little
pleasure-loving soul had been stirred to the depths by that wonderful
music.
"There is nothing like it--it is the highest of all the arts!" cried
Lottie, with flushing cheeks. "Oh, I know poetry is glorious, and, of
course, one must always love beautiful pictures; but, as Averil says,
music is the most unearthly of all the arts."
"Did my cousin say that?"
"Yes; you should hear her talk about music. As she says, there is so
much about it in the Bible, she thinks it will be one of the chief
pleasures in heaven. Don't you know how one reads of the harpers
harping with their harps, and the new song before the throne? I
remember when we were talking on this subject that Averil showed me a
verse about the predicted fall of Babylon, where it said, 'The voice
of harpers, and minstrels, and flute-players, and trumpeters shall be
heard no more.' Music was a great power even in those days."
"Then you will teach it to me?" asked Annette; and thereupon she
unfolded her scheme: how she was to share Lottie's labors; how they
were to talk French over their work; and how Averil had promised to
read to them when she had time. "We are to form a mutual improvement
society, my cousin says; each is to help the other. You will have time
for your beloved music. I shall listen to you, and now and then you
will give me a lesson. Ah! you do not speak, Lottie, and yet I can see
you are well pleased;" for Lottie's work had dropped to her lap, and
she was regarding Annette with bright, wide-open eyes.
"Oh, I am so ashamed of myself," she returned. "Miss Ramsay--Annette,
you are heaping coals of fire on my head. Do you know"--with an amusing
air of contrition--"that I was dreadfully cross when Averil told me you
were coming to live here? I sulked about it nearly all day. 'What do
you want with changes?' I said. 'This French cousin will spoil all.'
Oh, I was as disagreeable as possible. I was jealous because Averil
took such pains with your room. 'How do you know whether you will like
her?' I said, more than once. But Averil only laughed at my bad humor.
'I can know nothing until I see her,' she returned. 'But, all the same,
her room shall be as pretty as possible.'"
"Oh, she is an angel, my cousin!"
"You would say so if you knew all," was Lottie's reply. "Sometimes I
wonder how she can go on living this life that is so uncongenial to
her; but I know she does it partly for my sake. I was so miserable
until I knew Averil;" and here a shade crossed her bright face. "No one
seemed to care whether I had proper things or not, and the school-girls
at Stoke Newington laughed at my shabby frocks, though in a way they
were kind to me, and would often give me some of their own things. I
pretended not to care, and I would laugh with the rest of them; but I
often had a good cry over it in private. I used to dream sometimes that
I had a new dress, such a pretty one! and then, when I woke, the tears
would come, because I was so disappointed to find it only a dream.
Perhaps it was wrong to fret about it. I wish I could be more like
Averil. I think she would wear sackcloth as happily as silk."
"It seems to me that you and I, Lottie, are more earthly minded. I do
care exceedingly for nice things."
"Yes; and I used to envy the Israelites. Don't you remember, their
clothes never wore out in the wilderness? How I used to sigh over
those patches! And then the darns! I shall never forget my feelings of
supreme content when I found myself the possessor of half a dozen brand
new stockings."
"Is it that your aunt is so poor?" asked Annette, in a puzzled tone.
Lottie colored. "Well, you see, she has many expenses, and is not
exactly what you call rich. Mr. Willmot left most of his money to
Averil. I have heard that there was some mistake. He thought aunt had
plenty of money when he married her. And uncle certainly left her a
good income. But it seems as though it has dwindled somehow. Rodney
costs her a good deal, and Maud and Georgina are extravagant. Perhaps
I ought not to tell you all this, but I do not wish you to be hard on
them." For Lottie was too generous to blame her relatives. In her heart
she knew she owed them little gratitude; that her services fully repaid
them for the scanty maintenance--that was all they had given her. It
was Averil whose roof sheltered her, who was in reality her benefactor.
Annette read the girl's generous reticence aright. She said no more on
that subject; but she recurred regretfully to Lottie's speech about her
cousin's uncongenial life.
"I do not understand you," she said, wistfully. "Is it that monsieur
was right and that my cousin would prefer to live alone? So many people
must be trying, if one loves quiet. But it seems to me as if she could
at all times seclude herself in her own room."
"My dear Annette, you forget that Averil is mistress of the house. It
would never do to shut herself up in her own apartments. Maud would get
the upper hand in a moment. And if Averil were not firm--if she did not
hold the reins--Redfern House would be a very different place from what
it is. The girls are always teasing her to have dinner-parties. They
want to fill the house; but Averil does so dislike a crowd. She is
dreading Tuesday, I know."
"But what is to happen on Tuesday?"
"Oh, only one of those stupid, senseless 'At Homes.' A lot of people
will come and eat ices and strawberries. There will be music that no
one will hear, and a professional is going to sing. Poor, dear Averil,
she will be as miserable as possible; and next day she will be ill,
and have one of her nervous headaches. But they have teased her into
sending out about two hundred invitations, and so she must go through
with it."
"But it is too bad. Monsieur, who is her good friend, should protect
her."
"Monsieur!" and Lottie looked mystified. Then a light broke on her. "Do
you mean Mr. Harland, Annette?"
"Yes. But I think I must always call him monsieur," returned Annette,
softly. "He was so good to me. When I saw his gray hair and pleasant
face I thought it was my cousin Leonard. Picture to yourself my delight
in having a friendly hand held out to me. Oh, he was so kind, so
fatherly! I have called him monsieur always to myself."
"I wonder what these two young workwomen are chattering so busily
about?" asked a quiet voice at this moment, and Averil smiled at them
from the threshold. "So the mutual improvement society has begun, eh,
Lottie?" as the girls greeted her with delight. "Annette, how fast you
work! Why, that dress is nearly done!"
"She is ever so much cleverer than I," returned Lottie, mournfully.
"Oh, dear! how quickly the time has passed. Luncheon will be ready
directly."
"Never mind; lay those dresses on the bed, and Unwin shall add the
finishing touches. You both looked as tired as possible. Annette, we
really must put some color into those pale cheeks."
"You have none to spare yourself, my cousin," she replied, with an
affectionate glance. Averil looked wan and thin, and there were dark
circles round her eyes.
"Come, that is too bad! when my headache is gone, and I expected a
compliment. You are as bad as Unwin, who wanted me to go to bed. Now,
Lottie, I am going to show Annette the parks this afternoon. A drive
will do me good, and if you like you shall go too. I shall tell Mrs.
Willmot that I want you to act as _cicerone_, as I am not equal to any
exertion. We shall not go very early, so you will have time for an
hour's practicing." But she was not allowed to finish her sentence, for
Lottie was kissing her in the most merciless manner.
"You dear, sweet thing! I do so love a drive! And the park will be
so amusing! Perhaps we shall see the Princess of Wales. A concert
yesterday; the park to-day--really, I am getting quite gay."
"Are you sure you feel fit to go?" remonstrated Annette. "Lottie, I
thought you said my cousin disliked crowds."
"Oh, no; unless I have to entertain them. It is a pretty sight, I
assure you; and I too, like Lottie, find it very amusing. It always
reminds me of Britain Row in 'Vanity Fair.' I am sure my Lord
Luxurious, the Lord Desire of Vain-glory, and Sir Having Greedy are
still to be found in the nineteenth century." And Lottie laughed as
though she understood Averil's allusion.