"I do, I do, I do! Don't you know me well enough to see that I am at
this moment dying of jealousy? It is such a splendid thing to be young,
as one only finds out too late. Her dark eyes are so pretty, and her
figure is so pretty, and her frock fits so well! One oughtn't to have
such contrasts forced upon one if one is expected to keep amiable. Why,
up to to-day, I had fancied that because Emily had so few grey hairs,
she was quite a young thing! It is all very well to pretend to be
philosophical. I say straight out that I hate growing old."
"Is that all you have against Claudia?" asked Anne, smiling.
"Oh, it's enough! It means that you will lose your heart to her, and so
will Harry."
"Harry?"
"Yes. I am not sure he did not do so a little the first time that he
met her. Well--he must take his chance. You and his mother are always
fussing about his marrying, and here's his opportunity. I don't know
that even you can wish for anything better. An extremely good-looking
girl, and a pretty fortune." Philippa began to laugh.
"What is it?"
"Only something she told me. Never mind. She will tell you all without
loss of time."
"Well, as to Harry, I give my consent--if you do; for, in spite of
jeers, you will be quite as particular as I. I wonder whether there is
really any chance of his taking a fancy?" questioned the elder sister,
with a touch of wistfulness behind her words to which Philippa at once
became responsive.
"He is a very good fellow, bless him!" she declared heartily, "a very
good fellow indeed, even if he has a few more faults than you and Minnie
will admit, and I must see a great deal more of Miss Claudia before I
give my consent--which has so much to do with the matter!" she added,
falling back on her usual manner.
"Harry thinks a great deal of your judgment."
"That's an appreciation apt to be tucked on one side in the great
affairs of life. Still, I'm very much obliged to Harry for the
compliment, and it will certainly make me careful to avoid rash
counsels."
Claudia came down to dinner in excellent time. Her black dress was well
cut, and set off the small dark head, and the eager eyes; if she were at
all shy, she did not show it, and she kissed her cousins and shook hands
with Mr Hilton without a trace of the new manners for which Philippa
was amusedly watching.
"I remember you now," she said to Harry; "at least I think it was you
who told me about a fox-terrier?"
"I have her here," said Harry, flushing with pleasure.
He was a young man with, as she decided at once, an excellent face,
although both in face and figure there was a wasteful inclination to
breadth. The eyes were grey and honest, however, and would have
redeemed worse faults. He laughed readily and happily, and Claudia
reflected further that if he were never likely to set the Thames on
fire, he was certain to be a popular man in his own neighbourhood. He
did not interest her, but inwardly she gave him a half-contemptuous
credit for a dozen safe and good qualities, which she reflected were
probably allowed to run idly to seed. Claudia was in the first ferment
of life, in which she required that every one's work should be spread
before them, parcelled out as distinctly as any allotment ground.
Yet her cousin Emily, the youngest of the three sisters, whose views ran
in the same direction if in a different groove, roused in her an
immediate antagonism. Emily was the useful woman of the town; secretary
to two or three societies, warden, committee woman, what not! To her
turned the thoughts of all the clergy when a new work had to be started,
or an old one revived. She knew exactly how many pounds of butter and
pots of jam were necessary for a parish tea; she slaved at
school-treats, and did the work of two curates in her district.
Claudia, whose schemes swept to the regeneration of mankind, and a
general equalisation of things in the world, was partly contemptuous of,
and partly irritated by Emily's absorption in what she regarded as
miserable make-shifts, unworthy of the consideration of any one who had
passed a course in political economy, and whose papers had been
favourably annotated by the examiner.
She spent her evening in garnering observations, telling herself that
she was naturally curious about her new surroundings; what, however,
continued to surprise her most, was that she herself appeared to excite
less interest. Her cousins, Anne especially, accepted her with kindly
goodwill, but when Philippa had said that from the first she was to be
treated as one of the family, it was evident that she was not using a
figure of speech. No one was in the least overwhelmed by her arrival,
nor did it cause any divergence in the currents of interest which flowed
strongly. Claudia listened, wondering whether under any circumstances
of life could she be carried along by such currents; she hoped that
would never be expected of her, but meanwhile could not doubt that
expectations of some sort existed, and began to have an unacknowledged
desire to say something which should astonish her hostesses. She had no
such wish as to Harry Hilton, perhaps instinctively aware that she could
impress him by simpler means, and she talked chiefly to him, suiting her
remarks to his capacity, while listening as attentively as she could to
the remarks which dropped from the others.
"Well, Emily," Philippa was saying, "I warn you that if you're going to
trust to Mr Helmore's eloquence, your meeting will be a dismal failure.
He's a stick. You had better get some one sent down from
head-quarters, even if it does increase the expenses."
"I really must try to avoid that," said her sister, nervously; "and I
assure you I haven't come to the end of my resources yet."
"You're a wonderful woman."
"Here's Harry," put in Anne. "Harry has done nothing for a long while."
"They know my jests by heart. No, no: here is Miss Hamilton."
"To make a speech?" asked Claudia, smiling.
She was careful to express no surprise, for, so far as she knew, there
was no possible reason why she should not make a speech. But Harry was
evidently of another opinion.
"Good gracious, no!" he protested. "Only to help in the entertainment."
"Don't ask her," interrupted Philippa. "She's a Radical."
"Of course," said Claudia, calmly; "and a Socialist. I don't see how
one can be anything else--that is to say, any one who takes the least
interest in his fellow-creatures."
She was a little disappointed at the effect upon her listeners. Harry,
it is true, became rather redder, and Emily uttered a protesting "Oh!"
but Philippa and Anne showed no signs of having received a shock.