FRIENDS IN NEED.
'They are not quite ladies and gentlemen--I mean, a lady and
gentleman--but they are rather kind, and I think they will take care of
our furniture, Stella; so I should let them have it till we are rich
again and can buy this place back from them,' said Vava, as she stood on
the steps watching the tail-light of the Montague Joneses'
well-appointed car disappear down the drive.
'How do you know anything about that?' inquired her sister in surprise;
for unless her sister had been listening at the door, a meanness of
which she knew her to be incapable, she could not imagine how she could
guess what the new owners of Lomore had been proposing.
'Ah, ha! a little bird told me. But I quite approve; it will save us the
trouble of moving it about, and you'll see we shall be back here again
before long; that's another thing a little bird told me,' cried Vava,
loosing her sister's arm to hop on one foot down the stone steps, and
then try to perform the same feat up them.
'Vava! do be sensible at your age, and tell me what you mean by your
nonsense about a little bird telling you a private conversation which no
one could honourably know anything about,' said her sister severely.
Vava was sobered for the minute; and, giving a last hop on to the top
step, she stood on her two feet before her sister and retorted, 'What do
you mean by your insinuations, pray? Do you imagine I have been
listening through the keyhole? because, if so, I decline to parley with
you further. And as for my age, why shouldn't I do gymnastics? When I go
to an English school I shall have to do far sillier things than that.
And, oh Stella! do you think I shall go to that City school? I don't
think I should like to be taught by Mr. Montague Jones, though he is a
kind old man.'
'Mr. Montague Jones does not teach there; he told you that, and I don't
know at all where you will go to school. Perhaps it will be a
boarding-school after all, for we cannot live in London unless I get
this post as secretary, or some other like it; and you would perhaps be
best away from me, for you do not obey me,' replied her elder sister.
'If you mean that you want to know how I knew about the Joneses and
their offering to take care of our furniture, David told me; and if you
want to know how he knew--which I can see you do, because you have
screwed your eyebrows into a question-mark--Mr. Jones told him himself,
when David said he knew we would never sell it--for it is half mine,
isn't it, although you are my guardian?--and it's to look after it and
the place for us till we get it back that David is staying with them,
though "they are not the quality," as he says.'
This explanation satisfied Miss Wharton, and she only said, in answer to
Vava's last remark, 'Yes, the furniture is half yours, of course, and I
should have told you about this offer, as I am legally responsible for
it and all your property. And talking of property, Vava, it is very hard
I know, but this place is no longer ours, nor can it ever be again, for
we have no rich relations to leave us enough money to buy it back; nor
shall we ever have enough ourselves even if the Joneses wanted to sell
it, which I don't fancy they will, for they have bought it for their son
and heir, as they called him to me.'
'How hateful! a Londoner Laird of Lomore! Oh but he sha'n't be that
long, for I am going to earn a fortune and turn him out!' cried Vava,
her eyes flashing.
Stella laughed at her younger sister's vehemence, and inquired, 'In what
way are you going to earn money, pray?'
'I'm going to invent something. I read the other day in that ladies'
magazine of a man who invented a very simple little thing to save
candles, and he made thousands and thousands of pounds by it; and I've
got an idea too--it's a thing to save matches,' announced Vava.
'Matches! Why should one save matches? They are cheap enough without
saving them,' exclaimed Stella.
'Not in every country. Don't you remember Mrs. M'Ewan saying that when
they were abroad last year they paid a penny a box, and for such bad
ones too? Well, my idea is to make them light at both ends; you always
throw away half the match, and now it will do for twice,' explained
Vava.
Stella did not laugh for fear of hurting Vava's feelings and arousing
her wrath, but only said, 'You do think of odd things, Vava; but I wish
you would not say all you think. I am often quite nervous of what you
may say or do next.'
'You needn't be nervous now, because I am going to be quite grown-up and
proper, and not give you any more trouble,' announced Vava, who meant
what she said, though she did not always act up to her excellent
resolutions, as will be seen.
In fact, only two days later she made her sister nervous, besides
annoying her; for, as the elder girl was walking towards the village to
Mr. Stacey's office, in answer to a message from him requesting her to
call, she saw her sister, whom she had missed for the last hour, sitting
beside Mr. Montague Jones in his motor, being whirled past her at a
terrible speed, or at least so it seemed to her. Whether Vava saw her or
not Stella could not be sure; but she took no notice of her, neither did
Mr. Jones, whom she supposed did not recognise her. Rather ruffled at
the occurrence, Miss Wharton continued her way to the lawyer's, her
pretty head held still more erect, and a slightly scornful smile on her
face at the way her sister's indignation against the London Laird had
evaporated.
'Well, Miss Wharton, my dear, I have good news for you--at least, I
suppose I must call it good news, though it means that we shall lose
you, for the people whose advertisement I answered have written offering
you the post of secretary to the junior partner of a very good firm in
the City of London--Baines, Jones & Co. Your hours will be ten till
four, short hours for London clerks--er, secretaries I mean; and your
work will be to translate French letters for him and write French
answers, which he will dictate in English. You see it is a position of
trust, because they don't know much French and have to trust to your
translating their letters faithfully, and that I was able to assure them
you would do. In fact, after what I said they were quite ready to take
you, and it is the best I can do for you--not what I should like for
your father's daughter, but it might be worse. You will have a nice
little room to yourself with your typewriter, and need have nothing to
do with any one, and I may tell you that if you give satisfaction your
salary will be raised.'
'Thank you very much, Mr. Stacey,' replied Stella briefly. She was
grateful, and the old man knew it; but the vision his words brought up
of her future life in a stuffy, dingy City office, sitting at a
typewriter writing dull business letters--a very different thing from
the literary work she had helped her father with--depressed her for a
moment. Then she roused herself, and went on to speak of the arrangement
which had been agreed upon between the lawyer and Mr. Montague Jones
about the furniture, and which only needed her signature to be settled.
'Ah, yes, they have been most generous,' began the lawyer; but he
hastened to correct himself when he saw Stella's face stiffen--'fair, I
should say, and anxious to meet your wishes. I think we are fortunate in
falling into their hands, and may safely trust them.' How fortunate, Mr.
Stacey did not dare to say.
'Yes, I think they will take care of our furniture, and they evidently
wish to be friendly, which is more than I do, though Vava seems to have
taken to them,' replied Stella.
'And they to her. Here is the prospectus of that school Mr. Montague
Jones is governor of. He is evidently a little afraid of you and your
stately airs'--here the lawyer's eyes twinkled--'not that he thinks the
less of you for them, quite the contrary. However, to resume, it seems
an excellent school; the teaching staff is first-rate, the building
palatial, and the fees most moderate--two guineas a term. Moreover, as
it is in the City, not far from your own office, you could go there and
back together, which would be a great thing,' explained the lawyer.
He was a busy man, for not only every one in the sleepy little town, but
all round, great and small, came to him for advice, and Stella, knowing
this, was grateful for his interest in her affairs; and on his advice
agreed, if it proved to come up to the prospectus, to send Vava to the
City school. This business being settled, she turned homeward with a
feeling that now she had no more to do with Lomore, and that the sooner
they left it and began their new life in London the better. In fact,
this was practically what Mr. Stacey said: Messrs Baines, Jones & Co.
would like her to begin at her earliest convenience, and the new term
began next Tuesday, and this was Wednesday.
Vava was on the gate when her sister arrived. 'Where have you been? I've
been such a lovely drive with the Montagues--well, never mind their
other name; it's horribly common anyway. I met them up the road, and
they asked if we would come for a run, and we came back to fetch you;
but you had gone to Mr. Stacey's, so I was sure you would not mind;
and--what do you think?--they are going to drive us up to London in
their car!' the girl cried, pouring out the words so fast that her
sister could hardly follow her.
'Drive us to London? Indeed, they are going to do no such thing! I do
not care to accept favours from strangers; and really, Vava, I don't
know what you mean by knowing my affairs before I know them myself. I
don't know when we are going to London yet. Perhaps not for a week or
two, and at any rate not with those people, who may be very kind, but
are not educated; he can't even speak the King's English. No, if we
can't make friends in our own class we will go without.'
Vava looked down at her sister, who stood with one hand on the gate,
looking so stiff and proud that her face, which was really a sweet one,
was almost forbidding. 'All right,' she said, swinging her feet to and
fro in a way that made Stella quite nervous--'all right, then; we'll go
in a stuffy railway-carriage, and have to sit up all night, and I shall
be sick, as I was when we went to Edinburgh; but you won't care as long
as you can stick your head up and look down on people who try to be
friendly and nice to you, just because he says "dy" instead of "day;"
and what does it matter? We pronounce some words quite wrong, according
to the English, and I dare say they'll laugh at us when we go south.
Mrs. M'Ewan said the waiter at the hotel couldn't understand her when
she asked for water.'
Mrs. M'Ewan was a neighbouring laird's wife, and spoke very broad
Scotch.
Stella made no answer to this tirade of her younger sister's, who swung
herself off the gate and walked back to the house with Stella in no
good-humour.
There they found a note from Mrs. Jones, which, to Stella's surprise,
was quite grammatically written, asking whether they would honour them
by occupying two seats in their car when they went back to town. 'My
husband is so taken by your sister, and hearing that the train made her
sick, he ventured to suggest your coming with us. He begs me to say that
he feels under such obligations to you for lending us your beautiful old
furniture and plate--which no money could repay or replace--that he
would be glad if you would accept this attention as a mark of our
gratitude.'
'That will fetch the proud hussy, if anything will. Poor girls, I am
very sorry for them, especially the elder, for she'll have a lot of
humble pie to eat before she's done,' Mr. Montague Jones had said to his
wife; but this remark, needless to say, she did not mention in the
letter. She only added that they were not particular which day they
returned to town, but would go any day that suited Miss Wharton.
Mr. Jones may not have been an educated man--in fact, he would have been
the first to acknowledge it; but he certainly was a tactful man, and
understood managing people, as indeed he well might, for he had managed
a large place of business for many years, and done so successfully, as
his wealth testified.
So, after reading the letter over slowly, Stella turned to her sister
with a half-ashamed smile and said, 'If you like we will go with the
Montague Joneses; but only on one condition, and that is that you
promise not to get too intimate, or to ask me to be friendly with them
in town. They may not want to know us, for we shall be very poor; but I
won't be patronised by any one, and I don't want them to call.'
Vava looked as if she were going to say something, but thought better of
it, and gave the desired promise.