IN LONELY LODGINGS.
When the two girls stood outside the door they turned and looked at each
other for a moment, and then without a word Stella led the way down the
corridor to her own little room.
Nothing could have had a greater effect upon Vava, who would far rather
have had a good scolding than this silent disapproval. 'Is this your
sitting-room, Stella? What a nice one, and you have a fire; it has been
rather cold at school,' said the girl in a repressed voice as she spread
out her hands to the blaze.
Then Stella's heart melted. To be sure, Vava had been very disobedient;
she had been told to speak to no one, but to learn her lessons quietly
while she was waiting. Instead of which, Stella--remembering the voices
she had heard in the next room--felt sure she had been talking in her
free way with every one. Still, it was their first day alone in London,
and Vava looked so unlike herself with the joy and brightness gone out
of her face, so she said kindly, if gravely, 'Yes, this is my room, and
another time, please, come straight here, unless I come and call for
you, which would be better, I think, if you do not obey me. But let me
hear about school. I hope they have fires there?'
'Oh yes, but I was sitting near a window, and my feet and hands got cold
with having to sit still so long, I suppose; the girls say they get
chilblains as soon as they come back to school,' replied Vava.
'You must wear mittens and warm house-shoes. But about the school,
Vava--do you like it? Are you glad to go to school?'
'Not much; but, Stella, don't send me away from you. I will do what you
tell me, really; I promise I will, unless I forget. I forgot to-day, or
I would not have talked to any one. I know you're awfully angry with me;
but I think I was a little flustered by all the crowds in the streets,
and I just went into the first room where I saw Baines, Jones & Co.
written!' cried Vava eagerly.
'I understand that you were bewildered; but you must try and remember
that you are not at Lomore, and that you must not make friends without
my leave, or else I shall feel that I cannot take care of you, and that
it's not right to keep you with me,' said Stella.
'Then I shall die in this dreadful place without you,' declared Vava in
tragic tones.
'Vava, something has happened. What is it? What has made you take such a
dislike to London? You liked it well enough yesterday,' exclaimed Stella
anxiously. She had been putting on her hat and coat as she spoke, and
had just said this, when Mrs. Ryan, the housekeeper, came in with a
tray, on which there were two cups of tea and delicious thin bread and
butter and cakes.
'I have brought you a warm cup of tea to keep the cold out on your way
home, and one for this young lady, who is your sister, as is plain to
see. Dear, dear! and to think of you two poor lambs all alone! My dear,
don't be offended with me; but if, as you say, you have no relations or
friends in London, I hope you'll count me as one, and come to me if you
are in any trouble, just as if I were'--a fine tact made the old
Irishwoman say, 'your old housekeeper,' instead of 'your mother.'
Stella held out her hand and smiled. 'Thank you, Mrs. Ryan; indeed you
are a friend, and I will come to you for advice,' she said.
'And, do you know, you remind me a little of nursie, our housekeeper at
Lomore, only she is Scotch; but I can understand your way of speaking,
and that's more than I can the people at school,' Vava remarked, with
such a tone of disgust that the other two laughed.
But Stella looked relieved. 'So that's it, is it? I suppose they laughed
at you for talking with a Scotch accent? I have often told you, Vava,
that you should not copy old Duncan as you did,' protested Stella; for
Vava talked much broader Scotch than Stella, and used words which are
not in use or understood south of the Border.
'They're stupid things, and I don't want to talk like them. Anyway, they
don't pronounce lots of their words right; they say "wat" and "ware" for
"what" and "where;" so of course I got a lot of mistakes in my English
dictation. But I beat them in my French,' she wound up triumphantly.
'You'll soon get used to that, miss, and there isn't a better school in
London than the one you're at; there's no money spared on it, for it's a
rich company that has it, though I don't know exactly why they have it,'
said Mrs. Ryan.
'I do; a rich merchant's wife founded it!' cried Vava, and poured forth
the history of the foundation of the school to her two listeners, till
Stella stopped her.
'Now, Vava, we must not keep Mrs. Ryan.--My sister does not understand
that the City is the place for business, not for paying visits or
amusing one's self; and you might tell her that she must not make
acquaintance with strangers,' said Stella, turning to Mrs. Ryan.
Mrs. Ryan raised her hands in amazement at such imprudence. 'Indeed no.
There was a young girl I knew up from the country, and one day she was
taking her ticket at one of the London stations, and there was rather a
crowd, so, being timid, she stepped back and waited; then who should
come up to her but a gentleman, as she called him, and, taking off his
hat as polite as could be, says, "Can I take your ticket for you, miss?
It's not fit for you to be pushing into a rough crowd like that;" and
she, like the silly she was, thanks him and hands him her purse with all
her week's money in it; and off he goes.' Here Mrs. Ryan ended, and
nodded her head at Vava.
But Vava in her innocence did not understand the moral of the story, and
said simply, 'That was very kind of him?'
'Yes, very kind! But he never got the ticket, and the poor girl never
saw her purse nor the kind gentleman again,' explained Mrs. Ryan.
Vava's eyes were wide with horror. 'What a wicked, cruel man! But
everybody can't be wicked like that!' she cried.
'No, indeed; thank God, there are many good people here; but there are
rogues as well, and as you are too young to know the one from the other
you must not talk to any of them,' Mrs. Ryan said.
The story made Vava very thoughtful. 'I wonder whether Mr. Jones is a
rogue?' she said musingly.
But Mrs. Ryan was scandalised. 'Sakes alive, miss, don't say such a
thing in his own office! He is one of the best and most respected
gentlemen in the City of London, as I well know, having worked for him
and his father this thirty years!' she exclaimed.
'Vava lets her tongue run away with her.--Come, Vava, we really must be
going,' said Stella hastily, and she took her younger sister off with
her.
It was dusk now, but the two enjoyed their walk back along the
Embankment, for it did not occur to them to take a bus or train; three
miles was nothing to them. Moreover, they had had tea, and were in no
hurry to get back to their cramped lodgings. It was well that Vava could
not see her sister's amused smile, which broke out several times on the
way home at the remembrance of the younger girl's suggestion that the
junior partner might be a rogue; and it is to be feared that Stella
would not have been sorry if her employer--whom she suspected unjustly
of thinking a good deal of himself and of wishing to patronise her and
pity her for having 'come down in the world'--had heard Vava's remark.
It might have gratified her if she had known that Mrs. Ryan went
straight to her master and told him the whole story.
Mr. James, as she called him, laughed heartily. 'I'm sure that's what
her elder sister thinks me. Well, it does not much matter, as long as
she does her work as well as she did to-day, so business-like and
correctly--first accurate young woman I have ever met with; and the poor
thing will have a better time here than she would with many firms. You
will be sure to look after her well, Mrs. Ryan? My father is most
particular that she should be comfortable--as comfortable as possible,
that is to say; so be sure and give her tea before she goes, or anything
she wants.'
From which conversation it will be seen that Mr. Stacey had found a good
berth for his young client, and had evidently given her a high
testimonial.
It was six o'clock by the time the girls reached Vincent Street, and
they seated themselves on uncomfortable arm-chairs in front of the smoky
fire, which they lit as soon as they got in. Vava had her lessons to do;
but after their tea-supper, for which the landlady declined to cook
anything but eggs--'London eggs,' as Vava said--Stella looked round for
something to do. There was no piano, she had no books, nor was she fond
of fancy-work, and of useful work she had none, for 'nursie' had always
done most of the mending for her young ladies, though she had taught
them both to work. Before they left home she had set their wardrobes in
thorough order. 'So that you'll not have to trouble about them for a
long while yet; and perhaps, who knows, the Lord may have made a way for
me to come to you before they need looking to again,' the old woman had
said, with some kind of idea that her beautiful young mistress would not
somehow be left by Providence in a position for which she was so
unfitted, in the old housekeeper's opinion.
So now Stella looked round for something to do, and finding nothing,
passed a dreary evening, till Vava had finished preparing her lessons,
and said with a yawn, 'Let's go to bed, Stella. What's the good of
sitting up, staring at this horrid wall-paper with those hideous flowers
that aren't like any flowers that ever grew in a garden?'
Stella gave a sigh, which, in spite of all her resolutions to be brave,
she could not suppress. 'It is not very comfortable here, to be sure;
but I don't know where else to go. There is a large kind of ladies'
residential club near here, but I do not know if we should like it, and
we should have no private sitting-room; so you would have to prepare
your lessons in your bedroom, which I dislike,' she replied.
'Oh that would be horrid; the room would get so hot and stuffy, and we
should not sleep. I wish we could have a little house of our own. I am
sure there must be little houses to let that we could afford, like the
one Dr M'Farlane's sisters lived in at Lomore.'
'We will go and have a look to-morrow on our way home,' said Stella,
smiling. She was glad of something to look forward to besides going to
the City. She had only had one day of it; but she disliked it intensely,
and asked herself how she was to bear her life with nothing but this to
look forward to through the long years. Yet, if she had but known it,
she was extremely fortunate, and her lot was a far better one than it
might have been but for the influence of kind friends.
And so the two tired heads were laid down to rest, intending, in their
ignorance, to look for a small house which they could rent, and which
would be more comfortable and no more expensive than their present
abode. Next day, however, was wet, and they had quite enough walking to
the City and back, and came in at five o'clock, with another long
evening before them, lightened in Stella's case by a book from the
library of her City Club for Lady-Clerks; so that it was not until
Friday that the two girls looked about on their way home for a small
house to let.
Vava, who seemed singularly uncommunicative about her life at school,
was quite eager in the search for this ideal small house, and looked up
each street they passed by to see if there were any prospect of its
being found there.
'I think, Vava, it will be no use looking so near the City. Mrs. Ryan
tells me that rents are very high here; Westminster is a cheaper part,'
said Stella.
'Still, there's no harm in looking, I'm sure. I have seen quite small
houses that can't cost much,' said Vava; and at last she cried out with
delight at sight of quite a small-looking house, jammed between two
large buildings, which bore the words, 'To Let.' It was situated in one
of the narrow streets leading from the Strand to the river.
Stella looked doubtfully at it. 'I think it is larger than it looks,
Vava, and we really only need five or six rooms; and you know we must
not give too much rent, for I do not want to spend all our income,' she
said gravely.
'I'm sure this will be quite cheap. Do let's ask,' said Vava
impatiently.
So urged, Stella rang the bell marked 'Caretaker;' and after a long
wait, a grim and unfriendly-looking man appeared.
'Would you please tell me the rent of this house?' inquired Stella.
'Do you want an office in it?' inquired the caretaker.
'No-o. I wanted to know the rent of the whole house,' said the girl.
The man looked at her curiously; but she looked so grave and dignified
that he concluded that she was sent by some one else. 'Well, the rent's
three hundred pounds on a long lease, you may tell them,' he informed
her.
'Thank you,' said Stella quietly, and turned away.
'Three hundred pounds for that dirty little house! Oh London is a horrid
place, Stella! Let's go back to Lomore!' cried Vava.
Stella wished they could; but her sense of duty came to her aid, and she
said, 'That is quite impossible, Vava; we must stay in London. So the
best thing we can do is to try and be as happy as we can here, and do
our duty. We will live upon as little as we can, and save money, so that
we can go away for our holidays.'
These same holidays, if she had but known it, were a most unusual thing;
for Stella was to have a month in the summer, and ten days at Easter.
And the two began to plan a delightful Easter at the seaside somewhere,
and by the time they got home to their lodgings Vava was quite cheerful
again.