OFF TO A HOME AGAIN.
The mystery of Doreen's behaviour being cleared up, the two Whartons
thought no more of Mr. James and his acquaintance with their movements.
But a week later, when the little house was practically taken, Miss
Wharton had a letter from Mr. Stacey which made her think that 'people'
did interest themselves in her private affairs, and mingled with her
gratitude was a feeling of resentment.
However, she read the letter to Vava, who by no means shared this
resentment. 'Sending us some surplus furniture which is not wanted up
there, and will nearly furnish our little house, is he? That's the
Montague Joneses, you may be sure, Stella. How nice and thoughtful of
them! I wonder if Mr. James Jones is any relation of theirs?'
Now this thought had come into Stella's mind too; but she replied, 'I
don't think so. He would probably have mentioned it, and been rather
proud of the fact that some of his family owned Lomore.'
'I don't believe he would mention it; he is too much of a gentleman,'
maintained Vava stoutly.
'Mr. James Jones?' questioned Stella, lifting her eyebrows at this
championship.
'Yes, and I want to know if he may teach me algebra?' continued Vava.
Stella, as has been said, was a slow thinker, and the junior partner as
a mathematical master was a novel and strange idea which she did not
take in at once. 'I don't understand. How can Mr. Jones teach you
algebra?' she inquired at length.
'Quite well; he explained a difficult rule to me in about ten minutes
last Saturday,' said Vava.
'You surely don't imagine that Mr. Jones has time to teach you
mathematics in office hours? And he certainly can't teach you out of
them,' objected Stella.
'He has plenty of time; he says he's always slack on Saturday mornings
after he has given you the letters, and he will teach me for
half-an-hour if you will let him,' explained Vava.
Miss Wharton did not like the idea somehow. She did not want to be under
an obligation to her employer; nor did she like to own to herself, far
less to Vava, that the reason of her objection was a feeling that it was
'because he thought she was pretty.' However, as she could not give this
reason, and had no other, she said reluctantly, 'It is very kind of Mr.
Jones, but you must not take advantage of his good-nature; you must only
come occasionally, not every Saturday.' Stella consoled herself with the
thought that when they were in their new house Vava would no longer want
to come to the City with her, but would prefer to stay with Doreen
Hackney. Again it occurred to her to wonder how Mr. Jones knew they were
going to Blackstead, and she felt rather annoyed at his impertinent
curiosity, in consequence of which her manner was so reserved, not to
say forbidding, that Mr. Jones in his turn wondered what was the matter
with his secretary, and whether she would never be more friendly with
him.
'I don't want to be familiar, goodness knows; but really to work for
hours every day with a person who treats you as if you were her deadly
enemy, and won't allow you even to ask if she is cold, and would like
the window shut or sit nearer the fire, is annoying, you must own?' he
complained to his mother.
The latter laughed at his aggrieved expression. 'Girls don't generally
treat you so badly, do they? Well, it won't do you any harm to be
snubbed for once in your life, though it's only by a City clerk,' she
replied.
'Only a City clerk? A disguised duchess would be nearer the mark! I 'm
helping Vava with her sums--Miss Vava, I beg her pardon--one has to be
careful with any one belonging to Miss Wharton. I am surprised that she
allows me to give her sister algebra lessons, as Vava calls it. What a
stupid thing pride is, and, above all things, pride of birth. Think how
much more she would enjoy life if she would be friends with us, instead
of keeping us at a distance as if we were dirt under her feet!' cried
the young man with irritation.
'You would not take so much trouble if she were plain, and perhaps she
feels that,' observed his mother.
'I should be civil to her, and she would be civil to me, which is more
than Miss Wharton is,' observed Mr. James Jones, taking up his hat to go
to his office.
His mother looked after him with troubled eyes. 'I am dreadfully afraid
he is getting to like that girl,' she remarked to her husband.
'Then he'd better give it up, for she evidently doesn't care for him?'
replied Mr. Jones.
'He's good-looking enough to please most girls,' said his wife.
'Yes, but Miss Wharton did not go to the City to flirt or fall in love,
and I respect her all the more for it. I should like to ask her and that
little sister of hers here; but I suppose it's no use, eh?' he inquired.
'Not a bit, especially as they are moving out of town; not but what I
shall call upon them when they are settled at Blackstead, and I'll see
if I can persuade them to come and dine here then,' she said.
Stella Wharton ought to have been much flattered at the desire for her
society and the trouble these rich people were putting themselves to in
order to make the acquaintance of their son's clerk; but it is to be
feared that if she had known it would neither have flattered nor pleased
her--poor proud Stella! But the kindness of the Hackneys pleased her,
and she did not seem to mind accepting civilities from them.
It was Stella's house, taken in her name, and the other two were to
share it for a year, furnishing their own rooms and a sitting-room; the
rest was being furnished by Stella, chiefly from Lomore, where old
'nursie' was finding unexpected treasures.
'If only she could come herself, Stella!' said Vava wistfully.
But Stella replied decidedly, 'That is impossible; she could not
possibly do the work of that house alone, and we cannot afford two
servants.'
So Vava gave up all hope of seeing her old nurse until fate should take
them north again.
The next time the youthful housekeepers went to Heather Road to measure
rooms and windows, the exact sizes of which Mrs. Morrison wrote from
Scotland that she wished to know, Mrs. Hackney as usual asked them to go
in to tea with her, and, in the course of conversation with Stella,
observed, 'If I may be allowed to make a suggestion, I should not get a
servant at once; it will be amusing for a short time to do a little
housework, and while everything is new and clean there will be no hard
work to do. Besides, the Easter holidays are soon coming, and you want
to go to the sea for a few days to bring the roses back to this young
lady's cheeks.'
'Oh I think it will be change enough to come out here,' said Stella
quickly.
'Then you will have plenty of time to do your own work,' agreed Mrs.
Hackney, guessing that motives of economy prevented the girls from going
away at Easter, and respecting Stella's sturdy independence and thrifty
ways.
Stella, for her part liked and respected Mrs. Hackney, and she and Amy
decided to take her advice, and do without a servant, for the present at
least.
In spite of Vava's disappointment at not having 'nursie' at No. 2
Heather Road, she found herself counting the days until they moved.
Nor was Eva less enthusiastic. Indeed, her enthusiasm went rather too
far; she was always buying something or other 'for her bedroom.'
'There won't be an inch of wall-paper to be seen, Eva,' Vava warned her,
as she showed her the tenth picture she had bought for it.
'Oh yes, there will; it's wonderful what a lot you can get into a room,
and pictures brighten up a place,' she argued.
But one day Eva came to the club in a state of great excitement.
'Girls!' she cried, including Stella in this familiar address, 'I have
just bought myself the sweetest suite of furniture you ever saw!'
Every one was surprised at this, for only the day before Eva had
announced in melancholy tones that she had spent her last penny, and
could buy no more pictures, for which she had developed a mania.
'I thought you had no money?' said Vava, with her usual impulsive
candour.
'Oh that's all right; the man does not want to be paid yet. I know you
don't approve of that; but it is a case of Hobson's choice with me, and
heaps of people do it,' she said, turning to Stella.
'I only disapprove of it for myself. What is your suite like?' inquired
Stella with extra geniality, because she wished to put Eva at her ease.
This was very easily done, for things, as a rule, did not go deep with
that young lady, and she replied, 'It is inlaid walnut, and the wardrobe
has three cheval-glasses, so that you can see all sides of you at once
and how your dress hangs, and that's a thing one never can see, and I do
hate a skirt that dips at one side or is short in the front and draggles
behind, so you can all come and look at yourselves in my glass before
you go out; and the washing-stand is a dream too, with tiles
hand-painted; so is the chest of drawers. You will all fall in love with
it when you see it, as I did.'
'Was it very expensive?' asked Vava.
'No, not very, considering how beautiful it is,' replied Eva airily.
All this time Amy had said nothing, but looked rather grave, and now she
inquired, 'Did you say you had bought it, Eva?'
'Yes--that's to say, I have ordered it, and it is to be sent down to 2
Heather Road on the 19th of March.'
This was the day before the girls were to move in; it was a Friday, and
the Hackneys had offered to take in anything that was sent down
beforehand, and suggested their coming in on the Saturday before
quarter-day.
'It will prevent their breaking into another week's rent at their
lodgings,' Mrs. Hackney had suggested to her husband. And as it was the
most convenient day for them to move, it was decided to ask for a
holiday from their various chiefs in the City, and start the new
experiment on the 20th of March, and most of the furniture was being
sent the day before.
But Amy looked hurt. 'Have you chosen it without me?' she asked.
Eva coloured up as she answered in rather a hurried way, 'I couldn't
help it. I did it rather suddenly, and the man said he could not promise
to keep it for me. Besides, I knew you would only object, now you've
become so strait-laced and are furnishing your room out of
packing-cases.'
Amy took no notice of this scornful accusation. 'But you can't have
bought it alone? The man would never sell furniture on credit to a girl
like you,' she protested.
Eva got very indignant. 'Why not? I suppose he knows he can trust me?'
she said.
'But that is just what he cannot; you are only sixteen, and he could not
recover from you if you did not pay. I can't understand it,' observed
Amy.
'You are not wanted to; it's all arranged, and the suite will arrive on
the 19th of March, and I shall pay so much a week honestly until I have
paid up,' said Eva.
But Amy would not let the matter rest; and, failing to get any
satisfaction out of Eva, she took counsel with Stella, rather to the
latter's embarrassment. However, as Amy seemed to be really worried,
Stella tried to comfort her without being false to her principles. 'It
cannot be more than a few pounds. They get up these suites to look very
pretty for a low sum, and if none of the drawers shut, as often happens,
it will be a lesson to her; and as for the payments, fortunately she
gets her money weekly, so she can pay regularly.'
'But she can only pay a few shillings a week, and that only by being
very economical and self-denying, and Eva is neither by nature. Besides,
I cannot get her to tell me where she bought it, nor what agreement she
has signed,' said Amy.
'I think that may be because she knows we all disapprove of getting
goods on credit,' suggested Stella.
'Still, there is something I do not understand about it; no reputable
tradesman would enter into an agreement with a young girl like Eva. I
hope--I do hope--she has not done anything foolish,' Amy said with a
sigh.
Stella thought there was no doubt about that, though she did not say so,
for she expected to see some showy, sham walnut suite which Eva had been
inveigled into buying by some unscrupulous tradesman; but she only said,
'One learns by experience. I should not say any more about it; it is too
late to stop her, and perhaps when we all live together she will be more
open.'
But Amy had not told Stella her real fear, lest she should be shocked;
but the truth was she was haunted by a horrid suspicion that Eva had
bought the furniture in their names, or done something she was ashamed
of; else why did she so obstinately refuse to say where she had bought
it? But it was not much good asking herself these questions, for there
was no answer to them for the present, and the answer when it did come
was not pleasant.
In the meantime there was plenty to do, for they were to take possession
of their new abode in a fortnight, and every minute was spent in running
up casement cloth for curtains, hemming dusters, and shopping. Stella
had not thought she could be so happy in this wilderness of bricks.
Mrs. Hackney was kindness itself, and yet she kept at a distance and
never once came into the new house, which looked very pretty, with its
papers, self-coloured in most of the rooms, though Eva had chosen a
bright floral paper covered with pink roses.
Mr. Jones noticed the brighter looks of his secretary, though he made no
remark, not even when she asked to be excused from coming to the office
on the 20th of March, a request which he immediately granted.
And at last the eventful day came, and at the very early hour of six the
four girls started from their respective houses. They travelled out by
the same train, alighted at Blackstead, and set off for No. 2 Heather
Road, where they arrived not long after seven o'clock to a series of
surprises.