EVA'S PRESENTIMENT.
'I am tired already,' said Eva with a yawn, as they started from
Blackstead Station to walk to Heather Road. It was not far, and it was
too early for any cabs to be at the station.
'Take my arm,' said Vava with pretended sympathy.
But as Eva took it she sighed, instead of laughing, as she said, 'I feel
dreadfully depressed, just as if something were going to happen.'
'So something is going to happen; we are going to have a home of our own
again,' said Vava. 'But I don't see why that should make you so
melancholy; it is not very flattering to us.'
'It's not that! You know I am just as keen about this house business as
ever I was, and I consider I worked it very cleverly, for you would
never have come here but for me. Confess now, would you?' said Eva.
'No, I don't suppose we should; but I don't know that you "worked it,"
as you call it, quite honestly,' replied Vava.
'If every one were as honest as you are, which means saying out just
what you think, the world would be a very disagreeable place to live
in,' retorted Eva.
Vava did not make any reply; she was beginning to feel a little of Eva's
depression, for it did not seem promising to begin their new life
together by quarrelling.
Presently Eva, who forgot what she had said five minutes after she had
said it, remarked, 'You may laugh as much as you like.'
Vava was not laughing, but Eva did not notice that.
'But I have a presentiment that something will happen in this house. I
woke up this morning with a dreadful weight on my mind, just as if some
one were dead, and it's a dreadful feeling. Have you ever had it?'
'The feeling that some one were dead? Not unless it was true,' replied
Vava.
'But it's not true now--at least as far as I know--so it must be a
presentiment; or else why should I feel like this to-day of all days,
when I was in such good spirits yesterday?' she demanded.
'Do you mean that you think that one of us is going to die?' inquired
Vava in low tones. She was not superstitious, though like most Celts she
had a vivid imagination.
But Eva was sorry when she saw how she had frightened Vava, and she said
hastily, 'Of course not; I only felt as if things would go wrong. I dare
say we shall find that some of the furniture has not arrived, or that
your china has been broken on the way, or that the chimney smokes and we
sha'n't be able to have any fire in the dining-room, or something horrid
like that.'
'Well, you are a cheerful companion!' said Amy's voice from behind.
The two girls turned, and found that Stella and Amy had caught up to
them and overheard Eva's prophecies about the state of things that
awaited them.
'Eva has been having bad dreams or something, I think,' laughed Vava,
who had recovered her spirits.
'I haven't. I only had a presentiment, and, mark my words, it will come
true,' declared that young person.
'So have I a presentiment, and that is we shall find the fire lighted
and a nice warm room to go into, thanks to Mrs. Hackney's kindness,'
remarked Stella, as they turned the corner of the road.
The others looked at No. 2 Heather Road, which had come in sight; and,
spying smoke come out of the chimney, laughed heartily at Stella's
presentiment. So that it was a merry quartette, after all, which arrived
at the new little house, and the sound of their young and joyous voices
made Mrs. Hackney smile happily to herself.
'Oh mother, can't I just go in and bid them welcome? I do so want to see
their faces and hear what they say when they see everything,' pleaded
Doreen.
'No, Doreen; I will have no running in and out, and you are not to go
near them to-day. I have left a message to say that if they want
anything they are to come and ask for it; but they will have plenty to
do and talk about without you?' declared her mother.
So Doreen, who had already been into No. 2 with flowers for the vases,
gave a sigh, and had to content herself with looking out of the back
window, in the hope that Vava would go into the garden, and she would
see her from there.
Stella put the key into the door and turned the handle, but found that
it was already unlocked; and, making their way to the sitting-room which
was to be furnished for the Whartons for their own use, they found to
their delight that not only was the fire lit, but the breakfast was
laid, and the room quite tidy and furnished.
Amy and Eva were loud in their exclamations of delight; but Stella and
Vava stood quite still, with lumps in their throats, for the room was
furnished exactly like Stella's little boudoir at Lomore, with the same
carpet, curtains, and all, and even the same pictures on the wall, with
a single oil-painting of her mother over the mantelpiece.
Vava was the first one to recover herself. 'Stella, it's just like
Lomore!' and as Stella had chosen a paper like her former one, it really
was like the old room.
'It's very kind of them,' she said, rather doubtfully.
'Kind of them! I should think it is! And fancy Mrs. Hackney guessing
where all the furniture used to go! Do you remember that bureau always
stood on the left of the window, just like that, and the little table in
the bow? I expect nursie or David wrote and told them!' exclaimed Vava.
'It is very kind,' repeated Stella in the same constrained voice.
Seeing that the two sisters were agitated at sight of the familiar
objects, Amy and Eva, with tact, went upstairs to look at the latter's
suite, and give them time to recover themselves.
'Kind! of course it is. What is the matter, Stella? You never seem to
like people doing kind things. Aren't you pleased that David took the
trouble to pack all these things so carefully that they are not a bit
scratched or spoilt, and aren't you obliged to Mrs. Hackney for making
the room like our old sitting-room at home?' demanded Vava
half-impatiently.
'It was very good of David, and of course I am grateful to him; and Mrs.
Hackney meant to be kind too, but I think she ought to have asked me
before she unpacked my private things,' said Stella.
Vava looked thoughtful. She felt that Stella was in the right about
this. 'But they are not private, Stella; they are only furniture, and
she meant to be kind, and she has got all this nice breakfast ready. I
think she is in the kitchen, for I can hear some one poking the fire. Do
let's go and thank her, and please be nice and smile at her, Stella,'
Vava begged her.
Stella smiled at this, and it was with smiles on their faces that they
picked their way along the passage through packing-cases into the
kitchen. But when they opened the door the smiles changed into wild
cries of delight, and her English friends would have been surprised if
they had seen the way in which the reserved and cold Miss Wharton threw
her arms round the neck of the respectable middle-aged servant, who
turned and held out her arms to her 'bairns.'
'You thought your old nursie was going to let you keep house all by
yourselves, with no one to look after you, did you?' she said, as she
smoothed their hair and petted them both as if they were little
children.
'Then it was you who unpacked our things? Stella thought some one had
been taking a liberty. Stella's dreadfully afraid of people taking
liberties with her, nursie,' said Vava.
'And quite right too! Dearie me! if you knew how I've worried at the
thought of you two lambs alone in this great city! But it's all right
now; I'm here to look after you. And you've very decent neighbours, who
know their place, and are very obliging without being forward at all,'
said Mrs. Morrison, for she it was.
'Oh I forgot Doreen; I must just go and tell her how glad we are to see
nursie. Fancy her never letting it out, for she must have known it, and
Mrs. Hackney too!' cried Vava, preparing to rush off as she spoke.
'Hoots, Miss Vava, what can you be thinking of, running off without ever
asking your elder sister's leave, and she your guardian and all?' said
Mrs. Morrison reprovingly.
'I didn't think.--May I go, Stella?' she said.
'Yes, but don't stay, and thank Mrs. Hackney for ordering the coals and
the gasman,' said Stella.
'You'd better say for all she has done, for she met me at the station,
and brought me across London herself, or I doubt if I'd ever have got
here; it fairly bewildered me,' said their old nurse.
'When did you come, nursie?' inquired Vava.
'On Wednesday. I wanted to get over the journey and the strangeness of
things before you came, and to get things a bit straight; but I've only
been able to settle the kitchen and your own sitting-room and one
bedroom. I could not take it upon me to interfere with the two young
leddies' rooms, and indeed I did not know where to put their furniture.
There's only furniture for one bedroom between the two of them, though
that's fine. They would have done better to have got two smaller sets,
or a few pieces at a time, I'm thinking, instead of spending all that
money on one suite, as the man called it,' remarked Mrs. Morrison.
'It belongs to one of them; the other is getting hers, a piece at a
time, as you suggest,' said Stella.
'She'll be a sensible young lady. What are they like?' continued Mrs.
Morrison.
Vava left Stella to describe their new house-mates, and also to talk
things over with Mrs. Morrison, who had a great deal to tell her and ask
her, and ran off to see Doreen, who was rewarded for her patience by
Vava's delight.
'I'm just so happy I don't know what to do!' she cried, her eyes shining
and her cheeks so rosy that Mrs. Hackney felt as if the sea-breezes
could very well be done without.
'She is a nice old woman, your old nurse,' said Doreen.
'She's not old; she's only middle-aged.--And she says--at least Stella
says--I am to thank you for all your kindness, and nursie is very
grateful to you too,' said Vava to Mrs. Hackney.
'She is a treasure, and I am very glad you have her. Thank you for
coming in Vava; and now run and have your breakfast; you ought to have a
fine appetite for it after all this excitement, especially as you did
not have much breakfast before you started, I expect,' said Mrs.
Hackney.
'We did not have any. Our landlady said she could not get breakfasts at
that unearthly hour, as she should not be up herself, so we just had
some biscuits, and I am hungry. But, oh I am glad to have said good-bye
to those horrid lodgings!' cried Vava with feeling.
'You have much to be thankful for,' observed Mrs. Hackney.
'Yes, and I am thankful,' said Vava simply. Then she went back to her
new home, and found Stella, Amy, and Eva in the kitchen, talking happily
to Mrs. Morrison, who quite approved of the two strangers, and was
inclined to take them to her motherly heart when she found that they
were orphans like her own bairns, and had been well brought up, and were
well-mannered young ladies. Then the four went in to breakfast.
'What about your presentiment now?' cried Vava, turning to Eva, who had
quite recovered her good spirits.
'It has come to pass. I said something was going to happen, and you see
it has. Fancy your old nurse being here without your knowing anything
about it!' cried Eva.
'You said you had a bad presentiment about something having gone wrong,
and nursie's coming is not wrong at all; it has put things right,'
persisted Vava.
'Oh well, I haven't got any presentiment now, so it's all right,'
declared Eva.
'And presentiments are very foolish things,' said Stella rather primly.
The breakfast was a very good one. Mrs. Morrison had made porridge and
hot scones, and had brought honey with her from the north, and the girls
sat over their meal a long time, forgetting the work they had before
them, until Amy started up, saying, 'We had better begin putting up the
curtains and getting the rooms ready. My bedroom is chaos, and Eva's is
not much better.'
Stella had noticed that Amy was very quiet during breakfast, and it
occurred to her that perhaps the girl was disturbed at the arrival of
Mrs. Morrison. It made it look as if the house and the ordering of it
were to be entirely Stella's, whereas it had been arranged that she and
Amy should share in the management. So, leaving Vava with Eva to clear
away, she followed Amy to her room, which did indeed look chaotic.
Amy had bought a nice bed and a chest of drawers and washstand of light
oak, very simple but quite pretty, and these, with one chair and some
boxes and pictures, were all her furniture.
'We shall soon make this look pretty; and, if you will use it, there is
an extra arm-chair which they have sent down from Lomore that I should
like you to have,' said the Scotch girl.
'Thank you, I should like it very much, if you can spare it; but you
must value anything that comes from your old home,' replied Amy, who
seemed a little depressed.
'Yes, that is why it is such a pleasure to have Mrs. Morrison with us;
she is almost like a mother to us. She was with my mother before she was
married. I hope you don't mind her coming?' asked Stella.
'Mind? I am delighted; I like her already, and I don't mind saying that
I was rather dreading the housekeeping and managing. It is all very well
when you have nothing else to do, but it is difficult to do two things
well. My City work gets rather heavy in spring, and I am often not home
till late, and then I am too tired to do anything but sit quietly by the
fire and read a book.'
'You will like her the more the more you know her,' said Stella, much
relieved; and then added, 'I thought something had vexed you.'
'Oh it had nothing at all to do with Mrs. Morrison; it was only Eva's
suite; but it's no use talking about it, or to her. The thing is done,
and something has come over Eva lately; she is not a bit like what she
used to be. I have been hoping that Vava would do her good; but they
don't seem to get on quite as well as I hoped,' replied Amy.
'Vava is a little too outspoken, but I hope they will be friends; I
think she will have a good influence over Eva, because she is so very
frank. I am sorry you don't like the furniture Eva has bought. Is it
very gimcrack?' inquired Stella.
'Gimcrack! I only wish it were; it's far too handsome. I don't know how
much she paid for it, but it can't have cost less than twenty pounds at
the least!' exclaimed Amy.
'Shall we go and look at it?' suggested Stella, who was curious to see
this much-talked-of furniture, and the two went into Eva's room, where
they found Vava admiring herself in the three cheval glasses of the
wardrobe.
'Look, Stella, isn't this a lovely idea, and isn't it a lovely suite?'
cried Vava, twisting and turning herself.
'Yes, it is very handsome,' said Stella, and said no more, and then,
after a few polite remarks about the pictures, which Eva was just
hanging, she left the room, and was followed by Amy.
'How on earth did the man give it her, and where do you think she has
got it?' demanded Amy when they were back in her bedroom.
'I don't know. I am afraid it is a very expensive suite; but it is no
good worrying about it. It seems so dreadful that a girl of sixteen
should have no one to look after her, no near relation, and no guardian,
except yourself, and you are only a friend, after all, and have no
authority over her. We must just be as friendly as we can to her, and
try and win her confidence, and if she won't give it, wait until the man
turns up for his money, which he will soon do if she does not pay up.'
'Then he will remove it, and that will disgrace us all!' cried Amy.
'No, indeed, he will not; I shall not allow anything of that kind,'
declared Stella with decision.
And then, though 'Eva's suite' was often in their minds, they dismissed
the subject from their conversation, and started upon the putting in
order of the new house.