VAVA'S BUSINESS LETTER.
Eva's presentiment was already a thing of the past, for she was the
merriest of the four, and the day would not have been half such fun nor
have passed so pleasantly and easily if she had not made a joke of all
difficulties, and helped by her suggestions, which were very shrewd, in
spite of their being mixed up with a great deal of nonsense.
Mrs. Morrison had made the Misses Whartons' large bedroom habitable, and
in a very short time it was pronounced quite comfortable for the
present; so there really were only the hall and staircase to arrange,
about which Eva had numerous theories, which she propounded sitting on
the top stair in an apron made of newspapers.
'Leave half a yard at each end for moving the stair-carpet up and down
every week,' she observed.
'That is a very good idea, if we have enough,' replied Amy.
'If not, you must put mats at the turnings of the stair; it's most
important; also, you must put a pad on each step, then you feel as if
you were sinking into velvet,' came from Eva, still sitting at her ease
and surveying the workers.
'What kind of pad?' asked Stella, who with Amy was laying the
stair-carpet.
'Velvet,' said Eva, absent-mindedly.
'What nonsense, Eva! What do you mean?' demanded Amy.
Eva, who had been looking out of the staircase window, turned her head.
'I wasn't thinking of what I was saying--felt, I mean--or, failing that,
folds of newspapers, and by so doing you double the life of your
carpet,' she explained.
'Then, suppose you go and get that pile of newspapers that came from
Scotland, and fold them into pads, instead of sitting there coolly and
watching us work?' suggested her friend.
'I might, for a consideration,' agreed Eva, and help she did with such
good-will that the house was quite comfortable by night.
Mrs. Morrison kept to her kitchen, and sent in a nice dinner, for which
Vava laid the table, having spent her morning flitting in and out of the
kitchen, helping 'nursie,' as she imagined, and it is doubtful which of
them was the happier--the old Scotchwoman, who had her bairns with her
again, or the child, who obeyed her old nurse more willingly than her
elder sister.
'Vava, the post has just brought this. I wish you would sit down and
answer it politely, and say that I am obliged by his kind offer, but
that I shall be at the office on Monday morning at the usual time,' said
Stella, coming into the kitchen with an open letter in her hand, which
she handed to her younger sister.
Vava took it, and found that it was a very polite letter from the junior
partner, saying, that as he understood they were moving and would be
busy for a few days, he would be glad for her to take a holiday, and
thought they would manage without her till Wednesday. 'He _is_ kind, and
I'm sure I don't know why, for you never smile at him, and till you do
smile you really look disagreeable,' commented Vava.
'I am sorry, but I shall continue to look disagreeable then, for I have
no intention of smiling at Mr. James Jones, or any other stranger with
whom I have business,' observed Stella.
'Why don't you answer it yourself? It's got nothing to do with me,'
grumbled Vava.
'Because I am busy; you can tell him that,' said Stella; who might have
added, 'Because I do not choose to,' but she refrained.
'My lamb, you should not answer your sister as you do,' said Mrs.
Morrison, when Stella had left the kitchen, her head very much in the
air.
'She aggravates me with her airs and unfriendliness,' said Vava in an
apologetic tone.
'And who are you to criticise your elders in that unbecoming way? What
do you know of the world? Miss Stella is quite right not to be too
friendly with strangers and to keep her bonny smiles for friends; and
even if she were not right, it is not for you to question her doings or
sayings, and she your guardian,' protested her old nurse with decision.
'She is not so very old after all--only seven years older than I am;
last year she was an infant in the eye of the law,' announced the girl,
who had read this piece of information somewhere.
'She is of age this year, at any rate, Miss Vava, and you had better do
as she bids you; she knows what she is about, and you will understand it
better in seven years' time--seven years make a great difference in a
young girl; so write that letter like a good child, and don't worry Miss
Stella, who has plenty to do without fashing herself about
letter-writing,' admonished Mrs. Morrison.
'But you know, nursie, this is a business letter, and he is the man she
gets her living by; she really might be civil to him. Suppose he gets
offended and tells her to go? That would be a nice thing, just after we
have got into a new house!' exclaimed Vava.
'If he is a business man he'll not be so silly as to be offended because
a young lady isn't too friendly; and if he is so foolish, the sooner she
leaves his office and gets with sensible people the better. That will do
for those currants, Miss Vava, they are quite clean now, and I'll make
the pudding while you write that letter. You'll find paper and stamps
and all in the bureau in the sitting-room,' said nurse.
Vava went off as she was told, and found that nurse had 'found up' a
quantity of writing-paper and envelopes at Lomore, as well as stamps,
all of which she had packed into the bureau and brought south with her,
besides other treasures, the looking over which took Vava some time. But
at last she set to work to write the letter; and, being very much
excited by all the events of the day, she took a large sheet of paper,
and wrote a long letter to the junior partner, which was likely to amuse
him very much. It ran as follows:
'DEAR MR. JONES,--Thank you very much for offering to give my
sister a holiday. She says to tell you she is very busy putting
down the stair-carpet, so can't answer herself; but she will be
quite able to come to the office on Monday morning at the usual
time. She did not say she was putting down the stair-carpet, but
she is; it's a horrid work, as you have to pad it. When I 'm rich
I'll have workmen to do all that when I move house, and never go
near it till it's quite tidy. I can't find a single thing.
'The other Joneses who have bought Lomore (I hope they are no
relation of yours) have been very kind; they have sent down all the
furniture of Stella's sitting-room, and lots and lots of things
that they must want themselves, and I'm sorry I called them
"horrid;" they have been very friendly to us, and even brought us
to town in their motor. I only said that because I felt horrid at
that moment to think of an English Jones being Laird of Lomore. Oh
dear! I forgot your name was Jones; but I would not mind your being
laird so much, you look a great deal more like one than old Mr.
Montague Jones. But our old nurse, whom we found here this morning,
says he has been very good to all the old servants, and is not
turning out one, or changing anything; so things might have been
worse. I must stop and help to put the house in order.--I remain,
your sincere friend, VAVA WHARTON.
'_P.S._--Please be sensible, and don't mind Stella being so stiff
and stuck-up; it's being poor that makes her like that, and I'm
sure she's grateful to you, really. V. W.'
Now, Vava was a very open child; but it never entered her head that she
ought not to have written a letter like that to Mr. James Jones, nor
that her sister would expect to see it. 'Nursie' had said that there
were stamps there, and evidently meant her to write, close, and post the
letter, so as to save Stella trouble, and this she accordingly did, as
there happened to be a pillar-box just outside the front-gate.
Stella, who was still putting down the stair-carpet, heard the gate
click, and observed, 'Oh dear, I hope that nobody is coming; they can't
come through the hall.'
'No, it is only Vava; she is posting a letter,' replied Eva, who from
the top stair, where she was folding newspapers to form pads, could see
the front-gate and road.
Stella stopped abruptly in her work. 'I wouldn't'----she began; and
then, dropping the hammer, she continued, 'I will be back in a minute,
Miss Overall; I just want to speak to Vava,' and went into the
sitting-room to await her sister.
Vava saw her through the bay-window, and went in to her, saying
cheerfully, 'I've written the letter and posted it and everything.'
'Why did you not show it to me first?' demanded Stella.
'Why should I? I never thought of it. Besides, you never read my
letters; you always say you trust me,' said Vava.
'So I do; but you do sometimes say things you had better not have said,
and as this is my business I think you should have brought the letter to
me. What did you say in it?'
Upon reflection, Vava was not sure that she wanted to tell Stella what
she had written, and upon further reflection she began to doubt whether
she ought to have written it. 'I told him you thanked him for his offer
of holiday, and that you were busy putting down the stair-carpet, so had
told me to write, and that you would be there on Monday at the usual
time. That's all I said about you--I mean about your business. The rest
of the letter was just a friendly one from myself,' she said.
This was just what Stella was afraid of, and she exclaimed, 'I never
told you to say what I was doing.'
'I told him that,' interrupted Vava.
Stella was speechless for a moment; then she continued, in a tone of
exasperation, 'Will you please tell me what you did say, Vava?'
'It's got nothing to do with you. Mr. Jones has been very kind to me,
and I just wrote him a friendly letter; but it sounds silly repeated.
Don't bother about it, Stella; if you were so particular about the
letter you should have written it yourself,' retorted Vava.
'I wish I had--I wish to goodness I had!' she exclaimed, and went out of
the room.
Vava felt rather uncomfortable for a time; and then, saying to herself
that Stella made a great fuss about nothing, she went off to the kitchen
to help Mrs. Morrison to prepare tea for them.
Stella seemed to have forgotten her annoyance when she came in to tea,
for she was laughing heartily; but when Vava asked her if she were
tired, she said, 'No,' very coldly, and addressed no more conversation
to her.
Vava consequently talked to Eva; but this kind of thing could not go on,
and after tea, when she found herself with Mrs. Morrison, she unburdened
herself to her old nurse. 'And you see, nursie, I don't know what to do.
If I don't tell Stella she will be horrid and cold with me; and if I do
tell her she will be frightfully annoyed,' she explained.
But Mrs. Morrison would not sympathise with her. 'You ought not to write
letters you do not wish your sister to see; you have done very wrong,
and must go and tell Miss Stella so at once, and if she is angry and
scolds you you must bear it,' she said decidedly.
'There was no harm in what I said, and--and, nursie, I simply can't tell
Stella!' cried Vava, as her postscript came into her mind.
Mrs. Morrison looked at her gravely. 'What did you say, my lamb? Tell
me,' she inquired.
Vava told her, as well as she could remember, all that she had said in
the letter.
A grim look of amusement came over the good woman's face; but she turned
away and poked the fire to prevent Vava seeing it, and when she turned
round again she was quite grave as she replied, with a shake of her
head, 'You should not have said that about Mr. Montague Jones being
"horrid," you let your pen run on too fast, and you should not have
written that bit about Miss Stella, and you may well say that she will
be annoyed. But for all that, you must tell her what was in the letter,
and it will be a lesson to you to mind what you write in future.'
Vava groaned, but went off obediently and told Stella, who listened in
silence till she came to the postscript, whereat she gave an
exclamation; but all she said when Vava had finished was, 'I am glad you
told me, for I think I can prevent Mr. Jones getting that letter. I was
so busy this morning that I forgot that to-day was Saturday, and that
consequently the letter would not arrive any sooner than myself on
Monday morning; so that you need not have written at all.'
'But, Stella, what will you do? You can't take away a letter addressed
to Mr. Jones. The clerks may tell him how many there were, and he would
miss it,' protested Vava.
'I have no intention of touching Mr. Jones's correspondence without his
knowledge; but, as I get there before him, I shall ask him not to open
that particular letter, and I shall tell him why,' replied Stella.
'Then he might as well read it!' cried Vava.
'I shall not tell him what you said,' replied Stella; and as she had
evidently made up her mind on the subject, Vava said no more, but she
wished with all her heart that she had never written the unfortunate
letter.
However, Stella was friends with her again, and the first day at Heather
Road ended happily enough; for, tired though they were, the four girls
were able to go to bed in a tidy house, with carpets, curtains, and
furniture in their proper places, which was really a comfortable home
again.