MORE CLOUDS.
Vava meanwhile went to Stella's new office, and found her sister, with
hat and jacket on, waiting for her. 'You have got done? I suppose they
don't bring you tea here?' said Vava.
'No, we must wait until we get home. We shall enjoy a cup of tea with
dinner all the more,' said Stella.
However, when they arrived at No. 2 Heather Road, the housekeeper, who
had evidently been on the watch for them, came into the hall to welcome
them, and, taking their umbrellas, said, 'It's cold, this nasty wet day,
my bairns; come into the sitting-room and warm yourselves by the fire.
I've the kettle boiling and some hot scones, if you'd care to have some
tea.'
'Oh nursie, you just are the dearest darling in the world; we haven't
had any afternoon tea. These new people are not as thoughtful as Mr.
James Jones was!' exclaimed Vava.
'It is not really a necessity; we could very well wait till
dinner-time,' observed Stella. 'But I must say I shall be very glad of a
cup to-day; it has been such a long day.'
Mrs. Morrison looked at the weary young face from under her glasses with
her shrewd eyes, but said nothing, and only drew the little table near
the fire, took away the wet shoes, and went off to get tea.
'Nursie is a very comforting person, Stella, isn't she?' said Vava, as
she held out her cold hands to the cheerful blaze.
'She spoils us all. By the way, I wonder where Amy and Eva are; it is
time for them to be home, and nursie has only brought in two cups,'
replied her sister.
The housekeeper coming in with the teapot at that instant overheard the
last few words. 'The other two young leddies will be having their tea
upstairs,' she remarked in answer to Stella.
'Are they in?' asked Vava, helping herself to a hot buttered scone.
'Yes, they are in,' replied Mrs. Morrison.
'What's the matter? Did they get drenched? Why are they having tea
upstairs?' the girl continued.
'They wished to have it there, so I took it up,' observed the
housekeeper.
'But I don't think you ought to spoil them like that. Why could they not
come down and have tea with us here, instead of giving you the trouble
of carrying it up to them?' remonstrated Stella, who resented the two
English girls making the housekeeper run up and down stairs for them.
'I'm none so old as all that, and I have not much to do while you are
out all day,' declared Mrs. Morrison, putting down the scones on the
tripod in front of the fire and going out of the room.
'All the same, I call it rather cool of them making nursie run up and
down stairs for them,' objected Vava.
'I expect they were wet through and had to change, and that nursie took
the tea up without being asked,' suggested Stella.
'They'd be much more comfortable down here by the fire, I should think,
than in their cold rooms,' observed Vava.
'Perhaps they have gone to bed,' said Stella.
Vava listened for a moment. 'No, they haven't; I can hear them moving
above us, and--they have a fire in Amy's room; I can hear them poking
it! What extravagance!' she continued.
Stella was privately of the same opinion, and she wondered at the
housekeeper encouraging it. Moreover, it meant more work; but she would
not criticise their house-mates any more, and changed the conversation.
Soon after, Vava set to work at her books, reading over the term's work
for the examination on the following day, and Stella decided to go up
and see if Amy had caught a chill, or had any such reason for staying
upstairs, or whether it was only laziness.
There was dead silence when she knocked at the door, and then a murmured
conversation before Amy unlocked the door, and said, 'Come in, Stella.
Eva has a headache, so Mrs. Morrison very kindly insisted on her lying
down on my bed and having a fire.'
It did occur to Stella as strange that Eva should lie upon Amy's bed and
have the fire in her room; but as Eva had her back turned to her she
thought the kindest thing she could do would be to leave her alone, so
she said, 'I am so sorry Eva is ill. Mrs. Morrison did not tell me that,
or I would not have come and disturbed you.'
'I'm not ill.--You'd better tell her about it, Amy; she'll have to know
sooner or later,' said Eva from the bed in a muffled voice.
Stella looked with concern from one to the other. 'I hope there is
nothing wrong?' she asked.
Amy made a sign to her to come out of the room, and they went downstairs
to the little sitting-room before the former said anything, and even
when they were sitting down in the two easy-chairs, which the good old
housekeeper had drawn up to the fire, she did not seem inclined to
begin.
At last Stella said, 'Tell me what is wrong, Amy--a trouble shared is a
trouble halved. I suppose it has something to do with that wretched
furniture?'
Amy gave a great sigh, and said, 'Yes. Oh if only she had consulted us!
But it was only--thanks to Mrs. Morrison, who got the truth out of
her--that she told me to-night; though, I am afraid, it is too late for
us to do anything to help her.'
'I suppose the man is worrying her for the payments? Has she let them
fall into arrears?' inquired Stella, to help her friend, who seemed to
find a difficulty in continuing.
'It's worse than that; it's a dreadful business, and not a nice story;
but it is that friend of hers who is at the bottom of it. The furniture
has been bought in a false name, and Eva represented herself as over
twenty-one, and signed a paper making herself liable for the whole
amount if the payments fell into arrears, and of course they have, and
it appears the man came down and interviewed Mrs. Morrison, and would
have made himself very unpleasant if she had not overawed him. Of course
she denied there being any one here of the name Eva gave.'
Stella was, as Amy had expected, very much shocked at this tale, but all
she said was, 'I cannot understand the man's believing that Eva was
twenty-one; she does not look more than eighteen at the most.'
'That was just what we said, Mrs. Morrison and I; but--and this is the
worst part of it--she took the name of her friend and used her birth
certificate, which this girl happened to have for some examination, and
the girl actually went with Eva and identified her as being the person
in the certificate.'
'Disgraceful!' burst out involuntarily from Stella.
'It is disgraceful, and now the man threatens her with exposure if she
does not pay down the whole amount.'
'How much is it?' inquired Stella.
'Thirty-five pounds,' said Amy.
'That seems to me a good deal, even for that suite,' observed Stella.
'So it is; but he said it was credit price.'
'And how much has she paid?' asked Stella.
'Only five pounds, and she had to sell her watch and a gold bracelet and
a silk dress to pay that, she says. She never could save out of her
weekly salary,' explained Amy.
Stella remembered poor Eva's motto made out of their four names, and
thought how very inappropriate a one it had proved in her case. 'Poor
Eva!' she exclaimed.
'Yes, indeed it is "poor Eva!" and I don't see how we are to help her;
we cannot give her the thirty pounds, and the man demands it within
eight days.'
'I don't believe he can; besides, if she has not got it, it is not any
good his demanding it; he must take his furniture back,' declared
Stella, who, though she did not know much of such business, had a good
business head.
'He declares the furniture is not worth the half now, and threatens to
take the matter into court, and put Eva in prison for getting goods
under false pretences.'
'Has she no relations to whom she could go for advice? Surely she cannot
be alone in the world?' Stella asked anxiously.
'I don't think she has any near relations; her father was a very
peculiar man, and, I fancy, had quarrelled with all his relations, and
his wife's as well. I know none ever came to visit them,' said Amy.
'She must have friends,' said Stella.
'She says she would rather be put in prison than tell any of them,'
declared Amy.
'Then we must consult a lawyer. I wish Mr. Stacey were nearer; but he
may know some one in London who would advise us, though I don't know
what is to be done about the money. I have not thirty pounds at this
minute,' said Stella.
'Nor have I, or I would give it willingly; it is dreadful to see her.
She may say she is not ill, but she looks ill, and she will be if this
goes on,' said Amy.
Stella was very sorry for Eva; but she felt rather angry with her too,
though her hard-heartedness would have melted if she could have seen
Eva, who lay upon her bed looking the picture of woe.
When Vava came back, the three of them sat down to dinner, an especially
nice and tempting dinner made by the old housekeeper, who managed to
make tasty dishes, in spite of being economical; and her young charges,
for such they may truly be called, made a very good meal.
'I'll take some up to Eva; I 'm sure this will tempt her!' cried Vava
when she had finished her dinner.
Amy had already taken her tray up, and brought it back untouched; but
Vava would not be gainsaid, and carried up some soup, which she declared
Eva was very fond of.
'Perhaps she will take it from Vava, as she does not know anything about
it,' suggested Stella, who thought that Eva might be ashamed, under the
circumstances, of having any appetite.
Vava did not come down for more than half-an-hour, and when she did they
saw that she had been crying.
Stella gave an exclamation of vexation. 'I did not want you to be told
all this; you are too young to be mixed up with such disreputable
doings. Don't bother your head about it any more,' said Stella.
'But I must, because I feel that it was partly my fault,' declared Vava.
'Your fault!' cried Stella, horrified.
'Yes, because Eva would not have been such friends with this horrid girl
if I had not been so unfriendly with her. She says she was so
disappointed when she saw I did not care for her, and it made her take
to this other girl,' said Vava.
'Eva ought not to put the blame on to you; no one need do wrong unless
they choose, and it is very weak to be led away so easily. And what we
are going to do about it I don't know; she has got herself into a
terrible mess.'
'Poor Eva, she can't bear the sight of the furniture, so she is going to
sleep in Amy's room,' announced Vava.
'I should not think Amy would care to see it either,' observed Stella
dryly.
Vava saw that her sister had not much sympathy with Eva, and she had
certainly brought trouble upon the whole household at No. 2 Heather
Road, where they might all have been so happy if they had all done what
was right.
As it was, Stella and Amy sat up till midnight, talking the matter over
and wondering what could be done for Eva, and ending up after each
suggestion by deciding that they could do nothing.
Amy crept up to her room to get out some things she wanted, and Stella
stood upon the stairs to wait for her and hear how Eva was. Amy was some
little time, and presently she came on tiptoe to the door, a smile upon
her face. 'Just come and look at her, she is sleeping so peacefully,'
she said in a whisper.
There was a bright fire burning, and it passed through Stella's mind
that Eva's sorrow did not prevent her from making herself comfortable.
As the firelight fell upon the sleeping girl's face she could not help
thinking to herself that the miserable business did not seem to have
made a very deep impression upon the culprit, for she was, as Amy had
said, sleeping quite peacefully, as if she had not a care in the world,
with a smile upon her lips; and that smile hardened Stella's heart
against Eva.
'It's all very well, Amy, but she has upset us all dreadfully; and while
we have been cudgelling our brains downstairs to try and find a way to
help her, she goes happily to sleep and does not worry at all,' said
Stella, as she accompanied her friend to her bedroom.
'I suppose she had worn herself out,' said Amy, trying to be loyal to
her friend, though in her heart she had been rather surprised herself to
find Eva asleep.
Stella did not say any more; but any idea she had had of asking Mr.
Stacey to let her have a little money to help Eva was given up, and she
went to bed, pondering upon the easy conscience that some people had.
Vava had learnt her lesson from Eva's trouble, but Stella was too
shocked with Eva to be as sympathetic with the poor girl as she might
have been; and Vava, who thought her hard, remarked with her usual
candour, 'The fact is, Stella, you are a regular Pharisee, and you'll
have a nice tumble one of these days if you walk like that, with your
head in the air, looking over the heads of everybody.' And then Vava
turned over and went to sleep.