THE VALUE OF A GOOD CHARACTER.
Vava tossed and turned and went to sleep, only to dream of prison cells,
in which Eva was secured by heavy chains, which she (Vava) tried in vain
to break, and it was from one of these nightmares that she awoke in the
morning to the sound of a laugh. Sitting up in bed, Vava listened,
hardly able to believe her ears, for it was Eva's laugh.
'Stella,' she said in solemn tones to her sister, 'do you hear Eva
laughing?'
'Yes,' said Stella shortly; but the little word said a good deal.
'Do you think she's in hysterics?' asked Vava.
'No, I do not; she seems very cheerful,' replied Stella.
Vava was very thoughtful; and when she went to the bathroom, Stella
noticed that she did not stop as usual to say good-morning to Eva as she
passed her door, at which her sister was rather pleased, for she did not
approve of Eva's light-heartedness under the circumstances.
However, she greeted the girl kindly enough when they met at breakfast,
and indeed it would have been difficult not to smile back at Eva's happy
face, with a look on it that they had not seen since they had been at
Heather Road. It scarcely needed Eva's announcement that she did 'feel
so happy' to assure them of the fact, for she looked a different girl;
'and I don't deserve it,' she added.
There was silence when she said this, for if her three listeners had
spoken their minds they would have cried in chorus, 'Indeed you do not!'
As it happened, however, it was Vava, with her usual candour, who
demanded, 'Then why do you feel happy?'
'Don't you know?' demanded Eva, looking from one to the other; and then,
seeing from their faces that they certainly did not know the reason for
her change of mood, she continued, 'I thought Mrs. Morrison would have
told you.'
'What has nursie got to do with it?' asked Vava.
'Everything, she has been so good. She came up to me last night, and
straightened things out in the most wonderful way, as far as they can be
straightened, and I am going to keep them straight for the future,' said
Eva.
'I am very glad,' said Stella; but though she wondered how the old
housekeeper had straightened out this tangled web, she was too polite to
ask any questions; nor, though they were burning with curiosity, did the
other two do so either; Vava because she thought she should hear it from
'nursie,' and Amy because she decided that Eva would prefer to tell her
when the two of them were alone.
Vava was disappointed in her hope of getting an explanation out of the
old housekeeper, who, in answer to her questions, said, 'And what will
it have to do with you, Miss Vava? I'm ashamed at your curiosity.'
'I don't call it curiosity to take an interest in your friends, and I
want to know that Eva is safe,' said Vava.
'Oh if that is all you are asking, then I can answer you; she is safe
from being punished for her wrong-doing except by her own conscience,'
replied Mrs. Morrison; and with this Vava had to be content, though it
was not all she wanted to be told, as the old woman very well knew.
Amy, however, fared better, and came out of Eva's room looking radiant.
'Stella, it is too good of Mrs. Morrison! Fancy, she is lending Eva the
thirty pounds, and she is seeing the man herself; so we need not bother
about a lawyer or anything!' she cried.
But Stella did not look at all pleased, and saying, 'Indeed!' she walked
straight into the kitchen to have it out with nursie, who received her
remonstrances very calmly.
'Don't you fash yourself, Miss Stella, dearie; I'm not throwing away my
money, and I am not spoiling Miss Eva, nor encouraging her either. She
will pay back every penny, and a hard time she will have doing it too.'
And with this Stella had to be satisfied. Mrs. Morrison was a woman of
great character, and what she thought it right to do she did, without
paying any attention to what people said or thought.
'I shall not be back to dinner,' said Eva as she said good-bye to the
other three.
'Why? What are you going to do?' asked Amy anxiously.
Eva coloured slightly as she answered in a would-be light manner, 'I
have some work to do at the office; we are working overtime, so I shall
be late for the next few weeks,' and then she nodded and went off before
she could be questioned further.
Amy turned to the sisters and said, 'I did her an injustice. I thought
she was taking things too easy, although I was thankful to hear that she
had been got out of her trouble; but this work that she speaks of is
dreadfully tiresome, and all the lady-clerks refused it. She is getting
very good pay for it, but it will tire her on these spring evenings.'
'I did her wrong too. I am very glad she has taken this work and is
trying to earn extra money; she will feel much happier,' said Stella.
'Yes, and Mrs. Morrison has made her promise to bring her salary
straight to her every Saturday, and just ask her for what she needs; and
Eva says she means to live on two shillings and sixpence a week till she
is out of debt,' explained Amy.
Stella gave a sigh of relief. 'Perhaps it has taught her a lesson,' she
agreed; 'and it is a blessing that it has ended better than we
expected.'
Then the three started for the City with Doreen, who, of course, knew
nothing of what had happened.
'There's the chairman's motor at the school-gate,' exclaimed the latter,
as she and Vava approached the City school.
'Mr. Montague Jones's, you mean? So it is! I wonder what he has come
for? Something to do with the prizes, I expect,' said Vava, and she
stopped to speak to the chauffeur, with whom she was a great favourite.
'The master's in there; I believe he's looking for you,' the man
observed.
'That isn't the proper place to look for me; I go in at the pupils'
entrance, tell him,' said Vava.
But Mr. Jones was not at that moment looking for Vava. He had been met
by Miss Upjohn, who was very glad to see him, as she wished to speak
about some school matter, which being soon settled, Mr. Jones began at
once, 'And how is my little friend Vava Wharton getting on?'
There was nothing unusual in his asking this, for it was his usual
question, and the head-mistress replied with a smile, 'She is not very
little, but she is getting on very well. I think you will have to give
her two prizes, which is rather unusual for a girl in her first term.
She has done two excellent examination papers.'
'Indeed! Which are they?' inquired Mr. Jones, who was wondering how he
was to broach the subject of the Scripture papers, and get at the bottom
of Miss Briggs's tale without betraying her.
'Scripture and algebra; the first did not surprise me so much, for she
is exceptionally well up in Scripture, and we cannot take any credit to
ourselves for the knowledge she has displayed in that subject; but she
has made wonderful progress in algebra; she is a very clever girl. One
has the beauty, and the other the brains--not that Vava is not
good-looking, by the way,' said the head-mistress, correcting herself.
'Nor is the beauty stupid, by any means, though she is so reserved that
it is difficult to get to know her or her abilities,' said Mr. Jones,
who began to think that he had come on a fool's errand, and had better
have trusted the head-mistress to manage her school without his
interference. He was just getting up to say good-bye when there came a
knock at the door, and Miss Briggs entered, looking very perturbed at
sight of Montague Jones.
'My letter was strictly private, Mr. Jones,' she said.
'And so it has been treated, Miss Briggs,' replied Mr. Jones.
'Miss Briggs, excuse me, but did you write to Mr. Jones upon the matter
we discussed yesterday?' inquired the head-mistress, looking very much
annoyed.
Poor Miss Briggs looked very much ashamed of herself as she answered,
'Yes.' She saw that she had betrayed herself, whereas Mr. Jones had not
done so.
'Since you have told Miss Upjohn so much, I think you may allow me to
suggest that you should give us your grounds for suspecting my young
friend Miss Wharton of dishonest practices, and let us try and convince
you that you are mistaken,' observed Mr. Jones.
'Oh I did not say they were dishonest,' she protested.
'But I do,' he replied.
Thus put into a corner, Miss Briggs had to go through the whole thing
again, and a very bad time she had of it. Mr. Jones had not been a
magistrate for nothing. He questioned and cross-questioned and argued
till he had proved even to Miss Briggs's satisfaction that the very
remarks she had overheard only proved Vava's innocence, as no girl in
her senses would boast openly of knowing the questions beforehand if she
had looked at them secretly, far less impart one to a friend, and that
one a girl whom the girls had nicknamed 'Old Honesty.' At last Miss
Upjohn and her visitor had the satisfaction of having brought Miss
Briggs round to their opinion.
'I see now that I was mistaken, and I am very sorry about it, and I
ought not to have written to you,' she said frankly to Mr. Jones.
'No, you ought not. Miss Upjohn is quite able to manage her own affairs;
but I hope she will overlook your fault this time,' he replied with
equal frankness; and then he got up and left the two ladies alone.
Miss Briggs looked so ashamed of herself that Miss Upjohn was sorry for
her; but what she said to her young assistant no one knew, for the story
never went any further.
Vava never thought of her unpleasant experience with Miss Briggs after
that day, except to feel that it had done good instead of harm, for the
young mistress went out of her way to be pleasant to the girl she had
wrongfully accused, which Vava thought very nice of her, as it had never
been proved that she had not moved those papers. Perhaps she would not
have been so grateful to Miss Briggs if she had known that it had been
proved to have been some one else.
The facts of the case were that another mistress had taken them by
mistake, and in her hurry just put them back inside the door. Miss
Upjohn was very glad to have this explanation, not that she doubted
Vava, but because she thought it would show Miss Briggs how easily one
may be suspicious without cause. And, if the truth be told, it was not
till she heard this that Miss Briggs did quite believe in Vava's
innocence. So that it did teach her a lesson.
Vava was called into the head-mistress's study that morning, and went in
looking very hot and indignant, but came out smiling, and said to
Doreen, 'It's all right.'
'What's all right?' demanded Doreen, staring.
'Oh I forgot you know nothing about it. Well, it does not matter; it was
only something that was bothering me, and it's all right now. Miss
Upjohn is a brick,' explained Vava.
'I knew _that_ before, and I'm glad whatever was bothering you is all
right; you all seem to have had the blues lately at your place. Mother
said she supposed you found a house rather a bother as well as a
pleasure,' remarked Doreen.
'Oh no, we don't! Mrs. Morrison takes all the worry off us; she's a
brick too, a gold brick!' declared Vava with enthusiasm.
'I never heard of a "gold brick,"' observed Doreen.
'Well, she's one,' said Vava obstinately, and they both laughed.
But Vava never told any one except her 'gold brick,' as she called 'old
nursie,' of the bad quarter of an hour which she had had with Miss
Briggs before school, when the latter had accused her of having seen the
papers, and told her to go and confess it to Miss Upjohn. 'But that
wasn't the worst, nursie; the worst was in Miss Upjohn's room,' declared
the girl.
'But I thought she had the sense to believe in you?' asked the old
woman.
'Oh yes, she was most awfully nice, and told me she had never doubted me
for a moment; it was Miss Briggs that made me feel so horrid and
uncomfortable. Miss Upjohn told her she owed me an apology, and she
looked so miserable I felt as if I ought to apologise to her,' said
Vava.
'And why would you do that? No one has a right to take away your
character, and if they try to do it, and find they are wrong, it is they
who should apologise. There's nothing so much worth in this world as
one's character--never forget that, my bairn,' said the old nurse. 'You
see how Mr. Jones and Miss Upjohn both believed in you, though I must
say things did look black to a suspicious person; that was because they
knew your character, and that it was an honest character. If that same
tale had been told about a girl who was not straightforward it might
have been a different thing. Be thankful for your head-mistress's trust
in you, and always act up to the principles you have been taught; it
will save you from many a pitfall or from the trouble a weak young lady
like Miss Eva brings upon herself.'
'It doesn't seem to matter so much as long as I have you to get me out
of it,' said Vava mischievously.
'Indeed it does, for though I might get you off punishment I could never
undo what you had done,' said the old housekeeper.
'But if I was sorry?' suggested Vava.
'You would be forgiven, but it would never undo it, remember that,'
repeated Mrs. Morrison.
And Vava did remember it. At the moment she was thinking that Eva seemed
to have got over her trouble, and to feel as if it were undone the
moment the money was paid; but, as it happened, she was mistaken, and
when she saw her come in night after night, looking tired out and black
under the eyes, she began to understand that 'old nursie' was right, and
that one cannot undo a wrong deed. Moreover, though she never spoke of
it, Eva felt that she had lost her character for uprightness with her
friends, and she bitterly regretted her weakness. But if the girl had
but known it, they respected her more now that she was working so hard
to repay Mrs. Morrison than they had ever done before, and Vava was only
too glad to be with her in the short time she had free.
As for the furniture man, the shrewd Scotchwoman managed him better
perhaps than a lawyer would have done, and she got back Eva's jewellery,
which he had accepted in part payment at much less than their value; and
her still final triumph was that she only paid the thirty pounds.
'So I made him take five pounds off the bill, and then overpaid him to
be quit of him altogether, though it's a fine suite, after all,' said
Mrs. Morrison when recounting her transaction with the not too reputable
tradesman, who, for his part, was not sorry to have done with Mrs.
Morrison, whose shrewd questions and business knowledge made him feel
very uncomfortable, as did some of her plain comments on his behaviour.