VAVA GETS A SHOCK.
The days flew by until the eventful Friday when there was the
prize-giving, the play of Dante, in which Vava had the role of heroine,
and, to wind up, the dinner-party and theatre afterwards.
'I'm glad we have had all this to look forward to,' said Vava on Friday
morning as they both, in very pretty black embroidered frocks, were
going up to the City.
'Yes,' agreed Stella, not too cordially, for though she was glad to go
to the prize-giving and see the play, since Vava was in it, still
neither of these things gave her unalloyed pleasure. At the prize-giving
she would be surrounded by the parents of these girls, whom she did not
expect to be very refined. As to the play, she, as a student and lover
of Dante, objected to its being acted, though she did not say so to
Vava. And as for the two other pleasures to which Vava was looking
forward so eagerly, Stella did not care for them at all, and was only
going to please Vava, whose great day it was.
'It has taken our mind off other worries,' announced Vava; and Stella,
looking at her sister, noticed with a pang that the bright young face
was paler and graver than it usually was, and realised that this week
had been a trying one for her, though quite how trying she did not know,
for Vava had not told her of her own private worry with Miss Briggs at
school.
'We are going to have a very nice day, quite a long day of pleasure,'
said Stella, smiling kindly at her sister.
'Yes,' agreed Vava, and she brightened up, for she had half-feared that
Stella would either back out of the dinner on some excuse or another, or
else go against her will and be stiff.
'I am afraid I shall be late for the prize-giving, for I cannot very
well ask to be let off an afternoon the very first week I am with these
people,' observed Stella.
'What a pity! But never mind, I will keep a seat for you,' replied Vava
as she said good-bye.
However, the first thing her new employer said to her was, 'I shall not
be here after lunch, Miss Wharton, so shall be glad if you will do this
work for me before I go, and the rest of the day will be at your
disposal, and next week I am taking a holiday, so I shall not require
your services until Tuesday week.'
There had not been any arrangement made about Easter holidays, and
Stella had quite made up her mind that she would only have the Bank
Holidays, and was rather surprised. However, she did not imagine it was
anything but a coincidence, or that her afternoon, like the Easter
holidays, had been arranged by Mr. James Jones; which perhaps was just
as well, or the perverse girl might not have enjoyed it as much.
As it was, she went off at one o'clock, having got through her work,
shaking hands cordially with old Mr. Murchison, whom she liked very
much; and, having had lunch, arrived at the City school just in time.
The porter in his gorgeous City livery was so impressed by Stella's
beauty and dignified carriage that he took her for some important
person, and showed her up to one of the front seats, which were reserved
for patrons and patronesses, and she found herself sitting next a very
pleasant woman, who took a great interest in education, and told Stella
what a high opinion she had of this school and its staff; and a little
farther up was Mrs. Montague Jones, talking in a friendly way to a lady
whom Stella had met once and knew to be a society woman, but had not
expected to meet here.
The proceedings were rather lengthy. There was the usual school concert,
which it is difficult to say who dislike most, performers or audience;
then came the play, and Stella was converted on the spot.
'What a delightful Beatrice!' cried her neighbour; 'she has a noble
face.'
Stella smiled as she replied, 'I am glad you approve of her, for she is
my sister.'
This broke the ice still more, and the two had become quite friendly by
the time Vava came up for her two prizes, which Mr. Montague Jones
presented to her with a specially friendly hand-shake.
Then there were speeches, congratulations, and refreshments, and after
that Mr. Jones said, 'These are very delightful functions, no doubt; but
they are a little long, and somehow they always make me very hot and
tired and headachy. What do you ladies say to taking a run out into the
country for a couple of hours, and getting home just in time for dinner?
You can't dress to-night, thank goodness, and so you can't expect me to
either.'
As all three were willing, he gave the order to the chauffeur, and they
went off, Stella in front with Mr. Jones, and Vava behind with his wife.
'Miss Wharton,' said the old man, when they had got some way out, 'I
don't want to bother you with business out of business hours; but I must
tell you how sorry I am you have left our firm.'
'Your firm, Mr. Jones?' exclaimed Stella in surprise.
'Yes! Surely James told you?' he replied.
'No, but it would have made no difference; I prefer to be where I am. I
do not wish to be rude, Mr. Jones; but I think we had better not discuss
the subject,' said Stella.
So Mr. Jones, finding he could do no good, changed the conversation, and
talked so well on all sorts of topics that Stella, who had been
excellently educated, and had been used to the society of a literary
father, found her companion very entertaining.
Mrs. Montague Jones and Vava noted this with satisfaction. 'They are
getting on very well,' said the former with a nod of her head.
'That's a blessing. Stella really is a very great trial to me,'
announced Vava quite gravely.
Mrs. Montague Jones laughed heartily. 'I wonder what she would say if
she heard you?' she replied.
'She would ask me quite solemnly what I meant, and I should not be able
to tell her,' observed Vava.
'You ought to be proud to have such a beautiful sister; every one was
asking me to-day who she was,' said Mrs. Jones.
'Beauty is a snare and a delusion for a City clerk, didn't they all say
when you told them who she was?' asked Vava.
'I did not say what she did. I told them she was the daughter of a
Scotch laird, and that you were her sister. They did not ask me her
occupation; we are not so rude in the City,' answered Mrs. Jones.
Vava sighed. 'It was much nicer before,' she remarked.
Mrs. Jones looked sympathetically at Vava; she had no daughters, only
the one son, and she would have liked nothing better than to adopt this
girl if it had been possible; but as she knew it to be impossible she
did not even speak of a plan she had in her head of taking them away for
Easter, which silence cost her some self-denial.
When they arrived at Belgrave Square, Vava, who as usual had made
herself quite at home, went off with Mrs. Jones to get some flowers from
the conservatory, and Stella was left in the drawing-room; but she had
not been there two minutes when the door opened, and a tall, gentlemanly
young man in evening-dress came in, saying to the footman who opened the
door, 'Has Lord Rothery not come, then?'
Stella, shaken out of her reserve, started up as the junior partner of
Baines, Jones & Co. came forward and shook hands gravely with her.
'Miss Wharton, you look surprised; surely you expected to see me here?'
he asked.
'No, I did not; it was only this afternoon that I knew that Mr. Montague
Jones had any connection with your firm. I did not know you were to be
invited to meet me,' said Stella.
'Invited! I need no invitation to my father's house; but if you object
to my presence I can easily dine at my club. I particularly told my
mother to ask you if it made any difference, and I understood her to say
it did not;' and then he wound up hotly, 'I do not know what I have done
to make you think me such a cad as to intrude my presence upon you when
I see it is so distasteful.'
Ten minutes later, when Mrs. Montague Jones and Vava came in laden with
flowers, Stella was sitting on the sofa, and at their entrance Mr. James
Jones, who was sitting beside her (as Vava noted with surprise), rose,
and taking Stella's hand brought her to his mother, saying, 'Mother,
this is my future wife.'
'It isn't! How dare you? Leave her hand alone!' cried Vava, starting
forward, and then, as it dawned upon her that _it was_, she stood still
and stared at them all; for Mrs. Jones, with a cry of delight, went
forward to Stella, and Mr. Jones, who came in then, seemed to be just as
delighted and not a bit surprised, though he said it was a pleasant
surprise; and, oddest of all, Lord Rothery--who had cared for Stella
himself once--now arrived on the scene, congratulated them both most
heartily, and said, 'I was a true prophet. I guessed this would be the
next news.'
This caused Vava to exclaim with indignation, 'How could you possibly,
when _I_ knew nothing about it, nor how they met--or anything? They'd
quarrelled for ever a week ago!'
'Ah! that's a sure sign,' said Lord Rothery, teasing her. He had left
the Jones family to make much of Stella, and took Vava to a window to
console her, for he saw that she was more angry than pleased.
'I believe it's an awful mistake,' she confided to him.
'Not a bit of it; they are frightfully in love with each other. He's a
splendid fellow, and quite a gentleman,' declared the young lord.
'Then they've been horridly deceitful about it, for Stella never would
be decently civil to him while I was there, and left him last week; and
now I suppose they have been meeting all this week and falling in love,'
said Vava in tones of disgust.
'Not they, that was done before; it's what they call a Scotch wooing,
and you ought to be glad about it, instead of being so disagreeable,' he
protested.
A tear stole down Vava's face, but she would not give way, and only
said, 'I don't see what is the use of her having taken a house when she
meant to go and do this.'
'These are things one cannot foresee; one does not mean to do them; they
do themselves. You'll do just the same when your time comes.'
'I shall not. If I were in love with you I should be civil to you, and
let you see that I liked you,' declared Vava.
'All right; I'll remember that, and in the meantime I think you might be
civil to your sister and Jamie.'
Vava made a little grimace. 'It's a hideous name, Jamie Jones!' she
declared.
But that gentleman, thinking he had given his former friend time to get
over her shock, came forward, and very soon managed to win her back to
her old friendliness, as he gave her his arm to take her in to dinner.
Poor Vava! she had so looked forward to this dinner; it had turned out
so very different to what she had expected, and no one said anything
about the play; so she made up her mind that they were going to 'fuss'
over Stella all the evening and give up the play.
But Lord Rothery came to the rescue. 'I propose an amendment to the
evening's programme. I suppose Jamie is going to cry off his engagement
with me, so I vote you take me to the theatre in Stella's place, and
leave her to rest here.'
This seemed a very good plan, and evidently suited the two most
concerned; and to Vava's relief they started in good time for _Henry
VIII._, and in spite of a little sore feeling at heart, she managed to
enjoy it very much.
The Joneses drove Vava home after the theatre, and there she found
'nursie' and Stella sitting by the kitchen fire; and even Vava, much
though she had admired her sister, thought she had never seen her look
so beautiful as she did to-night.
'All's well that ends well, my bairns, and he's a braw young laddie,'
said old nursie, lapsing into Scotch.
'Has he been to see you?' asked Vava.
'Yes, and wanted to know if I would trust him with my bairn. Eh, that I
would!' she said.
'And what am I to do?' cried Vava, and burst into tears.
Stella had her arms round her sister in a moment. 'It won't make any
difference, and we are going to stay where we are till the end of the
year, and then you and nursie shall come and live with us,' she
explained.
'We shall see,' put in nursie, who had her own ideas upon the subject,
and proved to be right.