AT LABURNUM VILLA.
Aneta went back to her room, where she dressed with her usual
expedition and extreme neatness. When she had finished her toilet she
ran downstairs. It was not yet eight o'clock; but most of the girls
were assembled in the large hall waiting for prayers, which always
took place before breakfast. Mrs. Ward was seen passing to the
library, where prayers were held. Aneta went up to her.
"Prayers first, of course," said Aneta, "and afterwards may I talk to
you?"
Mrs. Ward looked at Aneta. "What is the matter, dear?"
"Something very important indeed. I must see you."
"Well, breakfast follows prayers; come to me the minute breakfast is
over."
"Thank you, dear Mrs. Ward," said Aneta.
At breakfast Merry asked Aneta how Maggie was. Aneta said that Maggie
had a headache, and would not be in school during the morning.
"Then what are we to do about our day?" said Molly Tristram, who
overheard this remark. "We have absolutely more to get through than we
can possibly manage."
"Oh, to-morrow will be quite all right," said Aneta; "and Maggie will
join you presently."
Aneta was so respected in the school, so little given to exaggeration,
so absolutely to be relied on, that these words of hers had a most
calming effect. The girls continued their breakfast, those who were in
the secret of to-morrow occasionally alluding to the subject in
French, which was the only language allowed to be spoken. The others
talked about their different occupations.
As soon as ever breakfast was over, Aneta went to Mrs. Ward's private
room.
"Now, dear, what is it?" said the head-mistress. "I have to take the
class for literature at half-past nine, and have very little time to
spare."
"I won't keep you," said Aneta; "but what I wanted was to beg for a
day's holiday."
"My dear girl! What do you mean? In the middle of term--a day's
holiday! Can you not take it to-morrow?--oh, I forgot, to-morrow
Maggie is having her grand carnival, as I call it. But what is the
matter, Aneta? Have you any trouble?"
"Yes," said Aneta; "and I cannot tell you, dear Mrs. Ward."
"I trust you, of course, Aneta."
"I know you do; and I want you to trust me more than ever. It has
something to do with Maggie."
Mrs. Ward slightly frowned. "I am never sure"--she began.
But Aneta stopped her impulsively. "If you give me that holiday
to-day," she said, "and if you trust me, and if you will also give me
Mrs. Martin's address, which, of course, you must have on your
books"----
"Mrs. Martin's address?" said Mrs. Ward.
"Yes. You know Maggie's mother has married again; she is Mrs.
Martin."
"Of course, of course; I had forgotten for the moment. Yes, I have her
address."
"Well, if you will do all that," continued Aneta, "I think that you
will find a new Maggie in the future, one whom you--will trust,
and--and love, as I love her."
"My dear girl! as you love Maggie Howland?"
Aneta lowered her head for a minute. "It is true I did not love her,"
she said, "in the past, but I have changed my views. I have been
narrow-minded, and small, and silly. She herself has opened my eyes. I
cannot tell you more now. Maggie will come down, and will be able to
go on with her lessons just as usual this afternoon; but I want a day
off, and I want it at once."
"But where are you going, dear?"
"I am going to Aunt Lucia. You will let me have a cab, and I will
drive to Aunt Lucia's house in Eaton Square at once?"
Mrs. Ward looked doubtful. "You have a very grave reason for this?"
she said.
"Very, very grave; and I will tell you all presently."
"I have never had reason to doubt you," said Mrs. Ward, "and I won't
doubt you now. Does Maggie know of this?"
"Yes--oh yes; but please don't question her until I return."
"Very well, dear; you shall have your way. Oh, you want Mrs. Martin's
address. It is Laburnum Villa, Clapham."
Aneta entered the address in a little tablet bound in gold which she
always wore at her waist.
"Thank you ever so much," she said, and then left the room.
A minute or two later she met Miss Johnson. "Give me something stiff
to learn--something that I don't like--to-night, dear Lucy," she said.
"I am off for a whole day's holiday, but I shall be back in the
evening."
"That is very queer," said Miss Johnson. "What does it mean?"
"I cannot explain, but Mrs. Ward knows. Be specially kind to dear
Maggie, and give me something that I don't like to do when I return."
Miss Johnson smiled. "You shall hem some dusters," she said.
Aneta made a wry face. "Thanks ever so much," she replied; then she
ran upstairs to get ready for her visit.
Just before leaving the house she looked in at Maggie. "I'm off, Mags.
It's all right. I shall probably see you about tea-time."
Before Maggie had time even to expostulate Aneta closed the door, and
a minute or two later had stepped into the cab which Agnes had called
for her. The cabman was desired to drive Miss Lysle to Lady Lysle's
house in Eaton Square. This was accordingly done, and soon after ten
o'clock Lady Lysle, who had not yet completed her morning toilet, was
most amazed at being informed by her maid that Miss Lysle was waiting
for her downstairs.
"Aneta! You don't mean Aneta, Purcell?"
"Yes, my lady; and she wants to see you in a very great hurry."
"Then send her up to me."
Purcell disappeared. Lady Lysle wondered what was wrong. Presently
Aneta burst into the room.
"My dear child," said her aunt, "what can be wrong? Why have you left
school? I do hope no illness has broken out there. It would be very
inconvenient for me to have you here at present."
"There is no illness whatever at the school, Aunt Lucia," said Aneta,
going up to her aunt and kissing her; "only there is a girl there, one
of my schoolfellows, in a good bit of trouble, and I want to help her,
and I have got a day off from Mrs. Ward, who doesn't know why she is
giving it to me, but trusts me all the same. And now, auntie, I want
you to come with me at once."
"Oh my dear child, where?"
"To Clapham, auntie."
"Clapham! I never stopped at Clapham in my life. I have driven through
the place, it is true."
"Well, we'll stop there to-day," said Aneta, "at Laburnum Villa,
Clapham. I want to see Mrs. Martin, Maggie's mother."
"Oh, dear child," said Lady Lysle, "you mean Miss Howland when you
speak of Maggie? Now, you know I told you that her stepfather is no
relation whatever to the Martyns of The Meadows. I cannot make out why
she should have given you to understand that he was. A man who lives
at Clapham! Dear Aneta, I would rather be excused."
"There is no excuse, auntie, that I can listen to for a single moment.
I know all about Maggie's stepfather, and I will tell you as we are
driving out to Clapham. You have always let me have my own way, and I
have--yes, I have tried to be a good girl; but there is something
before me to-day more important and more difficult than I ever tackled
yet, and if I can't come to my own aunt--I, who am a motherless
girl--for help at this crisis I shall think the world is coming to an
end."
"What a strange, earnest way you do speak in, Aneta!"
"I am very sorry, darling; but I assure you the case is most urgent.
You are quite well, aren't you?"
"Oh yes, my love; I am never an ailing sort of person."
"Well, then, I will send Purcell back to you, and please order the
carriage, and please be as quick as possible. We have to go somewhere
else after we have done with Mrs. Martin."
"Well, Aneta, I always was wax in your hands, and I suppose I must do
what you wish. But remember your promise that you will tell me the
meaning of this extraordinary thing during our drive to Clapham."
"I promise faithfully to tell you what is necessary, for the fact is I
want your help. Darling auntie! you are doing about the best work of
your life to-day. I knew you would stand by me; I felt certain of it,
and I told Maggie so."
"That girl!" said Lady Lysle. "I don't care for that girl."
"You will change your mind about her presently," said Aneta, and she
ran downstairs to request Davidson, the butler, to bring her something
to eat, for her breakfast had been slight, and she was quite hungry
enough to enjoy some of her aunt's nice food.
By-and-by Lady Lysle, looking slim and beautiful, wearing her becoming
sables and her toque with its long black ostrich plume, appeared on
the scene, and a minute later Davidson announced that the carriage was
at the door.
The two ladies stepped in, Aneta giving very careful directions to the
driver.
He expressed some astonishment at the address. "Laburnum Villa,
Clapham!" he said. "Martin, Laburnum Villa, Clapham! Clapham's a big
place, miss."
"I know that," said Aneta; "but that is all the address I can obtain.
We must call at the post-office, if necessary, to get the name of the
street."
The footman sprang into his place, and Aneta and her aunt drove off in
the comfortable brougham towards that suburb known as Clapham.
"Now, Aneta, I suppose you will tell me what is the meaning of this?"
"Yes, I will," said Aneta. "I made a mistake about Maggie, and I am
willing to own it. She has been placed in a difficult position. I do
not mean for a minute to imply that she has acted in a straight way,
for she has not. But there is that in her which will make her the best
of girls in the future, as she is one of the cleverest and one of the
most charming. Yes, auntie, she has got a great power about her. She
is a sort of magnet--she attracts people to her."
"She has never attracted me," said Lady Lysle. "I have always thought
her a singularly plain girl."
"Ugliness like hers is really attractive," said Aneta. "But, now, the
thing is this: if we don't help her she will be absolutely lost, all
her chance taken from her, and her character ruined for ever. We do a
lot at our school for those poor slum-girls, but we never do anything
for girls in our class. Now, I mean my girl in future to be Maggie
Howland."
"Aneta, you are absurd!"
"I mean it, auntie; her father's daughter deserves help. Her father
was as good a man as ever lived, and for his sake something ought to
be done for his only child. As to her mother"----
"Yes, the woman who has married a person of the name of Martin, and to
whose house I presume we are going"----
"Auntie, I have rather a shock to give you. Poor Maggie did mean to
imply that her stepfather was in a different class of life from what
he is. He is a--grocer!"
Lady Lysle put up her hand to pull the check-string.
"Pray, auntie, don't do that. Maggie isn't the daughter of a grocer,
and she can't help her mother having married this dreadful man. I want
Maggie to have nothing to do with her stepfather in the future, and I
mean to carry out my ideas, and you have got to help me."
"Indeed, I will do nothing of the kind. What a disgraceful girl! She
must leave Aylmer House at once."
"Then I will go too," said Aneta.
"Aneta, I never knew you behave in such a way before."
"Come, auntie darling, you know you are the sweetest and the most
loving and sympathetic person in the world; and why should you turn
away from a poor little girl who quite against her own will finds
herself the stepdaughter of a grocer? Maggie has given me to
understand that he is a dreadful man. She is horrified with him, and
what I am going now to Laburnum Villa about is to try to prevent his
visiting the school with his wife on Saturday. I will do the talking,
dear, and you have only to sit by and look dignified."
"I never was put in such a dreadful position before," said Lady Lysle,
"and really even you, Aneta, go too far when you expect me to do
this."
"But you would visit a poor woman in East London without the smallest
compunction," said Aneta.
"That is different," replied Lady Lysle with dignity.
"It is different," replied Aneta; "but the difference lies in the fact
that the grocer's wife is very much higher up in the social scale than
the East End woman."
"Oh my dear child, this is really appalling! I have always distrusted
that Miss Howland. Does Mrs. Ward know of your project?"
"Not yet, but she will to-night."
"And what am I to do when I visit this person?"
"Just look your dear, sweet, dignified self, and allow me to do the
talking."
"I think you have taken leave of your senses."
"I haven't taken leave of my senses, and I would do more than I am now
doing to help a fine girl round a nasty corner. So cheer up, auntie!
After we have seen Mrs. Martin we have to go on and visit the
grocer."
"Aneta, that I do decline!"
"I am sure you won't decline. But let us think of Mrs. Martin herself
first, and try to remember that by birth she is a lady."
Just at this moment the carriage drew up outside a post-office. There
was a short delay while Laburnum Villa was being inquired for by the
footman. At last the street in which this small suburban dwelling was
situated was discovered, and a few minutes later the carriage, with
its splendid horses and two servants on the box, drew up before the
green-painted door.
The villa was small, but it was exceedingly neat. The little brass
knocker shone, even though yesterday was a day of such fog. The
footman came to the carriage-door to make inquiries.
"I will get out," said Aneta.
"Hadn't James best inquire if the woman is in?" said Lady Lysle.
"No, I think I will," said Aneta.
She went up the narrow path and rang the front-door bell. Tildy opened
the door. The new cook had been peeping above the blinds in the
kitchen. Tildy had hastily put on a white apron, but it is to be
regretted that a smut was once more on her cheek. Somehow, Aneta liked
her all the better for that smut.
"I want to see your mistress, Tildy," she said. "It is something about
Miss Maggie, and I am, as you know, one of her schoolfellows."
"Lor', miss! yes, for certain, miss. Mrs. Martin 'll be that proud,
miss."
"I have brought my aunt with me," said Aneta. "She would like to come
in too in order to see Mrs. Martin."
"Yes, miss; in course, miss. There's no fire lit in the drawin'-room.
But there's the dinin'-room; it do smell a bit smoky, for master 'e
loves 'is pipe. 'E smokes a lot in the dinin'-room, miss."
"Show us into the dining-room," said Aneta. She ran back to fetch Lady
Lysle, and conducted that amazed and indignant woman into the house.
Tildy rushed upstairs to fetch her mistress. "You get into your best
gown in no time, mum. There's visitors downstairs--that most beauteous
young lady who spoke to me yesterday at Aylmer House, and a lady
alongside of 'er as 'u'd make yer 'eart quake. Ef Queen Victoria was
alive I'd say yes, it was 'erself. Never did I mark such a sweepin'
and 'aughty manner. They're fine folks, both of 'em, and no mistake."
"Did they give their names?" asked Mrs. Martin.
"I didn't even arsk, mum. They want to see you about our Miss
Maggie."
"Well, I will go down. What a queer, early hour for visitors! What
dress shall I wear, Tildy?"
"I'd say the amber satin, mum, ef I'd a voice in the choice. You look
elegant in it, mum, and you might 'ave your black lace shawl."
"I don't think I will wear satin in the morning," said Mrs. Martin.
Tildy helped her into a dark-brown merino dress, one of her extensive
trousseau. Mrs. Martin then went downstairs, prepared to show these
visitors that she was "as good as them, if not better." But the
glimpse of the carriage and horses which she got through the
lobby-window very nearly bowled her over.
"Go in, mum, now; you've kept them waitin' long enough. I can serve up
an elegant lunch if you want it."
Tildy felt almost inclined to poke at her mistress in order to hurry
her movements. Mrs. Martin opened the dining-room door and stood just
for a minute on the threshold. She looked at that moment a perfect
lady. Her gentle, faded face and extreme slimness gave her a grace of
demeanor which Lady Lysle was quick to acknowledge. She bowed, and
looked at Aneta to speak for her.
"How do you do, Mrs. Martin," said that young lady. "I am Aneta Lysle,
one of your daughter's schoolfellows. My aunt, Lady Lysle"--Mrs.
Martin bowed--"has kindly come with me to see you. We want to have a
little confidential talk with you."
"Oh, indeed!" said Mrs. Martin. "Has Maggie done anything wrong? She
always was a particularly troublesome girl."
"I quite agree with you," said Lady Lysle. At that moment she had an
idea of Maggie in disgrace and banished from Aylmer House, which
pleased her.
Mrs. Martin stopped speaking when Lady Lysle said this.
"Doubtless you agree with me, Mrs. Martin," continued the lady, "that
your daughter would do better at another school."
"Oh no," said Mrs. Martin; "we wish her--Bo-peep and I--I mean James
and I--to stay where she is."
"And so do I wish her to stay where she is," said Aneta.--"Auntie
darling, you don't quite understand; but Mrs. Martin and I
understand.--Don't we, Mrs. Martin?"
"Well, I am sure," said Mrs. Martin, "I haven't the faintest idea what
you are driving at, Miss--Miss Lysle."
"Well, it is just this," said Aneta. "You sent a letter yesterday to
Maggie."
"I did," said Mrs. Martin; "and great need I had to send it."
"In that letter you informed Maggie that you and your husband were
coming to see her to-morrow."
"Bo-peep wishes--I mean, James wishes--to."
"Really, Aneta, had not we better go?" said Lady Lysle.
"Not yet, auntie, please.--Mrs. Martin, I begged for a holiday to-day
on purpose to come and see you."
"If it's because you think I'll keep James--Bo-peep--I mean
James--from having his heart's wish, I am sorry you have wasted your
time," said Mrs. Martin. "The fact is, he is very angry indeed with
Maggie. He considers her his own child now, which of course is true,
seeing that he has married me, and I really can't go into particulars;
but he is determined to see her and to see Mrs. Ward, and he's not a
bit ashamed of being--being--well, what he is--an honorable
tradesman--a grocer."
"But perhaps you are aware," said Lady Lysle, "that the daughters of
grocers--I mean tradesmen--are not admitted to Aylmer House."
Mrs. Martin turned her frightened eyes on the lady. "Maggie isn't the
real daughter of a tradesman," she said then. "She is only the
stepdaughter. Her own father was"----
"Yes," said Aneta, "we all know what her own father was--a splendid
man, one of the makers of our Empire. We are all proud of her own
father, and we do not see for a moment why Maggie should not live up
to the true circumstances of her birth, and I have come here to-day,
Mrs. Martin, to ask you to help me. If you and your husband come to
Aylmer House there will be no help, for Maggie will certainly have to
leave the school."
"Of course, and the sooner the better," said Lady Lysle.
"But if you will help us, and prevent your husband from coming to our
school to-morrow, there is no reason whatever why she shouldn't stay
at the school. Even her expenses can be paid from quite another
source."
Mrs. Martin looked intensely nervous. A bright spot of color came into
her left cheek. Her right cheek was deadly pale.
"I--I cannot help it," she said. "I never meant Bo-peep to go; I never
wished him to go. But he said, 'Little-sing, I will go'--I--I forgot
myself--of course you don't understand. He is a very good husband to
me, but he and Maggie never get on."
"I am sure they don't," said Aneta with fervor.
"Never," continued Mrs. Martin. "I got on with her only with
difficulty before I married my present dear husband. I am not at all
ashamed of his being a grocer. He gives me comforts, and is fond of
me, and I have a much better time with him than I had in shabby, dirty
lodgings at Shepherd's Bush. I don't want him to go to that school
to-morrow; but I thought it right to let Maggie know he was coming,
for, all the same, go he will. When James puts his foot down he is a
very determined man."
"This is altogether a most unpleasant interview," said Lady Lysle,
"and I have only come here at my niece's request.--Perhaps, Aneta, we
can go now."
"Not yet, auntie darling.--Mrs. Martin, Maggie and I had a long talk
yesterday, and will you put this matter into my hands?"
"Good heavens! what next?" murmured Lady Lysle to herself.
"Will you give me your husband's address, and may I go to see him?"
"You mean the--the--shop?" said Mrs. Martin.
"I don't go into that shop!" said Lady Lysle.
"Yes, I mean the shop," said Aneta. "I want to go and see him there."
"Oh, he will be so angry, and I am really terrified of him when he is
angry."
"But think how much more angry he will be if you don't give me that
address, and things happen to-morrow which you little expect. Oh!
please trust me."
Aneta said a few more words, and in the end she was in possession of
that address at Shepherd's Bush where Martin the grocer's flourishing
shop was to be found.
"Thank you so very much, Mrs. Martin. I don't think you will ever
regret this," said the girl.
Lady Lysle bowed to the wife of the grocer as she went out, but Aneta
took her hand.
"Perhaps you never quite understood Maggie," she said; "and perhaps,
in the future, you won't have a great deal to say to her."
"I don't want to; she never suited me a bit," said the mother, "and I
am very happy with Bo-peep."
"Well, at least you may feel," said Aneta, "that I am going to be
Maggie's special friend."
Mrs. Martin stood silent while Lady Lysle and her niece walked down
the little path and got into the carriage. When the carriage rolled
away she burst into a flood of tears. She did not know whether she was
glad or sorry; but, somehow, she had faith in Aneta. Was she never
going to see Maggie again? She was not quite without maternal love for
her only child, but she cared very much more for Bo-peep, and quite
felt that Maggie would be a most troublesome inmate of Laburnum
Villa.
"Now, Aneta," said her aunt as the carriage rolled away, "I have gone
through enough in your service for one day."
"You haven't been at all nice, auntie," said Aneta; "but perhaps you
will be better when you get to the shop."
"I will not go to the shop."
"Auntie, just think, once and for all, that you are doing a very
philanthropic act, and that you are helping me, whom you love so
dearly."
"Of course I love you, Aneta. Are you not as my own precious child?"
"Well, now, I want you to buy no end of things at Martin's shop."
"Buy things! Good gracious, child, at a grocer's shop! But I get all
my groceries at the Stores, and the housekeeper attends to my
orders."
"Well, anyhow, spend from five to ten pounds at Martin's to-day. You
can get tea made up in half-pound packets and give it away wholesale
to your poor women. Christmas is coming on, and they will appreciate
good tea, no matter where it has been bought from."
"Well, you may go in and give the order," said Lady Lysle; "but I
won't see that grocer. I will sit in the carriage and wait for you."
Aneta considered for a few minutes, and then said in a sad voice,
"Very well."
Lady Lysle looked at her once or twice during the long drive which
followed. Aneta's little face was rather pale, but her eyes were full
of subdued fire. She was determined to carry the day at any cost.