"MR. LOVER."
If there was a girl that was a prime favorite with her school-fellows,
that girl was Ellen Danvers. She had all the qualifications which insure
success in school life. She was extremely pretty, but she was
unconscious of it; she never prided herself on her looks, she never
tried to heighten her loveliness by a thousand little arts which
school-girls always find out and despise. She had always plenty of
money, which at school, if not elsewhere, is much appreciated. She was
generous, she was bright, she was loving; she was not sufficiently
clever to make any one envious of her, but at the same time she was so
very smart and quick that not the cleverest girl in the school could
despise her.
When Fluff went away from Merton House the tribulation experienced on
all sides was really severe. The girls put their heads together, and
clubbed to present her with a gold bangle, and she in return left them
her blessing, a kiss all round, and a pound's worth of chocolate creams.
The school was dull when Fluff went away; she took a place which no one
else quite held. She was not at all weak or namby-pamby, but she was a
universal peace-maker. Fluff made peace simply by throwing oil on
troubled waters, for she certainly was not one to preach; and as to
pointing a moral, she did not know the meaning of the word.
It was with great rejoicing, therefore, that the young ladies of Mrs.
Hopkins' select seminary were informed on a certain Thursday morning
that their idol was about to return to them. She was no longer to take
her place in any of the classes; she was to be a parlor boarder, and go
in and out pretty much as she pleased; but she was to be in the house
again, and they were to see her bright face, and hear her gay laugh, and
doubtless she would once more be every one's confidante and friend.
In due course Fluff arrived. It was late when she made her appearance,
for she had missed the train by which Frances had intended her to
travel. But late as the hour was--past nine o'clock--Fluff found time to
pay a visit to the school-room, where the elder girls were finishing
preparations for to-morrow, to rush through the dormitories, and kiss
each expectant little one.
"It's just delicious!" whispered Sibyl Lake, the youngest scholar in the
school. "We have you for the last fortnight before we break up. Just
fancy, you will be there to see me if I get a prize!"
"Yes, Sibyl, and if you do I'll give you sixpennyworth of chocolate
creams."
Sibyl shouted with joy.
The other children echoed her glee. One of the teachers was obliged to
interfere. Fluff vanished to the very select bedroom that she was now to
occupy, and order was once more restored.
Fluff's name was now in every one's mouth. Didn't she look prettier than
ever? Wasn't she nicer than ever? Hadn't she a wonderfully grown-up air?
One day it was whispered through the school that Fluff had got a lover.
This news ran like wildfire from the highest class to the lowest. Little
Sibyl asked what a lover meant, and Marion Jones, a lanky girl of
twelve, blushed while she answered her.
"It isn't proper to speak about lovers," said Katie Philips. "Mother
said we weren't to know anything about them. I asked her once, and that
was what she said. She said it wasn't proper for little girls to know
about lovers."
"But grown girls have them," responded Marion, "I think it must be
captivating. I wish I was grown up."
"You're much too ugly, Marion, to have a lover," responded Mary Mills.
"Oh, for goodness' sake, don't get so red and angry! She's going to
strike me! Save me, girls!"
"Hush!" exclaimed Katie, "hush! come this way. Look through the lattice.
Look through the wire fence just here. Can you see? There's Fluff, and
there's her lover. He's rather old, isn't he? But hasn't he _l'air
distingue_? Isn't Fluff pretty when she blushes? The lover is rather
tall. Oh, do look, Mary, can you see--can you see?"
"Yes, he has fair hair," responded Mary. "It curls. I'm sorry it is fair
and curly, for Fluff's is the same. He should be dark, like a Spaniard.
Oh, girls, girls, he has got such lovely blue eyes, and such white
teeth! He smiled just now, and I saw them."
"Let me peep," said Marion. "I haven't got one peep yet."
But here the voices became a little loud, and the lovers, if they were
lovers, passed out of sight behind the yew hedge.
"That's it," said Fluff when she had finished her story; "it's all
explained now. I hope you're obliged to me."
"No brother could love you better, nor appreciate you more than I do,
Fluff."
"Thank you; I'll tell you how much I care for those words when you let
me know what you are going to do."
Arnold put his hand to his forehead; his face grew grave, he looked
with an earnest, half-puzzled glance at the childish creature by his
side.
"I really think you are the best girl in the world, and one of the
cleverest," he said. "I have a feeling that you have an idea in your
head, but I am sorry to say nothing very hopeful up to the present time
has occurred to me. It does seem possible, after your explanation, that
Frances may love me, and yet refuse me; yes, certainly, that does now
seem possible."
"How foolish you are to speak in that doubting tone," half snapped Fluff
(certainly, if the girls had seen her now they would have thought she
was quarreling with her lover). "How can you say perhaps Frances loves
you? Loves you! She is breaking her heart for you. Oh! I could cry when
I think of Frances's pain!"
"Dear little friend!" said Arnold. "Then if that is so--God grant it,
oh, God grant it--Frances and I must turn to you to help us."
Fluff's face brightened.
"I will tell you my plan," she said. "But first of all you must answer
me a question."
"What is it? I will answer anything."
"Mr. Arnold--"
"You said you would call me Philip."
"Oh, well, Philip--I rather like the name of Philip--Philip, are you a
rich man?"
"That depends on what you call riches, Fluff. I have brought fifteen
thousand pounds with me from the other side of the world. I took five
years earning it, for all those five years I lived as a very poor man, I
was adding penny to penny, and pound to pound, to Frances's fortune."
"That is right," exclaimed Fluff, clapping her hands. "Frances's
fortune--then, of course, then you will spend it in saving her."
"I would spend every penny to save her, if I only knew how."
"How stupid you are," said Fluff. "Oh, if only I were a man!"
"What would you do, if you were?"
"What would I not do? You have fifteen thousand pounds, and Frances is
in all this trouble because of six thousand pounds. Shall I tell you,
must I tell you what you ought to do?"
"Please--pray tell me."
"Oh, it is so easy. You must get the name of the old horror in London to
whom the squire owes six thousand pounds, and you must give him six out
of your fifteen, and so pay off the squire's debt. You must do this
and--and--"
"Yes, Fluff; I really do think you are the cleverest little girl I ever
came across."
"The best part is to come now," said Fluff. "Then you go to the squire;
tell him that you will sell the Firs over his head, unless he allows you
to marry Frances. Oh, it is so easy, so, so delightful!"
"Give me your hand, Fluff. Yes, I see light--yes. God bless you, Fluff!"
"There is no doubt she has accepted him," reported Mary Mills to her
fellows. "They have both appeared again around the yew hedge, and he has
taken her hand, and he is smiling. Oh, he is lovely when he smiles!"
"I wish I was grown up," sighed Marion, from behind. "I'd give anything
in all the world to have a lover."
"It will be interesting to watch Fluff at supper to-night," exclaimed
Katie Philips. "Of course she'll look intensely happy. I wonder if
she'll wear an engagement-ring."
The supper hour came. Fluff took her seat among the smaller girls; her
face was radiant enough to satisfy the most exacting, but her small
dimpled fingers were bare.
"Why do you all stare at my hands so?" she exclaimed once.
"It's on account of the ring," whispered little Sibyl. "Hasn't he given
you the ring yet?"
"Who is 'he,' dear?"
"Oh, I wasn't to say. His name is Mr. Lover."