"I'm _not_ Pixie!"
The expected had happened. They had known it was coming; would have
been bitterly disappointed if it had failed, nevertheless they writhed
and capered as though overcome with amazement.
"P-ixie, Pixie, Who--Are--You--Now?"
"I'm a wild buffalo of the plains!" answered Pixie unexpectedly, and as
a wild buffalo she comported herself for the next half-hour, ambling on
hands and knees round the room, while the children wreathed her neck
with impromptu garlands made of wools from their mother's work-basket,
and made votive offerings of sofa cushions, footstools, and india-rubber
toys.
In the midst of the uproar Bridgie jumped from her seat and flew to the
door, her ears sharp as ever to hear the click of her husband's
latch-key. The greeting in the narrow hall was delightfully lover-like
for a married couple of six years' standing, and they entered the
drawing-room arm-in-arm, smiling with a contentment charming to witness.
Captain Victor was satisfied that no one in the world possessed such an
altogether delightful specimen of womanhood as his "bride." She was so
sweet, so good, so unselfish, and in addition to these sterling
qualities, she was so cheerful, so spontaneous, so unexpected, that it
was impossible for life to grow dull and monotonous while she was at the
head of the household.
He acknowledged tenderly, and with a shrug of the shoulders to express
resignation, that she _might_ have been a cleverer housekeeper and just
a thought more economical in expenditure! but considering her
happy-go-lucky upbringing under the most thriftless of fathers, the
darling really deserved more praise for what she accomplished than blame
for what was left undone.
Bridgie, on the contrary, considered that Dick worried his head
ridiculously about ways and means. Not for the world and all that it
contained would she have accused him of being _mean_: she merely
shrugged _her_ shoulders and reminded herself that he was English, poor
thing! English people had a preference for seeing money visibly in
their purses before they spent it, while she herself had been brought up
in a cheerful confidence that it would "turn up" somehow to pay the
bills which had been incurred in faith.
Captain Victor displayed not the faintest astonishment at discovering
his sister-in-law on all fours, nor did he appear overcome to be
introduced to her as a buffalo of the plains. He smiled at her almost
as tenderly as at his own babies, and said--
"How do, Buff! Pleased to have met you. So kind of you to make hay in
my drawing-room," which reproof brought Pixie quickly to her rightful
position. That was another English characteristic of Dick Victor--he
hated disorder, and was not appreciative of uproar on his return from a
day's work. Therefore there were picture-books in waiting for his
return, and after a few minutes parleying Pixie cajoled the children
into the dining-room on the plea of a bigger and more convenient table
for the display of their treasures, leaving the husband and wife alone.
Dick lay back in his easy chair, and stretched himself with an
involuntary sigh of relief. He was devoted to his children, but a quiet
chat with Bridgie was the treat _par excellence_ at this hour of the day
when he was tired and in need of rest. He stretched out a hand towards
her, and she stroked it with gentle fingers.
"Ye're tired, dear. Will I get you a cup of tea? It's not long since
it went out. If I poured some hot-water in the pot..."
Dick shuddered.
"Thank you, ma'am, _no_! If I have any, I'll have it fresh, but I don't
care about it to-day. It's nice just to rest and talk. Anything
happened to you to-day?"
"There always does. It's the most exciting thing in the world to be the
mistress of a household," said Bridgie, with relish. There were few
days when Captain Victor was not treated to a history of accidents and
contretemps on his return home, but unlike most husbands he rather
anticipated than dreaded the recital, for Bridgie so evidently enjoyed
it herself, taking a keen retrospective joy over past discomfitures.
The Victor household had its own share of vicissitudes, more than its
share perhaps, but through them all there survived a spirit of
kindliness and good fellowship which took away more than half the
strain. Maidservants arriving in moods of suspicion and antagonism
found themselves unconsciously unarmed by the cheery, kindly young
mistress, who administered praise more readily than blame, and so far
from "giving herself airs" treated them with friendly kindliness and
consideration. On the very rare occasions when a girl was poor-spirited
enough to persist in her antagonism, off she went with a month's money
in her pocket, for the peace of her little home was the greatest
treasure in the world to Bridgie Victor, and no hireling could be
allowed to disturb it. The service in the little house might not be as
mechanically perfect as in some others, the meals might vary in
excellence, but that was a secondary affair. "If a bad temper is a
necessary accompaniment of a good cook, then--give me herbs!" she would
cry, shrugging her pretty shoulders, and her husband agreed--with
reservations!
He was a very happy, a very contented man, and every day of his life he
thanked God afresh for his happy home, for his children, for the
greatest treasure of all, sweet Bridget, his wife!
To-day, however, the disclosure had nothing to do with domestic
revolutions, and Bridgie's tone in making her announcement held an
unusual note of tragedy.
"Dick, guess what! You'll never guess! Pixie's grown-up!"
For a moment Captain Victor looked as was expected of him--utterly
bewildered. He lay back in his chair, his handsome face blank and
expressionless, the while he stared steadily at his wife, and Bridgie
stared back, her distress palpably mingled with complacence. Speak she
would not, until Dick had given expression to his surprise. She sat
still, therefore, shaking her head in a melancholy mandarin fashion,
which had the undesired effect of restoring his complacence.
"My darling, what unnecessary woe! It's astounding, I grant you; one
never expected such a feat of Pixie; but the years _will_ pass--there's
no holding them, unfortunately. How old is she, by the way? Seventeen,
I suppose--eighteen?"
"_Twenty_--nearly twenty-one!"
Bridgie's tone was tragic, and Dick Victor in his turn looked startled
and grave. He frowned, bit his lip, and stared thoughtfully across the
room.
"Twenty-one? Is it possible? Grown-up, indeed! Bridgie, we should
have realised this before. We have been so content with things as they
were that we've been selfishly blind. If Pixie is over twenty we have
not been treating her fairly. We have treated her too much as a child.
We ought to have entertained for her, taken her about."
Bridgie sighed, and dropped her eyelids to hide the twinkle in her eyes.
Like most husbands Dick preferred a quiet domestic evening at the end
of a day abroad: like most wives Bridgie would have enjoyed a little
diversion at the end of a day at home. Sweetly and silently for nearly
half a dozen years she had subdued her preferences to his, feeling it at
once her pleasure and her duty to do so, but now, if duty suddenly
assumed the guise of a gayer, more sociable life, then most cheerfully
would Irish Bridgie accept the change.
"I think, dear," she said primly, "it _would_ be wise. Esmeralda has
said so many a time, but I took no notice. I never did take any notice
of Esmeralda, but she was right this time, it appears, and I was wrong.
Imagine it! Pixie began bemoaning that she was not pretty, and it was
not herself she was grieving for, or you, or _Me_!"--Bridgie's voice
sounded a crescendo of amazement over that last pronoun--"but whom do
you suppose? You'll never guess! Her future _lovers_!"
It was just another instance of the provokingness of man that at this
horrible disclosure Dick threw himself back in his chair in a peal of
laughter; he laughed and laughed till the tears stood in his eyes, and
Bridgie, despite herself, joined in the chorus. The juxtaposition of
Pixie and lovers had proved just as startling to him as to his wife, but
while she had been scandalised, he was frankly, whole-heartedly amused.
"Pixie!" he cried. "Pixie with a lover! It would be about as easy to
think of Patsie. Dear, quaint little Pixie! Who dares to say she isn't
pretty? Her funny little nose, her big, generous mouth are a hundred
times more charming than the ordinary pretty face. I'll tell you what
it is, darling,"--he sobered suddenly;--"Pixie's lover, whoever he may
be, will be an uncommonly lucky fellow!"
Husband and wife sat in silence for some moments after this, hand in
hand, as their custom was in hours of privacy, while the thoughts of
each pursued the same subject--Pixie's opening life and their own duty
towards it.
On both minds was borne the unwilling realisation that their own home
was not the ideal abode to afford the experience of life, the open
intercourse with young people of her own age which it was desirable that
the girl should now enjoy. As a means of adding to his income Captain
Victor had accepted the position of adjutant to a volunteer corps in a
northern city, and, as comparatively new residents, his list of
acquaintances was but small.
Esmeralda, or to speak more correctly, Joan, the second daughter of the
O'Shaughnessy family, as the wife of the millionaire, Geoffrey Hilliard,
possessed a beautiful country seat not sixty miles from town, while
Jack, the eldest brother, had returned to the home of his fathers, Knock
Castle, in Ireland, on the money which his wife had inherited from her
father, after he had become engaged to her in her character of a
penniless damsel. Jack was thankful all his life to remember that fact,
though his easy-going Irish nature found nothing to worry about in the
fact that the money was legally his wife's, and not his own.
Both Esmeralda as a society queen, and Sylvia as chatelaine of Knock,
had opportunities of showing life to a young girl, with which Bridgie in
her modest little home in a provincial town could not compete.
Nevertheless, the heart of the tender elder sister was loath to part
from her charge at the very moment when watchfulness and guidance were
most important. She fought against the idea; assured herself that there
was time, plenty of time. What, after all, was twenty-one? In two,
three years one might talk about society; in the meantime let the child
be! And Captain Victor, in his turn, looked into the future, and saw
his Bridgie left sisterless in this strange town, bereft all day long of
the society of the sweetest and most understanding of companions, and
he, too, sighed, and asked himself what was the hurry. Surely another
year, a couple of years! And then, being _one_ in reality as well as in
name, the eyes of husband and wife met and lingered, and, as if at the
sweep of an angel's wing, the selfish thoughts fell away, and they faced
their duty and accepted it once for all.
Bridgie leaned her head on her husband's shoulder and sighed thankfully.
"I have you, Dick, and the children! 'Twould be wicked to complain."