FAST FRIENDS
THE friendship between Miss Mountford and Ralph Torrance grew rapidly.
The ice once broken was not likely to close again, especially as the
boy was feeling his father's continued absence a real trouble. His
grievances were poured into Kathleen's sympathetic ear, and so far as
she was able she comforted him.
"You see, father has never stayed away like this before," said Ralph.
"If he went for a long time, he always took me, and if for a little
while, he came back just when he had promised to do. I thought he was
going to London for three days, and now, maybe he won't be back for
Christmas. He says the people he is with cannot do with children,
because of their grown-up visitors. I think they might have me, for I'm
a boy, not a baby."
Ralph tossed back his head with an air of insulted dignity, but strove
to keep back threatening tears. His father had been ten days absent,
and Christmas was very near. There had always been visitors of some
sort at this season, and if there had been no one else, his father's
presence would have satisfied Ralph.
"Perhaps," said Kathleen, "one boy would have been considered in the
way. If there were other boys in the house, you know, it would be
different."
"I wouldn't have bothered anybody. But it's no use; a fellow can't go
to a place unless people ask him, can he, Miss Mountford? 'Specially if
they don't know him. Besides, I don't know where father is staying. He
writes to me and sends me envelopes directed like this."
Ralph showed his latest, somewhat tumbled through being carried,
together with his father's letter, in a pocket too narrow to hold it
properly.
Kathleen declined to look at the address which Ralph was eager to show
her, but she could not well refuse to listen when the boy said, "Here
is a bit for you. Father says, 'Tell Miss Mountford that I do not know
how to thank her for being so good to my motherless boy. I am more
grateful to her than words can express. When I come back, I shall try
to tell her how deeply I feel her goodness.'"
"And you have been good. You have asked me here four times, besides
bringing me from the station that first day. You've let me ride out on
the Kelpie twice, along with you, and once you let me try if I could
sit your beautiful mare. I enjoyed that most of all, for Polly is a
beauty, though she would be too big for me in a general way, you know."
"Fie, Ralph, to say you enjoyed riding Polly more than riding out with
me, when I had her, and you had Kelpie. Your pony, in his way, is quite
as good as Polly."
"You are not really vexed," replied Ralph, in a confident tone. "You
are only pretending. People always pretend when they talk to boys,
just as if we didn't know when they are in earnest. It was because you
thought it would please me so much that you lent me Polly."
"Perhaps it was, Ralph. Any way, I am glad you were pleased."
The boy nodded. Then a grave look came on his face, and he asked,
"Should you be very sorry if Polly were taken away from you, Miss
Mountford?"
"I should indeed, Ralph, but I do not think any one will take her away
from me. Why do you ask?"
"Because father once said, 'Maybe you and I will have to do without
either horse or pony, my boy.' I cried awfully, for you see, Miss
Mountford, a fellow can't help being fond of his pony, can he?"
"Certainly not, Ralph, and Kelpie is a darling on four legs."
"That's what I say, only I don't think I quite called him a darling.
That's a girl's word. I say he is a plucky little chap, 'just as good
as they make 'em.' It was Jem Capes taught me that. He's our groom,
and he says funny things sometimes that make me laugh. If I tell them
to Sarah, she scolds me, and says, grooms may talk so, but gentlemen
should know better. I don't mind. I will say that nobody could make a
better pony than the Kelpie. He's such a fellow to go, and such a kind,
good-tempered one. I don't know what I should do without him."
"You shall not do without him, Ralph," said Kathleen, for she felt a
lump rising in her throat as the boy ran on about his pet. "If your
father ever wishes to part with Kelpie, I will buy him, and he shall
still be your very own to ride and use as you like, only I will keep
him here for you."
With a wild cry of delight the boy flung his arms round Kathleen's
neck, and kissed her repeatedly, then lay sobbing on her shoulder.
The girl was deeply moved, and she returned the child's caresses whilst
her arms clasped him lovingly.
After a few minutes Ralph raised his head and wiped away his tears,
seeming, Kathleen thought, a little ashamed of them.
"I'm sorry I cried," he said. "It looks so silly for a boy to cry, but
a fellow can't always help it, 'specially when his father isn't coming
home for Christmas, can he, Miss Mountford?"
"I don't think you were foolish to cry, Ralph," replied Kathleen, who
saw that the allusion to his father's absence was nearly making the boy
break down a second time.
"I'm so glad of that. It is nice to have a real friend besides the
Kelpie. Father does not want to be away. He told me so in his letter,
and he said if only I could be with—But I ought not to tell you that.
It would be like asking. It would be mean."
Ralph shut his lips and held them tightly, as if battling against the
temptation to continue.
Kathleen guessed the rest of the sentence, and said—
"Do you know, Ralph, I had been wondering whether you could come here
for Christmas Day. I knew that your father would want you if he were at
home, so I did not ask you when I invited the Stapleton children and
some more whom you know. But I meant to do so, if you were likely to be
alone."
"Did you though, Miss Mountford?" asked the boy, with sparkling eyes.
"Yes," said Kathleen, laughing; and, crossing to her writing-table, she
took up a dainty note, with a sprig of holly for a seal, and addressed
to Ralph Torrance, which she handed to him.
The boy took it eagerly, and then said, "Please excuse me," after the
fashion of his elders, and waited till Kathleen gave him permission
before he opened the note.
"Shan't I be glad to come? It will be next best to having father home.
Best of all would be if he were here too; wouldn't it, Miss Mountford?
I suppose I ought to write a proper answer to this note," he added,
without waiting for Kathleen's reply to his former question, or else
taking it for granted that she would agree with him.
"As you have promised me the pleasure of your company, Ralph, I shall
not want a written answer," said Kathleen, much to the boy's relief,
for he was cogitating as to whether he should ask his tutor how to word
his reply, or if Sarah would be able to help him in so important a
matter.
"I will come, as you have been so kind as to ask me," said Ralph. Then
he folded the precious note, and put it into his pocket in company with
his father's letter and various boyish treasures, which made it bulge
out to its utmost extent.
"Why, how rosy your cheeks are!" he added, looking at Kathleen, on
whose face a fine colour had suddenly appeared when the boy spoke of
having his father at the Hall.
Kathleen only laughed, and told Ralph she liked to have rosy cheeks,
then gave the boy a list of the guests who were coming on Christmas Day.
"They are all children," she said. "I have asked no grown-up people."
"Not one at all? Not Mr. Matheson?"
"Yes, I hope Mr. Matheson will come, but he is away just now, only for
a night, however. I don't know what I should do without him, for he
always helps to make things bright for my young visitors. So does my
cousin, Miss Ellicott, you know, but I do not count her or Mr. Matheson
as visitors."
"They are very nice and kind to me always," said Ralph. "I think I may
tell you what father wrote in his letter, now you have asked me to
come, Miss Mountford. It is here. 'If you could spend your Christmas
Day with your kind friend at the Hall, I should be quite happy about
you, my dear boy.' I shall tell father I am coming, and that you did
not know he was wishing I could be here till after you had really asked
me. You quite understand why I didn't read that at first. It would have
been asking for an invitation, wouldn't it now?"
"I don't think I should have taken it in that way, Ralph. However,
it was best for you to do exactly what you thought was honourable.
Besides, nothing could have made any difference when my note was
written."
"But you might have thought I was asking, for all that," said Ralph,
proud that he was placed above suspicion.
The boy's next letter to his father was an unusually long one. He had
so much to tell. The writing of it cost him no little self-denial, and
gave the Kelpie a holiday; but if the boy could have seen the delight
with which his father read it, and the look of triumph on his face, he
would have felt repaid for the loss of his ride.
Sarah was never allowed to see Ralph's letters to his father, much to
her disgust.
"I mayn't be much of a scholar, Master Ralph," she would say, "but
I'd be ashamed of myself if I couldn't do without snaking blots and
smearing them with my thumb as you do. It's well the captain sends you
envelopes ready directed and stamped, or the post people would never
read your writing."
"I don't want them to read my writing, and I'll seal my letter and post
it myself, so that you shan't," said Ralph defiantly, and in a very
different tone from that in which he addressed Miss Mountford. "Father
says he can read what I write, and that is good enough for me."
Ralph made a grimace at Sarah, waved his letter round his head, then
raced off to post it.
"I'll be even with him yet," thought Sarah, for she was not a
little anxious to find out something about her master's doings and
whereabouts, Ralph having steadily refused all information. Her
curiosity was not of an unkindly sort, but she had long known that her
master's position was becoming desperate, and that utter ruin hung
over Monk's How. She grieved for the downfall of the old name, for the
mistress whom she had served so faithfully, for the boy she had nursed
from his birth. She would have made any sacrifice for Ralph, and he,
whilst he teased and harassed her, as only an over-indulged lad can
tease, would have fought one far above his own size, if he had dared to
annoy Sarah.
When Ralph returned triumphant from the post, Sarah was on her way
to it by a different road. The postmaster was, of course, a village
neighbour, and to him she appealed.
"Master Ralph has just posted a letter for his father," she said.
"I'm afraid he has not put a stamp on, and I'm not sure if it's right
directed."
"I'll look," said the postmaster, and accordingly he sought for and
found the only letter addressed to Captain Torrance. "It's all right,
only a bit tumbled, and the stamp is straight enough. The address is
well-written, in a man's hand; if I'm not mistaken, the captain's own.
I should know, I've seen it often enough."
"It's the inside I'm anxious about. Master Ralph is that self-willed,
he won't let me see if the spelling is all right. I should like—"
"Come now, Sarah, that won't do. Neither you nor I have any business
with the inside of a letter, or the outside either, for that matter,
when it has once been posted. I've obliged you so far as seeing it is
directed plainly, and stamped, because of it being a boy's letter. But
I wouldn't go beyond that, no, not if the Queen herself was to ask me;"
and the letter was dropped into the mail-bag again.
"I'm sure I'm very much obliged for what you have done," said Sarah.
"It's lucky it is to the captain, who will excuse blots and bad
spelling."
On her homeward way Sarah thought, "I can turn-out the boy's pockets
after he's asleep. If I find the captain's letter to him, it will tell
me what I want to know."
Again she was disappointed. Ralph knew the contents of that precious
letter by heart, and feeling that no one could rob him of them, he
had burned the letter itself to ashes. He, however, displayed Miss
Mountford's note of invitation to her admiring eyes, and told her he
should be all right for Christmas Day.
"And I am glad the lady has asked you, Master Ralph," said Sarah. "I
have been making myself miserable about you being all by yourself here.
Not but what no company is better than bad," she thought, but she kept
this sentiment unspoken.
Sarah could look back on recent Christmases and lament, as she
pictured the guests that her master had gathered around him then, and
permitted this boy to mix with. She gave Ralph many admonitions as
to his conduct, especially as to the language he should use in Miss
Mountford's presence.
"I don't want you to tell me what to say," replied Ralph. "Do you think
I shall talk to a lady as if she were Jem Capes? Father has taught me
how to behave to ladies."
"Then don't forget, Master Ralph, that's all. Be a good boy, and a
gentleman, whoever you are with, and then you won't need to be put
in mind." From which warnings it will be understood that Sarah was
aware how her charge varied his mode of speech to suit the company in
which he found himself. If Miss Mountford could have heard her protégé
in conversation with the groom, her opinion of him would have been
modified.
Still, there was much that was lovable and even noble in the child,
whilst his faults were inseparable from his surroundings. He copied his
father's words and ways with the utmost exactitude, and John Torrance
laughed as, from time to time, he noted this, but without rebuking his
boy.
"How can I?" he thought. "If Ralph is to turn over a new leaf, I must
set the example, for he makes me his model in all things. He is a
sharp-sighted youngster, but blind on one point, for he thinks his
father can do no wrong. I wish I were a better man, for his sake. The
less he sees of me, especially now, the more likely he is to improve."
This last thought followed the reading of that letter which had cost
Ralph so much trouble little disappointment. All she had learned was,
that her master's correspondence went to the address of his London
lawyer, but of his movements she knew nothing. It seemed as if every
one in the neighbourhood was equally ignorant.