MUSIC.
[Illustration: Chapter II drop-cap I]
"I wish you would scold Kitty," said Mrs. Keith to Mollie in the course
of the evening, "she is so very frivolous."
"O auntie, what a perfect shame!" said Kitty. "I frivolous! If
frivolous means being intensely affectionate, I am that, but I don't
think I am frivolous in any other sense of the word."
"I am not complaining of you, Kitty--you suit me perfectly; but you are
just a dear little gay butterfly flitting about from flower to flower,
always sipping the sweets and enjoying life to the utmost."
"Oh, I do enjoy life," said Kitty; "it is perfectly heavenly even to be
alive!"
"Whereas Mollie," continued Mrs. Keith, "takes life, this very same
life, Kitty, in a totally different way."
"Kitty and I were always different," replied Mollie. "What suits one
doesn't suit the other. I should be sick of being a butterfly and just
sipping the sweets out of the flowers. Such a life would be absolute
misery to me. Therefore I cannot consider myself in any way
praiseworthy for adopting another."
Mrs. Keith uttered a quick sigh.
"There are moments when life is serious to us all," she said gravely.
"Hark! what are they crying in the street?"
Mrs. Keith raised her hand to listen. Both girls held their breath.
"'Further trouble in the Transvaal: serious disturbance,'" repeated
Mrs. Keith, her lips turning white. "I am afraid there is no doubt
that we shall have to go to war with the Boers."
"It looks like it," replied Mollie, and her eyes kindled.
"You would love to air your knowledge about nursing soldiers," said
Kitty. "How horrid of you!"
"Well, Kitty, can you blame me? What is the good of being a soldier's
nurse if I am never to enter on the full duties of my profession?"
"Surely it is not necessary to have war just to give you experience?"
said Kitty. She turned very white as she spoke, and her brown eyes
filled with sudden tears.
Mrs. Keith glanced at her, and then turned away. But as, a moment
later, she passed Kitty's side, she took her hand and gave it an
affectionate squeeze. Kitty jumped up impatiently.
"Mollie," she cried, "I am going to sing to you. You shall see at
least that I have some accomplishments."
She ran to the piano, opened it, crashed out a noisy waltz, and then
burst into a rollicking song. Her voice was powerful and beautifully
trained. It lacked a certain power of expression, but was finished and
very pleasant to listen to. Mollie was standing by the piano, and
turning over the pages of her sister's music, when the door was opened,
and Gavon Keith in his dinner dress came in. He was a striking-looking
and very handsome man. As the girl raised her eyes to look at him she
gave a sudden start. She had seen him before; he was not, after all, a
stranger. She had seen him, and in such different circumstances that
if she were to disclose all she knew this little party would indeed be
electrified. When she recognized him, he also recognized her. The
colour left his face; he stood still for a moment; then recovering
himself, he went up to his mother.
"Introduce me to Miss Hepworth, won't you?"
Kitty, who had been singing, let her voice drop; her hands came down on
the keys with a crash. She saw the change on Gavon's face when he
looked at Mollie. Her love for him made her intensely jealous. Was it
possible? Oh no, it could not be! She danced up to his side as he
came up to Mollie and took her hand.
"We must not be strangers," he said. "We are relations of a sort, are
we not?"
"I don't know," replied Mollie. "We are friends at least, I hope."
His eyes seemed to convey a warning as he looked at her. She returned
his gaze with a full, frank expression on her face, and he knew at once
that he had nothing to fear from her. The magnetic influence which she
always carried with her wherever she went affected him strangely,
however. He sank down on the nearest chair and began to talk to her.
Kitty flitted restlessly about. Gavon did not once glance in her
direction. After a time he said,--
"What is the matter with you, Kit? Can't you sit still? I am much
interested in what your sister is telling me."
"Tell me too, then, Mollie," said Kitty, and there was a note of
sadness and entreaty in her voice.
She slipped into a seat close to Mollie, who put her arm round her
waist.
Keith continued to ask eager questions. He was interested in Mollie's
experiences as a nurse at the Victoria Hospital, Netley. All of a
sudden he seemed to recognize a change in her. Her voice at first had
been full of enthusiasm, but when she felt the touch of Kitty's small
hand her manner changed--it became formal. She rose after a moment.
"I did not know that I was tired, but I find I am," she said. "Will
you excuse me, Aunt Louisa? I should like to go to bed."
"Do, my dear, certainly," replied Mrs. Keith.
"Then, Kit, you must give me another song," said Keith.
His words and request immediately chased away every cloud from her
face. She took her seat at the piano, and Mollie went out of the room.