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[Illustration: UNCLE JOHN AND THE YOUNG CUBANS.]
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BOOKS FOR GIRLS
By Laura E. Richards
The MARGARET SERIES
Three Margarets
Margaret Montfort
Peggy
Rita
Fernley House
The HILDEGARDE SERIES
Queen Hildegarde
Hildegarde's Holiday
Hildegarde's Home
Hildegarde's Neighbors
Hildegarde's Harvest
DANA ESTES & COMPANY
Publishers
Estes Press, Summer St., Boston
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THREE MARGARETS
By
LAURA E. RICHARDS
Author Of "Captain January," "Melody,"
"Queen Hildegarde," Etc.
Illustrated by
ETHELRED B. BARRY
Boston
Dana Estes & Company
Publishers
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Copyright, 1897
By Estes and Lauriat
Colonial Press:
Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
Boston, Mass., U. S. A.
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Arrival 9
II. First Thoughts 21
III. The White Lady of Fernley 36
IV. Confidence 51
V. The Peat-bog 65
VI. The Family Chest 81
VII. The Garret 98
VIII. Cuba Libre 115
IX. Day by Day 131
X. Looking Backward 147
XI. Heroes and Heroines 163
XII. In the Saddle 187
XIII. In the Night 208
XIV. Explanations 220
XV. Farewell 237
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Uncle John and the Young Cubans Frontispiece
Aunt Faith's Room 43
Peggy at the Bog 73
In the Garret 105
"Cuba Libre" 125
Peggy Writes Home 143
Horseback 201
Rita's Apology 227
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THREE MARGARETS.
CHAPTER I.
THE ARRIVAL.
Long ago and long ago,
And long ago still,
There dwelt three merry maidens
Upon a distant hill.
Christina G. Rossetti.
The rain was falling fast. It was a pleasant summer rain that plashed
gently on the leaves of the great elms and locusts, and tinkled
musically in the roadside puddles. Less musical was its sound as it
drummed on the top of the great landau which was rolling along the
avenue leading to Fernley House; but the occupants of the carriage paid
little attention to it, each being buried in her own thoughts. The night
was dark, and the carriage-lamps threw an uncertain gleam on the three
figures leaning back in their corners, muffled and silent. The avenue
was long,--interminably long, it seemed to one of the three travellers;
and finally the silence so oppressed her that she determined to conquer
her shyness and break it.
"What a _very_ long avenue!" she said, speaking in a low, sweet voice.
There was no reply. She hesitated a moment, and then added timidly,
"Don't you think that, as we are cousins, we might introduce ourselves
and make acquaintance? My name is Margaret Montfort."
"Why, so is mine!" exclaimed the traveller opposite her. "And mine!"
added the third, from the further corner.
The voice of the second speaker sounded as if it might be hearty, and as
if only awkwardness gave it a sullen tone. The third spoke with a soft,
languid utterance and the faintest shade of a foreign accent.
"How strange!" exclaimed the first Margaret Montfort. "Of course I knew
that we had the same surname, as our fathers were brothers; but that we
should all three be named--and yet it is not strange, after all!" she
added. "Our grandmother was Margaret, and it was natural that we should
be given her name. But how shall we manage? We cannot say First, Second,
and Third Margaret, as they do on the stage."
"I am never called anything but Peggy," said the second girl, still in a
half-sullen, half-timid tone.
And "My home name is Rita," murmured the third reluctantly; and she
added something in an undertone about "short acquaintance," which the
first Margaret did not choose to hear.
"Oh, how pretty!" she said cordially. "Then I may call you Peggy and
Rita? About myself"--she stopped and laughed--"I hardly know what to
say, for I have always been called Margaret, since I was a baby."
"But one of us might as well _be_ Margaret," answered Peggy. "And
somehow, your voice sounds as if you looked like it. If this road were
ever coming to an end, we might see."
"Oh, I do see!" cried Margaret, leaning forward to look out of the
window. "I see the lights! I see the house! We are really here at last!"
As she spoke, the carriage drove up before a long building twinkling
with lights, and stopped at a broad flight of steps, leading to a
stone-paved veranda. As the coachman opened the carriage-door, the door
of the house opened too, and a cheerful light streamed out upon the
three weary travellers. Two staid waiting-women, in spotless caps and
aprons, were waiting to receive them as they came up the steps.
"This way, young ladies, if you please!" said the elder of the two. "You
must be tired with your long drive. This is the library; and will you
rest here a while, or will you be shown your rooms at once?"
"Oh, thank you!" said Margaret, "let us stay here a little while! What
do you say, cousins?"
"All right!" said Peggy. The girl whose home name was Rita had already
thrown herself down in an armchair, and seemed to think no reply
necessary.
"Very well, miss," said the dignified waiting-woman, addressing herself
markedly to Margaret. "Susan will come in ten minutes to show you the
rooms, miss, and supper will be ready in half an hour. I am Elizabeth,
miss, if you should want me. The bell is here in the corner."
Margaret thanked her with a cordial smile, the other two never glancing
in her direction, and the woman withdrew.
"Just ten minutes," said Margaret, turning to her cousins, "to make
acquaintance in, and find out what we all look like! Suppose we begin by
taking off our wraps. How delightful the little fire is, even if we are
in the middle of June. Let me help you, Peggy!"
Peggy was fumbling at her veil, which was tied in a hard knot; but in a
few minutes everything was off, and the three Margaret Montforts stood
silent, gazing at each other.
Nearest the fire stood the girl who was called Peggy. She was apparently
about sixteen, plump and fair, with a profusion of blonde hair which
looked as if it were trying to fly away. Her round, rosy cheeks, blue
eyes, and pouting lips gave her a cherubic contour which was comically
at variance with her little tilted nose; but she was pretty, in spite of
her singularly ill-devised and ill-fitting costume of green flannel.
Reclining in the armchair next her, the Margaret who was called Rita
was a startling contrast to the rosy Peggy. She was a year older, slight
and graceful, her simple black gown fitting like a glove and saying
"Paris" in every seam. Her hair was absolutely black, her eyes large and
dark, her delicate features regular and finely cut; but the beautiful
face wore an expression of discontent, and there were two fine vertical
lines between the eyebrows. Her complexion had the clear pallor of a
Cape Jessamine.
Facing these two, and looking with thoughtful eyes from one to the
other, stood the girl whom we have spoken of as the first Margaret. She
was seventeen, within two months of the age of her dark-eyed cousin.
Lacking the brilliant colouring of the other two, her face had its own
charm. Her eyes were dark gray, with violet shades in them, deepened by
the long and heavy black lashes. The faint tinge of colour in her smooth
cheeks was that of the wild rose; her wavy chestnut hair had glints of
gold here and there in it, and though her nose was nothing in
particular, she had the prettiest mouth in the world, and a dimple
beside it. In conclusion, she was dressed in dark blue, simply, yet
tastefully too.
"Well," said Peggy, breaking the silence with an embarrassed giggle, "I
hope we shall know each other the next time we meet."
Margaret blushed. "I fear I have been staring rudely!" she said. "But I
have never had any cousins before,--never seen any, that is, and I am
really so glad to know you both! Let us shake hands, girls, and try to
be friends!"
She spoke so pleasantly that Peggy's plump hand and Rita's delicate
white fingers were at once extended. Holding them in her own, Margaret
hesitated a moment, and then, bending forward, kissed both girls timidly
on the cheek.
"Our fathers were own brothers," she said. "We must try to be fond of
each other. And now," she added, "let us all tell our tells, as the
children say. Rita, you shall begin. Tell us about yourself and your
home, and anything else that you will."
Rita settled herself comfortably in her chair, and looked meditatively
at the tip of her little boot.
"My home," she said, "is in Havana. My mother was a Spaniard, a San
Real. My father is Richard Montfort. My mother died three years ago, and
my father has lately married again, a girl of my own age. You may
imagine that I do not find home particularly attractive now, so I was
glad to accept my Uncle John's invitation to spend the summer here. As I
have money in my own right, I was at liberty to do as I pleased; nor in
truth did my father object, but the contrary. I have never seen my
uncle."
"Nor I!" "Nor I!" exclaimed the other two.
"But I received this note from him a month ago."
She produced a note from her reticule, and read as follows.
"MY DEAR NIECE:
The thought has occurred to me that it would be well for you to
make some acquaintance with the home of your fathers. I therefore
invite you to spend the coming summer here, with the daughters of
my brothers James and Roger, to whom I have extended a similar
invitation. Business will unhappily prevent me from receiving you
in person, but my cousin and yours, Mrs. Cheriton, who resides at
Fernley, will pay you every attention.
Trusting that this plan will meet with your approval and that of
your father,
I am, my dear niece,
Your affectionate uncle,
JOHN MONTFORT."
"Well, I never!" cried Peggy, drawing a long breath. "Why, it's word for
word like my note."
"And like mine!" said Margaret.
The three notes were laid side by side, and proved to be exactly alike,
even to the brief flourish under the signature; with the one difference
that in Margaret's the words "and that of your father," were omitted.
"He must be a very methodical man!" said Margaret thoughtfully. "Isn't
it strange that none of us has ever seen him? And yet one can understand
how it has been. The other brothers, our fathers, left home when they
were quite young,--that is what Papa has told me,--and soon formed ties
elsewhere. Uncle John stayed with Grandfather till he died; then he went
abroad, and was gone many years; and since he came back, he has lived
here alone. I suppose he has grown a recluse, and does not care to see
people. I know Papa often and often begged him to come and make us a
visit, and once or twice the time was actually set; but each time
something happened to prevent his coming, and he never did come. I think
he would have come last year, when dear Papa died, but he had had some
accident, and had injured his foot so that he could not walk."
"Pa read us the letter you wrote him then," said Peggy, with an awkward
attempt at condolence. "He said he thought you must be a nice girl."
The tears came quickly to Margaret's eyes, and she turned her head to
hide them. Peggy instantly plunged into a description of her nine
brothers and sisters, and their life on the great Western farm where
they lived; but she was hardly under way when the demure Susan tapped at
the door, and said with gentle firmness that she had come to show the
young ladies their rooms.
There was a sudden clutching of hats, cloaks, and bags, and the next
moment the three maidens were ascending the wide staircase, casting
looks of curiosity and wonderment about them.
"What beautiful twisted balusters!" whispered Margaret.
"And such queer old pictures!" said Peggy. "My! How they stare!
Wondering who we are, I suppose."
Arrived in the wide upper hall, Susan threw open the doors of three
rooms, two side by side, the third opposite.
"This is yours, Miss Montfort," she said. "This is the young lady's from
the South, and this the other young lady's. Mr. Montfort arranged it all
before he left."
"How kind and thoughtful!" cried Margaret.
"How precise and formal!" murmured Rita.
Peggy said nothing, but stared with round eyes. These rooms were not
like the great whitewashed chamber at home, where she and her three
sisters slept in iron bedsteads. These rooms were not large, but oh, so
pretty and cosy! In each was an open fireplace, with a tiny fire
burning,--"just for looks," Susan explained. Each contained a pretty
brass bedstead, a comfortable chair or two, and curtains and cushions of
flowered chintz. Rita's chintz showed deep red poppies on a pale buff
ground; Peggy's was blue, with buttercups and daisies scattered over
it; while Margaret's--oh, Margaret's was not chintz after all, but
old-fashioned white dimity, with a bewilderment of tufts, and
ball-fringe, and tassels. Candles were lighted on the trim
dressing-tables; everything was spotless, fresh, and inviting, and the
three tired girls sank each into her soft-cushioned easy chair with a
delightful sense of being at home.
"The tea-bell will ring in half an hour, if you please," said Susan, and
she closed the three doors.