JANETTA AT HOME.
When Lady Caroline drove away from Gwynne Street, Janetta was left by
the tumble-down iron gate with her father, in whose hand she had laid
both her own. He looked at her interrogatively, smiled a little and
said--"Well, my dear?" with a softening of his whole face which made him
positively beautiful in Janetta's eyes.
"Dear, dearest father!" said the girl, with an irrepressible little sob.
"I am so glad to see you again!"
"Come in, my dear," said Mr. Colwyn, who was not an emotional man,
although a sympathetic one. "We have been expecting you all day. We did
not think that they would keep you so long at the Court."
"I'll tell you all about it when I get in," said Janetta, trying to
speak cheerily, with an instinctive remembrance of the demands usually
made upon her fortitude in her own home. "Is mamma in?" She always spoke
of the present Mrs. Colwyn, as "mamma," to distinguish her from her own
mother. "I don't see any of the children."
"Frightened away by the grand carriage, I expect," said Mr. Colwyn, with
a grim smile. "I see a head or two at the window. Here, Joey, Georgie,
Tiny--where are you all? Come and help to carry your sister's things
upstairs." He went to the front door and called again; whereupon a side
door opened, and from it issued a slip-shod, untidy-looking woman in a
shawl, while over her shoulder and under her arm appeared a little
troop of children in various stages of growth and untidiness. Mrs.
Colwyn had the peculiarity of never being ready for any engagement, much
less for any emergency: she had been expecting Janetta all day, and with
Janetta some of the Court party; but she was nevertheless in a state of
semi-undress, which she tried to conceal underneath her shawl; and on
the first intimation of the approach of Lady Caroline's carriage she had
shut herself and the children into a back room, and declared her
intention of fainting on the spot if Lady Caroline entered the front
door.
"Well, Janetta," she said, as she advanced towards her stepdaughter and
presented one faded cheek to be kissed, "so your grand friends have
brought you home! Of course they wouldn't come in; I did not expect
them, I am sure. Come into the front room--and children, don't crowd so;
your sister will speak to you by-and-bye."
"Oh, no, let me kiss them now," said Janetta, who was receiving a series
of affectionate hugs that went far to blind her eyes to the general
deficiency of orderliness and beauty in the house to which she had come.
"Oh, darlings, I am so glad to see you again! Joey, how you have grown!
And Tiny isn't Tiny any longer! Georgie, you have been plaiting your
hair! And here are Curly and Jinks! But where is Nora?"
"Upstairs, curling her hair," shouted the child who was known by the
name of Jinks. While Georgie, a well-grown girl of thirteen, added in a
lower tone,
"She would not come down until the Court people had gone. She said _she_
didn't want to be patronized."
Janetta colored, and turned away. Meanwhile Mrs. Colwyn had dropped into
the nearest arm-chair, and Mr. Colwyn strayed in and out of the room
with the expression of a dog that has lost its master. Georgie hung upon
Janetta's arm, and the younger children either clung to their elder
sister, or stared at her with round eyes and their fingers in their
mouths. Janetta felt uncomfortably conscious of being more than usually
interesting to them all. Joe, the eldest boy, a dusty lad of fourteen,
all legs and arms, favored her with a broad grin expressive of delight,
which his sister did not understand. It was Tiny, the most gentle and
delicate of the tribe, who let in a little light on the subject.
"Did they send you away from school for being naughty?" she asked, with
a grave look into Janetta's face.
A chuckle from Joey, and a giggle from Georgie, were instantly repressed
by Mr. Colwyn's frown and Mrs. Colwyn's acid remonstrance.
"What are you thinking of, children? Sister is never naughty. We do not
yet quite understand why she has left Miss Polehampton's so suddenly,
but of course she has some good reason. She'll explain it, no doubt, to
her papa and me. Miss Polehampton has been a great deal put out about it
all, and has written a long letter to your papa, Janetta; and, indeed,
it seems to _me_ as if it would have been more becoming if you had kept
to your own place and not tried to make friends with those above
you----"
"Who are those above her, I should like to know?" broke in the
grey-haired surgeon with some heat. "My Janet's as good as the best of
them any day. The Adairs are not such grand people as Miss Polehampton
makes out--I never heard of such insulting distinctions!"
"Fancy Janetta being sent away--regularly expelled!" muttered Joey, with
another chuckle.
"You are very unkind to talk in that way!" said Janetta, addressing him,
because at that moment she could not bear to look at Mr. Colwyn. "It was
not _that_ that made Miss Polehampton angry. It was what she called
insubordination. Miss Adair did not like to see me having meals at a
side-table--though I didn't mind one single bit!--and she left her own
place and sat by me--and then Miss Polehampton was vexed--and everything
followed naturally. It was not just my being friends with Miss Adair
that made her send me away."
"It seems to me," said Mr. Colwyn, "that Miss Adair was very
inconsiderate."
"It was all her love and friendship, father," pleaded Janetta. "And she
had always had her own way; and of course she did not think that Miss
Polehampton really meant----"
Her weak little excuses were cut short by a scornful laugh from her
stepmother.
"It's easy to see that you have been made a cat's-paw of, Janetta," she
said. "Miss Adair was tired of school, and took the opportunity of
making a to-do about you, so as to provoke the schoolmistress and get
sent away. It does not matter to her, of course: _she_ hasn't got her
living to earn. And if you lose your teaching, and Miss Polehampton's
recommendations by it, it doesn't affect her. Oh, I understand these
fine ladies and their ways."
"Indeed," said Janetta, in distress, "you quite misunderstand Miss
Adair, mamma. Besides, it has not deprived me of my teaching: Miss
Polehampton had told me that I might go to her sister's school at
Worthing if I liked; and she only let me go yesterday because she became
irritated at--at--some of the things that were said----"
"Yes, but I shall not let you go to Worthing," said Mr. Colwyn, with
sudden decisiveness. "You shall not be exposed to insolence of this kind
any longer. Miss Polehampton had no right to treat you as she did, and I
shall write and tell her so."
"And if Janetta stays at home," said his wife complainingly, "what is to
become of her career as a music-teacher? She can't get lessons here, and
there's the expense----"
"I hope I can afford to keep my daughter as long as I am alive," said
Mr. Colwyn with some vehemence. "There, don't be vexed, my dear child,"
and he laid his hand tenderly on Janetta's shoulder, "nobody blames you;
and your friend erred perhaps from over-affection; but Miss
Polehampton"--with energy--"is a vulgar, self-seeking, foolish old
woman, and I won't have you enter into relations with her again."
And then he left the room, and Janetta, forcing back the tears in her
eyes, did her best to smile when Georgie and Tiny hugged her
simultaneously and Jinks beat a tattoo upon her knee.
"Well," said Mrs. Colwyn, lugubriously, "I hope everything will turn out
for the best; but it is not at all nice, Janetta, to think that Miss
Adair has been expelled for your sake, or that you are thrown out of
work without a character, so to speak. I should think the Adairs would
see that, and would make some compensation. If they don't offer to do
so, your papa might suggest it----"
"I'm sure father would never suggest anything of the kind," Janetta
flashed out; but before Mrs. Colwyn could protest, a diversion was
effected by the entrance of the missing Nora, and all discussion was
postponed to a more fitting moment.
For to look at Nora was to forget discussion. She was the eldest of the
second Mrs. Colwyn's children--a girl just seventeen, taller than
Janetta and thinner, with the thinness of immature girlhood, but with a
fair skin and a mop of golden-brown hair, which curled so naturally that
her younger brother's statement concerning those fair locks must surely
have been a libel. She had a vivacious, narrow, little face, with large
eyes like a child's--that is to say, they had the transparent look that
one sees in some children's eyes, as if the color had been laid on in a
single wash without any shadows. They were very pretty eyes, and gave
light and expression to a set of rather small features, which might have
been insignificant if they had belonged to an insignificant person. But
Nora Colwyn was anything but insignificant.
"Have your fine friends gone?" she said, peeping into the room in
pretended alarm. "Then I may come in. How are you, Janetta, after your
sojourn in the halls of dazzling light?"
"Don't be absurd, Nora," said her sister, with a sudden backward dart of
remembrance to the tranquil beauty of the rooms at Helmsley Court and
the silver accents of Lady Caroline. "Why didn't you come down before?"
"My dear, I thought the nobility and gentry were blocking the door,"
said Nora, kissing her. "But since they are gone, you might as well come
upstairs with me and take off your things. Then we can have tea."
Obediently Janetta followed her sister to the little room which they
always shared when Janetta was at home. It might have looked very bare
and desolate to ordinary eyes, but the girl felt the thrill of pleasure
that all young creatures feel to anything that bears the name of home,
and became aware of a satisfaction such as she had not experienced in
her luxurious bedroom at Helmsley Court. Nora helped her to take off her
hat and cloak, and to unpack her box, insisting meanwhile on a detailed
relation of all the events that had led to Janetta's return three weeks
before the end of the term, and shrieking with laughter over what she
called "Miss Poley's defeat."
"But, seriously, Nora, what shall I do with myself, if father will not
let me go to Worthing?"
"Teach the children at home," said Nora, briskly; "and save me the
trouble of looking after them. I should like that. Or get some pupils in
the town. Surely the Adairs will recommend you!"
This constant reference to possible aid from the Adairs troubled Janetta
not a little, and it was with some notion of combatting the idea that
she repaired to the surgery after tea, in order to get a few words on
the subject with her father. But his first remark was on quite a
different matter.
"Here's a pretty kettle of fish, Janet! The Brands are back again!"
"So I heard you say to Lady Caroline."
"Mark Brand was a cousin of your mother's," said Mr. Colwyn, abruptly;
"and a bad lot. As for these sons of his, I know nothing about
them--absolutely nothing. But their mother----" he shook his head
significantly.
"We saw them to day," said Janetta.
"Ah, an accident of that kind would be a shock to her: she does not look
strong. They wrote to me from the 'Clown,' where they had stayed for the
last two days; some question relative to the drainage of Brand Hall. I
went to the 'Crown' and saw them. He's a fine-looking man."
"He has not altogether a pleasant expression," remarked Janetta,
thinking of Lady Caroline's strictures; "but I--liked--his face."
"He looks ill-tempered," said her father. "And I can't say that he
showed me much civility. He did not even know that your poor mother was
dead. Never asked whether she had left any family or anything."
"Did you tell him?" asked Janetta, after a pause.
"No. I did not think it worth while. I am not anxious to cultivate his
acquaintance."
"After all, what does it matter?" said the girl coaxingly, for she
thought she saw a shadow of disappointment upon his face.
"No, what does it matter?" said her father, brightening up at once. "As
long as we are happy with each other, these outside people need not
disturb us, need they?"
"Not a bit," said Janetta. "And--you are not angry with me, are you,
father, dear?"
"Why should I be, my Janet? You have done nothing wrong that I know of.
If there is any blame it attaches to Miss Adair, not to you."
"But I do not want you to think so, father. Miss Adair is the greatest
friend that I have in all the world."
And she found a good many opportunities of repeating; this conviction of
hers during the next few days, for Mrs. Colwyn and Nora were not slow to
repeat the sentiment with which they had greeted her--that the Adairs
were "stuck-up" fine people, and that they did not mean to take any
further notice of her now that they had got what they desired.
Janetta stood up gallantly for her friend, but she did feel it a little
hard that Margaret had not written or come to see her since her return
home. She conjectured--and in the conjecture she was nearly right--that
Lady Caroline had sacrificed her a little in order to smooth over things
with her daughter: that she had represented Janetta as resolved upon
going, resolved upon neglecting Margaret and not complying with her
requests; and that Margaret was a little offended with her in
consequence. She wrote an affectionate note of excuse to her friend, but
Margaret made no reply.
In the first ardor of a youthful friendship, Janetta's heart ached over
this silence, and she meditated much as she lay nights upon her little
white bed in Nora's attic (for she had not time to meditate during the
day) upon the smoothness of life which seemed necessary to the Adairs
and the means they took for securing it. On the whole, their life seemed
to her too artificial, too much like the life of delicate hot-house
flowers under glass; and she came to the conclusion that she preferred
her own mode of existence--troublous and hurried and common as it might
seem in the eyes of the world to be. After all, was it not pleasant to
know that while she was at home, there was a little more comfort than
usual for her over-worked, hardly-driven, careworn father; she could see
that his meals were properly cooked and served when he came in from long
and weary expeditions into the country or amongst the poor of
Beaminster; she could help Joey and Georgie in the evenings with their
respective lessons; she could teach and care for the younger children
all day long. To her stepmother she did not feel that she was very
useful; but she could at any rate make new caps for her, new lace
fichus and bows, which caused Mrs. Colwyn occasionally to remark with
some complacency that Janetta had been quite _wasted_ at Miss
Polehampton's school: her proper destiny was evidently to be a milliner.
Nora was the one person of the family who did not seem to want Janetta's
help. Indirectly, however, the elder sister was more useful to her than
she knew; for the two went out together and were companions. Hitherto
Nora had walked alone, and had made one or two undesirable girl
acquaintances. But these were dropped when she had Janetta to talk to,
dropped quietly, without a word, much to their indignation, and without
Janetta's knowing of their existence.
It became a common thing for the two girls to go out together in the
long summer evenings, when the work of the day was over, and stroll
along the country roads, or venture into the cool shadow of the
Beaminster woods. Sometimes the children went with them: sometimes
Janetta and Nora went alone. And it was when they were alone one evening
that a somewhat unexpected incident came to pass.
The Beaminster woods ran for some distance in a northerly direction
beyond Beaminster, and there was a point where only a wire fence divided
them from the grounds of Brand Hall. Near this fence Janetta and her
sister found themselves one evening--not that they had purposed to reach
the boundary, but that they had strayed a little from the beaten path.
As they neared the fence they looked at each other and laughed.
"I did not know that we were so near the lordly dwelling of your
relations!" said Nora, who loved to tease, and knew that she could
always rouse Janetta's indignation by a reference to her "fine friends."
"I did not know either," returned Janetta, good-humoredly. "We can see
the house a little. Look at the great red chimneys."
"I have been over it," said Nora, contemptuously. "It's a poor little
place, after all--saving your presence, Netta! I wonder if the Brands
mean to acknowledge your existence? They----"
She stopped short, for her foot had caught on something, and she nearly
stumbled. Janetta stopped also, and the two sisters uttered a sudden
cry of surprise. For what Nora had stumbled over was a wooden horse--a
child's broken toy--and deep in the bracken before them, with one hand
beneath his flushed and dimpled cheek, there lay the loveliest of all
objects--a sleeping child.