"IT'S DICKIE!"
Fanny went straight to her own room. "What a nasty time I have lived
through!" she thought as she was about to enter. Then she opened the
door and started back.
The whole room had undergone a metamorphosis. There was a shaded light
in one corner, and the door between Fanny's room and Betty's was thrown
open. A grave, kind-looking nurse was seated by a table, on which was a
shaded lamp; and on seeing Fanny enter she held up her hand with a
warning gesture. The next minute she had beckoned the girl out on the
landing.
"What is the meaning of this?" asked Fanny. "What are you doing in my
room?"
"The doctor wished the door to be opened and the room to be given up to
me," replied the nurse. "My name is Sister Helen, and I am looking after
dear little Miss Vivian. We couldn't find you to tell you about the
necessary alterations, which were made in a hurry. Ah, I mustn't leave
my patient! I hear her calling out again. She is terribly troubled about
something she has lost. Do you hear her?"
"I won't give it up! I won't give it up!" called poor Betty's voice.
"I was asked to tell you," said Sister Helen, "to go straight to Miss
Symes, who has arranged another room for you to sleep in--that is, if
you _are_ Miss Crawford."
"Yes, that is my name. Have my things been removed?"
"I suppose so, but I don't know. I am going back to my patient."
The nurse re-entered the room, closing the door on Fanny, who stood by
herself in the corridor. She heard Betty's voice, and Betty's voice
sounded so high and piercing and full of pain that her first feeling was
one of intense thankfulness that she had been moved from close proximity
to the girl. The next minute she was speeding down the corridor in the
direction of Miss Symes's room. Half-way there she met St. Cecilia coming
to meet her.
"Ah, Fanny, dear," said Miss Symes, "I thought your little meeting would
have been over by now. Do you greatly mind sharing my room with me
to-night? I cannot get another ready for you in time. Dr. Ashley wishes
the nurse who is looking after Betty to have your room for the present.
There was no time to tell you, dear; but I have collected the few things
I think you will want till the morning. To-morrow we will arrange
another room for you. In the meantime I hope you will put up with me. I
have had a bed put into a corner of my room and a screen around it, so
you will be quite comfortable."
"Thank you," said Fanny. She wondered what further unpleasantness was
about to happen to her on that inauspicious night.
"You would like to go to bed, dear, wouldn't you?" said Miss Symes.
"Yes, thank you."
"Well, you shall do so. I cannot go for a couple of hours, as Mrs. Haddo
wants me to sit up with her until the specialist arrives from London."
"The specialist from London!" exclaimed Fanny, turning first red and
then white. "Do you mean that Mrs. Haddo has sent for a London doctor?"
"Indeed she has. My dear, poor little Betty is dangerously ill. Dr.
Ashley is by no means satisfied about her."
By this time the two had reached Miss Symes's beautiful room. Fanny gave
a quick sigh. Then, like a flash, a horrible thought occurred to her.
Her room had to be given up to-morrow. Her things would be removed.
Among her possessions--put safely away, it is true, but still not _too_
safely--was the little sealed packet. If that packet were found, Fanny
felt that the world would be at an end as far as she was concerned.
"You don't look well yourself, Fanny," said Miss Symes, glancing kindly
at the girl. "Of course you are sorry about Betty; we are all sorry, for
we all love her. If you had been at prayers to-night you would have been
astonished at the gloom which was felt in our beautiful little chapel
when Mr. Fairfax prayed for her."
"But she can't be as ill as all that?" said Fanny.
"She is--very, very ill, dear. The child has evidently got a bad chill,
together with a most severe mental shock. We none of us can make out
what is the matter; but it is highly probable that the specialist--Dr.
Jephson of Harley Street--will insist on the Specialities being
questioned as to the reason why Betty was expelled from the club. It is
absolutely essential that the girl's mind should be relieved, and that
as soon as possible. She is under the influence now of a composing
draught, and, we greatly trust, may be more like herself in the morning.
Don't look too sad, dear Fanny! I can quite understand that you must
feel this very deeply, for Betty is your cousin; and somehow,
dear--forgive me for saying it--but you do not act quite the cousin's
part to that poor, sweet child. Now I must leave you. Go to bed, dear.
Pray for Betty, and then sleep all you can."
"Where are the twins?" suddenly asked Fanny.
"They are sleeping to-night in the lower school. It was necessary to put
the poor darlings as far from Betty as possible, for they are in a
fearful state about her. Now I will leave you, Fanny. I am wanted
elsewhere. When I do come to bed I will be as quiet as possible, so as
not to disturb you."
Fanny made no answer, and the next minute Miss Symes had left her.
Fanny now went over to the corner of the room where a snug little white
bed had been put up, a washhand-stand was placed and where a small chest
of drawers stood--empty at present, for only a few of Fanny's things had
been taken out of her own room. The girl looked round her in a
bewildered way. The packet!--the sealed packet! To-morrow all her
possessions would be removed into a room which would be got ready for
her. There were always one or two rooms to spare at Haddo Court, and
Fanny would be given a room to herself again. She was far too important
a member of that little community not to have the best possible done for
her. Deft and skillful servants would take her things out of the various
drawers and move them to another room. They would find the packet. Fanny
knew quite well where she had placed it. She had put it under a pile of
linen which she herself took charge of, and which was always kept in the
bottom drawer of her wardrobe. Fanny had put the packet there in a
moment of excitement and hurry. She had not yet decided what to do with
it; she had to make a plan in her own mind, and in the meantime it was
safe enough among Fanny's various and pretty articles of toilet. For it
was one of the rules of Haddo Court that each girl, be she rich or poor,
should take care of her own underclothing. All that the servants had to
do was to see that the things were properly aired; but the girls had to
mend their own clothes and keep them tidy.
Absolute horror filled Fanny's mind now. What was she to do? She was so
bewildered that for a time she could scarcely think coherently. Then she
made up her mind that, come what would, she must get that packet out of
her own bedroom before the servants came in on the following day. She
was so absorbed with the thought of her own danger that she had no time
to think of the very grave danger which assailed poor little Betty
Vivian. If she had disliked Betty before, she hated her now. Oh, how
right she had been when, in her heart of hearts, she had opposed Betty's
entrance into the school! What trouble those three tiresome, wild,
uncontrollable girls had brought in their wake! And now Betty--Betty,
who was so adored--Betty, who, in Fanny's opinion, was both a thief and
a liar--was dangerously ill; and she (Fanny) would in all probability
have to appear in a most sorry position. For, whatever Betty's sin,
Fanny knew well that nothing could excuse her own conduct. She had spied
on Betty; she had employed Sibyl Ray as a tool; she had got Sibyl to
take the packet from under the piece of heather; and that very night she
had excited the astonishment of her companions in the Speciality Club by
proposing a ridiculously unsuitable person for membership as poor Sibyl.
"Things look as black as night," thought Fanny to herself. "I don't want
to go to bed. I wish I could get out of this. How odious things are!"
Just then she heard footsteps outside her door--footsteps that came up
close and waited. Then, all of a sudden, the door was flung violently
open, and Sylvia and Hester entered. They had been crying so hard that
their poor little faces were disfigured almost beyond recognition.
Sylvia held a small tin box in her hand.
"What are you doing, girls? You had better go to bed," said Fanny.
Neither girl took the slightest notice of this injunction. They looked
round the room, noting the position of the different articles of
furniture. Then Sylvia walked straight up to the screen behind which
Fanny's bed was placed. With a sudden movement she pulled down the
bedclothes, opened the little tin box, and put something into Fanny's
bed.
"It's Dickie!" said Sylvia. "I hope you will like his company. Come,
Hetty."
Before Fanny could find words the girls had vanished. But the look of
hatred on Sylvia's face, the look of defiance and horror on Hetty's,
Fanny was not likely to forget. They shut the door somewhat noisily
behind them. Then, all of a sudden, Hetty opened it again, pushed in her
small face, and said, "You had better be careful. His bite is
dangerous!"
The next instant quick feet were heard running away from Miss Symes's
room, in the center of which Fanny stood stunned and really frightened.
What had those awful children put into her bed? She had heard vague
rumors of a pet of theirs called Dickie, but had never been interested
enough even to inquire about him. Who was Dickie? What was Dickie? Why
was his bite dangerous? Why was he put into her bed? Fanny, for all her
careful training, for all her airs and graces, was by no means
remarkable for physical courage. She approached the bed once or twice,
and went back again. She was really afraid to pull down the bedclothes.
At last, summoning up courage, she did so. To her horror, she saw an
enormous spider, the largest she had ever beheld, in the center of the
bed! This, then, was Dickie! He was curled up as though he were asleep.
But as Fanny ventured to approach a step nearer it seemed to her that
one wicked, protruding eye fastened itself on her face. The next instant
Dickie began to run, and when Dickie ran he ran towards her. Fanny
uttered a shriek. It was the culmination of all she had lived through
during that miserable evening. One shriek followed another, and in a
minute Susie Rushworth and Olive Repton ran into the room.
"Oh, save me! Save me!" said Fanny. "Those little horrors have done it!
I don't know where it is! Oh, it is such an odious, dangerous, awful
kind of reptile! It's the biggest spider I ever saw in all my life, and
those horrible twins came and put it into my bed! Oh, girls, what I am
suffering! Do have pity on me! Do help me to find it! Do help me to kill
it!"
"To kill Dickie!" said Susie. "Why, the poor little twins were
heartbroken for two or three days because they thought he was lost. I
for one certainly won't kill Dickie."
"Nor I," said Olive.
"Oh, dear! what shall I do?" said poor Fanny. "I really never was in
such miserable confusion and wretchedness in my life."
"Do, Fanny, cease to be such a coward!" said Susie. "I must say I am
surprised at you. The poor little twins are almost beside
themselves--that is, on account of darling Betty. Betty is so ill; and
they think--the twins do----I mean, they have got it into their heads
that you--you don't like Betty, although she is your cousin and the very
sweetest girl in all the world. But as to your being afraid of a spider!
We'll have a good hunt for him, and find him. Fanny, I never thought you
could scream out as you did. What a mercy that Miss Symes's room is a
good way off from poor darling Betty's!"
"Do try to think of some one besides Betty for a minute!" said Fanny;
"and you find that horror and put him into his box, or put him into
anything, only don't have him loose in the room."
"Well, we'll have a good search," said both the girls, "and we may find
him."
But this was a thing easier said than done; for if there was a knowing
spider anywhere in the world, that spider was Dickie of Scotland. Dickie
was not going to be easily caught. Perhaps Dickie had a secret sense of
humor and enjoyed the situation--the terror of the one girl, the efforts
of the others to put him back into captivity. In vain Susie laid baits
for Dickie all over the room--bits of raw meat, even one or two dead
flies which she found in a corner. But Dickie had secured a hiding-place
for himself, and would not come out at present.
"I can't sleep in the room--that's all!" said Fanny. "I really
can't--that's flat."
"Oh, stop talking for a minute!" said Olive suddenly. "There! didn't you
hear it? Yes, that is the sound of the carriage coming back from the
station. Dr. Jephson has come. Oh, I wonder what he will say about her!"
"Don't leave me, girls, please!" said Fanny. "I never was so utterly
knocked to bits in my whole life!"
"Well, we must go to bed or we'll be punished," said Susie.
"Susie, you are not a bit afraid of reptiles; won't you change rooms
with me?" asked Fanny.
"I would, only it's against the rules," said Susie at once.
Olive also shook her head. "It's against the rules, Fanny; and, really,
if I were you I'd pull myself together, and on a night like this, when
the whole house is in such a state of turmoil, I'd try to show a spark
of courage and not be afraid of a poor little spider."
"A _little_ spider! You haven't seen him," said Fanny. "Why, he's nearly
as big as an egg! I tell you he is most dangerous."
"That's the doctor! Oh, I wonder what he is going to say!" exclaimed
Olive. "Come, Susie," she continued, turning to her companion, "we must
go to bed. Good-night, Fanny; good-night."