Brompton Square is situated on the north side of Hyde Park, between the
Marble Arch and Lancaster Gate, and is as stiff and, for the greater
portion of the year, as gloomy in appearance as most of the regions in
the neighbourhood. The different sides of the Square differ widely in
social status, the northern side being the most, and the eastern side
the least, aristocratic and roomy. The largest house of all was a great
grey stone edifice, having a stretch of three windows on either side of
the heavy oak door. The smallest and shabbiest stood at right angles to
it, showing a shabby frontage of two windows to the gardens, and having
its front entrance in a side street. Really and truly it could barely
claim to belong to the Square at all, though the landlord claimed, and
the doctor tenant felt it worth while to pay, a heavy rent for the
privilege of printing a fashionable address upon his cards.
Behind the silken curtains and _brise-bise_ of Number 14, the "Pampered
Pet" had her residence. At Number 1 the doctor's big family was so
crowded together that Betty was thankful to appropriate a front attic as
the only chance of possessing that luxury dear to every girlish
heart--"a bedroom to herself!" It was not a luxurious apartment, but it
was pretty, as every girl's bedroom may easily be, if she has the will
to make it so. The hemp carpet had long since faded to a nondescript
grey, but the pink-washed walls were hung with pictures and photographs,
and the owner's love of beauty and order showed itself in the
arrangement of the furniture, and the careful setting out of a few
treasured ornaments.
There was no gas in the room, so that Betty was obliged to do her simple
dressing for dinner by the aid of a candle, whose flickering beams
seemed intent on lighting every corner of the room, and leaving the
mirror in inky darkness. It was only within the last three months that
Dr Trevor had left his old-fashioned house in Bloomsbury, hoping that
the change of residence would help him in his ambition to extend his
practice among a better class of patients. The neighbourhood was new to
his family, and none of the residents of the Square had so far taken any
notice of their presence. Calling is not usual in London unless there
is some personal interest involved, and no doubt the occupants of more
aristocratic houses looked down with contempt on the sandwiched row of
shabby windows which belonged to them only on sufferance. If the
neighbours showed no interest in the doctor's family, the Trevors, on
the contrary, felt a devouring interest in everyone around them. They
had invented nicknames for all the residents in the northern row, of
which the schoolroom possessed the best view, before they had been a
week in their new quarters. A glance at the Directory in their father's
consulting-room would have solved the problem at once, but that was a
practical and commonplace method of procedure which made no appeal to
their imaginations. Nicknames were a thousand times better, because you
could manufacture them to suit!
The two old maiden ladies who lived in Number 15 were Emily and Hannah.
Emily was dressy, wore a false front, and always took precedence of her
sister, who was small and mousy in demeanour. It was apparent to the
meanest intellect that a godmother had bequeathed her fortune to Emily,
and that she gave her sister a home and generally supported her, for
which generosity Hannah was duly thankful. The two old ladies
breakfasted in bed every morning, went out for drives at eleven and
three o'clock, ("ambles," Miles called them in scornful reference to the
pace of the sleek old horses), retired to their rooms for naps after
lunch, ate a hearty dinner at eight, and settled down for the night at
ten o'clock.
It does not require the skill of a Sherlock Holmes to discover such
proceedings on the part of our neighbours. The study of electric lights
on gloomy autumn days is wonderfully informing! Number 16 was
uninteresting,--only a stupid man and his wife, who looked like a
hundred other men and their wives; and who had tiresome silk curtains
drawn across the lower panes of their windows, so that it was impossible
to obtain a glimpse of the rooms. Number 17, however, more than ever
made up for this disappointment, for there lived "The Pretty Lady"
beloved by one and all. She was tall, and dark, and young; almost like
a girl, and Betty darkly suspected her of being engaged, for she looked
so beamingly happy, and was often seen walking about with a tall,
handsome man in the shiniest of top-hats. The door of Number 17 was
somewhat out of the line of vision, so that it was not always easy to
see who went in and out, but the young couple often passed the corner of
the Square, and always seemed to be in radiant spirits. Once when the
pretty lady was wearing a new coat, Edwin (of course he was Edwin!) fell
behind a pace or two to study the effect, and softly clapped his hands
in approval. It must be nice, Betty thought wistfully, to be engaged,
and have someone who liked you the best of all, and brought you home
chocolates and flowers! She was anxious to know who formed the other
members of the household, but Jill said there was only an invalid
mother, who said, "Go about as much as ever you can, my darling. Don't
think about me! The young should always be happy;" and this was
accepted by all as a natural and satisfactory explanation.
There were no children to be found in the whole length of the terrace.
The landlords, no doubt, had too much regard for their white enamel and
costly wall-papers to welcome tenants with large families. The
"Pampered Pet" in Number 14 was the nearest approach to a child, and she
must have been sixteen at least. Her father was a General Somebody out
in India, and her mother remained in England to superintend the
Darling's education, and see that she did not get her feet wet. As soon
as she was eighteen she would be presented at Court, taken out to India,
and married to the Viceroy at the end of her first season.
The Pet's bedroom was on the third storey of the house, and as its
windows faced the gardens of the Square, she had a fancy for leaving
them undraped, except for the narrow _brise-bise_ over the lower panes.
It probably never occurred to her to remember one little dormer window
perched high in the corner house, which of late days had constituted
Betty Trevor's domain, and she would have been greatly surprised to know
how good a view of her sanctum could be obtained from this vantage-
ground, or how much time its mistress gave to enjoying the same.
All alone in the dark Betty would kneel on a chair and press her face
against the cold panes, staring, staring, muttering to herself--
"She has a fire to dress by--I can see the flames flickering up and
down. What stupid indulgence for a child like that! Electric lights in
pink shades. It does look cosy! The maid is brushing her hair. I can
see her arm going up and down like a machine. Goodness! How long is
she going to keep on? No wonder it shines! I'll brush mine, too. Ten
minutes regularly every night and morning; but I'm always late in the
morning, and too tired at night, so I know I won't. I do hope they come
over here to fasten her dress. It was white last night; on Tuesday it
was blue. What a fuss to make, when there is only Mrs General and the
governess! The Pet plays and sings to them in the drawing-room after
dinner. That hot night when the windows were open we could hear her
distinctly, and it was such a funny little squeak. Jill can imitate it
beautifully. If I couldn't sing better than that I wouldn't sing at
all. ... There! She Is getting up--_pink_ this time! I can see the
maid lacing it up. Well, what next!"
Betty crouched back on her knees and sighed dolorously. It must be nice
to be rich like that and have everything one wanted,--the only adored
darling of the household. It did seem hard that one girl should have
everything she wanted, and another want so much. The furnishing of this
attic bedroom, for instance--everything was a makeshift for something
else which was what she really wanted, and had been unable to get, and
it was the same all through the house. When mother had pleaded for a
new paper for the drawing-room, father had said--
"Not just yet, I'm afraid, dear. There are so many necessities which
must be met." That was the worst of it; there never was money enough
for the nice ornamental things which were so much more interesting than
stodgy old usefuls!
Betty sighed again, and shrugged her shoulders impatiently. The
Pampered Pet had finished her toilet by this time; she crossed the room
and stood by the window for a moment, a slim pink figure in the soft
pink light.
"Horrid, horrid thing!" cried Betty fretfully. "How I do--" And then at
the very moment of repeating her protestations of dislike, Pam's serious
childish face rose before her sight, and she heard the sweet shrill
voice saying once again--
"I suppose that's what they call `envy, hatred, and malice.'" ...
"She's right, quite right," Betty acknowledged to herself. "It _is_, or
just as near it as is possible for a girl to get who is surrounded by
good influences. How hateful it sounds! I did feel ashamed of myself.
I'm the eldest girl, and I ought to set a good example. If I were quiet
and gentle and resigned, they would all look up to me, and Miles
wouldn't snub me any more. I'll turn over a new leaf from this very
hour, and remember my blessings, and never grumble any more, or be
cross, or snappy, and be glad, absolutely glad, when other people are
better off than myself. After all, I'm seventeen. It's time I was
growing resigned. I won't envy anybody any more."
Betty jumped up from her seat, lighted her candles, and began to make
her modest toilet for dinner with an air of satisfied finality. It was
characteristic of her that she was never satisfied with half-measures,
and was always supremely confident of her ability to carry out new
resolutions. The determination to become a perfect character was taken
as easily as if it had been a choice between a couple of ribbons, and
she put on her quietest blouse, and parted her hair in the middle,
brushing it smoothly over her ears, with an artistic satisfaction in
dressing for a part. The resolution held good exactly a quarter of an
hour, at the expiration of which time Jack and Jill dashed suddenly out
of the schoolroom as their elder sister was pursuing a staid course
downstairs, when Jill promptly seized hold of her silk sleeves with
sticky fingers, and Jack exclaimed, "I say! What a fright!" with
brotherly candour.
Betty snapped, of course, and snapped vigorously. It was not her fault,
she reflected. No one could be expected to be patient if other people
would insist on being so horrid and exasperating!