"Ah, well, it gives us all the longer to prepare! I'll run into my room
and mend this horrid dress, and you might arrange these books of
photographs. They are really awfully interesting, and of almost every
country you can imagine. Old Mr Vanburgh collected them on his
travels, so you have only to find out which country interests your
special governess most, and--there you are! It will save no end of
exertion!"
She ran out of the room, and the two girls stood together, seized with a
sudden shyness at finding themselves alone.
"I--I think we know each other very well by sight," said Cynthia, and
Betty blushed and blinked, remembering the crowded schoolroom window and
her own scathing criticisms.
"Yes--I'm afraid we have stared a great deal. We are so interested in
our neighbours, but they are almost all old--you were the only young one
like ourselves. We were frightfully anxious to know all about you."
Cynthia gave a pathetic little sigh.
"There's so little to know! There's just mother and me--and father at
the other end of the world. It isn't half so exciting as having
brothers and sisters, and going to school, and having good times all
together. I have envied you so!"
"Me!" cried Betty, aghast. "You envied _me_! How extraordinary! I've
perfectly ached with envying you sometimes."
"Oh, why?" asked Cynthia; and as Betty looked into her wide earnest eyes
she felt of a sudden shamed and silenced. How could she acknowledge
that she had envied the greater luxury, the cosy fire in the bedroom,
the pink evening dress, the monopoly of attention, she who was so rich
in the dear human companionship which the other lacked!
"There are drawbacks to a large family, you know," she exclaimed. "We
don't _always_ have good times. Sometimes we all get cross together and
quarrel like cats, and then it feels as if it would be so nice and
peaceful to be the only one. You have no one to quarrel with."
"I have myself. I quarrel fearfully with myself," said Cynthia.
She perched herself on the arm of a high chair and stared at Betty with
her grave grey eyes. She wore an enamel buckle on her belt, a gold
bangle encircled her wrist, her shoes, her stockings, her ribbons were
all in the perfection of taste. Betty felt another twinge of envy at
the sight, and wondered what in the world such a lucky person could find
to quarrel about! In manner Cynthia was as simple and direct as Pam
herself. A Pet she might be, but there was nothing pampered or self-
satisfied for the most carping critic to discover.
"I do get so bored with myself," she said plaintively. "My mother has
stayed in England on purpose to look after me and my education, and it
is always a case of `This would be good for Cynthia,' `That would be bad
for Cynthia,' `What would be best for Cynthia?'--there is altogether too
much Cynthia in my life, and I am sick of her. In a big family one
would have so many people to think of that there would be no room for
self."
"No--o!" said Betty doubtfully. Her conscience told her that despite
father and mother, and Miles and Jack, and Jill and Pamela, Betty loomed
very large on her own horizon, but she was ashamed to confess the fact
in so many words, and it was a relief when Mrs Vanburgh came bustling
back in her quick energetic fashion.
"There!" she cried. "I've put in a row of safety-pins. I couldn't
spare the time to sew it up just now. It's half-past three, and they
may be arriving any moment. I'll talk to each one as she comes in, and
artlessly find out how long she can stay, then I'll hand her over to you
to be treated accordingly. Tea and cake if it's a call, photographs and
light conversation if it's a visit. Sister Anne, Sister Anne, do you
see anyone coming?"
Cynthia looked round from the window and shook her head.
"Nary a governess! They wouldn't like to come exactly at the hour you
mention. Perhaps they are prowling round the Square, whiling away the
time until it is polite to appear."
"Oh dear, I wish they wouldn't! I like things to happen at once! I get
fidgety and nervous if I have to wait," cried Mrs Vanburgh, poking the
fire with such violence that the ashes were strewn all over the grate.
"Let's pretend that you are the first-comers, and rehearse the
conversation! Now then, go out of the room and come in, and I'll
welcome you."
Cynthia and Betty dutifully retreated to the hall, whence came a sound
of subdued giggling and whispering, lasting for several minutes, at the
expiration of which the door was thrown open and "Miss Perks" announced
in a voice shaken by laughter, whereupon Cynthia bounced into the room,
transformed almost out of recognition by a few touches accomplished by
Betty's nimble fingers.
Her long mane of hair was twisted into an exaggerated "door-knocker," at
the top of which, with all the appearance of a very fly-away toque, was
perched one of the frilled pink shades which covered the electric
lights; a piece of Eastern drapery was folded scarf-like round her
shoulders. Perk by name and Perk by nature did she appear as she minced
across the room, while hostess and maid alike looked on in helpless
convulsions of laughter. No rehearsal was possible under the
circumstances, though Cynthia persisted in acting her part, and sat on
the edge of the sofa tossing her head, and delivering herself of
staccato little sentences in reply to imaginary questions suitable to
the occasion.
"Oh, really! No indeed! Unusually cold for the time of year. Most
kind of you, I'm sure. Charming opportunity?"
"You impertinent girl; go and put back those things this minute! How
dare you make fun of me and spoil the look of my hall!" cried Nan,
wiping the tears from her eyes; then she turned towards the clock, and
her face fell.
"Ten minutes to four! They ought to be coming! Why don't they come?--
Now then, I _told_ you how it would be! There's the bell, and
everything upset!"
With a bound Miss Perks was in the middle of the floor, tearing the
scarf from her shoulders, and shaking her hair loose from its
fastenings. Betty jumped on a chair to put the shade back in its place,
Nan threw the drapery over the easel, which being done, all three rushed
to the head of the staircase, and peered curiously into the hall
beneath.
Once more disappointment awaited them, for a brown-paper parcel was the
nearest approach to a governess which met their gaze, and the return to
the drawing-room was conducted in a much more leisurely and dignified
manner than the exit. For the first time the awful possibility of
failure seemed to dawn on the hostess's heart.
"Suppose," she said blankly, "suppose Nobody comes! It would be a
terrible disappointment, but the worst of all would be Gervase--my
husband! He laughed so at the preparations. I've provided enough for
twenty. He would tease me to death if it were all left."
"It won't be!" cried Betty stoutly. "If the worst comes to the worst, I
shall be so ravenous with disappointment and nervous strain by six
o'clock, that I shall be able to demolish enough for ten."
"And you can't say you have had nobody. You have had Miss Perks," added
Cynthia slyly; but Mrs Vanburgh refused to be comforted, and wandered
disconsolately up and down the room, peering out of each of the three
windows in succession, and watching the clock with anxious dismay.
"Half-past four, and not one here! What can it mean? Three big Homes I
went to, and there must have been at least a score of inmates in each;
it isn't _possible_ that nobody will come!"
"In all the length and breadth of this great city, is there not _one_
governess who will take pity upon a hospitable lady!" quoted Cynthia
mischievously. It was evident that she also knew the source from which
had sprung the inspiration of these Saturday gatherings; but though Nan
laughed, it was with a somewhat uncertain sound, and her brown eyes
looked suspiciously moist. The two girls were quick to realise that it
was not a time for teasing, and hastened to give a safer turn to the
conversation.
In truth, Nan's heart was very deeply in her enterprise. Hers was one
of those sweet, generous natures which expand, instead of shrivelling
under the influence of prosperity. Just in proportion as her own life
was beautiful and hedged round with all the sweet fences of love, so did
she yearn more and more over her sisters whose lots were cast in such
different places--which is the true spirit of Christ, who left the very
heavens for our sakes. She had woven many happy dreams about these
afternoon meetings, seeing the radiance of her own happiness lighting up
dark places, and the power of love and sympathy cheering starved and
lonely lives, and was it all to end like this--in a joke for her husband
and these two girls? Would Gervase come home, and laugh his tender,
happy laugh, and stroke her hair, and call her "Poor little pet!" as if
she, and not the missing guests, was the real object of compassion?
Nan blinked the tears from her eyes, but they rose again and again--
tears of bitter disappointment; and then, just as the clock was about to
strike the quarter, there came another quick whirr of the electric bell,
and Cynthia, running out into the hall, came back aglow with excitement.
"It is! It _is_!" she hissed in an excited whisper. "I saw her. She's
coming upstairs. Quick! Quick! To your posts!"
Betty rushed to the fire, Nan stood in the middle of the floor radiant
with expectation. The servant threw open the door, and announced in
solemn tones--
"Miss Beveridge."
The first governess had arrived!