The next day was radiantly beautiful, and Susie started well. Directly
after breakfast the four elder ones trooped down to the sands with spades
and buckets, whilst Alick, left alone with nurse, waved his good-byes
from the balcony. Mrs. Beauchamp looked after them a little anxiously;
but Susie in her best mood was so very trustworthy that she smoothed the
anxious line out of her forehead, and turned back with a restful sigh to
the empty room and the silence.
And out on the beach things went swimmingly. They made sand castles and
moats, and the rising tide flowed in just as they wished it to. Like
another Canute, Tom flung defiance to the waves, and shouted himself
hoarse; and then, to his immense surprise, the little ripples swept
smoothly back, and left a crumbled castle, and white foamy ridges that
looked like soap.
"Come on, Susie," he said; "it's no fun when there's no water in it.
Let's go over to the rocks and look for insects."
"No; let's stay here," said Susie. "I like watching the ships and the
steamers."
"Fudge," said Tom.
"The rocks are awfully jolly, Sue," said Dickie.
But Susie shook her shoulders, and gazed straight before her. "I'm not
going," she said.
"Very well; we jolly well prefer your room to your company," said
Tom.--"Come on, Dick."
Susie was sitting on the ruins of the castle, with her knees drawn up and
her elbows planted on them. She really was not listening to Tom a bit,
for her fascinated eyes were fixed on the line of silver sea, on which
the passing steamers rose and fell. Far away at the back of her mind was
the consciousness that Tom was going to be naughty, and that she might
prevent it; but she pushed her fingers into her ears, and gazed straight
before her.
It was Amy tugging at her dress that made her turn reluctantly at last.
"Tom is calling you, Susie," she said.
"Oh, bother!" said Susie. "You can go and see what he wants."
Amy obediently struggled over the heavy sand to the fine strip of pebbles
on which the boys were disporting themselves. Their boots were wet
through; their shrill voices pierced Susie's poor defences.
"Susie--Susie--Susie!"
But Susie did not move.
All the same, she knew perfectly well that Amy was struggling back over
the shingle and the sand, and had dropped panting at her feet, quite
unable to speak for want of breath. Her little delicate face was pink
with heat and excitement, and her thin legs trembled.
"They want to get a box and send Dickie out in it, like a boat," she
explained.
"They haven't got a box," said Susie.
"But they say they can get one easily. It's father's; and they can tie a
string on to it and drag it."
"They can ask mother," said Susie impatiently.
"Yes, I suppose so." Amy had crept nearer, and put a small, unsteady hand
on her knee. "Please don't let them do it, Susie," she said; "don't let
them be naughty."
"Don't bother," said Susie. "I can't help it."
She shook off Amy's hand impatiently; but she was sorry a moment
afterwards. Susie often said things like that, and it was rather
a comfort that Amy was always quite ready to be forgiven.
"It is so beautiful here, Amy; and I dare say they are not being naughty
really. They only hope we are looking; but I'm not going to."
She resolutely turned her back upon the boys and the strip of pebbles.
But Amy could not keep still; her eyes kept turning nervously to the
sturdy jersey-clad figures, and presently she nudged Susie again.
"They've got the box, Susie. You can't think how deep the water is, and
it looks so horrid; and Dick has a cold."
"Oh, don't bother," said Susie.
"Mother said you were to look after them, because you are the eldest,"
urged Amy.
"Why weren't one of you the eldest?" said Susie crossly. "I've been the
eldest all my life, and I'm tired of it. Mother knows I can't manage
them."
Without turning her head she knew that Amy was creeping again across the
strip of pebbles. She heard her foot slipping, and the shouts of the boys
when she reached them; then Amy's soft little frightened voice--and
then silence.
* * * * *
An hour later Mrs. Beauchamp was sitting on the little balcony outside
the drawing-room window. The sky was divinely blue, and the sun was
dazzling. Close to her feet was a basket of stockings that needed
darning, but she felt as if she must lay her needle down every now and
then, to look at the gray, glittering sea, and the shifting crowd upon
the beach. Her feet ached with perpetual running up and down stairs; but
she was glad to think that the children were happy and good. In the room
across the passage she could hear nurse singing Alick to sleep, and down
in the street below a funny little procession was winding up from the
sea. She rose and looked over the balcony on to the tops of two sailor
hats, and what looked like two soaking mushrooms. She stared at them
stupidly, wondering why the box they dragged behind them was so familiar,
and why they left such a long wet trail behind them.
After them sauntered a few idle fishermen; but just for a minute she
could not grasp what had happened. Then she pushed the basket on one side
and ran to the drawing-room door.
Up the stairs came the hurried rush of feet, with the box bumping from
stair to stair. Then the dripping family clung about her with soaked
garments, and hair that looked like seaweed.
"Mother, change us, please, before nurse sees us."
"But what is it?" she cried. "How did it happen?"
"It was Tom's fault," said Susie, whimpering. "He sent Dick out to sea in
the uniform case, and it has a hole in it, and it went down."
"Oh, run upstairs and change; Dick has a cough."
"He didn't drown," said Tom, "because we had tied a rope to it, and a
fisherman pulled it up."
"And where is Dickie?"
"I told him to go up on the roof and dry--he's on the leads by now. It's
awfully nice there; we went this morning."
"_On the roof!_--Susie, tell him to come down, whilst I get their
clothes.--Tom, how can you do such things?"
"Why, you never told us not to," said Tom, with innocent eyes.
Susie crept upstairs, very white and quiet. She had been really
frightened, and she had an uncomfortable feeling at the back of her mind
that somehow it was her fault. She found Dick scrambling on to the roof,
and hauled him in with unnecessary vigour. When she got downstairs she
was sulky because her mother had not time to listen to her eager excuses,
but put her hastily on one side.
"Never mind now, Susie. The first thing is to slip off your wet clothes
and get dry, and then help me with the others. Give me the big towel, and
untie Amy's frock."
"But, mother," argued Susie, "I couldn't guess he was going to be so
naughty, could I?"
"You didn't try to guess," said Tom resentfully; "and now you are trying
to make mother think you are better than me. You wouldn't hem our sails
or dig with us. We had to do something."
"And now you want me to quarrel," said Susie.--"Mother, I want to
explain."
"Hush, Susie! there is no time to explain now; you must tell me
by-and-by."
Susie flung the towel on to the floor, and felt a great lump in her
throat. Dick had to be dried and warmed, in order to stop that horrid
little croaking cough; and no one cared for her excuses or explanations.
With angry tears blinding her she ran across to the nursery, and stood
looking out at the silver line of sea and the bobbing ships. Alick was
stretching in his cradle, and it creaked under his weight. She could see
his curly head and his outstretched fat legs. He was so accustomed to
having his legs admired that he always pulled up his petticoats solemnly
to exhibit them, as though pathetically hoping to get it over and have
done with it.
Susie's ill-temper evaporated like smoke. She flung herself beside the
cradle, and hugged Alick in her arms, leaning so closely over him that
nurse, in hurrying to and fro, paused to expostulate.
"Not so close, Miss Susie, please--the child can't breathe; and I don't
want you putting any of your naughtiness into his head."
"How can I, when he can't walk?" said Susie indignantly.
"Well, I wouldn't put it beyond you," said nurse. "I know you've been up
to something, or you wouldn't be here now, looking as if butter wouldn't
melt in your mouth."
"I'm trying to be good," said Susie, still indignant.
"Well, we shan't see the result yet awhile," said nurse, "for the way
you've devil-oped these holidays is past imagining."
She always pronounced it in that way, and the word held a dreary
significance for Susie.