"Well!" exclaimed Ruth, sinking back in armchair number one, at the
right of the bedroom fireplace.
"Well!" exclaimed Mollie, sinking back in armchair number two, facing
her sister. "Likewise, good sooth! By my halidom! Gadzooks! Of a
surety these are great happenings, fair sis!"
"Don't be so tiresome, Mollie! You make a joke out of everything. I
want to talk over the position seriously."
"So do I--just dying to. Go on! Where shall we begin?"
"With the time, of course. Three months! I never dreamt of more than a
fortnight, at most. Do you think we can possibly be spared?"
"I don't think at all--I know! If it was three years, with such an
interest at stake, the poor little mother would jump at it. Three
months soon pass, and there will be two people less to feed and wait
upon, and a room less to keep in order. Every little tells when people
are as hard up as we are, and with the savings mother will be able to
pay Miss Carter to help with the mending. It will be good for Trix,
too. The more you depend upon Trix the more she rises to the occasion.
I have a shrewd suspicion that she is going to cut us out, and be the
show daughter of the family. Mother will be blissfully happy building
castles in the air; Trix will be blissfully happy playing eldest
daughter, and bossing the family. We shall be blissfully happy not
pretending, but actually being, Berengaria and Lucille. It's all quite
smooth and easy!"
Ruth heaved a sigh, half convinced, half reluctant.
"That's what you always say! I see such crowds of objections. To begin
with, I hate the position; it's awkward and humiliating. To stay here
on approval, studied like specimens in a case; being on one's good
behaviour, and `acting pretty' to try to get a fortune for oneself, away
from other people--bah! It makes me hot even to think of it. I should
feel a hypocrite!"
"Don't be high-flown, dear; it's quite unnecessary. You couldn't be a
hypocrite if you tried; you are too ridiculously `proud,' I suppose you
would say. I call it quick-tempered! If Uncle Bernard snubs you, you
will flare out, fortune or no fortune, and if you feel mopey, mope you
will, if he disinherits you the next moment. I shall be honest, too,
because I'm too lazy to be anything else; besides, you know, there is
always the pleasing reflection that he may _prefer_ us to be crotchety!
Everything is possible where everything is vague. Imagine how maddening
it would be if we kept our tempers, and smiled sweetly from morning till
night, and in the end he left everything to that cross Mr Melland,
because he considered it necessary for the owner of wealth to have a
will of his own!"
Ruth laughed involuntarily.
"You _are_ a goose! Not much chance of your being the chosen one, I am
afraid. Uncle Bernard is not in the mood for appreciating nonsense; he
is too sad and ill, poor old man! That's another hateful thing. I
should love to nurse and coddle him, and read aloud, and be good to him
generally; but if one does, it will seem-- Oh, you know-- you
understand! It's a loathsome position!"
"If I feel affectionate, I shall act affectionate! He will probably
loathe it, so there's just as much chance of injuring one's chance as of
bettering it. In fact, if we are to get on at all, we had better try to
forget the wretched money, and behave as if it did not exist. If anyone
had told us a month ago that we should be staying in a big house with
two quite good-looking young men as fellow-guests, and carte blanche to
enjoy ourselves as much as we pleased, we would have thought it too
impossibly good to be true; but now that it has come true, we shall be
idiots if we don't make the most of it. I hope Uncle Bernard keeps to
his idea of making us each master of the ceremonies in turn. Won't I
make the money fly when it comes to my turn! Picnics and luncheons by
day, dances and theatricals by night--one giddy whirl of excitement the
whole time long. I'll take the old dear at his word, and give no
thought to expense, and entertain the whole countryside until the name
of Mollie Farrell is immortalised for ever in grateful hearts. I have
always credited myself with a genius for social life; now for the first
time you will behold me in the halls of the great, and gaze with
surprise at your sister reigning as queen over the assembled throngs?"
"In your one black dress?"
"Certainly not! I've thought of that, too. Suitable equipments must,
of course, be part of the carte blanche."
"I am sure nothing was further from Uncle Bernard's thoughts. He looks
to me like a man who would never notice clothes, or care what we looked
like, so long, of course, as we were respectable. He has more important
things on his mind."
"Humph!" Mollie tossed her saucy head. "If he doesn't notice of his
own accord, his eyes must be gently, but firmly opened. We stay at his
special request; at his special request we entertain and are
entertained; it is only reasonable that he should bear the expense of
making our appearance do him credit. I'll tell him so, too, if he
doesn't see it for himself."
"Mollie, you won't! You shan't! You never could!"
"Couldn't I? You wait and see!"
"And if you did I would never touch a farthing. I warn you, once for
all, that it is useless, so far as I am concerned."
Mollie looked at her sister's flushed, defiant face, and laughed her
happy, light-hearted laugh.
"Dear old High-falutin'! We won't argue about it. Half a dozen
invitations will show you the soundness of my position better than a
hundred discussions. Meantime, I'm going to dress. I have a horrible
conviction that that maid will return and offer to do `your hair,
madam,' so I mean to be beforehand with her."
Ruth sat still in her chair, enjoying the unwonted luxury of idling,
with no disturbing spasm of conscience to remind her that she ought to
be mending or patching, or giving Betty a music lesson, or helping Mary
to hang clean curtains in the drawing-room. It was delightful to nestle
back against the cushions and study one by one the dainty appointments
of the room, and revel in the unaccustomed sense of space. Imagine just
for a moment--imagine possessing such a home of one's own! The house,
with its treasures of beautiful and artistic furnishings, which
represented the lifelong gatherings of a man renowned for his taste; the
extensive grounds, with gardens and vineries and forests of glass,
providing an endless summer of blossom; the income, that in itself was a
fortune, and held such inexhaustible possibilities of good. What she
could do with it, if it were only hers! With one stroke of the pen she
would repay the poor old tired pater for all his goodness in the past,
and lift the weight of care for the future from his shoulders. She
would heap luxuries upon the dear little mother, who was still a child
at heart; so pathetically easy to please that it seemed a sin that she
should ever be sad. The girls should be sent to finishing schools, and
the boys given a thorough training to equip them for their fight in
life. Mollie, of course, should live at the Court, and share equally in
all her possessions; and they would travel, and help the poor, and be
kind to everyone, and never forget the day of small things! or grow
arrogant and purse-proud. Ruth dreamed on in a passion of longing till
Mollie, standing before the dressing-table, with her white arms raised
to her head, caught sight of her face in the mirror, and uttered a sharp
exclamation.
"Ruth! What is it, darling?"
Ruth started nervously and glanced upwards with guilty eyes, but there
was nothing alarming in the aspect of the figure which stood over her,
white necked, white armed, with the loosened golden hair falling round
the anxious face. She caught the outstretched hand, and gripped it
tightly between her own.
"Oh, Mollie, I want it! I want it _dreadfully_! When I think of the
possibility I feel half wild. If I am disappointed, I believe I shall
die! I can't be unselfish, even for you. I want it for myself!"
She was on the verge of tears, but Mollie's matter-of-fact cheeriness
had the usual bracing effect. She seemed neither shocked nor surprised,
but only anxious to soothe.
"Of course you do; so do we all!" she replied easily. "It's humbug to
pretend anything else, only I'm not going to die, in any case, but live
and make myself agreeable to the Chosen. If it's you, I shall sponge on
you for life, so don't imagine you will have all the fun to yourself.
Now get dressed, and don't think about it any more. We must look our
best to awe those two superior young men. I am convinced that they look
upon us as country bumpkins, and it's most important to put them in
their proper position at once, so that we may start fair. If you are
going to do your hair in skriggles it will take you an age, so do
begin!"
Ruth rose obediently. "Skriggles" was an inelegant but descriptive
title for her most becoming coiffure, which she had already decided must
be adopted for the first eventful evening at the Court. She set to work
at once, and was half-way through her task when the maid appeared, as
Mollie had prophesied, paused upon the threshold for one horrified
moment, and then hurried forward with an "Allow me, miss!" which could
not be gainsaid.
The girls grimaced at one another furtively, but in the end the value of
the skilled hands was proved by a dainty finish to hair and toilette
which sent them downstairs agreeably conscious of looking their best.