She raised her tearful eyes. Geoffrey Hammond was standing by her side.
He gave her a kind glance, shook hands with her, and stood by her
window uttering commonplaces until Priscilla had recovered her
self-possession. Then, dropping into a chair near, he said, abruptly--
"I saw you from the other end of the room. I was surprised. I did not
suppose you knew our hostess."
"Nor do I really," said Prissie, with sudden vehemence. "Oh, it's a
shame!" she added, her face reddening up woefully; "I have been
entrapped!"
"You must not let the people who are near us hear you say words of that
kind," said Hammond; "they will crowd around to hear your story. Now, I
want it all to myself. Do you think you can tell it to me in a low
voice?"
To poor Hammond's horror Prissie began to whisper.
"I beg your pardon," he said, interrupting her, "but do you know that
the buzzing noise caused by a whisper carries sound a long way? That is
a well authenticated fact. Now, if you will try to speak low."
"Oh, thank you; yes, I will," said Prissie. She began a garbled account
Hammond looked at her face and guessed the truth. The miseries of her
present position were depriving the poor girl of the full use of her
intellect. At last he ascertained that Priscilla's all-absorbing
present anxiety was to be in time for the half-past six dinner at St
Benet's.
"I know we'll be late," she said, "and I'll have broken the rules, and
Miss Heath will be so much annoyed with me."
Hammond volunteered to look for Miss Merton.
"Oh, thank you," said Prissie, the tears springing to her eyes. "How
very, very kind you are."
"Please don't speak of it," said Hammond. "Stay where you are. I'll
soon bring the young truant to your side."
He began to move about the drawing-rooms, and Prissie from her
hiding-place watched him with a world of gratitude in her face. "Talk
of my stirring from this corner," she said to herself, "why, I feel
glued to the spot! Oh, my awful muddy boots. I daren't even think of
them. Now I do hope Mr Hammond will find Miss Merton quickly. How
kind he is! I wonder Maggie does not care for him as much as he cares
for her. I do not feel half as shy with him as I do with everyone else
in this dreadful--dreadful room. Oh, I do trust he'll soon come back,
and bring Miss Merton with him. Then, if we run all the way, we may,
perhaps, be in time for dinner."
Hammond was absent about ten minutes; they seemed like so many hours to
anxious Prissie. To her horror she saw him returning alone, and now she
so far forgot her muddy boots as to run two or three steps to meet him.
She knocked over a footstool as she did so, and one or two people looked
round, and shrugged their shoulders at the poor _gauche_ girl.
"Where is she?" exclaimed Prissie, again speaking in a loud voice. "Oh,
haven't you brought her? What shall I do?"
"It's all right, I assure you, Miss Peel. Let me conduct you back to
that snug seat in the window. I have seen Miss Merton, and she says you
are to make yourself happy. She asked Miss Heath's permission for you
both to be absent from dinner to-day."
"She did? I never heard of anything so outrageous. _I_ won't stay. I
shall go away at once."
"Had you not better just think calmly over it? If you return to St
Benet's without Miss Merton, you will get her into a scrape."
"Do you think I care for that? Oh, she has behaved disgracefully! She
has told Miss Heath a lie. I shall explain matters the very moment I go
back."
Priscilla was not often in a passion, but she felt in one now. She lost
her shyness, and her voice rose without constraint.
"I am not supposed to know the ways of society," she said, "but I don't
think I want to know much about this sort of society." And she got up,
prepared to leave the room.
The ladies, who had been gossiping at her side, turned at the sound of
her agitation. They saw a plain, badly-dressed girl, with a frock
conveniently short for the muddy streets, but by no means in tone with
her present elegant surroundings, standing up and contradicting, or at
least appearing to contradict, Geoffrey Hammond, one of the best known
men at St Hilda's, a Senior Wrangler, too. What did this _gauche_ girl
mean? Most people were deferential to Hammond, but she seemed to be
scolding him.
Prissie for the time being became more interesting even than the winter
fashions. The ladies drew a step or two nearer to enjoy the little
comedy.
Priscilla noticed no one, but Hammond felt these good ladies in the air.
His checks burned, and he wished himself well out of his present
position.
"If you will sit down, Miss Peel," he said, in a low, firm voice, "I
think I can give you good reasons for not rushing away in this headlong
fashion."
"Well, what are they?" said Prissie. Hammond's voice had a sufficiently
compelling power to make her sit down once more on her window-ledge.
"Don't you think," he said, seating himself in front of her, "that we
may as well keep this discussion to ourselves?"
"Oh, yes; was I speaking too loud? I wouldn't vex _you_ for anything."
"Pardon me; you are still speaking a little loud."
"Oh!" Poor Prissie fell back, her face crimson. "Please say anything
you wish," she presently piped in a voice as low as a little mouse might
have used.
"What I have to say is simply this," said Hammond: "You will gain
nothing now by rushing off to St Benet's. However hard you struggle,
you cannot get there in time for dinner. Would it not be best, then, to
remain here quietly until Miss Merton asks you to accompany her back to
the college? Then, of course, it will remain with you to pay her out in
any way you think well."
"Thank you; perhaps that is best. It is quite hopeless now to think of
getting back in time for dinner. I only hope Miss Merton won't keep me
waiting very long, for it is very, very dull sitting here, and seeing
people staring at you."
"I would not look at them if I were you, Miss Peel; and, if you will
permit me, I shall be only too pleased to keep you company."
"Oh, thank you," said Prissie. "Then I sha'n't mind staying at all."
The next half-hour seemed to pass on the wings of the wind.
Priscilla was engaged in an animated discussion with Hammond on the
relative attractions of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey;" her opinion
differed from his, and she was well able to hold her ground. Her face
was now both eloquent and attractive, her eyes were bright, her words
terse and epigrammatic. She looked so different a girl from the cowed
and miserable little Prissie of an hour ago that Rosalind Merton, as she
came up and tapped her on the shoulder, felt a pang of envy.
"I am sorry to interrupt you," she said, "but it is time for us to be
going home. Have you given Mr Hammond his message?"
"What do you mean?" asked Priscilla. "I have not any message for Mr
Hammond."
"You must have forgotten. Did not Miss Oliphant give you a letter for
him?"
"Certainly not. What do you mean?"
"I felt sure I saw her," said Rosalind. "I suppose I was mistaken.
Well, sorry as I am to interrupt a pleasant talk, I fear I must ask you
to come home with me now."
She raised her pretty baby eyes to Hammond's face as she spoke. He
absolutely scowled down at her, shook hands warmly with Priscilla, and
turned away.
"Come and bid Mrs Elliot-Smith good-bye," said Rosalind, her eyes still
dancing. "She is at the other end of the drawing-room; come, you can
follow me."
"How disgracefully you have behaved, Miss Merton!" began Priscilla at
once. "You cannot expect me ever to speak to you again, and I shall
certainly tell Miss Heath."
They were walking across the crowded drawing-room now. Rosalind turned,
and let her laughing eyes look full at Prissie.
"My dear Miss Peel, pray reserve any little scolding you intend to
bestow upon me until we get out into the street, and please do not tread
upon my dress!"