_“Who are thy Playmates, boy?”
“My favourite is Joy,
And he his sister Peace doth bring to play,
The livelong day.
I love her well, but he
Is most to me.”_
J. B. TABB
When Clare woke next morning it was almost time to rise. She could
guess the hour by the wan light of a wintry sunbeam touching the
inner edge of her window curtains, and the sound of housemaids
stirring in the house. There lay the grapes by her bedside that her
Mother had brought for her to find on waking. She put out her hand
for these, and gradually as she lay there, there came back upon her
remembrance, the strange experience of last night.
Had she dreamed it? If so, it was a vivid dream. How sincerely she
hoped not. “Because if I’ve dreamt it I shan’t be able to go on with
it and, if it really happened, there is no reason why I shouldn’t see
all the others, and what fun that might be. I should ask what it was
Fieldmouse had just told Rob that made his eyes so round and shining,
and what it is makes dear Miss Ross so sad, and I should ask how long
Kitty Fischer has had her doves, and if they lay eggs all through the
winter like Mummie’s; and....”
“Clare! d’epêche toi, ma mignonne, voyons, voyons, voyons;” and
Mademoiselle entered the room concerned to find Clare still in her
nightgown, and dawdling, with bare feet. But all day long, through
the hurry and skirmish of an ordinary day, through the tedium of
lessons and the ballyragging of the boys, Clare hugged her precious
secret to her heart. She couldn’t bear to speak of it, for if it were
only a dream, her longing for it to continue would be intensified.
She had seen Mrs. Inchbald and Robert Mayne, and spoken to them, and
the children in the pictures were real. If this were only a dream,
then she’d rather not talk about it; but if it were true, if it were
really true, then she’d tell Bim and Christopher about her wonderful
discovery, and to-night, this very night it would be proved.
[Illustration: _Hogarth._ PEG WOFFINGTON.]
Have you ever lived through a day that has some treasure of knowledge
or expectation, that lies hidden beneath everything tiresome,
beautifying the prosaic features of the day? To Clare it made it
wonderfully easy to put up with all sorts of difficulties, this
enchanting secret of hers.
Bedtime came, and after the usual bath-skirmish all three children
were in bed. Prayers said, lights out, and the shadows in possession.
Then, because she had had a long day and was tired, Clare slept. And
when she awoke she heard her name repeated. She sat up wide awake,
and saw Dolorès by her bedside--her little bodice crossed as prettily
as in the picture, with tiny skirt, and lifted eyebrow, there she
stood.
“Are you coming to play with us to-night, Clare? We’ve got the
drawing-room to ourselves for an hour before the party, and it’s
lovely, for the furniture is moved away. But we shall have to go to
bed when Mrs. Inchbald says so, but there’s still time before that.
Shall we go and fetch the others?”
Clare’s heart beat quickly, but she was out of bed in a moment,
following Dolorès from the room.
“I must wake up Bim and Christopher,” she said. “Will you wait for
me? Their room is not far away.”
She ran off, but came headlong in collision with somebody round the
corner of the stairs.
“Mercy,” exclaimed a sharp voice, “the children again, I’ll be
bound.” This was said with great asperity, and Clare, recovering
as best she might from a stinging box on the ear, had just time to
see Peg Woffington pass round the corner in the shortest skirt, and
jauntiest little bodice imaginable.
“Bim said she looked cross, and isn’t she!” thought Clare, as she ran
on into the boys’ room.
But what was her surprise to find the beds empty, Bim and Christopher
were gone. “Never mind, come downstairs,” said Dolorès; “I dare say
Leslie may have taken them down.”
No steps of Clare’s could take her sufficiently swiftly. To be left
behind was to her something intolerable; the boys were already down
and perhaps having all sorts of fun, and she’d gone in to wake
them up, and it wasn’t fair. If you sound the letters _pr_ very
quickly for a second, it will give you some idea how quickly she ran
downstairs.
[Illustration: _G. Morland._ CHILDREN PLAYING AT SOLDIERS.]
Bim and Christopher were standing together talking to a group of
children, and Clare heard Bim explaining:
“I’m so sorry; it’s my fault, but you must come, boys, another
day. You see two of my friends mayn’t play with children they
don’t know, and so I hope you’ll come again and have a game with
Christopher and my sister. My Mother wants you to wipe your boots
on the mat as you go out, and I’ll send word when next we want you.
Good-bye, good-bye, here’s a bun for each--and, wait a moment, take
all this cake, won’t you?”
Clare’s first thought was, “Bim’s got his Wilsford village boys here,
but how has he managed it?”
“O Bim,” she cried out, “who are they, what are you doing, why are
they going away?”
“Wait a minute, I’ll tell you. You see, Leslie woke me and
Christopher, and said we were going to have a jolly game. I had asked
in the village boys as usual, and found out too late that Charlotte
and Henry Spencer aren’t allowed to play with them, you know. I
felt dreadfully awkward, but it’s all right _now_. I don’t know how
people can have such swabs for Mothers. Anyhow, there it is, and as
Charlotte and Henry came down first, I can’t very well go against
it. Come on, children,” he called out suddenly, and Leslie and Beppo
rushed up, their eyes glancing. But not before Clare had a glimpse of
an astonishing sight. It was this. All the dear children to whom Bim
had given cakes filed out into the passage. With her own astonished
eyes, she saw them walk up to the Morland pictures, and disappear
into them among the trees. They were “the apple stealers,” and the
“children playing at soldiers,” and as she ran up to the pictures
with all her heart in her eyes to look closer she was just in time to
hear that sound of ineffable beauty when the wind blows softly among
a myriad leaves.
There was a cool smell of moss.
A bough swayed under the weight of a climbing boy, and she heard a
dog bark in the distance.
Then the branches closed over, there was a rustle in the greenwood,
and everything was still.
[Illustration: _G. Morland._ THE APPLE-STEALERS.]