In the schoolroom the young people flocked together, eager to discuss
the news apart from the restraint of their parents' presence. Round the
great fireplace stood one of those delightful fenders whose top is
formed by a wide-cushioned seat. Hereward pulled it forcibly back, with
a fine disregard of cinders, until it was sufficiently distant from the
blaze to be comfortable, when the six young people seated themselves and
prepared to talk in comfort. They made a pretty picture as the leaping
flame lighted up their fair blond faces, but for the moment the general
expression was far from cheerful. The twins were all eyes and gaping
mouths, devoured with curiosity to hear what their elders might have to
say with regard to the thrilling intelligence just given; the two
schoolboys looked cross and thundery, and it was difficult to say which
was the more exasperating to beholders--Rowena's angry frown or Dreda's
artificial smiles.
Gurth stamped a smoking cinder into the hearthrug, taking a malicious
pleasure in the scorch and smell which ensued. He was never too
patient, and this afternoon he felt that he had reached the end of his
tether.
"Oh, chuck it, Rowena!" he cried savagely. "What's the use of sitting
there looking like a tragedy queen? A jolly example _you_ set, for the
eldest of a family. You look as if the whole thing was got up on
purpose to annoy you, and nobody had a right to be pitied except your
precious self. I don't see it a bit! I think you come off best of all.
Your education is finished, so you're bound to be all right!"
"Education!" echoed Rowena, in the tone of ineffable scorn natural to a
young woman who for months past had been basking in the prospect of a
presentation at court. "Education, indeed! Who cares for education?
If it _is_ finished, what has it all been intended for, pray? To
prepare me for a life which I am not to have! Other girls have the best
time of their lives when they come out. They are taken about to see
everything and do everything which they have longed for all the time
they have been shut up at school. It's no wonder I feel bad at coming
home to find I have only escaped one prison for another. To live here
all the year long! What a prospect! There isn't a decent neighbour
nearer than five miles.--If this could only have happened a year or two
later, after I had had a _little_ fun!"
"Rowena, how selfish! You think only of yourself, and not a bit of
anyone else--father or mother, or the boys, or--or Me!" cried Dreda,
smiting herself on the breast with dramatic _empressement_ as she
uttered the last all-important word. "It won't be a bit easier for me
when the time comes, but I do _hope_ and _believe_ that I shall bear it
bravely, and try to be an example to the rest. It's our duty, you know,
as the eldest daughters of the house!"
"Oh, Dreda, _stop_ preaching! It's too ridiculous. _You_ to lecture
me! For that matter, you need not wait until you are finished to set me
an example. You can begin this very minute, for I don't believe for a
moment that father will be able to afford to send you to Madame Clerc's.
It's a frightfully expensive school, and he used to grumble at the way
my extras ran up, even before, when he was rich. I expect you will have
to finish at home with the Spider, and then she will go, and you will
have to set to work to teach Maud!"
"I shan't!" shrieked Dreda, and flamed a sudden violent red.
"She shan't!" shrieked Maud, at one and the same moment, her fair,
placid face flushing to the same crimson hue.
They faced each other like two infuriated turkey cocks--heads erect,
feathers ruffled, bodies swaying to and fro with indignation.
"As if I should!"
"As if I'd let you!"
"Teach her!"
"Teach me!"
"The very idea!"
"I'm 'stonished you should talk such nonsense, Rowena!"
Rowena laughed softly. It was the first time she had unbent since the
telling of the dread news. She put her head on one side and stared at
Dreda's furious face with an "I told you so!" expression which that
young lady found infinitely exasperating.
"Our dear Dreda, as usual, finds preaching easier than practice. You
see, my dear, when it comes to the point, you are not a bit more
resigned than I am myself. It's worse for me to give up all the fun of
my first season than for you to stay at home instead of going to school;
the only difference is that I have sense enough to realise what is
before me, while you are so taken up with sentiment and--"
"Oh, shut up, girls! Stop wrangling, for pity's sake!" cried Hereward,
impatiently. "Things are bad enough as they are, without making them
worse. If you are going to nag, we'll go downstairs and leave you to
yourselves. It's such bad form to kick up a fuss; but girls are all
alike. You wouldn't find a boy going on like that--"
Rowena turned upon him with wide, challenging eyes.
"Wouldn't I? Are you so sure? Suppose father were to tell you to-
morrow that you couldn't be a soldier, but must go into an office and
try to earn money for yourself... Suppose he took you away from Eton,
Gurth, and sent you to a cheap school! How would you like that?"
Silence... The two lads sat staring into the fire with dogged faces.
They scorned to cry aloud, but the horror of the prospect had for a
moment a so paralysing effect that they could not reply. Leave
Sandhurst in the middle of one's course, and become--a _clerk_! Leave
Eton and the fellows, and go to one of those miserable, second-rate
shows which all good Etonians regarded with ineffable contempt! Was it
possible to suffer such degradation and live?
Rowena was touched to compunction by the sight of the stricken faces,
for though at the moment the worst side of her character was in the
ascendant, she was by no means hard-hearted, and, moreover, Hereward was
her especial friend and companion. She laughed again, and gave an
impatient shrug to her shoulders.
"Oh, don't be afraid ... He never _will_! Whatever happens, nothing
will be allowed to interfere with `the boys' and their careers! We
shall all pinch and screw and live on twopence-halfpenny a week, so as
to be able to pay your bills. It's always the same story. Everything
is sacrificed for the sons."
"Quite right, too," maintained the eldest son, stoutly. "How are you
going to keep up the honour of a family if you don't give the boys a
chance? It doesn't matter a fig whether a girl is educated or not, so
long as she can read and write. She'll marry, of course, and then she
has nothing to do but add up the bills."
At this truly masculine distinction, Rowena and Dreda tossed scornful
heads and rolled indignant eyes to the ceiling.
"I shall never marry!" announced the former, thinking ruefully of the
bare countryside, with never a house of consequence within a radius of
miles ... "I am a suffragette. I believe in the high, lofty mission of
women!" cried the second, who had been converted to the movement the day
before by the sight of some sketches in the _Daily Graphic_. Only nine-
year-old Maud sniffed, and opined, "I shall marry a lord! Then he'll
have lots of money, and I'll give it to father, and we'll live happily
ever after."
Poor Maud! Her millennium was not to begin just yet, at least; for
Nannie, her immaculate but austere attendant, rapped at the door at that
moment, and summoned her nursling to be bathed and put to bed. Maud was
every evening enraged afresh at being called at such a ridiculously
early hour, and to-night her annoyance was increased by the fact that
she was torn ruthlessly from the rare treat of a conference with her
elders, in which she had really been and truly on the level of a "grown-
up." She fumed with anger, but presently consolation came with the idea
of a dramatic disclosure upstairs. She waited until she and her
attendant were alone together in the bedroom, and then sprung the bolt
in her most impressive fashion.
"Nannie, we're ruined!"
"Indeed, miss. Sorry to hear it, I'm sure," returned Nannie,
unperturbed. It is safe to predict that any important family news will
be known as soon in the servants' hall as in the drawing-room, and
Nannie had the air of listening to a very stale piece of information.
Maud was distinctly disappointed, but nerved herself for fresh efforts.
"Yes. Bankrup'! There's nothing left. I'm going to give up all my
savings. What will you do, Nannie--leave?"
"I shall be pleased to stay on, miss, as long as your mother can afford
to give me my wages and a nursery maid."
"Oh, Nannie, how _mean_! The Pharisees likewise do as much as that! In
storybooks the nurses always stay on, whether they are ruined or not,
and give their money to help. You _are_ mean!"
"No impertinence, please," said Nannie sharply. She was just beginning
to comb out Maud's hair, and it was astonishing how many knots there
appeared to be that evening. "I'm sorry I spoke," reflected poor Maud.