"What's `rejuiced'?" queried Maud, squeezing herself into the central
place on the big fender, as her brothers and sisters sat roasting
chestnuts by the schoolroom fire one wet afternoon a few days later, and
the question being received by a blank stare of bewilderment she
repeated the word with intensified emphasis. "_Re-juiced_! _We're_
rejuiced! I heard Mary say so in the schoolroom. She said to nurse
that she didn't know if the missis would be wanting to keep on two
housemaids now she was re-juiced! Does it mean _poor_?"
"You have no business to listen to servants' conversation; but if you
do, pray spare us the repetition!" said Rowena in her most grown-up
manner. Maud reflected that ever since mother had spoken of the new
arrangement about lessons, Ro had talked exactly like a governess, and
been just as snappy as snappy. She bounced on her seat, and wagged her
head in the obstinate manner which she adopted upon provocation.
"I don't listen, but I have ears, and if people speak I am obliged to
hear. Mary came into the room to dust. Nurse was darning the
tablecloth. It's all gone into holes where Gurth spilt the chemical
acid. It's the one with the little shamrocks for a pattern. So Nurse
said: `Drat those boys!' and licked the cotton with her tongue, and--"
Hereward and Gurth exchanged glances of resigned boredom, but Dreda
drummed her heels on the floor, and called aloud with startling
emphasis:
"Go on! Go on! Who wants to hear about tablecloth patterns, and
licking threads? Keep to your point, if you have a point to stick to!
If Rowena's is going to give you lessons, she'd better begin by teaching
you not to be such a bore. You go prosing on and on--"
"I don't. I'm not. Bore yourself! 'Twas most intrusting!" insisted
Maud, stolidly. "They were sort of talking about us all, in a sort of
way as if I couldn't understand, and I understood all the time, and they
said we were rejuiced, and I asked you a simple question what it meant.
When you're perlite to other people, other people should be perlite to
you in return."
"All right, Maud, keep calm, keep calm! You reduce a thing by taking
something from it. We are reduced because something--a great deal--has
been taken away from our income, and what remains is not enough to go
round. I expect the second housemaid will be sent packing, and you will
have to make the beds."
Maud squealed with dismay, then with a gleam of shrewdness nodded her
head, and prophesied sagely:
"It would be worse for you than me if I did! I'd make them full of
crumples. I'd get hold of the ends of the clothes, and _Hop_ them down
all together like Mary does when it's her Sunday out, and she's in a
hurry. _Then_ you'd be in a rage when you got in and your toes stuck
out!"
"I'll make the beds!" announced Dreda, graciously. "I think all girls
ought to learn to be domestic, and there's a real art in making beds.
I've often thought how much better I could do it than any servant we
have had. It's the trained intellect, I suppose. (I do _hate_ you,
Rowena, when you sneer like that!) F'rinstance--I like my blankets just
up to my chin, and if I tell Mary ten times a day, it's always the
same--she doubles them down till you are all hunkley round the neck.
Then that leaves less to tuck in at the bottom, and if you have a
nightmare and kick, there you are with your feet sticking out in the
cold, and have to get up and tuck them in, when you want to sleep! And
I can't endure creases. I like the under sheet stretched as tight as
tight. Everyone likes a bed made in a special way, and it _ought_ to be
done. Think of the time one spends in bed! A third of one's life.
It's a shame not to be comfortable. I should be an expert in bed-
making. I'd keep a book to remind me of everyone's special fancies--"
"And lose it the second day! Play all the experiments you like, but
leave my room alone. I want no expert. The ordinary common or garden
housemaid is good enough for me," said Hereward, cruelly.
Dreda reflected sadly that a prophet was not a prophet in her own
country, but she was too much fired with the new idea to relinquish it
without a trial. Besides, hidden in her heart lay the reviving thought:
"If I could prove that I could be of use in the house, perhaps they'd
let me stay! I know quite enough lessons as it is!"
The first two nights after hearing of the changed arrangements for her
own education Dreda had cried herself to sleep, and had even succeeded--
with a little difficulty--in squeezing out a few tears as she dressed in
the morning, or what was the use of breaking your heart if no one were
the wiser, or pitied you for your pathetic looks? By the third morning,
however, her facile nature had adapted itself to the inevitable. She
was tired of being in the dumps, and reflected that with a little
diplomacy she would be able to "manage" the school governesses as
cleverly as she had done the Spider before them, while the Currant Buns
looked meek, poor-spirited creatures, who would like nothing better than
to be ruled. "_I'll_ teach them!" prophesied Dreda darkly, and the word
was used in no educational sense.
The future was thus swallowed at a gulp; but all the same Dreda thought
it worth while to interview her mother on the subject of her domestic
ambitions, and was much disappointed to have her generous offer kindly
but firmly refused.
"There is no necessity, dear. Thank you very much, all the same," Mrs
Saxon said, smilingly. "We are no longer able to keep up two houses,
but we can afford all the help that is needed for one. The two
housemaids can keep the bedrooms in order very easily in this fresh
clean air."
Etheldreda put her head on one side and lengthened her upper lip, after
a fashion she affected when she wished to be impressive.
"_Still_," she insisted, obstinately, "when a family is reduced in
circumstances I think it _most_ important that the girls should learn to
be domestic. I have always understood that in reduced circumstances it
was necessary for the mistress to overlook _everything_, and how can you
learn to do that if you never begin? It seems to me that one can never
begin too young, and if we _could_ do with only one housemaid, it is our
duty to do so."
Mrs Saxon laughed. She always did laugh when Dreda waxed impressive,
which was one of that young woman's trials in life.
"Darling Dreda!" she cried, affectionately. "You shall be as domestic
as ever you please--the more domestic the better; but there is a time
for everything, and this is your time for study. You must wait until
your education is finished, before you take up home duties. We are not
going to sacrifice your interests for the sake of a servant's wages.
Work hard, and do your best, dear. One thing at a time, and that done
well--"
But Dreda refused to be convinced.
"_My_ theory," she announced, firmly, "my theory is that it is stupid to
waste time learning things which you will never need! As we are
`rejuiced' (the expression had stuck, until the very pronunciation was
unconsciously reproduced), and I can't go to Madame Clerc's and be
finished properly, I should consider that it would be wiser to stop as I
am. I am very well grounded. We can't afford to go into society now,
so I shall probably marry a man in a humble position, and it's foolish
to educate me above my rank!"
"Oh, Dreda, Dreda! Oh! I haven't laughed for weeks. You mustn't be
vexed with me for laughing, dear--it's _so_ refreshing!" And Mrs Saxon
wiped her eyes and chuckled irresistibly, the while her young daughter
regarded her more in pity than in anger.
"I can't see what I have said that is so amusing. I was speaking _most_
seriously. I'm fifteen. It's my own future that is at stake. Really,
mother!"
"I'm sorry, dear, and I don't mean to be unsympathetic. I know you are
in earnest, but for the next few years you must consent to be guided by
what father and I believe to be best. Whatever may be before you, it is
necessary that you have a good education, so put your heart into your
work, and get on as quickly as possible."
Dreda sucked her upper lip in eloquent disgust.
"Parents are so _trying_!" she told herself, mentally. "They never seem
to think it possible that you know better yourself. I shall be quite
different with my daughters. What a pity it is that you can never
manage to be your own mother!"