Uncle James Patten sent a landau to meet his sister and her family at
the station, on their arrival from Ireland. Mildred was the first to
jump in. She took the best seat, and sat up stiff and straight.
"I do love carriages and horses, mamma," she said, as they drove
through Rainharbour, the little north-country seaside place which was
henceforth to be their home. "I wonder which is to be our house. There
are several empty. Do you think it is that one?" She had singled out
one of the largest in the place.
"No," said Mrs. Caldwell rather bitterly, "more likely this," and she
indicated a tiny two-storied tenement, wedged in between tall houses,
and looking as if it had either got itself there by mistake, or had
been put in in a hurry, just to fill up.
"That _is_ the one," Beth said.
"How do you know?" Mildred snapped.
"Because we're going to live in Orchard Street, opposite the orchard;
and this is Orchard Street, and there's the orchard, and that's the
only house empty."
"I'm afraid the child is right," Mrs. Caldwell said with a sigh.
"However," she added, pulling herself up, "it is exceedingly kind of
Uncle James to give us a house at all."
"He might have given us something nicer," Mildred remarked
disdainfully.
"Oh!" Beth exclaimed, "he's given us the best he has, I expect. And
it's a dear little place, with a little bow-window on either side of a
little front door--just like the one where Snowdrop found the empty
beds when the bears were out."
"Don't talk nonsense, Beth," Mildred cried crossly.
But Beth hardly heard. She was busy peopling the quaint little town
with the friends of her fancy, and sat smiling serenely as she looked
about her.
They had to drive right through Rainharbour, and about a mile out
into the country on the other side, to arrive at Fairholm, Uncle James
Patten's place. The sun had set, and the quaintly irregular red-brick
houses, mellowed by age, shone warm in tint against the gathering grey
of the sky, which rose like a leaden dome above them. At one part of
the road the sea came in sight. Great dark mountainous masses of
cloud, with flame-coloured fringes, hung suspended over its shining
surface, in which they were reflected with what was to Beth terrible
effect. She sat and shivered with awe so long as the lurid scene was
in sight, and was greatly relieved when the carriage turned into a
country lane, and sea and sombre sky were blotted out.
It was early spring. Buds were bursting in the hedgerows, birds were
building, songsters sang among the branches, and the air was sweet and
mild. Fairholm lay all among fertile fields, well wooded and watered.
It was a typical English home, with surroundings as unlike the great,
bare, bald mountains and wild Atlantic seas Beth had hitherto
shuddered amongst, as peace is unlike war. Certain natures are
stimulated by the grandeur of such scenes; but Beth was too delicate
an instrument to be played upon so roughly. Storms within reflected
the storms without only too readily. She was tempest-tossed by
temperament, and, in nature, all her yearning was for repose; so that
now, as they drove up the well-ordered avenue to the house, the tender
tone of colour, green against quiet grey, and the easy air of
affluence, so soothing after the sorrowful signs of a hard struggle
for life by which her feelings had hitherto been harrowed, drew from
her a deep sigh of satisfaction.
The hall-door stood open, but no one was looking out for them. They
could hear the tinkle of a piano in the distance. Then a servant
appeared, followed by a stout lady, who came forward to greet them in
a hurried, nervous way.
"I'm glad to see you," she said, kissing Mrs. Caldwell. She spoke in a
breathless undertone, as if she were saying something wrong, and was
afraid of being caught and stopped before she had finished the
sentence. "I should like to have gone to meet you, but James said
there were too many for the carriage as it was. He says more than two
in the carriage makes it look like an excursion-party. But I was
listening for you, only I don't hear very well, you know. You remember
me, Mildred? This is Beth, I suppose, and this is Bernadine. You don't
know who I am? I am your Aunt Grace Mary. James begs you to excuse him
for a little, Caroline. It is his half-hour for exercises. So
unfortunate. If you had only come a little later! But, however, the
sooner the better for me. Come into the dining-room and see Aunt
Victoria. We must stay there until Uncle James has finished practising
his exercises in the drawing-room."
Great-Aunt Victoria Bench was sitting bolt upright on a high chair in
the dining-room, tatting. Family portraits, hung far too high all
round the room, seemed to have been watching her complacently until
the travellers entered, when they all turned instantly and looked hard
at Beth.
Aunt Victoria was a tall thin old lady, with a beautiful delicate
complexion, an auburn front and white cap, and a severely simple black
dress. She rose stiffly to receive Mrs. Caldwell, and kissed her on
both cheeks with restrained emotion. Then she shook hands with each of
the children.
"I hope you had a pleasant journey," she was beginning formally, when
Mrs. Caldwell suddenly burst into tears. "What is the matter,
Caroline?" Aunt Victoria asked.
"Oh, nothing," the poor lady answered in a broken voice. "Only it does
seem a sad home-returning--alone--without _him_--you know."
Aunt Grace Mary furtively patted Mrs. Caldwell on the back, keeping an
eye on Aunt Victoria the while, however, as if she were afraid of
being caught.
All this time the tinkle-tinkle-tinkle of "Hamilton's Exercises for
Beginners" on the piano had been going on; now it stopped. Aunt Grace
Mary slipped into a chair, and sat with a smile on her face; Aunt
Victoria became a trifle more rigid over her tatting; and Mrs.
Caldwell hurriedly wiped her eyes. Then the door opened deliberately,
and there entered a great stout man, with red hair sprinkled with
grey, large prominent light-coloured eyes, a nondescript nose, a wide
shapeless gash of a mouth, and a red moustache with straight bristly
hairs, like the bristles of a broom.
"How do you do, Caroline?" he said, holding out his big, fat, white
hand, and kissing her coldly on the forehead. He drawled his words out
with a decided lisp, and in a very soft voice, which contrasted oddly
with his huge bulk. Having greeted his sister, he turned and looked at
the children. Mildred went up and shook hands with him.
"Your sisters, I perceive, have no manners," he observed.
Beth had been beaming round blandly on the group; but upon that last
remark of Uncle James's the pleased smile faded from her face, and she
coloured painfully, and offered him a small reluctant hand.
"You are Elizabeth, I suppose?" he said.
"I am Beth," she answered emphatically.
She and Uncle James looked into each other's eyes for an instant, and
in that instant she made a most disagreeable impression of
fearlessness on the big man's brain.
"I hope, Caroline," he said precisely, "that you will not continue to
call your daughter by such an absurd abbreviation. That sort of thing
was all very well in the wilds of Ireland, but here we must have
something rational, ladylike, and recognised."
Mrs. Caldwell looked distressed. "It would be so difficult to call her
Elizabeth," she pleaded. "She is not at all--Elizabeth."
"You may call me what you like, mamma," Beth put in with decision;
"but I shall only answer to Beth. That was the name my father gave me,
and I shall stick to it."
Uncle James stared at her in amazement, but Beth, unabashed, stared
back obstinately; and so they continued staring until Aunt Grace Mary
made a diversion.
"James," she hurriedly interposed, "wouldn't they like some
refreshment?"
Uncle James pulled the bell-rope. "Bring wine and cake," he lisped,
when the servant answered.
Then he returned to his seat, crossed one great leg over the other,
folded his fat hands on his knee, and inspected his sister.
"You certainly do not grow younger, Caroline," he observed.
Mrs. Caldwell did not look cheered by the remark; and there was a
painful pause, broken, happily, by the arrival of the cake and wine.
"You will not take more than half a glass, I suppose, Caroline, at
_this_ time of the day," Uncle James said playfully, as he took up the
decanter; "and marsala, _not_ port. I know what ladies are."
Poor Mrs. Caldwell was exhausted, and would have been the better for a
good glass of port; but she meekly held her peace.
Then Uncle James cut the cake, and gave each of the children a very
small slice. Beth held hers suspended half-way to her mouth, and gazed
at her uncle.
"What _is_ that child staring at?" he asked her mother at last.
"I think she is admiring you," was Mrs. Caldwell's happy rejoinder.
"No, mamma, I am not," Beth contradicted. "I was just thinking I had
never seen anything so big in my life."
"_Anything!_" Uncle James protested. "What does she mean, Caroline?"
"I don't mean this slice of cake," Beth chuckled.
"Come, dear--come, dear," Aunt Grace Mary hurriedly interposed. "Come
upstairs, and see--and see--the pretty room you're to have. Come and
take your things off, like a good child."
Beth rose obediently, but before she followed her aunt out of the room
she said: "Here, Bernadine; you'd better have my slice. You'll howl if
you don't get enough. Cakes are scarce and dear here, I suppose."
Aunt Victoria had tatted diligently during this little scene. Now she
looked up over her spectacles and inspected Uncle James.
"I like that child," she said decidedly.
"In which respect I should think you would probably find yourself in a
very small minority," Uncle James lisped, spreading his mouth into
what would have been a smile in any other countenance, but was merely
an elongation of the lips in his.
Mrs. Caldwell rocked herself forlornly. Mildred nestled close to her
mother; while Baby Bernadine, with a slice of cake in each hand, took
a mouthful first from the right and then from the left, impartially.
Uncle James gazed at her. "I suppose that is an Irish custom," he said
at length.
"Bernadine! what are you doing?" Mrs. Caldwell snapped; and Bernadine,
startled, let both slices fall on the floor, and set up a howl with
her mouth full.
"Ah!" Uncle James murmured tenderly. "Little children are such darling
things! They make the sense of their presence felt the moment they
enter a house. It becomes visible also in the crumbs on the floor.
There is evidently nothing the matter with her lungs. But I should
have thought it would be dangerous to practise her voice like that
with the mouth full. Perhaps she would be more at her ease upstairs."
Mrs. Caldwell took the hint.
When the child had gone, Uncle James rang for a servant to sweep up
the cake and crumbs, and carefully stood over her, superintending.
"That will do," he said at length, "so far as the cake and crumbs are
concerned, but I beg you to observe that you have brushed the pile of
the carpet the wrong way."
Meanwhile Aunt Grace Mary had taken Beth up a polished staircase,
through a softly carpeted, airy corridor, at the end of which was a
large room with two great mahogany four-post beds, hung with brown
damask, the rest of the heavy old-fashioned furniture being to match.
All over the house there was a delicious odour of fresh air and
lavender, everything shone resplendent, and all was orderly to the
point of stiffness; nothing looked as if it had ever been used.
"This was your mamma's room when she was a girl," Aunt Grace Mary
confided to Beth. "She used to fill the house with her girl-friends,
and that was why she had such big beds. She used to be a very
high-spirited girl, your dear mamma was. You are all to sleep here."
"How good it smells," said Beth.
"Ah, that's the lavender. I often burn lavender. Would you like to see
me burn some lavender? Come to my room, then, and I'll show you. But
take your things off first."
Beth dragged off her hat and jacket and threw them aside. They
happened to fall on the floor.
"My dear child!" Aunt Grace Mary exclaimed, "look at your things!"
Beth looked at them, but nothing occurred to her; so she looked at her
aunt inquiringly.
"I always put mine away--at least I should, you know, if I hadn't a
maid," said Aunt Grace Mary.
"Oh, let your maid put mine away too," Beth answered casually.
"But, my dear child, you must learn," Aunt Grace Mary insisted,
picking up Beth's things and putting them in a drawer as she spoke.
"Who puts your things away at home?"
"Mamma," Beth answered laconically. "She says it's less trouble to do
things herself."
"Oh, but you must save your mother the trouble, dear," said Aunt Grace
Mary in a shocked tone.
"Well, I will next time--if I remember," Beth rejoined. "Come and burn
lavender."
For the next few days, which happened to be very fine, Beth revelled
out of doors. Everything was a wonder and a joy to her in this fertile
land, the trees especially, after the bleak, wild wastes to which she
had been accustomed in the one stormy corner of Ireland she knew.
Leaves and blossoms were just bursting out, and one day, wandering
alone in the grounds, she happened unawares upon an orchard in full
bloom, and fairly gasped, utterly overcome by the first shock of its
beauty. For a while she stood and gazed in silent awe at the white
froth of flowers on the pear-trees, the tinted almond blossom, and the
pink-tipped apple. She had never dreamed of such heavenly loveliness.
But enthusiasm succeeded to awe at last, and, in a wild burst of
delight, she suddenly threw her arms around a gnarled tree-trunk and
clasped it close.
There was a large piece of artificial water in the grounds, in which
were three green islands covered with trees and shrubs. Beth was
standing on the bank one morning in a contemplative mood, admiring the
water, and yearning for a boat to get to the islands, when round one
of them, unexpectedly, a white wonder of a swan came gliding towards
her in the sunshine.
"Oh, oh! Mildred! Mildred! Oh, the beautiful, beautiful thing!" she
cried. Mildred came running up.
"Why, Beth, you idiot," she exclaimed in derision, "it's only a swan.
I really thought it _was_ something."
"Is that a swan?" Beth said slowly; then, after a moment, she added,
in sorrowful reproach: "O Mildred! you had seen it and you never told
me."
Alas, poor Mildred! she had not seen it, and never would see it, in
Beth's sense of the word.
On wet days, when they had to be indoors, Aunt Grace Mary waylaid Beth
continually, and trotted her off somewhere out of Uncle James's way.
She would take her to her own room sometimes, a large, bright
apartment, spick-and-span like the rest of the house; and show her the
pictures--pastels and water-colours chiefly--with which it was stiffly
decorated.
"That was your uncle when he was a little boy," she said, pointing to
a pretty pastel.
"Why, he was quite a nice little boy," Beth exclaimed.
"Yes, nice and plump," Aunt Grace Mary rattled off breathlessly. "And
your grandmamma did those water-colours and those screens. That lovely
printing too; can you guess how she did it? With a camel's hair brush.
She did indeed. And she used to compose music. She was a very clever
woman. You are very like her."
"But I am not very clever," said Beth.
"No, dear; no, dear," Aunt Grace Mary rejoined, pulling herself up
hurriedly from this indiscretion. "But in the face. You are very like
her in appearance. And you must try. You must try to improve yourself.
Your uncle is always trying to improve himself. He reads 'Doctor
Syntax' aloud to us. In the evening it is our custom to read aloud and
converse."
An occasional phrase of Uncle James's would flow from Aunt Grace Mary
in this way, with incongruous effect.
"Do you try to improve yourself?" Beth asked.
"Yes, dear."
"How?"
"Oh, well--that reminds me. I must write a letter. You shall stay and
see me if you like. But you mustn't move or speak."
Beth, deeply interested, watched her aunt, who began by locking the
door. Then she slipped a pair of spectacles out of her pocket, and put
them on, after glancing round apprehensively as if she were going to
do something wrong. Then she sat down at a small bureau, unlocked a
drawer, and took out a little dictionary, unlocked another drawer and
took out a sheet of notepaper, in which she inserted a page of black
lines. Then she proceeded to write a letter in lead-pencil, stopping
often to consult the dictionary. When she had done, she took out
another sheet of a better quality, put the lines in it, and proceeded
to copy the letter in ink. She blotted the first attempt, but the next
she finished. She destroyed several envelopes also before she was
satisfied. But at last the letter was folded and sealed, and then she
carefully burnt every scrap of paper she had spoiled.
"I was educated in a convent in France," she said to Beth. "If you
were older you would know that by my handwriting. It is called an
Italian hand, but I learnt it in France. I was there five years."
"What else did you learn?" said Beth.
"Oh--reading. No--I could read before I went. But music, you know, and
French."
"Say some French," said Beth.
"Oh, I can't," Aunt Grace Mary answered. "But I can read it a little,
you know."
"I should like to hear you play," said Beth.
"But I don't play," Aunt Grace Mary rejoined.
"I thought you said you learnt music."
"Oh yes. I had to learn music; and I practised for hours every day;
but I never played."
Aunt Grace Mary smiled complacently as she spoke, took off her
spectacles, and locked up her writing materials--Beth, the while,
thoughtfully observing her. Aunt Grace Mary's hair was a wonderful
colour, neither red, yellow, brown, nor white, but a mixture of all
four. It was parted straight in the middle, where it was thin, and
brought down in two large rolls over her ears. She wore a black velvet
band across her head like a coronet, which ended in a large black
velvet bow at the back. Long heavy gold ear-rings pulled down the
lobes of her ears. All her dresses were of rustling silk, and she had
a variety of deep lace-collars, each one of which she fastened with a
different brooch at the throat. She also wore a heavy gold watch-chain
round her neck, the watch being concealed in her bosom; and jet
bracelets by day, but gold ones in the evening.
* * * * *
Beth was deeply interested in her own family history, and
intelligently pieced together such fragments of it as she could
collect from the conversations of the people about her. She was
sitting in one of the deep window-seats in the drawing-room looking
out one day, concealed by a curtain, when her mother and Great-Aunt
Victoria Bench came into the room, and settled themselves to chat and
sew without observing her.
"Where is Grace Mary?" Aunt Victoria asked.
"Locked up in her own room writing a letter, I believe," Mrs. Caldwell
replied, "a long and mysterious proceeding. We shall not see her again
this morning, I suppose."
"Ah, well," said Aunt Victoria considerately, "she writes a very
beautiful hand."
"James thought he was doing so well for himself, too!" Mrs. Caldwell
interjected. "He'd better have married the mother."
"There was the making of a fine woman in Grace Mary if she had had a
chance," Aunt Victoria answered, pursing up her mouth judicially. "It
was the mother made the match. When he came across them in
Switzerland, Lady Benyon got hold of him, and flattered him, made him
believe Grace Mary was only thirty-eight, not too old for a
son-and-heir, but much too old for a large family. She was really
about fifty; but he never thought of looking up her age until after
they were married. However, James got one thing he likes, and more
than he deserved; for Grace Mary is amiable if she's ignorant; and I
should say had tact, though some people might call it cunning. But, at
any rate, she's the daughter of one baronet and the sister of
another."
"What's a baronet?" Beth demanded, tumbling off the window-seat on to
the floor with a crash as she spoke, having lost her balance in
peering round the curtain.
Both ladies jumped, quite contrary to their principles.
"You naughty child, how dare you?" Mrs. Caldwell began.
Beth picked herself up. "I want to know," she interrupted.
"You've been listening."
"No, I've not. I was here first, and you came and talked. But that
doesn't matter. I shan't tell. What's a baronet?"
Aunt Victoria explained, and then turned her out of the room. Uncle
James was crossing the hall at the moment; he had a large bunch of
keys in his hand, and went through the double-doors which led to the
kitchen and offices. Beth followed him into the kitchen. The cook, an
old servant, came forward curtseying. The remains of yesterday's
dinner, cold roast beef, tongue, chicken, and plum-pudding, were
spread out on the table. Uncle James inspected everything.
"For luncheon," he said, "the beef can remain cold on the sideboard,
also the tongue. The chicken you will grill for one hot dish, and do
not forget to garnish with rolls of bacon. The pudding you can cut
into slices, fry, and sprinkle with a little sifted sugar. Mind, I say
a little; for, as the pudding is sweet enough already, the sugar is
merely an ornament to make it agreeable to the eye. For the rest, as
usual."
"Yes, sir. And dinner, sir?"
"Here is the _menu_." He handed her a paper. "I will give you out what
is necessary."
He led the way down a stone passage to the store-room door, which he
unlocked.
"I am out of sifted sugar, sir," the cook said nervously.
"What, again?" Uncle James sternly demanded. "This is only Thursday,
and I gave you some out on Saturday."
"Yes, sir, but only a quarter of a pound, sir, and I had to use it for
the top of the rice-pudding, and the pancakes, and the Charlotte
Russe, and the plum-pudding----"
"How?" said Uncle James--"the plum-pudding, which is not yet fried?"
"Beg pardon, sir. I'm all confused. But, however," she added
desperately, "the sugar is done."
"Well, I suppose I must give you some more this time. But do not let
it occur again. You may weigh out a quarter of a pound."
When that was done, Uncle James consulted a huge cookery-book which
lay on a shelf in the window. "We shall require another cake for tea,"
he said, and then proceeded to read the recipe aloud, keeping an
observant eye upon the cook as she weighed out the various
ingredients.
"And the kitchen meals, sir?" she asked, as he locked up the
store-room.
"Make what you have do," he said, "make what you have do."
"But there is hardly meat enough to go round once, sir."
"You must make it do. People are much healthier and happier when they
do not eat too much."
This ceremony over, he went to the poultry-yard, followed by Beth (who
carefully kept in the background), the yard-boy, and the poultry-maid
who carried some corn in a sieve, which she handed to her master when
he stopped. Uncle James scattered a little corn on the ground, calling
"chuck! chuck! chuck!" at the same time, in a dignified manner.
Chickens, ducks, turkeys and guinea-fowl collected about him, and he
stood gazing at them with large light prominent eyes, blandly, as if
he loved them--as indeed he did when they appeared like ladies at
table, dressed to perfection.
"That guinea-fowl!" he decided, after due consideration.
The yard-boy caught it and gave it to the poultry-maid, who held it
while Uncle James carefully felt its breast.
"That will do," he said. "Quite a beauty."
The yard-boy took it from the poultry-maid, tied its legs together,
cut its throat, and hung it on a nail.
"That drake!" Uncle James proceeded. The same ceremony followed, Uncle
James bearing his part in it without any relaxation of his grand
manner.
When a turkey-poult had also been executed, he requested the yard-boy
to fetch him his gun from the harness-room.
"We must have a pigeon-pie," he observed as he took it.
Beth, in great excitement, stalked him to the orchard, where there was
a big pigeon-house covered with ivy. In front of it the pigeons had a
good run, enclosed with wire netting when they were shut in; but they
were often let out to feed in the fields. The yard-boy now reached up
and opened a little door in the side of the house. As he did so he
glanced at Uncle James somewhat apprehensively. Uncle James, with a
benign countenance, suddenly lifted his gun and fired. The yard-boy
dropped.
"What is the matter?" said Uncle James.
The yard-boy gathered himself up with a very red face. "I thought you
meant to shoot me, sir."
Uncle James smiled gently. "May I ask when it became customary for
gentlemen to shoot yard-boys?" he said.
"Beg pardon, sir," the boy rejoined sheepishly. "There's accidents
sometimes."
The pigeons were wary after the shot, and would not come out, so the
yard-boy had to go into the house and drive them. There was a shelf in
front of the little door, on which they generally rested a moment,
bewildered, before they flew. Uncle James knew them all by sight, and
let several go, as being too old for his purpose. Then, standing
pretty close, he shot two, one after the other, as they stood
hesitating to take flight. While loading again, he discovered Beth;
but as he liked an audience when he was performing an exploit, he was
quite gracious.
"Nothing distinguishes a gentleman more certainly than a love of
sport," he observed blandly, as he shot another pigeon sitting.
This entertainment over, he looked at his watch. He had the whole day
divided into hours and half-hours, each with its separate occupation
or recreation; and nothing short of a visit from some personage of
importance was ever allowed to interrupt him in any of his pursuits.
For recreation he sometimes did a little knitting or a piece of Berlin
woolwork, because, he said, a gentleman should learn to do everything,
so as not to be at a loss if he were ever wrecked on a desert island.
For the same reason, he had also trained himself to sleep at odd
times, and in all sorts of odd places, choosing by preference some
corner where Aunt Grace Mary and the maids would least expect to find
him, the consequence being wild shrieks and shocks to their nerves,
such as, to use his own bland explanation, might be expected from
undisciplined females. Beth found him one day spread out on a large
oak chest in the main corridor upstairs, with two great china vases,
one at his head and one at his feet, filled with reeds and bulrushes,
which appeared to be waving over him, and looking in his sleep, with
his cadaverous countenance, like a self-satisfied corpse. She had been
on her way downstairs to dispose of the core of an apple she had
eaten; but, as Uncle James's mouth was open, she left it there.
Uncle James was wont to deliver little lectures to the children, for
the improvement of their minds, during luncheon, which was their
dinner-hour.
"With regularity and practice you may accomplish great things," he
said on one occasion. "I myself always practise 'Hamilton's Exercises'
on the pianoforte for one hour every day, from half-past ten till
eleven, and from half-past three till four. I have done so now for
many years."
Beth sat with her spoon suspended half-way up to her mouth, drinking
in these words of wisdom. "And when will you be able to play?" she
asked.
Uncle James fixed his large, light, ineffectual eyes upon her; but, as
usual, this gaze direct only excited Beth's interest, and she returned
it unabashed in simple expectation of what was to follow. So Uncle
James gave in, and to cover his retreat he said: "Culture. Cultivate
the mind. There is nothing that elevates the mind like general
cultivation. It is cultivation that makes us great, good, and
generous."
"Then, I suppose, when your mind is cultivated, Uncle James, you will
give mamma more money," Beth burst out hopefully.
Uncle James blinked his eyes several times running, rapidly, as if
something had gone wrong with them.
"Beth, you are talking too much; go to your room _at once_, and stay
there for a punishment," her mother exclaimed nervously.
Beth, innocent of any intent to offend, looked surprised, put down her
spoon deliberately, got off her chair, took up her plate of pudding,
and was making off with it. As she was passing Uncle James, however,
he stretched out his big hand suddenly, and snatched the plate from
her; but Beth in an instant doubled her little fist, and struck the
plate from underneath, the concussion scattering the pudding all over
the front of Uncle James.
In the confusion which followed, Beth made her escape to the kitchen,
where she was already popular.
"I say, cook," she coaxed, "give me something good to eat. My
pudding's got upset all over Uncle James."
The cook sat down suddenly, and twinkled a glance of intelligence at
Horner, the old coachman, who happened to be in the kitchen.
"Give me a cheesecake--I won't tell," Beth pleaded.
"That's doubtful, I should think," Horner said aside to the cook.
"Oh, bless you, she never do, not she!" cook answered, and then she
fetched Beth a big cheesecake from a secret store. Beth took it
smiling, and retired to the brown bedroom, where she was left in
solitary confinement until Uncle James drove out with mamma in Aunt
Grace Mary's pony-carriage to pay a call in the afternoon. When they
had gone, Aunt Grace Mary peeped in at Beth, and said, with an
unconvincing affectation of anger: "Beth, you are a naughty little
girl, and deserve to be punished. Say you're sorry. Then you shall
come to my room, and see me write a letter."
"All right," Beth answered, and Aunt Grace Mary took her off without
more ado.
It was a great encouragement to Beth to find that Aunt Grace Mary was
obliged to take pains with her writing. All the other grown-up people
Beth knew, seemed to do everything with such ease, it was quite
disheartening. Beth was allowed a pencil, a sheet of paper, and some
lines herself now, and Aunt Grace Mary was taking great pains to teach
her to write an Italian hand. Beth was also trying to learn: "because
there are such lots of things I want to write down," she explained;
"and I want to do it small like you, because it won't take so much
paper, you know."
"What kind of things do you want to write down, Beth?" Aunt Grace Mary
asked. Beth treated her quite as an equal, so they chatted the whole
time they were together, unconstrainedly.
"Oh, you know--things like--well, the day we came here there were
great grey clouds with crimson caps hanging over the sea, and you
could see them in the water."
"See their reflection, you mean, I suppose."
Beth looked puzzled. "When you think of things, isn't that
reflection?" she asked.
"Yes; and when you see yourself in the looking-glass, that's your
reflection too," Aunt Grace Mary answered.
"Oh, then I suppose it was the sea's thought of the sky I saw in the
water--that makes it nicer than I had it before," Beth said, trying to
turn the phrase as a young bird practises to round its notes in the
spring. "The sea shows its thoughts, the thought of the sea is the
sky--no, that isn't right. It never does come right all at once, you
know. But that's the kind of thing."
"What kind of thing?" Aunt Grace Mary asked, bewildered.
"The kind of thing I am always wanting to write down. You generally
forget what we're talking about, don't you?--I say, don't you want to
drive your own ponies yourself sometimes?"
"No, not when your dear uncle wants them."
"Dear uncle wants them almost always, doesn't he? Horner ses as
'ow----"
"Beth, don't speak like that!"
"That's Horner, not me," Beth snapped, impatient of the interruption.
"How am I to tell you what he said if I don't say what he said? Horner
ses as 'ow, when Lady Benyon gev them there white ponies to 'er darter
fur 'er own use, squire 'e sells two on 'is 'orses, an' 'as used them
ponies ever since. Squire's a near un, my word!" Beth perceived that
Aunt Grace Mary looked very funny in the face. "You're frightened to
death of Uncle James, arn't you?" she asked, after sucking her pencil
meditatively for a little.
"No, dear, of course not. I am not afraid of any one but the dear
Lord."
"But Uncle James _is_ the lord."
"Nonsense, child."
"Mildred says so. She says he's lord of the manor. Mildred says it's
fine to be lord of the manor. But it doesn't make me care a button
about Uncle James."
"Don't speak like that, Beth. It's disrespectful. It was the Lord in
heaven I alluded to," said Aunt Grace Mary in her breathless way.
"Ah, that _is_ different," Beth allowed. "But I'm not afraid of Him
either. I don't think I'm afraid of any one really, not even of mamma,
though she does beat me. I'd rather she didn't, you know. But one gets
used to it. The worst of it is," Beth added, after sucking the point
of her pencil a little--"The worst of it is, you never know what will
make her waxy. To-day, at luncheon, you know--now, what did I say?"
"Oh," said Aunt Grace Mary vaguely; "you oughtn't to have said it, you
know."
"Now, that's just like mamma! She says 'Don't!' and 'How dare you!'
and 'Naughty girl!' at the top of her voice, and half the time I don't
know what she's talking about. When I grow up, I shall explain to
children. Do you know, sometimes I quite want to be good"--this with a
sigh. "But when I'm bad without having a notion what I've done, why,
it's difficult. Aunt Grace Mary, do you know what Neptune would say if
the sea dried up?" Aunt Grace Mary smiled and shook her head. "I
haven't an ocean," Beth proceeded. "You don't see it? Well, I didn't
at first. You see _an ocean_ and _a notion_ sound the same if you say
them sharp. Now, do you see? They call that a pun."
"Who told you that?"
"A gentleman in the train."
Beth put her pencil in her mouth, and gazed up at the sky. "I don't
suppose he'd be such a black-hearted villain as to break his word,"
she said at last.
"Who?" Aunt Grace Mary asked, in a startled tone.
"Uncle James--about leaving Jim the place, you know. Why, don't you
know? Mamma is the eldest, and ought to have had Fairholm, but she was
away in Ireland, busy having me, when grandpapa died, and couldn't
come; so Uncle James frightened the old man into leaving the place to
him, and mamma only got fifty pounds a year, which wasn't fair."
"Who told you this, Beth?"
"Mildred. Mamma told her. And Horner said the other day to cook--I'll
have to say it the way Horner says it. If I said it my way, you know,
then it wouldn't be Horner--Horner said to cook as 'ow Captain
Caldwell 'ud 'a' gone to law about it, but squire 'e swore if 'e'd let
the matter drop, 'e'd make 'is nevee, Master Jim, as is also 'is
godson, 'is heir, an' so square it; and Captain Caldwell, as was a
real gen'lmon, an' fond of the ladies, tuk 'im at 'is word, an'
furgiv' 'im. But, lardie! don't us know the worth o' Mr. James
Patten's word!"
Aunt Grace Mary had turned very pale.
"Beth," she gasped, "promise me you will never, never, _never_ say a
word about this to your uncle."
"Not likely," said Beth.
"How do you remember these things you hear?"
"Oh, I just think them over again when I go to bed, and then they
stay," Beth answered. "I wouldn't tell you half I hear, though--only
things everybody knows. If you tell secrets, you know, you're a
tell-pie. And I'm not a tell-pie. Now, Bernadine is. She's a regular
tell-pie. It seems as if she couldn't help it; but then she's young,"
Beth added tolerantly.
"Were you ever young, I wonder?" Aunt Grace Mary muttered to herself.