MR. TURNER'S PLAN
"I am deeply sorry," said Mr. Turner, "and can only apologize in my
friend's name for any annoyance his daughter may have caused you. Of
course I cannot agree with you that she annoys you purposely. A child
of William Cutler could not well be other than large-hearted and
generous. She may be a little undisciplined perhaps, but it shall be
attended to, Madam! I assure you the matter shall be attended to."
Mrs. Newton rose. She had called upon Mr. Turner to state her
complaint against Nan Cutler. Now that was accomplished she would go;
only she made a mental vow that if the lawyer were not as good as his
word, if he did not take immediate steps toward rectifying the matter,
she would follow it up herself and see that she was relieved of what,
in her anger, she called "that common nuisance."
Meantime Nan herself was going about with a dead load of misery on her
heart. Delia had gone to the Newton's house early in the morning to
inquire after the sick child's condition and to repeat Nan's story to
her mother, but that lady was "not at home," and Delia understood that
to mean that Mrs. Newton declined to receive either her or her
explanation. She went home angry and disappointed.
"I guess the little girl ain't much hurt," she announced to Nan.
"She's in bed to be sure, but I guess that's more on account of her
cold than anything else. She isn't going to be crippled, Nan, now
don't you fret. She'll be all right. Now you see if she ain't."
Nan's own flushed cheeks and brilliant eyes, the result of her
yesterday's chilly adventures, worried the good woman not a little. If
she had dared she would have liked to "coddle her child," but Nan was
not one of the coddling kind, and would have scorned being made a baby
of. She went about the house in one of her unhappy moods, restless and
wretched and unable to amuse herself, and finding the hours
never-endingly long.
When the bell rang she welcomed the sound as a grateful diversion and
ran to the balusters and hung over the railing to see who might be the
new-comer. She was glad of any break in the monotony of such a
miserable day.
When Delia opened the door and admitted Mr. Turner, Nan's heart gave a
big leap. Visions of what might be in store for her, the result of
Mrs. Newton's action against her, thronged her brain and made her
shudder with apprehension. What if Mr. Turner had come to say that she
was to be sent to the House of Correction, or some horrid
boarding-school where one don't get enough to eat and where one
couldn't poke one's nose outside the door. A set expression settled on
the girl's face that did not augur well for her reception of whatever
plan the lawyer might have to propose.
When Delia came to call her, she sighed. She saw plainly enough that
Nan's "contrary fit" was on, and she wondered how much the lawyer would
accomplish by his visit under the circumstances.
Nan went down to him sullenly determined to stand by her guns and
absolutely refuse to be committed to either a reformatory or any other
establishment of a similar character.
"How do you do, my dear?" was Mr. Turner's kindly greeting as the girl
entered the room.
Nan replied, "Very well, sir," thinking, at the same time, that she
would not be disarmed by kindness nor permit herself to be cajoled into
doing anything she did not wish to do. No one really had the right to
order her about, and she would resolutely oppose any one who assumed
such a right.
But presently she found herself telling her father's friend the story
of yesterday's disaster, quite simply and with entire willingness.
"So," Mr. Turner said at the conclusion, "I thought that the good lady
must have made a mistake. I felt pretty sure your father's daughter
would never be guilty of cowardice nor of deliberately planning to
destroy the peace of any one. I knew you could not be the girl Mrs.
Newton described. She seemed to think you were--why, my dear, she gave
me to understand that you were quite wild and lawless; that you were a
bad influence in the neighborhood, and that you were so with full
consciousness of what you were doing. We must explain to Mrs. Newton!
We must explain!"
"I don't lie!" declared Nan. "And I'm not a coward, and I don't try to
make her mad or hurt her children, but I do climb trees and I do race
and do figures on roller-skates, and I do do the rest of the things she
says I do and that she doesn't like."
"And your school?" ventured the lawyer.
"I don't go any more," announced Nan. "I had a fight with one of the
teachers, and so I left."
Mr. Turner gazed suddenly upon the floor.
"And this 'fight' with the teacher? Do you remember the cause of the
disturbance?" he asked, looking up after a moment.
"She struck me with her ruler. I had a rubber baby doll, it was the
weeniest thing you ever saw, and she wore false puffs, Miss Fowler did,
and one day, when I was at the blackboard and she was looking the other
way, I just dropped the baby doll into one of the puffs that the
hair-pin had come out of, and that was standing up on end, and it
looked so funny on her head, the puff with the baby doll standing in
it, that all the girls laughed, and then she asked me what I had done,
and I told her, and she struck me. I wouldn't have said anything if
she had just punished me. I knew it was wrong to pop that doll on her
head, but I just couldn't help it--it looked too funny. But when she
struck me! Well, I won't be struck by any one--and so I left."
The lawyer meditated in silence for a moment. Then he said:
"Well, my dear, I think I understand the condition of things here.
Without doubt it is high time something were done. Your father, when
he went away, gave me full authority to make such arrangements for you
as I might feel were necessary, but until now I have rather avoided
taking upon myself any responsibility. Possibly I have neglected my
duty toward you. But now all that shall be changed. Don't you think
if I were to send you--"
Nan's eyes blazed. So it was as she had felt sure it would be! She
was to be sent away! She did not wait for the sentence to be finished.
"Send me to the House of Correction? I won't go, sir! I'll run away
first! Or a horrid boarding-school, neither. I guess my father didn't
mean me to be made unhappy, Mr. Turner; I guess he didn't mean any one
to have authority to send me to awful places just because Mrs. Newton
says so, away from Delia and things. You needn't send me anywhere, for
I'll run away as sure as you do."
[Illustration: "I'll run away first!"]
"Slowly--slowly!" cautioned Mr. Turner. "You go too fast! If you had
waited for me to finish my sentence you would have discovered that I
meant to send you neither to the House of Correction," here his eyes
twinkled with amusement, "nor to a 'horrid boarding-school.' What I
was about to say was that I propose to send you a lady who will teach
you here at home, who will be a friend and companion to you and whom
you will be sure to love. It is rather a curious coincidence that just
the other day I was talking to a lady who is anxious to procure just
such a position as this with you, and I am rather inclined to think
that she would be willing to come here and undertake it. At all
events, I have written to her asking her to consider the plan and in a
day or so I shall know her decision. If she concludes to come--if I
can induce her to come--I shall feel that you are very fortunate. You
will forgive me if I say that while I disagree with Mrs. Newton in most
respects regarding you, I feel with her that you are somewhat--well,
somewhat ungoverned and in need of just the sort of discipline that I
am sure Miss--the lady I speak of can maintain."
He paused a moment, but when he saw that Nan made no comment or
objection he continued placidly:
"You will hear from me in the course of a day or so, as soon as I
receive word from the lady herself. As I said, you will be very
fortunate if I can secure her services for you--more fortunate than she
will be, I fear," he said to himself, catching a glimpse of Nan's set
mouth and flashing eyes as he made his way to the door. Later, when he
recalled her expression, he was almost inclined to hope that the lady
would decide to refuse the office. He thought her acceptance of it
might involve her in rather more serious difficulties than he had
foreseen when he wrote to her in the first place.
As a matter of fact, Nan was in a rage at the thought of a stranger
coming into the house to interfere with her and Delia, to teach her
what she did not want to learn, and to govern her when her sole idea of
happiness was to be free and untrammeled. Even Delia resented the
new-comer's intrusion. Had she managed the house for fourteen years
now, ever since Mrs. Cutler's death, only to be set aside and ruled
over by the first stranger who chose to imagine her position of
governess to Nan gave her the right to interfere in household affairs?
For of course she would interfere. Nan had drawn a vivid mental
picture of the governess, which through her persistence in repetition,
had begun to seem an actual description to herself and Delia.
"She's tall and thin and lanky and old!" declared the girl whenever the
governess, who had accepted the appointment, was mentioned. "She has
horrid sharp eyes that spy out everything, and she wears glasses.
She'll never laugh because she'll say 'giggling is frivolous,' that's
what Miss Fowler used to say, and she'll talk arithmetic and grammar
and geography the whole blessed time. She'll snoop in your closets,
Delia, and into my bureau drawers, and she'll find out everything we
don't want her to know. Her hair is black and shiny, and I guess she
parts it in the middle and makes it come to the back of her head in a
little hard knot. Oh! I know just how she looks! I can see her every
time I shut my eyes--the horrid thing! Just like Miss Fowler at
school! And how I'll hate her! I'll hate her just as much as I did
Miss Fowler. I'll hate her more, because I can never get rid of her:
she'll always be here. Don't you fix up her room a single bit, Delia.
Make it look as awful as you can. Then perhaps she won't like it
and'll leave. I guess after a little while she won't think it agrees
with her to live here. Then we two'll be alone again, and I tell you,
won't we be glad, Delia?"
In her heart Delia thought they would. She did not follow Nan's advice
to make the governess' room look "as awful as she could." She swept
and dusted it thoroughly, and set all the furniture in place, as she
had been accustomed to do for the last fourteen years, and when she had
finished the place was as uninviting as even Nan could have desired.
In fact, there was nothing attractive in the whole house. The
furniture was all good and substantial, but Delia had a way of ranging
it against the walls in a manner that made it seem stiff and
uncompromising. When a piece needed repairing, and with Nan about,
many a piece needed repairing often, it was stowed out of sight in the
trunk-room, or the cellar, and the carpets, which had been rich and
fashionable in their day, were allowed to lie now long after they had
become threadbare and faded. Delia kept the handsome paintings veiled
in tarlatan winter and summer, and she never removed the slip-covers
from the parlor sofas and chairs, whatever the season might be. Nan
did not care, because she knew nothing different, and there was no
loving, artful hand to make the best of the things and turn the house
into a home.
Mrs. Newton had shivered as she entered the place; it seemed dark and
cold and forbidding to her, and she felt the mother-want at every turn,
but this had not made her any more lenient with Nan. Perhaps the
governess would make no allowances either. Delia made up her mind that
if things really came to the pass where Nan was being abused, she in
person would "just step in and say her say, if it lost her her place."
She often talked of things losing her her place when the fact was that
she herself was the place: if it had not been for her the house must
have been closed, and Nan sent to boarding-school. Mr. Cutler would
never have trusted the care of his girl to a strange servant.
"Yes, Ma'am," Delia said to herself, as she pushed the governess' bed
flat up against the wall. "Yes, Ma'am! if I see her going for to abuse
Nan, I'll set to and give her a piece of my mind such as she ain't
likely to have got in one while, I tell you that," and she gave the
bureau a vicious tweak and pulled down the shade with a resentful jerk.
When Nan saw the room she was disgusted.
"Why, Delia Connor! you haven't done a single thing I told you to," she
cried out angrily.
"I've swept and dusted it and that's all there was to do," retorted
Delia.
"It looks perfectly lovely," resumed Nan, stamping her foot. "Do you
s'pose I want her to think we're glad to have her, and that we've
prepared for her? Well, I guess not! If she once gets into as good a
room as this she'll never go--she'll just hang on and on, and nothing
in the world will make her budge."
"What do you want me to do?" asked Delia with irritation.
Nan looked at her scornfully for a moment. "Do? Why, what I told you
to do! Make the room look awful--perfectly hideous. Make it so she
can't help but see we don't want her here. Make it a hint--and a
strong one too."
Delia folded her arms deliberately. "Well, whatever you want to act
like, Nan," she said, "I can tell you I ain't going to do anything
unladylike, so there!" and she stalked out of the room with dignity.
Nan surveyed the place in silence. What was to be done? If she
removed all the furniture but the bed and the bureau and left the
governess nothing to sit down on, it would only reflect discreditably
upon the family's supply of household goods. If she carefully sifted
back the dust Delia had just removed, it would merely prove that the
people in this house were of a slovenly and careless habit, and that
they were sadly in need of some one to oversee their work. Moreover,
would a person as dull of feeling as this governess must be, appreciate
the hint conveyed in so delicate and indirect a manner? No. She would
be sure to lose the point. Nan felt it would never do to take any risk
of her misunderstanding. Whatever she did must be unmistakable and
absolutely direct.
She racked her brain to discover just the right thing, but she was
rewarded by no brilliant idea, and she felt crosser than ever by the
time noon had arrived. But suddenly, at the luncheon table, she gave a
wild leap from her chair and clapped her hands frantically, while Delia
almost let a dish fall in her surprise at this sudden and unexpected
demonstration.
"For the land's sake, what is it now?" she demanded, while Nan caught
her around the waist and whirled her about the room, vegetable dish and
all.
"I've got it! I've got it!" screamed the girl, convulsed with inward
laughter. "I've got the best scheme in the world. Delia, you old
duck! Oh, won't it settle her though! Won't it settle her?" But she
would not reveal who was to be settled, nor how, though Delia pleaded
earnestly to be enlightened and even offered to help her make caramels
as a bribe.
"No, thank you, Ma'am! I wouldn't have time to boil 'em. I'm going to
be as busy as a beaver all the afternoon, so no matter what happens
don't you disturb me," continued Nan, importantly.
Delia shrewdly suspected that the scheme afoot had something to do with
the governess, but she did not dare suggest it.
"Oh, well, what I don't know I can't cry over," she said to herself,
"and when Nan's like this, all the king's horses and all the king's men
couldn't stop her, so I might as well hold my tongue. But I'll say
this much, I don't envy that governess her job, whoever she may be."
Meanwhile Nan had gone to her own room and shut and locked the door.
Her next move was to take her night-dress from its hook and slip it
over her head.
"Now I'm going to rehearse," she announced to her reflection in the
glass. "First I must get my eyes to seem kind of wide and starey. No!
not this way. They must look like licorice-drops in milk. There!
that's better! All expressionless, and that kind of thing. I s'pose I
might shut 'em, some somnabulists do; but then I'd be sure to trip over
the furniture and stub my toes, and give the whole business away. No,
I must keep my eyes open; that's certain. Then I must glide when I
walk. My step must be light and ghostly and noiseless. I must be sure
to have it ghostly and noiseless. Now--eyes staring--one, two,
three--step ghostly and noiseless--Oh, bother! What business had that
footstool in my way? If I knock things over like that I'll wake the
house, and Delia would know in a minute what I was up to. There! get
into the corner, you old thing! Now again! Eyes staring--step
ghostly--and noiseless--voice low and mournful, but I must manage to
make her understand every word. Now once more--voice low and mournful--
"Alas! alas! why did she come?--why did she come? (No, I can't say
that! It sounds too much like 'Why did he die! Why did he die?' But
the alas is good! That sounds real creepy and weird.) Now then--Alas!
alas! This is the worst thing that ever happened to me in all my life!
My dear, old home! To think that anybody who isn't wanted should come
and push herself like this into my dear, old home! O father! father!
come home from Bombay, and save me from this awful woman. Turn her out
of the house! Make her go back where she came from! Her hated form
haunts me in my sleep, and I dream all night of her as I see her in the
daytime--tall--and thin--and lanky--with her hair all dragged into that
ugly little knob behind at the back of her head! O father! father! her
eyes are like needles! They prick me when she looks. Save me!--save
me! My heart will break if some one doesn't come and rescue me from
this terrible person. Take her away--take her away! Ah--I see her! I
see her! Get away--get away! You awful creature! Don't you know you
are causing an innocent girl to perish in her youth? Alas, she won't
go! Then listen, reckless woman! and remember this warning--'the way
of intruders is hard!'
"There! that ends it off with a sort of threatening dreadfulness that
ought to scare her stiff. After I've said that in a whisper to freeze
her blood, I'll turn silently from her bedside and glide noiselessly
from the room, wringing my hair and tearing my hands; no, I mean just
the other way, and if that doesn't fix her, why--I'll have to go over
it all again, of course, so I won't forget. Perhaps it would be a good
idea to write it down and learn it off by heart."
The idea in fact recommended itself so thoroughly to her that she
followed her own suggestion without further delay and wrote off the
entire harangue at once, making it, if possible, even more eloquent and
harrowing than it had been in the original. It seemed a very long,
wearisome task, to commit it all to memory, but she did not grudge the
trouble. She had never attempted anything that looked like study with
so much willingness. The afternoon slipped away like a dream, and as
soon as dinner was over she set to work again, and by bed-time had the
thing pretty well under control. Whenever she halted or stumbled she
went over it all again with the most patient perseverance.
"I suppose if I had stuck to things at school like this I'd have been
at the head of the class," she said to herself with a whimsical sense
of her own perversity.
Delia was completely nonplused. She could not imagine what "that child
was up to." There were no evidences anywhere of the means she was
going to employ in the governess' initiation. Her room was in perfect
order, and in Nan's own chamber nothing was unusually amiss. She got
no satisfaction from the girl herself, who kept her lips tightly
closed, except when she was mumbling over her harangue. It was
terribly perplexing--and ominous.
"Good land!" thought Delia in real anxiety, "I only hope she ain't
going to do anything too dreadful. I declare, if it weren't that I'm
so soft where Nannie is concerned I'd say I'd be glad that some one's
coming who may be up to managin' her. I'm free to confess I ain't. If
only her mother had lived! Or, if only my dear Miss Belle hadn't gone
off to the ends of the earth--! Miss Belle could have managed her! No
one could resist Miss Belle, bless her! Ah, dear me, dear me! It's
fifteen years, and to think, I'll never see her face again!"