NEW FRIENDS AND A PLAN
I stood looking after it as long as it was in sight. I felt quite
strange, almost a little dazed, as if I had more than I could manage to
think over in my head. Grandmamma, who was standing behind me, put her
hand on my shoulder.
I looked up at her, and I saw that her face seemed pleased.
'Is that a nice lady, grandmamma?' I said.
I do not quite know why I asked about Sharley's mother in that way, for
I felt sure she was nice. I think I wanted grandmamma to help me to
arrange my ideas a little.
'Very nice, dear,' she said. 'Did you not think she spoke very kindly?'
'Yes, I did, grandmamma,' I replied. I had a rather 'old-fashioned' way
of speaking sometimes, I think.
'And her little girl--well, she is not a little girl, exactly, is
she?--seems very bright and kind too,' grandmamma went on.
'Yes,' I replied, but then I hesitated. Grandmamma wanted to find out
what I was thinking.
'You don't seem quite sure about it?' she said.
'Yes, grandmamma. She is a very kind girl, but she made me feel funny.
She has such a lot of brothers and sisters, and she says it must be so
dull to be only one. Grandmamma, is it dull to be only one?'
Grandmamma did not smile at my odd way of asking her what I could have
told myself, better than any one else. A little sad look came over her
face.
'I hope not, dear,' she answered. 'My little girl does not find her life
dull?'
I shook my head.
'I love you, grandmamma, and I love Kezia, but I don't know about "dull"
and things like that. I think Sharley thinks I'm a very stupid little
girl, grandmamma.'
And all of a sudden, greatly to dear granny's surprise and still more to
her distress, I burst into tears.
She led me back into the house, and was very kind to me. But she did not
say very much. She only told me that she was sure Sharley did not think
anything but what was nice and friendly about me, and that I must not be
a fanciful little woman. And then she sent me to Kezia, who had kept an
odd corner of her pastry for me to make into stars and hearts and other
shapes with her cutters, as I was very fond of doing. So that very soon
I was quite bright and happy again.
But in her heart granny was saying that it would be a very good thing
for me to have some companions of my own age, to prevent my getting
fanciful and unchildlike, and, worst of all, too much taken up with
myself.
A few days after that, grandmamma told me that the three Nestor girls
were coming twice a week to read French with her. I think I have said
already that grandmamma was very clever, very clever indeed, and that
she knew several foreign languages. She had been a great deal in other
countries when grandpapa was alive, and she could speak French
beautifully. So I wasn't surprised, and only very pleased when she told
me about Sharley and her sisters. For I was too little to understand
what any one else would have known in a moment, that dear granny was
going to do this to make a little more money. My illness and all the
things she had got for me--even the having more fires--had cost a good
deal that last winter, and she had asked the vicar of our village to let
her know if he heard of any family wanting French or German lessons for
their children.
This was the reason of Mrs. Nestor's call, and it was because they were
going to settle about the French lessons that grandmamma had sent me out
of the room. It was not till long afterwards that I understood all about
it.
Just now I was very pleased.
'Oh, how nice!' I said, 'and may I play with them after the lessons are
done, do you think, grandmamma? And will they ask me to go to their
house to tea sometimes? Sharley said they would--at least she nearly
said it.'
'I daresay you will go to their house some day. I think Mrs. Nestor is
very kind, and I am sure she would ask you if she thought it would
please you,' said grandmamma. But then she stopped a little. 'I want you
to understand, Helena dear, that these children are coming here really
to learn French. So you must not think about playing with them just at
first, that must be as their mother likes.'
Grandmamma did not say what she felt in her own mind--that she would not
wish to seem to try to make acquaintance with the Nestors, who were very
rich and important people, through giving lessons to their children. For
she was proud in a right way--no, I won't call it proud--I think
dignified is a better word.
But Mrs. Nestor was too nice herself not to see at once the sort of
person grandmamma was. She was almost _too_ delicate in her feelings,
for she was so afraid of seeming to be in the least condescending or
patronising to us, that she kept back from showing us as much kindness
as she would have liked to do. So it never came about that we grew very
intimate with the family at Moor Court--that was the name of their
home--I really saw more of the three girls at our own little cottage
than in their own grand house.
But as I go on with my story you will see that there was a reason for my
telling about them, and about how we came to know them, rather
particularly.
The French lessons began the next week. Sharley and her sisters used to
come together, sometimes walking with a maid, sometimes driving over in
a little pony-cart--not the beautiful carriage with the two ponies;
that was their mother's--but what is called a governess-cart, in which
they drove a fat old fellow called Bunch, too fat and lazy to be up to
much mischief. When they drove over they brought a young groom with
them, but their governess very seldom came. I think Mrs. Nestor thought
it would be pleasanter for granny to give the lessons without a grown-up
person being there, and Sharley said their governess used that time to
give the two boys Latin lessons. Mrs. Nestor would have been very glad
if grandmamma would have agreed to teach Pert and Quick French too, but
granny did not think she could spare time for it, though a year or two
later when Percival had gone to school she did let Quick join what we
called the second class.
I should have explained that though I could not read or write French at
all well, I could speak it rather nicely, as grandmamma had taken great
pains to accustom me to do so since I was quite little.
I think she had a feeling that I might have to be a governess or
something of the kind when I was grown-up, and that made her very
anxious about my lessons from the beginning of them. And though things
have turned out quite differently from that, I have always been _very_
glad that I was well taught from the first. It is such a comfort to me
now that I am really growing big to be able to show grandmamma that I am
not far back for my age compared with other girls.
Sharley was the first class all by herself, and Nan and Vallie were the
second. I did not do any lessons with them, but after each class had had
half an hour's teaching we had conversation for another half hour, and
when the conversation time began I was always sent for. Grandmamma had
asked Mrs. Nestor if she would like that, and Mrs. Nestor was very
pleased.
We had great fun at the 'conversation.' You can scarcely believe what
comical things the little girls said when they first began to try to
talk. Grandmamma sometimes laughed till the tears came into her eyes--I
do love to see her laugh--and I laughed too, partly, I think, because
she did, for the funny things they said did not seem quite so funny to
me, of course, as to a big person.
But altogether the French lessons were very nice and brought some
variety into our lives. I think granny and I looked forward to them as
much as the Nestor children did.
Grandmamma's birthday happened to come about a fortnight after they
began. I told Sharley about it one day when she was out in the garden
with me, while her sisters were at their lesson. We used to do that way
sometimes, only we had to promise to speak French all the time, so that
I really had a little to do with teaching them as well as grandmamma,
and to tease me, on these occasions Sharley would call me
'mademoiselle,' and make Nan and Vallie do the same. They used in turn,
you see, to be with me while Sharley was with granny.
It was rather difficult to make her understand about grandmamma's
birthday, I remember, for she could scarcely speak French at all then,
and at last she burst out into English, for she got very interested
about it.
'I'll tell Mrs. Wingfield we have been talking English,' she said, 'and
I'll tell her it was all my fault. But I must understand what you are
saying.'
'It's about grandmamma's birthday,' I said. 'I do so want to make a plan
for it.'
Sharley's eyes sparkled. She loved making plans, and so did Vallie, who
was very quick and bright about everything, while Nan was rather a
sleepy little girl, though exceedingly good-natured. I don't think I
_ever_ knew her speak crossly.
'I heard something about "fête,"' said Sharley, 'about fête and
grandmamma. Why do you call her birthday her "fête"?'
'I didn't,' I replied. '"Fête" doesn't generally mean birthday--it means
something else, something about a saint's day. I said I wanted to
"fêter" dear granny on her birthday, and I wondered what I could do.
Last year I worked a little case in that stiff stuff with holes in, to
keep stamps in, and Kezia made tea-cakes. But I can't think of anything
I can work for her this year, and tea-cakes are only tea-cakes,' and I
sighed.
'Don't look so unhappy,' said Sharley, '_we'll_ plan. We're rather short
of plans just now, and we always like to have some on hand for first
thing in the morning--Val and I do at least. Nan never wakes up
properly. Leave it to us, Helena, and the next time we come I'll tell
you what we've thought of.'
I had a good deal of faith in Sharley's cleverness in some things,
already, though I can't say that it shone out in speaking French. So I
promised to wait to see what she and Vallie thought of.
When we went in we told grandmamma that we had been speaking English. I
made it up into very good French, and Sharley said it, which pleased
granny.
'And what was it you were so eager about that you couldn't wait to say
it, or hear it in French?' she asked Sharley.
We had not expected this, and Sharley got rather red.
'It's a secret,' she blurted out.
Grandmamma looked just a little grave.
'I am not very fond of secrets,' she said. 'And Helena has never had
any.'
'Oh yes, I have, grandmamma,' I said. I did not mean to contradict
rudely, and I don't think it sounded like that, though it looks rather
rude written down. 'I had one this time last year--don't you
remember?--about your little stamp case.'
Granny's face brightened up. It did not take very quick wits to put two
and two together, and to guess from what I said that the secret had to
do with her birthday. And Sharley was too anxious for grandmamma not to
be vexed, to think about her having partly guessed the secret.
'Ah, well!' said granny, 'I think I can trust you both.'
'Yes, indeed, you may,' said Sharley. 'There's nothing about mischief
in it, and the only secrets mother's ever been vexed with me about had
to do with mischief.'
'Sharley dressed up a pillow to tumble on Pert's head from the top of
his door, once,' said Nan in her slow solemn voice, 'and he screamed and
screamed.'
'It was because he was such a boasty boy, about never being frightened,'
said Sharley, getting rather red. 'But I never did it again. And this
secret is quite, quite a different kind.'
I felt very eager for the next French day, as we called them, to come,
to hear what Sharley had thought of. I told Kezia about it, and then I
almost wished I had not, for she said she did not know that grandmamma
would be pleased at my talking about her birthday and 'such like' to
strangers.
I think Kezia forgot sometimes how very little a girl I still was. I did
not understand what she meant, and all I could say was that the three
girls were not strangers to me. Afterwards I saw what Kezia was thinking
of, she was afraid of the Nestors sending some present to grandmamma,
and that, she would not have liked.
But Mrs. Nestor was too good and sensible for anything of that kind.
When Sharley and Nan and Vallie came the next time, I ran to meet them,
full of anxiety to know if they had made any 'plans.' They all looked
very important, but rather to my disappointment the first thing Sharley
said to me was--
'Don't ask us yet, Helena. We've promised mother not to tell. She's
going to come to fetch us to-day, and she's made a lovely plan, but
first she has to speak about it to your grandmamma.'
'Then it won't be a surprise,' I began, but Vallie answered before I had
time to say any more.
'Oh yes, it will. There's to be a surprise mixed up with it, and we're
to settle that part of it all ourselves--you and us.'
I found it very difficult to keep to speaking French that day, I can
tell you. And it seemed as if the hour and a half of lessons spread out
to twice as much before Mrs. Nestor at last came.
We all ran out into the garden while she went in to talk to grandmamma.
They were very kind and did not keep us long waiting, and soon we heard
granny calling us from the window. Her face was quite pleased and
smiling. I saw in a moment that she was not going to say I should not
have spoken of her birthday to the little girls.
'Mrs. Nestor is thinking of a great treat for you--and for me, Helena,'
she said. 'And she and I want you to know about it at once, so that you
may all talk about it together and enjoy it beforehand as well. Some
little bird, it seems, has flown over to Moor Court and told that next
Tuesday week will be your old granny's birthday, and Mrs. Nestor has
invited us to spend the afternoon of it there. You will like that, will
you not?'
I looked up at grandmamma, feeling quite strange. You will hardly
believe that I had never in my life paid even a visit of this simple
kind.
'Yes,' I whispered, feeling myself getting pink all over, as I knew that
Mrs. Nestor was looking at me, 'yes, thank you.'
Then dear little Vallie came close up to me, and said in a low voice--
'Now we can settle about the surprise. Come quick, Helena--the surprise
will be the fun.'
And when I found myself alone with the others again, all three of them,
even Nan, chattering at once, I soon found my own tongue again, and the
strange, unreal sort of feeling went off. They were very simple unspoilt
children, though their parents were rich and what I used to call
'grand.' It is quite a mistake to think that the children who live in
very large houses and have ponies and lots of servants and everything
they can want are sure to be spoilt. Very often it is quite the
opposite. For, if their parents are good and wise, they are _extra_
careful not to spoil them, knowing that the sort of trials that cannot
be kept away from poorer children, and which are a training in
themselves in some ways, are not likely to come to _their_ children. I
even think now, looking back, that there was really more risk of being
spoilt, for me myself, than for Sharley and her brothers and sisters.
Being allowed to be selfish is the real beginning and end of being
spoilt, I am quite sure.
The 'surprise' they had thought of was a very simple one, and one that I
knew grandmamma would like. It was that we should have tea out-of-doors,
in an arbour where there was a table and seats all round. And we were to
decorate it with flowers, and a wicker arm-chair was to be brought out
for granny, and wreathed with greenery and flowers, to show that she was
queen of the feast.
'So it will be a "fête," after all, Helena,' said Sharley.
They were nearly as eager and pleased about it as I was myself, for
they had already learnt to love my grandmamma very dearly.
'There's only one thing,' we kept saying to each other every time we met
before the great day, 'it _mustn't_ rain. Oh, do let us _hope_ it will
be fine,--beautifully fine.'