"And if you dreamed how a friend's smile
And nearness soothe a heart that's sore,
You might be moved to stay awhile
Before my door."
"About?" begins the professor, and stammers, and ceases.
"Everything," says she, with a little nod. "It is impossible to talk to
Aunt Jane. She doesn't talk, she only argues, and always wrongly. But
you are different. I can see that. Now tell me,"--she leans even more
forward and looks intently at the professor, her pretty brows wrinkled
as if with extreme and troublous thought--"What are the duties of a
guardian?"
"Eh?" says the professor. He moves his glasses up to his forehead and
then pulls them down again. Did ever anxious student ask him question so
difficult of answer as this one--that this small maiden has propounded?
"You can think it over," says she most graciously. "There is no hurry,
and I am quite aware that one isn't made a guardian _every_ day. Do you
think you could make it out whilst I count forty?"
"I think I could make it out more quickly if you didn't count at all,"
says the professor, who is growing warm. "The duties of a
guardian--are--er--to--er--to see that one's ward is comfortable and
happy."
"Then there is a great deal of duty for _you_ to do," says she solemnly,
letting her chin slip into the hollow of her hand.
"I know--I'm sure of it," says the professor with a sigh that might be
called a groan. "But your aunt, Miss Majendie--your mother's
sister--can----"
"I don't believe she's my mother's sister," says Miss Wynter calmly. "I
have seen my mother's picture. It is lovely! Aunt Jane was a
changeling--I'm sure of it. But never mind her. You were going to
say----?"
"That Miss Majendie, who is virtually your guardian--can explain it all
to you much better than I can."
"Aunt Jane is _not_ my guardian!" The mild look of enquiry changes to
one of light anger. The white brow contracts. "And certainly she could
never make one happy and comfortable. Well--what else?"
"She will look after----"
"I told you I don't care about Aunt Jane. Tell me what you can do----"
"See that your fortune is not----"
"I don't care about my fortune either," with a little gesture. "But I
_do_ care about my happiness. Will you see to _that_?"
"Of course," says the professor gravely.
"Then you will take me away from Aunt Jane!" The small vivacious face is
now all aglow. "I am not happy with Aunt Jane. I"--clasping her hands,
and letting a quick, vindictive fire light her eyes--"I _hate_ Aunt
Jane. She says things about poor papa that----_Oh!_ how I hate her!"
"But--you shouldn't--you really should not. I feel certain you ought
not," says the professor, growing vaguer every moment.
"Ought I not?" with a quick little laugh that is all anger and no mirth.
"I _do_ though, for all that! I"--pausing, and regarding him with a
somewhat tragic air that sits most funnily upon her--"am not going to
stay here much longer!"
"_What?_" says the professor aghast. "But my dear----Miss Wynter, I'm
afraid you _must_."
"Why? What is she to me?"
"Your aunt."
"That's nothing--nothing at all--even a _guardian_ is better than that.
And you are my guardian. Why," coming closer to him and pressing five
soft little fingers in an almost feverish fashion upon his arm, "why
can't _you_ take me away?"
_"I!"_
"Yes, yes, you." She comes even nearer to him, and the pressure of the
small fingers grows more eager--there is something in them now that
might well be termed coaxing. "_Do_," says she.
"Oh! Impossible!" says the professor. The color mounts to his brow. He
almost _shakes_ off the little clinging fingers in his astonishment and
agitation. Has she no common-sense--no knowledge of the things that be?
She has drawn back from him and is regarding him somewhat strangely.
"Impossible to leave Aunt Jane?" questions she. It is evident she has
not altogether understood, and yet is feeling puzzled. "Well,"
defiantly, "we shall see!"
"_Why_ don't you like your Aunt Jane?" asks the professor distractedly.
He doesn't feel nearly as fond of his dead friend as he did an hour ago.
"Because," lucidly, "she _is_ Aunt Jane. If she were _your_ Aunt Jane
you would know."
"But my dear----"
"I really wish," interrupts Miss Wynter petulantly, "you wouldn't call
me 'my dear.' Aunt Jane calls me that when she is going to say something
horrid to me. Papa----" she pauses suddenly, and tears rush to her dark
eyes.
"Yes. What of your father?" asks the professor hurriedly, the tears
raising terror in his soul.
"You knew him--speak to me of him," says she, a little tremulously.
"I knew him well indeed. He was very good to me, when--when I was
younger. I was very fond of him."
"He was good to everyone," says Miss Wynter, staring hard at the
professor. It is occurring to her that this grave sedate man with his
glasses could never have been younger. He must always have been older
than the gay, handsome, _debonnaire_ father, who had been so dear to
her.
"What are you going to tell me about him?" asks the professor gently.
"Only what he used to call me--_Doatie_! I suppose," wistfully, "you
couldn't call me that?"
"I am afraid not," says the professor, coloring even deeper.
"I'm sorry," says she, her young mouth taking a sorrowful curve. "But
don't call me Miss Wynter, at all events, or 'my dear.' I do so want
someone to call me by my Christian name," says the poor child sadly.
"Perpetua--is it not?" says the professor, ever so kindly.
"No--'Pet,'" corrects she. "It's shorter, you know, and far easier to
say."
"Oh!" says the professor. To him it seems very difficult to say. Is it
possible she is going to ask him to call her by that familiar--almost
affectionate--name? The girl must be mad.
"Yes--much easier," says Perpetua; "you will find that out, after a bit,
when you have got used to calling me by it. Are you going now, Mr.
Curzon? Going _so soon_?"
"I have classes," says the professor.
"Students?" says she. "You teach them? I wish I was a student. I
shouldn't have been given over to Aunt Jane then, or," with a rather
wilful laugh, "if I had been I should have led her, oh!" rapturously,
"_such a life_!"
It suggests itself to the professor that she is quite capable of doing
that now, though she is _not_ of the sex male.
"Good-bye," says he, holding out his hand.
"You will come soon again?" demands she, laying her own in it.
"Next week--perhaps."
"Not till then? I shall be dead then," says she, with a rather mirthless
laugh this time. "Do you know that you and Aunt Jane are the only two
people in all London whom I know?"
"That is terrible," says he, quite sincerely.
"Yes. Isn't it?"
"But soon you will know people. Your aunt has acquaintances.
They--surely they will call; they will see you--they----"
"Will take an overwhelming fancy to me? just as you have done," says
she, with a quick, rather curious light in her eyes, and a tilting of
her pretty chin. "There! _go_," says she, "I have some work to do; and
you have your classes. It would never do for you to miss _them_. And as
for next week!--make it next month! I wouldn't for the world be a
trouble to you in any way."
"I shall come next week," says the professor, troubled in somewise by
the meaning in her eyes. What is it? Simple loneliness, or misery
downright? How young she looks--what a child! That tragic air does not
belong to her of right. She should be all laughter, and lightness, and
mirth----
"As you will," says she; her tone has grown almost haughty; there is a
sense of remorse in his breast as he goes down the stairs. Has he been
kind to old Wynter's child? Has he been true to his trust? There had
been an expression that might almost be termed despair in the young face
as he left her. Her face, with that expression on it, haunts him all
down the road.
Yes. He will call next week. What day is this? Friday. And Friday next
he is bound to deliver a lecture somewhere--he is not sure where, but
certainly somewhere. Well, Saturday then he might call. But that----
Why not call Thursday--or even Wednesday?
Wednesday let it be. He needn't call every week, but he had said
something about calling next week, and--she wouldn't care, of
course--but one should keep their word. What a strange little face she
has--and strange manners, and--not able to get on evidently with her
present surroundings.
What an old devil that aunt must be.