[Illustration: “He is not horrid at all,” said Nan, very cross.]
GIRLS OF THE TRUE BLUE
BY
L. T. MEADE
Author of
“Miss Nonentity,” “The Odds and the Evens,” “Light o’ the Morning,”
“The Girls of St. Wode’s,” etc.
WITH TEN ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
PERCY TARRANT
W. & R. CHAMBERS, Limited
LONDON AND EDINBURGH
1901
Edinburgh:
Printed by W. & R. Chambers, Limited
CONTENTS.
I. “I PROMISE”
II. “I WON’T EVER GO TO YOU”
III. THE FROCK WITH CRAPE
IV. THE BEST GIRL
V. THE MYSTERY-GIRL
VI. THE BULL-PUP
VII. THE FALL
VIII. PIP
IX. UNDER HER THUMB
X. A MYSTERY
XI. THE MIDDLE WAY
XII. “I SHALL STAY FOR A YEAR”
XIII. UNCLE PETER
XIV. “IT WAS NOT WORTH WHILE”
XV. SOLDIERS OF THE TRUE BLUE
XVI. TIGHTENING HER CHAIN
XVII. AUGUSTA’S RESOLVE
XVIII. AUGUSTA’S SIGNATURE
XIX. THE ASPRAYS
XX. THE ORDERLY-BOOK
XXI. THE PICNIC
XXII. THE BROKEN LOCK
XXIII. “PRIZE-DAY COMES IN A MONTH”
XXIV. THE GIPSY TEA
XXV. THE PACKET OF LETTERS
XXVI. SUNBEAM
XXVII. “WAS THAT THE REASON?”
XXVIII. “IS WRONG RIGHT?”
XXIX. DOWN BY THE WISTARIA
XXX. AUGUSTA IS FRIGHTENED
XXXI. UNCLE PETER’S CONSIDERING CAP
XXXII. THE BEGINNING OF THE SHADOW
XXXIII. THE CROSS
XXXIV. THE LETTER
XXXV. THE WAY OF TRANSGRESSORS IS HARD
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
“He is not horrid at all,” said Nan, very cross.
Nan was perfectly satisfied to sit near the fire holding the
kittens.
“Cross!” he said to himself; “why, it is one of the dearest
little faces in the world.”
“Here is some paper,” said Nancy, “and here is a pencil. Write
the words down, Augusta, and let me keep the paper.”
Augusta nearly fell back as she read the words.
“What are you doing by that drawer, Gussie!”
“I have brought a bird for her—my own bird. May I go in and see
her at once?” said Nancy.
Augusta in terror was hiding behind a bush of laurustinus.
“As to your shilling, miss, you can keep it, for I don’t want
none of it.”
“Let me fasten it round your neck, Nan, then I shall feel
better.”
GIRLS OF THE TRUE BLUE.
CHAPTER I.
“I PROMISE.”
“And how is she to-day, Nan?” said the kindly voice of Mrs. Richmond.
The time was early spring. The lady in question had come into a dark
and somewhat dismal room; she herself was richly wrapped in furs and
velvet; her large, smooth face was all beams and smiles. A dark little
girl with thin cheeks, about eleven years of age, clasping a battered
doll in her arms, looked full up at her.
“She is no better,” said Nan; “and I think perhaps it would be a good
plan for you to go.”
“What a little monkey you are!” said Mrs. Richmond. “But I do not mind
you, my dear Anna; I have known you too long. Come here, dear, and let
me look at you.”
Nan laid her doll on the table and approached slowly. Her dress was
untidy, her hair unkempt. There were traces of tears round her eyes,
but none showed at that moment; the sad eyes looked bold and full and
defiant into the kindly face of the lady.
“You are not too tidy, my dear little girl; that pinafore would be the
better for the wash-tub. And must you play with that horrid old doll?”
“I would not give up dear Sophia Maria for anybody on earth,” said Nan
in a determined voice; and now she went back and clasped her ragged
and disreputable-looking baby to her breast.
“But you might have a new one.”
“I would not like a new one, thank you.”
“And you are rather old to play with dolls. Now, my Kitty and my
Honora have long ceased to make babies of themselves; you must when
you come.”
“I must when I come!” repeated Nan; and now, her eyes grew very big
and bright and angry. “Oh! please,” she added, “will you excuse me? I
want to go up to mother.”
“Certainly, dear. Tell her I am here, and would be glad to have a talk
with her.”
Nan vouchsafed no reply to this, and left the room. Mrs. Richmond sat
on in thought; she folded her hands in her lap.
“I will do my duty,” she said to herself; “it is my duty. Poor, dear
Amy was always improvident, and careless of her health. She married
without means; her husband died within a year; there is this child now
eleven years of age and with no provision. Ah!”
There came a tap at the door, and the wizened and somewhat cross face
of a middle-aged woman appeared.
“How do you do, Mrs. Vincent?” said Mrs. Richmond. She always spoke
cordially to every one; her face beamed kindness itself on all the
world.
Mrs. Vincent came in slowly.
“I am glad you have called, ma’am; the poor thing upstairs is very
bad—very bad indeed—not likely to live many hours, the doctor says.”
“Oh! my good soul, I had not an idea that it was so near as that.”
“I am telling you the truth, madam; and the fact is, her poverty is
excessive, and”——
“Now listen to me, Mrs. Vincent. Everything she needs as far as you are
concerned will be paid for; see that she has every imaginable comfort.
And leave the room.”
Mrs. Richmond’s kindly eyes could flash when occasion arose, and Mrs.
Vincent, curtsying and mumbling, but highly delighted all the same,
went downstairs.
There was no sign of Nan coming back, and Mrs. Richmond, after waiting
for a quarter of an hour, determined to go upstairs to her sick
friend’s room. The door was a little ajar; she pushed it open and went
in. Nan was lying across the bed, her face close to the very white
face of a woman whose features were wonderfully like her own. The
woman’s eyes were open, and her lips were moving. Mrs. Richmond came
and, without saying a word, lifted the child off the bed. Nan turned
in a wild fury; she felt very much inclined to strike the intruder,
but the look on her visitor’s face restrained her.
“You can stay, dear, if you like,” said Mrs. Richmond; and then she
went round to the other side of the bed.
“Have you anything to tell me, Amy, before you go?” she asked.
There came a low—very low—murmur, and a glance of the dying woman’s
eyes in the direction of the child.
“Only—only”——she began.
“I will see to everything, dear; I have promised.”
“And if—if at the end of a year—— You remember—you remember that
part, don’t you, Caroline?”
“I remember it. It will not be necessary.”
“But if it is—if it should be—you will send her”——
“I faithfully promise.”
“You are so good!” said the dying woman.
“God bless you! You have made things easy for me.”
“Come here, Nan, and kiss your mother,” said Mrs. Richmond suddenly.
The child, overawed by the entire scene, advanced. She pressed her
lips to the lips growing colder moment by moment.
“And now leave the room,” said Mrs. Richmond. “Go—obey me.”
Nan went.